Bai Shi walked out of the room containing the Nox Mirrorhelm.
But not two seconds later, he immediately turned and went back into the room.
A blast of wind shot from his fingertip, instantly knocking down the imp that had been clinging motionless to the wall.
"I was so focused on the chest just now that I forgot to deal with you."
Bai Shi went out, turned left, and continued up the stairs.
Here, there was a passage leading to an unknown destination, containing two imps and a pressure plate on the floor.
This time, Bai Shi cleared out the imps from a distance, avoiding the pressure plate.
Straight ahead was a room with two grave gloveworts, which Bai Shi picked as he passed through. He then turned right into the next passage.
He then followed the passage, which twisted and turned left and right.
In one of the rooms, Bai Shi found a great scythe called the "Great Scythe."However, in this real world, such a weapon was utter trash. Any blacksmith could forge dozens of them.
Bai Shi didn't bother taking it.
It had no practical combat use, nor any collection value, so he left it.
But when he reached the end of this passage, Bai Shi suddenly realized he was back in the multi-leveled cloister from before.
He was now on its uppermost level.
Looking down, he could see the statue that had its back to him earlier.
In other words, Bai Shi's current position was directly one floor above the spot where he'd emerged after leaving the Erdtree Burial Watchdog's room.
Bai Shi stroked his chin. He hadn't expected to circle all the way back here. The design of this catacomb was quite good.
He also recalled a few more memories about this catacomb.
Good, that made it convenient to continue exploring downward from here.
Besides the floor he had just descended to via the stairs, there seemed to be another level even lower.
Bai Shi leaped down, landing directly on the catacomb's bottom floor.
However, upon landing, he seemed to have accidentally stepped on something.
Bai Shi looked down at the Omen Bairn he had knocked to the ground. Their eyes met for a moment before he raised his hand and sent it on its way with a bolt of lightning.
Bai Shi looked around and saw that the area was overgrown with all sorts of weeds and bushes.
Other than an archway leading elsewhere, there seemed to be nothing else to explore; it was walled in on all sides.
Bai Shi had already started walking toward the archway when he suddenly noticed a break in the surrounding wall.
He immediately changed his plans and walked over, only to find that there was a hidden space within.
It turned out the outer wall was a facade. There was another, inner passage here, with the two walls forming a rectangular, concentric structure.
He followed the inner passage around, killing another Omen Bairn along the way.
From a corpse next to the Omen Bairn, Bai Shi picked up an oddly shaped, rather ugly clay head.
Bai Shi picked it up and channeled a trace of magic into it.
A slow, deep voice emerged from the prattling pate:
"Bravo!"
Bai Shi nodded. So it was this prattling pate.
This prattling pate was used frequently in PvP. Tarnished with a knightly spirit often used it to praise their opponents before a fight.
They would also use it cordially after the fight, sometimes even kindly offering small snacks.
In any case, collecting the series of prattling pates was quite fun.
Bai Shi took it and circled the passage one more time.
After confirming there was nothing left to find, he finally entered the path leading elsewhere.
After defeating another Omen Bairn in the room ahead, Bai Shi came across a ladder leading up.
Without a second thought, Bai Shi climbed it.
The area at the top was similar to other catacombs—a room resembling a small chapel.
Slude had hidden in a similar room before.
And here, there was also an Omen Bairn, praying to a statue on one side.
On the platform beneath the statue, the corpse of an attendant was laid flat, for reasons unknown.
After casually dispatching the Omen Bairn, Bai Shi walked toward the attendant's corpse.
This attendant must have been one of the group who came down to rob the tomb with the nobles and Kaidan Sellswords.
Judging from all the bodies found so far, the group had been very unlucky. They had gained almost nothing and were completely wiped out here.
Not even the nobles who led the expedition were spared.
They had probably explored this catacomb first, encountering the Omen Bairns and other imps. Combined with the traps, they suffered heavy losses.
It was just bad luck that they picked a catacomb of this difficulty.
In the end, they decided to try stealing the gems, glintstones, and the like from the Erdtree Burial Watchdog.
Judging by the text on the Watchdog's Greatsword, many of the watchdogs must have broken down over the long ages, allowing tomb raiders to easily steal the treasures on them.
Unfortunately, the watchdog in this catacomb was still functioning perfectly, and it killed them all.
A noble had managed to run out of the guardian's room, only to be ambushed and killed from behind by an imp they had failed to clear out earlier.
This just goes to show that if you don't search an area thoroughly, you might as well have not searched it at all. Bai Shi glanced at the attendant's corpse and was surprised to find that it too had left behind spirit ashes.
Moreover, the platform it was lying on didn't seem to be just a platform. It looked more like a chest covered with a cloth.
Bai Shi collected the ashes and moved the body aside.
Then Bai Shi lifted the cloth covering the treasure chest.
It was indeed a chest, though it looked rather plain, like an ordinary wooden box.
Bai Shi didn't think much of it and decided to open it and see.
Who knew, there might be a pleasant surprise inside.
But when Bai Shi opened the wooden chest, he froze.
Why did this chest have upper and lower rows of sharp teeth? And a long tongue?
Two arms suddenly shot out from the chest, grabbed Bai Shi, and began stuffing him into its maw.
Melina was startled by this sudden development.
"Eek—!?"
She had just been leaning close to Bai Shi, eagerly anticipating what might be in the chest, only for it to turn out to be a monster.
The upper half of Bai Shi's body was stuffed inside the mimic, which was chewing on him relentlessly.
Bai Shi remained expressionless, though he was starting to question reality a little.
The mimic's chewing didn't really harm him; even if it kept gnawing away, Bai Shi wouldn't take much damage.
The main thing was, Bai Shi couldn't fathom why mimics would even exist in this world.
Silently, Bai Shi ignited the flames of the sun from within the mimic's body.
The mimic immediately opened its mouth in pain and spat Bai Shi out.
Once free, Bai Shi didn't rush to kill the mimic, deciding instead to study it.
After all, this thing didn't quite seem like a normal living creature.
The mimic got to its feet and spat out most of its tongue, which had been charred to a crisp.
Its limbs were incredibly long and thin. It charged toward Bai Shi on its lanky legs and launched a powerful kick.
Bai Shi grabbed the mimic's leg and pulled it back, forcing the mimic into the splits as it fell to the ground.
With its legs stretched so far apart, the mimic couldn't get up for a moment.
Bai Shi sent it flying with a kick and then slowly walked toward the mimic, which had crashed into the wall.
The kick had already cracked it open, causing severe damage.
But after getting up, the mimic still charged blankly toward Bai Shi.
It seemed the mimic had no consciousness of its own.
Bai Shi tested it a bit more and confirmed that the mimic was more like a mechanism than a living creature.
Having reached this conclusion, Bai Shi finished it off.
The mimic's silvery-white limbs more or less confirmed its identity.
This mimic was likely another product of the Nox dynasty's biological experiments.
However, unlike the Silver Tears, though it could mimic an ordinary wooden chest, it didn't revert to a tear upon death.
It seemed to remain in this state permanently.
It could be said that the mimic was more of a byproduct of the experiments that created the Albinaurics.
In that sense, its appearance here wasn't entirely out of place.
After all, one could also find a Nox treasure, the Mirrorhelm, in this very catacomb.
The catacombs of the Lands Between are ancient. The forces of the Erdtree might have only modified the existing tombs. This catacomb might have once belonged to the Nox.
But there was one thing Bai Shi didn't quite understand. Why hadn't the mimic attacked the Omen Bairn before?
Was it because the attack was only triggered when someone actively opened it?
Furthermore, the presence of so many Omen Bairns in this catacomb was also rather unusual.
In the age of the Erdtree, Omen Bairns were discriminated against.
It was a form of atavism that appeared in humans, caused by the blessings of the Crucible.
At birth, the hard horns covering their bodies made it highly likely for their mothers to die in childbirth.
Those born in the royal capital were practically sentenced to death at birth; their horns were to be cut off, and their bodies thrown into the sewers.
The Omen Bairns of the golden royalty fared slightly better, but only just barely.
Aside from being allowed to keep their horns and not bleed to death, their treatment wasn't much better.
It seemed Omen Bairns from other places also had their horns cut off before being exiled.
But the place of their exile likely varied from region to region.
Perhaps the method in Liurnia was to dump them in the catacombs, recycling them as tomb guardians?
That was probably the only way to explain the large number of Omen Bairns here.
Bai Shi turned to leave and found that he was already back at the statue where the mechanism was located.
In that case, he had now thoroughly explored the entire catacomb, leaving nothing behind.
Bai Shi followed his original path and walked out of the catacomb.
Looking at the now bright scenery outside, Bai Shi took a deep breath and teleported again using a site of grace.