After Vicente had saved the Flames of Life from the companions of the people at the entrance to The Skull City, he carefully followed the path ahead, a long staircase with more than 3,000 steps.
This staircase led through various parts of the ancient city that had been built on this hill, providing a view of much of this ruin, with many buildings intact but others completely destroyed.
It wasn't clear whether the destroyed buildings had been damaged by Professor Dirty Scout in his quest for revenge or by humans who had entered The Skull City in the past few millennia.
So much time had passed since the creation of The Skull City that it was difficult to say who had caused what destruction.
But soon, Vicente and Layla would realize this city could not be considered abandoned!
No living creatures lived there, but many special magical creatures were currently residing there. Among them were ghosts, liches, and zombies.
All of these creatures were the result of the powers of the curse that Paragon Professor Dirty Scout had placed on this area, a curse that could only be lifted by another magician more powerful than himself. Not even the death of such an individual could stop what had been happening in this place since its creation.
Thus, the city was full of negative beings.
Seventeen thousand years ago, this place had more than 20,000 beings who had been transformed into these three kinds of creatures by Professor Dirty Scout. In all those years, many people had gone there. Most of them perished, while only a few survived and left the place after destroying some enemies.
However, it was much harder to destroy those three kinds of beings than it was to defeat them. As a result, the population of The Skull City has not decreased over the years, and there are currently about 24,000 dark creatures living there.
Some of these creatures had a certain amount of rationality, so when Vicente and Layla walked down the stairs of this city, they could see beings doing ordinary things, as if they were living their lives there.
However, most of the creatures acted like animals, hiding in the shadows and making grunting noises.
The zombies used their noses to track their targets, raising their heads as they turned their faces toward Vicente and Layla.
"I think we're going to be surrounded soon," Layla said as she felt the stench of the area but also the negative aura of the creatures already moving toward her and Vicente.
Vicente stopped walking down the stairs and looked at the zombies and lower-level liches moving towards him and Layla. Their auras were hidden in their own bodies, so the strongest in The Skull City would hardly be the first to act against them.
'These beings must not be able to sense my elemental affinity for darkness as well as Torne.' Vicente thought to himself as he saw that he would have to use his powers to make his way through these monsters.
He looked at the liches and the zombies, two types of beings that had similar origins but very different characteristics.
The first thing that distinguished them was their bodies. Liches were basically skeletons, while zombies were corpses. Lichs didn't devour the bodies of their victims, while zombies did. On the other hand, while zombies relied more on physical strength to fight and acted very much like chaotic animals, liches were more intelligent, even at a low level, and could use dark magic.
Given the difference in their powers, liches had weaker bodies and were easier to destroy. They were stronger in magic and could fight from a distance. On the other hand, zombies were difficult to destroy with their bodies, but if you kept your distance, they were harmless.
For Vicente, who could use the metals in a corpse's body, zombies were the easiest opponent of all.
"Let's clear the way and search the city." He told Layla as he released his aura and made his pentagrams appear around his body. "This place was once home to a large relevant population. There must be old resource camps and medicinal plantations around here."
A ruin became a place of opportunity even if no great treasures were left behind. The dangers of ruins could cause people to die in them, leaving even more resources behind and creating valuable natural items.
For example, a medicinal herb valuable to a 3rd stage magician might take 500 to 1,000 years to mature. Since The Skull City had existed for 17,000 years, many generations of herbs could have developed in this "abandoned" area.
Ancient pills left behind could have contributed to the development of wild herbs or other types of special resources in this city.
The magic world was not static or lifeless. It could change a lot, given the right amount of time. Strange things could emerge over the years in an abandoned place like this, where conscious beings didn't try to prevent certain natural processes.
Layla agreed as she prepared to run and use her abilities. "How will we act? Do you have a plan?"
"You will search the terrain at a distance of up to 100 meters from me, moving at high speed. I should be able to help you at that distance if necessary."
"All right."
"You must remember everything you see and report to me all kinds of resources in the area, including those for Dark Path magicians. Don't forget that resources can be used as medication and poison." He emphasized not wanting to miss anything due to Layla's possible misinterpretation.
She nodded positively, understanding what she had to do, and waited for him to clear the way by using his powers against the dozens of creatures that were already very close to attacking them.
Vicente closed his mouth and demonstrated his powers to those creatures of darkness, quickly making metal weapons emerge from the ground as he pressed down on the zombies' bodies.
"Go!" He commanded Layla as he moved against the low-level liches that formed dark magic attacks against him.
Bang!
He fired one of his weapons, not hesitating to use this trump card against the many opponents in the area.
He might be strong, but the numbers weren't in his favor. So, instead of exhausting himself to fight the more than 20,000 beings in this ancient ruin, he decided to use his equipment to make his journey easier.
While he did this and overpowered the bodies of a few zombies, Layla ran at high speed through the area, searching for anything of value to them.
As soon as she did, some of the strongest negative beings in the area realized that an even bigger problem than the humans they were chasing had entered The Skull City.
'That feeling...' A peak 3rd stage ghost thought, 'Is that really a Mage? He looks like a Sovereign! How did someone like that manage to enter our realm?'
This being then moved and went in search of the strongest negative beings in the area, who rarely appeared in the past 17,000 years!
