William saw fine symbols scattered all over its surface, and that made him realise this was a heavily fortified safe. "I don't recognise these symbols, but I can tell they are following a pattern that I'm familiar with…"
William cancelled his transformation, stood in his place motionless for a few minutes. He thought deeply about the pattern the symbols took, and eventually he recognised it.
"It's the Surging Ocean Wave Tidal formation… Such a high sealing formation found in this world, in such a place… I'm sure there is something precious stored inside…"
William knew this sealing formation and knew how to unseal it. "Ocean comes, the land trembles, and blood flows…" he muttered these words before he took a sword out, cut his hand, and squeezed the blood out, "death follows, and life flourishes in the end… Ocean comes…"
William kept repeating these words like they were some sort of praying or something. This was essential to activate the formation up there. And when he muttered these words five times, his blood that was dripping on the ground started to fly, moving against gravity, heading towards the ceiling in slow motion.
This didn't startle William as he knew that was going to happen if his guess was true. His blood rose up like rain falling upside down and headed towards that piece of black rock up there.
The moment the blood touched the rock, the symbols started to shine in faint red light. He knew the symbols were absorbing his blood, and then the seal would be unlocked.
It might look simple, but he knew the challenge was in the amount of blood needed to do so. As he muttered and repeated the words over and over for the next hour, he had to reach a stage close to death before life would bloom again.
He kept releasing his blood, refrained from using his spirit power or any potion or elixir to heal himself. He knew the trick was in getting exhausted, being drained out of blood, before finally unlocking the seal.
As for his weakness, it'd be cured by the symbols sealing this rock once shattered. If he stopped midway, if he used a healing potion or elixir or even his spirit power, he'd end up getting a scary backlash, one he doubted he'd be able to emerge unscathed from.
One hour passed, and he felt like he drained all the blood he got in his body down to his bones. His body was now shaking violently, and yet he never stopped the wound on his hand.
*Crack!*
As if glass was getting shattered, he heard this muffled voice at last before it grew intense and louder. Then like a thick ice layer over a frozen lake got shattered, he heard such a sound and felt like a flood of hot water fell on top of his head.
It was hot, but it was quite refreshing. And it wasn't water, but a weird liquid that was formed of his blood and other things that started to cure his body.
He absorbed this liquid like a dried-up sponge, taking away anything falling over him and leaving not even a single drop behind.
He spent one hour cracking the seal, depleting his body during the period. But he regained his composure and healed himself in the span of a few breaths. The moment he felt better, he opened his eyes, and a weird black light flashed inside them.
"It didn't just heal my body, but also helped in cleansing any impurities in my spirit power… Fantastic!" he muttered when he felt how better he felt, how stronger he became after such experience.
Then he raised his head to the ceiling, looking at what he paid such trouble to get. The black rock was now gone, and instead a space was there, leading to something behind that didn't appear from his point.
"My spirit sense doesn't work there? What's hidden there exactly?" William tried to spread his spirit sense and get a glimpse of what was stored up there. Yet the moment his spirit sense reached the hole, it got crushed like it met its nemesis or something.
William was feeling great, but he didn't risk anything at the moment. He simply changed to his fox and snake form, used his flying weapons and sent them through this hole.
"Let's see if there is any trap inside," he softly muttered, while controlling his weapons to hit anything up there.
He didn't infuse them with any spirit power, didn't arm them with any element or technique. He didn't want to ruin anything of value stored up there, and only wanted to trigger any hidden trap laid for intruders.
But he was overreacting this time. After a few minutes, he didn't feel like his weapons triggered anything. In return he heard many clanging noises coming from up there, an indication of the presence of lots of treasure chests.
"Time to check it then," the hole wasn't enough for him to pass through in his current form. So, he controlled his tails, grabbed his body upwards, held the edges of the hole with his claws, before cancelling his transformation.
Then he simply climbed the hole and arrived at a space that was a bit wider than what he imagined.
"It's the same size as the place down below, or even slightly bigger," William went up there, took out shining bright ores and started to examine the place he ended up at.
It was indeed wider and more spacious than the space down below. And yet it felt crowded and narrow thanks to the lots of chests that were left on the ground.
The ceiling was just five metres away from his head, almost two metres on top of each chest. The chests looked huge, heavy, and covered with thick layers of dust.
Unlike anywhere else in the base, there weren't any falling rocks or cracks, no sign of getting damaged or affected by the disaster that happened a long time ago.
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