The monster's spinal tissue sheds a part every day until it is completely detached after 25 days, indicating that the monster's head structure will reach maturity in about a month.

  During this period, it is in the most vulnerable and potentially dangerous state, because it will frequently "forage" at night and absorb blood by attacking various creatures.

  Jia Lan took action in time, severely injuring the creature just after it completed the mutation, forcing it into a weak state, and finally released it.

  According to the instinctive behavior pattern of the derivative creature, such creatures usually choose to return to their nests or seek shelter from their own kind in a weak state.

  This feature distinguishes undead creatures with a certain degree of intelligence from undead creatures without intelligence, the latter of which do not have the instinct to escape even if they are completely destroyed.

  Because the wings of the abnormal head were attacked by the archer and almost shattered like a spider web, its flying ability was severely weakened.

  Although it was free from the burden of the body, even if it flapped its wings with all its strength, it could only barely maintain flight without falling, and its flying speed was significantly slowed down.

  This greatly facilitated the tracking action of Jia Lan and others.

  Among them, the ‘Golden Level Thief’ was responsible for tracking and driving the creature away, attacking it with a slingshot from time to time to speed it up, while the rest of the people followed closely behind at a leisurely pace.

  Captain Kenmet finally asked a question: “Mr. Jia Lan, what kind of monster is this? How can it parasitize in a human head?”

  He could hardly imagine that a corpse’s head could resurrect and grow wings to become a monster, but if it was explained as a certain creature parasitizing in the corpse’s head, it would be more reasonable.

  Jia Lan patiently explained: "From the perspective of parasites, although it is not completely accurate, there are indeed similarities. This undead creature is called 'flying head barbarian' or 'blood-sucking barbarian'. Although its operating mechanism is still unclear..."

  He pointed to the abnormal head flying hard in front of him, "But it is true that creatures that are sucked to death by flying head barbarian will almost all be transformed into 'undead derivatives', that is, their 'offspring'..."

  Old Jimmy interrupted and said: "It sounds very similar to the legendary vampires. It is said that people bitten to death by vampires will also become vampires!"

  Jia Lan smiled and responded: "They do have many 'similarities'."

  He did not tell the mercenaries that the real blood clan is far more powerful than they imagined, with great strength, agile speed, elegant charm, high wisdom and profound knowledge accumulated from a long life.

  In a sense, the blood clan is almost perfect.

  In this era, the legendary "vampire" may only be a low-level "blood servant" left by the blood clan, or even a "blood slave" without self-awareness.

  They were only driven and enslaved by the vampires who claimed to be nobles, and were not considered as the same kind by the vampires at all.

  This seems to indicate that the high-level vampires have disappeared from this era, otherwise these low-level blood slaves would not have lost control and attacked humans at will.

  What happened during the earth vein explosion?

  Why did the high-level creatures disappear without a trace?

  Why did ordinary civilians survive, while the powerful creatures became extinct?

  Jia Lan's thoughts drifted away, and when he came to his senses, he found that the flying head barbarians, whose flying speed was only equivalent to that of humans walking, had brought them to the deepest part of the Doom Castle.

  "What is the purpose of this place?" Jia Lan looked at the low building under the mountain wall in surprise.

  He didn't even know the industry under his name as well as these mercenaries.

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  This place is located at the end of the Doom Castle, close to the desolate area of ??the Sea Wall Mountains.

  There is a large area of ??simple rock buildings here, like the entrance to the cellar.

  Captain Kenmet explained to the young magician who had only briefly inspected his territory, "This is the dungeon area of ??the Castle of Doom, where the original owner imprisoned prisoners. The space below is vast... Because there are many buildings in the castle complex, this place has not been used."

  The ‘Golden Level Thief’ stopped at the entrance of a dungeon and turned back to ask for advice on whether to continue tracking.

  Obviously, Feitou Man had fled into this dungeon, but it was unclear whether he fled in panic or was attracted by some kind of induction.

  “What kind of business did the original owner of the castle engage in that required such a large dungeon area?” Jia Lan looked at this low rock building complex in confusion.

  Its location is actually beyond the scope of Doom Castle and is quite far away from the castle complex.

  However, the area of ??the dungeon area, the ground building part alone, is equivalent to a quarter of Doom Castle.

  As for the underground part, its scale is even more unknown, which is significantly different from the theoretical layout of traditional castle buildings.

  Any true noble would not be willing to build a dungeon area of ??such a scale in his own castle, because it would undoubtedly bring shame to himself and his family.

  Only those cruel war lords or notorious slave traders would ignore their reputation and take such actions, and both of them are regarded as evil beings.

  Due to long-term abandonment, the dungeon is dark and damp, with mosses everywhere.

  No matter the darkness of the night or the sunlight of the day, it is impossible to penetrate the darkness here, making it pitch dark.

  The entrance of the dungeon is like a big black mouth, quietly waiting for prey to enter.

  When the mercenaries prepared lighting tools and planned to explore further, Jia Lan took out a metal stick from his pocket and knocked on the rock at the entrance of the dungeon.

  In an instant, a bright golden light burst out, with the holder as the center of the circle, and the area within 20 meters was illuminated as daylight.

  The sudden bright light startled the mercenaries, and they subconsciously squinted their eyes and took a defensive posture.

  It was difficult for their eyes to adapt to the extremely bright environment from the darkness.

  "Sorry." Jia Lan said apologetically, and then handed the metal staff in his hand to Captain Kenmet, "Don't be surprised, this is an alchemical lighting tool called 'Eternal Light Staff'. As you can see, its lighting effect is excellent and very suitable for use as an adventure prop..."

  More than excellent! Having a lighting tool of this brightness will greatly reduce the danger of underground ruins.

  More importantly, bright light is itself a very effective deterrent for underground creatures.

  Captain Kenmet was surprised to put his palm close to the glowing part of the metal staff, but he could not feel the temperature at all.

  The Eternal Light Staff emits only a pure cold light, without temperature, smoke, or smell.

  Even in an airless environment, such as underwater, it will not affect its lighting effect.

  As Jia Lan spoke, he took out a few short metal rods from his pocket and distributed them to everyone: "Although the effects of these 'Light Scepters' are not as good as the 'Eternal Light Rod', they can be used for up to six hours. Just in case, keep them for use when you need to leave the lighting range of the Eternal Light Rod."

  The mercenaries were amazed, and Captain Kenmet stared at Jia Lan's pocket with envy in his heart.

  If he had memories of another world, he might think that Jia Lan had a magical space pocket like some kind of robot cat in another world.

  Although he had already learned from his uncle, President Clark, that this mysterious young magician had many magical means, hearing and seeing with one's own eyes are completely different things!

  Not to mention that the dozen or so gold-level potions and alchemical potions carried by each person were enough to trigger a medium-sized war; this magical alchemical lighting prop alone was enough to make the mercenaries crazy.

  The mercenaries looked at each other for a while, and then took out several torches dipped in butter from their equipment and threw them on the ground.

  Although these torches had a decent lighting effect, they were large and heavy, and the smell of burning butter could drift far away in the darkness.

  In dangerous places, this was like a monster summoning device, always attracting all kinds of strange creatures.

  Compared with the "Eternal Light Staff" and the "Lighting Staff", these torches were simply eclipsed.

  Under the illumination of the "Eternal Light Staff", the environment in the dungeon was exposed.

  The corners that might be ignored in the dark were now completely exposed to everyone.

  The flying head barbarian had disappeared without a trace, and what appeared in front of them was a rough stone staircase carved out of the rock, spiraling down and disappearing into the darkness underground.

  The door of the dungeon had long been rotten, and the uneven stone steps were covered with mud and some dead branches and leaves, and occasionally the bones of some small creatures could be seen scattered.

  If you step on it carelessly, it will make a crisp cracking sound, adding a creepy atmosphere.

  Captain Kenmet didn't understand why the original owner of the castle built the dungeon so deep.

  He looked down the stairs without handrails. Even with the 20-meter lighting range of the "Eternal Light Staff", it couldn't illuminate the bottom.

  The mercenary picked up a tallow torch that they had abandoned, lit it and threw it down.

  The burning torch spun in the air for a long time before it fell to the ground, hitting a bunch of sparks and extinguished.

  He turned back and reported: "More than 80 meters deep!"

  "Damn it! Is this a dungeon or a mine?" Captain Kenmet cursed.

  He held the "Eternal Light Staff" in his left hand and drew his two-handed sword in his right hand.

  When the tallow torch fell just now, they all heard a faint scream that seemed a little weak due to the distance.

  Captain Kenmet signaled his "gold-level thieves" to explore the way ahead, and the group began to move deeper into the dungeon.