Chapter 147: Unfinished Zombie Blood Crystal
The first few buildings turned out to be disappointing.
Despite their thick stone walls and reinforced entrances, most were nothing more than quarters for the soldiers stationed at the outpost.
Crude sleeping platforms had been built directly against the walls, and several personal belongings remained scattered across the floor after the Zombie Race soldiers rushed outside to fight.
Cain searched through the nearest building, but nothing inside was worth taking.
The next structure appeared to be an armory. Weapon racks occupied a large portion of the interior, though nearly everything useful had already been carried into battle.
What remained was either damaged or noticeably inferior to the equipment they had gathered from the corpses outside.
Jack picked up a chipped axe and inspected the deep crack spreading through its head.
"Trash."
He dropped it back onto the rack.
"Then leave it," Cain said. "We already have enough equipment."
Nobody disagreed.
There was no reason to fill Cain’s Inventory with damaged weapons they probably would never use.
After checking another building with similar results, the group continued deeper into the outpost.
The difference between this place and the temporary camp they had raided earlier became more noticeable the farther they went. Proper stone paths connected the structures, and dark-red symbols had been carved beside several entrances.
Cain could not understand the Zombie Race language, but he noticed that the buildings nearer the center were much more heavily constructed than those beside the outer wall.
Nathan’s attention soon settled on one of them.
"That one looks different."
Cain had already noticed it.
The building was considerably wider than the barracks and had no ordinary windows. Its entrance was sealed by a pair of thick doors, while faint dark-red energy flowed through grooves carved across their surface.
Cain placed one hand against the nearest door and pushed, but it didn’t even budge an inch.
Alex walked over with his greatsword resting against his shoulder.
"Want me to open it?"
Cain stepped aside.
"Go ahead."
Alex lowered the greatsword and swung directly at the locking mechanism.
Clang!
The heavy impact bent the surrounding metal inward.
Alex adjusted his grip and struck the damaged section again.
CRACK!
Part of the lock snapped away.
Jack immediately stepped forward, grabbed the edge of the damaged door, and forced it open farther.
Dense Mana spilled through the widening gap.
The temperature inside was noticeably lower than outside.
Dark metal shelves stretched across the warehouse, with large containers positioned between them.
Most were sealed, but Cain barely looked at them before a familiar dark-red glow caught his attention farther inside.
His pace quickened.
Several storage cases had been placed against the rear wall.
Their lids were open.
Dozens of dark-red crystals filled the interior.
Ron stopped beside him.
"Oh, fuck..."
Sonya immediately recognized them.
"So many Zombie Blood Crystals."
Cain had already reached down and picked one up.
The familiar information appeared before him.
[Zombie Blood Crystal]
A smile gradually spread across his face.
There were far more here than in the previous camp.
The group quickly began gathering them together and it did not take long before the number became clear.
Around one hundred and fifty.
Five times what they had found before.
Elara looked at the pile beside Cain.
"That should be enough to help several people reach the Perfected Stage."
"Including the Cores we just harvested? Definitely yeah."
Cain crouched beside the crystals with obvious satisfaction.
The thirty they had obtained from the previous camp had contributed greatly toward pushing his Ruin Mana Core to the Perfected Stage.
His Core had already reached Flawless at the time, but the energy contained inside those Blood Crystals had still made a considerable difference.
Now they had roughly one hundred and fifty.
Cain could not calculate exactly how much energy each person’s Core would require, but he was confident that this amount could push at least Ron and Elara’s Core to Perfected Stage as theirs had already reached the Tempered Stage.
That alone made the detour worthwhile.
"Cain."
Nathan’s voice came from farther inside the warehouse.
Cain looked over.
"What?"
"There are more here."
Cain stood and walked toward him.
For a moment, his satisfaction increased.
Then he noticed something was wrong.
Several nearby shelves were packed with hundreds of dull-red crystals. There were even more of these than the completed Blood Crystals, yet their appearance was noticeably different.
Their surfaces were cloudy instead of clear, and the energy inside them felt unstable. Dark liquid shifted beneath the surface of several crystals whenever Mana passed through them.
Cain picked one up.
[Unfinished Zombie Blood Crystal]
[An incomplete artificial resource whose internal energy structure has not stabilized. It cannot be safely absorbed in its current state.]
His expression immediately turned solemn.
Cain examined another crystal from a different section of the shelf.
The same information appeared.
Sonya approached.
"Can you purify them?"
"Purification isn’t the problem."
Cain turned the unfinished crystal between his fingers.
"The contamination can probably be removed, but the crystal itself hasn’t finished forming. Purifying it won’t fix that."
Ron looked across the shelves.
"So these are all useless?"
"Yup."
Ron clicked his tongue.
"What a waste."
Cain felt the exact same thing.
There were hundreds of unfinished Blood Crystals inside the warehouse. If all of them had been usable, the resources available to the group would have increased enormously.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about an unfinished refinement process.
Cain returned the crystal to the shelf.
"Take the completed ones. Leave these here."
The others began gathering the usable Blood Crystals near Cain so he could store them.
While they worked, Professor Irina continued examining the rear section of the warehouse.
She eventually stopped near a wide doorway partially hidden behind one of the shelves.
"There’s something back here."
Cain turned toward her.
A strange smell had already begun drifting through the opening.
It was different from the rotten stench he had grown accustomed to since the apocalypse began.
This smell was dry and stale, as though whatever had caused it had been dead for a very long time.