Bab 57: Exploration
Bubble. Bubble.
Twelve figures could be seen swimming through a large, pitch-black cavern with only a limited source of light. Two of the figures were two handsome youths of 19 years of age, while ten were monsters.
If one were to see the group, they would be extremely astonished. The ten monsters were completely obeying the commands of the humans.
Shortly after, the monsters all went ahead to expand the search area. A hydra with three heads that were previously injured gravely, now no longer had any wounds. It seemed like the humans had healed their wounds.
The two young men were, of course, Ye Qin and Wang Tao. After a while, they healed the three-headed hydra with some medicine. Once they did, it became obedient and followed behind them.
"Hmm? Boss, my monsters found a large hole." Wang Tao said.
"A hole? Let's go, if I'm right that should be it." Ye Qin replied.
The two boys then swam in a slightly different direction.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the hole found by the Blackgold Python Tiger.
Looking around, there wasn't anything special about the hole. There was nothing around it, besides an endless amount of seawater.
They went into the hole, and after thirty seconds, they arrived on the other side.
Above them, a source of light could be seen.
"Looks like we were right boss, it's land." Wang Tao said.
Ye Qin nodded, "Let's head up."
The monsters were recalled as the two swam up towards the source of light. Just a quick swim away, the two popped their heads out the surface. Looking around, there were crystals that formed over time, which was also the source of light that they could see from under the water.
Getting out, they got onto the land and found a spot to sit down for lunch. As for the three-headed hydra, it stayed in the water where it could keep itself hydrated constantly.
***********
Bzz. Bzz.
A flame could be seen. Inside the flames, small sticks were shoved inside to keep it burning longer. On top of the flames, a large wok with cooked food was seen.
Ye Qin and Wang Tao sat on rocks they found and moved it to the fire. The rocks were big enough for them to sit on the rocks, without falling off.
In their hands, a bowl of rice and a dish with vegetables and meat was on the ground.
"It's been a bit since we last ate human food." Wang Tao commented.
"Well, that's just you." Ye Qin replied.
"..."
"Right." Wang Tao muttered.
"This place is pretty big, this is only the first location if all of them were this big or even bigger, who knows how long it'll take for us to explore all of them." Ye Qin said.
"En, we might have to delay the exploration for the next time we come here." Wang Tao replied.
"By the way boss."
"What's up?" Ye Qin replied.
"Don't you think this novel is getting kinda boring? All that happens is us finding a strong monster and beat it to become stronger then find weak monsters and slaughter them all, and exploring places."
"This author should really think of something new." Wang Tao said.
"Well, many novels do the same thing right? Rinse and repeat with different names even. But you are right." Ye Qin replied.
The two boys turned to face a certain direction in unison.
Author: "F*ck! Stop looking at me like that okay? I'm doing my best okay? I know I'm not good at this, but don't look at me like that!"
"..."
"..."
"Okay, let's stop teasing the author now." Wang Tao commented.
"En." Ye Qin replied as the two finished off the lunch.
***********
After lunch, they packed up their stuff. Turning around, it seemed like the hydra wanted to stay in the water.
"We'll be back later, stay here for now, if you're hungry you can go hunt." Ye Qin told it.
The hydra nodded its three heads. It then dived deep into the water and disappeared.
"Now, let us explore this place. But first, these crystals seem to be a little special." Ye Qin said.
"Yea, I don't know why, but it feels kinda familiar. Maybe it's made of the same energy that the contract stones are made of." Wang Tao thought.
Heading off, Ye Qin explored one area, while Wang Tao went to the opposite side. They touched the crystals that were blue, white, purple and green all at the same time. It was like looking at a marble with streaks of different colored light sticking around in different directions.
Ye Qin touched a piece, the surface was extremely smooth and felt very satisfying to touch. It was neither warm nor cold and stayed at a tepid temperature.
He found a small piece that he dug out using some tools he had brought with him. He put it into a poach before it went into the storage space.
He then walked up to a large piece that was even bigger than himself. He touched it and closed his eyes as if trying to sense something.
On the other side, Wang Tao was doing the same. The two boys had their eyes closed and stayed still without a single movement.
Their breaths were in sync.
Silence filled the cave. The only sound that could be heard, was the occasional drop of water that leaked from the ceiling. It was the same liquid that formed the crystals around them.
After ten minutes, the two boys woke up in unison.
Bzz!
At the same time, they felt as though they were hit with a small shock of thunder.
"Ah!" they cried out slightly.
"Boss... these things." Wang Tao said.
"En, it was weird." Ye Qin replied.
"When I was sensing it out, I felt a warm stream of energy filling my body. My contract stone was reacting with the energy, it felt like it was getting bigger. Or rather, expanding the energy within. I can't really describe it." Wang Tao said.
"Yea, I felt that too."
"!"
The two suddenly had a thought come to their minds at the same time.
"Boss, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Wang Tao asked.
"Yea, if we're right, then these crystals can expand the contract stones! That may mean that humans will be able to have more monsters." Ye Qin replied.
"If that's true, then we need to find out if this will let us gain a new inborn monster, or maybe if we could capture monsters and take them as our own." Wang Tao added.
The two boys nodded, they took out much larger tools and began to dig around the crystals to bring them back. If they were right, then the idea they had might become a reality.
"Right, I forgot to say something." Wang Tao suddenly said.
"What?" Ye Qin asked.
"Aren't we finding too many things? It's only been a little bit over one hundred chapters, I feel like our luck is too good." Wang Tao said.
"Well, blame the author, it's his idea." Ye Qin shrugged.
Author: "F*ck! Can you stop?!"
Ye Qin and Wang Tao continued digging out the crystals and stored them inside their smartwatches. It wasn't until five hours later, did they dig up a good amount that wasn't too much nor too little. After all, the crystals would've surely taken years upon years to form.
After extracting the crystals, Ye Qin and Wang Tao decided to head deeper inside the underwater ruins. Stepping through the other side, lights from torches were lit on their own as if anticipating their arrival.
The two brothers turned off their flashlights and looked around. Judging from how the walls were, it was obvious that they were in a maze. The walls were close together only allowing four meters of space along the way, barely being able to fit both the boys.
Ye Qin turned on his flashlight and looked around the ceiling for a few seconds.
"..."
"..."
"Whatever made this didn't consider such a loophole huh." Wang Tao spoke.
Ye Qin nodded as they both shook their heads and took flight.
The two went separately around the maze. Along the way, some monsters appeared which they wiped out, while not a single bit of treasure could be found.
Even after searching through the entire maze, they didn't find anything besides monsters and walls. On the bright side, there were many monsters around the maze, not only that, they seemed to spawn infinitely.
Since that was the case, the two had a good idea.
Wang Tao's Blackgold Python Tiger filled the entire maze with an endless amount of golden frost that would continuously drop down onto the monsters that spawned for a certain amount of time.
Ye Qin did the same, the dragons created an endless flow of flames along every single corridor, making sure it didn't conflict with the frost. Once the two were satisfied, they dropped down to the maze' exit and opened the door.
Next to the door, there was a wooden sign with a skull face along with a red nose. The sign didn't appear to be too old which meant somebody has had to have been there not too long ago.
Pushing the door open, they went through and found another maze with the exact same design but obviously had a different layout.
"..."
"The same loophole still exists..." Wang Tao commented.
The two boys did the exact same thing they had done in the previous maze. Again, there was no treasure to be found, but monsters still spawned infinitely. Yet again, they employed the same tactic by covering the entire maze in a field of fire and ice that continuously killed monsters while they were away.
This time, the sign showed the same skull with a red nose, but now a rainbow wig was drawn on the sign. Seeing this, both Ye Qin and Wang Tao's faces darkened.
"At this rate, we'll have to keep doing this until the entire body is revealed." Wang Tao said.
"En, this will take some time, let's just skip through and don't worry about looking for any treasure." Ye Qin replied.
"Right."
Opening the door, another maze was seen. The two went straight ahead where the door to the next maze was. For some reason, every maze had the exit in the exact same place as the previous one.
This time, sunglasses was painted on the sign next to the door.
**********
After passing through dozens and dozens of mazes that were almost exactly the same, the entire body of the skeleton was revealed. The two had finally made it after over ten hours of passing through mazes, fortunately, the endless monsters that spawned gave each of them a single level while the Blackgold Python Tiger was close to leveling up a second time.
Even though the monsters that spawned were only around level 30 individually, the sheer number of them gave millions of xp for them to level up.
At this point, almost all of their monsters were close to level 40.
The two brothers sat down to have a short rest before heading to the next room.
"This better be the last one." Wang Tao said.
"If all of the spots take this long, then it will take over a year to explore all of them. We even skipped a lot of places and it still took almost half a day just to reach this point. That damn clown better give us something decent." Ye Qin replied.
Just thinking about the time they spent in the maze caused the two to frown. It truly took a while just to pass through dozens of mazes that were almost identical to each other.
After a short rest, Ye Qin opened the door and passed through. On the other side, they found themselves in a room with a huge door thirty meters away from them.
"Fuck! They give us a door and then give us another one right after it!" Wang Tao cursed.
As they approached the door, the doors opened up on their own. Heading through, they arrived in a large room with a circular platform in the center and large pillars with lit torches.
The large double doors closed as the two stood in the center of the room.
At this moment, the two brothers called out all of their monsters. They looked around the empty room and waited for five minutes. After waiting for five minutes, nothing happened, not a single soul was in sight.
At the same time, the two heard a sound.
Ding! Dong!
"You Pass!"
They turned around and saw a small pillar coming out of the platform with a treasure chest that was opened up.
"..."
"..."
"What the fuck!" Wang Tao cursed again.
They spent the time to rest and waited in the room only to be greeted with a small chest without any boss awaiting them. All the suspense had disappeared, not only that; a stupid voice told them that they passed.
It was no wonder Wang Tao couldn't help but to curse.
Looking inside the chest, a silver ring with a spot that seemed to be missing a stone floated out on its own and flew towards Ye Qin. As it did, it appeared on his hand on its own while giving off a bright light.
Wang Tao saw a piece of paper and took it out. According to the paper, there were other such rings that were missing stones as well. Thinking of this, his face darkened as the thought that they had to go through this again passed through his head.
A few seconds later, the entire room started becoming white as the two brothers felt a familiar energy moving them elsewhere. What kind of energy was it? Of course, it was spatial energy, what else can teleport things away?
After another few seconds, they found themselves at the entrance of the first maze where the hydra was waiting for them. Its face showed that it was shocked that they appeared out of nowhere scaring it to death.
"Let's go." Ye Qin told it as he jumped into the water with Wang Tao following behind him. The hydra looked around briefly as if it had felt something before diving down into the water.
***********
Some minutes later, a ghastly image showed up in the room they were just in.
"I hope they will help you in your journey." the ghastly being said slowly in a hoarse and deep voice before turning into smoke and disappearing as if it had never been there.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone