Chapter 244: The Dugout at Root Camp - The Paranoid Zhao Ji

Wiping his hand across his face, Zhao Ji discovered his hand was covered in charcoal ash.

Looking left and right, he then discovered a charcoal pencil lying nearby; unlike the simple charcoal pencils he usually used, this one looked quite well-made!

This was not his item!

Zhao Ji was instantly startled. He scrambled up from his warm wolf-fur cloak and instinctively grabbed the new dagger on the ground not far from him.

But when he grasped the dagger in his hand, he suddenly realized: didn't he place the dagger next to his backpack against the wall last night?

How did the dagger end up next to his bedding in the morning?

As if spooked, Zhao Ji backed against the wall of the dugout and drew the new dagger. His left hand gripped the dagger sheath tightly, while his right hand held the Steel Dagger, brandishing it in front of him to defend against a potential attack.

However, there was nothing in the dugout he had dug himself.

Waiting like this for a while, Zhao Ji used the faint light scattering in from the dugout entrance to vigilantly examine everything inside, trying to see what was different about the dugout now compared to before he went to sleep last night.

There were no extra footprints on the dirt floor coming in or out; Zhao Ji only saw the prints of his own boots. Scattered on his bedding were not only a charcoal pencil from who knows where, but also the small Elf Coin he always kept hidden in his inner pocket.

Seeing this, Zhao Ji hurriedly reached into his inner clothing pocket and discovered that, aside from some small Silver Coins, the Elf Coins were gone. Two low-denomination Elf Coins lay on the bedding, while that large-denomination, obviously high-value, big Elf Coin was missing.

Looking further, at the backpack and weapons not far away, the Long Spear was still in its place, and the Long Sword hadn't moved either, but! The Two-handed Axe with the blue axe-head had been flipped over!

Zhao Ji remembered clearly that before sleeping last night, he had specifically turned the axe-head away because he disliked the side with the monster portrait; before extinguishing the light, he had specifically turned the axe-head around.

He hadn't expected that as soon as he got up in the morning, he would see the axe-head had turned itself back.

Was this axe playing tricks?

That shouldn't be; the axe had already been by his side for many days, and there was no need to act mysterious last night. And what was up with that charcoal pencil? The dugout didn't look like anyone had entered, yet a bizarre charcoal pencil had appeared.

And had something been drawn on his face with the charcoal pencil? Was someone playing a prank?

Was it a person?

Zhao Ji grimaced; for a moment, he couldn't figure out what exactly had happened.

But it seemed there was no danger for now.

It was safer to arm himself first, Zhao Ji judged.

He carefully tilted his head to listen for sounds outside the dugout, but heard nothing strange. It should be said that there was no sound outside at all—no sounds made by animals, no chirping of birds, no sounds of insects or moles, not even the sound of the wind whistling past the ancient Petrified Tree Stump.

Not feeling at ease, Zhao Ji lowered his body nimbly and carefully approached his weapons and equipment.

First, he drew the Long Sword gently without making a sound, then placed it by his hand for easy access; next, he gently untied the Rope bound to the armor Wooden Box, carefully opened the Wooden Box without making a sound, and took out the Helmet and the complex, stacked armor components.

Quickly and carefully putting on the full set of armor and wearing the Helmet, Zhao Ji tucked the dagger and Long Sword into his waist belt, then put the Backpack on his back, with the axe also clipped onto the back of the Backpack.

But just as he put the Backpack on his back, he turned and saw that the valuable Elf Coin was actually lying upside down in the corner under his bedding.

Zhao Ji scratched his head in confusion, though it only produced the sound of his Glove clashing against his Helmet.

Unable to figure out how this coin ended up there, Zhao Ji had to put it into his Backpack first. Just as he picked up the Long Spear and prepared to go out to investigate, he suddenly noticed an extra mark on the wall where he kept his weapons and equipment.

The dugout was dug by him, one shovel at a time with an Iron Shovel. Because the soil was loose, the walls were covered in neat shovel marks, one after another, row upon row.

This extra circular mark was quite easy to distinguish if one paid attention.

Zhao Ji stared at this mark, feeling somewhat familiar; it seemed he had just seen something similar.

That's right!

It was that big Elf Coin.

Fumbling for the coin from the Backpack on his back, Zhao Ji pressed it against the mark on the wall and found they matched perfectly!

It was this coin, but who had nothing better to do than to take this valuable item found on him and press it hard into the dirt wall?

What was the point of this, and they hadn't even taken the item away, abandoning it on the spot.

Zhao Ji pursed his lips under his Helmet, not knowing what this was all about. But at least he now knew that he was not the only one here.

What kind of thing was it?

Zhao Ji picked up the Long Spear and carefully moved toward the outside of the dugout, while once again carefully checking the dirt on the ground, finding that, as expected, there were only his own footprints.

Could the other party be an Earth-Walking Sun who came through the walls?

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji suddenly realized that not long ago, he had confronted a strange Stone Statue capable of wielding the power of the earth. That mysterious little thing that seemed trapped inside the Stone Statue should also have similar power and abilities.

But this place was also some distance from the Nanbu Forest where goblin settlements appeared; was there a connection between the two?

Carefully poking his head out of the dugout, Zhao Ji cautiously turned his body and Helmet in a circle, finding nothing else in the Valley formed by the hills.

Looking up at the top of the Petrified Tree Stump, there were no strange things hiding there either.

In the low-temperature weather, there were no animals at all. There was even less wind today, so the area around the Root Camp was completely quiet.

Boldly walking out of the dugout, Zhao Ji put away the Long Sword, gripped the Long Spear in his hand, and spent some time searching the entire vicinity; he even used the fine cracks on the surface of the Petrified Tree Stump to climb to the top of the stump while wearing his armor.

Standing high and looking far, he surveyed the area in a circle and still found nothing strange.

Forget it; a person cannot be suspicious and paranoid all the time. If it were an enemy, he would have died in his sleep last night. If it were a friend, the other party would appear on their own. If the other party was just a stranger met by chance, then he hadn't lost anything, not even the precious Elf Coin.

The other party seemed to have rummaged through the most valuable coins on him at first, but ended up throwing them away; it seemed the other party looked down on these things.

Then what about the Gems left behind by the Elves? Those precious Gems he had removed from the instruments left at the end of the ruins—would the other party be interested in those?

Zhao Ji stood on top of the stump, looking down carefully at the place where he had previously buried the birdcage containing the Gems and other valuables.

There were no signs of re-digging. Very good; regardless of whether someone was watching him, they certainly wouldn't have touched those precious Gems this time.

It was better to be careful and cautious.

However, should he still go for the silver?

After thinking carefully for a while, Zhao Ji decided to go and take a look first. If someone had been to the Elf Ruins, he would know for sure that there were others here, and he would leave this place and no longer covet the remaining things in the ruins.

He hoped others hadn't discovered the place where he buried the silver.

Zhao Ji climbed down the stump and arrived at the Petrified Tree Stump where the ruins were.

He discovered that the Rope and the Crane he had left behind showed no signs of having been used by anyone. This was very strange; how could no one have touched these things?

If he had discovered such a place, no matter what, he would be curious enough to use the Rope to go up and take a look, right?

Checking the hemp rope tied to the side of the Petrified Tree Stump, Zhao Ji tested the current strength of the hemp rope and found no changes.

Climbing up, he carefully inspected the Crane again; there were surprisingly no traces of anyone having touched it, and everything was the same as when he had left before.

It was getting stranger and stranger.

What exactly was the other party thinking?

They had only checked the things he was carrying while he was asleep, yet they hadn't moved a single thing outside this ruin.

Descending along the Rope, the bat droppings below were frozen hard by the cold, and the smell was much more pleasant. Zhao Ji walked over and climbed up the ruin entrance hanging in mid-air along the dirt mound and Rope he had left behind earlier.

A layer of dust had fallen on the ground at the ruin entrance, and the things he had left there previously also showed no signs of having been moved by anyone, save for a small amount of droppings randomly excreted by bats as they flew past.

Taking a Torch from the supplies at the entrance, the Grease on the Torch had frozen solid; carefully lighting it, Zhao Ji stepped into the ruin.

The entire way was the original rock wall left behind after he had pried off the Silver Wall Panels, and there were no other traces on the ground.

The ruin remained quiet, but there were some faint, fragmented sounds of small animals.

Zhao Ji knew it was the bats that had moved in, and he wasn't surprised; as long as he didn't look up, he wouldn't lock eyes with the little bats that had been woken from their hibernation.

Continuing into the interior of the ruin, it remained vast and dark, but Zhao Ji had long since grown accustomed to it; he even felt a sense of peace and calm amidst this darkness.

The darkness within the ruin seemed as if it would not harm him.

The several locked stone doors situated on the spiral staircase of the ruin remained as they were; it seemed that either no one had come, or the person who had come was unable to open the sealed stone doors of the Elves.

After all, there was a layer of invisible power protecting the stone doors, and even ten thousand years of time had not been able to diminish the protective power of the stone doors by much.

Zhao Ji himself had no intention of prying them open.

He had already guessed a little about what the Elves had done here from his experiences in his dreams; if the Elves had sealed the places where they once worked, then it would be best for him not to be curious or greedy enough to open the stone doors.

Curiosity killed the cat, and perhaps it could kill him too?

Walking out of the ruin, Zhao Ji climbed the Rope and returned to the Yingdi, lit a fire, and began to cook.

He had some thoughts about what happened last night, but he had nothing to prove them. However, he still needed to keep his guard up; regardless, he was not alone here now.

After wolfing down the haphazardly made food, Zhao Ji exercised for a while and then began to work.

He packed his daily supplies into the Wooden Box that had originally held armor, then carried the Wooden Box into the ruin; he left the extra things outside, as his weapons were not light, and there was no danger in the ruin.

He placed his weapons on the Crane so that he wouldn't have to worry about them being taken by someone else if left outside, leaving him without weapons to use, and they wouldn't get in the way of the silver transport work he was about to begin.

If someone else really did appear outside, he could climb up to the Crane from inside the Petrified Tree Stump first and use his weapons to hold off the enemy for a while.

Zhao Ji took off his armor and placed it at the entrance of the ruin, then lit the lamps to provide illumination in the silver passage.

Every certain distance, he would set down an Oil Lamp he had left here earlier; now, the passage outside the stone gate of the ruin no longer had Silver Wall Panels, and the ability to reflect light had dropped extremely quickly.

This forced Zhao Ji to set up more Lamp Oil.

Fortunately, he had prepared plenty of lighting tools when he set out from Kendall City this time, which were exactly for use here.

The heavy Lamp Oil had to be transported using a Handcart; otherwise, he would have just gone out with a Backpack, which would have been so much more convenient.

Thinking of the convenient spatial equipment from the novels of his past life, Zhao Ji desperately wished he could have something like that himself. In the stories of the Bards who occasionally came to perform in the tavern, those great heroes, great Nobles, and Mages all seemed to have similar things; how Zhao Ji wished he could have one too.

But he didn't even know where there was a place that sold Magic Items, nor did he know how much such a thing would cost. At the same time, having lived in this world for a long time, he also knew that many places here depended on social status; things like purchasing Magic equipment would definitely require corresponding social status requirements.

What should he do about this?

While Zhao Ji used an Iron Shovel to pry the Silver Plate off the wall, he thought about these random things.

Just as Zhao Ji was unloading the Silver Wall Panels according to the previous process, not far behind Zhao Ji, a yellow light emanated from the Petrified Tree Stump, and a large Snail Shell emerged from within; a small fairy crawled out from the opening of the Snail Shell, first carefully fiddling with the daily supplies Jier had placed at the ruin entrance, tasted the raw, frozen-hard cured meat strips, and put them back with a look of disgust.

Listening to the sounds Jier made while working inside the passage, this little fairy with a white beard curiously sat on the Snail Shell and silently and carefully flew toward the inside of the passage.

A section outside the passage lacked light because there were no Silver Wall Panels, so the light emitted by the Snail Shell and the little fairy was quite conspicuous, but after passing the ruin gate, the light suddenly became much stronger.

Although Zhao Ji had only lit two Oil Lamps placed on the left and right, whether it was the Silver Wall Panels on the walls or the Silver Wall Panels already unloaded and stacked on the ground, they all brilliantly reflected the small lamp flames, making the two points of light shine with immense radiance.

Zhao Ji intended to unload all the Silver Wall Panels first, and then find a way to get his wooden Handcart inside; there was still a distance from here to the ruin entrance, and as he went deeper into the ruin, the distance from there to the entrance would become even longer.

The reason he had spent more than ten days to finish half of the Silver Wall Panels before was because the strength of his own biological muscles limited the number of Silver Wall Panels he could transport in one round trip.

But if he used a Handcart to do it, it would definitely be much faster.

The long-bearded little fairy watched Jier destroying the Elves' workplace, and it was quite angry, but Jier was the guy who had rescued it from the Stone Statue.

Its eyes rolled, and just as it wanted to flick its hat to congratulate itself on thinking of a way to punish Jier the Human, its hand patted empty air.

It touched the top of its head with both hands, only to feel a bald top, which surprised it quite a bit; how could its hat be gone? It searched in the small vest on its body—nothing! It searched in its pant legs—also nothing! It then took off its two shoes; what appeared in the shoes was not feet, but two shrunken, pointed tips, just like the tail of smoke.

It shook its shoes, and there was a clanging sound in the shoes, but there was no hat.

It pointed at Jier, adding some trouble to Jier's side, and then it drilled into the Snail Shell, rummaging through boxes and cabinets to look for its hat.