Chapter 713: Chapter 357: Songlin’s Hammer! Tutu Tutu Tutu...
Ronan casually fed Dudor the Third a few Gold Coins, and Dudor munched on them with a "crunch crunch" as if he were eating cookies.
It was apparent that this was probably the most delicious metal it had ever eaten in Ronan’s hands.
After letting Dudor the Third taste it, Ronan stopped feeding it. He gathered all the coins on the platform, counted them to be about 1.3 million, and threw them all into the Mist Space to let the Titanium consume them slowly.
Jason, on the other hand, was quite interested in Ronan’s mechanical goat pet that he had taken out from his Personal Space. He attempted to play with it using a few Gold Coins, but Dudor the Third trotted down the stone steps from the platform at a swift pace.
"Let’s continue."
Jason also beckoned Ronan to keep exploring downwards.
The narrow black stone steps spiraled downwards, with platforms existing at regular intervals. From their current position, looking down, they could not see the bottom yet.
The two followed the stone steps and quickly reached the second platform. This platform was slightly larger than the previous one, and it was...piled with bright, fist-sized Magic Crystals!
"Aren’t there at least a hundred crates?!
Even Ronan was slightly moved upon seeing so many Magic Crystals.
He glanced around but didn’t see Dudor the Third, guessing that it wasn’t interested in what was on this platform and had run further down.
Dudor the Third had a natural "treasure hunting" Talent, so Ronan wasn’t bothered about it.
"This time we’re really striking it rich!"
Truly close to wealth and prosperity, Jason’s reaction was much calmer than it was for the last platform.
He laughed heartily, walked over, grabbed a large handful of Magic Crystals, and let them crash to the ground one by one, "clattering."
One of them rolled to Ronan’s feet. He picked it up to examine, finding these Magic Crystals to be slightly higher in quality than the ones he’d gotten from Misha, but not as good as those Narros had given him.
If he were to divide them by the same low, mid, and high Grades as Magic Stones, then these would all be considered Mid-level Magic Crystals.
Ronan casually threw the Magic Crystal back onto the ground, making a light "clang" sound.
Hearing the sound, Jason turned his head to look at him, to which Ronan calmly said, "All these Magic Crystals are yours; I don’t want any."
He had already taken all the Ancient Gold Coins from the previous platform, enough for Titanium to greatly advance by one Rank, making this treasure hunt worthwhile just with this gain.
Moreover, although Ronan also lacked Magic Crystals, he had an Element Pool that could slowly produce them on its own.
"Don’t say nonsense."
Jason shook his head directly, "Half and half. Without you, Damien, I wouldn’t have been able to get into this treasure."
"Not necessarily,"
Ronan’s eyes flickered, recalling the Level 5 Wizard who had escaped from him.
"Then I’ll only take half, and if you don’t want the remaining half, just leave it here."
Jason sneered, collected a small portion of the Magic Crystals from the platform, and without a glance at the rest, directly headed down the stone steps to the next platform.
Ronan frowned slightly, seeing Jason already descending, so he had no choice but to secure the Magic Crystals.
"If I don’t want them, do you want to fall out with me?"
Ronan caught up and spoke to Jason with a frosty expression.
"Of course."
Jason replied with a cold and firm attitude, "Since you don’t treat me as a friend, why should I accept you as a friend?"
Ronan glanced at him, shook his head, and said, "Since we met, you’ve never been my match...
Why are you speaking so boldly?"
Jason’s expression froze, "You!..."
As they spoke, they quickly arrived at the third platform.
This platform was littered with various bottles and jars of all sizes, with a faint herbal scent wafting through the air.
"Clatter—"
A Grey Mountain Goat with a large ceramic jug on its head dashed out from a pile of jars, careening around aimlessly.
It looked like its head was stuck in the jug and couldn’t get out.
This was the pitiful Dudor the Third.
"Damien, your goat pet doesn’t seem too smart..."
Jason burst into laughter upon seeing Dudor the Third’s plight.
Suddenly, Dudor the Third executed a forward dive...
With a "bang," its head coincidentally butted the crotch region of his Magic Robe.
The smile on Jason’s face froze instantly, and Ronan turned his head slightly, unable to bear watching.
Freed from the broken ceramic jug, Dudor the Third nimbly evaded Jason’s large hand, and with a "whoosh," it dashed down the steps again.
"Stupid goat, still running?!"
Jason gritted his teeth and chased after it. In the blink of an eye, both man and goat disappeared, leaving Ronan alone on the platform.
This platform was likely filled with Magic Potion Materials and such, but since Goblins didn’t know the proper storage methods, most of the Magic Potion Materials had deteriorated or lost their effectiveness over time.
Only a small portion of the jars still contained some valuable materials.
Ronan casually inspected a few jars, not in the mood to check them all one by one, so he casually cleared the platform before moving on to the next.
On the way to the next platform, at first Ronan could hear the sounds of Jason cursing and pursuing, but before long, all was silent.
His heart tightened, and he quickly descended the stone steps. In no time, he arrived at a vast platform.
This was likely the bottom layer of the Goblin’s treasure and the final treasure platform.
Various rune fluctuations, the glow of Magic Energy interwoven, gems, crystals, gold, mithril... A dazzling array of items came into Ronan’s view, causing him to pause and stand there, momentarily dazed.
Jason stood in the center of the platform, gazing at everything around him with a dazed expression, having long forgotten about Dudor the Third’s "revenge of the assault" just now.
He slowly turned around, looking at Ronan, and spoke with a faint tone, "Damien, this time... it’s truly a fortune."
The next second, Jason darted off in one direction, towards the area on the platform where the runes and energy fluctuations were most intense.
"Magic tools! All magic tools!"
"Fourth rank, fifth rank... damn! They’re all Dawn Rank magic tools!"
"Hahaha...."
It would be a lie to say Ronan wasn’t excited; on his journey, he had seen and obtained quite a few treasures.
Items like the Void Mirror, a priceless spatial treasure.
But to see such a vast array of treasures, such a massive fortune all at once, the direct and shocking impact is really indescribable.
Ronan did not compete with Jason for a spot in the "Magic Artifact Area," but instead walked slowly along the platform clockwise.
He saw around him energy treasure beads, energy barytes, and magic gemstones scattered about, with ancient gold statues standing among them.
Just these statues alone were worth several times all the ancient gold coins he had collected from the first platform.
The statues depicted human wizards, elves, dwarves, and even dragons.
Each one was so lifelike and exquisite that Ronan even doubted if they were merely statues, rather than real creatures turned entirely to gold by some mysterious curse.
The most beautiful among them was a goblin statue, carrying a bulging golden sack on its back and encrusted with jewels, shining brightly. On the base of the statue was inscribed a long line of text.
"Tututututu..."
Ronan understood a bit of ancient Goblin language and softly read out the text on the base.
He wasn’t stuttering; that line of text was indeed a repeated syllable.
"If this is the name of this Golden Goblin..."
Ronan shook his head, "Then it’s a rather odd name."
As he spoke, he habitually glanced over the statue in front of him and continued to look back.
However, at the instant his eyes swept past, he seemed to catch a glimpse of the Golden Goblin statue’s eyes moving.
"Hmm?!"
Ronan immediately turned back to carefully scrutinize the Golden Goblin’s eyes.
The goblin statue’s eyes were also cast in gold, lifeless, without a spark of vitality.
Ronan reached out and touched the statue, cold and hard, devoid of life, confirming it was indeed a statue.
Did he imagine it?
Ronan frowned, thought for a moment, glanced at Jason still immersed in ecstatic joy, and decided to simply store away the golden statue.
He trusted he wasn’t seeing things; regardless of whether there was any peculiarity, he’d store it first.
After taking a couple more steps, Ronan heard a "crunch, crunch" chewing sound.
He frowned, searching for the source, and found Dudor the Third, crouching under a pile of shiny gemstone jewelry, nibbling on something.
Ronan reached out and grabbed Dudor the Third by the short tail, pulling it up.
The creature dangled mid-air, its mouth never stopping, persistently chewing on something.
Ronan pulled out what Dudor the Third was biting on, discovering it was a book, gleaming, made of golden pages.
Originally quite thick, it had been gnawed down to the last two pages by Dudor the Third.
Ronan casually picked it up and flipped through; of the golden book’s remaining two pages, one was chewed beyond recognition, covered in Dudor the Third’s engine oil-like saliva, with some ancient Dwarf Clan text, densely packed, yet incomplete, making it difficult to discern.
Ronan didn’t examine it closely, instead turning to the other intact page, which was not filled with dwarf text but rather an illustration.
Calling it a drawing seemed inaccurate; upon closer inspection, it looked more like a map.
As Ronan made out the markings on the map, he was suddenly stunned, subsequently tossing Dudor the Third aside and raising the golden page to his eyes for careful examination.
——
A winding route, depicting the path on the map.
The road’s end was a towering mountain, covered in flame symbols, and inside the mountain... was an octagonal hammer intertwined with lightning and flames!
At the bottom of this illustration, engraved on the golden page, was a line of fine, dwarf text, which Ronan slowly read out word by word: "Songlin’s Hammer!"
At this moment, past memories began to churn and rush forth in his mind.
Mechanical Heart... Dwarf civilization ruins... plaza... metal stele... Schiper’s Surprise Magic Box... and also....
The Hammer of Thunder and Fire, hidden somewhere unknown by the dwarven people of the Mechanical Heart!
"Could it be the same hammer?!"
Ronan tightly grasped the book page in his hand, his eyes flickering swiftly.
He quickly turned back to the previous page, hoping to find more information and clues.
But most of this page’s content was already in Dudor the Third’s belly; the remaining text was obscure and complex, making it hard for Ronan to grasp its meaning immediately.
If the "Songlin’s Hammer" recorded on this golden page was indeed the Hammer of Thunder and Fire once forged by the Dwarf Kingdom of Mechanical Heart, and the key clues to finding it were in this golden book, he would be furiously regretful for not controlling Dudor the Third’s greedy mouth, letting this treasure slip away.
"Dudor!"
Thinking of this, Ronan couldn’t help but look at Dudor the Third on the side, shouting in a somewhat irritated manner.
Dudor the Third, having consumed almost an entire golden book, was now hiccuping with a full round belly.
Startled by Ronan’s shout, it unexpectedly spat out something with a "hic" sound.
With a "clang," the object hit the ground.
It looked like a "metallic delicacy" that hadn’t been digested, yet it was unclear if it was part of the golden book.