Chapter 76: Chapter 76

At the end of the trail, she saw several humanoid creatures crouched beneath a small cliff a few meters high, their bodies hunched over as if eating something.

Mu Ying was certain those weren’t humans.

Though they had human-like heads and limbs, their skin was an unnatural grayish-blue, and they were much larger than ordinary adult men.

From this angle, she could only make out these basic features, thanks to her high perception and excellent eyesight.

Mu Ying thought for a moment, then quietly retreated and circled around to the top of the cliff.

If anything went wrong, she’d be safer up there.

By the time she reached the top, night had fully fallen.

She climbed into a tree on the cliff, using the canopy as cover to observe.

The creatures’ “banquet” below seemed to be wrapping up.

They stood up with low growls, dragging the remains of their “dinner” into the cliffside, leaving only a scattering of bones behind.

This time, Mu Ying got a clear look at them. Not only did she recognize what they were, but thanks to her newly learned creature identification skill, she also gained more information:

“Ghoul: Level 1–3 medium undead creature. Low intelligence. Its undead flesh never decays. It has an endless appetite for the flesh of humanoid corpses, but can never feel full from eating them. Its corpse-eating body emits a poisonous stench. Its long tongue has a paralyzing effect, though due to historical reasons, this effect does not work on elves.

Some ghoul packs may produce a more intelligent demon-leader…”

The target she’d been hoping to practice on had appeared, but their strength was nothing to take lightly.

She didn’t know what connection elves had with ghouls that made them immune to the tongue’s paralysis, but the stench was toxic.

She had no way to counteract poison yet.

She waited for a long time, but no more ghouls emerged. Once they entered the cliffside, there wasn’t a sound.

Mu Ying climbed down and used her piercing spear to lift the vines covering the cliff face—and sure enough, she saw the familiar glowing portal of a dungeon.

That made her even more cautious. What if she went in and fell straight into a ghoul nest?

Maybe the ghouls that could leave the dungeon weren’t high-level, but who knew what was inside—perhaps even a demon-leader.

She couldn’t always count on the kind of luck she’d had in the Myconid dungeon. Even there, if she hadn’t built good relations from the start, the toxic spores and giant mushroom minions would have been enough to finish her off.

Besides, ghouls were mindless creatures driven only by hunger—there was no way to communicate.

Mu Ying decided to leave.

She could take her time dealing with goblins, but she wasn’t about to rush headlong into the ghoul dungeon.

She’d more or less figured it out: the monsters that had fallen from the sky at the beginning were mostly low-level and lightly equipped. In one-on-one fights, most humans could hold their own.

But monsters in dungeons ranged from weak to strong, with no restrictions. Only the weaker ones could leave the dungeon, but even then, their strength was greater than the monsters that had descended directly.

If you weren’t greedy for the loot inside, the safest way was to slowly wear down the monsters’ strength from outside the dungeon.

This little episode on her way back to the territory completely ruined Mu Ying’s mood for roasting meat.

Although many people had died in the apocalypse, most had turned into zombies in the first wave of monster arrivals, and after being killed, they turned directly into experience and copper coins—there weren’t even ashes left behind.

The bodies that remained belonged to those who had successfully taken up a class and died in battle later on. There weren’t many of these, and even fewer who had been properly buried in the cemetery.

Now, even those corpses had been almost completely devoured.

And since this place was close to the territory, it posed a real threat to the residents.

These people were her source of rental income, after all.

Being a landlady who didn’t have to worry much about money was thanks to them; every death meant a drop in her income.

With that in mind, when Mu Ying got home, she took out a sheet of paper and carefully wrote down everything she knew about ghoul habits and her dungeon-related guesses. Then, with the paper in one hand and a slab of pork in the other, she headed to Sera’s eatery.

It was late, and she didn’t feel like grilling meat herself. She simply brought it over and asked Uncle Sera to make skewers for her. Their newly expanded night barbecue business had been doing well lately.

Those with decent strength could earn good money hunting every day, while those less capable could still make a living working the fields for the big teams.

Plus, many had made a fortune during the recent zombie siege.

People might not splurge on a full meal at the eatery every day, but at night, a copper coin for two meat skewers was affordable for everyone.

It was just like the night markets before the apocalypse—if you got a craving, you could spend a coin or two on some skewers, chat with others, and those with more money could even take their skewers to the tavern for a drink.

So the eatery and tavern were always the busiest places at night.

After telling Mrs. Sera, who was settling accounts at the counter, Mu Ying posted her paper on the wall near the entrance—right where everyone could see it as they came in.

Mu Ying was already a figure of interest in the territory, so when people saw her putting something up, they crowded around to look.

They were shocked by what they read.

The name “ghoul” alone sounded creepy, and the fact that its stench was poisonous made it even more troublesome.

Some people even went to the mercenary guild and paid to see an illustration of a ghoul: that long tongue, the risk of paralysis with just a touch—if you weren’t careful, you could end up as a corpse, chewed up by a ghoul.

Of course, there were also those who’d been following rumors about dungeons on the forums for a long time. The legendary dragon’s hoard was still a hot topic.

The Myconid dungeon incident hadn’t leaked, so for many, the ghoul dungeon was the first one they might actually encounter, and plenty of people were interested in the wealth inside.

Mu Ying didn’t care whether they would recklessly charge in. For her, it was enough to give a warning and help the territory’s residents avoid dying to ghouls out of ignorance.

As for those who went in hoping to strike it rich, that was their business. If they succeeded, she wouldn’t be jealous; if they died, she wouldn’t care.

People had to bear the consequences of their own choices."

"Thinking about the toxins on the ghouls, Mu Ying adjusted her spell learning order, moving the 3rd-circle spell ""Protection from Poison"" to the top of her list.

""Protection from Poison"" could effectively increase the target's resistance to toxins. Even if someone was already poisoned, casting this spell could help neutralize the toxins and delay their effects.

However, she wasn't sure if this resistance would be enough to make someone immune to the ghoul's poisonous gas.

Sigh. Mu Ying stroked the staff wood in her hand and let out a sigh. Time in the Emerald World flowed three times faster than in reality. In just four or five days in the real world, she had already obtained a flying broom and a magic wand in the Emerald World.

Transforming materials was much cheaper than transforming finished items, and once transformed, the original item in the Emerald World would disappear. To save some source energy, she had brought broom grass seeds and staff wood back to the real world.

But in the real world, she would need to spend half a month infusing them with magic. Otherwise, she could have used her witch abilities to try and solve the detoxification problem.

""Right, now that I have the mushroom folk, the population of my territory should meet the requirements, right?""

Suddenly remembering something, Mu Ying quickly opened her territory page.