Don't move, it's a robbery!

According to Mr. Tai, after entering the tomb entrance, the tomb will activate a mechanism to automatically close the entrance.

If you want to leave, you must activate the mechanism near the main burial chamber. However, if you want to go to the main burial chamber, you must first complete the ritual at the altar. Otherwise, the burial chamber will activate its defenses and kill all intruders.

Near the passage leading to the second underground level, I found an altar used for human sacrifices. The altar had a funnel-shaped bloodletting trough, which looked like it was used to receive the blood of the sacrifices.

At the top of the altar, there are several glittering gems, which look very valuable. In the past, I would have already reached out and pried them off.

But this time, my attention was drawn to something else.

Near the altar lay scattered skeletons of varying sizes, the tallest being only a little over a meter high. Clearly, these unfortunate souls had died as children. They had no coffins, no burial goods, and most of the remains were incomplete, some even headless.

If there is anything they have in common, it is that they are all basically wearing shackles.

And this also symbolizes their identity.

slave.

Child trafficking is a very common phenomenon, but it happens in Linde City, and it happens everywhere else too.

Many commoners living at the bottom of society would sell their children to the rich or nobles due to poverty or debt. If these children were lucky enough, they could live peacefully to adulthood as servants or laborers. But if they were unlucky enough to become slaves, they would basically only be able to live one day at a time.

The fate of slaves was mostly tragic. They were at the bottom of society and were forced to do all kinds of heavy work, such as carrying goods beyond their capacity, cleaning up garbage in dirty environments, and even serving as cannon fodder on the battlefield.

They ate poorly, slept badly, and were beaten and abused for the slightest slackening; even if they were beaten to death, no one would feel sorry. Many slaves were worth less than livestock, especially children among the slaves, who were sometimes even given away as freebies by slave traders.

In a sense, the Kadir family's design of using children as sacrifices to activate the mechanism may have also been partly motivated by a desire to save money for the family.

I don't understand why the Kadir family would come up with such a design. If they didn't want anyone to disturb them, why not just seal off the entrance? Why leave a way for future generations to enter, and in such a cruel way at that?

"This is really unpleasant to look at."

I'm a little annoyed. I was originally going to try and see if I could fool the altar with Mr. Tai, but now I've changed my mind.

Don't even think about me obeying your ridiculous rules!

This kind of awful place should be bulldozed!

I raised my leg and kicked the stone tablet on the altar, breaking it in two. Then I turned and smashed the blood-collecting funnel with my club. Perhaps my actions triggered some mechanism, for just as I was about to continue destroying the altar, a suppressed roar came from the depths of the tomb, followed by an unnamed pressure that gripped my entire body.

What the hell is going on?

I was a little surprised and turned to look at the passage, wondering what was making the sound, but there was no movement below the passage. Instead, the skeletons near the altar slowly stood up.

Clearly, they have turned into undead skeletons.

"Tsk, what a bunch of unlucky bastards, they can't even find peace in death."

Although I feel sorry for these little devils, once they're dead, they're dead. These living skeletons are just puppets being manipulated. The only thing I can do is help them find release.

With a few muffled thuds, all the little skeletons fell apart.

"this one?"

I shook my head. If this was the method the Kadir family had prepared for killing, then they were underestimating the tomb raiders too much. A bunch of skeletons without even weapons—let alone well-prepared tomb raiders, even a farmer who knew nothing could smash them to pieces with a stone.

But the ancestors of the Kadir family were clearly not fools. Just when I thought the battle was over, the little skeletons that I had smashed actually stood up again.

Their shattered bodies, bound by unknown energy, were suspended in the air before rapidly coalescing, like building blocks, and reassembling completely.

This is absolutely amazing! I'm quite impressed with the person who designed this. It's incredible that they could manipulate skeletons, let alone use it to build with blocks.

The little skeletons attacked me again, and I swung my stick again. With a few more muffled thuds, they shattered on the ground once more.

Clearly, although they could be resurrected, their combat power did not seem to have been enhanced. Or perhaps, because they had been shattered once before, they had become more fragile this time. They all shattered before I even exerted any force.

However, that strange power reappeared, and the broken bones floated up again, reassembling into a skeleton once more.

I'm getting a little annoyed. These things don't pose any threat to me, but it's not good to keep fighting them like this!

I was a little annoyed. Faced with the little skeletons rushing towards me again, I didn't rush to attack. Instead, I dodged first and prepared to observe whether they had any other weaknesses.

Since these little skeletons weren't particularly agile, it was quite easy for me to dodge them, which gave me the time to observe them. However, after observing them several times, I couldn't find any particular flaws, or rather, these skeletons were full of weaknesses.

I tried using the rabbit knife to dismember a skeleton, hoping to use its ability to directly attack the soul to completely destroy it. Unfortunately, under the control of that mysterious force, even skeletons destroyed by the rabbit knife could be restored.

This is so strange. Could these things be complete puppets, and someone else is actually controlling them?

Remembering the roar I heard earlier, I quickly looked around but didn't find anything unusual.

Could it be that the other party is invisible?

I took out a few grain-based pills from my pocket, crushed them into powder, and then scattered them around.

Unfortunately, nothing was revealed.

The little skeletons were restored once again. By this time, I was getting a little impatient, so I smashed them again and watched helplessly as they were restored by the strange energy once more.

Huh? Wait, where did this strange energy come from?

I suddenly realized something and quickly mobilized my magic. With my magic activated, I could not only observe the magic within my body, but also sense the magic in the outside world to some extent.

According to Eve's explanation, magic is an energy that is everywhere. It exists in the human body, as well as in plants and animals. Not only plants and animals, but also the land and air contain it, only in varying amounts.

As living organisms, they often contain far more magic than the air, so some spellcasters can use spells specifically designed to detect magic to check for living things around them or to examine the traces left by others' spells.

Although I don't know this kind of magic, I can still barely see traces of magic when I concentrate on observing.

They were like fireflies in summer, fluttering in the air and twinkling with light.

This time I finally found the source of the problem. The energy that keeps the little skeletons regenerating seems to be emanating from the altar, or more precisely, from the stone tablet I kicked and broke earlier.

The gemstones on the stone tablet, which I thought were originally decorative, now seemed to me to be radiating a dazzling light.

These gems contain so many fireflies... uh, I misspoke, these gems contain so much magic!

My eyes lit up, and I excitedly ran to the stone tablet, grabbed a stick, and smashed it to pieces. Then I pried off the gems one by one. This action was immediately effective; the little skeletons, having lost their power source, all fell apart without me even lifting a finger.

With this successful experience, I was immediately filled with confidence for my next exploration.

It doesn't seem too difficult.

Before I could feel smug, another roar came from the tunnel. It seemed that my act of smashing the stone tablet had angered some unknown being.

Faced with the provocation of an unknown monster, I naturally had to retaliate.

"Why are you yelling so loudly? If you're angry, why don't you come up and hit me?"

"roar!"

The voice was quite loud, and seemed to contain anger; it was possible that the speaker was telling me to get off.

"Heh, you think I'll just go down because you tell me to? Don't I have any dignity?"

"roar!"

"Stop yelling! If you're so capable, come up here!"

"roar!"

I exchanged insults with this monster for almost half an hour, but the thing down in the tunnel just wouldn't come up; it just kept roaring from below.

I felt this thing was pretty angry, but it seemed unable to come up. Since that was the case, I was too lazy to keep wasting time with it and decided to go down and take it down completely.

Of course, before I go down, I will definitely bring Little Dot and Reggie with me. Otherwise, if a skeleton suddenly appears after I go down, they will be doomed.

I turned and went back to the hall. Reggie and Little were still unconscious. Leaving Reggie aside, Little's wounds had almost healed, but his skin color had become strange, and strange hairs had grown on his hands and feet. His ears had also become oddly shaped, making him look like a werewolf who had only partially transformed.

Yes, taking too many pills can cause this, but it's not a big problem and it should go back to normal soon.

Eve used to glow at night, and she's still perfectly fine now.

Mr. Tai, whom I captured, is still alive, but he's a little disoriented. Even when he sees me, he doesn't show any particular expression. I can't blame him for that; I was a bit too rough during the interrogation. To be honest, the only reason he's still alive is because I fed him half a pill.

I think Mr. Tai, if he were still conscious, would be very jealous of his dead companion.

I started shaking Reggie and Little One, and at the same time kicked Mr. Tai, helping the three of them regain their senses.

"Alright, everyone, get up! We're in trouble now! This is the time for you to step in!"