Chapter 574: Pool of Secrets
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Black Mist Pouch: Special item. Formed when the Iceflame Black Serpent Man absorbed the black mist from the Black Serpent Cave during its cultivation.
Effect: When activated, the user is enveloped in black mist and becomes invisible. Only high-level monsters can see through the concealment. Attacking will break stealth, but once the user stops attacking, stealth will automatically activate again, regardless of whether the user is still considered to be in combat. Duration: 10 minutes. Uses remaining: 5/5.
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Stealth that could be reactivated simply by stopping his attacks? Marcus didn’t need to think very hard to appreciate how useful that was. An effect like this could be incredibly valuable in both combat and exploration, especially when combined with his other abilities. The fact that the pouch had five uses remaining made it even better, and considering how troublesome the effect could be, it was hardly inferior to something like a Red Artifact.
Marcus stored the pouch and the rest of the valuable loot in his bag before turning his attention to the frozen soldiers. They were still watching him.
Their eyes moved constantly, following Marcus wherever he went, and after taking a closer look, he realized they were fully conscious. They had witnessed the entire battle from inside the ice. Now they were desperately trying to speak, their mouths opening and closing as they shouted at him, but the thick layers of ice muffled every sound before it could escape.
Marcus walked over and gave them a reassuring wave.
"I’m getting you out!"
They probably couldn’t hear him, but that didn’t matter. He took out the Jade Purification Vase and carefully poured the Millennium Fire-Apricot Wine over the frozen soldiers, letting the precious wine spread across the surface of the ice a little at a time.
The moment the wine touched the blue ice, a brilliant red light erupted. The ice began melting rapidly, streams of water running down its surface before pooling around the soldiers’ feet. One after another, the frozen figures broke free, stumbling forward as their stiff limbs finally regained movement. For a moment, none of them spoke.
They simply stared at Marcus with wide eyes, their expressions filled with disbelief and gratitude. After everything they had just witnessed, it was clear they were still struggling to process the fact that they had actually been saved.
Finally, a stocky young man with thick arms stepped forward, his expression earnest and his voice still heavy with emotion.
"I’m Ironstone, the town blacksmith and captain of the guard of Dragon’s Roar Town. Thank you, sir. You didn’t just save us from that serpent. You saved our lives."
"That’s right!"
"You saved the whole town!"
"You’re our hero!"
The other soldiers quickly gathered around, their voices overlapping as they expressed their excitement and gratitude. Yet while they were certainly grateful for being rescued, Marcus could tell that something else had captured their attention even more strongly: the battle.
They had watched him fight the Iceflame Black Serpent Man from beginning to end. They had seen the strength of his attacks, the skills he had used, and, most importantly, they had watched him defeat a Level 80 monster, and the admiration in their eyes was impossible to miss.
Marcus wasn’t entirely sure how to react to so many people looking at him like that, so he settled for an easygoing smile.
Ironstone, however, seemed to have remembered something.
"That wine you used to melt the ice... it’s Millennium Fire-Apricot Wine, isn’t it? Are you from Dragon’s Roar Town?"
"Yep."
Marcus straightened slightly and tapped the Golden Wolf Badge attached to his armor, letting the badge speak for itself. "I’m a Golden Wolf Guardian of the Dragon Dynasty. The Town Lord sent me here to slay the serpent and rescue all of you."
"Golden Wolf Guardian!"
The soldiers gasped.
Although the Storm Seal had cut them off from the mainland for years, they had grown up learning about the customs and institutions of the Dragon Dynasty. The Golden Wolf Guardian was one of the positions they had only ever encountered in books, and the badge Marcus carried matched the descriptions perfectly, and their eyes immediately fixed on the badge before returning to Marcus, their expressions becoming even more excited.
"You really came from the mainland? You actually crossed the Storm Seal?" Ironstone asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
"Yeah. I happened to find a treasure map that showed me a way through it." Marcus gave a casual shrug. "Let’s get everyone back first. Once we’re on the way, I’ll explain everything."
He then opened the mercenary communication channel. "Ladies, the mission is done. We should be out of the Black Serpent Cave in about five or six hours. Tell the Town Lord to send boats to Black Serpent Islet to pick everyone up."
"Understood."
Marcus was about to turn away when Ironstone suddenly shook his head. "Wait."
The blacksmith walked toward the edge of the blue pool and crouched down, peering into the dark water beneath the layer of floating black ice.
"There’s something else you need to know."
Marcus followed him to the edge.
"While we were frozen, we could still see what the serpent was doing. Every time it finished cultivating, it would breathe a cloud of black mist into this pool. The entire thing would start churning, and then a blue ice-flame sword would rise from the depths."
"A sword?" Marcus’s interest sharpened immediately, and he looked down into the pool.
All he could see was the black ice floating on the surface. The water beneath it was so deep and dark that the bottom was completely invisible.
"Yes," Ironstone said. "The serpent would then breathe both dark energy and blue light onto the sword. The two streams of energy would merge with the ice-flame, and the energy would keep flowing back and forth between the serpent’s mouth and the blade."
He held up a hand, estimating the time. "It would continue like that for about thirty minutes. After that, the sword would sink back into the depths."
Ironstone’s expression became more serious. "And from what I know as a blacksmith, it looked very much like the serpent was tempering that sword. At the same time, it seemed to be borrowing the sword’s ice-flame to strengthen itself."
He hesitated before looking at Marcus. "Sir... that sword might be a Divine Artifact."
Marcus’s eyes immediately sharpened. ’A Divine Artifact.’ Those two words were enough to make his heart beat faster.
But after the initial excitement, another thought occurred to him. Ironstone had discovered the sword first. Technically, it should belong to him. Marcus wasn’t about to simply take something that another person had found, especially when Ironstone had risked his life to investigate it.
Before he could say anything, however, Ironstone looked toward him again.
"Do you still have some of that Millennium Fire-Apricot Wine?"
"Yeah."
Marcus took out the Jade Purification Vase and poured roughly seven taels of wine into a jug before handing it to Ironstone. "Here."
Ironstone accepted it with both hands. He didn’t hesitate, raising the jug and drinking the entire amount in one go.
A brilliant red glow immediately enveloped his body.
"Thanks, sir."
With those words, Ironstone turned toward the pool and jumped. His body cut through the water, arms and legs working together as he quickly disappeared beneath the surface and dove into the depths below the black floating ice.
Marcus and the other soldiers could do nothing but wait. One minute passed, then another.
The surface of the pool remained unnaturally still for a moment before suddenly beginning to churn, and Marcus’s expression tightened.
A figure burst through the water. Ironstone surfaced gasping for breath, his entire body trembling violently from the cold. He struggled toward the shore and hauled himself out of the pool, his teeth chattering as he collapsed onto the ice.
Marcus immediately stepped forward. "Did you find it?"
Ironstone shook his head.
"Sir..." His voice trembled from the cold. "I made it down about eighty meters, but that was as far as I could go. The cold was unbearable. I nearly froze solid down there, and the water pressure was crushing me. I couldn’t go any deeper."
He rubbed his arms desperately, trying to regain some warmth. "To reach the bottom, I’d say you’d need to be at least Level 80, with more than 200 points of Water Resistance."