The group took out the soul orbs in the plaguebearers' body carefully by using their weapons and avoided touching their rotten fleshes. Even though the hellspawns were dead, the curse still lingered in their body and it might corrupt their souls if they carelessly get in contact with any of its body parts.
After getting what they needed, they had decided that the group who killed the hellspawn will be the ones to keep the orbs and they can decide for themselves how they would split their spoils.
After some time, they looked around and examined the things found in the great hall. There weren't too many interesting things to find in the hall as they have no valuable use to them, and the notes being left there which probably contained about some information about the crypt were almost erased from the passages of time and they were basically unreadable.
At the end of the hall, another door stood that led deeper towards the center of the crypt. Klaudia once again scanned the corridors beyond the great hall while being helped by Luna in walking as they walked towards the door, and she detected two more plaguebearers aimlessly looking around. She hastily informed them.
"There are still two more down that corridor over there. They probably haven't heard the calls of the ones we killed from earlier."
"The area in there must be as narrow as the one where we came from. It would be hard to avoid their attacks if we fight them there." Shane added.
His expression was solemn. Fighting that single abomination earlier made him realized that the monsters in the trial they were in was way above them, and he had to take everything seriously and give his all if he wanted to accomplish the tasks given to him by his clan.
Of course, the fierceness hidden in his eyes didn't escape Lloyd's remarkable observation. He didn't trust this type of personality at all. One would have to be exposed to the darkest culture of society and learn the hard way to know that not all people who are kind are truly good people.
There was something weird in Shane's actions lately that Lloyd couldn't clearly point out, but he had a hunch that sooner or later, this guy would do something sinister that might put them all in a bad situation. He had started to notice this guy's changes ever since they had almost died from the burning dead during their forced stay at the top of the giant hand in the Vyris Deadlands. Like the time when they fought the two flying hellspawns called gargoyles, he was just staying in the back and only waited to deliver the final blow to the hellspawn they were facing.
He was also jealous of the early ascension of Lloyd and Luna, so he made Ray do all the blocking and just wanted to be the one to finish the enemies, therefore adding to his kill count. Nevertheless, Lloyd didn't have any solid proof so he could only be wary of him for now. He then replied to his statement.
"Someone of us should go lure them out."
Shane raised an eyebrow at him.
"Good point. Who among us would go lure them?"
"The one among us who is the fastest should be the one to do it, no?"
Lloyd raised an eyebrow back at him in response which made him frown.
They all knew Shane was quite fast since his innate ability was something related to accelerating, however, they only saw him use it once at the crimson forest, where they had fought lots of sentinels. Having such a strong innate ability probably costed a great price too, or he just didn't want to reveal all his aces, should there be any infighting that would arise among the members of the cohort and it might give him advantages when that happens.
"Unfortunately, I can't risk myself to that." He shook his head and then narrowed his eyes dangerously as he intensely stared at Lloyd and threw back the question at him.
"If there is anyone who has to go, shouldn't it be you? Out of us six here, you are the one who has the least important background. What else could you stand to lose when you don't even have anything?"
"Are you trying to insult me?" Lloyd's face flushed red in anger.
"I am just stating the fact."
This time, Lloyd truly had enough of the pretentious buddy-buddy game. He clapped his hands sarcastically while letting out a cold laugh, which made Shane annoyed.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Wow! So, you bunch of elitists who come from well-known families or clans can just decide for yourselves who should be sacrificed? And then what? After you sacrifice me, you'll pick out another one of your comrades to be sacrificed next while you stay behind and enjoy the hard work of others?"
What Lloyd had said made him snapped as he suddenly drew out his talwar and pointed it at Lloyd. The others flinched and tensed as they watched what was unfolding in front of them.
"H-hey! This isn't the time to be fighting among ourselves." Ray nervously said as he tried to mediate between the two.
"Shut it." Shane glared at Ray which made him abruptly stop from intervening.
"There you go. What a hypocrite you are." Lloyd spat in disgust.
"What did you say?!"
"Oh, am I wrong? Weren't you acting so kind to me by giving me a weapon at the crimson forest a few days ago and even helped me after I got screwed by the gravebound ghoul? Now, you are so eager to get rid of me. What could it be that you are planning?" Lloyd paused and with a look of someone who had discovered something, he then continued his unfinished bombardment of questions.
"Ah, I get it. So, you are just trying to pretend as a good person so others would lower their guard down with you, and you can freely use them as if they were your servants. And once you are done with them, you will act just like now and sacrifice them for your own interests. Am I right?"
"I already told you an outskirt rat like you should never try to pretend like a know-it-all person or you'll regret it!"
Shane dashed forward with a murderous look, ready to thrash him with his talwar in a diagonal strike. Lloyd took out the sentinel's dagger in order to defend himself and was about to intercept his attack, but Luna disarmed Shane with just her bare hands. It was so quick that Shane was greatly surprised at how she did it in less than a second.
"Don't interfere with our fight, Luna Reinford!" Shane angrily shouted at her.
"I won't allow any dispute that might destroy our team." She indifferently said, increasing her grip in Shane's hand to prevent him from picking up the weapon again.
"Fine. Since you all want to play house and friends, you can just stick together for the hell I care. I'll be going ahead then." Lloyd coldly stated and turned to walk towards the door to the narrow corridor.
"Lloyd, wait—"
"Leave him be! He's useless anyway. Aside from producing weak equipment, what else could he even do?"
Shane's words stopped Klaudia from chasing after him. Klaudia wanted to retort, but stopped so when Luna also shook her head. There was nothing they could do. The group had fallen apart and Lloyd was out.
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A few minutes had passed by after Lloyd had separated from the rest of the cohort. He didn't want to venture this place alone, but he had no choice. What did he even expect? It was his fault for thinking a stupid thing as getting true companions he could trust.
He knew deep in his heart that all humans were just forming connections for the best of their interests. Once a person no longer becomes beneficial to them, they remove them from the equation. That was how the world worked since the ancient times; be it from the first appearance of humans on the world until the current generation today.
He was still just more than ten meters away from the door. He didn't want to go deeper without any preparations. Even he couldn't handle two plaguebearers at the same time without a proper weapon. He needed to create something specifically used to kill the undead.
He felt a little bit thirsty and took out the bottle of water that was refilled by the Vase of the Endless Spring. He actually had forgotten that he didn't retrieve it from Klaudia before heading out alone.
"Ah, it's such a waste. Maybe I should craft it again later. But I need a better weapon more than I need water." He said to himself as he took a little sip from the drinking bottle.
His mana was already recovered plenty to be able to craft at the maximum amount. He used the Materia generator to randomly generate base materials for crafting. Lights flashed and two unknown objects popped out. One was a big, black stone that resembled the midnight sky. The other one was also another stone, but with a lighter color and is giving a glow of soft white light. He examined the items on their status screens.
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Name: Oblivion Shard
Description: A stone that could be mined in the netherworld. Its pitch-black color resembles the darkness inside the void.
Name: Luminite Ore
Description: A stone bathed in light of the sun for eons which made it glow a soft, purifying light.
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Whenever he tried to generate materials using his skill, they usually had connections to the area where he was currently using his skill. So, these two stones definitely had something to do with the crypt. It was also the same for the Adamantine Ingot, Sun Stone, and the Orichalcum Ore.
They all had something to do with their current place, except for the first material he generated which created the Vase of the Endless Spring. Although the Neptune Steel didn't have any connection with the Vyris Deadlands' history, the very fact that they needed the purified water in order to survive the ordeals they have faced was quite strange. It was like someone had forcefully hammered an unrelated variable to a whole unsolvable puzzle just to complete it similar to a deus ex machina thing.
He gathered the two stones and took out the two champion soul orbs he had acquired from killing both the gargoyle and the plaguebearer. The two combined had a total of four soul orbs. However, Klaudia and Luna took half of it and split it between them.
He then used his Materia Refinement skill and chose the weapon option to create something that would allow him to fight those undead hellspawns. Light flashed and a sword that was like a Jian materialized. It had a fine design in its hilt which was similar to the Jians used by the kings. Its blade as black as the midnight sky appeared a lot different than ordinary Jian swords, though. Lloyd could see a faint, pale gold aura swirling around the blade.
He picked it up and looked at the descriptions with interest.
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Name: Sanctified Wraithslayer
Rank: II
Soul: Champion
Ability: Purifying Aura, Ghost Blade
Description: A sword forged from two materials with opposite characteristics. One was as dark as the void while the other shone bright as the sun. Together they created a blade capable vanquishing both evil and spiritual entities.
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He took a look at the two skills of the Jian. Purifying Aura was a passive skill. This skill coats the blade with a pale gold aura that allows it to deal a significant amount of damage to undead beings. Through this skill, enemies that have incorporeal bodies, will also become tangible once hit by the sword. The Ghost Blade is an active ability that makes the blade phase through physical matter and directly damages the soul of the opponent, instantly killing them if he destroys their soul.
This was a better weapon compared to the Dawnbringer's Cinderblade. Although that weapon packed quite a lot of destructive potential since it can cut through anything of the same rank or lower, the Sanctified Wraithslayer is more suited for killing undead and even for assassinations.
Lloyd could imagine himself stabbing someone with this sword and it won't even leave a single bit of wound, but the person or a hellspawn targeted by him would definitely die.
"Alright. I guess it's time to kill those undead bastards."