Earth Spirit Remains
In an instant, the fat man felt a tingling sensation all over his body.
The feeling was like someone very, very carefully brushing his skin with a feather. In this tomb chamber, which was essentially a secret room, the surroundings were extremely dark. Apart from the fat man, there was only the stone coffin beneath him. And at this moment, a sound came from inside the stone coffin.
"It's... it's the sound of someone scratching the stone wall with their fingernails!" The fat man swallowed hard, instantly thinking of one of the six monsters in the mural.
Could it really be inside?
"Even if that monster is inside, I don't need to be afraid. This stone coffin lid weighs tens of thousands of pounds; it shouldn't be able to open it!" the fat man thought to himself, trying to reassure himself.
However, reality was destined to disappoint the fat man. The sounds from inside the stone coffin grew louder and louder, and then he felt the lid of the stone coffin being pushed and moved slightly.
"No way!" The fat man was startled, realizing that he and the monster were probably only separated by a stone slab, so he quickly jumped down.
The noises inside the stone coffin grew louder and louder, and you could even hear clear cries, sharp and shrill, like the cry of an infant.
The fat man's nerves were on edge. From the stone coffin came the creaking sound of the lid moving, like a heavy millstone being slowly pushed.
The lid was pushed open a crack.
Then, a finger emerged from the gap.
With just one glance, the fat man knew that those were definitely not human fingers. Because human fingers wouldn't have so many tiny white hairs.
Suddenly, with a creak, the lid of the stone coffin seemed to be flung open, flying seven or eight meters away before crashing heavily to the ground. The suddenness of the impact nearly made the fat man bite his tongue off in fright.
Looking at the stone coffin again, the hairy fingers were nowhere to be seen; the top edge of the coffin was now completely empty. The entire tomb fell silent once more. The fat man, panting heavily, stared intently at the stone coffin, not even blinking, afraid of missing anything.
But there was nothing there; no monster as imagined crawled out.
"What's going on?" the fat man muttered to himself, feeling as if his heart was about to leap out of his chest.
The sense of danger did not diminish; on the contrary, it intensified.
Just as the fat man was wondering what was going on, he felt someone exhale behind him.
The airflow brushed past the ear, and the features on the ear keenly caught this.
"Holy crap!"
The fat man whirled around and saw a creature that looked neither human nor ghost standing behind him. Most frighteningly, this monster was grinning widely, clearly laughing.
This monster was the size of a normal person, humanoid, and covered with a layer of white fur that looked like steel wires. However, the white fur clung tightly to its skin, lacking any of the fluffy texture it should have.
At this moment, it was hunched over, its head raised, its mouth splitting to its ears, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.
Then it pounced, completely ignoring the fat man's pig-like screams.
The two began to fight. The white-haired monster was incredibly strong, and the fat man only lasted a few seconds before he was defeated. He was not only beaten black and blue, but was also thrown over the stone coffin and slammed against the wall before falling heavily to the ground.
"Ouch, that hurts so much!" the fat man cried out, only to see the white-haired monster charging at him again. This time, the fat man was terrified.
He completely forgot that he could simply return to Shadow Street; instead, he got up and began running around the stone coffin. When the monster chased him to the left, he ran to the left; when the monster chased him to the right, he ran to the right. For a time, the monster couldn't do anything to the fat man.
Only then did the fat man have time to check the monster's name on the Yellow Paper.
"The Corpse Keeper, a monster that only exists in tombs... combat strength unknown... 12000 HP."
Upon seeing this, the fat man immediately lost his initial ambition. Judging from the opponent's extremely high health, he knew it was no ordinary monster.
After playing hide-and-seek for a while, the fat man realized that this monster's specialty seemed to be strength, so its speed was quite average. The reason it could suddenly appear behind him at the beginning was probably because it used some kind of special skill.
Of course, after the initial shock, the fat man came to his senses. He realized that his own combat strength was far inferior to this monster's, and he couldn't defeat it. Since that was the case, there was no need to waste time here. He might as well go and see what was inside the stone coffin. If there was anything, he could take it; if not, he could just leave.
Having made up his mind, the fat man leaped into the stone coffin.
As a result, the stone coffin was empty, with only a severed limb lying there. Perhaps due to its age, the limb had become somewhat stiff.
The fat man was greatly disappointed, thinking to himself that even drinking cold water would cause him trouble. He also thought that the tomb owner was too cruel to himself, covering the unimportant Sacrificial Maiden with layers of valuable 'Water Source Magic Stone', while he himself had a monster beside him, and nothing else. What kind of tomb design is this?
Time was of the essence. The fat man summoned the Yellow Paper and was about to open the passage to leave, but just to be on the safe side, he checked the information about the wreckage through the Yellow Paper.
The fat man was stunned!
"The Earth Spirit Remains, the remains of the magic god Mordor, contain powerful earth-elemental magic..."
It really is a treasure!
The fat man was overjoyed and immediately grabbed the piece of wreckage. At that moment, the white-haired monster above his head also appeared. Without hesitation, the fat man chose to end the mission world and wanted to return to Shadow Street.
However, the most surprising thing happened.
The Yellow Paper, which could normally be stopped at any time in the instance world and returned to Shadow Street, has now lost its effect.
In the end, nothing happened.
The fat man nearly collapsed for a moment.
"This is outrageous!" the fat man wailed. At that moment, the white-haired monster had already jumped into the stone coffin... Li Wei, who had just landed on the island in the lake, paused. He vaguely heard a wail.
"Strange, why does it sound so much like Fatty's voice?" Li Wei listened more carefully, but couldn't hear anything at all.
"Maybe it's just my imagination!"
Li Wei thought for a moment and then focused his attention on the jar placed on a stone platform in front of him.
From a distance, the jar didn't look very big, but up close, it was astonishingly large. Judging by its size, it was a full 5 meters in diameter, and the mouth of the jar was 3 meters above the ground. The jar was decorated with exquisite glaze patterns, and upon closer inspection, Li Wei discovered that these were patterns used to record information about the tomb's occupant.
This time, Li Wei carefully examined the entire pattern around the jar three times, making sure nothing was missed before stopping.
But at this moment, Li Wei's brows furrowed even more deeply.
The glaze on the jar records a series of events, but the story clearly follows the murals he saw in the labyrinth last time.
After the Archmage died, his body was divided into six pieces, which were then divided among six monsters.
The jar only recorded information about the body part placed inside and the monster. It (referring to the monster) carried the stone to a huge cave, found an underground lake, and then placed the body part into a huge jar on a small island in the middle.
After that, the monster jumped into the lake.
Li Wei was taken aback.
He glanced at the relatively calm lake surface, remaining silent. Did the monster depicted in the glaze painting truly exist in this lake teeming with man-eating fish?
Regardless of whether the story depicted in the glaze painting is true or not, Li Wei intends to continue exploring. The mystery surrounding this place has completely captured Li Wei's curiosity.
Moreover, I'm still missing Skill Book for water magic beyond the beginner level, so from any perspective, I shouldn't give up now.
Thinking of this, Li Wei prepared to jump onto the large jar to see if the Archmage's remains were inside.
Just then, a strange sound of water was heard.
Li Wei stopped abruptly. He was very familiar with this sound. People who had finished swimming in the pool and climbed out onto the shore would drip a lot of water, and that sound was exactly the same as what Li Wei was hearing now.
"Something's crawling out of the lake!" Li Wei immediately realized this.
The sound came from behind the jar, and the sound of wet feet hitting the ground gradually became clearer. Although Li Wei believed that it was highly unlikely that any monster here could surpass his combat strength, he still couldn't help but swallow hard.
Li Wei stood there, waiting for the thing behind the jar to come over.
So, in this deserted place, Li Wei waited for the thing to approach. Soon, Li Wei saw a figure flash past behind the jar.
Li Wei rushed over immediately.
"Damn it, I'm not afraid of you, come on!" The figure let out a frustrated roar and then pounced on Li Wei.
Li Wei was taken aback.
The voice was familiar, the figure was familiar, and that lewd expression—who else could it be but Fatty?
The fat man was clearly terrified, soaking wet and clutching something in his arms. He didn't recognize Li Wei at all, and only came to his senses after Li Wei shouted.
"Brother Li? It's you!"
Then the fat man did something that shocked Li Wei: he rushed over, hugged Li Wei, and burst into tears.
The snot and tears were smeared all over Li Wei's clothes, it was disgusting. After much Li Wei, the fat man finally calmed down, and his first words were. "Don't you dare tell anyone about what happened just now. I'm a celebrity in Shadow Street, for goodness' sake!"
"Pah!" Li Wei's response was equally direct.
Although Li Wei didn't spend much time with the fat man, he was quite influenced by him and became much more cheerful.
"Alright, tell me, how did you get here? And how did you climb out of that lake?" Li Wei was eager to know the answers, but he also knew that he had to let the fat man explain one thing at a time.
Perhaps emboldened by Li Wei, the fat man's mood improved considerably, and he recounted the entire incident in detail.