Chapter 270: The Corpse of a Scavenger
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Benjamin kept the six forbidden spells. After which, he looked at the three youth.
"Alright, do you have anything else to ask? If not, please leave me to continue my work."
He wanted to shoo the three away to prevent them from walking around freely in the ruins that he had excavated. It was clear to him, with them around, it was hard for him to enjoy the ruins fully. He wanted to continue exploring solo, in order to find as much as he could before others came along.
"Will you continue to search here, sir?" Tony asked.
Benjamin nodded, calmly, "I excavated this ruin with my own two hands. Even if there turns out to be no spoils, I want to search it thoroughly."
"If so... we will search other places. Sorry for bothering you, sir." Tony noticed Benjamin’s annoyance, awkwardly smiled and said, "If you find anything that you can’t understand, you may tell us. Believe me, the Mages Freemasonry is working for the good of all mages worldwide."
Benjamin took a deep breath and smiled, "I understand."
The Mages Freemasonry did not seem to be domineering. Maybe it was because their boss was not here, and that these three small mages acted out of their own interests. After asking for the stone tablet, they left.
Benjamin stayed in the ruins and pressed on.
He was confident in his observations. This place was the city center, and also the final resting place of all the citizens. If anything was to be found, it would be found here.
After passing through a few derelict corridors, he continued deeper into the building.
The center of this building was a giant hall. The seats were weathered whilst the ceiling was riddled with holes. Benjamin lifted his head and tried to take a closer look. The ceiling seemed contain a mural, but, it was extremely weathered; the only part Benjamin could make out was a person burning a stone with fire.
After some thought, he flew up to get a closer look at the mural.
Up close, that stone that was being burnt resembled the glowing green stone. At the same time, the person’s other hand was raised on top of the stone in an exaggerated manner. A few drops of red liquid dripped onto the stone.
Benjamin had an idea.
Was this the way to make use of the stone? While burning it with fire, then dripping one’s blood onto it?
Benjamin memorized this, then used a water ball spell to destroy the mural, preventing other people from finding it. Following this, he returned to the surface, prepared to test his theory.
But as he was about to leave, he suddenly decided to sweep the area with his water particle sensing technique – as a precaution.
He immediately found something was not right.
On the right side of the hall, an area under a seat was empty!
Shocked, he hurried over and knocked on the floor tile. Without question, it was hollow, and there was something hidden underneath. He had to dig it up to see.
Benjamin quickly used Icebreaking to crack open the floor, only to discover a tunnel.
Benjamin was hesitant, but still ventured in.
He used his water particle sensing technique as he walked, but did not sense any danger. The tunnel was not long - after half a minute, he reached a small dark room.
Inside, was a corpse.
"This is..."
It was different from the skeletons outside, he could see that this corpse was not from the same era as the others. The skeletons outside were just dry bones, but this corpse was only just extremely shriveled up, and not totally weathered.
Benjamin saw this and was shocked. If this person was not a citizen of the underground city, who was he?
Unless... there were other scavengers?
But Benjamin was skeptical.
If there were other scavengers, why did the city only appear to Benjamin now? Did this person die after entering? Who sealed off the cave? Why did he die in this dark room underneath the forum?
Benjamin felt that something was not right.
This scavenger......what killed him?
After some more observation, Benjamin could not find any wounds on his body. Perhaps the countless years had removed any trace of it, but it could also be that this person did not die from injuries. Benjamin had no medical training, so he could not identify the cause of death.
Still, he had a bad feeling.
The corpse was holding on to a small sack, with a few torn up books in it. Benjamin did not overthink it. He swiftly took the books and turned around, totally prepared to leave this danger-filled room.
A scavenger had died here before, so there must be more than meets the eye in this room.
This place......probably had life threatening things inside.
He was suddenly desperate to leave.
After exiting the forum and flying past the mountains of bones, Benjamin was on the streets of the ruins once more. The streets were as quiet as before, whilst the three youths were nowhere to be seen - only the statues were walking around.
Upon seeing this, Benjamin did not know why, but his sense of danger increased even more.
He picked up a few more glowing green stones, kept them, and flew up again, returning to the road he took to enter this place. He walked out of the entrance, and the green light slowly disappeared, returning everything to darkness. After this, he followed the cave walls and slowly flew to the exit.
After ten minutes, he reached the exit.
But, something was wrong.
If he was not mistaken, this was supposed to be where the entrance he excavated was. Now, it was simply a dead end. He extended his hand to ensure that the stone wall was rigid and real and not just some kind of illusion.
Was he trapped here?
He used the water particle sensing technique, and confirmed that the stone wall was really just a stone wall.
What the fuck is going on?
Who or what blocked the entrance?
Confused, he took out the parchment, and slapped the surface hard. Sadly, the parchment did not glow green; the stone wall did not crack to show an exit either.
Benjamin took a deep breath.
Something was wrong with this place...
After calming down, he summoned an ice blade. he pierced one of his fingers and let the blood drip onto the parchment. He was glad to see that the parchment shone, but even after he slapped it, the stone wall did not react.
Helplessly, he opened the parchment again.
But, when he read it this time, he noticed that the drawings on the parchment were totally different than before.