Skill Extraction: Exploring Dungeons-Chapter 549 - 492: Entering the Store Again

Kane felt like he had fallen into a tumble dryer.

His entire body seemed to be compressed and extracted, then forcibly fit into a narrow tunnel.

Compared to the feeling when he entered the dungeon, this felt more like teleportation, particularly a long-distance one.

Suddenly, Kane felt his body lighten, and that uncomfortable sensation disappeared.

At that moment, he sensed himself slowly drifting toward another world, about to enter it.

However, a golden card from his space equipment slowly floated out.

On it was the image of a treasure chest and a skull.

An option appeared before Kane.

Would you like to enter the Eternal Treasure Chest Store?

Seeing this, Kane did not hesitate and directly clicked on the ’Yes’ option.

Soon after, a small teleportation gate opened in the middle of the card, pulling Kane through.

When Kane could move again, he was standing in front of a building that resembled a skull.

Looking at the card in his hand.

[Eternal Treasure Box Card]

[Souvenirs]

[Color: Golden]

[Attributes:]

[True Name Binding]

[Extremely Strong]

[Never Lost]

[Skills:]

[Guide] (When a location or item is set, a guide mark will appear once within the range)

[Secret Guide] (When preset conditions are triggered, an option will appear, and upon confirmation, the user’s party will be teleported to a secret space.)

[Explanation: The mysterious skeleton mage, T. Edwards, who roams various undead dungeons, is a Mist Lord who seems to have high hopes for you. Whenever you enter a dungeon with undead elements, you can make a choice, and upon agreeing, you will directly enter his secret shop.]

This golden-level card item was obtained from a dungeon that was transitioning from copper to silver.

The golden-level weapon in Kane’s hand and all his most precious dungeon-controlling items were obtained from this store.

However, since then, Kane hadn’t encountered another dungeon with undead elements, so this option never appeared.

Its appearance now indicates that the dungeon they are about to enter contains undead elements.

It’s just unclear how the shop owner managed to pull him in under such circumstances.

Looking at the bone-like white door in front of him, Kane knocked and then walked inside.

The interior environment and item arrangements were exactly the same as when Kane last visited.

However, he didn’t see the suit-wearing skeleton with the civilization staff in hand.

Instead, one of the floating skull candles from the ceiling floated down.

Then the skull’s head expanded downward; the spine, limbs, and thorax all gathered together.

A skeleton figure dressed in gentlemen’s attire, holding a civilization staff, reappeared.

He slowly extended his hand, pulled the candle off his head, and with a wave, extinguished its flame.

The entire candle, in that instant of extinguishing, transformed back into a small top hat, which he placed back on his head.

He politely bowed to Kane, saying, "Mr. Kane, it has been quite a while."

Then he carefully looked Kane over, saying, "Did not expect you to enter my shop at such a moment? It seems you’ve chosen a good timing indeed."

"Is there anything you’re looking to purchase recently, Mr. Kane? My shop has introduced a new feature. Would you like to give it a try?"

With that, he moved behind the counter, and a roulette wheel appeared in front of him.

The wheel was divided into five sections, four of which read "Thank you for your patronage," while only the last section read "Grand Prize."

The skeleton shopkeeper began introducing, "The wheel is divided into five sections, and it can only be spun three times. If you land on the grand prize, you win an item; if you land on ’Thank you for your patronage,’ you get nothing."

After finishing, he looked up at Kane, the ghostly blue flames in his eye sockets flickering slightly.

"Would you like to try?"

Kane’s mouth twitched slightly, and he walked over.

There was nothing else in the shop he could buy except the roulette; not playing would make this visit in vain.

Why does this shopkeeper always like to involve gambling elements? Last time it was blind boxes, this time it’s a roulette.

"How much does it cost for a spin?"

"A generous 100 coins of tribute."

Kane seriously suspected that the price this shopkeeper charged depended on the value of the customer standing in front of him.

But having come this far, he couldn’t leave empty-handed, so he directly took out 300 coins from his space equipment and handed them to the skeleton shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper weighed the coins with his bony hand and nodded with satisfaction.

"Alright, you can start now, but you can only spin three times."

Upon hearing the shopkeeper’s words, Kane nodded and directly took hold of the edge of the wheel, giving it a hard spin downward.

The roulette spun rapidly, and both watched nervously as the wheel slowly decelerated.

The pointer brushed past the grand prize, made a full loop, and finally stopped right on the edge of the grand prize.

A small firework burst out above the roulette.

The skeleton shopkeeper clapped his hands, saying, "Congratulations, dear customer, you’ve hit the grand prize on your first try. Your luck is indeed remarkable."

With that, he pulled out a gift box from behind him and handed it to Kane.

"Here you go, it’s your gift."

Taking the box, Kane did not open it immediately but placed it directly into his space equipment.

"Do you want to keep turning?"

Of course, Kane nodded.

Second spin: Thank you for your patronage.

Third spin: Thank you for your patronage.

...

Eyes met the eye sockets.

"Uh... you spun something, not a loss."

Indeed, spinning something isn’t a loss, considering the 1/5 probability.

Spinning once in three tries is already quite lucky; you can’t ask for too much.

Comforting himself a bit, Kane said to the shop owner, "How do I leave here now?"

The last time he entered the Skeleton Store was directly from the dungeon, so he could just walk out.

But this time, he got here on his way into the dungeon, and Kane had no idea how to get out.

Upon hearing Kane’s grateful words, the skeleton seemingly showed a smile, and slowly spoke with the golden card in hand.

"Shake the card while thinking about leaving in your mind."

After saying that, he took off his hat, bowed to Kane, and said, "Thank you for your patronage."

No need to thank for patronage, Kane thought helplessly, then took out the card, shook it, and silently thought about leaving.

Kane’s figure instantly vanished from the store.

"What a strange way to come in; under what circumstances did he come in?"

The skeleton shop owner’s voice echoed throughout the store, revealing a question.

...

After Kane came out, he felt he was back at the place where he floated into the dungeon.

With the push, he could feel that he finally entered the dungeon.

When he saw the scenery around him again, it was still pitch black.

He could feel himself enclosed in a small space, lying flat.

Although it was pitch black around, he could sense with his limbs that he seemed to be in a stone crevice.

And the entire crevice seemed to be moving, indicating that it wasn’t merely a crevice, but some kind of container, and he was lying inside being moved.

This container was just large enough to hold him lying flat, making it impossible to turn left or right or roll over.

Kane didn’t panic; he stretched out his hand, feeling around the space.

Due to the pitch darkness of this space without any light source, even night vision was useless, so he could only rely on his palm’s touch.

The entire space was a rectangular shape, and he felt some looseness above him.

Then he exerted force with one hand, slowly pushing open the stone slab that covered him.

Indeed.

Am I lying inside a coffin?

Just now, he had sensed he was inside an object similar to a coffin; it was just that without seeing it, he couldn’t make a conclusion.

Kane sat up from a stone coffin, looking at his appearance, not knowing if it was considered a resurrection.

The object carrying the coffin stopped after sensing Kane’s movement.

Only then did Kane see his surroundings.

The coffin he was lying in was being moved by a wooden cart, with other coffins neatly arranged on it.

Kane could even smell the faint scent of rot on top, along with the earthy smell, as if it had just been dug out of the ground.

The entire wooden cart was being pulled by an old man in a tattered gray robe with a hunched figure, who turned his head to look at Kane.

His face was full of wrinkles and folds, his eye whites were yellow and dull, his head filled with decaying white hair was somewhat dirty, and the tattered gray robe on him was stained with dirt, with a few grass leaves sticking to his body.

Seeing Kane sit up from the coffin, he showed no panic, instead nodded to Kane, and waved indicating for him to come out.

Kane climbed out of the coffin, checking his equipment to ensure nothing was missing and was exactly the same as when he entered, while the coffin was extremely clean, as if it were brand new.

There wasn’t any sign of Kreya or the others around.

And the old man in front had a copper-colored magical reaction on his body, no wonder he could pull the cart despite his old age.

One must know this cart was loaded with stone coffins.

And the cart had just stopped in a red maple forest area, which looked extremely beautiful.

Red maple leaves were covering the ground, while others were seen floating in the air.

The trees were closely packed, preventing a view of the sky, but allowing the feel of the light from above.

Kane observed the surroundings, while the old man didn’t rush him but waited on the spot.

As if he was used to it.

"Child, once you’ve seen enough, let’s walk together."

The old man said, squatting to lift the two handles at the front of the cart and continued moving forward.

Although unsure of the dungeon’s situation, Kane slowly followed behind the cart.

And the old man slowly started speaking.

"I don’t know how long you have been dead, but you have been revived due to a curse, and this world has long changed.

You, like us, have become revived creatures. Sigh, I hope you can adapt to this life."

Only then did Kane observe the old man’s right forearm, unusually withered as if devoid of moisture.

It was like a dry corpse, while other parts seemed alive, just very old.

"Ahead is the Village of the Dead, a village formed by all the revived creatures like you and me."

Saying this, the old man pulled the cart taking Kane out of the red maple forest.

Upon exiting the red maple forest, Kane stared blankly at the sight in the sky.