Chapter 376 Arrival
‘I’ll just give it to you for free.’
Heath was too lazy to care about a few high-level Magic Stones. After all, with his current income, these Magic Stones were really nothing.
He then took out three high-level Magic Stones and threw them into the basket. “Thank you.”
“Hahaha, Magic Stones, delicious Magic Stones, high-level Magic Stones. I like the taste. I love the taste.”
The bamboo basket’s eyes lit up instantly, like two torches lit up in the dark night. It stared unblinkingly at the high-grade Magic Stones that had fallen into the basket. As it praised, it opened its mouth, it stretched out its long tongue, and rolled the Magic Stones into its mouth.
Ka! Ka! Ka! A few crisp sounds rang out from the basket’s mouth. These Magic Stones that were as st.u.r.dy as gemstones were actually bitten into pieces by the basket.
“Burp!”
The basket finally opened its mouth and burped. A ball of elements came out from its mouth at the same time. It looked like it was enjoying it very much.
It clicked its tongue and said, “I love this smell.”
Then, its att.i.tude towards Heath became much better. It said enthusiastically, “Thank you for your Magic Stones, young man. You are much better than those misers. You are on a whole different level. Those people look like they are putting on an act. When it was their turn to dig out Magic Stones, they would cry about being poor and haggle with me. It’s just a few Magic Stones, yet you want to lower the price? It’s really too detestable.”
After venting his dissatisfaction to Heath, the bamboo basket said, “Come up, young Wizard. I’ll send you to the Underground World.”
Heath bowed. “Thank you.”
Then, he walked up to the bamboo basket.
The large bamboo basket reminded Heath of the hanging basket he used to sit in at the amus.e.m.e.nt park when he was a child. It was the same. When he sat on it, it swayed, making him unable to resist grabbing onto the ropes on both sides.
Perhaps it was because the Magic Stones had left a good impression on the bamboo basket, but after seeing Heath’s actions, the bamboo basket stopped swaying. At the same time, it comforted him. “Relax, young Wizard. Am I shaking too much? Then I’ll try my best to stop it.”
Heath said, “It’s alright. I’m probably a little nervous.”
The bamboo basket laughed and said, “Hahaha, it’s normal. Every Wizard who goes underground for the first time is like this. After all, it’s a world tens of thousands of meters away. That world is completely different from the surface of the earth. People who go there for the first time will inevitably be nervous.” Heath raised his eyebrows and asked curiously, “Do you often go underground?”
The bamboo basket said, “Of course. After all, every Wizard who goes underground has to pa.s.s by me. Don’t underestimate a bamboo basket. I’ve sent and received many great Wizards. Even Stigmata level Wizards are not few.”
Well, this guy seemed to be a vain chatterbox. Heath continued to ask, “What’s the Underground World like? I heard that it’s not quite the same as the surface. Is that so? Oh, right, how should I address you? What’s your name?”
The bamboo basket said, “My name is Gert.”
After a pause, the bamboo basket continued, “It’s indeed a little different from the surface, but that’s on the microscopic level. In fact, the macroscopic level is similar. At least from the eyes, the Underground World is the same as this place.”
Heath asked strangely, “The same as here?”
In his opinion, there should be a big difference between the underground and here.
The bamboo basket said, “That’s right. Alright, sit tight. I’m going to send you down. I need to keep quiet while working. We’ll talk about the rest later.”
Heath had wanted to ask more, but hearing the bamboo basket’s words, he did not continue asking.
He nodded and said, “Okay.”
Just as he said, the bamboo basket put on a serious expression after it entered its working state. It did not look like the chatterbox it was before.
It shook its body with a serious expression as if it was adjusting its angle. Then, he heard a series of ‘ka ka ka’ sounds coming from the side of the dry well. The scaffolding that stood above the dry well began to rotate slowly.
As the scaffolding rotated, the rope also began to descend to the bottom of the well with the bamboo basket tied to it.
Heath walked to the side of the basket and held the bamboo basket with one hand. He stuck his head out to look down the well, hoping to see something.
Unfortunately, it was pitch black as far as the eye could see. There was no extra material at all.
Crack! Crack! Crack! The sound of the rotating gears of the scaffolding echoed in the dry well. The hanging basket carried heath as they slowly descended into the depths of the dry well.
After descending for more than ten minutes, there was no light source in the dry well at all. The entire dry well had sunk into complete darkness.
The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet.
Suddenly…
Wu Wu Wu! ~ Wu Wu Wu Wu! –
Suddenly, there was a sound coming from the dark dry well. It sounded like the cry of a girl.
Heath looked in the direction of the sound and saw a little girl on the stone wall of the dry well not far away.
It was a little girl about ten years old with two braided braids. At this time, she was squatting in a depression of the dry well, hugging her head and crying.
Probably sensing Heath’s gaze, the little girl rubbed her red eyes and looked up. As she cried, she asked Heath for help. “Big Brother, can you help me? Big Brother, can you help
me?”
Her voice had a unique penetrating power, and it seemed to have some kind of magic.
After Heath heard it, he inexplicably felt a s.h.i.+ver in his spirit. It was as if a weak nerve in the bottom of his heart had been touched, and he subconsciously wanted to reach out to the little girl for help.
He even began to move to the side of the basket. His body began to bounce out of the basket, as if he was trying to pull the little girl back.
However, before he could do so, a voice suddenly sounded.
“Get away from me, you annoying fellow!”
With the sound of this voice, a ball of invisible energy instantly swept towards the little girl on the stone wall. From the world of spiritual power, Heath could see a long whip fiercely swinging towards the little girl. It landed heavily on the little girl’s body.
“Ah!!!”
The little girl let out an agonizing scream, and then her entire body exploded into a cloud of ash with a ‘bang’, completely disappearing into the dry well.
As the little girl disappeared, the abnormality of Heath’s spiritual power immediately disappeared without a trace.
His vision returned to its normal state, and the previous wave of spiritual sympathy disappeared without a trace. Heath returned to his previous state of mind.
He could not help but look curiously at the girl who had disappeared into the darkness. At the same time, he asked the bamboo basket, “What was that just now?”
The bamboo basket answered briefly, “A ghost.”
The so-called ghost was actually a special soul energy body that was between a ghost and a human. Under the premise of being of the same level, its power was much weaker than that of a ghost, but the conditions for its birth were also much easier than that of a ghost. Even Wizards could create it artificially with the help of special Wizard tools.
Heath asked, “Why would a ghost appear here?”
According to what Heath knew, a ghost should usually appear in a bustling big city, or even where the life force commanded. It was really rare to see a ghost appear in such a place.
The bamboo basket said, “These are all put here by Wizards.”
“Because there are always some people who are unwilling to pay Gert a few Magic Stones. Those stingy guys don’t even want to pay a few Magic Stones…”
“So, they stupidly chose not to pay Gert, but to enter themselves. They use the Falling Feather spell to go lower.”
“But they don’t know that there are countless ghosts embedded in the surrounding walls. Without Gert’s protection, most of them will end up being eaten by the ghosts.”
Heath suddenly understood.
He immediately thanked again, “Thank you very much.”
If it wasn’t for Gert’s insistence, he really didn’t want to pay a single cent for this chatterbox just now. But now, he didn’t have such thoughts at all.
And just now, when the little girl’s soul was dissipating, he paid special attention to it. The little girl’s overflowing spiritual power clearly showed that the little girl just now had an extremely strong power.
Thinking of this, Heath couldn’t help but take another look at the bamboo basket under his feet. It looked like an ordinary bamboo basket, but it was even stronger than the ghost. It was really unbelievable.
Besides that, Heath was also very curious about the bamboo basket itself.
This was because after talking with the bamboo basket, he suddenly realized that he couldn’t recognize what kind of creature the bamboo basket belonged to.
After learning countless magic knowledge and extracting many Wizard libraries, Heath could be described as a Wizard encyclopedia at the moment. Basically, as long as it was closely related to Wizards… He could always get a general idea, or even grasp their overall appearance.
However, at this moment, Heath was surprised to find that he could not recognize which kind of creature the bamboo basket belonged to.
There were many demonized creatures that could think and speak. Some of them did look like bamboo baskets, like Flying Stone Slabs or Screeching Fruits. However, their thinking was not high-level, they could not deal with overly complicated commands. They could not be on the same level as the bamboo basket that could quote cla.s.sics and answer questions fluently.
Theoretically speaking, a creature like the bamboo basket should not possess such a level of intelligence. It was not like an ordinary bamboo basket at all.
‘It’s probably some kind of alchemy lifeform that I don’t know about,’ Heath could only guess.
The bamboo basket continued to descend.
After that, they encountered some special situations one after another. There were quite a number of specters like the little girl just
now.
These ghosts were not very strong, and they seemed to be very afraid of the bamboo basket. No matter how much Heath shouted, they did not dare to come up easily. They only dared to use all kinds of methods to lure Heath. It seemed that they were trying to pull him out of the bamboo basket.
However, with the previous experience, Heath obviously would not be fooled again. No matter what tricks the ghosts outside used against him, he did not care at all.
Seeing that Heath was so persistent, the ghosts that surrounded him finally gave up. Soon, the ghosts disappeared into the dark tunnel one by one.
Through his spiritual power, Heath could not sense any ghosts around him.
After the ghosts left, the bamboo basket that had been silent for a long time broke the conversation again.
It said, “These pestering people, even if they die, they won’t be able to live in peace. Fortunately, I was prepared in advance. Otherwise, I might have suffered a great loss this time.”
Heath thought for a moment and felt that what the bamboo basket said made sense.
He thanked it again, “Thank you very much for your help.”
As he spoke, he took out two Magic Stones and gave them to the bamboo basket. Previously, he had doubted the bamboo basket’s ability, but after the battle just now, he had fully understood the strength of the bamboo basket.
One had to know that before the little girl was defeated by the bamboo basket, Heath had clearly felt the little girl’s powerful elemental fluctuations. It was not inferior to him, and was not inferior to ordinary advanced-level Wizards.
With his current strength, he was still far from being a match for such an attack. If he had not taken the bamboo basket down and used the Falling Feather spell like an ordinary Wizard, then not to mention saving a few Magic Stones… He might even lose his life.
The bamboo basket ate the Magic Stones and said, “No need to be polite. Since I’ve eaten your Magic Stones, I’ll naturally send you to a safe place. You don’t have to care about those little rascals.”
Heath asked, “Are they all ghosts?”
After waiting for a while, he did not hear any reply from the bamboo basket. Just like how it had suddenly appeared, it seemed to have disappeared again.
Heath: “…”
The bamboo basket continued to descend.
After the bamboo basket retreated the surrounding ghosts, they did not encounter any other trouble. The small bamboo basket swayed in the air and slowly fell to the ground.
Finally, after descending for more than two hours, it was no longer pitch-black below, but a weak light source appeared.
With the appearance of this light source, the outline of the scenery below slowly appeared and gradually appeared before Heath’s eyes.
Seeing this light source, Heath’s eyes could not help but light up. “Are we almost there?”
After the bamboo basket continued to move down for dozens of meters, the scene before his eyes became even brighter. Heath looked over and what he saw was actually a piece of sky.
Yes, it was a piece of azure blue sky. It was the same as the sky he saw on the surface. There were a few white clouds floating in the blue, curtain-like sky. It looked very comfortable.
However, at this time, Heath had a strange expression on his face.
This kind of sky and white clouds did not seem to be a problem when viewed alone. However, they were currently underground.
Shouldn’t the underground be pitch-black? Why were there blue sky and white clouds?
While Heath was puzzled, the dry well had slowly descended to the bottom of the well. Soon, it pa.s.sed through the opening and came outside. The surrounding scenery was completely exposed to Heath.
When Heath saw the surrounding scenery clearly, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes, looking very surprised.