Chapter 100: Shape-Shifting

Chapter 100: Shape-Shifting

Li Yanhong turned and left, letting out a sigh of relief as she did.

The few days when Wu Heng had disappeared had scared everyone at the auto repair shop.

So far, the cooperation between both sides had been smooth.

They provided labor in exchange for Wu Heng's food and protection.

Although it couldn't compare to life before the zombie outbreak, for most survivors, being well-fed and safe here was the best refuge they could hope for.

Even the official bases might not offer such a good standard of living.

So, the people at the auto repair shop were even more anxious about anything happening to Wu Heng.

When Li Yanhong returned to the repair shop, the others immediately gathered around.

"How did it go, Sister Hong? What's the deal with that King of Hell? Is he still alive?" Qiangzi asked directly.

Li Yanhong nodded, "It's fine. It seems he went out for a while; it has nothing to do with us."

The others all sighed in relief.

As long as everything was fine.

It had scared the hell out of them.

"So, did he say what we're supposed to do next?" Qiangzi continued to ask.

"He told us to check the vehicles and get ready to go to the prison tomorrow."

"We're really going? It's so far!"

"That's where we're going, nothing we can do about it."

"Oh, alright then."

...…

After seeing Li Yanhong off, Wu Heng returned to the residential area.

He hadn't been around for a few days, but the area was still safe.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

In fact, he had been a bit worried during the journey, as all his resources were here.

If his skeletons had been overrun by a zombie horde while he was away, he'd be left with nothing to cry over.

"Bring those bodies over," Wu Heng ordered directly.

Several skeletons immediately moved to comply.

The bodies were the ones from the temple, the old hags he had killed.

While they appeared as old women, their grotesque features made them more like humanoid monsters.

Their skin was shriveled, covered with warts and sores.

When Wu Heng visited the Adventurer's Guild in Rentam City, he had seen bounties for such creatures.

They were called hags, and each bounty was over 300 silver.

That was quite a hefty reward.

Wu Heng had noticed this but didn't turn in the bodies right away.

He wanted to try converting one to see its attributes first. If it wasn't anything special, he could always turn in the rest for money.

Thud, thud~!

The four bodies were carried over and tossed to the ground.

Wu Heng wasted no time and immediately cast [Raise Skeleton].

Necromantic magic enveloped the first corpse, flesh falling away as the hunched skeleton rose.

[Skeleton Hag (Level 8)]

[Level: 8]

[Attributes: Constitution 16, Strength 18, Agility 12, Intelligence 13, Perception 14, Charisma 8.]

[Traits: Hollow Bones, Intermediate Soul]

[Specialties: Cloth Armor Mastery (Basic), Poison Mastery (Intermediate).]

[Abilities: Spell Sharing, Shape-Shifting]

[Skills: Sickening Ray, Curse.]

[Spell Sharing]: When three or more Skeleton Hags gather within a maximum range of 100 meters, they can share their spells.

[Shape-Shifting]: The hag can envelop herself and her belongings in a magical illusion (mimicking a living creature for up to 30 minutes).

[Curse]: Touching a target can impose a curse, lowering the target's attributes.

Wu Heng studied the attributes, feeling something was off.

The hag had high Constitution and Strength, yet its skills were more suited for spellcasting.

This hag seemed to have taken a wrong turn in its development.

In terms of abilities, there were two: Spell Sharing, which allowed hags to share spells when three or more gathered,

and Shape-Shifting, which allowed them to change their appearance—likely the trick used to disguise as nuns to seduce men.

This Shape-Shifting wasn't a skill but rather an inherent ability of the creature.

Now, as a skeleton, the ability had limitations, with a maximum mimic time of 30 minutes.

When in the temple, the hags could maintain their nun disguises for much longer.

They could drain passing merchants dry over extended periods.

It was probably due to becoming a skeleton that the ability, though still present, had been weakened.

Finally, the two skills were 'Sickening Ray' and 'Curse.'

The Necromancer's Book had mentioned that there were drawbacks to converting spellcasters; any mage, when converted, would only retain necromantic magic.

Even if they had souls, they could only relearn necromantic spells.

They would be unable to perceive or utilize other elemental magic.

After reviewing all the attributes,

Wu Heng felt that the 'Skeleton Hag' was somewhat lackluster, neither fully a caster nor a warrior.

However, the Shape-Shifting ability did have some unique potential; it might come in handy later.

Since he wasn't short on money, there was no need to turn them in just to complete the bounty.

Having made up his mind, Wu Heng proceeded to cast [Raise Skeleton] on the remaining three hag corpses, converting them all into skeletons.

The three Skeleton Hags rose one after another, hunching and standing off to the side.

Honestly, they were easier to look at as skeletons than in their original forms.

Among the hags, the highest level was 9, and the lowest was 7, with their attributes being quite similar.

There was nothing particularly special about them.

After resting for a bit, Wu Heng walked over to the pile of zombie corpses, where he cast [Battlefield of the Dead] to convert all the corpses that Big Head Skeleton had collected over the past few days into skeletons.

Then, he found a bedroom to rest in.

There wasn't much choice—although the house in Rentam City was decent, it didn't have any furniture.

So, he had to rest in this world for now.

...…

The next day, in the morning.

Three military trucks, a large cargo truck, and a passenger bus were parked outside the residential area.

Wu Heng stepped out and immediately saw the vehicles parked in the middle of the road.

The large cargo truck was something they found later, mainly for transporting skeletons.

The doors and engine compartments were reinforced with iron plates, and iron bars were welded across the windows.

The front was also reinforced with something resembling a battering ram.

It looked pretty intimidating.

It even gave off a bit of a wasteland vibe.

Each truck had a canvas cover on the back to prevent the skeletons from being flung out due to high speed.

Li Yanhong jumped down from the first truck and walked over.

She pulled out a map and opened it, saying, "We head south, cross the Three Gold Bridge, and after that, the population thins out, and the roads clear up. From there, we'll take the road that leads to the prison, where the others will meet us."

"Alright, we'll follow your route," Wu Heng nodded.

He also had a map, and the route matched what he had in mind.

Wu Heng then gave instructions for the convoy.

The lead vehicle would be a military truck driven by Li Yanhong, followed by another military truck, then the passenger bus, the large cargo truck, and lastly, another military truck.

The idea was to protect the smaller vehicles in the middle.

But the drivers of the first and last trucks would bear the most pressure.

Once everything was ready,

Wu Heng had the skeletons bring bags of rice and other supplies needed for the journey and load them onto the trucks.

He then gave the command, "Skeleton warriors, board the trucks."

Rustle, rustle~!

A large group of skeletons moved into action, climbing onto the back of the trucks.

The skeletons, one next to the other, stood in the truck beds.