Chapter 197 – Moretta
Evidently, the X-ray Eye was no ordinary stuff. Even Fatty’s Appraisal couldn’t a.s.sess it. “Could this be another remnant of a Divine item?” he wondered.
He felt it necessary to return to the city and have the Eye appraised. Also, digging blindly like this was unwise.
Fatty returned to the Imperial Capital. The master appraiser Fatty found wasn’t particularly impressed with the item; but, it was unclear whether that was because the city’s masters were well-versed in their trade or the level of the X-ray Eye was lower than the Spatial Spoon. With a bland “not bad,” the appraiser p.r.o.nounced a fee of 30,000 gold coins.
30,000 was less than the Spoon’s appraisal fee of 50,000, so Fatty deduced that the Eye was just so-so.
Taking the money, the appraiser waved a hand above the eye. A black and white light streamed from the object and formed an illusion of a floating pair of eyes above the item. The pair of eyes coldly scanned their surroundings.
“A great item. Take it.” The appraiser tossed the X-ray Eye to Fatty and closed his eyes to rest.
Receiving the info as soon as he got the Eye, Fatty didn’t bother the lukewarm appraiser any longer.
X-ray Eye: A remnant of a Celestial item. Can see through anything within a ten-meter radius. Can be used three times a day for ten seconds at a time.Level Requirement: 10
Another remnant again. While this Eye was inferior to the Spatial Spoon (which allowed the user to hide inside a separate dimension) as a Divine remnant, its function was just right for Fatty. What else could make an innate rogue happier than being able to see through places to find all the good stuff?
Fortunately, when Fatty had closed in on the Graverobber earlier, it hadn’t been using the X-ray Eye; otherwise, no one would have been able to sneak up on it.
Fatty equipped the Eye without delay and raced his Skeletal Dragon back to the graveyard. Using Stealth to lose the herd of monsters following him, Fatty approached a random burial. He opened his skill bar and located the “X-ray” skill.
“X-ray.” Fatty pointed slightly. With a whoosh, two rays of light, invisible to others, shot from his eyes into the grave. Inside the grave was pitch blackness and apparently no sign of a Holy Spirit Stone. Fatty hurriedly turned his eyes to another grave nearby.
This grave was just as ghastly, but revealed a faint white light within. While the glow was feeble, it was a tenacious existence that stubbornly dispelled the darkness around it.
Holy Spirit Stone! Only the light of a Holy Spirit Stone could possess such charm. However, Fatty was in no hurry to excavate the grave, instead directing his gaze to another one.
After repeating the process for another six graves, the effect of the X-ray Eye wore off, but Fatty had discovered two graves that held Holy Spirit Stones.
“Wheat, let’s get to work.” Fatty excitedly swung the Soil-Rotting Sharp Pickaxe, and thus his grand grave-digging career began.
Having slayed a monster, Fatty cradled and caressed two new Holy Spirit Stones. “OK, two more stones. Again.” He placed them in his inventory and went back to searching. But, this time, his luck wasn’t as good. The ten seconds of X-ray didn’t find him a single grave with the sacred white light.
“Again.” Already satisfied with two precious stones, the elementalist wasn’t disheartened. He used the X-ray skill again on a pretty elaborate burial. The grave was two or three times bigger than its neighbors. Apparently, the fellow resting inside was of quite a high rank.
When the two X-ray rays fell on the grave, Fatty was surprise that they couldn’t pierce the soil layer to let him see the inside.
He ruminated for a bit. He’d used up his three chances to use the X-ray skill for the day, and two stones were already quite a harvest. Fatty decided against searching haphazardly and simply started sc.r.a.ping away at the large grave.
A man of action, Fatty commanded Wheat to keep watch while he dug away with the Sharp Pickaxe. After a while, he hollowed out a hole.
He wondered who the big bra.s.s was who made him waste more than ten minutes digging a twenty-odd-meter long tunnel to access the interior.
“If you don’t have anything good, hmph, this Lord Fatty will flay your corpse!” Fatty harrumphed. He lit a torch and jumped inside the crypt.
The burial chamber was s.p.a.cious with a length more than ten meters. The floor was tiled with exceptionally flat and s.h.i.+ny limestone. In the very center, a coffin was surrounded by a few useless burial objects, so Fatty was too lazy to bother with them.
He went up to the coffin and knocked on it. Surprisingly, unlike all the wooden caskets before, the container was made of stone. The surface was even engraved with magical runes that were still apparently effective, given the sparkling light running through them.
“Overthrow the rich and powerful1!” Fatty sung the slogan, then took out his pickaxe and pried at the casket lid.
The coffin was, indeed, different from those in the past as its magical runes s.h.i.+elded it from damage; however, their effect had diminished after such a long time. Fatty attacked only briefly before the runes flickered and completely crumbled.
Boom! The instant the runes collapsed, a rumble echoed from the box. The next second, the entire coffin violently quaked, as if something was going to crawl out.
“Something’s definitely off about this.” The elementalist quickly retreated and constructed several traps around the coffin.
Creak… creak! A noise sounded from the coffin; and, all of a sudden, the lid rotated. A pair of pitch black arms grabbed the lid and hurled it away.
Cras.h.!.+ The lid lodged deeply in the chamber’s wall, and Fatty’s heart leaped into his throat. He quickly retreated to the tunnel with Wheat clearing the way in front of him, ready to run at any moment.
Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ With the lid off, more than a dozen beams of light shot from the coffin into the sky. Their warmth slightly dispersed the chill inside the grave.
“So many Holy Spirit Stones?!” Fatty gasped. The quant.i.ty suggested the monster inside the casket was extremely powerful because so many stones were needed to purify or seal it.
“Heeheeheehee! Never did I imagine a day when I, Moretta, would come out of this alive.” A monster with two horns, pitch black skin, a pair of wings, and a swaying tail stood up from the coffin.
“Was it you who broke the runes?” The monster called “Moretta” looked at Fatty. “Ahh, your blood’s not too shabby. Human blood has always been the tastiest drink. However, since you released me, I’ll give you a chance: Kneel before me and swear your loyalty, promise you’ll wors.h.i.+p the Almighty G.o.d of Darkness, and I shall let you live. What’s more, I’ll even convert you to the Demon race.”
“Were you one of those Demonic creatures who followed the Phantasm Ghost King to the Human Realm?” Fatty asked.
“You know of Lord Ghost King?” Moretta inquired incredulously. “Our Great Lord led an army of tens of millions to descend upon the Demon Realm and overtake more than half of the continent. Regretfully, he was overwhelmed and sealed away in the end.”
“Ohh! I see you’ve been sealed for quite a long time. I’m wonder how much power you have left.” Fatty commented offhandedly. He’d slyly used an Appraisal earlier and was surprised to find he couldn’t see any of Moretta’s info. Obviously, this monster was much stronger than Fatty.
“Hahaha! Little fellow, even though I nearly died from the seal before you released me and might not have much power left, I can still kill you with the flick of a hand.” Moretta stepped from the coffin. “I am Moretta, one of the sixteen Demon Generals under Lord Ghost King. Remember it well.”
BOOM! Moretta unleashed a punch, and the entire grave trembled with its force. Fatty feltl a storm screaming toward his face, making it hard to even open his eyes.
“Wheat!” Fatty shouted while quickly retreating.
“Squeaak!” Wheat shrieked. Scatterstone Rain and Howling Bullet were cast at the same time. Then, the rat leaped to follow Fatty upward to ground level.
“Running?” Moretta swiftly gave chase. Extending its hand, Moretta materialized a black trident and hurled it. Wheat could only let out a tragic shriek before it was impaled it to the wall and insta-killed.
Earthwalk. Seeing Moretta only a few steps behind him with arm raised to attack, Fatty suddenly vanished.
“This… This is the Elemental Movement Art?” An intense murderous air seethed in Moretta’s eyes. “The Elementalist’s successor of cannot be allowed to exist!”
Boom! Emerging from the ground, Fatty tossed out the intermediate fire skill scroll Bursting Bullets. In a blink, dozens of bullets exploded, causing soil and rocks to collapse and block off the tunnel.
Wasting no time turning around to check whether Moretta was trapped, Fatty summoned his mount and dashed away. “Go!”
BWOOM! The land trembled. Moretta lifted both hands, and the layer of earth overhead exploded. The creature jumped from the grave and, confirming the direction of its prey, flapped the wings on its back.
In a few short breaths, Moretta nearly caught up with the rapidly fleeing Fatty.
“Spatial Spoon.” Hearing the sound of wind ripping behind him, the elementalist activated the Spatial Spoon. He pocketed his mount and escaped into his private dimension.
“Spatial Spoon? Hmph, I might’ve been impressed if it was a complete Divine spatial item. But, a mere remnant, and you actually dare show off in front of me?!” Moretta snorted coldly. It wasn’t exaggerating because, just like on the seventh floor of Ma.s.s Graves when Lei Ting had used a single strike to punch the Phantom Messenger from the Spoon’s s.p.a.ce, Moretta released a punch; and, amidst a sound like shattering gla.s.s, Fatty tumbled from his dimension.
Earthwalk. Without hesitation, Fatty activated the Movement Art the instant he fell out of the s.p.a.ce and reappeared several thousand meters away.
Moretta flapped its wings. With a speed that could rival Fatty’s Movement Art, the demon’s body flashed several times, as if teleporting, and quickly caught up to him.
When the Recall Scroll didn’t work, Fatty yelped, “d.a.m.n it! Stuck in combat!” Since Moretta was hot on his heels, he could only use Earthwalk once again.
“Let’s see where you run to now.” Moretta floated in the sky and observed. Wherever Fatty showed up, the demon’s wings instantly fluttered to tail him. In just a few minutes, the elementalist was about to exhaust the number of times the Movement Art could be used.
“This is a disaster!” Fatty lamented. Gritting his teeth, he cast Illusion. Another exact “Fatty” appeared. The two panicked Fattys then fled in opposite directions.
“Illusion?” Moretta sneered and randomly chose one to follow.
“Nice chance!” Fatty exclaimed as he looked back and checked. With a clenched jaw, he used the last two chances of the Elemental Movement Art in succession and “walked” five thousand meters away, where he finally broke out of combat mode.
“Wheat.” Fatty summoned Wheat and the Skeletal Dragon at the same time. Retrieving the Brutal Saddle, Fatty kicked the Skeletal Dragon aside.
“Go.” Equipping the saddle on Wheat, the duo sank underground and slowly walked far, far away.
1. Slogan widely used in history revolution for the peasants.↩