Chapter 127 - Haunted (5)

When Basil said there was a passageway at the end of the room, he was referring to the one he had found in the Threader's treasure chamber, which was located at the end of the room everyone was in.

Thompson wanted to ask further about it, but Basil just stormed off wordlessly, leaving him with no choice but to follow Basil.

Whenever one hears "Treasure," one will always think about gold, precious stones, and any other luxurious things. However, the treasure people found in Demon's treasure chamber was none of the mentioned above.

Demon, unlike human, lived without any need to pay. Whenever they needed something, they would steal, kill, and do everything to achieve what they needed. Therefore, they didn't need any use of gold, and any other things human thought "precious."

What they kept in their treasure chamber were things that helped them in increasing their power.

They were no other than Beast Core and Mana Crystal.

Every Demon staying inside Dungeon would go to the outside world once in a while to hunt for Magical Beast. Every Magical Beast contained a Core similar to Knight inside them.

The Core extracted from them could be used for many things: powering a Rune, making a potion, and powering spell. However, the reason why Beast Core was highly sought was the pure Mana it contained.

Different than Mana Crystal, which required one to process the Mana after absorbing it, Beast Core didn't require one to do that. One could absorb every Mana inside the Core, and it could be used to aid one's Circle Carving directly.

Of course, not all of Magical Beast had Core. Only Fourth Grade Beast and above had one. Unfortunately though, these Magical Beasts rarely showed themselves. They were intelligent enough to stay far away from human.

With that being said, Basil had found three White Beast Cores, and three kilograms worth of Mana Crystal. While the little amount of Beast Core was understandable, it wasn't the case with the Mana Crystal.

After the long time had passed since it had been built, Dungeon became a mine of Mana Crystal. Due to the Arrays—which gathered Mana to seal the Dungeon—set inside, many Mana Crystal was formed.

Therefore, any Demon staying inside a Dungeon could easily mine them.

While Basil didn't know how much this Dungeon contained Mana Crystal, he could surely say the Threader he had killed had been a lazy bastard. Three kilograms of Mana Crystal was just as big as a fist. Even Goblin could mine more than that.

Still, Basil wasn't someone who judged. A loot was still a loot, after all.

"Hey. I know we've been walking this passage for some minutes already. But, I can't help asking. Why didn't we thread the previous passage?"

As Thompson said, they had threaded the path silently for a quite some time. Sylvia was still asleep due to her fatigue, and Norman was not a very talkative person. Therefore, Thompson couldn't hold the silence anymore.

Without turning his back, Basil answered, "That passageway is not there anymore. You have visited two rooms; you should have noticed it already. The end of that passageway was blocked the moment I opened the secret chambers."

Norman clicked his tongue. "Tsk. I knew it."

Then, the silence continued once again. Thompson sighed, and decided to look at his surrounding instead. The wall of the passageway was made of black stone, which kind he couldn't tell.

He couldn't see the Rune carved on it. However, he was sure there were many Runes carved there, especially [Shadow Entrapment] Rune.

It was because how dark the place was. He could only see his surrounding thanks to the Light Jade he had attached on his chest. Or else, he wouldn't be able to see anything.

He gazed at Basil's back silently and thought, 'How can he still see without any light support?'

Even Norman was also slightly bewildered. Like Thompson, he also had a Light Jade on him to help him see his surrounding.

"There is a door in front of us. Be careful," Basil suddenly said. "Huh, what?" Thompson asked. "In Dungeon, door is equivalent to the cue of danger," Basil replied.

Thompson was about to retort. However, upon recalling the things they had experienced up till now, he closed his mouth immediately.

Whoosh!

With Basil in exception, everyone tensed. Even the sleeping Sylvia's eyes fluttered. The wind they had felt earlier didn't only carry coldness, but also a vile aura with it. Every hair on their skin had stood in that split second the wind passed them.

"We're here," Basil muttered.

The other two people gulped dryly. The door they were seeing was extremely familiar. The door was no different than the door in front of the Dungeon hall they had encountered not long ago.

At that time, even though they didn't feel any vile aura they had felt earlier, they had been faced with Goblins. This time, they were nervous of what kind of abomination they would meet behind the door—after feeling that kind of aura.

Thompson looked at Basil. Although Basil seemed reckless, he was so meticulous, he had never had any difficulty in the Dungeon. This leads to Thompson believing Basil had been born bathed in fortune.

Therefore, he decided to do something that could ensure everyone's safety. "Opening a door is symbolic. Since you have guided us safely for all of this time, I will give you the opportunity to open this one." He ended his word with a benevolent smile.

As he had said, opening a door is symbolic. Therefore, he believed that by giving Basil—the kid bathed in fortune—the "opportunity" to open the door, there would be also a fortune laid behind the door.

Basil stepped forward, and casually infused his Qi to the door. Basil's nonchalance terrified Thompson. He was seriously afraid Basil's luck wouldn't work this time.

He didn't want to be surprised with untimely death!

Tremble!

The ground shook slightly, before the door was opened. The process was so fast it bewildered Thompson even more. He was absolutely sure the door of the Dungeon hall he had opened didn't open this fast!

True to his another prediction, by the time he saw what was behind the door, he was surprised. Luckily though, he was surprised with a rather good thing this time.

"Steve?!"

"Thompson?!"

What laid behind the door were Steven and his team. All of them had a surprised expression. Even Effie, the calmest person in Hauler, recoiled slightly.

"Steve?!"

"Thompson?!"

Norman clicked his tongue in annoyance, and shouted, "Shut your bloody hole!"

At Norman's shout, the party leader and the vice party leader cleared their throat awkwardly.

"What a surprise meeting you guys here," Thompson said. "That's my line, dude. That's my line," Steven replied.

Whitney silently gazed at Basil; who was standing right in front Effie, the Pathfinder. As he had expected, Basil didn't need any aid to support his vision.

The passage Basil was in was fully decorated with [Shadow Entrapment] Rune. To be able to see the surrounding clearly in that situation was an amazing feat.

Even him, a Fourth Circle Mage, had to utilize a Spell to see his surrounding better; despite it was not as dark as the place Basil was in. Even so, he could only see three meters in front of him.

"How can you guys ended up here?" Steven asked curiously. "That should be my line," Thompson replied simply.

When Effie sensed the useless conversation was about to start again, she quickly interjected. "The passageway is connected. It's as simple as that."

Steven and Thompson nodded their head in agreement. Then, in unison, they asked, "Where should we go next?"

Wordlessly, Effie pointed to her right. The people sighed softly once again. Puzzled, Effie looked at her surrounding. When she found why the people sighed, she clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Basil was also pointing his hand, albeit to the exact opposite direction she was pointing to.

"We will go MY way this time," Effie said sternly to Basil.

The others gasped silently. Effie had never been that assertive. Basil was the first person who managed to make her behave that way.

Effie was ready to confront Basil by spewing some of her well constructed arguments this time. However, Basil reacted the exact opposite of what she had expected he would.

"Sure." Basil lightly shrugged.

She was so dumbfounded, she didn't know how to react. Luckily, she was quick to recover. "Hmph!" She turned her back with a snort.

'Effie just snorted!' the Knights of Hauler exclaimed in their mind.

With Effie in lead, they walked the passageway she had chosen. This time, the people lined themselves the exact same way they had lined themselves in their journey of passing the obstacles.

However this time, Whitney was right beside Basil, and Thompson was right beside Steven.

"What have you guys encountered?" Steven turned his head to Thompson.

"Well... aside from some weird-ass Monsters, we found none. Visiting secret chambers was a novel experience though," Thompson replied.

"You got to enter a secret chamber? That's dope!"

"It's thanks to Basil."

Steven sighed. "Too bad we didn't encounter anything. How lucky you guys are!"

Effie's ears twitched, but she decided to ignore the two conversing Knights. She had been in the party long enough to know how insensitive they could be.

What kind of party leader would praise someone other than his party member so openly?! Thompson, and many others.

Still, despite knowing that, she couldn't just accept it. Therefore, she would show the two why she was more amazing than Basil.

After a few minutes of walking with a normal speed, Effie raised her hand. "Halt!" Thompson shouted out. Stepping forward, Thompson stood beside Effie. "What is the matter?" Effie merely pointed her hand to the front wordlessly.

Curious, Thompson quickly look ahead. Squinting his eyes to get a better view, he could finally see what Effie was pointing to.

"Mana Crystals!" Thompson shouted enthusiastically. "We're going to mine them empty!"

Hearing that, the other's eyes lit up. Although not as precious as Beast Core, Mana Crystal was still highly sought; after all.

Effie nodded her head in satisfaction at the reaction of the people. Turning her head to Basil, she saw that he had no particular reaction—as expected. He seemed bored even.

However, knowing that Basil wasn't a normal human, she shrugged, before stepping forward.

With her in lead, everyone head to Mana Crystal filled wall. Then, they mined them passionately—Basil mined them casually though—and storing every piece they got in their Spatial Ring or Spatial Bracelet.

It was fun and joyous, until another surprising thing happened.