Chapter 128 First Dungeon Run (1)
The mercenaries all had disappointed looks as they looked at the fountain in front of them, not knowing what was going on. They couldn't understand why the fountain would suddenly lose all this spiritual energy that it had.
This fountain was one that would only work once a day per person.
After a person received the effects of the fountain, the fountain would remember that person and not provide the same effects for twenty four hours.
As for how it did that, Lin Fan didn't think too deeply about it.
He just assumed that it was a special ability that the fountain had.
As Tian Tian watched these mercenaries drinking more and more of the water from the fountain, her face became darker.
Lin Fan was still here and she was the one in charge of this group, so they were losing face for her…
So after being silent for a bit, Tian Tian finally said, "Enough already!"
All of the mercenaries snapped to attention when they heard this.
They all quickly revealed awkward expressions before they stopped drinking the water of the fountain and came over to where Tian Tian was standing.
They were mercenaries that had been hired by the Mercenary Guild for this job and Tian Tian was their leader, so naturally they respected her. But they didn't just respect her because she was appointed their leader by the Mercenary Guild.
Tian Tian was someone who had been in the Mercenary Guild a long time, so she had built up quite the reputation that they respected. Not to mention that she was the strongest out of all of them with her Fifth Qi Gathering Realm Cultivation.
After breaking through, the second strongest among them was still only in the Third Qi Gathering Realm.
After seeing them come over, Tian Tian gave a snort before turning to look at the fountain again.
Even though the fountain had allowed these people to break through, she still didn't fully trust it. She still felt like it was a trap.
So she just stood there looking over the mercenaries who awkwardly stood in a line. She was just waiting for some sign of change from these mercenaries.
But five minutes passed without a single thing happening.
Finally, Tian Tian couldn't take it anymore as she took out several pieces of paper. She came over to the mercenaries and forced them to stick out a hand which she stuck the pieces of paper on.
The pieces of paper lit up for a few seconds before going dim.
When Tian Tian looked at the pieces of paper, she found that these pieces of paper had turned completely green which caused her to knit her brows.
These pieces of paper were talismans that Tian Tian had received from the Mercenary Guild as equipment. They were talismans that had the ability to check the body of the person that they were attached to.
However, the fact that these talismans had turned green meant that there was nothing wrong with them.
It proved that the fountain didn't have any poison in it like she had suspected which she just couldn't accept. After all, it was just too suspicious how the fountain was placed out in the open like this.
But still, she realized that she had spent enough time on this fountain and she should turn her attention to the corridors that were in this room.
Once she turned her attention away from them, the mercenaries let out a sigh of relief before going to look at the passages along with her.
No matter how they looked at the different passages, they weren't able to find a single thing different about them. They were all simple passages that led further into the dungeon, but all they could see were the torches that led the way into the distance.
There was nothing that indicated what would be at the end of these passages.
Since this was the case, it wouldn't really matter which passage that they took. So in the end, they just randomly chose one of the passages to head down.
But before they headed off, Tian Tian said goodbye to Lin Fan.
He wasn't coming with them after all since there was no need for him to come with them.
He had found the dungeon and the account that he gave was that he hadn't explored far before finding the sword, so even if they brought him, it wouldn't be of much help.
Not to mention that she had already asked for too much from him after the last two times. Tian Tian would feel bad if she relied on Lin Fan again this time.
So she headed off into the dungeon with the mercenary group alone.
Lin Fan might have been worried about letting her go into the dungeon, but this was his dungeon after all. He could watch over her at any time and could intervene if she was in danger, so there was no need for him to worry.
Rather, he was looking forward to hearing her evaluation of this dungeon that he created.
…
After they walked through the corridor for a bit, they suddenly noticed the aura of living things in front of them. As soon as they did, Tian Tian raised her hands to stop them and they silently hid themselves as they waited to see what was coming towards them.
As the aura came closer, Tian Tian's group saw that it was a group of strange looking bipedal creatures that was approaching them.
They walked on two feet like normal humans, but their appearances were anything but human.
To put it simple, they looked like dogs that could walk on two feet instead of four.
These walking dogs were dressed in simple loincloths and had primitive stone weapons in their hands, but Tian Tian's group could tell based on their aura that they were at least in the Second Qi Gathering Realm.
However, now that most of them had broken through after drinking from the fountain, it wasn't a problem for them to take care of these walking dogs at all.
With a wave of her hand, their group split into two smaller groups that went left and right.
Using the shadows in this dimly lit hallway, they were able to get to the sides of the walking dogs and then in one swift motion, they each cut down one of the walking dogs. However, there were more of the walking dogs than them, so there were still a few left after cutting these first ones down.
But they were much stronger than these walking dogs and it didn't take them long before they were able to take care of the rest.
After they had taken care of these walking dogs, they wanted to search their corpses for anything useful, but before they could, something strange happened to these corpses. Right in front of their eyes, these corpses suddenly started to dissipate before completely turning into ashes.
They had been certain that there were beast cores inside of these walking dogs, but now they didn't get a chance to check.
Even the clothes and the weapons that they had all dissipated into ashes. The only things that were left by the end were a few fangs.
After carefully moving towards the items that had dropped, Tian Tian took the lead as she picked up one of the fangs that she looked over. She turned it all around in her hand, looking over every inch of the fang.
When she was done, she couldn't help revealing a surprised look.
"This is!..." Tian Tian said in a shocked voice.
The others couldn't help being curious, so they also came over to pick up a few fangs that they also looked over. After looking closely, they were shocked just like Tian Tian.
These fangs were ordinary fangs, but they were also not ordinary.
After all, these fangs had come from those walking dog creatures that had a cultivation in the Second Qi Gathering Realm.
These fangs contained a powerful energy and if they were refined into an artifact, it would certainly make a powerful artifact. But it wasn't just that, the amount of energy contained within it far surpassed that of the Second Qi Gathering Realm.
The energy contained was closer to the Fourth Qi Gathering Realm, but just barely not breaking the threshold, so it was still in the Third Qi Gathering Realm.
A Second Qi Gathering Realm beast dropped an item that had energy equal to the Third QI Gathering Realm?
What kind of concept was that?
Normally when spirit beasts died, part of their spiritual energy would be dissipated, so the materials gotten from them would be weaker than when they were alive.
But these walking dog creatures had dropped crafting material that was much stronger than them when they were still alive.
This simply went against the laws of nature.
Tian Tian just couldn't understand what was with this place, it seemed like there were too many benefits for too little work, which made it all seem like a trap.
But still, that didn't stop her from taking these fangs since she knew that there was nothing strange about these fangs.
The mercenaries looked at the fangs with greedy looks, but they didn't stop her from taking them. This was just how mercenary groups worked, the leader would take the loot and split the profits between them after they headed back.
So just like this, with hearts filled with doubt and anticipation, they headed deeper into the dungeon.