In the early morning, the winter chill turned into white mist, enveloping the surroundings.

Within the hazy mist, several steel vehicles were speeding across the plains.

These vehicles were the caravans driven by members of the Lantern Guild.

The speed of these caravans was not fast, maintaining a constant pace.

And the members of the Lantern Knight Order rode their warhorses, following closely around them.

These warhorses, being silver-level magic beasts, had excellent stamina and load-bearing abilities, allowing them to steadily keep pace with the caravans.

They only needed to rest every few hours.

And at night, they were given ample food.

The speed of all the vehicles was kept in sync with the speed of the warhorses.

"About the village destroyed by the undead yesterday, do you have any thoughts?" Kane asked, sitting on the sofa inside the caravan.

Kreya, beside him, listened to Kane's question: "You mean to say that the condition of that village might have been caused by the undead we're targeting."

Kane nodded.

"That's possible, but it could also be a coincidence. After all, the profession of a Necromancer isn't rare in any world," Kreya considered.

As long as there's magic in a world, there are necromancers to some extent.

And often in many worlds, necromancers are inevitably associated with evil.

After all, whether it's the magic they use or the knowledge they need to learn, it all involves corpses and death.

This makes it difficult for people to see them as positive characters.

A normally intelligent being who deals with death and corpses daily would struggle to maintain a normal character.

Moreover, necromancers generally start by dealing with the corpses of their kind.

These are all quite normal things.

Kane nodded again, hoping he was just overthinking it.

If the condition of that fishing village was indeed caused by the undead they were targeting.

Then it means the undead influence had already begun spreading to the surroundings.

For the undead, war doesn't usually cause any loss; on the contrary, it might even strengthen them.

It should be noted that this still belongs to the second region.

Even though the third region isn't that far away anymore.

But Kane's target is still quite a distance away, and if it has spread this far, the battle conditions ahead are unfathomable.

Just then, Youyou, who was driving, suddenly spoke up: "Detected some activity ahead."

Upon hearing Youyou's alert, Kane immediately pulled up a screen displaying a panoramic data map.

Above their convoy, a specially-provided surveillance drone could continuously follow them from above.

It could scout roughly a 10-kilometer radius around them as the center point.

At that moment, activity 10 kilometers ahead of their convoy was marked with a red cross.

Kane tapped it to zoom in.

He could see intense magical fluctuations in that area, and the magical activity was very complex, not confined to a single attribute.

The chaotic magical fluctuations indicated a battle was taking place, not a skirmish between one or two individuals.

Rather, a large group of people were in conflict.

As for the specifics, due to the obstruction of mountains and woods, even the aerial surveillance drone couldn't discern much.

Kane promptly said, "Send the information to everyone."

"Understood, master."

Subsequently, all in the surrounding caravans heard a report on the situation from Youyou.

Even the members of the Lantern Knight Order accompanying them outside heard there was something happening ahead.

They quickly rode out, spreading around the area ahead of Kane and his team.

Some went to reconnoiter the site of the battle, while others spread out to guard against any surprises.

Not long after, Kane was informed about the situation ahead.

Indeed, a battle was going on, and its scale was beyond what Kane had imagined.

One side was humans and some alien races, and the other was a legion of undead.

"So, a large number of undead are warring with other humans?"

Upon hearing the news, Kane realized the worst-case scenario he had considered might be coming true. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

As they neared the edge of the battlefield, Kane stepped off the caravan and packed it up.

Members of the guild did the same.

They hid behind the trees, looking out into the distance.

Through the gaps between the trees, they could see the battle occurring in the distance.

Hordes of skeleton undead were charging toward the humans.

On the human side, one could see that some humans had formed a shield wall, using their shields to firmly hold the line.

In the rear, many humans wielded weapons, slashing at the approaching undead.

Various types of magic balls exploded among the skeletons.

Just-cleared gaps were soon filled by more advancing skeletons.

The situation on the battlefield was evident: humans were at a disadvantage.

Hordes of skeletons surged like a tide.

These humans, even though individually stronger, were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.

At this moment, a skeleton about three or four meters tall emerged from behind the hillside.

He gripped a massive leg bone staff, wearing a tattered helmet, and walked forward slowly.

The ghostly green Soul Fire was ablaze within his skull.

Just from his appearance, it was clear he was not to be trifled with.

Kane had already seen from afar his strength, a gold-level Skeleton Undead.

On the human side, a middle-aged general at the Silver Bottleneck was commanding.

Upon seeing the tall skeleton, he shouted something loudly, and the human formation began to slowly retreat.

Countless Fireballs and Ice Arrows were being fired at the slowly advancing tall skeleton.

"Yuyu, scan that skeleton and see if it matches any undead listed in Facundo's contracts."

After hearing Kane's words, Yuyu paused for a second before responding: "It matches. It is a gold-level Skeleton Giant, both in life and death, a warrior."

"According to the data, he is one of the generals of the Skeleton Undead."

Upon hearing this, Kane nodded, which almost confirmed their suspicions.

The undead influence they targeted might have already spread around, potentially causing an undead plague.

From the rear mid-section of Zone 3, it had spread to the border of Zone 2.

Such a long distance.

At this moment, all the explorers felt the information from the Mist in their minds. It seemed like they had entered a certain range.

This time, it's still an extermination order, as these undead have no intention of listening to the Mist.

In the past year, the surroundings have been ravaged beyond recognition, many forces destroyed by their hands.

Even now, they are constantly attacking all surrounding forces, turning every captured villager into undead.

Even the corpses in the ground were not spared, all awakened.

It was apparent they had angered the Mist.

Compared with these undead, Cannibal Ghosts are just like infants.

Judging by this place, it's obvious that hardly any explorer would come here within a year.

This resulted in the undead being completely unrestricted.

Judging by those fighting against the undead, the surrounding forces might still be struggling.

Just not sure how many in this area are still resisting the undead.

Whether there is a useful defensive line in place.

In a year, it had already expanded to the boundary of Zone 2.

"Looks like this time, we'll have an even bigger harvest," Kane said.

This was equivalent to doing one task but receiving double the rewards.

To obtain Facundo's bones, they needed to take down all the undead.

At least, they needed to eliminate those undead who had signed contracts with Facundo to remove certain barriers.

And by defeating the undead, they could obtain the Mist's reward.

Doing one job, getting two rewards, why not?

Not only Kane, but all the explorers from the guild displayed smiles on their faces.

In hindsight, they should have brought more reinforcements.

That's what Kane thought.

However, thinking about it realistically, it might not be feasible.

Seeing that the humans in front had already opened one or two breaches, it seemed that their formation would soon be disrupted, leading to a massacre.

Kane directly bypassed the woods hiding their figures and headed directly toward the undead horde.

"Everyone, attack!"

Guild members followed along, including the Knight Order forming a charge formation.

...

"Quick, seal the breach, and we will slowly retreat," the middle-aged general shouted, riding his warhorse.

Then, with a wave of his long-handled warhammer, he smashed an incoming skeleton.

"We can't hold on, Captain, there are too many undead, and some brothers are running out of physical strength,"

As the adjutant came to report, the Skeleton Giant walked over, sweeping with his staff and sending the obstructing humans flying.

These humans were knocked away, some with their shields and chests crushed in, seemingly not going to survive.

Seeing this situation, the general opened his mouth to shout something, only to see a small group suddenly appear from the side, charging into the undead on the enemy side.

"Whose soldiers are those? Get them back, we're preparing to retreat, they..."

Before he could finish, he saw Kane charging out, instantly materializing a massive steel giant around him.

With one punch, he smashed the Skeleton Giant to the ground.

Compared to the towering Skeleton Giant, in front of this steel giant, it could only jump up to hit its knees.

Meanwhile, the unfamiliar people efficiently cleared the skeletons around them.

No matter the strength of those skeletons, they were no match for them, continuously shattering into pieces scattered on the ground.

Seeing this, he immediately retracted his previous statement, shouting to his soldiers below: "Brothers, hold on, reinforcements have arrived, keep them firmly blocked."

Although the general did not know Kane and his group's identities, their intentions were clear—they came to support them.

At this moment, he had to boost the morale of his soldiers.

Many soldiers saw Kane and his team's heroic actions.

Especially Kane, punching the golden Skeleton Giant to the ground, greatly boosted their morale.

Their once low morale quickly recovered, as they swiftly reorganized their defenses, killing those encroaching Skeleton Soldiers.

Then they formed the previous formation to continue resisting the incoming tide of skeletons.