"There are still 8 minutes before the concealment ends. Let's split up to look for where they were keeping their captives. See if there are any survivors from the previous expedition."
I suggested. We couldn't storm this place without any plan or any scouting done. That's just lousy.
"Rei and Ren, you go with me. Jayna and Jagu with Daisuke. Stay close to each other and take care."
Yumiko nodded and evenly split us.
None of us objected and we immediately started going our way. Time is running so it's understandable to be quick in our decision. With me and Yumiko leading them, we could remind them on the way.
The ritual at the platform was still ongoing. There were at least 10 Ogres that were set to be baptized there and also 10 Ruin Dwellers to be sacrificed.
When the first sacrifice died, it was brought to a corner for it to be skinned and chopped like livestock. For them to have this kind of system, I wonder how those Ruin Dwellers live? For sure, from their digging, they already found out the location of this lair. Scared? Or are they not intelligent enough?
Judging from how they just grab a leg from beneath the ground, it's probably the latter.
Taking Jayna and Jagu with me, we took the right side while Yumiko and the twins took the left. We'll be back to that corner in 5 minutes so that we could leave the narrow pathway before the concealment ends.
Their lair isn't that large, plus there are only one entrance and exit. If we're discovered and they blocked that exit, we'll be trapped. Yumiko was the only one who could fly but there's nothing she could climb on. This place is enclosed with the walls reaching the ceiling.
Just from how it looks, they excavated this place themselves. Though they're trapping themselves inside, it was also easy for them to defend.
? With only the Ruin Dwellers as their enemies, it's fairly easy for them to grow like this.
With the number of tents, I estimated that there should be at least 200 of these Ogres, not including the young ones or if there were more Shaman. The Shaman was probably the most dangerous of them all, by being able to use energy, it's strength was surely higher than the Ogres who were baptized from the Altar. According to our short skirmish with them earlier, most of them were only as strong as early Transformed Spirit and a handful of stronger ones.
When we reached the end of the path to the left, we were met with the side walls with few hollowed areas that were surely dug up by them to make a room. In each hollowed area, there's no door but there's a Ruin Dweller's hide which covers whatever is inside it.
Storage rooms?
There were 5 of the same hollowed area so we split up to cut the time needed to check each of the hollowed areas.
I picked the room I will peek in and went next to it. Making sure no Ogre will come in or out of it, I slipped inside making sure that the hide cover wouldn't be able to touch me.
Once inside, I was immediately assaulted by a foul smell which made me run back outside as fast as possible.
That's their d*mn toilet room! What the hell? I should've sniffed thoroughly outside before plunging myself into that room.
When I went out, I saw Jagu having the same expression as me.
"Feces dump?"
He asked.
I could only smile and nod at him. We're unlucky to have chosen the same type of room.
After that, we went to where Jayna entered. Until now, she hadn't come out yet so we both slipped in and found out why.
"These…"
Jagu was also astounded which made him speechless after that first word.
"Daisuke. Are these the same stones we got from the necklace?"
Jayna asked when she saw me entering. Though the color was a bit impure, it's really an energy stone and they have the room full of it. Where did they get this? And who uses this? The shamans?
We couldn't steal all of these yet because the concealment will be cancelled. We could only reluctantly leave the room to check the last two. But yeah I already marked it for later
If there's time, I will take them out by putting them in my necklace storage. Though the space isn't that huge, it can fit at least 1/3 of the stones in the room.
It might not be as useful for me here, however, once we're back on Earth and with the Principal letting me take a rest, energy stones will be crucial to raising my cultivation.
After leaving that Energy Stone Room, Jayna and I will check out one while Jagu will check out the last of the 5 rooms.
As cautious as ever, we slowly approached the room. Waited for a few seconds before going inside.
What registered in our eyes was an empty room.
Err. Not really empty since there's another door on the other side.
"Should we go in?"
Jayna asked me. It looks like that door leads underground. Her eyes became unsteady as she probably remembered that experience of being exposed to an overwhelming power she wouldn't be able to cope.
"Wait here, I'll go down quick then we'll go back. It's almost 5 minutes."
I took her hand and squeezed it for a bit. When she felt it, it made her calm down. She then looked at me worriedly but in the end, she nodded.
Going down that door, it's not that deep but the place is too dark. I would've tripped myself if I'm not cautiously taking the steps down.
When I arrived at the place, there's only a shiny stone giving light to the whole room, in the middle of the room was a table and on top of it, a book, a stone tablet to be precise. It was in the very middle where the light of the shiny stone was focused.
I looked around and there's nothing here except that stone tablet. Well, there's some kind of bed on the corner but just looking at it was already making my back hurts. It's not only made of rock but also uneven.
I took my focus away from that bed and back to the book. There's something written in it and a few illustrations.
I touched it and information about that book came to my mind. Compared to the books we found at the necklace storages, this one was special. It contains the method of the Shaman Ogre on how to absorb the inherent energy of this dimension.
If someone was to follow the instruction written in it, he or she will be able to do what the Shaman Ogre can do. Absorbing the inherent energy of this dimension.
It sounds great, eh? However, the method here is only applicable to the Ogres with talent and was born in this dimension.
There's one thing to be happy about though, I found out from this book that there are two ways to adapt to higher energy.
The first one is to be born in the world or dimension where the energy was inherent, which is the very basic. The Invading Forces were all like this as well as these Ogres.
The second one is to raise one's cultivation to forcefully adapt to that energy. Or if one doesn't want to change his or her main source of energy; in Jayna's case, her Spirit Energy.
She will have to convert that higher world's inherent energy to Spirit Energy.
Err… in other words, just like the Flux Energy Conversion. Only, she needs to be strong enough to handle that higher energy or else she'll be corrupted by it and in turn die in the process if she runs out of time.
That also explains the Corrupted Individuals. They were forcefully trying to adapt to higher energy, which is the opposite of my earlier example with Jayna. They're trying to change their main source of energy to that of the Invading Forces' inherent energy also known as the Dark Energy. That's why we could see them being Corrupted by it. They might look like they were being strengthened by it, yes. However, the truth of the matter is… Their bodies couldn't handle the Dark Energy which resulted in it slowly burning their life source to sustain it.
There are two ways for them to survive that corruption.
The first being their goal which is to lead their own world to be assimilated by the Invading World which will elevate everyone in their home world to have higher energy. However, that would mean their own inherent energy will cease to exist.
The second was like my example with Jayna, even if they failed to assimilate their own world, if they grow strong enough to forcefully adapt to it then their main source of energy will change to that higher energy.
Ugh. This is probably the biggest info dump I got from something appraised by my Adaptability. However, that cleared a lot of my own guesses and theories which balanced it.
And the result; this stone tablet in front of me is useless.
This room isn't though. This is a Shaman's room. I don't know how they really call themselves but calling them as shaman and ogre are rather convenient.
The Ruin Dwellers were also named as such. We couldn't communicate with them so we gave them names for our convenience.
After confirming that I didn't miss anything, I went back up to see Jayna's worried face turn into a relieved one.
We met up with Jagu outside and hurriedly retraced our steps back to where we were earlier.
From his mouth, we learned that the room he went into is a Ruin Dweller's prison. There's a lot of them there and they knew how to contain them. Preventing those thick-armed creatures to dig away.
We ran into Yumiko's group right where we parted. Looks like we have the same sense of time.
Jumping out from the barricade, we continue to turn to the narrow pathway. Along the way, Yumiko and I exchanged what our group saw.
On their side, they found a room full of broken armors and blades, their food storage and most importantly a prison for the few remaining survivors of the previous expedition.
When she said that, there's a clear hopeful glint in her eyes. Did she find the Spirit Queen's little sister in there? She should be the same type of dragon, right? A silver one. I just don't know if they're in their original form or a humanoid form.
Err… when Spirit Beasts died, regardless of their form before dying, their corpses will turn back to their original form. With that, I could guess that they're in their humanoid form to save space.
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