Chapter 298: The Adventure Ends
The little path was somewhat hidden, slanting upward toward a small hillside. A green mist hung in the air, carrying a foul stench—the kind of miasma often found in swamps.
Zhou Ning glanced at the meteorologist Bernie, who was still dazed from the shock, and gave up on trying to rouse him. Resting his left hand lightly on the hilt of Cortés's Sword, he summoned a sudden small-scale gale that blew away the miasma ahead, revealing the mountain path in full.
This path must have been the one the ancient Modorik people used during sacrificial rites. Totem poles of all kinds stood on either side.
Once Zhou Ning stepped onto the road, the compass in his hand began spinning wildly. After confirming the direction, he walked forward a while until he reached a cliff wall. There, the compass needle pointed steadily ahead without moving.
Vines of bluish green hung thickly over the cliff wall. The entrance was half-blocked by rocks, just enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. Zhou Ning studied the terrain, then reached out and gave a strong push. With the sound of stones collapsing inward, a passage large enough for entry was revealed.
Without hesitation, Zhou Ning stepped inside. The interior was a fairly spacious cavern, seemingly an ancient Modorik sacrificial site long abandoned, with cracks and damage everywhere.
Directly ahead stood a statue of the elven goddess, similar to the one he had seen before—beautiful-faced, holding a bow, her feet poised on ripples shaped like a breeze. The difference was that this statue had no black tendrils around it.
Before the statue stood an ancient altar. Upon it lay long-dried offerings, while its front was covered in dense symbols and strange patterns that carried an indescribable sense of mystery.
Zhou Ning pulled a small notebook from his chest and carefully copied every symbol and pattern. They resembled the script on the Modorik cube he had obtained before. Once he returned to Darkland, he would find someone to interpret them.
As soon as he finished copying, the panel prompted:
[You have obtained Epic Archaeological Information: Ancient Modorik Sacrificial Text.]
[Your Archaeology proficiency has increased! You have gained 12,391 experience points!]
Zhou Ning's attitude toward archaeology was more of a "let it be" approach—never forcing it. Just then, Richie Burke shouted loudly from the other side: "Boss Wayne, over here!"
Zhou Ning followed the voice and saw in one corner of the sacrificial hall a crude bed with old, worn utensils upon it, surrounded by makeshift tables, chairs, and a stone pot. It was clear that humans had once lived here.
This must have been the "marriage bed" where "Storm" Wilt and "Overalls" Jaquin once lived.
The treasure worth six hundred thousand Vecktas that Richie Burke mentioned was piled under the bed, stuffed into sacks.
A northern pirate dragged one sack out, revealing its contents.
"This is… a batch of magic satin from the maritime kingdom of Revendess!" Richie Burke's voice carried both joy and disappointment. After risking so much to get here, all they found were these.
Magic satin was once a valuable material for making mage robes and extraordinary items, but after the steam-powered textile machine became common, its price nearly halved.
The other sacks contained nothing but more magic satin—no surprises.
"Wait, what's this?"
While the pirates busied themselves with the satin, Zhou Ning happened to notice something hidden in a crack of the stone bed. Digging it out, he discovered a nautical logbook authored by "Storm" Wilt.
Opening it gently, he found pages handwritten in Ruins script.
"April 9: This was my and Wardhouse's first voyage as pirates. Our opponents were tough—it took us seven hours to completely crush their fleet. Strangely enough, I felt nothing from killing. Maybe I was born for this line of work!"
"April 10: Robbery."
"April 11: Robbery."
"April 15: Got robbed by fellow pirates. Not angry—the pirate world is survival of the fittest."
…
"June 8: Today, by chance, I obtained a so-called Coin of Fate from the ancient Modorik Kingdom. It is said to be a tool for honoring the dead, with five tosses in total. Each toss brings either reward or punishment. I was confident in my luck, and indeed, my first throw gave me the Modorik legacy—Shaman Priest. Now I can resonate with the elements and books. Nautical logs play out before me like paintings—I can clearly see how they navigated or what they went through."
"June 11: After the success of the first throw, I quickly tried again. But this time, the result was 'Walking with Death,' symbolizing failure and misfortune. Damn it!"
"June 12: The curse of the coin came true. Today in the Misty Sea, we encountered Pirate King Edward Queller's flagship, the Bessemer. The moment he looked at me, everything went black. When I woke, I was clutching debris from the deck, drifting on the sea. Lucky to be alive!"
…
"September 13: For three whole months since then, we had little good fortune. Only now did I have the courage for a third toss. The result was Rainbow and Coral Reef, symbolizing luck and misfortune intertwined. Today, we pulled off an unbelievable raid on a large merchant fleet from Revendess. When they turned, they struck a reef. Inside was nearly 600,000 Vecktas worth of goods! But misfortune struck just as harshly—we were pursued by a transcendent from Bryston and had to abandon ship, fleeing into the Allsop Swamp."
"September 14: Thanks to a novel called Travels in the Allsop Swamp, we moved through the swamp with ease. But then the unexpected happened—we encountered an unprecedented surge of life force. Wardhouse and Jaquin both turned into women. Only I stayed the same! Maybe it wasn't so bad… but I couldn't do it. They're my brothers!"
"September 16: Today, the vile swamp pygmies used blow darts on us. My brother Jaquin took a poisoned dart to the chest protecting me. As his brother, I had no choice but to suck out the poison… and then things that shouldn't have happened, happened. Truly, fortune and misfortune are intertwined."
"September 17: We made it deeper into the swamp. While fleeing the pygmies, we stumbled upon a cave that serves as the perfect hideout for now."
…
The following entries were so disgusting Zhou Ning couldn't bear to read more. From what little he skimmed, when they finally escaped the swamp, Wardhouse and Jaquin were both pregnant.
Turning another page, Zhou Ning found a golden skull coin tucked between the logbook's sheets.
Cursed Coin of Fate: A fate item.
Required Level: 1
Remaining Uses: 2
It resembled the Lucky Clover, but with limited uses. It could grant hidden classes, skills, even mysterious items. Zhou Ning had seen it in his previous life's game. As its name implied, fate could never be predicted, nor could cheating ever increase one's odds.
After some thought, Zhou Ning put the skull coin away, deciding to take a smaller share of the loot to compensate—not out of honesty, but because in such a mysterious and chaotic world, holding to one's principles was crucial. Small guilty acts could accumulate into disaster, pushing a sane person into madness.
To Zhou Ning's surprise, Richie Burke and his men also had some kind of mysterious spatial item. They stuffed all the satin into a white pouch and said to Zhou Ning: "We'll keep the goods with me first. Once we're back in Wils County, we'll divide the spoils."
"No problem," Zhou Ning agreed readily with a nod.
On the other side of the hill was a shortcut leading down, making departure much quicker than their arrival. The group traveled north, and after about three hours, by evening, Zhou Ning and the others were back aboard the Myrny Rooster.