Chapter 223 - 223. Mine
Ancient was the perfect adjective to describe the state in which the dungeon was.
As soon as Noah entered the cavity at the base of the mountain, he was met with a dusty and decrepit sight.
'It doesn't seem that the magical beasts have reached the surface yet. They should be on the lower layers.'
Noah thought, inspecting the ground floor of the Bare Dungeon.
It was a large cave with only a few rusty cells still resisting the passage of time.
The wooden furniture had long dissipated in the past two thousand years, leaving only some random items made of iron or similar in the wide room.
Noah didn't find anything valuable there so he decided to continue his trip toward the lower levels.
The place was dark and all light sources had succumbed to age, yet, for mages like Noah, darkness wasn't a hindrance at all.
At the end of the room, Noah found a passage leading downward which he crossed without hesitation.
'The "Breath" is diminishing.'
He noted in his mind as he descended in the first layer.
Another big room unfolded itself in front of Noah, however, that one had many more cells than the one on the surface.
'Here should be where they kept low-level criminals. It's strange though, the walls seem stable even after so many years which means that the previous Royal family had done a really impressive job when they created this place. Why abandon it?'
He didn't think that the Elbas family would abandon such a good structure without a valid reason.
'Maybe they wanted to converge the power on the capital, they want to create an army with criminals after all. Yet, it does still seem quite a waste.'
Doubts assaulted his mind but he could only repress them.
Many important matters were handled by cultivators in the heroic ranks, common human cultivators could not even imagine the number of secrets kept by them.
Noah had learnt some of them due to his peculiar situation but they were only the tip of the iceberg, who knew how many secret matters had happened in two thousand years of rule.
There were three almost identical rooms in that layer, with each of them having a passage that went deeper in the ground.
'Since I'm looking for magical beasts, I should follow the higher density of "Breath".'
Noah had come there to test his new strength, he couldn't bother with the secrets of that place.
Also, if even the current Royal family had abandoned it, that meant that any kind of useful item had already been plundered.
Noah descended for some time.
He had passed more than four layers already but he still had to find any magical beast.
'How deep is this place exactly? There is barely any "Breath" left in the air, this is definitely not a place were magical beasts would choose to live.'
Magical beasts fed on "Breath", of course they would set their lairs in an environment with a high density of it.
'Excavating worms live underground, creating tunnels and underground lairs. Even if they are weak compared to other creatures, they still need an incredible amount of "Breath" to reach the fourth rank. I thought that with two thousand years of accumulation, that could be possible but the concentration of "Breath" is far lower than what I expected. How exactly did they manage to survive?'
After reviewing all the information that he knew about that type of creature, Noah neared one of the walls of the room and strongly punched it.
The rock was hard but a few shards still broke under the power behind Noah's attack.
'The only nourishment that they could have was the same terrain that composes this dungeon.'
Noah thought, picking up one of the small pebbles that fell from the wall and inspecting it carefully.
The rock was brown and didn't seem to have anything special with it.
Noah then used a small part of the "Breath" in his dantian and passed it over the rock.
The "Breath" didn't damage the rock and harmlessly dispersed in the air, yet the quantity in the air didn't match the one used by Noah.
Part of the "Breath" had disappeared without leaving any trace.
'Don't tell me, this is a mine of Obsidian Credits!'
The Credits were the currency used by cultivators, they had value in their eyes because they contained "Breath".
Yet, they came in two forms.
The first one was in their rocky state when they were still absorbing "Breath" into their core.
The second one was in their crystal state, in which they transformed after enough "Breath" was absorbed and that was then used by the cultivators as a currency.
'I understand, they are letting this mineral develop in order to mine it when it reaches the crystal form. The worms ate the terrain to create the lair and developed thanks to the "Breath" in it. Though, there should be more than a single rank 4 specimen then.'
Noah looked at the rock in his hand for a few more seconds before throwing it back on the floor while shaking his head.
'Abandoned my ass! I bet that the Royals come here every few decades to clean the area and disperse the "Breath" of the magical beasts back into the environment to accelerate the creation of Credits. Well, at least now I'm reassured: as long as I'm careful, there shouldn't be hidden dangers.'
The "Breath" that he had just used and dispersed in the air reached the walls of the underground room.
At that moment, some slight tremors began to run through the dungeon as if something was crawling under it.
'Ohh? They are quite sensitive.'
Noah wasn't surprised by that reaction and prepared himself for the imminent assault.
'Three, four…. Not even ten of them, I'm still far from the lair.'
Noah counted in his mind as he analyzed the vibrations in the soil and used his mental energy to cover the entire room.
Then, the terrain broke and a four meters long and one meter thick worm came out of it.
The worm was in the third rank, it had red-brown skin and three circular rows of teeth as its mouth.
It didn't seem to have eyes but it still jumped precisely at the standing Noah.
'Finally.'
However, he didn't budge nor did he take out his sabers.
As the worm arrived at his position, Noah's hand shot and sealed itself around the worm's mouth, strongly squeezing it.
A rank 3 beast was blocked by a single hand!