Chapter 421 Narration and Speculation

After a strange fluctuation appeared on that monster, countless attacks were launched, and then the monster howled as it entered the flames, which surged even more fiercely toward Shaoke.

At that moment, the mage felt a powerful mental force firmly lock onto him, and then countless illusions emerged in Shaoke's mind. Those illusions were so wonderful that the mage almost forgot he was in danger. Just then, the black crown on Shaoke's forehead flickered, snapping him out of the illusion.

Hastily casting a few low-level spells to briefly hold back the flames, the mage flew toward the direction from which the monster had come. When he reached a certain distance, the monster howled again, and a red ripple shot from its mouth, slamming heavily into the mage. Two layers of special defensive spells were instantly shattered—one layer completely, and the inner layer was cracked as well. But Shaoke quickly replenished the inner layer with mental energy and magic power, making the defensive spell solid again. At the same time, Shaoke launched his attack.

A ninth-rank death ray, after a few brief incantations, slammed into the monster's head. Under this attack, the monster's body was torn apart, and the flames vanished instantly. However, Shaoke noticed that the monster's corpse, as it hit the ground, quickly merged into the wall and disappeared.

The mage dared not linger and instead sped up to fly out. Along the way, various monsters appeared from ahead, and the mental lock that had locked onto him never let up for a moment. All kinds of illusions emerged in the mage's mind. If not for the black crown constantly emitting a cool light, Shaoke would have suspected that he, like those other tenth-tier professionals, would be torn apart and reduced to a skeleton lying here, leaving future passersby to sigh.

Shaoke had no idea how many monsters he had killed. The monsters that appeared grew stronger and more bizarre in their attack methods. At first, a single death ray could kill a monster, but later he needed to use command techniques three or four times to kill one. Moreover, later on, three or five monsters would attack him together. Their bizarre attacks nearly killed Shaoke: mental attacks, sonic attacks, pure physical attacks, and curses. Fortunately, Shaoke had various precious items on him, allowing him to escape by using them up. When the mage turned a corner, he no longer felt that powerful mental lock.

"Young man, I told you before not to come here again. I don't want to see you here next time." After that powerful mental lock disappeared, the mage received a message saying this, and then he no longer felt that strong mental fluctuation.

The mage glared fiercely at the passage behind him, then left this underground ruin. Just as the mage flew out of the lake, he felt the mysterious pressure that had been preventing him from tearing space and long-distance blinking disappear.

"Mage Xueye, can you tell us about the conditions inside?" Just as the mage was hovering in the air, about to leave, some death mages and a few bloody knights arrived, asking about the underground ruins.

Shaoke thought for a moment, then recounted what he had encountered below. When he mentioned that there was a powerful mental presence inside, all the professionals fell silent. "Mage Xueye, do you mean that the monsters only attack when you are returning?" A tenth-tier death mage asked Shaoke again, changing the subject to prevent others from worrying too much about the powerful presence in the ruins. Shaoke just nodded, confirming it.

After some further conversation with these professionals, the mage returned alone to his base. However, the death mages, in gratitude for the information Shaoke had brought, promised that they could help him with some matters. With this promise, Shaoke felt somewhat relieved. Although the death mages had helped him greatly in the past, he had already compensated them in other ways. Now, exchanging this valuable information for some promises was well worth it.

Shortly after, the mage returned to his base. As soon as he arrived, he told Mage Roman and the others that he needed to recover. After all, the injuries he had sustained in the underground ruins had not yet healed. Fortunately, with the help of the white-robed female cleric and the use of many precious medicines, the mage fully recovered in just over two months.

Of course, this was also because the mage had devoted all his energy to recovery.

After recovering, Shaoke took time to give the female spellcasters a detailed account of what had happened in the ruins. When they learned that the blue-robed female mage was trapped as an ice sculpture there, Roman frowned deeply. "Xueye, did she tell you that she would be imprisoned there for another seven or eight hundred years? If that's true, I don't think you need to risk going there again. I don't want you to become an ice sculpture and stay there for a thousand years." Mage Roman tightly grasped Shaoke's arm.

The mage nodded. "Without absolute certainty, I won't go there again. As long as she isn't dead, a few hundred years of imprisonment shouldn't be a problem." Shaoke then changed the subject. "Have you sorted out those spatial rings? Tell me, are there any surprising gains?"

It turned out that while the mage was recovering, he had handed over all the rings he had obtained from the ruins to Mage Roman for her to organize. After two months of work, the mage believed she must have finished. He now wanted to see his harvest.

Led by Mage Roman, Shaoke followed her to the study. There, a large number of books were placed on shelves. She pointed to a new bookshelf and said, "All the books on this shelf are from your latest haul. Many of them are from the ancient or even prehistoric eras. I think they will be of great help to us." Then Roman took out some rings and handed them to Shaoke. These contained a large amount of precious magic materials, and one ring was filled entirely with valuable magic items.

"There are also three staves that Moyu'er and the others are using. Those staves suit them well." Roman casually took out a light red staff. This staff had two ninth-rank single-target attack spells and one tenth-rank area attack spell permanently sealed into it. And this staff was just one of the most ordinary among those magic items. Of course, there were also some cloaks and robes. However, according to Roman's speculation, these items were all made by ancient spellcasters, and modern spellcasters simply lacked the ability to create such magic items. But if a large number of high-level alchemists studied them, it might be possible to recreate the glory of those ancient magic items.

Shaoke casually looked over these magic items, then selected a few for his own use. The magic items he had been wearing were completely destroyed during the battle in the ruins.

After selecting the magic items, the mage focused his main attention on the books. Some of these books were brought by the professionals themselves, while others were obtained from the ruins. Shaoke concentrated on the books from the ruins, hoping to find information about that black light. However, Mage Roman and his daughters could not help because they could not recognize the script. Still, under Shaoke's orders, they went to attend to other matters.

"A few days ago, the alliance distributed resources. The resources we received were a bit less than last time." After the children left, Roman quietly told Shaoke about this. "I have already asked the female ruler of the Hebrews. She said it was a decision of the entire alliance, and we have no right to change it."

Hearing this, Shaoke smiled. "There was no deduction in the previous times. This time they deducted. Did they really think I was dead?" As he spoke, the mage quickly spun his staff, then asked the female mage, "How is the cultivation of those death warriors going? If possible, expand the scale as much as possible." Shaoke thought for a moment and changed the subject.

"Right now, our base's personnel haven't recovered. It's simply impossible to expand the scale." The female mage frowned in irritation. "Recently, I don't know what's happening, but the entire Barbarian Empire has been experiencing constant tremors. But I feel these tremors are not caused by battles, and the direction of the tremors is from that ninth-tier base." She took out her records and showed them to the mage for inspection.

After examining them carefully, the mage recalled the formation used when building that base, and then shared his speculation with Roman.

"You mean those formations are now taking effect? They are absorbing energy to nurture underground mineral veins?" Hearing this, the female mage frowned deeply. According to the records in her family's books, the nurturing of such mineral veins would not produce such loud noises. To verify her guess, Roman even fetched that book for the mage to check. "I believe there must be another reason."