Marcus’s eyes widened as he began sorting through the mountain of loot scattered across the cavern floor. He started with the drops from the lesser monsters, methodically clearing space in his inventory before finally approaching the fallen body of the Wailing Wandering Soul King.

The moment he stepped closer, something immediately caught his attention.

A wide black cape lay among the spoils, faintly glowing with a cold, sinister light. Marcus recognized it instantly. It was the very cloak the boss had worn throughout the battle. A Mythic Artifact.

His heartbeat quickened. "Now that’s more like it."

He snatched it up without hesitation.

—

Wraith Cloak (Black Mythic Artifact):

Effects: Unknown

Status: Cannot be used

—

Marcus burst into laughter.

Just thinking about the invisibility skill, Wraith Shadow, which clearly originated from this cloak, made him grin uncontrollably. If the ability truly belonged to the artifact itself, then its value was beyond absurd. He could not help wondering how it compared to his current Red Artifact, the Shadow Cloak of the Dark Spirit.

Then reality ruined the moment.

His basic Identification skill could not analyze equipment above Golden tier, and worse still, he remained trapped inside the Golden Dragon Divine Sky Formation sealing the First Emperor’s Tomb. Until he escaped this place, returning to the city for proper identification was impossible.

’What a headache.’

Reluctantly setting the cloak aside for later inspection, Marcus continued looting. Two more items appeared: Mourning Gloves and Mourning Ghost Boots, both Golden-grade equipment meant for Sorcerers. Their designs were elegant and clearly powerful, but completely useless to a knight like him. Without a second thought, he tossed them into his inventory.

Next came three Dreamland Gems, a generous pile of gold coins, and several pieces of Blue-tier equipment.

Marcus whistled softly.

For an Intermediate Silver boss, the Wailing Wandering Soul King had dropped an incredible amount of treasure. A Mythic Artifact alone was already extraordinary. Combined with everything else, the haul bordered on ridiculous.

But after a moment’s thought, it actually made sense.

Bosses rarely dropped valuable equipment under normal circumstances. However, this boss had been twelve levels higher than him, which significantly boosted reward quality. Add in his unusually high Luck stat, and suddenly the outcome felt almost inevitable. Honestly, if another Mythic Artifact had appeared, he would not have been surprised at all.

The system rewards spoke for themselves. Five hundred Reputation points and over ten thousand gold coins for defeating the three bosses. That kind of payout only happened when players challenged enemies far beyond their level.

’High risk, high reward. Fair enough.’

After finishing the collection, Marcus cast Gathering on the Wailing Wandering Soul King’s corpse. Letting rare materials go to waste would have been a crime. The skill yielded two bundles of Wraith Silk and a single glowing orb drifting faintly above the remains.

—

Wraith Silk (Intermediate Material):

Threads formed from the boss’s overwhelming resentment. Suitable for crafting lightweight robes or cloaks. Greatly increases movement speed and may grant partial physical attack immunity.

Wraith Soul Orb (High-Grade Material)

A crystallization of the Wailing Wandering Soul King’s ghost energy. Contains powerful resentment energy and served as the core for the boss’s Wraith Teleport ability. Only obtainable from the first kill. Requires Advanced Gathering or higher. Extremely rare.

—

Marcus turned the Wraith Soul Orb slowly in his hand. Inside the sphere, ghostly mist swirled endlessly like trapped souls searching for escape.

So this was the source of Wraith Teleport.

If he could somehow learn the skill from this thing, mobility alone would make him nearly untouchable in combat. Unfortunately, wishing did not make it possible. With a sigh of regret, he carefully stored the orb away.

Then he moved toward the final corpse; the Frenzied Digger Corpse King.

Even lying motionless, the monster still radiated an oppressive presence. Judging from its appearance and abilities, it had clearly been the strongest of the three bosses. The fact that Marcus had eliminated it instantly with Lethal Strike almost felt unfair.

What kind of treasures had such a monster left behind?

The answer revealed itself immediately.

Two enormous hoes lay on the ground, one radiating icy blue light and the other blazing with crimson flames. Marcus remembered them clearly, watching those weapons swing from the monster’s four arms during the fight.

Up close, their power was unmistakable. Both emitted deep black radiance, and both were Mythic Artifacts.

Marcus’s grin returned in full force.

"Jackpot."

He picked up the blue and red hoes eagerly, but the moment they settled into his hands, he noticed something strange. The two weapons felt connected, as if responding to one another.

A system prompt appeared.

—

Ice-Fire Twin Dragon Hoe

Black Mythic Artifact

Effects: Unknown

Status: Cannot be used

—

’One weapon?’

Marcus frowned, holding the ice hoe in his left hand and the fire hoe in his right. The Frenzied Digger Corpse King had possessed four arms, so wielding two massive tools made sense for it. Players, however, only had two.

Unless...

He examined them more carefully. Maybe they were meant to be dual-wielded as one-handed weapons. But that theory did not quite add up. Each hoe was clearly designed for two-handed use. During the battle, the boss had gripped each weapon with two arms at once.

"Two-handed weapon..." Marcus murmured thoughtfully.

He instinctively brought the two hoes closer together.

The reaction was immediate.

The fire hoe flared with intense crimson light. A deep humming sound filled the air as the weapons pulled toward each other like magnets. Ice-blue energy surged from one side, fiery red from the other, and in a dazzling eruption of opposing elements, the two hoes fused into a single weapon.

Energy roared outward.

The newly formed Ice-Fire Twin Dragon Hoe began expanding in Marcus’s grip. The shaft lengthened, thickened, and stabilized until it reached roughly two-thirds of its apparent maximum size. When the transformation finished, the weapon towered above him.

Its blade had doubled in size, razor sharp and terrifying. One half shimmered with frost-blue brilliance while the other burned with crimson firelight. The merged weapon radiated raw destructive presence, magnificent and savage at the same time.

This was its true two-handed form.

Marcus tightened his grip and swung it experimentally.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

Trails of blue frost and red flame followed every movement, spiraling through the air like twin dragons chasing each other. Despite its size, the weapon felt perfectly balanced, almost eager to move.

His eyes lit up.

"Split."

With a simple pull, the weapon separated cleanly back into two individual hoes, one glowing ice blue, the other blazing red.

Understanding dawned instantly.

Combined, it functioned as a massive two-handed weapon. Separated, it became dual one-handed weapons, perfectly suited for simultaneous combat.

"Combine."

The weapons fused again without resistance, energy flowing seamlessly between them.

Marcus laughed under his breath.

’This thing was incredible.’

A truly unique Mythic Artifact.

And completely unusable for now.

He clicked his tongue in frustration. Owning such an extraordinary weapon while being unable to view its stats or equip it felt almost cruel.

His gaze drifted toward the fallen Frenzied Digger Corpse King.

What rotten luck that monster had suffered. It possessed a weapon like this, yet never had the chance to unleash its power. One Desperate Strike had ended everything before the fight truly began.

Marcus shook his head slowly.

For a boss carrying such a legendary weapon, dying without even swinging it properly was almost... tragic.