As soon as they had defeated the panther, they started exploring again. After about one hour, a screen suddenly appeared in front of Elo.
"Ding"
"Wild Horse (easy) has been defeated.
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-3 horse meat
-1 soul gem (rare)"
-"I think a panther is a way worse enemy. It seems like not every creature of the same level is equally strong, I'll have to keep that in mind."-
"Hey, look at that, the others have defeated a wild animal too."
"Yes, but they had two people capable of fighting."
Ella looked at him with a wry grin.
"Oh yes, I am sorry, you were of course way better."
The two started laughing. Even though they hadn't known each other for long, Elo still considered Ella, his best friend in the new world.
They had fought for their lives together, and she was the only one who knew his little secret.
When they stopped laughing, the message had disappeared.
"So, what are we going to do now, should we go back to the clearing ore are we going to explore a little further?"
"I think we should go a little further, rest somewhere and then go back."
Even though they had only rested about an hour ago, Elo already felt tired again.
"And you are sure that you don't want to invest any points in speed? It could be beneficial to you."
Elo was about to answer when the forest suddenly cleared and some huge destroyed stone buildings became visible.
They both stopped on the spot. So far, they had not seen any signs of human civilization in this new world.
"Ding"
"You have entered the ancient city of Alerub."
"What's that? Everywhere are big stone houses. I really hadn't expected something like this in the forest, and besides, we haven't met a single person so far. Who build this?"
"I don't know, but there must be something cool here. Let's search this place."
Elo sighed. He knew Ella was right, in video games ancient cities always had some rare treasure, but he still had a bad feeling about this.
"Ok, let's go, but we have to stick together. I can't even fight a goat on my own."
"Ok."
The building next to them was a huge mansion, whose roof and upper floor had collapsed a long time ago.
They stopped about a meter from the entrance of the stone house. It was a massive gate, big enough for an elephant to walk in, even without hitting its head.
Most likely, there had been a wooden door in the door frame, but that was long gone. The only thing that could be seen from the outside was a high corridor, which made a bend after a few meters.
"Ok, there could be something bad in there, I give you the club I used before, I know it's not that great, but it's better than nothing."
"You received:
-Big stick"
"Ok, thanks. Now let's go in."
When Elo walked through the door, he felt like an ant in the house of a giant. Even the stones the house was made of, were as big as his entire torso and they were perfectly square.
-"How did they even transport those big stones? Could it be that the former owners of this place could use some kind of magic?"-
Suddenly a group of skeletons appeared in front of them. But luckily Ella had already noticed them and jumped in front of Elo to protect him.
A swing of her weapon was enough to destroy 4 skeletons at once.
"Slave Skeleton (pathetic) has been defeated (X4).
The resources are being transferred to the leader of the team."
"You resaved:
-9 bone fragments
-1 ancient gold coin (rare)"
After 20 seconds, all the slave skeletons were destroyed, and they had dropped a total of 21 bone fragments and 1 ancient gold coin.
"Wow, those skeletons were actually pathetic. I could defeat them in only one hit."
Ella laughed. She seemed to be very happy with her newfound powers. But Elo wasn't sad either.
"Look at this. One of those skeletons actually dropped a gold coin."
A shiny golden coin appeared in his hand. On both of its sides were faces of cruel-looking humans with heavy beards and huge noses.
"It looks like this is the currency of this old city. Maybe it's still worth something somewhere in this world.
At least now we know that there is some other life form on this planet that can build houses like these and it even looks like they are humans."
Elo was pleased about their new findings.
"Let's search the house and see if we find something else."
They searched the entire ground floor, but there were only some more skeletons and dust until they reached a big stairway. They had fought over 100 skeletons by them. One of the skeletons had even dropped another ancient gold coin.
"Do you want to search the entire house?"
Ella seemed to be a little worried. They had already searched the first floor for 30 minutes, and it looked like there were at least another 3 floors.
"No, don't worry, let's just take a quick look at the next floor, and then we can go back to our camp. Are you already tired?"
Elo was happy that he wasn't the one who needed a pause this time.
"Yes, but I had to kill all those skeletons while you only had to walk behind me."
"Yes, you are right, I just thought you wouldn't get tired from killing those small fries, it looked effortless when you did it."
"It is, but it's still tiring. Whatever, let's take a look at the next floor and then go back, it's already pretty late."
While they went up the stairs, Elo realized that there was something in his poked again.
"Ding"
"You received:
-12 Power Stones, gifted by 1989QiLu and others"
-"Wow, so many Power Stones, if it goes on like that, I will be able to get to the next level in no time. I probably should…"-
That was when he saw it. An enormous black skeleton stood at the top end of the stairs. When their eyes met, a shiver ran down his spine.
Without even saying a word, Elo and Ella turned around and started running.