The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 348 - 283: The Burden of Technology

On our way back to the burial chamber, we encountered the Kobolds again. With a wave of my hand, I said ’Goodbye’ to them, bidding a final farewell to this mortal world.

There was clearly no way out at the bottom of the mountain, as the base was likely filled with memory soil by Nanduo. Hence, our real way out must be at the top of the mountain.

However, the pyramid was hollow inside, and with a height of several hundred meters, climbing to the pinnacle would require defying gravity.

I first led Qinghan and the goddess back to the corner of the tomb where Lilith was. Cheng Xuelin, following my instructions, had blocked the passage with rubble and quickly moved a stone away when he heard me.

The reserved hole was only big enough to crawl in and out. I placed the goddess on the ground and pushed her into the hole.

Cheng Xuelin carefully dragged the goddess inside. Just as I was about to set Qinghan down and push him in too, he suddenly jumped off my back with agile movements, showing no signs of weakness.

Qinghan exchanged a few words with Lilith, and then joined me to rescue the teammates trapped in the burial chamber.

We gathered everyone together. Now that everyone was present, the digging work could stop. I didn’t care about it before because I wanted them to have something to do, preventing them from causing trouble.

After all, it was impossible to dig through the tunnel. This tomb was somewhat like the Snow Mountain Tomb, a one-way passage with no exit.

Having wasted half a day, Lilith was furious when I pointed this out. Once I confirmed Qinghan was alright, I felt relieved and ready to retort anything she said.

The previous group needed rest. Since they were idle, exchanging words with Lilith served as a means to kill time. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The goddess was the first to wake up. Perhaps she received special power protection when ’holding hands’ with Nanduo, as she wasn’t starving to exhaustion like the others.

Waking now, her face was rosy and her spirit full. Though she hadn’t washed her face or hair for days, and apart from a greasy face and clumpy hair that slightly damaged her divine demeanor, she appeared more spirited than many others present.

The two groups gathered to discuss a way to escape. Qinghan’s group had entered from the main entrance in the south, at the same level as the main tomb chamber.

They left someone at the entrance, who only glanced at the murals on the tomb walls before the door behind them silently closed.

After that, they tried prying and smashing, but none of these methods opened the door. Someone proposed using explosives on the tomb door. A team member like Qian Yu, knowledgeable in construction, said this place couldn’t withstand an explosion. After all, it wasn’t a real royal tomb, and the building materials weren’t that good. After thousands of years, the tomb might collapse at any time.

The corner where we entered had naturally collapsed, and the pyramid itself was just an empty shell.

The memory soil hadn’t filled the entire tomb; it only filled the surrounding mountain. So, being inside the tower, we couldn’t utilize its strength.

Contrary to what I thought, the group believed that the entire mountain might be covered by memory soil, making it impossible to dig a way out from anywhere except underground.

The plan was to dig a diagonal upward tunnel at the bottom of the tomb, directly reaching outside the mountain range.

It was a big project, unlikely to be completed in a day. Fortunately, no one in the team was injured, and after replenishing food and drink, those who were exhausted also woke up.

The teams divided the food and water evenly, allowing them to hold on for a few more days.

Our rescue team’s equipment and food were undamaged. Qinghan’s team lost a third of their food and water when someone dropped their backpack while navigating traps.

We had come for a rescue mission, and had already considered issues like food and medicine, so each person brought a lot of supplies.

"There is a problem: there is a swarm of scorpions at the bottom of the tomb, too many for our weapons to handle," I said, voicing my opinion only after everyone else had finished.

Perhaps to demonstrate greater capability than me, Lilith proposed a bunch of ideas and escape plans during the discussion, quite comprehensively.

It was good that someone else was thinking for me; I just needed to listen. I was just a team leader, why compete over it? I just wanted to laze around eating till the end, though our pursuits were different, we became ’rivals.’

"Bio-interference device," the Sakura goddess remarked.

Though I knew her name was Moli, she was just a stranger to me before, with no reason to remember her name.

Now that we were teammates, it was helpful to remember names to identify who’s who.

In their prior conversation, Moli mentioned that she had passed out when the tomb owner captured her, sleeping a long time without knowing what happened, feeling like she was dreaming upon seeing us.

She was controlled by Nanduo rather than the other way around; perhaps Nanduo blocked her brain’s receptive function, leaving her oblivious to recent events.

I initially hoped she would tell us what Nanduo did to her, but hearing this, I was disappointed and continued picking at the stones.

My phone was almost out of battery, and since everyone was having a meeting, playing with it wasn’t appropriate. All I could do was pick at stones during their discussion.

The architect was right: these stones weren’t very solid, possibly due to the use of cheap material during the selection process.

However, for having lasted millennia, they weren’t bad. Moli mentioned a bio-interference device similar to the one Boss Lu had used to scare off snakes in the Snow Mountain Tomb.

From what others conveyed, we didn’t have one here. It was brought by Moli from Sakura and was stored in their teammate’s backpack.

When they retrieved the device, I understood why Moli wasn’t carrying it herself. It was heavy, formed by three large metal boxes combined into a three-tiered large box, weighing close to a hundred pounds.

Such heavy high-tech, even if it could scare off scorpions, carrying it through an unknown Underworld could be disastrous if other dangers were encountered!

"With this, everyone can be at ease," Moli’s confident smile reassured most of the people present.

This didn’t include me, Qinghan, or Lilith. I was skeptical about using this bulky high-tech underground. Qinghan remained noncommittal, showing neither happiness nor relaxation as his brow stayed slightly furrowed.

Lilith’s focus might have been different from ours. Old Zhao and Cheng Xuelin warmed up to Moli upon seeing the high-tech, making Lilith’s expression look unpleasant.

Because Moli had replaced her as the center of attention, after burning with anger at me, Lilith’s ill-tempered gaze shifted to Moli.

Despite being annoyed with her, I had no intention of reclaiming the commander’s role, and I had mentioned that I was here by accident, a temporary transfer as a civil servant, returning to the archives afterward.

Maybe Lilith realized there wasn’t a need to argue with someone she’d only work with briefly, so she turned her hostility towards Moli, who parachuted into the frontline team.

Moli and Lilith were entirely different types. The former was friendly, often smiling and speaking softly. The latter always tried to assert authority, speaking to people with a tone that carried a bit of a commanding implication.

I found it interesting, watching them compete as I picked at the stones. Yes, it was competition; the gentle, smiling one didn’t seem as harmless as she appeared. In small details, it was evident she also wanted to prevail.