Chapter 528: Weeping Blood Stonemen

After killing the first beast and storing its corpse inside his inventory, Thoren and his undead proceeded deeper into the stone maze.

Along the way, they encountered dozens of stone beasts.

But each time, their deaths became more brutal than the last.

Some were crushed beneath the massive hammer of the undead Storm Tyrant, their bodies collapsing beneath overwhelming force.

Others were cleaved apart by the massive broadsword of the undead Guild Captain before they could even react.

Some attempted to ambush the undead from beneath the crimson sand, only to be intercepted by the undead shield soldiers before they could reach Thoren.

Every encounter ended the same way.

Death.

While the number of stone beasts continued to increase, so did the number of corpses inside Thoren's inventory.

He planned to sell these strange stone beasts in the Abyssal Market once he returned.

For over an hour, Thoren and his undead servants barely had a moment of respite.

One battle ended only for another to begin.

However, Thoren did not care.

He had already learned that the stone maze was a dangerous place from the beginning, and he had come prepared.

With his current strength and the undead army accompanying him, he had little reason to fear the ordinary dangers lurking within the maze.

But what really caught his attention was the bizarre stones.

At first, he had not noticed anything unusual about them.

They looked like massive stone formations scattered throughout the maze, each identical in size, structure, and height.

But as he ventured deeper and gradually reached the core of the maze, Thoren finally noticed something strange.

The massive identical stones were not static.

They could move.

And they were not moving randomly either.

Their movements were precise and deliberate.

Every time Thoren advanced through the maze, some of the stone formations shifted positions.

At the same time, a different passage would appear somewhere else, almost as if the entire maze itself were rearranging its structure.

Thoren stood silently for a moment, watching one of the massive stone walls slowly move.

The enormous formation shifted with a deep rumbling sound before settling into its new position.

'So they are trying to trap me.'

Thoren mused while staring at the last stone wall that had just moved.

The entire maze seemed to be deliberately changing its structure in an attempt to restrict his movement and prevent him from reaching the other side.

Unfortunately for whatever power controlled the stone maze, Thoren did not care.

As long as the path in front of him was not completely blocked, he would simply bulldoze his way through.

If a stone wall moved into his path, he would destroy it.

If the maze changed its route, he would simply continue forward.

There was no reason for him to waste time trying to outsmart a maze when brute force was already enough to solve the problem.

Without concern, he placed the last beast corpse into his inventory and continued forward.

'I'm already halfway.'

He thought as a faint smile crept across his lips.

With that thought, he increased his pace. He could no longer wait to find out what was waiting on the other side.

But inwardly, he already knew what was waiting for him.

His final battle.

Just as he took a right turn and walked deeper into the narrow path, the rumbling of the stone maze moving behind him suddenly echoed loudly.

Rumble!

The sound traveled through the narrow passage, shaking loose dust from the ceiling and causing tiny stones to fall around him.

Thoren stopped for a moment.

Suddenly, the temperature inside the passage dropped by several degrees and a suffocating pressure descended upon the passage.

The pressure seemed to press directly against his body, making the surrounding air feel almost solid.

Thoren's expression gradually became serious.

'What is going on?'

Thoren thought as he halted in his tracks.

He slowly turned his head.

Behind him, a new passage had appeared.

The massive stones had shifted once again, revealing an entrance that had not existed moments earlier.

Yet merely looking at the entrance caused Thoren's instincts to scream.

Alarm echoed violently inside his mind and his body instinctively became tense. His deep blue eyes narrowed as he stared into the darkness.

'T-This...'

This was the first time inside the stone maze that Thoren had truly felt danger.

Without hesitation, he summoned the undead Kharv and the undead General, their imposing figures immediately appearing beside him.

Just when he thought the danger was coming only from behind, the ground ahead suddenly began to tremble violently.

Sensing the strange changes beneath his feet, Thoren took a deep breath and calmly waited for the danger to reveal itself.

Rather than wasting time worrying about what might happen, he decided to let the danger show itself first.

And behold, they finally revealed themselves.

They were bloody Stonemen.

Each of them stood over three meters tall, their massive bodies formed entirely from strange blood-colored stone.

Their faces possessed nothing but hollow sockets, with streams of thick crimson blood continuously flowing from them.

Apart from that, their stomachs were wide open, exposing an empty cavity from which a fountain of blood gushed endlessly.

However, the most disturbing part was not their grotesque appearance.

They were weeping.

An eerie, sorrowful cry escaped from their mouths and echoed throughout the narrow passage, sending an uncomfortable chill through the entire stone maze.

The sound was so strange that even Thoren felt the hair on his body stand on end.

He took a deep breath and kept his gaze firmly locked onto the approaching creatures.

Now that he could clearly see the threat before him, the initial unease disappeared, replaced by an unnatural calmness.

There was no reason to fear something he could already see.

Without hesitation, he positioned the undead Kharv at the rear to protect his back while ordering the undead General to clear the path ahead.

He was not foolish enough to waste time trying to destroy every single weeping bloody Stoneman surrounding them.

His objective was to reach the other side of the stone maze.

Nothing else mattered.

After arranging his undead into formation, Thoren gave his orders through the mental link.

'Kill!'

'Clear the path.'

Instantly, his undead servants moved in unison.

The undead General charged forward first, raising his massive saber before swinging it toward the nearest bloody Stoneman with terrifying force.

Boom!

The saber struck the massive stone body, sending fragments of crimson stone flying through the air.

Boom! Boom!

The weeping bloody Stonemen responded almost immediately, their massive fists crashing toward the undead General with enough force to shake the narrow passage.

However, their terrifying appearance and overwhelming size were useless against fearless undead soldiers.

They were about to learn a painful lesson.

Instantly, the narrow passage descended into complete chaos as the raging sounds of battle echoed repeatedly through the stone maze.

Stone fragments flew everywhere as massive weapons collided with the bodies of the bloody Stonemen.

The eerie weeping only grew louder.

Their sorrowful cries reverberated through the passage, becoming almost unbearable as more of their bodies were shattered.

Yet Thoren and his undead servants seemed completely unaffected by the disturbing atmosphere.

They simply continued cutting through the crying bloody Stonemen without slowing down.

The undead General remained at the front, clearing everything in his path while the other undead supported him from behind.

At the rear, the undead Kharv stood like an immovable guardian, preventing anything from approaching Thoren from behind.

With the undead Kharv protecting their rear and the undead vanguard supporting the formation, the crying bloody Stonemen found themselves completely suppressed.

They could neither break through the undead formation nor prevent Thoren from advancing.

As for the front, it had become a brutal display of carnage.

Massive saber strikes shattered stone bodies.

Crimson fragments scattered across the ground while streams of blood continued flowing from the grotesque creatures.

The strange weeping never stopped.

Yet Thoren simply walked forward.

His expression remained calm as he watched his undead servants carve a path through the bloody Stonemen.

For many people, traveling through the stone maze would require absolute silence.

Even when they encountered strange beasts or terrifying creatures, they would most likely attempt to avoid them rather than engage them directly.

But Thoren was different.

He had never intended to quietly sneak through the stone maze.