Chapter 123 Deconverted

*DOON~ DOOOOON DOON~*

The giants were still fighting upstairs; meanwhile Jay was sneaking around, looting the pyramid unhindered, right under their noses.

Thankfully, Jay didn’t trigger the activation sensors, so the giant helvetian soldiers were none the wiser.

Jay turned to the experiment cage, peering inside at the centuries old corpse.

The bones inside were blackened, perhaps by time – or possibly due to the altar experiments; Jay couldn’t be sure either way, but no flesh remained at least.

“Amputation” he said as he held out his hand.

“…”

Nothing happened.

“What? Why?” he pursed his lips.

Out of stubbornness, he tried a few more times – yet nothing.

“Dammit, get in my gauntlet already” he pushed up against the bars and reached for it, though it was in the very back of the cage.

“Ok, have it your way.” he shrugged.

The solution was simple, but bothersome..

Jay turned to Sweeper again, “Amputation.”

The poor skeleton seemed to have no clue what was happening as it got folded like a t-shirt once more; entering Jay’s ring.

Jay then stuck his gauntlet hand into the cage and thought about Sweeper.

“Amputation.”

The skeleton reassembled inside the cage.

As the skeleton came to terms with existence again, Jay was already barking orders at it.

“Sweeper, the bones…” Sweeper needed a moment, as it turned around, looking at the room around it.

“SWEEPER, THE BONES!” Jay was getting impatient.

Finally the confused skeleton kicked into action. It picked up bones from the pile and just before placing them in Jay’s hand, it dropped them in front of Jay.

“Dammit Sweeper…” the skeleton still didn’t hand them to him.

Jay knelt down and grabbed the bones, trying to use his analyse skill as he held it.

“Hmm..” nothing appeared.

The bone was way too heavy to be a bone, and upon closer inspection it had a glossy sheen to it.

It seemed to Jay that whatever the altar experiment did, it somehow replaced the bone with the black stone material of the pyramids.

“Damn…” he pursed his lips, putting his gauntlet hand back into the cage.

“Amputation.” He pulled Sweeper back into the gauntlet before rebuilding the skeleton outside the cage again.

Jay thought about the strange bone in his hand for a moment. It actually made sense to him that if the body was made from the heavy black stone, it would need a strong support structure.

[Chimera Research 24%]

A little smile appeared on his face as he received the notification. He managed to glean some more knowledge after all. Thankfully the effort was worth it.

“Well done Sweeper” Jay tossed the black fake bone back into the cage.

Jay searched the rest of the chamber, unfortunately it wasn’t as lucrative as the other one. The only skeletons here were not even made from bone, completely useless to Jay.

It occurred to Jay that maybe he didn’t get the bones from the specimen in the tank because its body was similarly transformed into stone.

Jay soon found another one of Estobar’s journals, but it likewise turned to ashes as soon as he touched it.

“Hmm, I had better find out who he is.” he made another mental note before moving on.

Jay finally got to the far corner of the room, and he found something that may have made the trip worth it.

A series of wooden crates were stacked up, and he began searching them.

The first crate was empty, the second, empty – the third, empty.

Jay checked through thirteen crates, and all except two were empty.

“Dammit…” he frowned slightly.

The two crates were filled with trash – only some whetstones, which were probably used to sharpen the dissection instruments as well as some more of the useless black bones, which technically weren’t real bones.

With the last part of the room searched, Jay kicked a crate and began to leave – but he stopped after only taking a few steps.

“Wait a second… shouldn’t wooden crates have turned to ashes with everything else?”

Jay quickly turned around, grabbing one of the crates.

Even the nails were corroded and barely hanging on, but the wood was fine, as if it had been cut from a tree yesterday. A curious smile slowly began forming on Jay’s face.

Since coming to Helvetia, it was perhaps the only normal organic thing he found – not that it was normal anyway.

Jay pulled a crate apart and analysed the wood.

<[Life’s Wood]>

– Life has touched the tree this wood came from, permanently blessing it.

– Time resistance 100%

– Curse resistance 100%

– Resurgence. Can grow back to its former self.

“Wow… so that’s why it didn’t turn to ash… Did the helvetians even realise this wood was blessed?” Jay wondered as he began adding all of the wood to his inventory.

“I’m guessing not since they made them into storage boxes… I wonder what I can do with this.” Jay held a piece up.

The Helvetians, with their city once covered in beautiful trees and vegetation perhaps did not think twice about cutting down some innocuous tree, turning it into usable lumber.

The wood still had a yellowish glow to it. Some pieces even had some sap on them, but it seemed like that was the best they could do since they sat quietly in the darkness for centuries.

“Huh, brimming with life. I wonder if I plant it, can I harvest more of the wood?”

“Hmm… come to think of it, I also have that weird seed to plant. I guess I can try then as well.”

Jay was yet to find a suitable location for his wyrd seed – he only had one of these and he doubted he would get another so he had to be careful, selective about where to grow it.

The quest that went along with it also said he had to ‘construct’ his tree, so he might as well try to plant some of these weird life-wood planks then too.

After having his skeletons break apart the 13 boxes, he got a total of 156 small planks.

“Awesome.” Jay was pleased with this random treasure.

He wondered if he should sell it or hold onto it.

The downside of selling it was that if it actually could grow back, it would be selling everywhere and he wouldn’t make as much money in the long run.

Plus, he considered the possibilities of using it as a sort of counter against time mages if he ever ran into someone like Kel again.

“Maybe I’ll just hold onto it. I’m sure it’ll come in handy some day, especially if I can grow my own – and if it doesn’t, then I can just sell it anyway.” he shrugged.

With even the wooden boxes taken, Jay saw nothing left in this room of value. He considered grabbing the iron chains with hooks, but he even had those at his butchery to hang meat; really, not worth taking.

“Hmm… but… in the hands of the skeletons they might be effective. Someday.” Jay stroked his chin, imagining a giant being strung up by chains with hooks, every movement it made would tear its own flesh.

“Yep, I’ll take some of those too.” he grinned.

[Duresome Chain] x 8

[Duresome Sickle] x 12

Satisfied with his odd haul of loot, Jay headed back up the passage with a spring in his step, content because he had gained the most from this pyramid without even lifting a finger.

There were no more sounds coming from above so he proceeded up the passage without sneaking.

The scanners flashed yellow again as he passed though, but Jay didn’t care.

All he was thinking about now was the bonus loot from what remained of the mannaton soul eater.