Chapter 53: Worth it
While the steam made it hard to see details of what was going on, the group could at least make out silhouettes.
The corpses held by aloft by Nepherage began to violently seizure from the heat exposure and quite literally fall apart piece by piece as limbs and rotted flesh were shaken loose by the flailing.
The corpse host bodies eventually fell away to nothing, revealing huge wriggling worm-like beings covered in tendrils. Horrible high-pitched screaming echoed throughout the chamber as the worms were now fully exposed to the scalding steam.
‘Well this is horrifying.’
The screaming went on for a solid two minutes straight before slowly dying down, in time with the dissipation and cooling of the steam in the room. The worms in Nepherage’s hands began to grow still as this happened, and when the last of the steam cooled and condensed back into liquid, they were dead.
Nepherage loosened her hands and allowed the two Spinal Puppet Worm corpses to flop onto the ground with a meaty slap.
Sullivan couldn’t help but grimace at the sight, while the Zhen Clan heirs looked relatively unfazed.
With the worms now dead, Nepherage proceeded to step to the side and made motion gesturing to the chest.
“Well now that that’s over, shall we see what’s in the box?,” Zhen Liu asked aloud.
“Give me a second.”
Zhen Hai took out his carving knife and made his way over to the worm corpses. He then proceeded to slice the worms open like it was an eel and began rummaging inside of them with his bare hands. A moment later, he let out a sound of triumph.
“Ah ha! Looks like these guys had cores.”
In the palm of Zhen Hai’s bloody hands were pair of jawbreaker sized balls that looked to be made of a weird crystal substance. The faint aura of death aether could be faintly felt radiating from the two cores.
“While they’re probably not worth submitting as our main prize, they’ll make nice supplements.” Zhen Hai pocketed the two cores. “Now then, let’s see what’s in this box.”
The Zhen clan team made their way over to the treasure chest, eager to see what exactly was the big deal behind this thing.
“Damn it, it’s locked,” Zhen Yue complained as she tried to open it.
[Nepherage?]
[Stone knuckle.]
The aforementioned kaijin proceeded to smash open the lock with a rock covered fist.
“Oh, thank you Zhen Liu.”
“Anytime.”
As the team flipped open the lid to the chest, a cold, icy burst of air blasted them in the face. The group was momentarily stunned from the sudden temperature change, but quickly regained their wits when they saw the source of the cold.
Sitting in the chest was a silver and blue scroll case that seemed to radiate cold and release a low hum, and a weird looking bone club next to it.
“Is…is that what I think it is?”
“An intermediate grade World class aether art? Yes. Yes it is.”
“Well then…this was totally worth it.”
“What’s with the wonky looking club next to it?”
While the team wasn’t sure what this art was exactly, they were sure it was the most valuable thing in these ruins.
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Elsewhere in the Wandering Ruins – An insidious garden room full of carnivorous plants.
The sounds of a chaotic battle echoed throughout the room as three Acolytes evenly matched with a savage third grade aether beast. However, all that was about to change in a moment.
“Altogether now! [Catoblepas’ Breath!]”
[Lotus Death Wine!]
[Spore Killer!]
“Grooaaa…”
Coordinated by Gianna, the Corrada team landed simultaneous blows against the Lasher Willow, causing it to decay from the force of three different types of poisons ravaging it’s wooden body.
The Lasher Willow fell with an inglorious thud.
Gianna and her teammates were breathing heavily after this rather intense fight, but not even exhaustion could stop them from feeling incredibly happy at this moment.
“We did it mistress, the Star Cloud Fruit sapling is ours!”
“Yes it is,” Gianna proclaimed with a smile, “this is surely the most valuable treasures in this accursed place, even if it’s not…it’ll be worth it. As long as we don’t let the others know…”
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Deeper in the ruins- ???
“Are we there yet? We’ve been walking this way for what felt like hours now boss.”
“Oh be quiet Richter. Just trust that the boss knows where’s he going.”
“I know Jeremiah, it’s just that-”
“Both of you, silence. We’re here.”
Donovan and his team had finally reached their destination after snaking through a lot of tunnels for what felt like hours. While they didn’t get into any danger, it did get a bit boring.
Donovan’s teammates were initially confused at their destination, not seeing any visible exits, until Donovan punched upward and revealed a hidden door above their heads.
As the team climbed their way out through hidden door, a wave of heat washed over them.
The room they had entered looked a bit like an elaborate bathhouse with beautiful architecture and obsidian platforms, but all the hot water was replaced with bubbling magma. It made for a rather surreal experience.
“Bah! It’s like a furnace in here. The hell is this place?,” Richter complained. Out of the three of them he was the most heavyset, so the heat got to him a bit worst.
“Weren’t you paying attention? I think this place is the ‘final’ room. All of the other places seemed to connect to here for some reason,” Jeremiah explained, “Granted I don’t know why we skipped all the way to the end.”
“It’s because of that,” Donovan said as he pointed a clawed finger towards a platform at the center of the room. Sitting upon this platform was a large red crystal jutting out of the ground. When the group extended their aether senses towards it, they could feel a deeply powerful Ignati expression coming off it.
“Whoa.’
“What the hell is that?”
The assigned Digger to the Wolfe Family squinted at the crystal for a bit in contemplation, moments before his eyes went wide with shock.
“That…that’s an Ifrit’s Fire Heart Crystal! The biggest I’ve ever seen! Even just a kilogram of the stuff is worth at least hundreds of thousands of gold pieces! A piece that size…”
“Is enough to make this whole affair worth the trouble it brought,” Donovan said with a vicious smile, “Now all we have to do is wait for others to… dislodge it for us.”
“Huh? Why can’t we do it ourselves?,” Richter asked with a confused look.
Donovan merely pointed a finger upward and allowed his teammates to look up and see for themselves.
“Oh… that’s…bad.”
“Welp…I’m going back into the hole.”
