Chapter 261: Poor Harvest

Nothing unexpected occurred; Xia Duo very smoothly stored the Magic Arrow into his Personal Space, then began to "restore" the "archaeological site." He backfilled the test pits, gathered up the branches originally brought in to serve as supports, and then collected a large amount of floating dust and humus from nearby to scatter evenly over the area.

Of course, a discerning eye could easily spot such traces, but since Xia Duo had already prepared himself to "share" the Mythallar ruins, he did not care about these things.

As long as it passed muster on the surface, that was enough.

For the subsequent excavation work, Xia Duo did not continue with his previous plan; since he could discover one Magic Item, there should be other Magic Items preserved as well.

Now, there was no telling when these ruins might be exposed, and Xia Duo certainly could not wait until the day of exposure to go find a backer or a patsy.

Truth be told, he could return to the Tower of Time now to report the situation, but exactly how to say it required some skill.

Xia Duo prepared to "sweep" through the ruins once before doing anything else.

Excluding the withered and decaying forest remains on the periphery, the true core building area of these ruins was only the size of a soccer field.

If he were to excavate carefully, it might take several months, but if he just walked through from beginning to end to see if any Magic Items remained, it would not take much time.

Following the principles of the "grid method," Xia Duo checked grid by grid. His speed was quite fast; before he even realized it, he had already walked through the entire building area of the ruins.

"Only two Magic Items?" Xia Duo could hardly believe his eyes.

This vast ruin actually had only two Magic Items preserved, and that was even counting the Magic Arrow he had collected earlier! Arriving at a corner of the ruins, this place should have originally been a small courtyard, but the surrounding walls were not made of stone, so no broken walls or ruins remained.

Xia Duo began the careful excavation work again. The Magic Aura here was even fainter than that of the Magic Arrow; of course, this did not mean the Magic Item here was of a very low grade—it was very likely the exact opposite.

If it were not of a very high grade, it would be hard to imagine a low-grade Magic Item surviving the long passage of time in these ruins to be preserved until today.

Of course, if it really were just a low-grade Magic Item, it was not impossible. After all, with Magic, everything is possible!

……

When he truly began to excavate, Xia Duo immediately felt the difference compared to when he excavated the Magic Arrow earlier.

Previously, the Magic Arrow had been stuck obliquely in the ground, but the ground here was not soil, but stone slabs covered with nearly half a foot of floating soil and humus.

Xia Duo brushed away the floating soil and humus bit by bit, finally finding a pendant lying on the cyan stone slab. It was a green Gemstone fixed by Mithril prongs.

If he guessed correctly, this should be a Jade Pendant; he had seen Keluo Na wearing something similar in the Projection Plane.

In fact, many Elves had similar jewelry, including the Elf "Asuosi" that Xia Duo projected, though Asuosi's necklace was not a Magic Item, merely an ordinary Gemstone.

The material used to fix the Gemstone was also not Mithril, but ordinary silver.

Only for the cord did most Elves make the same choice: woven from a type of bark fiber that carried a faint fragrance throughout, making it light, soft, and highly resilient.

Because the semi-finished product was usually white and could be dyed into various colors according to each Elf's preference, it was known as a "Rainbow Cord."

The green Gemstone pendant here was also likely strung with a "Rainbow Cord," but after the Baptism of long ages, the cord had long since rotted into mud and could not possibly have been preserved.

Xia Duo picked up the pendant, examined it thoroughly, and finally put it away with some disappointment.

Although Elven Magic and Netheril Magic had different Principles, their essence was the same: both were based on the manipulation of the Magic Net. Xia Duo could not immediately tell what function this pendant had, but he could already determine that the Magic on it was at most at the 1st Circle level.

Perhaps it was the special nature of the Gemstone that allowed such a low-grade Magic Item to be preserved, and perhaps it even remained in the same perfect state it had been in countless ages ago.

Yet, compared to a perfect low-grade Magic Item, Xia Duo preferred to obtain something Advanced, even if it were only a damaged version.

Because Advanced goods meant containing deeper Knowledge, which could become a source of Knowledge for Xia Duo outside the Tower of Time, whereas low-grade items could hardly bring Xia Duo new Knowledge.

After all, Elven Magic was merely one form of expression for Knowledge, and cracking it did not necessarily mean one would gain anything.

Adjusting his mindset, Xia Duo began to continue searching for non-Magic items, such as the sapphires and Mithril ornaments he had found earlier.

This returned him to his previous plan, but with the changes in the Mythallar, he did not know how much longer this plan could last!

……

In the evening, Xia Duo returned to the camp, looking at the palm-length Adamantine Knife, a hollowed-out Mithril ball toy, and the Magic Item Jade Pendant that had appeared in his Personal Space.

These three spoils were his entire harvest for the day. If viewed solely from the perspective of a single day's harvest, it seemed like a decent haul, but relative to Xia Duo's expectations for the Elf Ruins, it was somewhat insufficient.

In the following few days, Xia Duo studied the Flying Chair while searching for valuable items in the Mythallar ruins.

But unfortunately, ever since he harvested the Adamantine Knife that day, Xia Duo had not discovered any other valuable items, as if his luck had come to an end.

This forced him to re-evaluate the value of the entire ruins, excluding the Mythallar. It was like opening a blind box; it was possible that everything behind it was empty, or it was possible that everything had goods.

"Contentment brings happiness!" Xia Duo let out a long sigh.

He prepared to search for a few more days. If he could not find a sufficient harvest before the next arrival of the Lucky Owen, he would prepare to report this matter the next time he returned to the Tower of Time.

Rather than being exposed passively, it was better to report it actively! Elf Ruins were not rare things in Netheril; living Elf forces had been wiped out before, it was just that ruins with a Mythallar were relatively rare.

Rare did not mean non-existent. The Tower of Time might be interested and develop it themselves, or they might hand it over to the backer behind them in exchange for other benefits.

In short, for such a ruin destined to be exposed, it was best to throw it out as soon as possible; the longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for Xia Duo.

After making up his mind, Xia Duo simply stopped his Spell research; in any case, the 3rd Circle Flying Chair could not be researched in a day or two.

For the time being, he had no urgent need for flight, so he might as well focus wholeheartedly on archaeology within the Mythallar ruins.

……

Three days later, Xia Duo stood in the center of the ruins with a blank expression, three large question marks appearing in his mind—

Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?

"This is not scientific! No, this is not magical!" Xia Duo scratched his hair, which had become greasy from not being groomed for several days, and muttered to himself.

(End of chapter)