This time, the other guard opened his mouth, "Sect master, I think it might not be the princess. According to the information we received, all of the equipment from their corpses was looted."
"She can do this as a diversion tactic or it might be the other adventurers. Nothing is surprising about losing storage rings and equipment in the dungeon." Sui Ping reprimanded him for making such foolish statements.
Sect Leader Dai Long, on the other hand, fell into thoughts. After a brief silence, he asked, "Is that everything?"
"This is from an unreliable source but there are sightings of two mysterious things. First is a 100ft giant bear with white fur that caused an earthquake with a simple slam at the ground. And the second one is a huge and sturdy metal puppet that has an elephant-trunk-like weapon.
Some of the adventurers who are training at the southern part of the dungeon claimed to have spotted it. But, it was confirmed that this mysterious metal puppet was seen by the passersby around the dungeon as it traveled towards the north." The guard finally reported the most important piece of news.
Dai Long and Sui Ping looked at each other, calling out the name at the same time, "Lu Zhen?"
As soon as he heard about the battle tank, Sui Ping changed his statement about the princess immediately. He said, "No wonder it appeared strange that the Imperial family was behind this. After all, it is just a rank-6 dungeon and we don't have enmity too. If it is Lu Zhen, then, everything would make sense. That crazy man loves to challenge huge powers."
Dai Long once again asked the guard in patience, "anything else?"
As the guards shook their heads, the sect leader nodded, "both of you can return."
After the two guards left, he glanced at Sui Ping, "Guardian Sui, I want you to send two elders to bring back the corpses and launch a proper investigation. I need all the details about the traces of battle.
And contact the Imperial family. I want you to meet the Emperor in person and question the fifth princess. Just get her statement and we will compare it with our investigation results.
If she's innocent and we are in wrong, then, we will leave her alone. If not, we will force the Imperial Palace to pay proper compensation to the families of the elite members."
"What about Lu Zhen?" Sui Ping appeared a little bit anxious as the sect leader didn't say anything about this adversary of the Sui Clan.
Dai Long replied, "We don't know his exact strength. Sending elders will be worthless and sending one of the guardians will be risky if a battle erupts for some reason.
And sending two of the four guardians seemed like it will be too much just based on some speculations. We won't take any action until he returns to the Imperial City. Then, we will send someone to contact him to get to this matter deeply.
If he's really the one behind the death of Elder Pan, it will be a war."
***
Meanwhile, somewhere at the border between Qing province and Yuan province in the southern part of the empire, the battle tank was traveling at a slow pace.
Letting out a yawn, Mark opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a sitting position inside the turret.
Mark took out the pocket watch and looked at the time. "I guess I slept for three hours without even knowing. Is this also an aftereffect of the pill or something?"
"You are up, Big Brother." Suddenly, a familiar sweet voice escaped from the communication device before him.
He grabbed it and asked, "Alina, report me the status."
Alina informed, "The egg and the loot from the corpses were collected and sent to the inventory.
The corpses of Watcher Xiong Dong and his horses were dumped at the dungeon's graveyard.
The Hostage woke up, two hours ago but is knocked out again. Like Big brother, he is currently suffering from aftereffects of the pill. The estimated time for his return of consciousness is about 2 hours 4 minutes from now.
Our next destination is roughly about 102 kilometers away. The Battle Tank has about 46% fuel left. We are okay for 194 more kilometers."
"Thanks. You can stop nearby in the wilderness. Let's take a rest. We can go there tomorrow." Mark ordered her.
As she stopped driving the battle tank right away because they were already in an area without any human population, Mark opened the inventory to check out his gains.
He gasped when he saw the sheer amount of new items in inventory. He let out a wide grin in happiness, "33549 gold coins, 4664 low-quality ether crystals, 154 mid-quality ether crystals, and there are even 36 high-quality crystals? Must be from that elder.
Anyway, whatever I spent on upgrading the store has returned. My wealth was now even a new peak. I was just ten thousand gold coins short of reaching 150k. Once I start selling the Panzers, it will be changed."
Along with those, he received dozens of talismans, 21 advancement pills, 79 recovery pills, 22 hunger pills, 53 stamina pills, dozens of varieties of medicinal flowers, 98 pieces of equipment/items of which 46 of them are of gold grade and the remaining are silver grade. Just one platinum grade is collected.
In the inventory, there are 36 more storage rings, which are currently either empty or filled with toiletries, food, and clothing. Some of those rings are silver grade and some are gold grade.
*Ding! You dismantled a silver-grade storage ring. You receive 34 credits.
*Ding! You dismantled a silver-grade storage ring. You receive 48 credits.
*Ding! You dismantled a gold-grade storage ring. You receive 266 credits.
.
.
.
*Ding! You dismantled a silver-grade storage ring. You receive 14 credits.
*Ding! You dismantled a gold-grade storage ring. You receive 458 credits.
After dismantling 36 of them, he earned a total of 5166 credits.
"Now, let's continue with these too…" Laughing like a mad man, he continued to dismantle all the weapons, one after another, earning another 14589 credits. Only one piece of equipment, which was a platinum grade brooch, was spared as it has interesting effects and the description.
Name: Sun and Moon Brooch
Grade: Platinum grade (peak quality)
Description: An accessory made by an unknown blacksmith using obsidian as material. The blood of a werewolf is used as a catalyst. Once it recognizes an owner, it won't anyone as the master as long as its owner is alive.
Effects:
1) Increases the healing rate by ten times.
2) The wearer cannot be possessed by evil spirits, wraiths, and monsters.
3) During the day, the wearer can absorb solar energy and refine it into ether energy. But, the wearer needed to be under the sun.
4) During the night, the wearer can turn into shadow, incapable of being detected by anyone on the same or lower realm.
Note: It is a part of Set Equipment.
System Recommendation: Lu Zhen, Allen Spencer
**
"Unlike before, now the system is even giving recommendations. I guess it's because of the upgrade." Mark let out a smile and put away the accessory. Contrary to what the system thinks, Mark believed it is best for Alina regarding assassination missions.
"Now, let's see what beast egg is being protected by a barrier." With great expectations, he clicked on the glossy black egg with patches here and there.
