Chapter 28

The treasure cache of the orc bandit Ruhl was actually quite well-hidden, located deep within the Ash Forest, right beside a clearing that birthed skeletons.

In the Ash Forest, certain areas were prone to gathering negative energy, leaving them barren and empty. Beneath these flats, the flow of negative energy would slowly transport various remains to the site, forming massive bone piles. Every night, these would transform into a large group of skeletons, silently absorbing negative energy in the clearing to grow ever stronger.

This unique terrain was known as a "Skeleton Pile." When Sui Xiong first set foot on land, he had once studied such a site.

The place Ruhl used to hide his treasure was located near a medium-sized "Skeleton Pile." Whether viewed from the sky or searched for on the ground, it appeared entirely unremarkable; only by using positioning magic could one find the coordinates.

Positioning magic was a very specialized craft. It combined astrology with detection to divide the vast earth into a massive coordinate system, where every coordinate represented a specific location. It was said that some had been researching positioning magic that included "altitude" as a factor, but none had succeeded yet.

This magic was somewhat niche and complex to use, but it was highly popular. For one, it was immensely helpful during wilderness adventures, allowing one to quickly determine their position against a map. For another, it was incredibly useful for hiding treasure, making the location virtually foolproof.

Before the invention of positioning magic, treasure hunters had to design distinct, striking, yet inconspicuous features for their caches. This was a genuine technical skill. Countless people had followed maps left by their predecessors, only to endure great hardships and find the treasure already dug up by passing adventurers who had spotted the clues. Some mean-spirited types would even leave traps behind, leaving the original owners bloodied and frustrated.

But since the invention of positioning magic, hiding treasure had become much simpler. One could make the site completely featureless; even if a group searched there for weeks, they wouldn't see anything special. Only those who knew the exact coordinates could find the loot.

Compared to their predecessors who had to play mind games with future treasure hunters, modern hoarders only needed to keep their stash secret and leave the coordinates and excavation methods to their descendants, and everything would be set.

Bloody Hand Ruhl's treasure was no exception. Its location lacked even the slightest unique feature. Even with the exact coordinates in hand, when Gerald and his companions arrived at the spot, they were somewhat bewildered.

"This place doesn't look special at all. Even if there is treasure, where would it be hidden?" Palin observed his surroundings meticulously, but could find no trace of a cache, and couldn't help but feel suspicious. "Could the coordinates that guy left behind be wrong?"

The coordinates were, of course, impossible to get wrong. Ruhl's soul had fallen into Sui Xiong's hands, effectively turning him into a book that could be read at any time without any secrets. Sui Xiong had already told Gerald everything about the treasure, even knowing exactly what items were inside. How could he have gotten the coordinates wrong?

"This is definitely the place. We need to dig straight down about ten feet to find a magical mechanism. Unlocking it requires Ruhl's own bloodline as proof, so I'll have to trouble Ryan for that." Gerald shared the information selectively. "In any case, let's get to work."

Naturally, no one had any objections, and the three of them busied themselves with their respective tasks.

Gerald was immensely strong and served as the primary digger. Ryan was experienced and could help with the manual labor. As for Palin, he was responsible for setting up the camp so everyone could get a good night's rest.

In truth, Gerald's original intention had been to come alone. He felt that even if his own strength wasn't enough, he could ask Emperor Oscar for help; there seemed to be no need to involve others. But Sui Xiong didn't think so. He felt that Gerald was already too detached from society. If he didn't make an effort to develop interpersonal relationships, he would sooner or later become a reclusive master "independent from the world," like a dragon or some other overly powerful creature, living alone in a wasteland without friends or even a ghost in sight.

Humans were social creatures, after all; what joy was there in such an existence!

Therefore, he had Gerald bring along Palin, who wanted to broaden his horizons, and used the excuse of "I'm very busy" to make Gerald find his own help for dismantling the magical mechanism. Ultimately, he just wanted Gerald to interact more with people and make a few friends.

In fact, he had also been considering how to readjust Gerald's appearance during this time. The image of this "bald brother" (though he wasn't bald anymore) was so cool it was friendless. Even without considering the friend issue, with such a massive build, finding a partner would be difficult!

Wasn't there a witty saying on Earth that age, appearance, income, personality, and even gender or life and death couldn't stop love, and only physique was the fatal flaw? Gerald's aesthetic sense certainly fell within the human range; it was unlikely he would like an ogre or a Mountain Giant. If he wanted to find a partner, he would have to shrink his size or gain the ability to grow and shrink at will.

So, ever since he had a good sleep, Sui Xiong had been working hard on this topic. At this moment, if someone were to fly high into the sky to the giant Floating Jellyfish, they would see a muscle on the jellyfish's back constantly changing shape.

That was him experimenting, researching methods for free-form transformation.

Sui Xiong himself could transform, but his speed wasn't fast, and there were certain risks involved. Aside from him, who wasn't afraid of death, others probably couldn't use it. Judging from the magic system of this world he had encountered, there should be better, faster, and safer ways to transform.

A method definitely existed; it just needed to be found.

Over the past few days, while Gerald and his companions were traveling, Sui Xiong had been focusing his research, trying to find this solution.

But this kind of thing was destined not to yield results quickly. All he could do was be patient and explore and deduce slowly.

As dusk approached, Gerald finally dug down to the magical mechanism. It was a metal plate at least five feet square, engraved with complex patterns that looked dizzying. In the center of the patterns was a teardrop-shaped groove, connected to the entire design through countless veins that looked like blood vessels.

The correct way to unlock this mechanism was to drip blood possessing the same lineage as Ruhl into the teardrop-shaped groove. The blood would then flow along the veins into the magic array, first activating the bloodline identification array. If it passed, the remaining arrays would be activated, ultimately unlocking the path to the treasure vault. If it failed, the array would dim and require an entire night to absorb ambient negative energy before it could be used for another attempt.

However, Gerald certainly couldn't provide Ruhl's bloodline. When Sui Xiong found the information in Ruhl's memories, the orc had long since died stiff; the blood in his corpse had lost its vitality and could not pass the identification—any bloodline identification array only recognized living blood; it absolutely would not recognize the blood of a corpse.

So, once the array was unearthed, the rest was the job of Ryan, the high-level thief.

"Looks quite complex, not your average level of work." Ryan didn't rush to start, observing it carefully for a good while before clicking his tongue in admiration. "Whoever set up this magical mechanism is a pro. Not only is their technical skill superb, but their magical level is also extraordinary!"

"Generally speaking, a magical mechanism like this requires a 'hand-worker' (thief) and a 'head-worker' (mage) to cooperate. But this mechanism looks like it was made by one person, which is quite rare. To be honest, although the level of magic isn't high, we hand-workers usually can't learn magic. To reach this level is truly surprising!"

"So, can you do it?" Gerald asked.

"Twenty years ago, no problem. Now, not so much." Ryan shook his head, smiling bitterly. "Back then, I learned some spells; basically, any spell useful to our trade, I knew. But after not using them for decades, they've gone to waste."

"Can magic skills go to waste?"

"Of course. There's no skill in this world that won't go to waste. Why do many powerful adventurers, who could swing a sword and cast spells when they were roaming the world, often end up as pure warriors or mages later on? The key is that as their level deepens, they need to consume more and more energy in one area, and as a result, the other side goes to waste." Ryan said. "But don't worry, although I can't make a mechanism like this, I can still break it. After all... destruction is always easier than construction."

The old thief finished speaking and lowered his head, focusing intently on breaking the mechanism. His movements were light and slow, making it almost impossible to tell what he was doing. Gerald watched for a while, but couldn't make heads or tails of it, so he shook his head and went back to help Palin.

The time required to break the mechanism was longer than they had anticipated, and they hadn't finished by nightfall. Thus, they stayed the night beside the treasure, waiting to continue the next day.

At night, Palin set up a magic array around the camp that could mask their presence from the skeletons. Although they were within arm's reach of the dense army of skeletons, nothing happened, and they slept soundly.

The next day, the sun was bright, and Ryan, having slept through the night, was in good condition. After breakfast, he started working and finally brought good news at noon.

"Done!" he shouted from the deep pit. "Come over, everyone. This is actually a small teleportation array."

The three gathered in the pit and stood together according to his instructions. Then, he activated the broken magical mechanism, and a faint green light projected onto them.

Accompanied by a slight sense of dizziness, their vision dimmed and then brightened; they had been teleported from the deep pit into a cave.

The cave was exceptionally dark, but in the distance, one could faintly see some golden objects shimmering under the light of gems, the quantity far exceeding what they had guessed beforehand.

This was the treasure of the orc bandit "Bloody Hand" Ruhl, the wealth accumulated by the bandit group that had ravaged the Four Northwest Towns for several years.

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