Chapter 76 - Ancient City of Sulgata

This time around, the final victor of the battle was Nie Yan. As for Eternal Sin, Candy and the rest of their team, they had played all their cards already. Besides holding a grudge, there was nothing they could do.

After fleeing from Eternal Sin and his team, Nie Yan resumed his main objective and headed for the ruins of Sulgata. As he ran towards his destination, he retrieved the skill book that he had obtained from the Serpentine Lizard from his bag. Since he had been in a hurry to escape, he hadn't checked to see what it actually was.

Dammit! It’s just a Revive skill book!

He couldn’t help letting out a sigh. Though, in truth, his luck wasn’t actually bad. This skill book was a vital necessity for teams if they wanted to progress in the future, and the sooner they obtained it, the better. Due to this, the current market price was ludicrous. Even if a player listed it for one gold, there would still be plenty of teams making a mad scramble to obtain it.

Skill Book: Revive

Description: Allows a Priest to revive a fallen comrade.

Requirements: Incantation, Gesture, and Material

Properties: Revive a fallen comrade; can only be cast while outside of combat. This skill requires 10 seconds to channel.

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Restrictions: Priest; can only be learned by a member of the Righteous faction.

He skimmed through its description before storing it back into his bag. It would become quite valuable to him in the future, so he didn’t plan on selling it. Besides, he wasn’t short on money either.

After traversing through a vast stretch of thickets, he eventually encountered a ruined city constructed at the center of the marshland. As he approached the city's perimeter, his gaze fell on the once towering walls that had been eroded by the elements. Upon closer inspection, he could still see traces of its former majesty. Looming past the walls stood an imposing pyramid constructed out of stone slabs, placed at the city center. Even from afar, he could see various characters from the Dark Era carved on each slab, every single one of them radiating an ancient aura.

This ancient stronghold experienced countless battles and wars. No one knew what year or what month it happened, but the city had long since been devoid of life. All that remained were the aged pillars and walls that whistled a lonely ballad as the wind passed through them.

No mistake, I’ve found the right place!

Nie Yan circled the outer perimeter of the city for some time until he found the main gates.

He sorted out his inventory before setting foot inside the city gates. As he crossed the threshold from the gates into the passageway, he was met with the sight of countless ruins. Moreover, the instant he entered the walls, the sky suddenly turned dark. It was almost like he had been transported into another dimension. Darkness enshrouded everything, and he could no longer see outside the city. There was only the eerie sight of the ancient ruins in front of him.

「System: You’ve discovered the Sulgata Rampart!」

He saw rows upon rows of dilapidated buildings that led to the giant pyramid off in the distance. As he peered through the passageway at the main road, he saw the ghastly bones of the dead littering the pathways, streets, and sidewalks.

Suddenly, he felt a cold chill assault the back of his neck. A cold wind blew, and the scattered bones began moving on their own. Seeing this, he hurriedly climbed to a higher vantage point.

Shortly after reaching a reasonable height, the countless bones of varying sizes began to assemble together. There were some of short stature, seemingly belonging to Dwarves. Another group looked almost reptilian in nature, if you ignored the enormous bony wings that were growing out of their backs. Presumably, these belonged to the Dragon race. The rest belonged to the Human and Giant races.

These undead were what remained of an ancient battle. Countless lives belonging to various races were lost inside this stronghold. Their souls couldn’t move on to the afterlife, so they persisted through the ages and lingered by their remains. As soon as they sensed the breath of the living, they would reanimate their bodies and seek to exterminate its source without fail.

Nie Yan scanned over the nearest ones using Transcendent Insight.

Skeleton Sentinel (Extremely Frail): Level 10

Health: 120/120

Skeleton Mage (Extremely Frail): Level 10

Health: 80/80

Skeleton Ripper (Extremely Frail): Level 10

Health: 150/150

The skeletons had small health pools, and their attacks weren't powerful. In addition, they possessed the Extremely Frail modifier, so the level disparity between him and the mobs could be ignored. Even so, their sheer numbers couldn't be underestimated; the entire passageway was filled to the brim with skeletons. Moreover, since they were undead, they couldn't bleed nor be stunned. Stealth was also useless against them since they detected the living through the presence of life, not sight.

He hurriedly distanced himself from these undead. If they discovered him, they would charge over in a rush to exterminate him.

After putting some space between them, he slowly made his way forward. Eventually, he encountered a lone Skeleton Sentinel. He unsheathed his daggers and dashed in. Opening with an Assassinate, he then followed up with Vital Strike and instantly smashed it into smithereens.

「System: You’ve successfully slain a Skeleton Sentinel. +200% experience for killing a monster above your level. You’ve received 230 experience points.」

Though these skeletons were relatively weak, the experience they gave was quite decent.

Just as Nie Yan killed the lone Skeleton Sentinel, a group of Skeleton Sentinels and Skeleton Rippers from across the passage noticed his presence and bolted towards him. There were over a dozen of them running at him like an incoming wave. The Skeleton Rippers were the first to approach as they brandished their blades. The Skeleton Mages behind them raised their staffs. Crimson and pale-white energy coalesced together, forming an otherworldly blaze, and a rain of ice and lightning magic followed as well.

God dammit! Why are there so many of them!? he inwardly cried. After a quick glance behind him, he discovered the exit had been sealed off as well. There were skeletons everywhere. He fled from the fight and dashed toward a fork in the path.

Although their numbers were great, their movements were clumsy and awkward. Thus, if he didn’t act carelessly, they wouldn’t pose too much of a threat to him.

「Bang! Bang! Bang!」Several spells exploded by his side as he dashed around the corner and escaped the Skeleton Mages’ attack range. As he fled from the skeletons, he observed the path ahead of him and noticed another mob of enemies aggressively charging in his direction.

He couldn't retreat since the rear path was sealed off by skeletons, and he couldn't advance into the charging skeletons. Nie Yan quickly looked at the walls beside him. They were roughly five meters high, and littered with footholds due to their eroded state. He leapt into the air and scaled the walls.

After reaching the top, he gently landed on the other side. There were several Skeleton Mages scattered around the vicinity of this path. In addition, many bones littered the ground, seemingly yet to reanimate.

He didn’t dare to be neglectful and dashed towards one of the Skeleton Mages with his daggers raised.

After a brief exchange, the Skeleton Mage collapsed to the ground and shattered into fragments.

The other Skeleton Mages had already noticed his presence and were in the middle of casting their spells. However, he was lightning fast and quickly finished them off one by one. Afterward, as he began picking up the items that dropped, the bones on the ground trembled and began reassembling themselves.

He didn’t stay any longer and promptly fled towards the exit.

However, as his feet stepped past a few tiles on the floor, he felt a slight vibration beneath his feet. Though it had been extremely minute, he still detected it immediately.

Traps!

He hastily jumped to the side.「Boom!」The tile he had stepped on exploded, sending debris flying everywhere. Several of the nearby skeletons had been caught by the explosion and were blown away. The shock from the blast destroyed them as they collapsed into a pile of bone fragments.

Some of the shrapnel from the explosion also struck his body and caused several damage values to rise above his head.

−12

−13

−15

He broke out in a cold sweat as he lay sprawled on the ground. These landmines were extremely terrifying. If he had taken the full brunt of that explosion, he wouldn't have even left a complete corpse behind.

Although the landmines were dangerous, with a single explosion being able to instantly kill a Thief, there was a slight two-second window before they actually detonated. As long as he maintained his awareness, he could pass through safely without a hitch.