Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

"...I'm not surprised. After all, it's impossible for bounty hunters not to show off their wealth... Maybe someone just said it out loud after drinking too much." Noah shrugged. "And then?"

"The key necessary to unlock the treasure and its location are secrets passed down orally by successive village chiefs..." Korol scratched her head awkwardly. "Actually, the village chief of our Dishui Village knew there was a treasure in the mountains... but... he always kept his promise and didn't tell anyone. But bounty hunters flocked here, destroying the fields and harming the villagers... I couldn't do anything about it..."

"So you told those bounty hunters the location of the treasure?" Noah didn't seem angry, and his tone was still very gentle. "It's okay. Although it may be an agreement between my ancestors and you, I won't blame you for protecting yourself."

"If we let them know that I have information about the treasure, at least they won't harm the other villagers anymore." Koror avoided looking awkwardly. "I'm sorry... Lord Kirilet."

"There's no need to call me Sir." Noah shook her head. "You can just call me by my name. Just call me Miss Noah. I'm not used to changing the address all of a sudden."

"Okay... Miss Noah." Carol nodded, but Noah continued to ask.

"But since you already knew the treasure's location, why did you, the people of Dripping Water Village, wait until the bounty hunters arrived before trying to steal it?" Noah was indeed a little curious. "Since my ancestors told you the location, they probably intended for you to take it."

"Gold coins and the like will eventually run out, but we have to live on this land. This land is our only home..." Koror shook her head. "If the treasure story hadn't gotten out, we would never have touched money that didn't belong to us... This matter..."

"I'm not blaming you... I'll say it again." Noah was helpless, "Ms. Kellogg, you did nothing wrong."

"Well... Anyway, then there was Miss Skadi's sudden appearance. You have no idea how powerful she was back then." Carol immediately began describing Skadi's skills in vivid detail. "She could easily send someone flying, bury them in the ground with a single movement, and kill them like the sun and moon were completely dark! She was incredible."

"Wow..." Noah glanced at the harmless Miss Skadi standing beside him, and suddenly a bad thought came to his mind. He sighed and said, "Was Miss Skadi so violent back then? Terrible."

"...? Was I...was I that violent?" Skadi vaguely remembered what happened back then, but she didn't kill anyone. She simply beat up someone who was blocking her way. It shouldn't have been violent. "I...I don't remember, but I don't think I killed anyone..."

"Miss Skadi is indeed very powerful, but she didn't kill anyone. She just knocked her unconscious." Krol quickly explained, "I was just exaggerating a bit... a figure of speech."

"Pfft..." Noah knew that Skadi wouldn't kill the weak, so she was just joking. "Okay, okay, I get it. After Miss Skadi appeared, are all your problems solved?"

"...ah, well..." Skadi and Chloe both felt awkward. "At that time...we weren't sure if the other party was a friend or an enemy, so..."

No bounty hunter would want to meet her! Those who dared to hold their heads high in front of her probably hadn't seen her destroy an entire city! Koror recalled the bounty hunter's comments about Skadi, describing the white-haired beauty as a humanoid monster. So, neither Grani nor she actually reacted at the time. Later, Grani did react and attacked the bounty hunter who suddenly broke in... Of course, Koror couldn't intervene, but soon, they were rescued by another friend.

Of course, they didn't realize at the time that the big guy was actually a friend.

"So it was Reunion who saved you?" Noya finally realized that the big guy was one of Reunion's leaders. Although she had never faced Reunion directly, she had heard a lot about them. Especially its leader... Tallulah.

"But the Integration Movement that came here during this period is probably also after the treasure, right?" Noah speculated reasonably. "What's your reaction?"

"...Mr. Big Bob wasn't a bad guy, and he wasn't part of the Reunion anymore. He was a self-proclaimed bounty hunter, and the only one willing to cooperate with us instead of forcing us to submit. But we didn't have a choice at the time..." Carol explained, "So, we agreed to cooperate."

"Actually, I think you should have made some noise and let Skadi find you instead of cooperating with a stranger," Noah suggested sincerely. "Grani should know Miss Skadi, right?"

"Miss Grani simply didn't react at the time..." The village chief laughed, as if remembering the awkward moment. "Besides, we weren't sure what Miss Skadi was up to, and Miss Grani and Miss Skadi weren't familiar with each other... Plus, given what the bounty hunters said about her, we really didn't dare approach Miss Skadi."

"...I'm not that scary, am I?" Skadi began to question her life. Was she actually that intimidating in the eyes of her colleagues? She subconsciously glanced at Noya, fearing she'd read a hint of disappointment in her expression. Fortunately, Noya remained smiling, as if she were listening to an amusing adventure story. Especially with Skadi, a suspected wild boss, roaming around, the story seemed a bit comical.

"The situation was rather unique, and I was simply following Dr. Kal'tsit's instructions... I had no intention of harming them." Skadi's explanation was feeble, but Noya found it quite amusing. Back then, she was still in the Great Knight Territory, fretting over how to become powerful, and she hadn't expected such interesting things to happen in her own country. However, the thought that the knight's treasure was actually money from her own ancestral tomb made her feel a little helpless—luckily, it wasn't something her family had plundered.

According to her understanding, this money seemed to be the treasure left behind by the legendary knight who fought against the huge waves, the "Last Knight" who she had met once, and the Kirilet family was the one who received the gift.

"But I met them soon after." Skadi didn't notice Noya's fleeting embarrassment, but continued to speak. "I saw them, and also saw my target, Village Chief Korol. I thought Grani was one of us, so I directly asked him to hand Korol over to me for protection, but she refused."

"...You were indeed a bit scary at the time." Koror hid behind Noah and whispered, "Besides, she even took action."

"?" Noah was a little surprised and looked at Skadi, but Skadi was almost anxious to death at this time and hurried to explain.

"I just saw a bounty hunter next to her, and that person was from the Reunion Movement, and he had the bloody smell of someone he had killed. Naturally, I thought that Grani being with such a guy might be harmful to Chloe—" Skadi explained. "But it's true that I wasn't good at communication at the time. I thought I only needed to show my strength to make that Reunion guy leave..."

"So you scared Carol, didn't you?"

"That wasn't my intention." Skadi nodded weakly. "To be exact, I didn't intend to hurt them."

"I believe you, Skadi, but you should think twice before you act." Noah knew Skadi wouldn't do that, but her actions at the time did complicate a simple matter. "But it's all in the past. You probably wouldn't do that now, right?"

"..."

“…Right?”

"Um……"

Skadi silently avoided Noah's questioning gaze. To be honest, even now, she didn't dare to say that she could handle the situation perfectly. In the eyes of most people, deep-sea hunters like her were humanoid monsters. Explaining was too time-consuming, and showing force was the best way to avoid a fight.

"We're almost there - just pass through the forest and you'll be at the foot of Mount Morati. We have to enter the second cave halfway up the mountain." The village chief also noticed that the road was about to reach its end and pointed to a cave halfway up the mountain.

Noah saw that they had reached the end. Although he was still curious about what would happen next, he focused on business and asked the team to stop for the time being.

"Let's set up camp first, and then we will send out an exploration team. The rest of the members will be responsible for expanding the cave entrance and surveying the surrounding situation." Kal'tsit began to command the team, while Noah stared at the small cave entrance. For some reason, she always had the illusion that she was being spied on... It wasn't just now, but she had this feeling since she entered the mountain.

That was why she had used conversation to distract herself—but now, she was certain.

This mountain, or rather, under this mountain...something is staring at me.

Chapter 79: Hallucination

Although it is tempting to dig up Skadi's dark history, Noah still prepares to deal with business first. Before entering the cave, except for Noah who has a wall-mounted gray matter regulator, most people have to bring various equipment to prevent problems, such as oxygen cylinders, as well as food and fresh water for economic use. Cave exploration is not safe. There are often some special creatures in the cave that are rarely seen in the outside world.

For example, there are various Originium Worms variants. According to Eyjafjalla, Originium Worms close to the ground are easily affected by high-energy stone veins or magma and become huge. It is said that this Originium Worm variant is code-named Pompeii, and it is an extremely dangerous species. Terra's crust moves frequently. If you encounter any natural disasters during cave exploration, such as earthquakes, it would be fun. You won't even have to worry about where to bury. Of course, the structures of most caves are still very stable, otherwise they would have collapsed long ago. It's just better to be safe than sorry, so it is still necessary to be prepared.

Although according to the village chief, the air in the cave is still circulating and there should be no lack of oxygen, Noah and others still sent out a drone to take measurements before entering. Only after finding that the internal situation was normal did they enter cautiously.

The visibility in the cave is dim, but the people responsible for entering the cave to survey are basically not ordinary people. Chloe, Noah, Skadi, Precious, and the Doctor who insisted on joining in, Mace, and Margaret. They walked in the cave, and the light of the flashlight illuminated the scene inside the cave. The internal structure of the cave is very complicated. From what Noah saw, there were several routes that he didn't know how to move forward.

"As expected, this is the only entrance and exit, right?" Noah pointed to the cave that Carol had told her about before. On one side of the cave, there was some glowing moss growing, but the light was very weak and could not be seen unless you looked carefully.

"Yes. There are many forked paths in the cave, but the village elders have brought me here several times, including the day I succeeded the village chief..." Koror nodded. "As long as we enter through this cave entrance, we will soon find the location of the knight's treasure."

"...I'd love to say it's fine, but look here." Noa pointed to a path that clearly didn't look like it had been dug properly. "This...looking at the sword marks, could it be you, Skadi..."

"..." Skadi was silent for a moment, then shook her head. "Do you believe me if I say I don't remember?"

Well, with Skadi's help, Noah finally knew the right direction. Skadi had destroyed the mountain wall so casually, but the cave did not collapse... It could be said to be a miracle. Although he didn't want to think about how exaggerated Skadi's method of breaking the mountain was, Precious looked at the gap thoughtfully and spoke with some doubt.

"There must be some kind of field generator here, supporting the cave's structure. Otherwise, if the ground structure here were forcibly destroyed like this, the cave wouldn't be safe. The size of the gap you've left is almost the result of a small explosion. Without the field generator to stabilize the structure, the cave would have collapsed long ago." Precious knocked on the cave entrance and said confidently, "Although I'm not familiar with this technology, as long as the field generator stabilizes the entire structure, it's like an invisible load-bearing wall supporting the entire cave's roof. In this case, the size of this cave may be even larger than we imagined."

"Station generator..." Noah knocked on the wall. Surprisingly, this was the main reason why Skadi could casually destroy the mountain without causing a collapse... "Indeed, this is my family tomb. Considering the large cavity underneath, the possibility of this cave remaining stable is very low."

"...Anyway, what you're saying is this place won't collapse easily?" Koror, standing by, was confused, but she still roughly understood. "I don't quite understand the rest...but it does feel like every time I come here, it looks the same as before."

"That also explains why this place has been preserved for so long." Noah nodded. "But we still don't know if the position generating device is damaged or if it has fallen into disrepair, so we should not destroy the mountain casually."

The few of them made up their minds and decided to move forward along the path that Skadi had opened. There were traces of fighting everywhere, including sword marks and explosion marks. It was obvious that a great battle had taken place here. Some of the marks were left by Skadi's sword, but another part... was completely different. After arriving in this area, for some reason, Margaret looked very solemn. She stopped to check from time to time, especially the marks left by the weapons. She looked at them carefully every time.

Then, she spoke seriously—

"This is a trace left by the Linguang family's Originium technique..." She pointed to a seemingly smooth mark. "Do you see this smooth cross-section? This stalactite was directly severed by a lightsaber. Ordinary weapons wouldn't leave such a clear cross-section. There are also traces of crystallization on it, caused by the inherent warmth of the light from our family's Originium technique. My ancestors, or rather, those with Originium memories similar to ours, once fought here."

"This place is actually related to the Linguang family?" Noah was a little surprised. "Are you sure?"

"I won't be mistaken. This sword mark is very representative." Margaret shook her head. "I often see similar cross-sections during my practice."

"But isn't this Noya's family cemetery? Is there any reason for the Linguang family's ancestors to be here?" the doctor asked. "Could it be that the Linguang family is also here to rob the knight's treasure?"

"...As the head of the Linguang family, I cannot deny this possibility—" Margaret did not deny it directly, "but I personally hope that this will not be the case..."

"The Linguang family is a knight family. For a knight family to attack the tombs of other knight families... this kind of thing is almost impossible." Noya shook her head. "If this precedent is set, won't the tombs of other knight families be frequently visited? The possibility is indeed not high."

"Come on—" Precious curled his lips at this moment. "The traces left here are much older than those left by Skadi. Judging by the time, they were probably left behind when Casimir was still the Golden Pegasus in power. While it might be somewhat related to your ancestors, it's not really relevant to you anymore."

"...It seems you weren't just killing time with that Terran history book you were reading earlier?" Noya knew that Precious had been cramming Terran history lately. She had initially assumed she was just killing time, but she hadn't expected her to be truly serious about understanding Terran history. Only now could she tell the age of these traces and the events they corresponded to. "What a surprise."

"It's all good for killing time, but I do need to understand what stage our civilization is at—" Precious shrugged, but a slight smile remained. "Besides the Golden Pegasus's Originium skills, there are many traces here that I haven't seen before. It's impossible to identify them all—in short, my guess is that there may have been a fierce battle here, and it has nothing to do with that little whale."

"What a fierce battle..." Noah observed and found that there were indeed many traces of spells. It was obvious that Skadi did not know spells, and the traces caused by the Linguang family's Originium skills were also very obvious, so both of them could be ruled out. Moreover, the diversity of these traces exceeded the types that a single warlock could master. Obviously, a multi-person melee may have taken place here. Such relics would actually be hidden in the cave... and the aftermath of the battle had not destroyed the cave. The stance generator did play a big role.

"The traces here are truly ancient... Hmm." Precious raised her head and glanced around, suddenly seeing something that interested her greatly.

--mural.

This kind of thing is considered to be a relic of civilization often left by ancient humans, especially in caves like this, so the appearance of such murals is natural.

Precious raised his flashlight, illuminating the entire mural. It was red, likely painted with some kind of clay and water. Its form was rather abstract, but the general meaning was still understandable. The mural depicted a story about a group of humanoid creatures with tails and ears, radiating a unique light and holding flames high as they emerged from the cave. The glittering, animal-eared creature leading the group was most likely the Golden Pegasus.

So... this might very well be the starting point where a group of ancient gods and people left the cave and went to the grassland to survive?

In the Terran history she had read, the story of the Golden Pegasus was quite legendary. These Golden Pegasus were not only descendants of the gods, but also masters of the Casimir Grasslands. They ruled the grasslands for a long, long time as royalty, even making the Golden Family a symbol of an era. The murals here seemed to further illustrate the birth of the Pegasus clan.

But why did these Kuranta gods emerge from a cave? And why do these gods have powers far beyond ordinary people, and there is no racial segregation between these gods and ordinary Kuranta?

So many questions popped up in Precious's mind in an instant. She looked into the depths of the cave. If she was only interested in the laboratory at the beginning, now she was very curious whether this cave had other secrets, or... whether there was something in this cave that was interesting enough to make her interested.

And according to the content on the murals... it was not just the [Golden Pegasus] that led Kuranta out of the cave, there was also a creature with a painted unicorn horn, and... a human figure outlined with red and black clay.

——Golden Pegasus, Unicorn, Nightmare.

Sure enough, this is the origin of Kuranta...

Noah and the doctor also noticed the mural that Priss noticed. They immediately understood the concept behind the description - the ancestral gods and people: the Golden Pegasus, the Unicorn, and the Nightmare led the Kurantas out of the cave. After leaving the cave, the Golden Pegasus became the master of the grassland, while the gods and people of the Nightmare and Unicorn tribes chose to leave. In other words, the Unicorn tribe may have later gone to the vast plain that was not called the Victoria Plain at the time, while the Nightmare tribe made the world their home, until the appearance of Nightmare Khan rewrote the history of the gods and people.

However, these are just murals, and they are very abstract. Noah can only guess this, but he cannot be sure what exactly happened.

It is also unknown whether the departure of the Unicorn and Nightmare Clan is related to this place.

After the exploration team took photos of the murals, several people continued to move forward according to Carol's instructions. Soon, they passed through a narrow cave and came to a [tomb passage] that was obviously dug by humans. For some reason, after arriving here, everyone felt a chill. The entrance to the tomb was as if it was cut by a knife or an axe. The walls were very smooth and there were some inscriptions on them. No one could understand the meaning of these inscriptions, but it was obvious that they had come to the right place.

"I don't know why, but I feel a little cold." Noah frowned. "But this shouldn't be possible... I should be able to maintain a constant body temperature with my gray matter. This chill... shouldn't be just about temperature..."

"Indeed... I have a similar feeling." Precious also frowned. This was the first time she felt threatened by Terra.

This was almost impossible. She didn't care about the entire Terra, but she felt threatened here... There were only a handful of people who could threaten her, so she was convinced that this was most likely a laboratory left over from a previous civilization.

She couldn't wait to see what the so-called Zone Zero was!

The tomb passage was very long, but there was no fork in the road. It just went down all the way. The lights could not illuminate the end of the stairs at all, as if the stairs were endless. Noah and the others walked for a long time, and even Carol was a little confused.

After all, the last time she came, she quickly reached the tomb and dragged out some of the treasure.

But now... the length of this tomb passage is completely different from what she remembered.

Something was wrong. Could it be that she had remembered it wrongly? She stopped and hesitated, wondering if she had taken the wrong path.

"What's wrong, Carol?" Noah asked curiously, "What happened?"

"I remember this road wasn't that long...at least it wasn't that long the last time I came here..." Koror scratched her head awkwardly, "I wonder if I took the wrong road."

"...Maybe not." Precious shook his head. "I just felt it. It seems like something is affecting our consciousness... But I'm not sure."

"Hallucination?" Noah blinked. "But if it's an illusion...we shouldn't...eh..."

Noah turned her head and wanted to confirm the situation with others, but she found that... she didn't know when it started, but there was no one behind her. Then she turned her head and looked forward, and this time even Carol and Precious were gone.

"...No way..." Noah twitched the corner of his mouth, "...When...was I dragged into this hallucination?"

Chapter 80: The Brave

It stands to reason that the spiritual world of a warlock like Noah who specializes in the spiritual world is very stable, and ordinary things can hardly threaten Noah herself, who is almost the queen of the spiritual world. However, every time Noah is tricked, she is basically pulled into the illusion by something of a higher level without realizing it. Just like now, when Noah realized it, he had been pulled into a strange space.

But when she realized it, it became easy to crack it. Noah's eyes slowly turned bright red, and the next moment, with a dull pain coming from deep in her head, she finally came back to her senses from reality. She was still standing there, but there was no one left by her side, and the door in front of her had been opened. In other words, everyone else was hypnotized into entering this door?

To be on the safe side, Noah also checked the communication device, and sure enough... there was no signal at all.

Noah sighed. It didn't matter if it happened to the others, but even Priss was affected. It was most likely that some defense facility that even Priss didn't know about was triggered. It was worthy of being the last and first laboratory of mankind known as Area Zero, and it actually had such powerful protective facilities.

However, Carol had taken out a box of treasure before, which shows that this protection mechanism also depends on the person. In other words... is there something observing who enters the test area?

Noah touched his chin and thought for a while. Out of concern for others, he had no choice but to step into it even if it was a trap.

After entering the door, there are two storage rooms on both sides, which seem to be responsible for storing the so-called "Knight's Treasure". Noah glanced at them and saw no one inside, only boxes piled up like mountains. If these boxes are full of gold coins from the Casimir Empire period, then the value of these gold coins is estimated to be worth a small mobile city. Of course, this is just the market price. If they are sold slowly, it is estimated that not only three or four mobile cities can be afforded.

I didn't expect that the Kirilet family actually hid so many treasures... Noah couldn't help but sigh. She stretched out her hand, picked up a gold coin scattered on the ground, gently bounced it, and then caught it. The weight was fine, and the casting process was also fine. There was no doubt that the treasures here were enough to drive half of Casimir crazy. Of course, the premise was that these people could pass through the previous defense mechanism. If ordinary people came in casually and got lost, it would be the most merciful outcome, and they might even be trapped to death here.

But this is not the point. Noah threw the gold coin casually. The coin made a crisp sound when it fell to the ground, then rolled away and stopped in front of a big box.

Noah didn't care about the whereabouts of the gold coin, but looked for other passages everywhere. He didn't consider that his teammates had already escaped from here, so there should be other passages here. However, this was Noah's first time to rob a tomb - no, it was an archaeology, so naturally he was confused about the structure of the ancient tomb itself. He walked around the treasure room twice but didn't find any clues.

"That's not right... where is it..." Noah subconsciously lowered her head and turned to look at the location of the gold coin. Unexpectedly, she suddenly found that the gold coin she threw out was gone.

She remembered that when the gold coin fell to the ground, there was a sound of it hitting the box, but at this time, the ground was very quiet and there was not a single gold coin left.

Did it roll into some gap?

Noah squatted down and used his flashlight to illuminate the ground - but the gold coin had indeed disappeared. Noah trusted his memory and eyesight. Could it be possible that the gold coin had really disappeared out of thin air?

The dim tomb was chilly, and the only sounds echoing were Noya's own footsteps. Her hearing was excellent, so if someone was nearby, she should have easily detected them. So... did the gold coin disappear on its own?

impossible……

How can anything disappear out of thin air? This goes against the laws of physics.

As long as the gold coin wasn't a ginseng fruit, which burrows into the ground, Noya didn't think it could disappear easily. She turned her head and looked at the piles of treasure. Then, if she changed her mind, since the gold coin couldn't disappear on its own, there was no one nearby, and there were no cracks in the ground, then... was there something strange about the gold coin itself?

At least it was worth a try. Noah manipulated the gray matter and condensed it into several small balls. Although she did not have the key to open the treasure chest, these gray matter could invade it and unlock the internal locks. Under Noah's control, the locks of the treasure chest were opened. With a crisp snap, Noah's hand was placed on the treasure chest, but when she was about to open it, a premonition... or a sense of crisis made her hair stand on end. The next moment, she immediately moved away from the treasure chest, and the facts proved that she did the right thing.

The next moment, the lid of the treasure chest popped open by itself, revealing sharp white teeth arranged like shark's teeth. If Noah had not dodged in time, he would have been swallowed whole by this thing. Then, this treasure chest with a terrifying huge mouth spit out a long tongue with very sticky saliva on it, which dripped onto the ground bit by bit, corroding small pits one after another.

The saliva is also corrosive... and it has the appearance of a treasure chest as a cover... Could this thing also be a mechanism to guard the tomb?