This item was not very valuable in the game, but from the perspective of reality, it was completely different.
Earlier, Roland had only one petal, which wasn’t effective on him. But Vivian’s mental power wasn’t very stable, so Roland gave it to her for her to tranquilize herself.
Otherwise, it would’ve taken another year or two before Vivian became an official Mage considering her gifts.
Now, a complete flower of the world tree was enough to improve Roland’s soul by a level.
But he was not in a rush to use it. He could wait until the quest was over.
After all, he didn’t know the side effects of consuming a complete flower of the World Tree. What if he slept for a dozen days?
Roland kept digging. He created two luminous balls and made them follow him.
While forming stone stairs in the aisle, Roland separated the soil with earth element power and moved it out.
After more than three hours, Roland finally came to the entrance of his goal.
This place was said to be a city dating back a thousand years. So, it was not unusual that it was buried a hundred meters deep.
Then, he rested a while on the stone chairs and put on the full set of magic regeneration equipment.
Very soon, Betta and his other friends arrived.
The cave was slanted. Because it was too deep, there was absolutely no light from down below. However, weird and creepy sounds were echoing upward, as if it were a cave leading to hell.
Betta couldn’t help but leave a comment in the guild system. “Brother Roland, are you really down there?”
Roland: “Come down. I’m waiting for you at the bottom.”
Betta and his friends lit their torches and walked down slowly.
The cave that Roland built was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time.
It was well-known that one would be nervous when walking in the darkness even though they had a torch because they couldn’t see very far.
They would feel that the path was very long, or that they had walked a long time.
Betta and his friends felt that the darkness was almost infinite before they finally saw the light balls at the bottom.
All of them were relieved and walked down quickly.
They came to Roland and were about to speak, but then they saw the round hollow before Roland as well as the profound darkness within.
The light from the luminous spheres that Roland summoned was completely consumed by the darkness, so they couldn’t see anything at all.
It suggested that before them was a gigantic space that was almost boundless.
Also, standing at the entrance of the hollow, they could smell the stink of soil and mud.
They even sensed a breeze.
“This must be the entrance to the dungeon,” said Roland casually.
Then, he turned around and looked at the entrance where he came in.
The soil from up above surged back and soon filled up the long cave.
F6 all knew that Roland was taking precautions in case anyone broke in while they were on the quest.
But even though they knew that, they were still rather ill at ease now that they didn’t have a way back any longer.
After the cave was blocked, the breeze they just sensed was gone too.
The place was very quiet, so quiet that they could hear their friends’ heartbeats.
While they were all silent, Roland walked into the hollow first. “In any case, let’s go in and take a look.”
The rest of them took a deep breath and followed him.
Roland felt that he stepped on something soft the moment he walked into the hollow. He lowered his head, only to find himself standing on a pile of dry grasses.
The dry grasses were on the ground. After his step, the grasses all crumbled into powder, dust clouding everywhere.
“They’ve been completely dried?” Roland murmured.
Then they moved on. After all, this place had been deserted for more than a thousand years, and even the best-preserved item here was probably already dried up.
Roland continued walking on the dry grasses with loud noises.
Betta and his other friends quickly followed him.
Their footsteps echoed in the empty space.
After several seconds, infinite more footsteps suddenly sounded around them.
They were light but dense, as if countless people were walking toward them in the darkness from all directions.
All five of them were shocked. They came to a stop at the same time.
Then, they quickly gathered into a circle with their backs to each other while they looked around vigilantly.
But soon, all the footsteps disappeared, as if they had never been.
None of them talked. After all, they were in a strange environment, and they feared that they might attract monsters.
They waited a long time, but the footsteps never sounded again.
Roland was stunned for a moment. Then he realized something.
After that, he walked on voluntarily.
His friends were going to stop him, but then they decided to follow him.
After all, Roland had always been the backbone of F6.
All they needed to do was follow him.
They walked forward slowly again. Several seconds later, the blood-freezing footsteps echoed again.
Betta and the rest of them grew nervous again. They were about to gather, but Roland said ahead of them, “Don’t worry, it’s just multiple echo.”
Everybody was relieved after hearing that.
They followed Roland.
The dense, overlapping footsteps continued in the darkness. Several seconds later, Roland’s voice echoed back to them.
D-D-D-D-D-D-on’t… W-W-W-W-W-W-Worrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry…
His voice was seriously distorted in the echo. Together with the dense footsteps, it was as if people were talking and walking around them. It was so creepy that they all had goosebumps.
Betta had planned to chat with his friends. But seeing this, he lost the will to talk.
The rest of them were the same.
All five explorers pressed on in silence.
Suffering the continual echo of footsteps and the irritating noises, they walked in the darkness in the same direction, losing track of time.
They seemed to have walked a long time. They rested three times on the way. Finally, they came to a high city wall.
Here, the overlapping echo was finally much less loud.
Though it still existed, it was not as creepy as earlier.
They took a rest and had some food. Then, they walked along the old city wall in one direction. They were lucky enough to see the city gate very soon.
The huge wooden gate was already rotten. It was half-slanted and half-lying on the ground.
Roland stepped on it, and a large hole was created in the seemingly thick gate.
The gate was dried up too.
They entered the city through the gate, only to find that the relics were almost intact.
The road on the ground was still hard, but the broad streets were utterly empty.
Roland found the nearest house and poked its window. It seemed to be in perfect condition, but it quickly crumbled into powder after he jabbed it.
Roland looked into the house. He saw furniture in the house and neatly-placed bowls and dishes on the table. Nothing was out of place.
Then, they examined most of the houses nearby, only to find that all the houses were organized and full of a sense of life.
It seemed that time was suddenly frozen at one point, and nothing had changed since then except that the residents were all gone.
There were no bones or bodies, not even the bodies of animals.
The whole city was surprisingly clean and complete.
It had been encapsulated in a certain gap in the passage of time.
They split up and searched a while, but they found no useful leads or discoveries.
They regathered.
Roland sent the luminous balls further away. Seeing the flickering light reflected from the center of the city, he vaguely noticed a building that rose to the sky in the dark.
He said, “Let’s go to the center of the city. We may find the objective of our quest over there.”
Everybody moved on.
Very soon, they came to the center of the city. Thanks to Roland’s luminous spheres, they finally saw clearly what had been looming before them.
It was an enormous building that looked like a pyramid.
The pyramid was made up of large black square stones. It was very high.
“Let’s go in and take a look.”
Roland and his friends found the entrance to the pyramid. They were ready for battle.
But to their surprise, they found absolutely nothing after they explored the pyramid up and down.
There was nothing except the stones that the pyramid was made of, not even murals.
There might’ve been murals, but the murals were drawn in lousy paint which volatilized with the passage of time.
They found stairs in the pyramid and climbed up until they reached the peak.
This pyramid did not have a spire. Its top was flat.
The space was much smaller at the top of the pyramid. It only had a coverage of around three hundred square meters.
So, the explorers easily saw what appeared to be a ritual table at the center of the top floor.
They went to the ritual table, only to find that it was hollow like a large sink.
There were several bizarre round symbols around the sink.
Roland cast Language Proficiency on himself and read the few symbols.
“The Holy Tear of Light!”
Huh?
The Holy Tear of Light?
But it was empty!
Where was the Water of Light?
Everybody looked at each other in bewilderment.
This quest was rather uncanny.
At this moment, Betta suddenly pointed nearby and said, “Brother Roland, there’s a stone tablet over there!”
Everybody turned around and did see a black tablet standing there.
Some words had been carved on it.
Roland walked to the tablet and squatted. He then read the strange symbols on it.
“Thank XXX for saving our city!”
Roland frowned. It was not that he couldn’t understand “XXX”; he simply couldn’t see the name clearly as if something was blocking it.
He couldn’t help but slap the tablet, trying to remove whatever blocked the name.
But the moment his finger touched the name, the tablet suddenly glittered.
Shocked, Roland stepped back and summoned his magic puppets as well as a magic shield.
He also shouted, “It’s a magic trap! Everybody, watch out!”
Roland’s eyes were completely blank. He simply squatted and listened closely. After all, if an enemy were to attack him, they would likely make a sound.
He heard Betta and the other people’s exclamations. Then, he heard… a myriad of noises.
He also sensed a balmy breeze on his face.
Huh?
The white flash that occupied Roland’s eyes was gradually gone. Then, he saw a… bright and vivid world.
