Volume One: Hell-Level Lord World Chapter 107: Exploring the Necropolis

Two of the three heroes were confirmed to engage in battle, so Pan naturally had no objections. He quickly dispatched crows to scout the location Chen Gu had indicated.

Meanwhile, Chen Gu climbed into the driver's seat of the vine-covered carriage, leaving the others behind, and drove toward the undead city to take a closer look. After all, he needed to understand the city’s situation clearly before making any decisions. He couldn't simply send out troops based solely on data from a sheet of paper.

Approaching the undead city from a distance, Chen Gu immediately recognized the style of the place. It was indeed a city of the undead built upon a battlefield. The most striking feature of this undead city was its sheer population.

However, just as Kebas had mentioned, this was not a suitable place to establish a city. Nestled within a valley, the flat land was only enough to support a level 4 city. To achieve the status of a level 9 city here, the undead had devised many methods. They erected several pillars and tiered buildings, connecting them with sky bridges and similar structures, transforming the city into a remarkably three-dimensional one.

This, however, was good news for Chen Gu. Due to the city’s limited footprint, its walls were not as expansive as those of a typical level 9 city. Normally, a city would begin to have walls at level 3, add moats and arrow towers at level 5, a second ring of walls at level 7, and an additional wall at level 9.

Although this city ranked as level 9, its area was only equivalent to a level 4 city, and it had but a single ring of walls. The walls featured obvious arrow towers, but there was no corresponding moat outside. It was clear the walls met only the standards of a level 3 city, showing no real advancement.

This situation was advantageous for Chen Gu. Without a moat and with only one wall, destroying that wall would allow them to breach the city with relative ease.

Yet, it was also a double-edged sword. Having only one wall meant the undead would concentrate all their efforts on fortifying it, making its defenses particularly strong. Chen Gu’s siege plans might face unexpected challenges.

After surveying the walls, Chen Gu cautiously circled the undead city by carriage. He was careful, all the while wishing he had a telescope to see more clearly.

Having completed a partial circuit, Chen Gu estimated the city’s conditions. At least two million undead troops inhabited the city, primarily skeleton soldiers, zombies, and ghosts. Many of these undead retained some elven traits; among the skeletons, bows were commonly used, and the zombies and ghosts bore evident elven influences.

A smaller contingent consisted of vampires and necromancers, both also showing elven characteristics. The vampires wore green clothing, while the necromancers had pointed ears.

Most notably, Chen Gu spotted death knights and bone dragons within the city. Most of the death knights rode winged mounts, with the majority of riders being female. It was clear these were transformed from the elves’ unique winged cavalry.

A smaller portion rode unicorn steeds, which were clearly undead versions of unicorns.

Beyond these two million undead troops, there were an additional ten to fifteen times that number of ordinary undead. In other words, the city housed at least twenty million undead—a figure unprecedented since Chen Gu had entered the lordly realm.

The last time he encountered such a scale was in the Holy City, a vast metropolis capable of sustaining around fifty million inhabitants. Yet here, in such a small place, to sustain over twenty million undead was truly extraordinary.

It seemed that during the final battle for Longfeng City, all the elves had been deployed. Ultimately, these elves had all become undead within this city. As for the undead troops that had slain the elves, Chen Gu had no knowledge of their whereabouts—perhaps they remained here, or perhaps they had departed.

Judging by the current situation, the death knight units flying in the sky presented a particularly vexing problem.

Having roughly assessed the enemy’s strength, Chen Gu began to withdraw. At that moment, the crows Pan had sent out returned.

“How’s the situation?” Pan hurried forward to ask upon seeing Chen Gu.

“The enemy’s numbers exceed our expectations. There are about two million undead troops within the city, with at least a hundred heroes. I also spotted high-level magic towers. The city walls are thin, but the towers appear to be level five. Most importantly, they have death knights and bone dragons.”

“Bone dragons are level 7 troops and among the toughest foes. I understand that. But why did you single out the death knights?”

“Because these death knights are different from others—they can fly. They were converted from the former winged cavalry.”

Pan, not an elven hero, didn’t fully grasp this, but Kebas, standing nearby, understood perfectly. After some thought, he suddenly asked, “What about the unicorns? Have any been transformed into mounts for death knights?”

“How do you know about that? I saw one or two but didn’t look closely. Still, it’s clear the enemy has such a formation.”

“I heard about it too. When the undead plague first erupted, they said everything could be turned undead. No one believed it at first, until the Death Angels broke through the defenses—then they realized it was true, but by then it was too late. The elves were pushed back continuously on the battlefield. The south was somewhat better off, merely supplying resources nonstop, but the north suffered the loss of nearly a city a day.

“Meanwhile, rumors spread. One said that when the Holy Garden in the north fell, all the unicorns broke their horns to avoid being turned into mounts for death knights.”

Chen Gu had seen the Holy Garden on the elven map. It was a level 9 city in the north, in the same dimension as Silverpine Valley. That city was famous for producing unicorns.

Within it were two special units: the Unicorn Maiden Guards and the Unicorn Shepherds.

If Kebas’s account was accurate, then the unicorn units in the undead city before them were likely the only legions in the Newland Empire still able to utilize unicorns.

At that moment, Chen Gu sensed a fleeting thought flash through his mind—yet he couldn’t quite grasp the thread.