"Where is the wizard's legacy located?" After a brief rest, Sunan began discussing the main issue.
Rose took out a scroll of parchment and opened it to reveal a map filled with lines and text.
"This is the city-state of the Man-faced Lions," Rose pointed to a spot on the map, then moved her finger to another point not far away. "This is where the wizard's legacy is located."
Sunan gave her a surprised look, "It seems you've spent quite a bit of time in the Underground World, to have even drawn a map."
"It's just a small area, probably not even one percent of the total Underground World," Rose shrugged, then seemed to remember something and smiled, "Do you want it? Ten magic stones and it's yours."
"Deal!" Sunan agreed without hesitation.
This was invaluable information!
Even with his past life's memories, he couldn't possibly memorize the entire vast Underground World's geography.
He had no recollection of the area around the Man-faced Lion city-state.
With Rose's map, future actions would undoubtedly encounter fewer obstacles.
Crucially, the map indicated several known mineral veins and their approximate reserves.
With this map, once the threat of the Man-faced Lion city-state was eliminated, he could systematically exploit the area's mineral resources.
For this reason alone, ten magic stones were well worth it.
"And there are also the Divine Blood Ambers, six in total. I'll give them to you along with the map."
In the end, Sunan paid a total of 130 magic stones for a map and six Divine Blood Ambers.
"When do you plan to move?" Rose asked.
"No time like the present, let's go now," Sunan replied.
He didn't want to delay too long, especially with the looming threat of the Man-faced Lion city-state.
He needed to quickly resolve the issue of the wizard's legacy and then prepare to deal with the city-state.
Rose had no objections to this.
After a brief rest, they set out.
Considering that the Man-faced Lions might still be searching for them, they cautiously avoided the island, using Levitation to take a wide arc across the lake.
With Rose leading, they soon found a cave entrance on the rock wall deep in the cavern and entered.
Beyond the cave was a long tunnel.
Rose took out a glowing crystal to light the way, occasionally checking the map.
Traveling in the Underground World differed greatly from the surface.
There were no clear landmarks or open vistas, only a labyrinthine network of passages and pervasive darkness.
Even the most seasoned travelers, with detailed maps, found it difficult to navigate such a place.
Due to the interference of geomantic radiation, instruments like compasses were useless.
Thus, getting lost was a common challenge in the Underground World.
Even its native inhabitants weren't immune to this issue.
Fortunately, this wasn't a problem for level-three wizard apprentices.
Their powerful mental abilities endowed them with eidetic memory.
Once they traversed a route, no matter how complex, they could recognize it on subsequent visits.
Using the map and their memories, Rose navigated without getting lost once.
After traveling for half a day, they finally reached their destination.
"That's where I found the wizard's legacy," Rose pointed to a dark cave entrance in the distance.
Sunan squinted at the entrance, which was unexpectedly large, with a semicircular shape and a radius of about ten meters.
The dim light outside didn't penetrate far inside, making it resemble a silent black hole—an unsettling sight.
"The adamantine golem is inside. It appears and gives a warning if you get within fifty meters of the entrance. If you don't leave in thirty seconds or attack it, it will attack intruders."
"But if you leave the entrance by more than a hundred meters, it stops pursuing."
Sunan understood.
Golems were essentially like robots.
Without a controller's orders, they operated only according to preset instructions.
The adamantine golem's role was clearly to guard this wizard's legacy, similar to the black rock panther that had attacked them when he discovered the legacy in the Black Rock City mine four years ago.
"Let's get started," Sunan said.
"Be careful. That adamantine golem is formidable," Rose warned seriously, indicating she'd had significant trouble with it before.
Sunan nodded and approached the entrance.
As soon as he stepped within fifty meters, heavy footsteps echoed from the darkness, and a massive figure, seven to eight meters tall, slowly emerged.
The adamantine golem resembled a steel golem but was dark red all over, its metallic gleam cold and intimidating in the dim light.
"Intruder detected! Warning! Leave this area immediately, or you will be exterminated!"
"Intruder detected..."
The golem's cold, mechanical voice repeated.
Sunan wasted no time, launching an attack immediately.
And he started with his most powerful move!
In an instant, countless silvery liquid streams emerged from Sunan's pores, swirling around him and quickly forming into sharp spikes.
The next second, they shot out with a deafening sonic boom, a storm of metal engulfing the adamantine golem!
Rip! Rip! Rip!
Although the spikes looked slender, their power was immense!
The golem's body, known for its formidable defense, was riddled with cracks!
The metal storm raged for over a minute.
When it finally ceased and the spikes returned to Sunan in liquid form, the once-magnificent golem was a wreck, riddled with holes, with hardly a piece intact!
Its massive arms were reduced to stubs, and even its head was half-shattered!
Rose stood frozen, stunned and speechless.
What was that just now?
A spell? A magic item?
The power was ridiculous!
A golem nearly at third-circle legendary level was crippled in an instant!
Sunan exhaled lightly, his face pale, but his spirits high.
The minute-long bombardment had nearly drained his mental energy, but the outcome was satisfactory.
Adamantine golems were renowned for their defense; even a third-circle legendary knight with earth elemental mastery couldn't match their toughness.
Yet this seemingly invincible golem couldn't withstand the magic rune core's onslaught.
His efforts to fuse the core had paid off!
Though severely damaged, the golem wasn't completely destroyed, so Sunan hurled a high-level rune gem to shatter its soul core, finishing it off.
Afterward, Sunan collected the golem's remnants.
Restoring the golem was impossible, but the remains could yield rare metals.
Only then did Rose recover, looking at Sunan as if he were a monster.
The golem she had struggled so much with had been effortlessly dealt with by Sunan.
It felt like a dream.
Rose now truly realized the vast gulf in strength between her and Sunan.
Despite her disappointment and frustration, she felt a sense of relief.
With someone as powerful as Sunan on their side, their chances of exploring the wizard's legacy seemed much greater.
"I need some time to recover my mental energy," Sunan said, finding a spot away from the entrance, where he released two elite stone golems to stand guard as he sat cross-legged to meditate.
Rose watched him with a complex expression, then found her own place to rest.
In the Underground World, day and night were indistinguishable, always cloaked in shadow.
The pervasive darkness made the passage of time difficult to perceive.
After an indeterminate period, Sunan opened his eyes and stood up.
"Alright, let's go."
Rose, eager to proceed, quickly got up.
Standing at the entrance, they expertly cast protective spells and energy particles on themselves and activated magic items before stepping inside together.
Inside was a spacious tunnel, about a hundred meters long.
At its end stood a massive semicircular metal door, tightly sealed and covered in intricate runes.
Sunan and Rose exchanged glances and approached to inspect it.
"It has arcane locks and magical traps, but they're heavily worn."
"Judging by the wear, these arcane locks and traps must be over a century old."
Rose ran her hand over the door's grooves and sighed.
The older a wizard's legacy, the less likely it was to contain intact rare materials, potions, or magic items.
Time often degraded or damaged such things, rendering them unusable.
The good news was that it might still hold valuable knowledge.
The closer the knowledge's origin to the wizarding golden age a millennium ago, the more complete and powerful it tended to be.
With little effort, they dismantled the door's arcane locks and traps and pushed it open.
Before them lay an ancient cavern.
The walls glowed with natural phosphorescent crystals.
On either side were open doorways leading to six rooms.
Through the doors, they glimpsed shelves and workbenches, suggesting laboratories or workshops.
Directly ahead were two dark passageways, from which came faint squeaking sounds, their source unknown.
Without needing to remind each other, Sunan and Rose prepared for battle.
The next instant, countless blood-red shadows poured from the left passageway, surging toward them like a tide.
Under the glow from the crystals, Sunan quickly discerned the true nature of the shadows.
They were fist-sized bugs, blood-red with sharp, deadly teeth.
"Blood Soul Bugs!"
Sunan's face changed, and he quickly warned Rose.
"Don't let them touch you. They can devour souls!"
Blood Soul Bugs were said to be descendants of the ancient beast Scarlet Fang, carrying a trace of its bloodline.
Though the bloodline was now extremely thin, it didn't stop the bugs from being terrifying creatures.
They fed on souls.
Any creature bitten by them suffered not only physical harm but soul damage as well.
If a person's body was devoured by them, their soul would be completely annihilated.
Swarms of Blood Soul Bugs were a nightmare for any creature with a soul.
Hearing Sunan's warning, Rose's face paled.
These bugs could attack souls!
Soul damage required extensive recovery, even for a wizard apprentice, and severe damage could hinder future advancement.
This was unacceptable to any wizard apprentice.
Rose decisively scattered a dozen seeds around her, which quickly sprouted into strange plants with large petals and thorny vines.
The plants surrounded Rose, thrashing their vines to fend off the bugs.
But there were too many bugs, and the outermost plants were soon devoured.
Rose had to scatter more seeds, casting spells to kill the bugs.
During a lull in the battle, she glanced at Sunan's situation.
What she saw widened her eyes.
Three steel golems had appeared beside Sunan, swinging massive fists at the bugs.
Each punch turned a bug into a bloody mist.
"Steel golems! Player even has these!"
Rose was once again shocked.
She'd been impressed by Player's wealth when he deployed over a hundred stone golems, but the presence of steel golems was another level.
These were legendary-level puppets; three together could rival a weaker level-three wizard apprentice!
Rose had coveted steel golems, but their exorbitant cost and the high skill required to craft them made it impossible for most.
"Where does Player get so many golems?"
"Could he have made them himself?"
Rose was filled with doubt and curiosity, as Player's mysteries only deepened.
Steel golems, lacking souls and with their bodies impervious, were well-suited against the bugs.
Their only drawback was their slow movement, unable to stop all the bugs.
Many bugs bypassed the golems, swarming toward Sunan.
But they soon found this seemingly easier prey was an even tougher shell than the golems.
Despite their
relentless assault, they only managed to breach one of Sunan's invisible protective fields, only for another to immediately take its place.
With five Extreme Protection Rings, providing a total of 5000 defense points, Sunan remained calm and composed, even as he stood amidst the swarm.
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