Train Survival: You're really trying to survive!

Chapter 570 Curse Remains

14

Even though these monsters remained invisible, Sophia quickly identified their number through the enemy's attacks.

Sofia then switched her sniper rifle to a grenade launcher, took out several specially made grenades, filled them with the medicine that Su Li had just given her, and then loaded them.

With a few popping sounds, the grenades were fired. The grenades, calculated by Sophia, exploded around the invisible monsters, forming a cloud of light red smoke. This smoke clung to the monsters, outlining their silhouettes.

Upon discovering that it had been dyed, the monster unleashed wind-attribute magical energy in an attempt to dispel the smoke.

However, although the smoke was dissipated, the paint that had already stained the monster's body did not disappear.

This is natural; Zuli's dyeing technique is based on the effects of drugs. Enemies dyed with this technique will gain a slight resistance to sleep. To remove it, the correct method is the same as dispelling positive buffs on oneself.

Unfortunately, this tool was invented specifically to deal with these mindless magical beasts. They couldn't understand the difference.

As Su Li had expected, these demons unleashed bursts of magical energy, but they were too stupid to see through Su Li's methods. They could only waste their magical energy and then resignedly cancel their invisibility effects.

Now, Su Li and the others finally saw the full appearance of these monsters.

These monsters don't look like land creatures; they're more like marine creatures. They resemble manta rays from the deep sea, but they are creations of death through and through.

The shriveled, withered, leathery wing membranes stretched out eerily in the raging sandstorm, maintaining astonishing stability and allowing them to hover in the gale. The skeleton supporting the wing membranes was clearly visible, like dried fish bones, with a sickly grayish-white color. They had no eyes; where their heads should have been were only two deep, empty holes.

Su Li's first thought was that she had encountered an undead monster.

She then noticed that there were magnetic fields and electric sparks beneath the bodies of these manta rays.

After revealing themselves, these desert manta rays no longer used their usual method of attacking with sand bullets, which were highly concealed, fast-firing, and low-powered.

Their mouths were open, their dry mouths full of holes, like ripped T-shirts that had been worn for three years while boarding at Zurich High School.

A wind blade condensed outside their mouthparts. This wind blade changed from its original colorless state to light green, and then evolved into dark green. Its sharp aura even floated in the air, cutting through the yellow sand like silk.

"Peak Silver level... That's true, without some skill, you can't catch up with our train."

Su Li looked at Sun Lili, "Are you going?"

Before she could finish speaking, Sun Lili had already disappeared from sight.

Just as the manta ray was about to complete its wind blade formation and launch an attack on the train, a gorgeously dressed magical girl suddenly appeared behind it.

The magical girl's staff swept across the area in the blink of an eye, enveloping several manta rays before she vanished again.

This was repeated three times. The wind blades from the mouths of the first few manta rays had just begun to dissipate when their upper bodies slowly slid down, leaving smooth, clean cuts without a drop of blood.

Papapa

The sound of manta rays landing could be heard continuously.

"Space-based magic is indeed a godsend for crushing weaker opponents."

For players specializing in spatial abilities, there's a power threshold. Only those who surpass that threshold can compete with spatial players; those who don't are instantly killed by them.

The strength of this mechanism lies precisely in this.

Sun Keke opened her right hand, and the sand condensed into a ball in her hand.

"Alright, there's no threat around for now." After finishing her divination, Sun Keke clapped her hands, and the sphere in her hands dispersed, merging into the sandstorm.

The group put away their weapons and began inspecting their spoils.

No one knows where these manta rays' nests are, so there are no treasure chests to be found.

Su Li sighed. She had encountered this situation many times before and didn't know if there was a solution. "Forget it, even a monster's corpse will do. At least we can see what form the locals take."

Sun Lili manipulated the force field and carried the slain manta rays to the team.

Monster expert Su Li and bio-modification expert Song Mingyu conducted a joint consultation on the deceased.

Both industry leaders were deeply moved upon seeing the deceased, realizing that such a form of life existed.

They first used an identification technique to verify the name.

Sand Manta Ray

[Some force has shaped them into this form.]

Song Mingyu withdrew her sensed magical energy. "There is no blood, and the body is full of cells that have long since died. If I were to write a report, I could only say that this thing is a mummy, and it has been dead for thousands of years. It should be under the jurisdiction of archaeology, not the medical department."

After thinking for a moment, the meticulous Song Mingyu added, "If it is ground into powder, it can be added to traditional Western medicine."

Su Li also opened the manta ray's wound. "It's a very strange state. From a common point of view, this is clearly a dried-up corpse that has been dead for a long time. But look here, there are gills here. I looked at the structure and they are the gills of an aquatic creature, which means that this manta ray used to be a marine animal. But look here, this is armor to cope with the sandy environment."

Song Mingyu understood Su Li's meaning: "These creatures are still evolving to adapt to their environment?!"

“Yes.” Su Li nodded in agreement. “This kind of creature can be considered a high-level undead creature.”

Su Li took out her greatsword, cut open the manta ray's brain, rummaged around inside, and pulled out a black and red crystal core from the spiderweb-like dried brain.

As soon as the crystal core was taken out, Su Li felt a tingling sensation between her eyebrows.

"Such powerful curse."

Su Li thought for a moment, "There is no such creature in the monster encyclopedia. This creature looks a bit like a derivative of magic, so let's call it Cursed Corpse for now."

"Cursed corpses? Not a bad idea."

Su Li studied it further and discovered that the Cursed Skeletons flew by magnetic levitation. Underneath their wings, there were natural runic structures that could convert the magical energy in their bodies into magnetism to accelerate themselves.

Having discovered this property, Su Li quickly summoned Ivan, "Take a look, can this be used to make wings?"

Ivan placed the flaked material in front of him, examined it carefully, and nodded. "It can be made; it meets the requirements for the Wings of the Wind."

The main material for the Wings of the Wind is a Silver-grade [wing material with the ability to fly].

"What we've created are magnetically levitated wings, which will allow for extremely fast flight, but they will be affected by the environment."

Su Li retorted, "The wings that ride the wind, created by the wings that ride the wind, also have the drawback of only being usable within the atmosphere. At worst, we can just make more types."

Ivan agreed, saying, "That makes sense. We should build a set of propulsion systems, including wind-powered, magnetically levitated, and others, just in case. We have plenty of materials anyway."

Su Li took Ivan to divide the materials, and Sophia also came over. After the monster died, Sophia still needed to extract its spiritual essence.

"I don't know what kind of spiritual energy this monster can extract. It's most likely electromagnetic acceleration or sharpness-related factors."

Sophia cast spells on the monsters, and with the accumulation of many extracts, she gained experience and was able to roughly judge the trend of the factors.

However, when the spell was cast on the monster, it flickered for a moment and then disappeared.

Sophia was somewhat taken aback. "It failed?"

This situation indicates that the monster's spirituality has been exhausted, and there is nothing left to extract.

Song Mingyu pondered, "The bloodline factor couldn't be extracted either. The bloodline and spirituality are gone. It seems the curse here is even more greedy than we imagined."

Sun Lili nodded for a while, then put forward a new idea: "I always feel that the source of this curse hates the creatures here very much and wants to torture them forever, which is why this kind of ecosystem was created."

The group exchanged bewildered glances. Su Li asked, "How did you figure that out?"

"I didn't realize it, it was just a feeling," Sun Lili said, sticking out her tongue.

Sun Keke looked disgusted. "With such a strong sandstorm, she still sticks out her tongue and tries to act cute. It's disgusting."

"So you're thinking about me again, aren't you?!" Sun Lili's older sister's radar went off instantly, grabbing Sun Keke's lips and pulling them apart.

Ignoring the two sisters' bickering, Su Li wrote down Sun Lili's words.

Sun Lili is a spiritual being, and her perception of emotions is much more sensitive than that of Su Li and the others. Her feeling may be that her spiritual senses have detected something amiss.

The encounter ended, the battlefield was cleaned up, and Su Li and the others returned to the train and continued their journey. At the same time, Su Li also began to make tools to deal with this new type of monster.

For the rest of the journey, they encountered no more monsters that could keep up with the train's speed.

On the third day of the exploration, at 6:30 a.m., the train finally arrived near the planned oasis.

The desert near the oasis was much more lively than Zurich had expected.

The train stopped in the distance of the oasis.

A raging sandstorm surrounded them; in this Scorching Soul Desert, sandstorms occur almost daily. The wind elements in the air were extremely volatile.

Zurich stood on the train, holding a monocular telescope in his right hand, aiming it at the distance.

This is the Element Vision Telescope, which allows you to visualize distant elements. It's a tool that Zu Li created after a burst of inspiration following her study of advanced elemental theory over the past few months.

Through the Elemental Vision Telescope, Zuli could see numerous elemental spells erupting and dissipating in the distance, indicating that a fierce battle was taking place near the distant oasis.

Su Li couldn't help but complain, "Where did all these cursed remains come from? The satellite images don't show a single monster. Surely not everyone can turn invisible?"

Another question is, what exactly is fighting the Cursed Corpse? Could it be the native inhabitants of the oasis?

Su Li put down her binoculars. "No matter what, let's go take a look. Even if there are gold-level ones inside, we can fight our way through even if we're weak for a few days."

Under Zurich's direction, the train resumed its journey toward the oasis.

When the two sides were less than a kilometer apart, the cursed corpses finally realized that something was approaching from the outside of the desert.

The cursed monsters, still besieging the oasis, suddenly turned their attention to Su Li and his companions. Approximately one-sixth of the encirclement of monsters charged towards them.

The entire oasis is only about 2 hectares in size, and there are more than 100 cursed skeletons surrounding it, with about 20 of them coming over.

Without Su Li saying anything more, the ranged classes began their attack.

Sophia fired her sniper rifle in quick succession, the specially changed lightning-enched bullets with exorcising effects trailing blue-purple light streaks, hitting the heads of these monsters one by one.

The sounds of headshots echoed continuously, clearly indicating good headshots. Sun Lili also summoned orbs of light around her body. Under her control, these orbs were rapidly compressed, compressing the magical energy inside to its limit before releasing it.

A beam of light, composed of countless rays, instantly pierced through the charging cursed skeletons.

The train continued its speed, breaking through the encirclement of the cursed corpses.

Once they were closer, Su Li was able to see the appearance of these cursed remains clearly.

Most of these cursed remains are marine creatures, with only a few birds and mammals, such as cows and tigers.

"It seems this place used to be a vast ocean, which was transformed into this state by the power of the curse."

Su Li unleashed a sword aura, shattering a stone wall above the railway. The train then successfully entered the oasis. The cursed corpses outside, who had discovered the train had broken through the encirclement, quickly gathered at the point where the train entered the oasis.

The train braked sharply and came to a stop beside the oasis with a screeching sound.

Zuli jumped off the roof of the car and looked towards the oasis.

The environment of this oasis can only be described as very classic, the kind of desert oasis image often seen in games, a small lake of 2 hectares, surrounded by a large number of low plants that look like cacti and date palms with fluffy large leaves.

At the edge of the oasis, there was a group of creatures fighting against the cursed skeleton. Su Li glanced at them and saw that some of these creatures looked like camels, some like deer, and some like lizards.

They mostly used earth-elemental magic, primarily for defense rather than offense, erecting stone walls on the ground, one of which Su Li had just shattered.

At the same time, Su Li noticed some caves on the ground with animal tracks on them, indicating that the monsters fighting against the cursed corpses lived underground.

“I understand now. The sandstorm has started, and these cursed skeletons hidden under the sand have all gotten up to attack the oasis. At the same time, the creatures in the oasis have also come out to fight against the cursed skeletons.”

Satellite images show that there are no living organisms in the entire desert, including the area near the oasis.

But that was just the surface. In reality, whenever a sandstorm hits, the cursed skeletons beneath the desert become active, either fighting each other or attacking the oases. At this time, satellite images from the sky cannot penetrate the sandstorm, preventing Su Li and his companions from seeing the cursed skeletons beneath it.

As the sandstorm subsides and the activity of the cursed corpses decreases, they will once again hide in the desert. The monsters will also rest, and the traces of their battles will be buried by the fine dust after the storm.