Just became an evil god and was summoned by the saint

"That's what everyone thinks, so we're still trying to figure out how to break through the gate."

"Could we go around to one side and dig a tunnel to get in?"

"The Eternal Night Mercenary Group is already in action. Good luck to them."

"There must be other methods, right?"

“Other methods have also been tried by large mercenary groups. I heard that the legendary royal mercenary group is also interested in this ruin and has come here quietly.”

"The Royal Mercenary Group? Is that the one that's supposedly a mercenary group secretly formed by the royal family?"

"Yes, that's the one. It's said that the leader is a student at the Royal Magic Academy."

"Since they're all here, let's wait until someone opens the gate to the ruins before we go in."

"..."

Celia relied on her mental power, while Elena relied on her keen ears; both of them gleaned the information they wanted from the discussions of the crowd.

They found an empty seat and ordered a glass of secret-brewed fruit juice.

Celia said, "With so many people, there will definitely be even more at the ruins. What are you planning to do?"

Elena wore a hat that concealed her elven features. She pricked up her ears and listened intently to the conversations around her. When she heard Celia's question, she said, "Let's rest for a day first. We'll go down and check on the situation at the ruins. We'll open the door when there are fewer people around."

Celia smiled and said, "Do you still want to keep everything in the ruins for yourself?"

Elena shook her head: "I don't want to think about it. With so many people, how could I, a mere second-tier mage, possibly take it all by myself? Anyway, most ruins only have a door, and most of the other things are in the subspace. Different teams going in together might not necessarily meet in the same place."

The elven girl was somewhat disheartened. She had thought she could keep it all to herself, but it turned out she had been discovered, and she was a little disappointed.

"Trying to take all the ruins for oneself is too ambitious. Even a fourth-tier mage couldn't do that. As long as we can take the important things with us, that's fine. Let's go. After we've rested, we'll go check out the situation."

Chapter 215 How could these ruins be deceiving people?

Between the temporary camp and the gate of the ruins, the Mercenary Guild sent people to clear a wide road, using magic to summon boulders to fill it, turning it into a stone-paved road.

The stone-paved road remains lush and green on both sides.

In addition to the temporary camp leading to the gate of the ruins, the temporary camp, together with the outside world, the mercenary guild, and nearby towns, are also working together to build roads in full swing.

The lords of nearby towns were able to seize this opportunity and cooperate with the mercenary guild to turn their towns into temporary mercenary markets, providing various supplies and services to mercenaries who came to conquer the ancient ruins.

Ross's phantom appeared beside Celia, looking at the changes made in the past few days, feeling a sense of déjà vu.

"Isn't this just like those trendy tourist spots that suddenly become popular online? Something from the local area becomes popular online, attracts a large number of tourists, and the local government starts construction to create a formulaic trendy food street."

"What are popular spots for social media check-ins?" Celia asked curiously.

Ross laughed and said, "It's a lord management model from a thousand years ago, just like how a large number of mercenaries flock to ancient ruins now. The only difference is that ancient ruins have benefits, while trendy tourist spots are purely for satisfying vanity."

"Oh." Celia seemed to understand but not quite.

"It's so lively here," Elena's voice came from outside. Celia looked up and realized that they had arrived at the gate of the ruins.

This ancient site is different from the lost lighthouse.

What came into view was a huge stone gate, at least three stories high.

Numerous mysterious runes were drawn on the stone gate.

Elena said, "I memorized the runes on the door before and asked someone about them. They are runes used to activate the door to open. Generally speaking, a low-level magic crystal can provide enough magic power to open this kind of door, but this door requires a pure magic crystal... It seems a bit like they're trying to trick people into putting magic power on it."

Celia carefully examined the mysterious runes that appeared on the door. Just as Elena had said, they were simply rune patterns used to drive the stone door to rise and open.

However, there were many subtle differences, which Celia couldn't quite make out; they were too ancient.

She chose to ask Ross.

Ross gave an affirmative answer: "Those tiny differences are meant to lock the Pure Magic Crystal in place, allowing it to continuously supply power. However, the effect is rather weak. It can be forcibly pulled down, but once pulled down, the door immediately loses its power supply and quickly falls. If it is not pulled down, the Pure Magic Crystal will slowly rise along with the stone door until it disappears into the gap above along with the stone door."

Celia looked up and, sure enough, saw a small hole in the gap above the stone door that was meant for it to rise.

The hole was right above the socket where the pure magic crystal was inlaid.

"This ruin is so cunning, it even tricks people out of magic crystals."

Celia was dumbfounded.

After a moment, he asked, "If I stick the staff to the stone door to supply energy, I won't be able to get in when it rises. If I do get in, can I outrun the speed at which the stone door falls?"

Ross laughed and said, "If you want to know, try sticking the staff on there and see."

"Let's try again tomorrow... Can this rune be changed? If it could be changed to activate the stone door and open the ruins with just one use, that would be great..."

"It can't be changed. This rune is fixed. When the ruins were designed, the designers anticipated that someone might modify the runes, so they designed all the runes to be interlocked and locked in place, so that they cannot be added or removed."

Celia: "..."

Ross laughed and said, "This is interesting. They're already setting traps before we even go in. The traps inside are definitely not like what Elena said, which are just simple trap puzzles. They'll probably combine monsters to create thrilling traps."

Celia looked at the stone gate. "I suddenly feel that exploring ruins isn't always necessary. This ruin is already so terrifying before we even go in. Once we're inside... who knows what will happen?"

She briefly explained the details of the stone gate to Elena, who nodded in deep agreement, acknowledging Celia's idea.

But she became even more interested: "This ruin is so interesting even before we've gone inside. The trap designs inside must be amazing. I can't wait to go in and explore."

Celia quietly moved one step away from Elena.

She found Elena's mentality strange, but didn't know how to describe it.

Ross described it to her: "This is 'Dou Aimu'."

What is Douyin (TikTok)?

"A person with masochistic tendencies."

"Oh, yes, that's it, it's similar to Doris."

Elena looked over and asked curiously, "Why are you taking a step back?"

"Cough cough, it's nothing, it's nothing."

"Oh, Celia, why don't we go in and take a look now? We can come out again if it doesn't work!"

Elena paid no attention to Celia's emotional changes; her eyes were fixed on the stone door, and she longed to go inside.

Celia shook her head: "Let's skip it today. I need to set the coordinates for the emergency teleportation scrolls I made so that I won't get lost and unable to get back after going in."

Elena was taken aback: "Why would you need a teleportation scroll to explore ruins? These ruins with traps are easy to conquer, you can just remove them one by one and there won't be any left. Even if you get tired, you can easily return. There are no traps or suddenly appearing puppets on the way back, so you don't have to worry about safety."

"Moreover, even if you have a teleportation scroll, you won't have time to use it if you fail to break the trap. And if you do have time to use it, you won't need something as precious as a teleportation scroll."

Celia nodded: "Teleportation scrolls are indeed very valuable."

In her quest to create two emergency teleportation scrolls that could only be used within ruins, she wasted a hundred scrolls, succeeding only in creating four.

This is the most basic teleportation scroll, its effect is to return to the Overworld from the Warp. It can only be used in the Warp. It is the simplest teleportation scroll, but its quality is close to that of a Tier 4 scroll.

In terms of complexity, it is comparable to a fourth-order scroll.

It's just that the magic and material requirements are lower than those of the fourth tier.

"However, to be reluctant to use something because it is precious, thereby putting yourself in danger, is putting the cart before the horse."

Ignoring Elena's pleading gaze, Celia turned and walked towards the camp.

Elena could only sigh and prepare to follow.

Just then, a loud bang came from the side of the gate.

boom!

The two looked over and saw countless clods of earth bursting out from the side of the mountain.

Many mercenaries who were studying near the stone gate also looked over.

Someone recognized what place it was.

"Isn't that the direction the Eternal Night Mercenary Group is digging their tunnel? Did they dig into a trap?"

"With that commotion, could they all be dead inside?"

"They probably won't die. They love digging tunnels so much, they've seen this kind of thing many times. I just don't know what they've dug up."

"..."

As the mercenaries discussed the matter, many of them headed in that direction to see what had happened.

Celia stopped as well and exchanged a glance with Elena.

"go?"

"Walk."

I'm having some writer's block...

Chapter 216 Spells and Curses

On the side of the ruins, in the lush green hillside, there is a very conspicuous excavation mark.

Large amounts of soil were pushed out of the ground, slid down the hillside, and piled up at the bottom, burying the low weeds and shrubs. The tall trees were also half buried.

The soil fell down the hillside, making it look as if the mountain had been punctured and was oozing pus.

At this moment, several mercenaries ran out of the excavated tunnel, covered in dust and dirt. They were dragging a mangled figure who appeared to have resisted an explosion at close range. His armor was torn apart, his skin was covered in blood, and his hair was in an afro.

Upon seeing him, everyone gasped, their breath forming a grimace above his head.

The mercenary who had brought the person out saw a large crowd gathered outside and quickly shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, if any of you are skilled in healing, please help us. Our teammate accidentally triggered a trap in the ruins. In order to prevent the tunnel from being destroyed, he blocked the explosion and was seriously injured. He urgently needs medical treatment."

Another person quickly said, "His situation is very special. It seems that the explosion blasted the runes into his body, preventing the healing spell from entering. I can't solve it. If anyone can remove the negative effects and heal him, the Eternal Night Mercenary Group will reward them handsomely!"

Some people were tempted, but when they heard that the healing technique could not be applied to the human body, they calmed down.

"Runes exploding inside the body? Isn't that just curse magic?"

"Even purification spells have difficulty breaking the curse of the spell."

"Poor guy, hopeless."

If it's just treating serious injuries, they can still do it. After all, healing spells are an indispensable spell for mercenary groups, and most mercenary groups have them.

However, the inability to heal means that the other party needs a second-tier or higher spell, such as Purification, to dispel the negative status.

That creates a barrier to entry.

Purification techniques are not something everyone can learn.

This negative effect of being unable to heal is caused by incantation, not by conventional magic.

That's even more difficult.

Elena peeked out and then whispered, "Speaking of which, our elven blessings can dispel the effects of many spells. I wonder if they can lift that person's curse."

Celia said, "Why don't we give it a try?"

Elena shook her head: "I don't know healing magic. What if they make things difficult for me if I just offer a blessing and it doesn't heal them?"

Celia pulled Elena forward, saying, "It's alright, I'm here. If they dare to make things difficult for you, I'll send them all to jail."

As a prospective saintess, Celia cannot bear to see anyone die in front of her.

Especially when there is still hope.

She hadn't originally planned to intervene because she figured that among so many mercenaries, there must be many who also worked as priests.

Even if they aren't priests, they've all learned at least the most basic healing spells.

No matter how severe the injury, as long as it is an external injury, healing techniques can be effective to some extent.

It may be incurable, but stabilizing the injury is still possible.

However, if the injured person is afflicted with other negative effects that hinder treatment, then there's nothing that can be done.

It requires higher-level purification and healing spells, or special spells like elven blessings.

Clearly, these spells are not something ordinary mercenaries can access.

The mercenary's condition is quite urgent; we can deal with other things later. Let's stabilize his injuries first.

Celia pulled Elena through the crowd to the lying mercenary.

"Elena, it's up to you now," Celia said, while also observing the mercenary's condition.