Chapter 179 - 152: Underground Relic
"This is the place." Shire stood before a few withered trees. On the ground, a stone bore the clear marks of artificial carving.
He had set out early in the morning with his subordinates and Little John, following the northbound route to the Relic that had only revealed a small corner. When he successfully reached the marked spot, the symbol revealed its full form: a question mark.
"Looks like we won’t have to fight." Shire tapped the pointed stone with his foot. "Everyone, start digging."
Then, the goblins took shovels and pickaxes from the backs of the Worker Ants behind them and began to dig around the stone.
"Boss, how did you find this place?" Little John asked, staring at the stone in amazement.
"I passed by here last time I was exploring to the north. At the time, I just thought this stone was interesting, like the spire of a building," Shire replied perfunctorily with a smile.
Little John clicked his tongue, marveling at his boss’s incredible luck. "By the way, I placed the order for those parts at the Blacksmith Shop for you yesterday. They’re planning to bring in people from other towns to help make them for you."
"Mm, you can tell them that the Arrows can wait, but the Lances and Horse Armor need to be made as soon as possible," Shire nodded, instructing Little John again.
He had a feeling the Earth Goblins wouldn’t let this go so easily. The Centaurs, who were practically in their grasp, had escaped right under their noses. As a wicked Race that valued conquest above all else, they would surely conduct a massive search in the forest, and one day, they would inevitably run into his own people.
This time, there was no Valentine to take advantage of. He had to rely on his own strength to deal with them.
’But the good news is, Valentine won’t be sending troops to sweep the forest again anytime soon. This means I have no worries from that direction for now, which is a significant achievement. Next, I need to focus on expanding in the forest until the Fran Kingdom falls into chaos. Then I can assess the situation and seize the opportunity for my own benefit.’
’To expand in the forest, I must advance north. And the Evil Throat Army is the first bone I’ll have to chew.’
’Frankly, even without the request from the Unicorns and Centaurs, I would have eventually run into the Evil Throat Army anyway. It’s just that now I have a buffer, so I won’t just smash head-on into those frenzied red goblins and suffer huge losses.’
"I already told him," Little John replied with a smile. These past few days, aside from "playing" one-on-one with Caocao, he had also done a lot to help the Centaurs. He was especially astonished by their Archery skills and was now a firm believer in his boss’s statement that "every adult Centaur is an expert archer."
"They’re almost done digging it out." Shire stood at the edge of the excavation site, watching his subordinates dig deeper. With the efforts of several goblins, the structure gradually revealed its full form.
"It’s different from the previous passageways. This looks like the complete entrance to an underground structure." Shire crouched down, staring at the excavated stone door. Uncovering the entrance to this Relic had taken the goblins over an hour, and it looked exactly like some kind of purpose-built, man-made structure.
"Do you sense anything?" He pulled a Fulu over to the stone door, wanting it to get a reading first.
"Yes, many Telepathy signals." The Fulu’s antennae turned a curious green.
"Many?" Shire frowned. ’This means there’s something inside the Relic, but they might not be evil creatures. Should we disturb them?’
"Red Eyes, give it a try." After a moment’s thought, he ordered his subordinate to try pushing the stone door open a crack to take a look.
GRIND. The stone door made a heavy sound as Red Eyes pushed it open about a 20-centimeter gap without much effort.
Shire tried thrusting a torch inside. Seeing no monsters attack it, he then threw the torch in with force. As the torch flew through the air and landed on the ground, Shire quickly scanned the interior. He saw many stone coffins.
"So many stone coffins." He was taken aback. "Is this an underground cemetery?"
’If that’s the case, the Fulu must have sensed the things inside those coffins.’ Shire cautiously threw in a few more torches, getting an even clearer view of the underground cemetery.
The stone coffins weren’t very large, about the size of ordinary coffins, just made of stone. There were quite a few of them, more than thirty.
’What could be in there? Skeleton Soldiers, zombies, or Vampires?’ Shire weighed whether or not to enter the Relic. Although the map marker for this place was a question mark and not crossed swords, he couldn’t guarantee that the inhabitants weren’t hostile. ’If there are over thirty Vampires living in there, and they turn us all into their Servants, I guess that’s another kind of "I’m doing this for your own good," isn’t it?’
"Red Eyes," Shire thought for a moment, then pulled two Scrolls from behind his back and handed them to his subordinate. "Tear these two: an Acceleration Technique and a Slippery Feet."
Then, he had Little John stand with him, ready to shut the stone door at a moment’s notice. "Red Eyes, you go in first. Be careful. When I tell you to come out, run back immediately."
It was daytime, and the surrounding area was full of withered trees, allowing sunlight to shine down directly. If there were Vampires inside, they certainly wouldn’t be willing to rush out into the sun. That way, he could just wait for Red Eyes to run out and then shut the door to seal off the danger.
As Red Eyes tiptoed into the underground cemetery, Shire watched the stone coffins nervously.
SCRAPE. A faint sound of stone grinding against stone rang out. Shire’s eyes immediately widened in alarm. "Red Eyes, fall back."
Hearing his leader’s command, Red Eyes didn’t say a word. He just hunched his neck, tiptoed delicately, and wobbled toward the entrance with his Great Sword held ready. He looked for all the world like a clumsy soldier sneaking into a booby-trapped room.
SCRAPE, SCRAPE. The sound of grinding stone echoed repeatedly. Shire could already see the lids of the stone coffins shifting, creating gaps. Something was about to come out.
CLACK. A bony arm rested on the edge of the stone coffin. Then, the lid was pushed away by another bony hand.
THUD. As the coffin lid fell to the ground, a grayish-white skeleton sat up.
"Skeleton Soldiers?" Shire breathed a sigh of relief. ’Those monsters are manageable. As long as we shatter them, they’re no threat. Let’s see what else is in here.’
A continuous sound of falling lids echoed as more skeletons rose from their coffins. They looked around blankly, two small green dots of light glowing in their dark, empty eye sockets.
RATTLE. The movement of the skeletons was accompanied by the sound of grating bones. Some of the Skeleton Soldiers had already stood up on their coffins. Then, under Shire’s wary gaze, they each retrieved a Longsword from inside.
"They really are Skeleton Soldiers. Looks like we’ll have a fight on our hands after all," Shire said softly. He then had Red Eyes and Little John step into the stone chamber, preparing to take care of these seemingly Low Level Undead Monsters.
As Red Eyes and Little John moved, the Skeleton Soldiers noticed them. One quickly charged, brandishing a rusty Longsword. CLANG! Red Eyes forcefully parried the Longsword, causing its blade to snap and fly off.
But immediately after, the Skeleton Soldier ignored its broken Longsword, ducked down abruptly, and kicked Red Eyes away with an unbelievable move.
Meanwhile, Little John had also engaged a Skeleton Soldier. He parried continuously, the sound of their weapons clashing repeatedly, but it looked like the future Hero was the one at a disadvantage.
"This..." Shire’s eyes went wide. His two subordinates were being completely overwhelmed by just two Skeleton Soldiers, able to do nothing but parry. This was entirely beyond his expectations.
’What in the world are these things?’ He took a few small steps forward and tried to bring up their status panels.
[Name: Skeleton Warrior]
[Race: Undead]
[Danger Level: 5, Slightly Strong]
[Personality: Loyal]
"Skeleton Warriors?" Shire said in shock. "Don’t tell me this whole place is filled with these things."
He immediately shouted to Red Eyes and Little John, "Get out of there! You can’t handle these guys."
Red Eyes immediately bolted out. Little John, after parrying his opponent’s Longsword, landed a counter-blow that knocked off one of its arms, then immediately turned and ran out.
The three of them worked together to close the heavy stone door. Just as it was about to shut, Shire saw the Skeleton Warrior pick up its severed arm from the ground and reattach it. Then it tilted its head up slightly to look at him, its jawbone chattering continuously as if it were laughing.
Moreover, from beginning to end, only those two skeletons had attacked Red Eyes and Little John. The others had just stood in the distance with their Longswords slung over their shoulders, watching the show.
"These things are very strange." Shire braced his hand against the stone door, completely baffled by the Undead Monsters inside.
If they had all swarmed them, Red Eyes and Little John would have been in mortal danger, but they hadn’t. ’This feels a lot like when I stand on the sidelines and watch Little John and Caocao spar.’
’And if all of them are this strong, then what else is in this underground cemetery? Are they guarding something?’ Shire slowly backed away. The surrounding goblins all drew their weapons and stood on guard, afraid that the stone door would suddenly be thrust open with a GRIND and several Skeleton Soldiers would charge out.
But this fear was clearly unnecessary. After the stone door was closed, there was no reaction at all—not even a sound. It was as if the Skeleton Warriors had no desire to leave the underground cemetery.
’This is too weird. They’re completely different from the Skeleton Soldiers described in books. The books say Skeleton Soldiers attack any living thing on sight.’ Shire stroked his chin, pondering his next move. ’It looks like we have no choice but to head back for now. There must be something important in there.’
’But with these Skeleton Warriors here, it’ll be incredibly difficult to get it. What should I do?’ He stared intently at the stone door.
’No, wait. There is another way.’