Chapter 1112: Vera_2

Chapter 1112: Chapter 898: Vera_2

He walked along the passage for a while, and when he turned a corner, a relatively spacious stone chamber suddenly appeared before his eyes.

The stone chamber was not large, the walls were smooth, and in the center of the floor was a stone treasure chest about half a man’s height. The surface of the chest was covered with ancient patterns of the same origin as the stone walls, emitting a very faint energy fluctuation.

Beside the treasure chest lay a sturdy stone lizard, its grayish-white scale armor almost completely blended with the stone wall except for two slowly burning dark red flames in its eye sockets that exposed its position.

Demigod level, its aura was equivalent to that of the previous Flame Demon.

Duke did not waste time probing; he silently slid into the stone chamber along the dome in a wind elemental form, maneuvering to the back of the stone lizard, and, the moment he appeared, condensing the Six-Color Divine Light Sword. The light beams of six rules intertwined into a brilliant and deadly sword edge, slicing into the weakest scale armor crevice at the back of the lizard’s neck before it could fully open its eyes from slumber.

One strike to kill, clean and neat.

He withdrew the Six-Color Light Saber from the lizard’s shattered scale armor, casually flicking off the remaining dark red bloodstains on the sword edge, then walked to the treasure chest. After using spiritual power to check and confirm there were no hidden traps, he reached out to push open the heavy stone lid.

Inside the treasure chest were neither the rule crystals nor the relics he had anticipated, only a key lying quietly at the bottom, made of grayish-white stone material, with surface engravings of ancient patterns of the same origin as the stone walls.

As soon as he held the key, information flowed into his spiritual sea.

Twelve hours, can add a guest mark.

Just like the first one he had found earlier, he placed the key into his arms, marked the location of this treasure chest on the parchment map, then turned back towards the side corridor.

Passing through the two half-concealed chunks of granite at the entrance of the side corridor, he stood once again at the center of the main passage fork.

In his hands, he now had two keys, one freshly taken from the treasure chest, yet to be activated.

The other was one he found a few days ago, already used at the critical moment when the gray fog descended.

Each occurrence of the gray fog lasted eight hours, so there should be enough time before the next one descends for him to explore a bit further.

Three days later, when the gray fog descended again.

As the gray fog descended, Duke was advancing along a side corridor to the west of the main passage, previously explored but not deeply ventured.

The ancient patterns on the stone walls began to dull one by one, as the concentration of dark attribute energy particles soared, grayish-white fog emanated from every junction and every crack in the stone walls simultaneously.

Duke did not immediately activate the safe house key but dispersed his body silently, transforming into a dark gray fog almost merging with the gray mist.

The dark attribute elemental form in this dense environment of death energy allowed him to expand his perception range to several dozen meters, sufficient to detect most dangers ahead of time.

The key would only consume its time limit if activated, so he intended to endure one more occurrence of the gray fog as much as possible.

The gray fog completely shrouded the stone corridor, visibility dropped to a minimum.

Duke moved slowly along the edge of the stone wall, extending his perception to its furthest, avoiding the occasional drifting Level 4 Undead Demons in the distant gray fog.

Just as he maneuvered past one junction, a familiar energy signal suddenly reached the edge of his perception.

The signal was moving rapidly in his direction, with energy fluctuations erratic and disorganized, clearly injured.

He immediately focused his perception, capturing more details in the deep gray fog: a slender figure was desperately flying towards him, her long golden-blonde hair trailing a blurred afterimage in the fog. Around her spiraled dozens of dark purple thorny vines, each vine emitting a faint natural rule aura, interweaving behind her into a dense defensive net, persistently intercepting the skeletal fingers extending from the gray fog behind her.

A Level 4 Undead Demon was hot on her trail, its tattered cloak fluttering quickly through the fog, fingers relentlessly tearing apart vine after vine, which were barely held back by newly born tendrils.

Had it not been for the vines providing her with constant acceleration, she might not have held on up to then.

Vera. Upon recognizing the signal in an instant, Duke reverted to his corporeal form, propelling himself towards her.

Vera sensed his aura almost simultaneously, lifting her head sharply, surprise flash briefly in her deep sea sapphire blue eyes before returning to their usual calmness.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but the thorny defense net was torn open again by the Undead Demon, forcing her to channel all of her spiritual power back into the vines.

Duke seized her wrist, turning and dashing toward the nearest edge of the safe house key’s sensing range.

“The safe house key, just add a guest mark to enter together…” As he said this, he compressed this entire piece of information with spiritual power directly to Vera. Her pupils expanded slightly for a moment, then without hesitation, she infused her own spiritual power mark into the rune core of the key in his hand.

The ancient patterns on the key’s surface glowed briefly upon her mark input, a faint golden halo surfacing on its gray stone surface, completing the guest mark addition.

The two charged side by side towards the stone wall, with Duke grasping the key tightly. The Gate of Rules within the stone wall opened the moment he touched it, concentric ripples of faint golden light spread across the gray stone slab as if a stone had been tossed into the water.

Vera followed closely, the two silently disappearing into the depths of the stone corridor as they passed through the wall, merging into the water.

In the last instant as half a foot sank into the wall, the skeletal fingers of the Undead Demon passed by their vanished position, scraping a dull gray mark across the patterns on the gray stone slab.

Yet, the stone wall of the safe house did not budge, the light golden film on its surface rippled slightly beneath the touch before swiftly reverting to calmness.

Inside the safe house, Duke released Vera’s wrist, sliding down to sit against the stone wall, exhaling a long breath of relief.

He raised his hand, glancing at the key that had just been activated, with nearly twelve hours remaining on its limit.

Vera stood beside him, the purple thorns surrounding her gradually vanished one by one, with the last few vines slipping from her shoulders, transforming into fine purple light dust and merging into the air of the stone chamber.

She slowly lowered herself to sit against the stone wall, chest heaving violently, with a few strands of her golden-blonde hair sticking to her cheeks soaked in sweat and blood. Her white magic robe was torn at the cuff, and a bleeding claw mark marred her left arm.

Her deep sea sapphire blue eyes remained cool and composed under the soft light of the safe house’s faint golden film.

Vera leaned against the stone wall to catch her breath for a while before gradually steadying herself. She retrieved a clean roll of magic bandage from her space ring, biting one end and skillfully wrapping the claw mark on her left arm with her right hand and teeth, her movements suggesting she had done it countless times.

Only after completing this did she raise her head to look at Duke, who was sitting across from her. Her tone retained its usual calm composure, but with a trace of fatigue that could not be concealed.

“Let’s exchange some information first; you might have guessed some of the situation on the second layer.” She casually rolled up the remaining bandage, placing it back into her ring, then folded her hands on her knees. “The main ore vein and quite a few side veins have been completely drained, and the Level 4 clan leaders from those tribes were enraged, with five tribes joining forces to patrol, making the defense of the mineral area tighter than a fortress.

The newly arrived people on the second layer could mostly only gather some scattered ores on the outskirts. If lucky, they could scrounge a few raw ores from miners. If unlucky, they could not even find a shadow of the ores.

Most people left immediately after accumulating enough points for the third layer, as staying an extra day was a gamble with their lives. Everyone was speculating about how you managed to drain the entire main ore vein, and besides that, they’re also cursing you.”

Her lips curled into a faint smile, but her tone bore no blame, merely stating a fact indifferent to her own involvement.