Chapter 399: Chapter 26: Ancient Witch Demon Duncan controlled the mechanical arm to continue digging downward, and at this moment he had already unearthed the frame of the Soul Furnace, which was about fifteen meters in diameter, forged from black iron, with the Holy Prayer of the Father of Dwarves engraved on it. However, after digging for quite a while, he still hadn’t found where the other hammer was.
There had been a major earthquake here once, and massive collapses buried everything. He had dug down to the stone slabs of the Divine Hall’s plaza.
Beneath the slabs were buried bones, and not those of dwarves, as the skeletons were quite delicate.
"Look what I found!"
At this moment, a bearded mercenary not far away who was also digging raised his hand. He held up a glittering goblet, and said excitedly, "A goblet of pure gold!"
"There must be a lot of treasures buried down here."
Suddenly, the others nearby were attracted over.
They no longer paid attention to Duncan’s side, focusing instead on digging down from that location, which should lead to a storage room or possibly a treasury because, after half a day, someone unearthed dozens of shining dwarf gold coins and various gems, most about the size of a thumb.
Perhaps they were digging too hastily.
Suddenly, the ground trembled slightly, and a mercenary fell right in, the entirety of him swallowed up as if by quicksand, leaving only half a foot visible. Luckily, someone nearby grabbed him, and Duncan quickly reacted, extending the mechanical arm to forcibly pull the man out.
He sat dazed on the ground for quite some time, his gaze vacant, muttering, "I felt like I saw a ton of gold just now..."
"There’s a mountain of gold down here!..."
With that, he opened his palm, revealing it to be full of gold dust.
Gold?
Duncan was not tempted, having once been the emperor of an empire, worldly gold and treasures were hard to attract him anymore. However, the others remaining were visibly excited, becoming agitated, with some eager to continue digging further.
It’s said that dwarves love to collect gold and jewels.
But this time they were more cautious, avoiding the area with quicksand, trying to dig a path from the side.
"What kind of creature’s bones are these?"
Duncan was examining the bones just unearthed, feeling they seemed somewhat human, but more delicate. There should have been a blood sacrifice done here, as seen by the countless fragments of bones.
As he was preparing to return to camp, suddenly a red dot seemed to flash by.
"What was that?"
"An enemy?"
Duncan immediately became vigilant, enlarging the God’s perspective, swiped over to the dark area on the right side of the ruins, but the red dot that had just flashed by had already disappeared, like an illusion.
That was definitely not an illusion.
The God’s perspective had never been wrong.
Just when Duncan couldn’t locate where the enemy was, the people digging not far behind him had begun exhibiting strange changes. The leader of the rebel troops, Bowen, had unknown when his eyes turned crimson red, his demeanor growing increasingly fanatical and excited, and the robust, nearly 1.9-meter tall man’s figure gradually became gaunt, yet he was entirely unaware, even pouncing directly onto the flowing pile of gold after opening a pathway.
"We’re rich!..."
"We’re rich! So much gold!..."
Behind that rebel, the rest all appeared similarly, their bodies gradually hunching and withering, yet entirely oblivious, as if something was drawing away their vitality.
——Rebel - Bowen (Cursed) (Negative Energy Drain) (Two Stars downgraded to One Star).
——Mercenary - Bardin (Cursed) (Negative Energy Drain) (One Star downgraded to No Mark).
Something’s wrong!
This all happened too quickly.
By the time Duncan realized and picked up his weapon, the mercenary named Bardin had already been drained into a skeleton, and as his sole one-star mark disappeared, the person turned directly into a shriveled corpse, his body’s life force entirely siphoned away.
The others nearby were still completely unaware, Bowen even glanced at the corpse beside him, revealing a greedy smile: "Gold!..."
"It’s all mine!..."
Crack.
The last star on his body disappeared too, his whole person turning gaunt, sparse hair falling in large patches, his hunched body withering bit by bit, turning into a dry corpse within seconds.
All dead!
Duncan was the sole survivor.
Projection page.
He checked his status, confirmed he had no ’Cursed’ or ’Negative Energy Drain’ marks, then hurriedly turned with his weapon, withdrawing backward without a second thought. Duncan now had no idea what kind of creature he had encountered.
Dimension Space.
As Duncan rapidly withdrew, the red dot that had flashed by appeared again.
Then a line of prompts appeared.
——"Detected unknown spell!... Identifying and analyzing!..."
——"Invocation of Necromancy Effective!"
In an instant.
This dark passage was swept by a gust of eerie wind, the biting cold spreading in all directions, and those mercenaries who had just died into dry corpses all crawled back to their feet, faint soul fires appearing in their pupils.
Even the leading rebel picked up a gun, aiming towards Duncan’s position.