That's right, that's what adventure is like!

The space inside the door was unexpectedly spacious.

The first thing you smell is the bitterness of aged herbs, with a faint hint of the rusty smell of dried blood, and dust floating in the sole light source.

The light source came from a huge, heavy oak table in the center of the room. Several antique-style kerosene lamps, held together by some unknown force, still emitted a steady, dim yellow glow, barely illuminating the surrounding furnishings.

"laboratory?"

Roland's gaze swept over the organ specimens hanging on the wall. Although they had shrunk under the erosion of time, they could still be vaguely discerned as some large eyeballs, long limbs with claws, and leather with remnants of scales.

click-

Torg gently touched the specimens, but they couldn't withstand even the slightest external force, cracking open and falling to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Don't touch anything, watch out for traps."

Roland offered a word of advice, ignoring the specimens that had long suffered from neglect, and turned his gaze deeper into the specimens.

In the corner were several rusty iron cages of varying sizes, some with hair and bone fragments stuck in them. At the far end of the room was a thick wooden door reinforced with iron bars, with a small, palm-sized viewing window with a movable panel.

But what interested him most was a dark parchment manuscript spread out in the middle of the long, wide table, with many words written in dark brown ink.

After a brief test to confirm there were no traps, Roland picked up the manuscript, frowned, and began to decipher the slightly distorted characters.

Although it is also a common language, the characters are too illegible, which adds a lot of difficulty for him.

"...The sixth breeding attempt failed. No matter what kind of monster cub it is, it will die within three days!! Damn the rules of life..."

"...Failed again! Damn it, the magical tide triggered by the dungeon is too strong; those bastards simply can't withstand this impact..."

"...The seventeenth cultivation attempt, and this time...something strange...the abyss demon's response to me was a clump of soil..."

"...Ha! This soil is really interesting. Although it can't be used to cultivate monsters...unclean life force...fears the light...the greatest wealth..."

The handwriting begins to become frantic from here, with a noticeable increase in the force used in the strokes, almost to the point of piercing through the parchment.

"...Success! This is a gift!! A gift from the devil!!! Something perfect... Ember... an unprecedented supernatural being..."

"...Hahaha...The dungeon can finally function...Flesh and blood...I need countless amounts of flesh and blood!!!"

"...Devil...No...No...No!!...I've already paid the fair price!! The key...I need that key..."

The manuscript ends abruptly here.

Roland rolled up the parchment and stuffed it into his bag, his heart beating strongly and steadily in his chest as he processed the enormous amount of information.

First, the black embers are not a natural product, but a "special gift" obtained by the dungeon lord in a deal with the abyss demon.

Secondly, this city lord was obsessed with creating monsters. Although he failed, he still managed to create a completely new supernatural creature using black ashes, although it seemed to require a large amount of flesh and blood to cultivate.

Finally, this dungeon lord is probably dead. The guide clearly states that even a powerful demigod must pay the price of their soul to make a deal with the devil.

"What does it say on it?"

Torg's voice carried a hint of urgency, but he did not ask Roland for the manuscript—he was illiterate, which was the norm for orcs.

"It's nothing, just some records about black embers and breeding monsters."

Roland spoke succinctly, his gaze already fixed on the iron-hooped door deep within the laboratory. There was only one path here, and the "new extraordinary creature" mentioned in the manuscript must be inside.

The chains wrapped around the door were already rusted, and the magic patterns were extremely dim; they could be easily pulled off.

Roland pulled back the partition and peeked inside. After confirming it was safe, Roland followed Torgue inside.

The furnishings inside were quite simple. Apart from a closed well, there was only a long-dead, deformed "plant".

The main body consists of several wrist-thick, dark purple fleshy stems that resemble dried vines, with raised patterns on the surface resembling blood vessels. They emerge from the black ashes that cover the ground, but have long since withered and turned black.

The top of the stem is not branches and leaves, but a bony structure that has shrunk to the size of a fist and resembles a trap, with tiny barbs along the edges.

Most striking of all are the three egg-sized fruits hanging from the center of the withered stem, radiating a warm orange glow. They have no taste and their surfaces are cracked with textures resembling cooled lava.

Be careful.

Roland stopped Torgue, who was about to step forward, and used his longsword to pick up a stone and gently toss it toward the withered plant.

There was no response; it seemed to be completely dead.

He then stepped forward and lightly touched the orange fruit with his fingertips. A faint warm current flowed into his body, causing his arm to tremble slightly. It wasn't discomfort, but rather a feeling that his energy had been slightly restored.

"This thing... seems to contain abundant life energy? Or something similar..."

Roland was somewhat uncertain; he did not yet have a complete understanding of the extraordinary and energy systems of this world.

"Edible?" Torg licked his lips, his words getting straight to the point; the orcs' thinking was always so direct.

"Uncertain," Roland said calmly, having already glanced at the pop-up panel information. "After all, it was cultivated by the city lord using ashes and flesh, so it's better to be cautious."

Despite saying that, his hands moved quickly, picking the three fruits and taking out several small leather pouches specifically for storing medicines. He put them into the pouches one by one to prevent any potential energy loss.

"I'll keep it for now and give you one after we get out, but it's best not to let the association or Daphne know about this."

Although Torger wasn't very bright, he knew what was important and nodded, though his eyes kept glancing at Roland's luggage.

"Stop looking around, quickly check if there's anything else of value in this room."

Urged on by Roland, Thorger finally turned around and began searching the empty room.

The ground was covered with black ashes, but that didn't mean there was nothing there. After Torg plowed through the room like a bison, he quickly found some interesting things.

It was in a corner away from the plants, on a rock wall covered with thick black ashes, that a symbol was carved, which looked like a casual doodle.

The whole design consists of three concentric but not closed rings, which gradually become thinner and blurrier from the inside out, with a simple and abstract key tooth pattern at the center.

At the very bottom, a line of small print in Common Language reads: "See wholeness in the broken, hear echoes in the silence."

"This is……"

Roland stared intently at the pattern, vaguely sensing that it contained some kind of meaning, perhaps the mark of some organization.

What surprised him most was that a message similar to the one from the previous cemetery mission suddenly popped up on the panel.

The story "The Hidden Abyss" is basically complete. Will it continue?