Ben sleeps in the coffin because it is the most comfortable place to sleep there. The ground is uneven, so it is not comfortable at all. He sleeps instantly as he closes his eyes because he is very tired now.
The next morning, Ben wakes up with a growling stomach. He hasn't eaten any food since he entered this Dark Valley. His provision was burnt by the high heat and became unedible.
"Sigh, I need to hunt first even though I'm very hungry now. So troublesome," says Ben as he prepares to leave the area.
As he starts to walk, Ben notices that the high temperature has gone. With Escanor's defense mechanism gone, the temperature also dropped because there's no heat source again. But there's nothing to be protected here, so it's not a problem.
Ben looks at the skeletons and he has an idea. He grins mischievously and picks a skeleton that has the best condition. Then he put it in the coffin after putting the best-looking clothes on it.
"Hehe, I don't know if it can fool anyone, but I hope it will. Now I just need to make it more believable," says Ben with a naughty expression.
After putting the coffin's lid back in its place, Ben writes something on it. He writes runes on the coffin as another defense mechanism. He makes it similar to the one that Escanor made.
Well, his magic isn't as strong as Escanor's, but at least it is the same magic. With AI Chip's guidance, Ben can make a similar defense like before. He also writes runes that make the temperature raises to 2000 Celsius again, so people won't notice that the real corpse has gone.
"Nice, when someone opens it, then it will go *BOOM*. HAHA, I want to see it, but that won't happen. Hehe, take this you greedy bastards," says Ben while laughing like a maniac.
Ben leaves the area immediately and runs like a discovered thief. There's no one here, but he still runs as fast as he can. But it just makes him hungrier, so he walks normally after getting to a rather far distance.
He arrives at the border after a moment and realizes that the temperature here is lower. His magic range is far smaller than Escanor's even though it has the same temperature.
"Hmm, I hope it won't make people suspicious. They will just think that it became smaller because it has gotten weaker by age. Well, it's not my problem," Ben as he leaves the Dark Valley.
Ben takes out his magic revolver and tries to find prey. He uses his magic sense and finds a Green Goat. The Goat is eating grass and doesn't realize Ben's presence. He shoots it and kills it easily then he roasts it using his fire magic.
"Thank you for your sacrifice," says Ben to the roasted goat before he eats it.
Ben eats every edible part of the goat without leaving anything. It's a lot of food, but he can finish it without any problem. His appetite is always big, but now it has grown bigger.
"Damn, I'm still hungry. Is it because of the Devil Slayer Magic's effect?" ponders Ben.
[No, you are just a glutton.]
AI Chip suddenly chimed in and it makes Ben sweatdrop at her. But maybe she is true because his appetite is big. Besides, he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday, so he is very hungry.
So Ben hunts again and he eats 2 more goats. This area is full of these guys and other herbivores. It's because this place is close to the Dark Valley and safer than other areas.
After his stomach gets full, Ben goes to the village ruins that he found yesterday. He investigates it thoroughly to find any remains of the past Mages civilization. There might be something interesting here.
"Hmm, it seems some people have found this place and took the valuables. The ones that got left here are just the broken items. Well, many people have gone to Dark Valley, so this village must've been found too. But there should be hidden items or something else," says Ben as he looks around.
Ben uses his magic sense and AI Chip scanning ability. A place like this must've some secrets that aren't easy to find. It just needs a lot of effort to find those secrets.
His feeling is right because Ben finds a secret after 3 hours of searching. He looks at the map that AI Chip made as he walks around the ruins. This village was built in a strange pattern and there are small stones scattered everywhere.
The stones didn't look strange at first, but they become strange if watched from above. The scattered stones are actually shaping a formation. It is a formation of big 3 layered circles with some big runes inside.
(a.n: I changed the 'magic letters formation' into 'runes formation' to make it shorter)
Ben checks the stones and they all have hidden runes written on them. People without knowledge about runes and good magic sense won't notice them because they're hidden very well.
"What runes formation is this? Does it still work? Hmm, there's only one way to find it out. But first, I need to scan all these runes," says Ben.
Using AI Chip scanning ability, Ben scans every rune on the stones here. He needs to know it and save it for references. These runes might be useful in the future. Besides, these are ancient runes formation, so he needs to learn them.
It only takes half an hour for him to finish the scanning. AI Chip's scanning ability has increased over these years because Ben kept using it. He saved all the runes in the database before getting ready to activate the runes formation.
Ben goes to the outer layer and stands outside the formation. He takes a deep breath and prepares his MP. Then he slams his right hand and flows his MP on the formation. The formation glows blue for a moment before dimming again.
"Hmm? It seems this thing is getting rusted," says Ben.
He tries again and it still failed. Some more tries and they all failed. Now Ben starts to think that there is something wrong with the formation. He checks the scanning result in AI Chip's database and tries to find the problem.
But without any knowledge about this runes formation, he can't find the problem easily. Even with AI Chip's high computation ability, this is still difficult. He needs to find clues, so he checks the ruins again while AI Chip analyzes the formation.
As he checks the ruins, Ben finds some drawings in the ruins of the houses. He looks at them and tries to learn them seriously. He keeps learning them until finally, he realizes something.
"This village was Demons' Village, not human mages," says Ben with a surprised tone.
Through the drawings, Ben finds out that this village's residences were Demons. They built their village here to avoid contacts with humans that would hunt them down. That was also why Escanor buried Midas near this village because the Ancient Demons respected him.
"Hmm? So that's how I should activate the formation," says Ben in realization.
Ben goes to the formation's outer layer again and does the same thing as before. But now he uses his Devil Slayer Magic power to activate the formation.
"If this village was Demon Village, then they must've used demon power. Luckily, I have that power now," says Ben while grinning.
Now the activation doesn't fail and the blue light doesn't dim. Ben keeps flowing a lot of MP into the formation until it is fully activated.
When it gets fully activated, a wide square-shaped stone gets lifted in the village's center. Under the stone is stairs that lead to the underground.
"Underground again? I hope there won't be any giant Centipede here," says Ben as he enters get inside.
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You can read up to 30+ chapters ahead of this fanfic novel & the other one on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 139 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 150 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)