Seeing the iron gate finally open, everyone breathed a slight sigh of relief.
This Ruin Hunter posed a considerable threat to them. Before continuing their exploration, Nolan went to collect the dropped materials from the Ruin Hunter.
To Nolan's surprise, this Ruin Hunter dropped Chaos Circuit, which were a bit more advanced than the Chaos Devices dropped by the previous Ruin Guards.
These were all very useful things, especially for enhancing weapons and such.
Just look at that future Traveler. When the dull blade is enhanced to the max, even facing "Rhodeia of Loch" there's no problem.
Nolan thought this to himself.
Of course, no matter how enhanced, the dull blade was still fundamentally a 1-star weapon. What allowed the Traveler to directly face Rhodeia despite using it was their own prowess.
Therefore, compared to enhancing the novice transition weapon dull blade with materials, it was better to save up and get a higher star weapon when possible, for better cost-effectiveness.
As for why the Traveler kept using the dull blade, Nolan guessed it was simply being used to it and sentimental, plus they were so formidable, obtaining monster materials was easy, so enhancing it wasn't a heartache.
After collecting the dropped materials, Nolan's team began exploring the unknown path.
Looking in from the entrance, the passage was rectangular. Fiery light came from within - miniature pyro braziers burning with Pyro element placed at intervals along both sides for illumination.
These bonfires are something that can be encountered quite often on the way of adventurous exploration.
Perhaps left by predecessors, or originally existent in the ruin's mystic realm. If extinguished, adding some firewood and reigniting with Pyro could keep them burning for long periods.
Sometimes, they could be part of a puzzle mechanism that needed solving. They were generally rare, and figuring them out required the adventurer's experience.
Fischl walked ahead, stepping with her beautifully patterned black short boots.
Her golden hair slightly covered the fair back revealed by the short skirt. As the skirt's hem swayed with each step, the torn part of the pantyhose on her legs, caused by stones, was faintly visible.
Thus, the revealed snowy white skin was tinged with a fiery red hue from the surrounding firelight.
"What's this?" Fischl halted and gently touched her left eye covered by the black eye mask, suddenly turning with hands on her hips and haughtily laughing, "My Great Purging Thunder of Darkest Dreams and Mad Visions has seen through the veils of destiny and located a treasure beyond compare!"
"Great Purging...what?" Bennett was left scratching his head by her words.
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"It's the Great Purging Thunder of Darkest Dreams and Mad Visions!"
Fischl first corrected Bennett's terminology, then puffed her cheeks with a "hmph" and folded her arms to express the princess's displeasure.
"Um..." Bennett didn't dare say he still couldn't remember it.
Oz dutifully paraphrased:
"The young miss says she sees a treasure chest up ahead."
"Treasure chest!"
Nolan was rather excited. If it contained a Primogem that would be a huge amount of EXP again.
The treasure chest Fischl discovered wasn't far, in between two small pyro braziers. It was a Common wooden chest, lower in value than the exquisite ones.
This treasure chest was not sealed by rune spells or anything like that, and could be opened directly.
Although so, Nolan no longer held much hope for it containing a Primogem. As expected, the chest Fischl opened only had a pile of Mora coins and two 1-star artifacts.
It looks like a lot, but in reality, the total is only more than three thousand.
One of the artifacts was of the Plume of Death type, and because it had not been strengthened, the power bonus was negligible. The other one, the Crown type, was the same as the previous one, providing a bonus to maximum HP.
Since only one artifact of the same type could be equipped, and the bonuses were repeated, Fischl had to put them away for now.
The team continued to move forward, temporarily not encountering the luck of finding new treasure chests.
Not long after, a horizontal passage appeared ahead of Nolan's team. They could go left or right.
"Bennett, which way do you think is better?"
Nolan looked at Bennett. The previous method of "doing the opposite of Bennett's choice" had proven quite effective.
Although the process was unexpected, the results were safe and fruitful each time.
"Eh, me again? With my luck whatever way I choose will definitely be fraught with difficulties right."
Bennett was quite self-aware. Earlier, not taking the path he pointed to still mysteriously led here and encountered the dangerous ruin hunter.
If they really took the way he chose, it would surely be even more dangerous.
"I believe Sir Nolan's intention is that we simply do the opposite of your choice."
Oz flapped his night wings and said so.
"Ah..." Hearing Oz's words, Bennett couldn't help feeling a little dejected, but had to admit he was right.
Fischl lightly laughed once, maintaining her royal dignity.
After seriously considering based on his adventuring instincts, Bennett finally chose left. So everyone went right.
While walking, they kept an eye out for possible traps. After some unknown amount of time, Nolan and others suddenly heard voices conversing up ahead.
"Shhh!" Nolan made a shushing gesture.
When unclear about the situation ahead, it was better to be cautious. If it was other adventurers they could share intel.
But if it was the Treasure Hoarders, a fight would be inevitable.
The Thousand Winds Temple's secret realm was initially discovered by them, and it wasn't impossible for them to take advantage of the gap to sneak in.
Fischl and the others nodded. Oz said in a softer tone:
"Young miss, do you want me to go scout it out?"
Fischl had just been about to nod again but was stopped by Nolan. He whispered, "Though Oz is not very noticeable, there's still a chance of discovery. I have an even better method."
"Oh?" Oz was rather surprised. Was there someone even more suited to scouting than him?
Nolan smiled lightly and directly vanished before everyone's eyes. He had used the "Stealth Assassination Technique" that he had gotten from the Debt Agent.
"Invisibility?!" Bennett widened his eyes but managed to hold back any exclamation in time.
Fischl's fair face also showed a surprised expression. She then used her hands to feel the original position of Nolan and said,
"To think even my Great Purging Thunder of Darkest Dreams and Mad Visions cannot see through it. You, you must have grasped the deepest mysteries of the darkest night... Ahem, as expected of my indispensable mighty attendant."
"Oh my, Sir Nolan truly possesses formidable abilities."
Oz had thought his godly archery skills were already incredible. He didn't expect there would also be such invisibility arts.
Nolan swatted away the soft fair hand pinching his cheek, causing the princess to softly exclaim "Ah!" In his stealth state, he said in a low voice:
"I'll go scout ahead. You guys wait here for me to get back."
(End Of Chapter)
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