Chapter 21: Jackpot
It was a huge room with completely intact structures.
Most other rooms were either partially destroyed or full of mosses and dust.
This room however was as new as it could get with clean floors, glowing pillars, and well-decorated walls.
The room was filled with all sorts of treasures including precious ores, high-quality artifacts, and exotic materials like dragon's tooth, phoenix feathers, etc.
The staff and katana used by Chris were also here. Both were top-quality epic-tier artifacts. My ring was probably drooling right now.
I chuckled and started wandering around the room.
My main motive in coming here was to search for a certain item called Eldruim. It's a purple heart-shaped gem.
I searched all over the room and found quite a few useful items along the way.
There were some vials of blood, ancient tomes, and even a cursed item. The blood vials might be of some ancient creatures, hope they might contain some source blood. The cursed item was a dark dagger filled with a baleful aura.
I swept the floor clean as I wandered throughout the room.
"Finally!"
I saw a purple gem shining lightly in the corner of the room. It matched the description of Eldruim so I swiftly stored it.
"Now that the task is completed. Let's get outta here."
Loki returned to the throne room and started approaching the return portal.
The return portal is usually generated at the entrance of the ruin after you've defeated the main boss.
Loki had defeated Chris and also looted his treasury. So, the return portal had already appeared at the entrance.
Meanwhile
"Miss, Almost all of them are dead." An old man informed Fiona.
"Hmm… Let's wait a little longer."
Fiona ordered and retired towards her tent.
The old man sighed and left to observe the adventurer's life status.
He entered the status room and glanced at the lamps. These lamps were called Life Observers.
During the void age, The life status of an individual couldn't be observed if they were inside some ruin or areas with high spatial current.
To solve this issue, One of the heroes invented these lamps. By pouring a little bit of your eden inside this lamp, the lamps would light up. If the light inside the lamp dies down, that means you're dead.
There were ten lamps around the room. Only a single lamp was still lit up while the others had already died down.
Fiona was a little anxious and frustrated by now since the gem that she ordered the adventurers to bring was very precious to her.
She had obtained the [Doomsday Scepter] during the auction. So, her next plan was to heal it.
Healing a broken artifact requires a grandmaster blacksmith or a powerful healing artifact. This is where Eldruim comes into play, as even a blacksmith cannot heal a broken artifact without proper materials.
She desperately needed to heal the scepter as it could her fulfill her lifelong wish.
"I don't have much time left," Fiona muttered as he cast a helpless glance at the teleportation portal.
Elsewhere
Inside a grand mansion, a young lady could be seen playing with another woman. Their looks resembled each other. The young lady was a child around 5 with a cute and cheerful face. The woman was a gorgeous middle-aged beauty. They were none other than Kiara and Amelia Grimheart.
"Mom Mom! Tell me a story!" Kiara nudged her mother with sparkling eyes.
"Alright Dear." Amelia patted Kiara's head with a smile and started narrating a story.
After she finished the story, she glanced at Kiara's face and noticed a slight sadness.
"What happened, Dear." she placed her on her lap and inquired.
"I miss Brother," Kia responded with a saddened face.
"Hmm… should we call him then?" Amelia suggested and Kia's face instantly lit up.
Kia fiercely nodded her head and started cheering.
"Perepereperepere"
"It looks like your Brother is busy, Dear."
Kia lowered her head with a sullen face.
"How about we call him a bit later?" Amelia suggested and Kia responded with a weak 'Mmm'.
In the ruin,
Loki cautiously approached the entrance of the ruin while observing his surroundings.
He knew that this was a dangerous area and even a moment of carelessness might cost him his life.
Halfway through his journey, he found a lot more shadow snakes and other weird creatures.
They were mostly common-tier so he just ignored them and moved forward.
Slash
"These snakes are so annoying." A severed head flew by as I calmly unsheathed my sword.
The snakes were densely packed around the entrance as if they were guarding something.
I pondered for a bit and just helplessly shook my head. I've already defeated the main boss some side boss should be manageable.
I cheered myself and dashed forward while continuing to slay the snakes.
A portal slowly appeared in my vision. A smile appeared across my face as I approached the portal.
The portal was shining quietly in the dark environment.
When I neared the portal, A giant snake appeared roaming around the portal. The snake looked identical to those shadow snakes with its obsidian-like scales. But, its size was nearly triple that of a regular shadow snake.
I gapped at its size and instantly hid myself.
"What the Fuck is that?!"
I questioned to myself calming my raging heart.
I can't defeat that with a single arm. I might have healed myself physically but I'm still mentally tired. This is an early epic-tier beast.
I need to get out of this place but that stupid snake is guarding the portal.
"Hmm…"
I overloaded my brain to think of a solution. Maybe I could trick it somehow. But the question remains, How?
"Wait! I could do that."
I pointed my sword's tip toward the beast's eye and fired a dark beam.
The beam rushed forward with extreme speed and pierced its eyes.
Hisss
The snake gave an agonizing cry and spit its venom in my direction.
Swish
I dodged it and approached the portal.
[Grimheart Reinforcement Sutra: Body Strengthening]
[Lightspeed]
[Aegis of Life]
I spammed my skills and dashed forward.
My barriers got destroyed halfway and the venoms of these puny snakes started hitting my body.
"Arghh.."
A groan escaped my lips as I felt their venom. Thankfully, their venoms affected my body rather than my brain. I wasn't sure about that epic-tier beast though.
That epic-tier beast was acting berserk and spitting its venom everywhere. I narrowly dodged those venoms and continued forward.
They melted my flesh and also affected my bones. Thankfully I had anticipated that and used body strengthening before.
I was nearly 5 meters away from the portal so I swiftly bent my knees and jumped directly towards the portal.
"AHHHHHH!"
An agonizing shout roared through the area as the venom of that bastard sprayed across my body.
I was in the air and couldn't dodge so, I could only scream desperately as I entered through the portal.