Brand opened the Stone Coffin.

At this moment, the temperature inside the burial chamber had already dropped significantly, with a fuzzy layer of white frost growing on the surrounding tomb walls. In the darkness, a faint sound of ’grrr grrr grrr’ was heard. Yuta, who was standing at the entrance with the others, was slightly startled by this sound. She turned around to find the source but discovered it was the Merchant Lady beside her, whose face turned pale, shivering cold, and teeth chattering.

"Are you okay?" The red-haired, green-eyed Maid Corps Commander had a hint of strangeness in her eyes, somewhat not understanding why this little lady insisted on standing here despite freezing like this. However, she knew that among everyone present, this Lord’s ’fiancée’ was likely the weakest, so she kindly asked, "Do you want me to escort you out first?"

Romantic hugged her shoulders, shivering from the cold, yet shook her head like a tambourine, replying with a trembling tone, "N-n-no... I-I-I want to see B-B-Brand open tha-that coffin. I-I-I want to see wha-whats inside..." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Aren’t you cold?" Yuta clearly saw how deathly cold she looked.

"I-I-I’m cold..."

"Should I escort you out then?"

"N-no!" The Merchant Lady replied with a tone where curiosity clearly overcame reason, fully expressing her determination to see what’s in the Stone Coffin even if she turned into an ice sculpture. Such a notion, if placed in Brand’s original time, would at least be considered a pioneer in seeking truth or something.

"..."

Yuta clearly did not understand the spirit of ’one would rather die after understanding the truth,’ looking at this peculiar little lady momentarily speechless. She certainly wasn’t aware that a year ago during the Buqimadala invasion of Erune one night, Brand, seeing Little Roman fearless of anything, shared similar thoughts.

And just as the Maid Corps Commander felt a bit speechless, Brand finally, with Char’s help, ’grrr grrr grrr’ pried open the Stone Coffin’s lid. This massive Stone Coffin was trapezoidal in shape, somewhat resembling the style inside Egyptian Pharaoh tombs. From this, one can see the burial customs vastly different from the contemporary Cruz cultural circle—Cruz people’s coffins are generally rectangular or hexagonal like a Vampire’s coffin. The Eruein culture inherits from the Cruz people, similar to a certain extent, while mountain people’s burial customs generally do not involve coffins but dig a grave inside the tomb. Thus, Brand deduced that this tomb might be quite old, at least older than mountain people’s history.

To be cautious, Brand only pushed open a tiny gap in the coffin lid, but he immediately paused. Because from the firelight seeping through the gap, it seemed like the large coffin was empty, nowhere to see the remains or a Mummy that should occupy the central position. What was visible were quite a few gold and silver items.

"BOSS is not in here?" Brand’s mind was filled with doubt. He carefully gestured to Char beside him, and the two immediately pushed the lid fully open, discovering there were indeed things inside the Stone Coffin. In the midst of those surface-oxidized gold and silver items, in the center of the massive Stone Coffin where the remains should originally be, lay a pile of Crystal Fragments.

Brand, upon seeing those Crystal Fragments, instantly felt a chill rise from his spine. Because these Crystal Fragments remarkably were lying on a piece of cloth in an indistinct human shape, clearly showing limb and trunk portions, but no head.

"Damn, Senior Sister, don’t scare me." Brand couldn’t help murmuring to himself a sentence only he could hear. He looked at it from side to side but couldn’t figure out what kind of remains it was.

"What the heck is this stuff?" Char, upon seeing these Crystal Fragments inside the coffin, paused as well. Generally, many places have a burial custom of making the deceased into preserved Mummies, but methods for making Mummies are varied; however, making a person into Crystal-like form was unheard of. Moreover, lacking a head made it even more bizarre.

Brand carefully checked inside the coffin, besides this pile of human-shaped Crystal Fragments, there were no other remains-like things. If guessed correctly, this should be the owner of the tomb. As for the surrounding burial items, Brand immediately recognized among them several familiar things—all are Magic Equipment, presumably, in the game, these would be the rewards for this BOSS battle.