Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!- - - - -
The sound of bones crunching echoed through the surroundings as Azrael and the others walked deeper into the cave. The ground was littered with old, broken bones, and as they stepped on them, they instantly crumbled into dust, a clear sign that they had been lying there for countless years.
The cave was dimly lit by fire torches mounted on the walls, their faint flames flickering with each draft of wind.
The deeper they went into the cave, the more bones of different types of creatures they encountered, scattered everywhere in grotesque piles.
"I wonder if we will find anything worthwhile here. Until now, other than some blood ginseng we picked up along the way, we haven't found anything valuable," Elyara muttered and a glowing orb of light formed above her palm, illuminating the dim cave far better than the torches.
"This Ancient Ruins is really strange," Luo Bingqing said, shaking his head. "Normally, because of long-term accumulation, most ancient ruins are filled with rare plants and natural treasures, but this one…" He didn't finish his words, but they understood what he meant.
"It's because of the natural environment of this ruin," Azrael explained calmly as he walked ahead. "Normal ruins are rich with cosmic energy, but here, not only is the cosmic energy extremely thin, the environment itself has been destroyed by the massive amount of blood spilled in the past."
As he spoke, a level 16 class-level skeleton came charging at him. Without hesitation, Azrael sidestepped slightly and delivered a sharp knee strike to its chest, shattering its ribcage instantly and reducing it to fragments.
Luo Bingqing and Elyara's eyes twitched slightly at the sight of him casually destroying a skeleton of that level using nothing but his raw physical strength, without even relying on cosmic energy.
"What's this?" Azrael suddenly muttered as his eyes caught something glimmering faintly. He bent down and picked up a small black crystal lodged within the ribcage of the skeleton he had just destroyed.
He tried to see the details of the crystal using his status window, but no information appeared. Luo Bingqing and Elyara also examined it, but they too failed to notice anything special about it.
There were no energy fluctuations around the crystal, nor was there anything special about it.
Since it revealed nothing, Azrael slipped the crystal into his storage ring, and they continued forward.
As they progressed, they encountered more skeletons, and what unsettled them was that each one carried a black crystal inside its body.
Azrael crushed the skull of another level 17 skeleton with a single punch, and once again, he found a black crystal within it.
"Since every skeleton in this cave carries one of these crystals, there must be something unusual about them," Luo Bingqing remarked, picking up a crystal from a skeleton he had slain.
Both Elyara and Azrael nodded in agreement, though they were equally surprised at the sheer size of the cave.
They had already walked nearly a kilometer inside, yet the tunnel still stretched further into the darkness with no end in sight.
"Let's hope we find something worthwhile at the end of this cave. Otherwise, we're just wasting our time here. Killing these low-level class monsters hardly benefits us," Elyara complained as they resumed moving forward.
Around ten minutes later, after killing nearly a hundred more skeletons, they finally noticed something ahead and their expressions brightened slightly.
"I think we are close to the end," Luo Bingqing said, pointing at a wide, chamber-like structure that opened up before them.
"Be cautious," Azrael warned in a serious tone. "I can hear faint footsteps of many skeletons moving inside."
At his words, Elyara and Luo Bingqing's expressions hardened. A few skeletons were no threat to them, but an overwhelming wave of them could still prove dangerous.
Soon, they reached the chamber entrance and peered inside.
As they looked inside, their eyes widened slightly as they saw over one hundred skeletons wandered aimlessly within, each holding rusty swords.
Yet, their focus wasn't on the skeletons but on a stone platform at the far end of the chamber.
Resting upon the stone platform was a golden casket, surrounded by a glowing white light.
"What is that?" Luo Bingqing whispered, staring at the luminous casket.
"An artifact, maybe," Elyara answered quietly as all of them knew a normal casket would never glow like that.
Moreover, despite being here for who knew how many years, the casket was pristine—untouched by dust, dirt, or decay.
"There are about forty class-level skeletons, while the rest are only warrior apprentices," Azrael said after assessing the situation. "If we work together, we can wipe them out."
Luo Bingqing and Elyara both observed the chamber for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"I just hope that casket and whatever lies inside it will be worth our effort," Elyara muttered as she drew her bow from her storage ring.
She wasted no time, pulling the string and loosing an arrow at a class-level skeleton.
Before the arrow even landed, the temperature in the chamber plummeted and dozens of icy bullets rained down from above, tearing into the weaker skeletons.
Elyara's arrow also struck true, shattering the skull of a level 18 skeleton. It erupted in a burst of searing flames, incinerating several lesser skeletons around it.
Azrael's eyes gleamed with green light and in the next instant, a towering tornado roared into existence in the center of the chamber. Its immense pull dragged many skeletons into its violent winds, smashing their bones together until they crumbled. This update is available on NoveI~Fire.net
A volley of arrows, ice bullets, and wind blades showered across the chamber and in mere moments, half of the skeletons were obliterated.
Azrael and the others quickly scanned the remaining skeletons, but now they were scattered in separate groups and coordinated area attacks would no longer be effective.
They exchanged quick glances before stepping into the chamber to finish off the rest.
But the moment their feet crossed the threshold—
The chamber shook violently, and a crimson barrier instantly sealed off the entrance behind them.
The expressions of all three of them, including Azrael hardened in shock as none of them had expected this.
As they were still reeling from the sudden entrapment, the tremors finally ceased.
Suddenly, the area around the golden casket collapsed, and in the very next moment, a dreadful aura surged outward, engulfing the entire chamber.
Azrael and the others turned their gaze toward the collapsed ground, and their hearts grew cold as they watched two massive black coffins slowly rise from the shattered earth, radiating a sinister, suffocating presence.