Chapter 79: A Drop of Golden Liquid

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: A Drop of Golden Liquid

Inside the second door, the initial structure was narrow, but the deeper they went, the more it expanded. However, instead of a lake like on the previous path, the end of this passage was a dense, massive mushroom forest.

Looking up, stark white, sticky spiderwebs blanketed the entire path.

This was the lair of venomous spider magical beasts. The moment they caught the scent of human warmth, the spiders swarmed forward like a tide. Their strength ranged from half-star to two-star – equivalent to human Tier Two mages.

Their rank wasn’t high, but their numbers were enough to drown them using human wave tactics.

Left with no other choice, the five had to bitterly reenact their desperate fleeing act.

Half an hour later, the group struggled back to the starting line, their breathing somewhat chaotic.

Jeremy let out a heavy breath, resorting once again to his "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" method.

Counting the time they were tricked by the Beastmen and the recent flight, they had run for their lives a total of five times. Now, only one stone door remained before them.

His wrong-choice rate truly hit the one hundred percent mark.

By this time, it was already six-thirty in the evening.

Jeremy’s face was expressionless as he said flatly, "...If I had known, I would have let you guys choose from the start."

According to observed patterns, from nine o’clock at night, all magical beasts would enter a berserk state, simultaneously swarming out of their lairs. This meant they had less than two and a half hours left to find an escape route.

"Whoever chooses, it’s the same," Leon roughly tousled his dirt-covered hair, his clothes disheveled, his face unable to hide his exhaustion. "There’s only one path left anyway, we’ll know once we charge in."

"...Let’s go," Jeremy silently prayed that luck would smile upon them this time. Out of six doors, there had to be at least one path to survival.

He had just lifted his foot to walk when Phoenix suddenly spoke up, "...Wait."

Jeremy stopped and turned around, "What’s wrong?"

Phoenix didn’t speak, only extending a finger pointing toward the central stone door – the one that had originally collapsed.

The group followed his pointing finger. In the crevices of the murky passage, a gentle, strangely brilliant light was radiating from deep within the ruins, somewhat dispelling the eerie darkness of the cave.

Jeremy’s expression changed slightly.

Could Los still be alive?

No, absolutely impossible. He had witnessed with his own eyes the guy’s chest being pierced and his body exploding. Then where was this light coming from?

Hesitating for a moment, curiosity coupled with caution forced Jeremy to clarify. He lowered his voice, "I’ll go in and check a bit, I’ll be right out."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lucius strode to his side, his tall figure seemingly shielding half of Jeremy’s body, "I’ll go with you."

The other three nodded silently, consciously following behind. Jeremy didn’t stop them; the atmosphere within the team recently had become much more harmonious and synchronized.

---

Under the light spilling from the ruins, the details of the cave became vividly clear. This time, Jeremy’s sharp eyes instantly caught tiny characters carved deeply into the rock wall. That soothing light was precisely emitting from these ancient texts.

Jeremy stepped closer, focusing his mind to observe.

Seeing his attentive expression, Leon curiously leaned his head in, "What does it say?"

"I don’t know," Jeremy answered curtly, incredibly straightforward. "I don’t understand a single word."

Leon, "..."

Jeremy turned to look at the four of them, "Do you recognize this language?"

The complex, winding strokes looked somewhat like ancient language at first glance, but the grammatical structure was entirely different. In the original owner’s memories, as well as the treasure trove of knowledge he had read, there was absolutely no record of this type of script.

His four teammates consecutively shook their heads.

Jeremy’s gaze swept along the stone wall, pondering, "When I came in here last time, I didn’t see these texts at all."

The situation had been tense then, all attention focused on the Beastmen, but his vision wasn’t so poor as to miss such a massive detail.

Evelyn, always the most meticulous observer in the team, affirmed, "It’s true they weren’t there before. They suddenly appeared after the explosion occurred. It’s very likely related to the type of magic the Beastmen used."

"That’s highly possible," Jeremy nodded. These characters stretched from the entrance all the way deep inside. To be cautious, he slowed his pace, utilizing his eidetic memory to skim over the entire rock wall surface, deeply etching the shape of each character into his brain. Once back at the academy, researching ancient texts might reveal a clue.

Extending until the section bordering the dried-up lake, the ancient texts vanished. Ahead lay a chaotic pile of rubble, impossible to advance further.

Jeremy stopped, his eyes scanning the entire area. Suddenly, a blinding golden light caught his attention. It seeped from the crack of a large boulder, oozing a thick liquid that radiated an incredibly pure magical fluctuation.

Lucius stood beside him, arms crossed over his chest, narrowing his eyes to assess, "Light from the Nightmare Demon’s corpse. It seems even in death, it still managed to complete its evolutionary process."

"A vitality so robust it’s bizarre," Jeremy muttered. In the [Magical Beast Encyclopedia], the Nightmare Demon was described as a unique creature, but there had never been any record of them being able to continue evolving after their life had been extinguished.

Seeing Jeremy’s eyes locked onto the puddle of golden liquid, Lucius tilted his head, analyzing, "Before they died, the Beastmen mentioned a ’ruin’s guidance’. Do you think it’s connected to the texts on the wall and this liquid?"

Lucius’s words were like a lightning bolt flashing through Jeremy’s brain.

He reached out his hand, and delicate streams of magic power, like invisible threads, flew out, skillfully wrapping around the puddle of golden liquid, purifying its impurities, and neatly gathering it all into a small glass vial. Putting aside its use, collecting loot was never a waste.

After the vial’s cap was tightly sealed, Jeremy decisively turned around, "Let’s go. We currently don’t have the capability to decipher this, let’s just escape outside first. If this is truly the key to open the ruin, it won’t be too late for us to return later."