Chương 67: Forbidden experiments

Dolph and Arthur had walked on the left tunnel for a long time, taking almost ten minutes. Currently, they met a number of branch tunnels that went in different directions. This put him in confusion. He wondered whether to follow the main tunnel or to search for the others as well. If he were to search everything, it would take forever to finish the overall colony. Deciding on that, he kept walking on the main tunnel that stretched for very long. It was no wonder the number of ants that came out was staggering.

He saw different chambers as well, where the ants mined Iron Ore. Was there any profession out there that would detect the correct route? Like a treasure hunter with clues, or some other means. He might need to search for those workers if he didn't find anything by himself. However, before he could fall into despair about not being able to hire workers on his desire, he suddenly received a message.

A translucent screen opened up that read: [Material Details] Name: Faunite Rarity: S Description: A rare crystal used for biological transformation, high-level alchemy, and forbidden experiments. It possesses powerful transmutation properties capable of altering living organisms, making it an exceptionally valuable and highly sought-after material. He received the message indicating Zero found a source. Following which, Arthur and Dolph walked back to the meeting point, which was where they separated.

Before they could reach it, Zero already stood on the fork.

"Show me, Zero!" Arthur commanded as he followed the Appraiser Skeleton. The right-side tunnel did not have many branch tunnels. Instead, it led directly into a single, large mining chamber. This was where they must have mined the Faunite Crystal for the Ant King. However, looking around the mining chamber, there were no crystals in sight. Where did Zero appraise the crystal? Arthur wondered.

"Zero, show me where the crystal is," he commanded. Zero walked into the mining chamber, reached the end of the stone wall, tilted its head, and pointed a bony finger upward. Following the finger, Arthur looked up, but he could not see anything; the lack of illumination prevented him from seeing the crystal.

"Dolph, if you can see the crystal, use your spear to shoot it down," Arthur said. Since he could not climb the stone wall and doubted Dolph could climb it either, it was better to use Dolph's ability to shoot the crystal out of the rock ceiling. Dolph, who was holding the Luxstone in his left hand and an iron spear upright in his right hand, took a step back. He positioned the spear, aiming directly at the crystal. Whoosh! The spear shot out with blinding force, hitting the stone an inch away from the crystal.

A whole chunk of stone loosened and fell to the ground, and the crystal came down along with it. Delighted, Arthur quickly picked it up, brushing off the dust and stone debris. It was two thumbs in size, looking exactly like the crystal he had seen in the Ant King's chamber. He had found the spot where they dug out the crystals, but he did not see any more crystals. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. If I mine more rock, will I find more crystals?

a question came to his mind. Thinking back, even in the Ant King's chamber, he had only found a small pile of crystals where he had expected there would be a mountain of crystals before he entered the cave.

"Will I have to dig out the stone to see if I can find more crystals or not?" Arthur said aloud. With that, Arthur commanded Zero to roam around the tunnels and find more places like this where the crystal could exist. Following the command, Zero started to move further down the tunnel from the left side. Arthur and Dolph decided to go back to the quarry surface where the cleaning was happening. More than an hour had passed since they entered the cave, and noon had also arrived.

His stomach grumbled since he hadn't eaten anything since morning. First, he needed to timeline his current plan. Previously, his goal was to hire Techi, the Debuffer Skeleton, to subdue those people at the underground Safe Spot. But after his death, a lot of things happened. He found out the usage of the Night Crystal Core, and then he came to know about the Ability Card. Now, however, his immediate plan was to find the [Faunite Crystal].

So, if he were to think along those lines, his eventual goal of finding the [Faunite Crystal] was in the hope he could turn his body into crystal, similar to the Ant King, to become indestructible... Not infinitely indestructible, since the Ant King itself was destroyed eventually, but the effort it required to defeat a single Alpha Standard monster was enormous. Arthur wanted that ability. Just thinking about becoming a crystal man caused his whole body to break out in goosebumps.

However, if every wish came true, wouldn't the world fall into peace or chaos? Could he eat the crystal? He was not sure about that. Dolph had refused to consume it, but could he consume it himself? To check that theory, he needed Coburn. Fortunately, that was easy since they had reached the battle cleanup spot. The work was still streamlined; every process was perfect. The materials were stacked nearby like a mountain. The three skeletons had killed a total of more than 2, 000 ants within two hours.

It was an overwhelming amount of farming materials. The cores, meat, and carcasses were stacked in cubique mountains.

"Coburn, come here," Arthur called out to the one who managed the whole process. Following the command, it walked over and stood before Arthur.

"Jump once if I can safely eat this crystal and not die," Arthur asked as he intently looked at the skeleton, hoping it would jump. But the jump never came, leading to the conclusion that the crystal was not consumable for humans, only for ants. However, that did not discourage Arthur. According to the description of the crystal, it could be used for alchemy purposes. So, he would hire an Alchemy Skeleton, turn the crystal into a consumable, and eventually achieve what he wanted. An indestructible... cough, cough.

A strong body. Yeah, he will get a strong body. Arthur looked at the [Faunite Crystal] as he played with it in his fingers. What kind of crystal was this? Not only was it astronomically expensive, but its properties were also very strange. He could understand two of the three properties of the [Faunite Crystal], and he had already guessed the property called Biological Transformation. The second property was its usage in high-level alchemy, which was considered normal since alchemy used a plethora of materials.

However, the last usage put him in deep thought. Forbidden experiments? What did this even mean? Arthur had no idea. He could understand the overall meaning of forbidden experiments, but what kind of experiments was the description referring to? He wished he could learn more details about this property. He would be better off hiring some skeletons who held knowledge of these things. However, Arthur shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Currently, he had a lot on his hands.

Since he was going to mine more crystals, he would eventually come to know about everything. Thus, he simply discarded this issue and opened the marketplace. He needed to hire a few Miner Skeletons.