76: Chapter 76 The Dwarf's "Big Treasure"

After being forced back by the twin swords once again, the bald pirate clutched his bleeding arm and surveyed the battle around him.

The Ogre was entangled by the dryads and couldn't move, most of the hyenas had already been cleared out by the dwarf and the Archers, and the scimitar-wielders were retreating steadily before the half-elf's sword dance.

Gritting his teeth, he spat out an extremely foul pirate slang before roaring at his subordinates:

"Retreat! Once the boss comes out from inside, these pointy-ears will meet their doom!"

Dragging their wounded companions and the only two remaining hyenas, the pirates retreated from the plaza in a pathetic state.

The bald pirate ran at the very back. Before leaving, he turned around and spat a mouthful of bloody saliva in Selan's direction, quickly disappearing into the dark shadows of the buildings.

Commander Selan did not pursue.

Only after watching the pirates retreat into the distance did he slowly sheathe his longsword, turn around, and face the highland ruins where Richard and the others were hiding, calling out in a clear voice:

"Friends hiding up there, you can come out now."

Richard stood up from behind the half-collapsed windowsill and walked down the stone steps in an open, relaxed manner.

His horned helmet reflected a dull silver luster in the morning light, and his weapon remained sheathed at his waist.

His posture was relaxed, and every step he took was steady.

The Archers of the Silver Leaf Sentinels drew their bowstrings to the full the moment he stepped out of the shadows.

But Selan raised his right hand and made a pressing-down gesture, and the bowstrings relaxed once more.

The half-elf commander's gaze fell upon Richard's face.

"I am determined to get what is inside this high tower. Even if we came on the same ship, I will not show mercy," Selan said, raising his sword.

Richard stopped about ten paces away from Selan.

His teammates filed out from the shadows of the ruins.

Cecilia stood guard on his left, holding her shield. Selina's eye of the storm holy emblem spun slightly in her palm, Morpheus had already prepared his spell, and Jinbao and the black cat brought up the rear.

"We are not the pirates' helpers, nor are we here to steal your claim of arrival," Richard tilted his head toward the black high tower.

"It seems you've tried that door, and it doesn't look like it opened."

"Why don't we find a way to open it together, and then we can each rely on our own abilities for what's inside... If we can't even get through the door, what's the point of arguing over who got here first?"

Selan stared at him for a moment, then glanced sideways at Vera.

The two quietly consulted for a moment before Selan withdrew his gaze and extended his right hand to Richard:

"Alright. Before the door is opened, the three teams will temporarily join forces... Once inside, it's every man for himself."

Richard grasped his wrist and shook it firmly a few times.

The three teams regrouped in front of the main entrance of the black high tower.

Selina pressed herself against the metal door surface to sense it for a moment, her silver brows knitting together:

"There is a biological signature inside, very weak, but it's blocked by the door... The metal of the door and the tower body should be the same material, which has extremely high resistance to physical attacks and most magic."

Durin the dwarf spat into his palms, swung his Warhammer, and slammed it against the door panel over a dozen times.

The clanging of metal made everyone's eardrums ache, and the rebounding force of the hammerhead knocked the dwarf back several steps, yet only a few faint, barely visible dents were left on the door panel.

Selan and Vera slashed several rounds with their longswords. Their Enchantment-infused sword tips struck rows of silver sparks on the metal surface, but not even a slightly deeper scratch was left behind.

The acid corrosion from Evelyn the warlock sent thick grayish-green smoke rising from the door panel, but once the smoke cleared, the door remained completely unmoved.

The black cat inspected it carefully for a long time but couldn't find any place to pick the lock or decode a puzzle.

Finally, Richard hacked violently with the dwarven roaring battleaxe, but it didn't cause any damage either.

He changed angles several times, using the back of the battleaxe's hammerhead to smash hard against the center of the door panel where a weak spot might exist.

His astonishing strength made every strike emit a deafening roar, but the door panel seemed to be protected by some kind of power; only a few extremely shallow hammer marks were dented in, and the overall structure remained completely unmoved.

Jinbao stood on his tiptoes behind the crowd, watching for a long time. After some thought, he reached into the innermost compartment of his tool bag.

What he pulled out made Richard a bit curious; it was a bomb.

But unlike the crudely shaped homemade bombs he had thrown before, the casing of this bomb was cast entirely from polished, shining brass.

Its surface was covered with dense graduation lines and runes, the strokes of each rune as fine as a strand of hair.

A small wind-up key, protected by a thin sapphire slice, was embedded at the top, and the gear structure of the key was so precise that the curve of every single tooth could be clearly seen.

A timing scale inlaid with silver wire encircled the middle of the bomb.

Held in Jinbao's short, stubby fingers, the entire bomb looked less like a weapon and more like a miniature, precision mantel clock.

"This thing..." Morpheus bent down to take a closer look, his mouth instantly hanging open, his expression filled with shock.

"Is this for real? Did you actually make this magic compression circuit yourself? How much did you spend?"

Jinbao said in an unprecedentedly serious tone, "Hundreds of gold coins, and a whole year spent polishing it!"

His fingers gently turned the wind-up key at the top of the bomb, and the internal gear set emitted a series of extremely crisp clicking sounds, as precise as the clockwork of a music box.

"electric eel-dragon secretions, plus death dust, and a high-energy magic crystal..."

"I originally planned to sell this thing for a good price, or use it to perish together with my enemies when I'm about to die, but I really can't accept having a treasure vault in front of me and not being able to enter."

He wound it up fully, threw it at the doorway, and then turned and ran.

His two short legs pedaled rapidly across the flagstones: "It's going to explode in one minute! Run! Everyone... run!"

Selina grabbed Morpheus, who was still observing the high tower, and slung him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, her leather boots making hurried thuds on the flagstones.

Richard, Cecilia, and the others immediately turned and sprinted.

As Jinbao dashed past Selan, he shouted to the half-elves, "Run! What are you still standing there for?!"

Selan dithered for less than a second before making an extremely decisive retreat gesture to his team members. Almost everyone from the Silver Leaf Sentinels and Gray's team turned and dashed at the same time.

Everyone hid behind several relatively intact stone buildings at the edge of the plaza, using the thickest stone walls as cover.

When Selina set Morpheus down, the latter was still drawing formulas in the air with a finger, muttering calculations under his breath.

Jinbao curled himself into a small ball, covering his ears with both hands, his eyes tightly shut beneath his goggles as he repeatedly muttered.

"Please don't be a dud, please don't be a dud, please don't be a dud!"

A minute passed, and nothing happened.

In the plaza, there was only the faint whistling of the wind blowing through the gaps in the flagstones.

The black cat poked half of its body out from the edge of the cover, observed carefully for a moment, and then commented expressionlessly, "There, a dud."