Chapter 83: Excavating the Cavity
“What’s the Master doing? Digging a grave?”
An idle villager walked over from the fields, curiously asking another villager sitting on a rock.
In their line of sight were Abyss and his three companions. Abyss was chanting an incantation, using magic to move the earth bit by bit. Under the magic’s influence, the soil flowed aside on its own, forming a downward staircase leading somewhere underground. The scene looked rather strange, indeed bearing some resemblance to grave construction.
“Ah, finished with your fieldwork too?” the elf villager who was asked replied, leisurely chewing on the stem of a medicinal herb, speaking to the acquaintance who had just arrived. “Just stand here; don’t go over and cause trouble. The Master came out specially from the Druid gathering this time. I heard he’s looking for the treasure left behind by Grand Sage Agnes back then…”
“Treasure? What treasure? Grand Sage Agnes left treasure? How come I didn’t know? Does it grant immortality? Do we get a chance to try it?”
“Ha, you’re always so impatient. Let me finish. He’s looking for the place where Grand Sage Agnes’s treasure used to be. But that treasure was taken long ago,” the villager chewing the herb said smugly. “I just asked the Master myself; he told me directly. Remember over forty years ago? A bunch of Necromancers were always hanging around here. They even dug up your grandfather’s grave. The rumor back then was that they were looking for the treasure left by Grand Sage Agnes.”
“Ah… I remember now. I was just a young lad back then,” the newly arrived villager recalled immediately. “That makes sense. Those damned Necromancers stayed here for over ten years and then left. The treasure must have been taken by them. Hey, so why is the Master digging it up again?”
“That I don’t know; the Master didn’t tell me,” the herb-chewing villager shrugged. “Did you really think we have that much clout? Let me tell you, the Druid gathering has new rules now. Many things can’t be casually told to outsiders, not even to lower-ranking Druids. We’re lucky enough to be allowed to watch.”
“You know, even digging is so easy for Druids. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go to the gathering and ask a few Druids to help me dig a basement for growing mushrooms,” the newcomer nudged his acquaintance on the rock and sat down beside him, watching Abyss.
Undeterred by the two onlookers, Abyss continued to focus on his work.
Abyss’s nature magic was, of course, learned secretly from the Druids. He was now applying what he’d learned, conveniently using magic to move the earth and stones aside, forming an easily accessible staircase leading down.
The story recorded in the journal he saw yesterday hadn’t made Abyss give up on awakening Agnes; instead, the challenge had invigorated him. Now, Abyss intended to find the very cavity where Maggie’s mother had discovered the “coconut” containing the Sage’s Blood.
Abyss didn’t expect to find any other parts of the Sage’s Blood in the cavity; that would be pointless, as the probability of the Sage’s Blood now flowing within him was almost one hundred percent. He himself was the new vessel for the Sage’s Blood. Now, he simply wanted more information.
He had a small idea: to examine the place where the Sacred Tree had grown the root nodule containing the Sage’s Blood, hoping to gain some information about it – how it grew, where it came from, what Agnes had done.
Therefore, he had left the gathering early that morning with his three companions, wandering around Keshel, relying on his innate intuition to search for potential cavities. After digging in a few wrong spots, he had arrived here.
Abyss chanted, carefully excavating the soil layer by layer to minimize ecological damage, while Leona stood nearby, stomping the ground with her leather boots.
“There really is a cavity here! And it feels much sturdier than the other places we dug!”
Leona exclaimed happily to everyone.
“Not another villager’s hidden money stash this time?” Rebecca asked, crouching nearby with a smile.
“I don’t think so. I stomped on the money-hiding spots before, and the feel is different,” Leona stated confidently.
“It was really awkward when we dug up those boxes earlier…” Flora sighed, looking weary. “I hope we don’t dig up any more villagers’ retirement funds or private savings this time.”
“Hehe, if it weren’t for our diplomat Flora, the villagers might hate us by now,” Rebecca gave Flora a thumbs-up in admiration. “Flora just apologizes, and no one can stay angry. It’s like divine intervention.”
Abyss’s digging had indeed caused some trouble earlier, but Flora’s affinity shone through. She simply apologized sincerely to the villagers angered by having their treasures unearthed, perfectly resolving the conflict. This was without even using Divine Arts.
“Hmm… looks like you don’t need to worry. See, there really is a natural cavity here,” Abyss suddenly called out to the three girls.
The three girls hurried over to Abyss. Following his gaze, they saw that as the stairs descended about ten meters underground, a cavity indeed appeared. This cavity, unlike the previously excavated man-made ones, was supported by the Sacred Tree’s own roots. Moreover, the soil color near the cavity was slightly different, indicating it had indeed been dug open before. Over forty years hadn’t significantly altered the underground conditions.
“Let’s go down quickly,” Rebecca said eagerly. “I’m also very curious how Grand Sage Agnes, already deceased back then, managed to channel her power through the Sacred Tree.”
Abyss nodded and descended the stairs first. As he walked, he chanted an incantation, and the soil at the entrance immediately moved aside as if alive, revealing an opening large enough to enter.
Jumping into the opening, Abyss immediately confirmed that this was the place where his martial aunts and uncles had discovered the Sage’s Blood.
With his excellent darkvision, he could see faint, messy footprints on the ground. People had clearly been inside this cavity, and due to some unique property of this place, the traces hadn’t been erased even after more than forty years. Perhaps the Sacred Tree’s roots here hadn’t moved at all.
He crouched down, gently pinched the ground with his fingers, and picked up a pinch of white powder mixed with damp earth.
The three girls entered the cavity at this moment, and Abyss showed them the powder in his hand.
“What’s this? Chalk dust?” Leona blinked.
“This should be bone powder, right?” Flora recognized it immediately, whispering, “Abyss carries some too. It’s probably essential for Necromancers who use Bone Magic.”
“Correct,” Abyss grinned. “Since there’s bone powder here, it means someone used Bone Magic. We’ve finally found the place.”
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