Chapter 237: Infiltrator (2/2)
After the miniboss was slowed down by Ice Ray, I dealt another two basic attacks to him while waiting for my cooldowns to finish. After 6 seconds, I immediately used my most powerful combo, Pardon + Desperate Gambit!
MISS!
11904!
Very good, my attack actually exceeded 10k damage. Even if it was because of a critical hit, it was still a testament to my strength!
My whole party was also buffed with Wild Roar. 15% increase in attack power was nothing to scoff at. While I was slashing at the enemy, a cold chill suddenly entered my arms. It was the Outstanding property of the Purgatory Sword, Purgatory Slash!
Boom!
There was an explosion of light, and the ground in front of me was split in half by a deep gulf. Tongues of flames were escaping from under the ground. The guard captain swayed on his feet and hit the ground, dead. Behind him, a group of common mobs also couldn’t endure the powerful attack and died where they stood. The fragile defense line surrounding Princess Karinshan’s tomb was destroyed by our four-man party just like that.
Crack!
The battle was over when He Yi’s cut off the head of the final infiltrator. I picked up the loot dropped by the boss and gave it a look, but there was nothing that caught my eye. All the items were all Bronze-grade, and they were all trash. I dumped them all into my bag and didn’t spare them a second glance.
……
We stopped in front of Princess Karinshan’s tombstone.
Murong Mingyue asked, “How should we go about this?”
Frowning, I replied, “We might have to enter the princess’s tomb if we don’t find anything outside. Don’t tell me you’re scared?”
Murong Mingyue puffed up her awesome chest fearlessly. “Why would I be?”
I smiled. “Cut it out, are you trying to shame Karinshan back to life with your breasts?”
“...”
After circling around the princess’s tomb once, I made up my mind and placed a hand on the giant cyan boulder that acted as the door. “Let’s go through the front door and see what this tomb has in store for us!”
I tried to push the boulder out of the way, but to my surprise it didn’t budge in the slightest.
“Fuck!”
I glared at the rock before calling for help. “Sister Yi, can you help me with this?”
“Sure!”
He Yi was a melee fighter, and she allocated her stat points following a 4:1 ratio between Strength and Stamina. As a result, she was actually an offensive magic knight rather than a defensive one.
The two of us combined our strength and pushed with everything we got. I was using every bit of strength in my body, and He Yi’s face was red with exertion. Finally, the boulder slowly rolled out of the way.
Rumble rumble rumble...
The black cave leading into the tomb was open after a series of grinding noises. A series of ghastly wails could be heard from inside the tomb, and bright red runes were drawn directly on the cave walls. They certainly looked like they were drawn with human blood.
I entered the cave and used the Purgatory Sword’s shine to light the path ahead. He Yi, Beiming Xue, and Murong Mingyue followed closely behind me one by one.
We didn’t encounter any mob along the way. The interior of the tomb was unusually complicated, and it took two whole minutes of walking before we finally arrived at the tomb hall. Spider webs were everywhere, and a rotten stench permeated the air. Princess Karinshan’s crystal coffin was placed at the center of the hall, and the stony floor it was placed on looked incredibly tough and smooth. I also spotted unfamiliar, glowing runes on the surface of the floor.
It was a hexagram magic formation. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on here.
Whoosh…
As a cold wind brushed against our skin, we could hear silent, dreadful laughter of a woman. It was a chilling experience to say the least.
“Ugh…”
He Yi walked up to me quickly and grabbed my arm, whispering, “This place is scary!”
I smiled reassuringly at her before patting her icy hands. “Relax, it’s just a game setting. I think a boss might appear in this tomb very soon. Once we take it out, our quest will be more or less complete.”
“Mn.”
Just like He Yi, Murong Mingyue was slightly afraid of the eerie background. She asked me with eyes that were filled with worry, “How should we investigate this place, Lu Chen? The game designers aren’t expecting us to touch Princess Karinshan’s body, are they?”
I nodded. “If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to. Something is strange about all this though. Princess Karinshan is a high-level NPC and a great commander, so it doesn’t make sense for her to kill herself. If she really was that weak-minded, she would never have had the courage to lead five thousand cavalry out of Floating Ice City and break through the encirclement!”
He Yi smiled at me with starry brilliance in her eyes. “Mn, I think so too. There must be something about this quest that we’re not seeing yet!”
I placed a foot inside the magic formation while we were talking to each other. Suddenly, our surroundings started shaking, and the magic formation that was supposed to be inert lit up with power. Blood started seeping out of the ground and wrapping around the crystal coffin!
“Look! What is that?!” He Yi hurriedly pointed at the crystal coffin.
Without warning, rays of golden starlight flew out of the crystal coffin and gathered into one in the sky. About half a minute later, they converged into a sword-wielding female warrior wearing golden armor and a blood-red cape. The beautiful woman was staring straight at us with her deep, black eyes, and her hair was fluttering slightly behind her back!
“Pri… princess Karinshan?” My voice was actually shaking. The transparent figure floating in front of us was none other than the legendary princess of the empire, the courageous and wise Karinshan herself!
Clearly, the image was just a fragment of her soul. There was no way she could’ve gotten out of the sealed coffin otherwise. Besides that, there was line of text floating above her head—
Karinshan
Level: ???
Attack: ???
Defense: ???
HP: ???
Skills: ???