Skill Extraction: Exploring Dungeons-Chapter 556 - 498: The Great Feats of the Previous Explorer
In the tavern of the Village of the Dead.
Outside the noisy crowd, Kane looked at Kreya in front of him, and the conspicuous gap on his calf.
He teased, "Don’t be fooled by how big the gap on my calf is. You should know that the light orb crashed right at my feet."
"Shouldn’t you be with the coffin old man? What are you doing here?"
Kane looked at him and said plainly, "Jian An is already dead. He was tainted by too much golden light."
"So the old man is called Jian An? I was the one who rescued him from the coffin, and he never told me his name."
"What a pity." Kreya shook his head, saying dejectedly, "I’ll never hear the sound of that old man dragging coffins all day long again, nor hear him occasionally boast about his son’s glorious deeds."
"By the way." Kreya suddenly thought of something and stared at Kane, asking, "I just saw the one who cast the light orb was the Steel Wings unit of the Red Monarch. Did the old man know?"
Kane nodded.
"Alas, why be so cruel to an elderly man?" Kreya’s voice was filled with helplessness.
After all, Jian An was most proud of his son, even if he would forget his own name, he clearly remembered his son’s name, his son’s unit, and the words he said to him.
He even remembered which cemetery his son was buried in.
Yet he believed his son’s most glorious deeds, the legion he gave his life for, ultimately destroyed his hope.
Silent and speechless, this was all Kane could do now.
"Come sit here, let me talk to you properly before I die."
Indeed, this person was not simple.
Kane sat down on the chair beside him.
"You’ve been tainted by the light orb, but nothing happened, right? Because you’re not dead, yet you still crawled out of a coffin, a coffin... Jian An won’t lie."
Kreya took a fierce bite of the red root in his hand, his sole eye gazing at the ceiling.
He fell into a state of memory that the dead often enter.
"Many years ago, I also met people like you. They crawled out of coffins, just like you."
He didn’t wait for Kane to respond, continuing on his own.
"I adventured with them once. They were very different, in both power and thought. They wanted to take down the various monarchs."
"Back then, the young me, impulsively joined them. The monarchs were crazily waging wars to seize power, dragging the already fragmented world into the quagmire of war."
"Countless people tried to take them down but failed against their almost god-like power."
"But we were almost successful at that time, just a bit more and we would have taken down the Black Monarch."
"Just a bit more, only a bit more."
Kreya’s voice turned somewhat impassioned, his hand gripped fiercely, the blood-red juice of the red root dripped from his hand.
Then he said, dejectedly, "But he resurrected, turns out he wielded the power of death, he made himself immortal, so we failed."
"But! The presence of the Village of the Dead, my existence, all tell me that our previous efforts were not in vain."
"Death is out of control!"
His voice was again excited.
But then he saw that the dissipated range had reached his waist, he said to Kane.
"But time is running short, my story ends here, now I have more important things to tell you."
He said, taking off a bracelet from his hand and passing it to Kane.
"Take this, then after my death, from underneath the reds on the cabinet, you can find a map. Go to the location marked on it, trust me, you’ll find help there."
After seeing Kane take the bracelet, he continued as his body hadn’t completely dissipated yet.
"After I died and resurrected, I’ve always been noticing your kind of people, collecting your information, and finally I found that every few decades, entities like you appear."
"Without exception, you eventually all want to take down the various monarchs, no matter what you want to do, but the goal is consistent."
"I’ve interacted with several teams, although they all ultimately died, but I discovered the Red Monarch’s weakness."
He saw the speed of dissipation quickening, reaching his neck.
"Alright, that’s all. Could you put a red root into my mouth for the last time?"
Kane nodded, picked up a red stem beside him, and placed it in his mouth, fulfilling his last desire.
"Thank you." Kreya smiled, taking a hard bite of the red root in his mouth.
The sound stopped abruptly.
A segment of the red root fell onto the floor, its surface chewed to pulp.
As the root fell, Kane stood up.
Turned his head to look at the center of the hall.
At this moment, the center of the hall was already filled with scattered sand.
In the hall of the tavern, only one of the dead remained, still persisting, not completely turned to sand yet.
The last remaining was the middle-aged man standing on the stool table.
But now he was already half gone.
"To myself!"
He shouted, turned his head to Kane, made a gesture to him.
Then there was no sound, an amputated arm fell onto the table, you could see the thumb raised on the palm.
And the red root held in the middle.
Until the amputated arm also disappeared.
Thus, only a wasteland of yellow sand was left in the tavern.
Kane came back to his senses, reached up and opened a compartment at the top of the liquor cabinet, drawing out an envelope from it.
Looking at the envelope, ensuring nothing else was inside, then pocketing it and walked out of the tavern.
At this moment, the village was covered in yellow sand.
The sudden autumn wind blew, picking up the sand on the ground, wafting toward the distance.
Kane walked towards the outside of the village following the direction the autumn wind was blowing, with nothing but the sound of sand.
It was eerily quiet.
There were no more cold stares and silhouettes.
With every step, a tiny object drilled into the ground.
When Kane arrived outside the village, the ground along the way was left with a series of bottomless holes.
Kane turned around, looking at the small village where he had stayed for only two days.
It was truly tragic, strange, yet beautiful.
He waved his hand towards the direction of the village.
One by one, tiny metal constructs burrowed into the ground.
These tiny constructs had a frantically spinning drill at the front, connected to a Magic Power structure filled with blue patterns at the back.
Inside was a storage of highly concentrated magical energy.
The moment these constructs landed on the ground, they disappeared into it as the drills spun, leaving behind only a series of bottomless black holes.
Under Kane’s control, these constructs drilled into the ground, each arranging itself in its designated spot.
Not sure how much time passed.
The ground resonated with a strong vibration.
But the vibration was just a single time, causing all the sand to fly upward.
Then the entire village collapsed downward, with the surrounding soil sliding to the center.
Burying the entire village underground.
The only thing standing was a monument made of unknown metal, located at the center of the pit.
Inscribed on it were the remnants of this village.
Village of the Dead.
Slowly turning from illusion into reality.
"Sigh."
With a sigh, Kane left towards the distance.
This village left a deep impression on Kane in every aspect.
Cotton Candy emerged from his body, lazily floating beside him, simulating hands to stretch.
Intending to play with his master, but seeing Kane was not in a good mood, it silently followed beside him.
And Yu Yu always stayed by Kane’s side.
Light groups descended from the sky, and since Jian An returned to the village after dying, Yu Yu had been following along.
Its camera-like eyes kept flashing blue, with green light blinking on the antenna.
Filming all the way, documenting the final scenes of this village.
It thought its master would want such images to be preserved.
The emergence of intelligence allowed it to gauge Kane’s mood, but this budding intelligence also left it unsure of how to comfort Kane.
"It’s okay." Kane’s voice came.
"I’m not sad, after all, I’m not familiar with the people in that village, just overwhelmed by them a bit."
After saying this, Kane took out the letter Kreya left him from his Space Equipment.
Judging by the envelope’s packaging, the letter was quite old.
Inside, after tearing it open, there was a map and two letters containing written records.
The map was identical to the one Kane obtained from Kreya, except the regions marked differed, including various forces, and even the powerful rulers.
And a star symbol marked a specific location on it.
That should be the place Kreya hoped Kane would go to.
"Come, Yu Yu, time to work."
With a smile, Kane crouched down and placed the map in front of Yu Yu.
Then Yu Yu’s eyes projected scanning beams, scanning the entire map.
"Scan successful, master!"
Kane nodded and said, "Then plan the route to the star symbol, I’ll follow behind."
Following behind Yu Yu, Kane began to examine the information recorded in the two letters.
One letter was precisely as Kreya mentioned, recording the information about the Red Monarch.
The other letter was meant for others, seemingly to help those who possess that bracelet to gain trust.
Kane began organizing the information acquired in his mind for a while.
First, the point, Kreya was not someone who died at the early Platinum Age.
Rather, she died during the world’s fragmentation when the powerful rulers began warring, and she was killed while attempting to slay the Black Monarch.
Moreover, she resurrected at some unknown time due to the Black Monarch’s power, considering she’s lived for so long, it likely happened without the Black Monarch’s knowledge.
The revival situation in the Village of the Dead was also due to the Black Monarch’s power running amok, illustrating that Kreya and those Explorers who acted with her a century ago indeed deeply harmed the Black Monarch.
Resulting in the Black Monarch not having fully recovered yet.
Furthermore, the Village of the Dead was likely built by her.
Because Kane chatted with Jian An, who said he’s among the earliest awakened deceased.
While Kreya said it was she who rescued Jian An from the coffin.
That means Kreya was even earlier than Jian An; coupled with her experiences and actions, it’s almost certain she created the Village of the Dead.
Additionally, she mentioned that almost all the Explorers who entered ended up choosing to slay the powerful rulers.
This means these Explorers possibly found targets, regardless of what their goals were, the powerful rulers must be slain.
And this might be the initial goal Kane and the others need to accomplish.
