blogombal Chapter 43 The Necromancer
Chapter 43 The Necromancer
The assessment location was indeed personally selected by Yao Feng.
The fortress-like alien realm, codenamed "The Ancient Castle Ruins," is rated as Level 2 by the Explorers' Headquarters.
The alien space is stable, with no risk of collapse or invasion, and no extreme environment.
The main monsters are skeleton soldiers and giant spiders. You can find heavily armored skeletons by fighting your way through, and there is no risk of getting lost.
The above information was already known to the Explorers' Headquarters.
In other words, as long as the assessors have sufficient combat skills and cooperate with each other, completing the task is not difficult.
After all, this is just a preliminary assessment by the Explorers' Headquarters for wanderers.
However, the details of the ruins mentioned by Yu Jing were completely beyond Yao Feng's expectations.
Seeing the latter's expression, Yu Jing became even more certain that there was something wrong with the difficulty of the test they had experienced.
While in this foreign land, Yu Jing found it strange that their four-person team was definitely not weak. Qing Gui's archery skills and physical abilities were above average, and Black Hand had equally rich experience in fighting mercenaries.
Even so, it was still incredibly difficult to complete, and there were even several crises of total annihilation.
An ordinary homeless person would probably have died countless times by now!
It now appears that his earlier guess was correct.
Entering the hidden room where you obtain the Crystal of Resentment increases the difficulty of the ruins.
Faced with Yao Feng's questioning, the three of them made no attempt to hide anything and recounted their experiences in the hidden room and the library. Yu Jing, in particular, emphasized his unusual state regarding the altar coffin and the heavily armored skeleton.
"A new route, hidden clues, the female corpse in the altar sarcophagus, the consciousness hidden within the heavily armored skeleton... Yes, it matches up, it all matches up! So that's how it is. No wonder that kind of situation occurred in the elite-level ruins... The key was right here!"
After hearing Yu Jing's description, Yao Feng stood up excitedly, took out a notebook from his satchel, and started writing and drawing on it while muttering something under his breath.
The three looked at each other, unsure of what he meant, and could only wait.
After about five minutes, Yao Feng, finally having sorted out his thoughts, closed his notebook with satisfaction and looked at the three of them, saying,
"The intelligence you provided is extremely valuable. I will forward this information to the branch for evaluation. Once you complete your formal registration, the Explorers' Headquarters will award you accordingly!"
"Putting the reward aside, I'm more interested in knowing why this unexpected situation occurred."
Yu Jing's intuition told him that the value of this ancient castle ruins was definitely not just for assessing new recruits.
Putting everything else aside, the three extraordinary items obtained on this trip alone are enough to show that the "drop rate" of the ancient castle ruins is quite high.
Since he could directly descend to another realm using the Torch Watch, and Yao Feng said it was a castle-type ruin that would automatically refresh, there might be another chance to explore the castle in the future, so he naturally wanted to take this opportunity to find out more.
"Confidential information about the ancient castle ruins requires a certain number of contribution points to view, but considering the important information you just provided, I can selectively reveal some of it to you."
After glancing at his notes, Yao Feng, in a good mood, began to speak after a brief moment of thought.
"When you play online games, you must have done dungeons, right?"
Although they didn't know why the topic of online games suddenly came up, the three of them nodded in unison.
"Let's take game dungeons as an example. Within the same dungeon, the strength of the monsters, the complexity of the maze, and the treasures that can be obtained will all change depending on the difficulty. Carrying certain specific items can even unlock a hidden storyline within the dungeon. That shouldn't be hard to understand, right?"
At this point, Yao Feng opened the safe that had just been closed, took out the letter that served as an anchor, and then took the skull that Yu Jing had brought back from the foreign land into his other hand.
"You can consider this letter as your ticket to the dungeon, and this skull engraved with an evil spell is the proof to unlock the high-difficulty castle ruins. As long as you enter the castle ruins with it, the rooms and monsters you encounter will become more complex and powerful, and you will also gain greater rewards during the exploration."
This is why the Explorers' Headquarters required the examiners to bring back the skull.
It can not only assess the homeless person's various qualities, but also provide a certificate for passing more difficult ancient castle ruins.
Killing two birds with one stone!
"As for what I said about novice level and elite level, it's actually just a way of distinguishing different levels of difficulty within the same exotic realm, similar to the Explorers' Headquarters' risk rating system for various exotic realms."
This situation does not exist in most exotic areas, so the Explorers' Headquarters will conduct corresponding ratings after exploring and collecting intelligence.
Ancient castle ruins belong to a rather special category, which is why they are referred to as beginner level and elite level.
The Explorers' Office uses this to warn explorers whose abilities do not meet the required standard that it is best to back down when faced with difficulties.
"So, we unintentionally entered a more difficult section of the ancient castle ruins through a hidden room?"
Having roughly understood what Yao Feng was trying to say, Qing Gui pressed for an answer.
"No, your situation is more special. According to our investigation, no matter the difficulty level, you can find many things related to the Castle Ruins. The heavily armored skeletons you encountered were actually created by a necromancer hidden somewhere in the Castle Ruins. There are many similar creatures in the elite-level ruins."
"The Explorers' Headquarters has been trying to find traces of necromancers, because if these extremely special exotic monsters are successfully defeated, explorers can not only obtain a large amount of valuable resources, but also possibly obtain extraordinary items..."
Revealing the existence of necromancers was already the limit; when it came to truly classified information, Yao Feng stopped talking and changed the subject.
"I believe you inadvertently triggered a hidden room in the castle ruins, entering a library that shouldn't be in a beginner-level castle ruins. The female corpse in the altar sarcophagus is very likely closely related to the necromancer; this is undoubtedly a very valuable clue!"
Although Yao Feng deliberately avoided certain topics during the conversation, Yu Jing still vaguely guessed why he became extremely excited after learning about the existence of the altar coffin, and why the Explorers' Headquarters valued this ancient castle ruin so much.
Necromancer!
This profession is so common in modern online games that it's practically ubiquitous and nothing special about it.
But what if someone in the real world possessed and could use the techniques of a necromancer?
Manipulating corpses, summoning the dead, and even bringing the deceased back to life...
Whoever masters the means to blur the lines between life and death will immediately see it as a miracle in the eyes of those who are unaware of the truth!
Perhaps this is what is meant by "extraordinary"?