After some discussion, the group ultimately decided not to return to the surface. Instead, they found a room near the main hall of the Underground Palace and settled down for the night.
This arrangement was based on Lia's advice, drawn from her own experience and professional knowledge. Resting in an underground ruin might seem extremely dangerous, but in reality, the interior of the Anno Ruins was far safer than the outside. First, as mentioned earlier, the magic-mutated devouring monsters were active in the outer layer of the ruins, while inside, they would not encounter any monster attacks. Second, this buried ruin was far sturdier than expected. After examining its main materials and structure, Lia discovered that the framework of the palace was made from an alloy with an utterly insane level of toughness. Although the auxiliary buildings on the surface had been destroyed, the main structure clearly possessed special performance specifications. Even buried deep underground, there was no need to worry about it collapsing—unless another opening to the Great Pit suddenly appeared and split the Underground Palace in two, which was practically impossible. Third, Lia felt that spending a night near the Great Pit would be incredibly thrilling, and at the very least, she could brag about it for half a year after they returned.
Hao Ren felt that the third reason was the real one...
To be fair, no group of sane mercenaries would have accepted such a recklessly bold arrangement from their employer. They would probably have fallen out and disbanded the moment they learned that the Underground Palace was so close to the Great Pit. But Hao Ren's group had specifically come here to dig deep for the truth. They were more than happy to have Lia stay in this place a while longer, so not one