With the rebellious Spirit Beast at the lead, the group started our exploration again. Since he volunteered to be the first one to pass through the crumbled wall, we waited for him to do so before we followed him in. Any danger that could possibly be waiting there will be received by him firsthand.
With wariness in his eyes, he slowly traversed that distance. Probing it with his Rivers first, he set his left foot inside.
He trembled a bit but seeing there's nothing happening, he heaved a sigh of relief.
Normally, I should also sigh in relief when nothing happened to him but from what I've seen from those horror-thriller films, with this kind of unknown, being relieved will often lead to that character dying. The killer will suddenly appear and surprise the viewers.
Ah. Well, it's not that I'm hoping for him to die, alright? I'm just overthinking the possibilities.
Seeing him successfully arriving at the other side, I heard everyone's sigh of relief.
Err... I'm probably the only one that's thinking of the worst scenario happening.
Since there's no danger at passing through the crumbled wall, we soon followed and came over to that side.
I guess that guy is lucky enough that him trying to redeem himself didn't end up on him being the sacrificial character.
Upon reaching the other side, I immediately took in our surroundings, be it up or down. Those Ruin Dwellers came from below after all so we couldn't be too sure if there's more of them here.
With the map turning useless, we're in for a more dangerous exploration. The possibility of those who entered still surviving has just dropped once more.
I have no idea if someone could adapt to this inherent energy but if they got something that can give them the possibility to do that then they'll be somewhere here. For now, our current priority is to see the end of this ruins and harvest what we could.
After around 30 minutes, we finally arrived at the vicinity of the first landmark. Seeing the waterfall and the river below it that was in a suspended state, it's kind of a magical scene. With a height of a little more than 100 meters, the sight of suspended water like this reminds me of that certain sandbox game. Players can make use of water and some method to turn it into an elevator. Of course, it's not the same as this but that's the idea.
Apart from the water seemingly frozen in time by being suspended like that, there's nothing noteworthy in its surroundings.
"According to those who survived, there's really nothing special with this. They even submerged themselves in it to take a bath."
Yumiko recalled what we heard from the testimonies of those who managed to come back alive.
"Jayna, let me touch it first. Curb your curiosity for now. Maybe my Adaptability can identify what this is."
"Ugh. How did you read my mind?"
"With that glittering bright eyes of yours, it's too obvious."
I smirked and went to the water. Submerging my hand inside it, my Adaptability didn't trigger anything. No functions or something else. This meant this is really just ordinary water. To investigate further, I decided to submerge myself completely like what they did.
When my whole body was completely submerged, my Adaptability finally told me something about this strange phenomenon. I could still breathe inside as if the water was non-existent.
This suspended waterfall was being maintained by a Formation. Yes, another Formation with the likes of the earlier 10-meter scorched area. However this one's pretty harmless, it only made this water to stay in this suspended form and there's some other use for this.
"Come in. There's something below this river."
I called out to them and told them to also get inside. Jayna, as curious as she is, immediately jumped inside followed by Yumiko and the others. Once we're all inside, I had them dive down with me.
When my feet hit the soil beneath the river, I tried stomping my feet searching for something to step at. After a few more stomps, I felt my feet stomping a button and with a click, a trapdoor hidden beneath the river was opened which made the water drop down from that opening.
Though the form of the water never changed as it carried us down the trapdoor, the seemingly suspended waterfall and the river below it will surely look like it was being drained.
This is what my Adaptability told me, this is an elevator that can take us down to wherever this will lead us. The place wasn't well lit and the only source of light was from that opened trapdoor.
During the descent, I had them still stay on alert but yeah, nothing really happened.
Once we reached the ground we were all ejected from the water as if it's sentient and a few seconds later, it went up again as if it's returning to its original state before I opened that trapdoor.
After recollecting myself from that unexpected ejection, what appeared before me was a huge mansion ruin. Just like when we entered the ruins, even without any source of light, the place was well lit.
At this point, I'm already on high alert. I had us go down here so if something happened, it would be my fault.
This is a new place and it's way deeper underground, maybe deeper than what those Ruin Dwellers could dig.
"What kind of place is this?"
Yumiko couldn't help but ask when she also recollected herself.
One by one everyone stood up and observed our surroundings.
"I don't know but this is undiscovered by the previous expedition. And it's not like we're trapped here. Look at that."
I pointed to a post not far from where we were ejected. There's also a huge button there and an upward arrow sign. That's probably a button to open that trapdoor again which will let that water descend here to pick up anyone who wanted to get back up on the surface.
To make sure of it, Yumiko asked Rane to push it and from down here, we saw how the water elevator goes down from above.
After confirming and establishing an escape route if we ever need to run away from here, Yumiko started leading us again to enter the mansion's vicinity.
Our exploration in this Unknown Ancient Ruins was truly becoming full of unknowns. Like a Pioneer in a Ruin Exploration, we have to discover everything firsthand, be it fortune or danger.
Looking at the tall fence that's covered with thick vines, it's already a long time since someone went down here.
There's a dilapidated sign which should have the name of this place but due to the passing of time, it's now unreadable.
"Look at that!"
From the other side of the fence, the rebellious Spirit Beast pointed to an armored skeleton lying down on what seemed to be a garden. Its armor was already rusted and due to the damage it sustained, there's no way one could use it again.
However, what I noticed more was the presence of that skeleton, what happened here that he died there? With his armor on. Did some kind of battle happen here which led to the mansion to be left in ruins? Then why didn't they destroy that elevator?
"Did you see something you like?"
Yumiko asked him. I already forgot his name but I guess it's unnecessary for now. I'll just ask someone later if I needed to call his name.
"Yes! Let me take that necklace of his."
He pointed to the necklace worn by the skeleton, there's a circular pendant on it with a shiny yellow stone in the middle. It's not an Essence like what Jayna acquired for sure but that necklace is probably some kind of enhanced equipment. However, since it's here, it's something more high level than what the current World of Spirits has. When I tried to sense it using my Adaptability, there's nothing wrong that came up so I nodded to Yumiko to let him get it.
"Alright. You can take it."
Yumiko nodded at him and we finally passed by the gate, when we reached that skeleton, the rebellious Spirit Beast excitedly went to it and yanked it away from the skeleton's neck.
But instead of being yanked away, he cried out in pain when the skeleton didn't even break from the force he used.
That's a sturdy skeleton, alright. But yeah, just from that, I judged that it's someone way stronger than us when it's still living.
Having learned his lesson, he slowly took it off from the skeleton and like I expected, nothing really bad happened.
He then went to me to ask me about its function.
Now that I think about it I'm now a danger detector and an appraiser for this group.
Ah. I'm also their portable recharging station. Ugh. Well, it's in line on being a support character so I guess this is fine.
I took the necklace from him and I instantly grasped its function.
It's neither a defensive nor an offensive equipment, it's a storage equipment. Like those storage rings or storage pouches, there's a space inside it where one can store their belongings. They can even store a living thing inside however since it's an enclosed space, it'll die from the lack of air.
Err… since it's someone's storage equipment, he'll be in luck if there's something useful inside it.
"It's a storage equipment. Use your Spirit Energy to bind it on you, by then you'll naturally know how to open it."
I gave the necklace back to him and he immediately did what I said.
Then after a while, I saw him pulling out some thick books and other miscellaneous items which he deemed useless. I picked up the books and saw that I couldn't read any of them. My Adaptability isn't an instant translator.
However, any books are valuable. If it contains some kind of knowledge that we don't know then I just have to find a way to read its contents.
The miscellaneous items he threw away consisted of little crystal stones, when I touched it my Adaptability immediately identified it as some kind of energy stone, the type of energy wasn't specified but to be sure, I had him use one.
The energy stone was soon dissolved and to my surprise, he was astounded.
"My cultivation has just increased. It became a clump of Spirit Energy."
After saying that, he hurriedly picked them up again.
So those kinds of stones, eh?
We waited for him to be satisfied with opening his mystery box before continuing on.
"There are more skeletons here!"
Abe exclaimed.
We all followed where he's pointing at and found that there were at least 10 more skeletons with the same necklace on their necks.
Upon seeing that, the rebellious Spirit Beast's smile froze. He realized he's not the only one who had a stroke of luck here.
This place is a treasure trove. Upon realizing that, we collected all the necklaces we can get from the dead and distributed it to everyone. The excess will be decided later since we also planned to give some to the Spirit Queen and King.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺