Chapter 738: Dead Soul
After getting the Commander’s Badge, Aldwin and Macklin could not hide the excitement on their faces. However, after appreciating the legendary magic artifact, the two thought of how to compensate Lin Li. After all, ever since they had entered the place, discovered the items, and harvested them, Lin Li had an important role to play. It was not like the two of them to pocket such a precious item without saying anything.
However, Lin Li had his own plans, and the information he obtained now told him that not only was there a piece of the debris of the stars in the mausoleum, it was likely that Stars of Fury was present too. Those two artifacts were the ones that he most desperately needed and desired. Seeing his relationship with Rosen now, he felt that Rosen would definitely get in his way, regardless of whether the two artifacts had something to do with the item that the Supreme Council wanted. He wouldn’t go to the extent of getting rid of Rosen, but he would at least hinder and suppress him in terms of power and attitude. Hence, when Macklin offered to make it up to Lin Li by giving him the magical crystal of the Fire Demon, Lin Li resolutely declined.
On the other hand, Angelano accepted a magical crystal from Macklin, and used it as the power source of his alchemy machine. Of course, he sneaked a glance at Lin Li’s expression before accepting the magical crystal with a peace of mind.
Then, the team continued to search the rooms in the back, but it was a pity that those rooms were the same as those at the front. The magic traps outside were rather complicated, but the interior was empty. The only objects present were beautiful and extravagant decorations and art pieces, which made those who were excited feel extremely disappointed. Maybe there had been something more precious in the rooms, but those items could have been taken away by Osric. Or perhaps it was one of Osric’s pranks. In fact, even the Commander’s Badge would be unattainable for any of them if not for Lin Li, who happened to understand the Orderly Maze.
When they searched the ninth room, the magic trap in front of the door took Lin Li and Angelano a long time to solve. However, when it was finally removed, none of them looked excited at all. Instead, they seemed a little disappointed. It was because they reckoned that the room that was tightly guarded by the magic trap probably just contained boring works of art, or perhaps it was just empty.
However, when Lin Li and others walked into the room, they immediately exclaimed uncontrollably, unable to contain their excitement. The small room was filled with boxes full of magical gemstones. The magical gemstones of the six elements—earth, fire, water, wind, light, and darkness—were glistening outstandingly when the lid of a box was lifted. They were so bright that they seemed to be devouring the people’s souls.
“Emperor’s Ice Diamond, Dark Night Magical Gemstone, Heavenly Crystal…” Everyone stood by the door in shock and looked at the boxes of superb magical gemstones in the room, each of them the best amongst all gemstones of that element. Any one was valuable and priceless. There were probably thousands of them in the room.
The gemstones that had been formed after thousands of years were not only gorgeous in appearance. Although they were not as pure as the power of the gemstones of magical elements, they were more than a thousand times better in terms of stability. They were required for the production of magic staffs, magic ornaments, and magical weapons.
“If these gemstones are brought out of here, I’m afraid the entire Anril will go mad. Did Osric empty out the high elven queen’s treasure vault!? No, even then, there couldn’t be so many magical gemstones!” Andoine muttered.
Rosen was much more straightforward as he strode towards the gemstones hysterically. “The Supreme Council, the Supreme Council is the only one that can truly realize their value!”
Although Rosen’s words made many of them feel displeased, they had no choice but to admit that that was indeed the case given the current situation in Anril.
After the war at the end of the Dark Age, a lot of knowledge appeared to be flawed, and some did not manage to get passed on. Hence, it was very difficult to find a master jeweler in Anril. If the magical gemstones were not specially processed by jewelers through soaking, cutting, and various other processes, it would be the same as being unable to convert a piece of wood into a magic staff. However, even Master jewelers wouldn’t dare to touch the magical gemstones lightly. If a low-leveled one were to handle them, it would be a waste of precious resources.
Andoine probably wouldn’t be bothered, and they wouldn’t mind not giving a share to Aldwin and the rest. After all, Aldwin already had the Commander’s Badge, but he couldn’t deny his student his fair share. Seeing that Rosen was on his way to snatch the gemstones, Andoine immediately flew into a rage, and tried to dash after Rosen to argue with him.
However, Lin Li only watched as Rosen ran to the magical gemstones. Just as he was about to grab the Emperor’s Ice Diamond, Lin Li suddenly reached out to grab Andoine and Aldwin while telling them to retreat in panic. They rushed out of the room, while Macklin and Angelano who were standing in the back were directly pushed out of the room by Lin Li. Although Andoine and Aldwin were puzzled, they had great trust in Lin Li, and immediately followed without delay.
Just as the crowd had rushed out of the door, a thunderous roar came from the room and the ground shook violently, which was followed by a terrifying magic storm that surged out of the door instantly. Lin Li and Andoine, as well as the rest, were all blown away and only stopped moving when they were smashed into the wall.
“Damn it, it hurts so much.” Lin Li stood up while keeping his back against the wall, rubbing his sore back and glancing at the door fearfully.
In the face of this sudden change, everyone was horrified; no one could’ve imagined that the tiny room would produce such a terrible explosion. If it exploded outside, it would probably kill the 150-something mages even if the few Legendary-mages could escape.
After the magic storm subsided abruptly, a figure rushed out of the room with a pale face and disheveled hair. The magic robe on his body barely covered his thin figure. It was Rosen who declared the ownership over the magical gemstones. Without stopping after dashing out, the scruffy Rosen immediately dashed towards Lin Li like a madman, and angrily hollered, “You knew it long ago, didn’t you!?”
Lin Li shrugged his shoulders, and helplessly said, “You can’t blame me. I only knew those magical gemstones were counterfeits when you reached out. Well, you’re very knowledgeable and experienced, so I didn’t expect that you’d make such a mistake. Fortunately, it exploded here. If it were in the Sky Tower…”
Andoine stepped forward and stopped in front of Rosen. Seeing how pathetic he looked, he tried to suppress his laughter. Turning to look at Lin Li, he said, “Felic, you said that the magical gemstones are fake?”
“Actually, that’s not quite it. Maybe this is the effect Osric wanted to achieve. If I guessed correctly, these should be gemstone bombs that have been made using alchemy. On the surface, they do look like rare magical gemstones. That’s perhaps to lure the greedy ones. Anyone who goes up will trigger the bomb and cause it to be detonated.” Lin Li, whom Rosen was glowering at menacingly, was rather shocked, though he remained composed on the surface. The fact that the explosion didn’t kill Rosen showed that he was rather tough for an old guy.
Lin Li wasn’t lying, either. The violent explosion was indeed beyond his expectations, but the peculiarity of the magical gemstones was what made him think of that when he saw it at first. Although the magical gemstones that Osric placed in there were no different from real ones, their vast quantity was what made Lin Li suspect something.
The conditions for the creation of magical gemstones were rather demanding, not to mention the best magical gemstones. Even if Osric had searched the entire world of Anril and broken into dozens of abyss levels, it would be impossible to get thousands of these top-level magical gemstones. A huge magic gemstone mine might not produce a single such rare magical gemstone. Besides, could there be thousands of magical gemstone mines in the entire Anril?
The only possibility was that Osric had made it himself, but the most important part of the magical gemstones, the stable structure, was not that easy to replicate. Making artificial gemstones that were comparable to real ones was actually not too different from waiting for a gemstone to form naturally. If one wanted to simplify this process, he would have to sacrifice some stability. The magical gemstones that lacked stability but contained the power of the best gemstones would undoubtedly be volatile and highly explosive.
Although Rosen wished he could rip Lin Li to shreds, he also knew that even under the condition of there being no loss or damage, he could not do anything to the level-23 Legendary-mage Lin Li, not to mention in such a situation. After being at a standstill for a moment, Rosen had no choice but to turn around and walk towards the side, where he took out a new magic robe and changed into it.
When Rosen turned and left, Lin Li shifted his gaze onto the ground where Rosen stood previously, only to see that there were a few shards on the ground that seemed to be rings. He reckoned that they might have been hung on the broken magic robe, and were just shaken off. Lin Li touched his chin, and thought, No wonder that Rosen was able to walk out of the room even after such a terrible explosion. This old man is really well-equipped.
After everything was calm, everyone was ready to leave the place, but Lin Li suddenly remembered something, and told Andoine and the rest to wait. He then ran into the room that exploded.
Andoine hurriedly followed, not because he was worrying about another explosion, but simply because he was curious about what could be left in the room after the explosion just now.
The reason why Lin Li went over was actually also because he wanted to try his luck. When he was inside, he saw a few unopened boxes in the corner. If he read correctly, the defensive mageweaths drawn on those boxes should be of Guru-level. Perhaps they were safe from the explosion.
As expected, most of the things in the room had been crushed in the explosion, and the dazzling magical gemstones had also disappeared. However, the few unopened boxes in the corner were completely preserved. Lin Li walked over carefully, and used his mental strength to slowly detect the magical waves in it. After confirming that there was no problem, he slowly opened a box to reveal the gorgeous magical gemstones, or rather, gemstone bombs.
Seeing that there were still some gemstones left, Andoine panicked and wanted to call Lin Li, but he did not dare to speak, fearing that he would disturb Lin Li and cause the horrendous bombs to detonate. It wasn’t until he saw Lin Li putting away the boxes in the Ring of Endless Storm that he rushed over and smacked Lin Li hard on his head. “Damn it, are you courting death? How can you play with those items!?”
Lin Li rubbed his head and stood up with a bitter smile before saying, “Relax, it will be fine when I put it away. I know how to tame them.”
There were a total of 60 gemstone bombs in the three small chests, which were not cheap items, but mass destruction weapons created by Osric using Alchemy. Every single gemstone contained Legendary magic power; actually, if it weren’t for the suppression due to conflicts of various magical elements, the power of the explosion would have definitely been 100 times stronger. Even if Rosen had had 10 defensive rings, he would’ve been blown into pieces then.
The team continued to search the remaining rooms. Except for finding some potions and recipes which Andoine safeguarded, they basically obtained nothing. Hence, they took a short break, left the palace, walked through several long corridors again, and finally came to the center of the Eternal Furnace[1].
Just like the Fire Demon King said, the center of the Eternal Furnace was Osric’s burial ground, a majestic six-story minaret. Although there were only six floors, it had a height of about 100 meters including the tower base, and the width was even more staggering. One could only imagine how large the space inside was.
Compared to the Central Tower of the Sky Castle, the gate of the minaret of the Eternal Furnace was only better in the sense that it was not locked with a Magical Thousand-contraption Lock. After checking the magic trap above, Lin Li and Angelano slowly pushed the gate of the minaret open, only to be greeted with a thick layer of fog that hindered their vision. Lin Li, Andoine, and the rest looked at each other and inhaled deeply before leading the team to walk slowly from the gate into the minaret.
The thick fog began to fade, and when everyone’s vision was clear again, they found that they were greeted with the sight of a team of High Elves who were standing neatly in a row. However, everyone could feel a substantial Death aura coming from the High Elves, making them feel as if they have returned to the Shadowglen outside.
“They’re the Souls of the Dead. The Souls of the Dead belonging to the Magic Legion!” Angelano said in a trembling voice, and turned behind to scurry to the mages.
“The Souls of the Dead of the Magic Legion?” Lin Li looked opposite in surprise. The Undead creatures that were exuding death aura did not seem to have been handled by Osric before. Strictly speaking, these Undead creatures should belong to the class of Vengeful Spirits. However, they were basically the same as those solidified ones that Lin Li had encountered in the Sky Castle together with Cheyenne.
[1] Okay, it’s confusing and uncertain, but the author is calling the palace an Eternal Furnace… This is probably his mental shortcut: the palace is a copy of the Eternal Furnace Lin Li has.