Birth Of The Crafts-God

Over six hours had gone by since the mass teleportation of tourists from the Aura-breaking stele viewing area. In those six hours, Lucas had faced twelve drudnids. The number seemed quite small considering that he had encountered four drudnids within the first hour or so. In fact, Lucas was becoming worried because of this.

Others might be happy or even grateful for having not faced many drudnids within that time, but the opposite was true for Lucas. What others hoped to avoid, he craved for. The reason for this was because of the value of the materials on the drudnids.

After the battle against the first drudnid which was promptly followed by an assault from three drudnids, Lucas had taken a break to recover from his injuries. During that break, he inspected the 'corpses' of the drudnids and tried to understand the materials used to make them. It was then that Lucas discovered that he had stumbled upon a treasure.

The body of the drudnids were made using exquisite metals, some of which became rare or even extinct after the global catastrophe over four thousand years ago. These metals were all very unique and some of them could even compare with the high value ores being sold in the market today.

Apart from their body's constituents, the drudnids also provided value in their inscription mapping.

As it turns out, the purple 'veins' on the drudnids weren't actually those but magi runes carved on the drudnids. The runes were carved in such a unique fashion that from a distance, they simply looked like a pattern of crooked lines, similar to the veins of the human circulatory system —albeit less in number.

While this looked like some aesthetic design, it actually had some practical implications.

Such a unique method of engraving caught Lucas' attention and became a research interest for him.

With various benefits, Lucas began to covet the drudnids in the relics. But after walking towards the opposite end of the inner region for over five hours, Lucas had only encountered eight other drudnids.

Currently, after consulting with the system via his unique approach, Lucas was now at the halfway point but he wasn't willing to go forward anymore. The closer he got to the entrance of the inner region, the lower the odds of spotting a drudnid. But that wasn't the worst part. It was that the drudnids became weaker as he approached the exit.

Although this was logical, it wasn't in Lucas' favour, so he didn't move towards the entrance. Instead, Lucas retreated back to the depths of the inner region, but he didn't go too deep.

In the history of the East Braftford relics, Lucas was probably the only one that treated the inner region as a hunting ground and the drudnids as prey. Even the top pioneers in Trundel City and the surrounding cities wouldn't do something as silly as hunting drudnids without caution.

While it was true that against a fourth or fifth level stellar practitioner pioneer, the second and third level drudnids weren't much of a threat, those drudnids were able to communicate on a mental channel. Through the channel, they could request for assistance if the enemy was tough to deal with. This was why after defeating the first drudnid, Lucas was ambushed right away by three others.

However, when he defeated the following drudnids, Lucas had done so quickly and relied on the mental energy technique of his. Because of this, the drudnids were unable to react in time and request for support. In fact, Lucas was unaware of this and was simply lucky.

'It would be nice if I could stock up thirty drudnids.' Lucas sighed.

Thirty drudnids were a lot, even for him. Disassembling them and recycling their materials would take a lot of time, energy, effort and resources, but the rewards were well worth it. Apart from that, after studying them a bit, it seemed like there were categories to these drudnids and each category had a different set of 'veins'. With thirty drudnids, there was a high chance that there would be at least three categories available for Lucas to unravel the secrets of their magi runes. That way, even without visiting the Aura-breaking stele again, Lucas could still complete the mission.

"System, do you have any method to spot the drudnids?" Lucas asked, although he doubted the system would even offer him such.

"I do." Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

The system replied, stunning Lucas with that response.

Before Lucas could even ask what it was, the system continued,

"The item is available for sale in the system shop."

Hearing that, Lucas gave up the follow-up question he had. It was still the same as he had expected, even though the system's response differed from usual.

As for the system shop, Lucas could only access that in the store. Chances were that this could change in the future, but that was the situation at the moment.

While he had this thought, Lucas' ears suddenly perked.

Despite the fact that it looked like he was nonchalant and careless, Lucas was always alert all the time. This was the East Braftford relics, a relics famous for burying even fifth level stellar practitioners. Even though Lucas possessed the weakness of the drudnids, he still didn't underestimate them for that. These were weapons of war with a peculiar battle-driven consciousness controlling them; they shouldn't be underestimated. What's more, Lucas' method worked only for those drudnids with a severely fractured consciousness —retaining only 40% of their original self. If he faced anything higher, Lucas would be at risk of danger.

Finally, the drudnids were just one of the dangers of the East Braftford relics, although the most notorious ones. There were also rare and exotic desolate beasts that, for some reason, aren't targeted by the drudnids. Although the majority of them were weak, they were tricky species and could cause a lot of harm to stellar practitioners of even the fourth level. All these made Lucas to be even more alert during his journey.

Currently, Lucas overheard a strange sound coming from his left. This sound was different from those made by the drudnids or the desolate beasts and he could even hear a bit of panting.

Only a hyuman could make such noises within this place.