The Devourer quickly passed the other submarines and went deep into the sea cave.
A few minutes later, they saw a building in the shape of a pyramid.
"A pyramid? Wait, it's a tomb," Aldred said. Aldred looked at the astrolabe and the green arrow pointed toward the building.
"Let's enter it," Stella said.
The mothership approached the tomb.
"The entrance is too small." Mary frowned.
"We have to swim inside if that is the case," Aldred said.
"But what about the other submarines?" Zafrina asked.
Aldred looked at the projection and noticed a lot of submarines were approaching.
"Destroy them," Aldred said.
"Are you sure?" Mira asked. "What if they attack our ships on the surface?"
"Then we should make sure that none of them survived," Aldred said. He took a communication crystal from his pocket. It let out a purple light as Aldred brought it close to his lips.
"Commodore," he said.
"Yes, My Lord?" Burchard asked though he already knew what his order was going to be.
"Make sure no one survives."
Burchard clicked at all the red dots on the projection. This let the 92 main cannons of the mothership lock onto the targets.
A few seconds later, the cannons thundered, as the shells struck through the deep water without any reduction in speed.
This was because the shell was imbued with magic, and the material it was made further strengthened that magic. Making it harder, faster, and deadlier.
And submarines weren't known for their maneuver as much as their stealth. But that stealth meant nothing under the detection magic of the mothership.
With their locations laid bare, the shells cruised in the water at a high speed and blasted them one by one.
It was like a firework underwater. Aldred couldn't really hear the explosion, but he could imagine it in his head.
"Let's go out." Aldred brought his wives, Bartrem and the soldiers, and his golem army out of the mothership.
The mothership opened its gate, and water flooded in. Aldred swam outside and the gate closed again.
"Burchard, guard this area, and don't let anyone get in."
After ordering that, Aldred swam to the entrance of the pyramid. When he entered, he was shocked to see that the water could not flow past the gate, and he fell to the ground.
Looking back, he saw the water stopped in the air as if it was blocked by transparent glass.
His wives and the soldiers entered the tomb, followed by the golems.
"That was weird," Aldred said.
"Nothing is weird in this world of magic, Aldred," Stella replied.
"You're right." Aldred chuckled and turned around, staring at the narrow hallway. There were blue crystals embedded on the wall, giving them dim lights.
"I guess we have to keep walking?" Mary suggested.
"We cannot turn back now," Aldred said. "Let me lead the way."
As Aldred began to walk around the narrow hallway, the sound of claws dragging themselves on rough stones was heard.
And then there was a growl.
Aldred frowned. He activated his godly eyes, but they failed to see through the wall. "This challenge is not as easy as before."
"Mount Fargon is merely the starter level," Stella said. "The real challenge begins now."
As they were chatting, they didn't realize that a pair of yellow eyes were staring at them from the ceiling.
"I wonder what challenge we have to pass. Another riddle? A maze?" Aldred asked.
"I hate riddles," Mareona said. "I prefer we fight monsters."
"I agree." Aldred laughed.
As he was laughing, Aldred saw something coming from the corner of his eyes.
"Heads down!" Aldred shouted and summoned his Phantom Doomblade as he swung it to the side.
Clang!
His blade clashed against the large, stubby leg of a beast.
The beast opened its long, crocodile-like mouth and roared, splashing saliva onto his face.
"How dare you spit on me!"
Suddenly, the long tail of the beast snapped from above and attacked Aldred.
"Crap!" Aldred cursed as he watched the tail going after his head.
"I am not letting you!" Mary roared and slashed at the tail, making a sound of steel against steel, deflecting the tail.
"Call upon the star: Circular Control!" Stella waved her staff, and a dark purple circle appeared below the beast.
The circle projected mysterious light, and entrapped the beast, making its muscles struggle to move.
Sophia buffed everyone else, and they all pounced on the beast. Slicing and cutting it to pieces.
The beast roared, and it fell to its death.
Green energy came out of the monster and entered their body.
[+4 Strength]
Aldred and his wives looked at each other.
"We can increase our strength by killing these monsters," Aldred said.
"We should kill more of them," Mary said.
Mareona nodded. "This is why I like killing monsters from the challenge."
Aldred agreed to that. One of the reasons why a lot of people participated in treasure hunting was because of the benefit and the test. Solving puzzles and killing monsters would give them extra attributes, stats, or even powerful treasures.
This motivated everyone to come even though they were not confident they could get the ultimate treasure.
These benefits made them stronger than their peers of the same rank. A Gold Rank treasure hunter was generally much stronger than a Gold Rank who never participated in this continent-wide event.
"This tomb is supposed to be raided by thousands of people," Aldred said. "But since we blocked access to this tomb, we can have it all for ourselves."
"So that means?"
"That means we can increase our stats as much as we like. Come on, let's kill some monsters!" Aldred shouted and ran around.
He even summoned his golems and undead to help kill the various monsters within the tomb.
[+4 Vitality]
[+4 Strength]
[+4 Dexterity]
[+4 Strength]
[+4 Intelligence]
[…]
Aldred and his comrades killed hundreds of monsters. It was a slaughterhouse with blood splattering all over, and with the help of the golems and undead killing and weakening the monsters systematically, the killing became so much easier.
But sadly, he found out that the more he killed these monsters, the fewer attribute points he received. After killing more than a dozen or so, he only received one attribute point for them.
After massacring the monsters, he looked at his attributes.
Attributes:
– Strength: 430
– Vitality: 482
– Intelligence: 778
– Dexterity: 407
Aldred widened his eyes when he saw this. That was because almost all of his stats doubled. His dexterity was once 273 points, but now it was 407 points!
If his attributes kept increasing, he might even be faster or stronger than a Platinum Rank while he was still a Gold Rank. Of course, there were different gap of strength among Platinum Ranks as well. Monsters Platinum Rank generally much stronger than the average human or any other sentient race.
But the idea of easily killing a Platinum Rank while in Gold Rank… just imagining it would make anyone in the world shudder in fear.
