Could this be the BOSS? Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but once again set his gaze on that pile of crystal fragments. No way, although my Spiritual Counterattack is quite sharp, turning it into fragments instantly all at once seems too weak, doesn’t it? Brand suddenly felt a bit clueless.

And it wasn’t just Brand; Char seemed to find the pile of humanoid crystal fragments in front of him somewhat familiar. He mentioned uncertainly in the Mind Communication: "It seems... this is that thing from before, boss."

Brand nodded, without answering. His eyes flickered, suddenly discovering something exceptionally familiar among the burial items. It lay amidst a pile of gold and silver items, just a palm-sized, dark grey stone fragment, with a dull surface, looking like a piece of fragment fallen from a coffin lid. If Brand weren’t confused and had repeatedly scanned the Stone Coffin several times, he might not have noticed such an ordinary stone fragment at all.

However, he lightly exclaimed ’Oh?’, grabbed the item, and suddenly found it very similar to something he had seen. Hesitating for a moment, he pulled out something from his pocket.

That was also a stone fragment, dull and grey, except it was only thumb-sized, almost identical to the larger stone fragment in Brand’s hand. This small stone piece was a relic of Viscount Neison discovered while escaping with Romantic and Frey in the Forbidden Garden where the Golden Magic Tree was located on the Xavier Mountain Path. Of course, it could also be said to be the relic of Antitina’s father.

He remembered that among all of Antitina’s father’s relics, this piece of stone was the only thing he didn’t recognize. He initially thought this stone was some sort of alchemy material, after all, in the Amber Sword there are innumerable materials he didn’t recognize, which was quite normal given he was in combat professions, not a secondary profession player.

However, later according to the identification of the Alchemist Tama, this item wasn’t a mineral, nor was it similar to other alchemy materials, not showing any Magic reaction, it seemed more like an Ordinary piece of stone. Brand considered discarding it several times, but ultimately didn’t, as it was obtained in a special scene, which could potentially be a plot-related item, throwing it away would mean losing it for good.

But he didn’t expect that he would find a similar item in such an unnamed tomb within Tonyger.

What exactly is this?

The appearance of this strange stone among the burial items indicates it must have some value, at least recognized by the tomb’s owner. Brand glanced at other burial items, while not immensely valuable (after all, they were rewards from a Level 30 Underground City), most were Magic Items, the rest were equivalent valuables and artworks in gold, silver, and pottery.

This stone appeared among Antitina’s father’s possessions, now appearing in a tomb from centuries ago, intertwining secrets from two different eras, causing Brand to furrow his brow.

He couldn’t come up with a conclusion after much thought, the most sensible guess is that this stone was some kind of special burial item likely given special significance in an era, while Viscount Neison was coincidentally an ’archaeology’ enthusiast, making sense of everything. Yet saying this feels quite disrespectful to the deceased, as there is no circumstantial evidence proving Antitina’s father was a tomb robber.

Moreover, Viscount Neison always carried such an ordinary stone piece with him, accompanying the letter given to Antitina, indicating he was quite proud of this item. Brand couldn’t think of any value it holds worth cherishing. This isn’t a Flint spearhead from the Stone Age.

Brand decided to cautiously keep this stone, at least its presence in this tomb suggests it might have gone through a longer history than Erune itself.

"Oh, there are Destiny Cards here."

Brand suddenly heard Char say with some surprise in the Mind Communication. He turned his head and saw his attendant beckoning inside the Stone Coffin with his finger, immediately a black object flew up amidst layered spider webs, like a box, with a sunken equilateral triangle engraved on its surface, within the inner side of the triangle sat a sunken circle, creating a unique symbol, surrounded by some rising flame patterns.

But via flickering eyes, he saw a flash of silver light beneath the box, connecting to a thin silver wire almost invisible to the naked eye. Upon seeing that silver wire, Brand’s face changed, voice trembling as he shouted:

"Put it down now!"

But it was too late, Char already grasped the box in his hand, and turned around puzzled, looking at his master.

Suddenly, the entire tomb began to quake fiercely, dust pouring down from the ceiling meanwhile the pillars supporting the surroundings began bending, making a teeth-grinding, creaky sound. Everyone now understood what was happening, evidently someone triggered some immense trap mechanism.

"Ah!" Char gasped: "Ah... Lord, it was just an accident."

To him, indeed it was an accident, explaining through the card’s background he was theoretically a Wizard maturing within the Ivory Tower universe. Unlike adventurers, NPC Wizards emerge from the endless ocean of books, disassociated from adventures, lacking knowledge of pitfalls within Underground Cities.

But Char’s skills had caused both him and Brand to overlook this fact. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Additionally, Brand neglected a paramount reality, Char is a native, rather than a player magician.

"Damn!" Brand swore inwardly, immediately saying: "Forget about accidents, run! The tomb is going to collapse!" Within Amber Room tombs, many have self-destruct mechanisms, but experienced players refuse to fall for such obvious tricks, now seeing Char caused sweat to flood his spirit.

Both exchanged glances, simultaneously spinning on their heels.

...(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please support it by voting with recommendation and Monthly Tickets at Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation.)