Chapter 310 Gains from Exploration

After bidding farewell to Mage Roman and the others, Shaoke led the mages to the destination: the location designated by the Eighth Tier Female Mage. There were not many professionals here, with only about two hundred people from various major forces, most of whom were warriors. The Eighth Tier Female Mage was already waiting for everyone here. Since Shaoke and the others had been informed in advance by the female mage, they all rode horses. However, even so, it took them a full two magic hours to reach the destination. Of course, this was due to the extremely poor road conditions. The wide road surface had been largely damaged by cracks of varying sizes. Fortunately, many of Shaoke's mages knew the common low-tier spell of earth manipulation, so they were able to quickly fill in the ordinary cracks.

After some travel, a huge pit appeared before Shaoke and the others. A large amount of magical fluctuations rippled irregularly above the pit, and some flames were still burning inside it.

"I remember this place used to be a small hill," said a warrior leader, glancing at the pit, then pointing at the surrounding giant rubble and other crystals, looking uncertainly at the Eighth Tier Female Mage. Although there had been turmoil here last night, he simply couldn't believe that the situation was caused by those high-tier beings.

The others, including Shaoke, stared blankly at the pit.

"We go down," the blue-robed female mage said, floating down toward it without answering the leader's question. "See that cave? We enter from there."

Seeing the Eighth Tier Female Mage descend first, Shaoke and the others didn't linger long. After briefly organizing their gear, they followed in a certain order, finding safe footholds to head toward the cave. Shaoke guessed that this cave was the ruins those people had been fighting over. The only thing he didn't understand was why they hadn't been allowed to participate in such matters before, yet now she was personally leading them here. Of course, he didn't dare ask the female mage ahead, as this was beyond his understanding.

The pit was only a few dozen meters deep. Although the path was difficult, everyone here was a professional of Sixth Rank or above, so there were no major issues. Of course, this was due to the participation of some leaders without combat abilities, which actually made the path easier.

Along the way, everyone remained silent, while Shaoke carefully observed the surroundings. He noticed that many teams had already entered the cave before them.

As they approached the bottom, the chaotic magical fluctuations began to agitate some mages, especially those who had just advanced to the Sixth Rank. These fluctuations caused slight disturbances in their meditation spaces, and some vague images were sensed by Shaoke and the other mages. That intense battle almost made the mages feel as if they were personally participating in the fight.

The cave entrance was not very large, only about two to three meters high. However, as Shaoke and the others entered, the cave gradually widened, and the wild magical fluctuations began to slowly diminish. But Shaoke keenly noticed that the situation here had become quite dire, as his mental power could only extend about a hundred meters beyond his body before slowly dissipating into the air.

Fortunately, at that moment, the Eighth Tier Female Mage reminded Shaoke and the others that this was a normal phenomenon, which somewhat relaxed the mages. Nevertheless, everyone gripped their staffs tightly, and Shaoke even distributed some Fifth Tier protective scrolls to his mages to ensure their safety in case of unexpected situations.

After walking for about a thousand meters, the passage suddenly split into branches. The female mage had an infiltrator identify which path had fewer people, then led Shaoke and the others forward along that route. Such situations occurred almost every thousand meters, and Shaoke felt that these passages sometimes went upward and sometimes downward, making it difficult to discern any pattern.

Shaoke now relied solely on his memory to remember the route they had taken. Of course, this was mainly because the Eighth Tier Female Mage had vetoed setting up magical markers, as those markers would slowly dissipate into the air after a very short time, leaving no trace.

In these dark underground passages, the group relied solely on the mages' illumination spells to find their way. Fortunately, there were quite a few mages, and the passages were built very smoothly, so their progress wasn't significantly slowed. However, they couldn't feel the passage of time here.

After turning into another passage, the infiltrator ahead reported that no one had entered this passage before. Upon hearing this news, the Eighth Tier Female Mage visibly relaxed, then urged the mages to quicken their pace, as she wanted to explore enough passages before other teams arrived.

"Honored Mage," the infiltrator scouting ahead suddenly appeared before the Eighth Tier Female Mage, and after a salute, reported his findings. "The path ahead is blocked." He then detailed the specifics of the blockage.

"Continue forward," the Eighth Tier Female Mage said without hesitation, quickly making her decision, then took the lead toward the blockage. Shaoke and the others simply followed obediently, cautiously moving forward. Shaoke guessed that if what the infiltrator said was true, they might have a find this time.

A stone door about one person's height blocked their path. With the help of illumination spells, Shaoke quickly noticed some things on the stone door: a large number of ancient magic scripts, along with strange patterns, other texts, and magic arrays. All of this excited the group.

After carefully examining the stone door, the Eighth Tier Female Mage said in a cheerful tone, "Mages, now is the time for you to shine. I think you should use forceful dispelling spells to break the defensive spells on this door." After speaking, she stepped back a few paces, signaling Shaoke and the others to go up and use brute force to break the stone door. Shaoke and the others followed the Eighth-order being's instructions perfectly.

With nearly fifty Sixth Tier Mages continuously casting forceful dispelling spells, the faint magical power that had been emanating from the stone door completely dissipated. The Eighth Tier Female Mage examined the stone door again, then reached out and touched it, finally grabbing a strange beast's head, gently pressing it a few times before letting go. The stone door slowly opened.

Before Shaoke and the others lay a massive stone chamber, filled with piles of boxes. The Eighth Tier Female Mage signaled Shaoke and a few other High-rank Mages to follow her inside to inspect the contents of the boxes, then used a spatial ring to collect them. While helping the Eighth Tier Female Mage collect these boxes, Shaoke clearly sensed that several other mages wanted to put the boxes into their own spatial bags, but ultimately abandoned this reckless idea due to various concerns.

Shaoke had discovered, while inspecting one box, that it contained a special magic material: the heart crystals of snow bee queens. One entire box was filled with these items. The appearance of snow bee queen heart crystals had become increasingly rare recently. According to books, only when these snow bee queens lived for over a thousand years was there a certain chance of such crystals forming. These crystals were said to be an extremely precious material often needed by mages at or above the Eighth Tier.

The mages worked for a long time before finally clearing all the boxes in the chamber.

Finally, the beaming Eighth Tier Female Mage, slightly losing her composure, promised Shaoke and the others sufficient rewards upon their return. Of course, these rewards would be greater than those given to others.

After checking the stone chamber again, the female mage led them toward another passage, hoping to encounter another such chamber. After walking for a while, she had everyone rest. She then took out a strange transparent scroll to check something on it, before leading them onward again. Shaoke didn't know how long this continued. He only knew that he had taken out the thirteenth spatial ring from a small pouch to store the items they had discovered.

This time, after the mages had collected a large number of books, the Eighth Tier Female Mage suddenly announced that they should leave. Shaoke and the others raised no objections. However, on the way back, Shaoke noticed that this section of the passage was carved with numerous magic arrays and some strange magic scripts. He secretly used the staff from the Death Mage Corps to scratch an empty spot on the wall, but found that it left no trace. Moreover, he could feel that the seemingly dark arrays on the wall were still operating in a special way, which was very different from the current method of array operation.

"Honored Mage, can we study the arrays outside?" a Seventh Rank mage asked greedily, eyeing the arrays on the wall, which held great appeal for him.

"If you want to stay here forever, then go ahead and study these arrays," the female mage said. She then had Shaoke and the others eat, while she took out the transparent scroll and looked at it anxiously. Not knowing the situation here, Shaoke and the others could only speed up their meal to avoid leaving a bad impression on the Eighth Tier Female Mage.

The group of over two hundred people ate quickly, mainly because they were all consuming pre-made dry rations. The Eighth Tier Female Mage also ate a little of the honey and bread slices Shaoke had given her, then urged everyone to start marching.