The next morning Jayde continued on her way to the small cave, collecting more herbs along the way. With her new body modifications and the upgrading of her magical skills, Jayde had no problems dealing with the spirit beasts that she ran into along the way, dispatching them quickly.
With her continuous battles during the day and her cultivating of Qi in the evenings, Jayde quickly advanced in rank again. Impatient to reach the small cave system, Jayde didn't waste time trading but immediately left the Pavilion once she had advanced to Third Class, and carried on with her journey to the small cave.
Making good time, Jayde made it to the area where the small cave was located within ten days.
Scouting around the area, Jayde saw no tracks of any people nearby, but what she did notice is that area seemed eerily quiet. There were no indications of any creatures nearby, even the insects were quiet.
Feeling uneasy about this abnormal situation, Jayde expanded her magical senses and tried to sense anything unusual around her, but no matter how far she sent out her magical senses, she found nothing strange.
Although still feeling uneasy, Jayde decided to enter the small cave, removing a glow stone from her spatial ring, she walked up to the ward, her hands moved gracefully as she outlined the glyphs needed to unlocked the ward.
Wards could be set up either by using ward stones, which one just needed to remove one the of ward stones to unlock or by tieing the ward to a specific location, with the key to unlocking the ward being tied to a particular item, like the ward to the entrance to her cave, being linked to her spatial ring.
The most formidable ward was one which was tied to runes, only by knowing the exact pattern to unlock the ward could one open such a ward, these wards often had curses written into the ward, so the penalty for failing to unlock the ward would be severe — even deadly. To open a rune ward, one had to reverse the runes in the exact pattern as the rune ward was set.
Jayde unlocked the ward to the small cave by following the old man's complicated glyphs that he had written in his diary, once she opened the ward, she entered the small cave cautiously, her magical sense open and her fire shield raised just in case.
The first thing that Jayde noticed upon entering the cave was the intense heat, within moments Jayde was covered in sweat. Looking around Jayde observed that the cave walls, floors, and ceiling were unusually smooth — it appeared like the stone had been polished.
According to the notes, she had read the small cave system was made up of interconnecting rooms. In front of her, Jayde could see a small opening in the cave wall, Jayde moved through the hole in the stone wall and found that the new room she entered was a lot bigger than the entrance room. Looking around Jayde noticed that there were glow stones embedded into the cave walls, lighting up the room, and on the opposite side to the entrance into the room, was another half moon opening.
In the corner of the room was a sizeable worn furnace, covered in dust. With the amount of dust covering the furnace, you could see that it hadn't be used for a long. A desk covered with scrolls was alongside the furnace.
Walking over to the desk, Jayde unrolled some of the scrolls, upon examining them, Jayde noticed that most of the scrolls contained detailed guides on how to smelt different ores, as well as instructions to mix different ores to create metals to craft weapons.
Looking at the remaining scrolls, Jayde found detailed drawings of different types of weapons. This cave must have been inhabited by a weaponsmith, thought Jayde.
Storing the scrolls in her spatial ring, Jayde wandered around the room, she found the pile of metal ores that the old man had written about. There was quite a variety of ores, some common, but most were rare ores that were difficult to locate in the Lower Realm.
Seeing a small pile of black ores that glittered with gold specks, Jayde contacted Isha to confirm if these ores were dwarven dark gold.
[Yes that it!] Isha confirmed excitedly.
Jayde was excited to have the final item needed for the potion needed to upgrade her dantian to the bronze stage. When Isha was initially given her the list of things required she had suspected it was going to take her a long time to gather all the items needed and she was delighted that she had managed to collect the required items so quickly.
Jayde felt like finally, luck was on her side, and that fate was giving her a helping hand.
After collecting and storing everything valuable in the room in her spatial ring, Jayde decided to hunt for the treasure that the old man sensed when he had entered the cave. Exiting the room through half-moon doorway, Jayde found herself in a long passage, following the passage for about ten minutes Jayde came upon another half-moon doorway.
Entering the small room, Jayde could sense a small fluctuation in the aura in the surrounding air. Looking around Jayde could see nothing out of the ordinary in the room, except for some stones scattered on the floor the room was empty.
Jayde debated whether she should continue exploring the cave. After an intense debate with herself, she decided to call it a day, as night was approaching. Jayde was physically tired, it had been a busy day, and the blistering heat of the cave was making thing worse — Jayde was tired, sweaty, and hungry — while the temperature wasn't debilitating to Jayde as her fire abilities protected her from most of the heat, it nevertheless was draining her of her energy.
Jayde setup a small camp with the room, just to be safe, she set up her stone ward for protection. While impatient to find the treasure, Isha had advised her that most treasures were guarded by guardian spirits, not wanting to confront this creature while tired, she determined it would best to rest up for the night and continue her treasure hunting the next day.
Making a campfire, Jayde made herself a delicious dinner. After dinner Jayde cultivating for a couple of hours to restore her Qi. Removing her sleeping bag from her spatial ring, she lay it down near the campfire. Using a damp rag she wiped herself down before lying on top of the sleeping bag, it was too hot to climb into the sleeping bag. Closing her eyes, Jayde soon drifted off to sleep.
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