Chapter 104: That Effort Wasn't Wasted
Among the shattered stones, Lynn picked and chose.
Finally, he found a green gem.
A gargoyle heart.
This was the power source that drove the gargoyle.
This thing was useless to witchers, and ordinary people couldn't use it either.
But for sorcerers, it was a very precious magical material.
Lynn put it into his alchemy ingredients and stored it away.
Then he returned to examine the sarcophagus.
He found that the gold and silver jewelry that had previously filled the sarcophagus had now all turned into stones of various sizes.
"It's an illusion."
Without a doubt, this was a trap.
As long as someone opened the sarcophagus, it would trigger a mechanism, releasing the gargoyle guardian to attack the intruder.
Next, Lynn carefully checked the other parts of the room again.
After confirming that there were no other traps in this tomb chamber, Lynn stood before the indoor teleportation portal.
On the wall next to the teleportation portal, a teleportation crystal was embedded.
But so many years had passed.
The teleportation crystal had become dim and dull.
Lynn examined it.
He found that this teleportation crystal was still intact and usable, but it had simply run out of energy.
He used the Aard Sign to charge the teleportation crystal.
In the next moment, the teleportation crystal re-emitted a faint fluorescent light.
Although Lynn felt a sense of being drained, after drinking a Superior Tawny Owl potion, the depleted magic power quickly replenished.
"Success. Let me see where the other side of this door leads."
Lynn activated the teleportation portal and stepped inside.
...
After experiencing a feeling of dizziness and nausea, Lynn found himself standing on a spacious viewing platform after passing through the teleportation portal.
He came to the edge of the viewing platform, placed his hand on the railing, and looked down.
As his gaze gradually moved into the distance,
a magnificent elven underground palace gradually appeared in Lynn's eyes.
Corridors and staircases connected halls and rooms, like a complex labyrinth.
"There's such a large space. I'll be busy for a while."
Lynn didn't start exploring immediately.
Instead, he returned to the entrance of the ruins.
He informed Professor Dijkstra of his findings.
The professor was so excited that he almost fainted.
An elven underground palace, even if all the treasures inside had been lost to the erosion of time,
but just the architecture and the murals inside were enough for him to achieve great success at Oxenfurt Academy.
Professor Dijkstra once again requested to explore with Lynn.
Of course, this time Lynn's answer was still a refusal.
As far as Lynn knew, exploring a deeply buried ruin wouldn't just involve encountering restless dead.
There was also the possibility of encountering insectoid creatures accustomed to living underground.
Professor Dijkstra should wait until he had cleared everything before coming down with others.
Although the reward for this commission wasn't high, Lynn's purpose in taking it was to prevent Professor Dijkstra from dying.
If he hadn't come, Kiyan would have killed Professor Dijkstra and his group;
If he came but didn't stop the professor from going down into the ruins with him, leading to the professor being killed by the monsters inside... then wouldn't his efforts have been in vain?
...
In the following week, Lynn went deep into the ruins every day to explore.
As Lynn had expected, some insectoid creatures—mainly endrega and kikimore—had made this elven underground palace their lair.
Clearing these insectoid creatures took a lot of time, mainly because Lynn couldn't use alchemy bombs casually like he could in other places.
It wasn't that he was unwilling to use them, nor was he afraid that the structure couldn't withstand it and cause a collapse, but rather that these buildings and the murals on the walls were very precious.
Professor Dijkstra had asked him not to damage them unless absolutely necessary.
Therefore, Lynn had to slow down and clear these bugs slowly.
However, with his strength, killing these bugs was at most a bit time-consuming and didn't require him to take much risk.
So, he would avoid using alchemy bombs if possible.
Apart from the insectoid creatures, the one thing that was least likely to be missing in the ruins, wraiths, Lynn also encountered here.
Compared to the bugs, wraiths were a bit more troublesome.
After all, they had no physical bodies and could teleport at will, and walls and obstacles couldn't stop them.
To eliminate wraiths, one had to first use the Yrden Sign to force out their physical forms, compelling them to manifest in the real world before they could be eliminated in one go with a silver sword.
While clearing monsters, he also explored.
In the elven armory, he found many rusted weapons and armor, or books that had been eroded by time beyond recognition.
Unfortunately.
The former were so rusty and fragile that they couldn't be used at all.
The latter would turn to ashes with the slightest touch.
The only things that were completely intact were three weapon diagrams.
One steel sword diagram, one silver sword diagram, and one crossbow diagram.
These three diagrams might be priceless in the outside world, but in Lynn's eyes, they were just so-so.
Even the witchers had no interest in copying them.
Because he knew where to find the best equipment diagrams.
...
When half a month had passed, Lynn had finally cleared the elven underground palace to a large extent.
Only the last room remained unexplored.
And when he approached this room with high vigilance, his eyes couldn't help but light up.
Because he saw a faint magical glow on the door of the room.
This meant that everything inside this room would be protected by magic.
In the previous half month of exploration, Lynn hadn't gained much.
Almost everything he found had been eroded by time.
But this room had magical protection, which meant that the things inside might not have been eroded yet.
This was undoubtedly exciting good news.
After all, no matter what, this was still a ruin.
Having entered a ruin, if he could only get two hundred crowns in the end, then when he returned to Kaer Morhen in winter and told his fellow Wolf School brothers, they would probably laugh their teeth out.
Lynn carefully inspected the door.
He decided not to act rashly.
There were many ways to break down a magically protected door.
Physical breaking was one of them.
But Lynn wasn't sure if breaking it with brute force would damage the things inside the room.
If it did, it would be too late for regrets.
Therefore, after careful consideration, Lynn decided to return to the camp outside the ruins first and tell Professor Dijkstra about his discovery.
(End of this chapter)
[author]
I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to those who support me on this journey. Your contribution make a real difference!
As a patron, you unlock:
Exclusive Access: Get advanced 70+ chapters ahead of everyone else.
👉 Join now: patreon.com/Chaos_God
[/author]