The deeper Aurelius moved into the Dryad Forest, the more Undead Evil Spirits emerged and attacked him.
Likewise, their strength grew increasingly powerful.
By the end, even Rank 2 Undead Evil Spirits showed up quite frequently.
Their appearance made Aurelius even more cautious.
Although he could deal with Rank 2 Undead Evil Spirits with his current strength and the assistance of the Sea God’s Trident, that didn’t mean that he was invincible within the forest.
If multiple Rank 2 shadowy creatures ambushed him at the same time, or worse, a Rank 3 Undead Evil Spirit appeared, he would find himself in great danger.
Thankfully, his worries soon proved to be meaningless.
Until he reached the bright light on the illusory map, no such powerful creature showed up, nor was he besieged by multiple enemies.
Before long, Aurelius knew he had reached his destination.
Not only because his position overlapped with the bright light on the illusory map, but also because...
Shhh!
The moment he took another step, Aurelius felt the world around him shift, as though he was experiencing teleportation.
The dense white mist that had always surrounded him disappeared, as did the constant wailing ringing inside his ears.
Aurelius found himself standing outside a cave.
Its entrance was blocked by an enormous slab of stone, on which countless patterns were engraved.
Besides that and the dead grass beneath his feet, there was nothing.
Clearly, the target of his journey had been this cave.
As for what lay inside, he had no idea, nor did he even have a faint guess.
Of course, that would be a problem for later. For now, he first had to find a way to get inside the cave.
Aurelius stepped forward and gently touched the slab.
His fingers traced along the peculiar patterns, and he felt as though they had been embedded directly into the stone rather than carved onto it afterwards.
Reaching one of its sides, Aurelius tried to pull it aside.
With his current physical strength, hundreds of kilograms of stone were nothing.
He could move them with ease.
Yet when it came to the stone slab, Aurelius discovered that he could do nothing.
No matter how hard he tried to push, the slab wouldn’t budge at all.
’Sure enough!’ Aurelius muttered inwardly, having long realized that getting inside the cave would not be so simple.
From the clues along the way, he had already made a guess about what the final opportunity was.
Most likely, it was the inheritance of the powerhouse who had perished here and given rise to the countless Undead Evil Spirits.
The inheritance of a high-Rank Awakener!
Its value could only be imagined.
To obtain something so precious, it made sense that he would have to struggle.
Danger came with opportunity and vice versa.
Thankfully, Aurelius already had an idea of how to deal with the slab.
After taking one more look at it, his gaze moved toward the man obediently following behind him.
Edward!
Since they had entered this place beyond the white mist, the Thief had remained silent.
It was unknown whether it was because he had sensed something or simply because he was still astonished by the previous sight of Aurelius "farming" Undead Evil Spirits.
Either way, Aurelius was not planning to let him remain absent-minded for any longer.
"Since you dare to come here alone, you should have a method to enter this cave, right?"
"I doubt that your teacher would send you here to die otherwise..."
Edward’s expression changed.
Glancing at the stone slab, he instinctively wanted to say that he didn’t know how to open it.
Yet upon meeting Aurelius’ indifferent gaze, he swallowed the words before they could come out of his mouth.
He hesitated for several seconds. In the end, he gritted his teeth and nodded reluctantly.
"Indeed. Although I’ve never come to this place before, my teacher left me some clues before leaving."
"According to him, the opportunity here is related to my distant ancestors. If I want to uncover the secrets, I will have to dig deeper into the secrets of my bloodline..."
"Unfortunately, I don’t know what that means—"
"Agh!"
Before Edward could finish that sentence, a silver light engulfed his vision.
A sharp pain assaulted his senses. When he recovered from the shock, he discovered that a large wound had appeared on his right arm.
"Stop wasting our time." A cold voice echoed.
"Don’t you know that this place is dangerous? What if we’re too slow and something unexpected happens?"
"Since you already know the way to enter the cave, you should just say so."
Aurelius sheathed his silver sword before enveloping the droplets of blood running from Edward’s wound with his Spirit.
Then, without any hesitation or care for Thief’s pain, he let them drop onto the stone slab.
As expected, the reaction was immediate.
The moment the blood and the stone came into contact, the former seeped into the latter.
A faint crimson layer formed across the slab as the patterns began to revolve.
Slowly, they met at the center and started to fuse, outlining a grand symbol.
Click! Click!
Faint clicking noises echoed, as though signaling for the arrival of something far greater.
Unfortunately, just as it seemed that the mechanism would be unlocked and the secret would be revealed, the patterns’ movements suddenly ceased.
The crimson sheen along the stone faded away, as though it had run out of energy.
Faced with this change, Aurelius was neither shocked nor disappointed.
His gaze turned toward Edward again. Or rather, at the wound on his arm that was doing its best to mend itself.
Then, under his prisoner’s astonished eyes, another silver light flashed. Followed by another scream.
Soon, a tragic cry echoed throughout the core of the Dryad Forest.
Fortunately for both of them, there was no one else to hear Edward’s cries.
Even the Undead Evil Spirits on the other side of the invisible barrier seemed unable to hear them, as if an entire world separated them.
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