Chapter 245: Ancient Elf Ruins - The Hat and the Prank

Jier was standing on several silver plates stacked together, using an iron shovel to pry at the silver wall panels high up on the passage wall.

Suddenly, he felt a tremor beneath his feet, and the neatly stacked silver plates, which had been stable, all trembled and slid away from each other. Zhao Ji lost his balance and fell from above.

With a thud, Zhao Ji landed squarely on his bottom on a large pile of silver plates placed casually nearby. "Ouch!" After landing on them, Zhao Ji immediately bounced back up, rubbing his bottom as he scurried about the passage.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts to death." It took quite a while for Zhao Ji to recover from the pain radiating from his bottom. He went over to the pile of silver plates he had been standing on earlier and kicked it in anger.

For a long while, Zhao Ji just held his foot and groaned in pain. He took off his boot, rubbing his foot with one hand while slapping his leg with the other, berating himself for his foolish leg—how could he have kicked a piece of metal?

Once the pain subsided, Zhao Ji put his boot back on and continued working.

If you were to say he would work day and night in this sunless passage like this, he certainly wouldn't do it, but if the dismantled silver plates all became his wealth, then let alone working like this, Zhao Ji would even sleep here.

The little Spirit was rummaging through its Snail Shell, but it still couldn't find its lost Small Hat. It crawled out of the shell, playing on the carvings of the stone door in the middle of the ruin passage while pondering how it had managed to lose its hat.

Unable to figure it out, it decided to board its large Snail Shell and return to the places it had been before to see if it could find its Small Hat.

It steered the Snail Shell, and with a *whoosh*, it dove into the ground of the passage, heading off to search the places it had visited earlier.

"What was that sound?" The passage was quite quiet, with only the sound of Zhao Ji's breathing as he worked hard, so when a *whoosh* came from the passage not far away, he heard it immediately.

He tapped the wall casually with his left hand to create the auditory illusion that he was still working, but his right hand quietly drew the Long Sword from his waist. Then, with a leap, he landed and took two quick steps, arriving at the spot where the sound had just come from.

Beside the dimly lit stone door, apart from Zhao Ji himself, there was no one else in the unobstructed passage.

Frowning, Zhao Ji swung his Long Sword casually through the air, but he found no sign of the invisible enemy he had anticipated.

Scratching his head, Zhao Ji felt strange; could it be that these Elf Ruins were haunted?

How could that be? In such an ultra-ancient ruin, let alone ghosts, it was unlikely anything could survive.

In the evening, Zhao Ji, who had been busy until he was exhausted and sleepy, braved the night, climbed over the Petrified Tree Stump, and returned to the Yingdi to eat and sleep.

Because he had a plan to bring a Handcart into the ruins to speed up progress, Zhao Ji no longer rested inside the ruins; after all, compared to the quiet, dead-silent ruins, the dugout in the Root Camp was more comfortable and warm.

After a day of hard work, he had finally dismantled most of the silver wall panels in the several-dozen-meter-long passage. When he went to the ruins tomorrow, he could find a way to get the Handcart inside. With the help of the Handcart, he could quickly transport the silver plates from the latter half of the passage to the ruin entrance, and then he could toss those silver plates under the Crane.

In this way, he could save at least two days of time.

Before sleeping, he ate the frozen-hard cured meat jerky again. The weather seemed to have dropped to freezing temperatures; the fresh water in the containers left in the Yingdi had already formed a thick layer of ice on the surface.

Zhao Ji had to break the ice and scoop out a few large chunks to put into the small pot he had brought. He added dried vegetables and wheat grains as well. To add flavor, Zhao Ji also sliced a few pieces of roasted meat strips into the soup.

Before long, a simple soup—he didn't know what to call it—was ready. Paired with the roasted cured meat jerky, he ate a full meal to soothe his physical fatigue.

After fiddling with his tableware and the campfire, Zhao Ji returned to the dugout to sleep.

This time, he drew his Long Sword and placed it right beside him, while his Dagger was tucked directly into his bosom. He didn't even take off his clothes, only removing his boots before crawling into the soft bedding.

However, just after he blew out the Oil Lamp used for lighting, he discovered a small, glowing object near his bedding.

It was a tiny hat.

It emitted a faint, earthy-yellow glow, and its shape was like the high hats that Mages in stories would wear. Because the hat was too small, Zhao Ji couldn't see the patterns on it clearly. He pinched the tiny hat with his fingers, his face full of confusion.

What was going on with this thing? Were there really people this small who wore such tiny hats?

Moreover, he felt as if he had vaguely seen this kind of tiny hat before. Where was it?

Zhao Ji felt he had seen something similar, but he still couldn't recall. Thinking carefully—not about the hat, but about the thing that could wear such a tiny, glowing hat—where was it?

It was that strange little thing from the Stone Statue he had only encountered once.

It was also very small, and it also emitted this earthy-yellow light. In that case, was that vanished little thing nearby the Yingdi right now?

And it had come here to his dugout. Hmm, so that meant the guy who broke in while he was sleeping last night was that fellow?

Zhao Ji relit the Oil Lamp, fiddling with the Small Hat in his hand while pondering this situation.

He felt that the little thing shouldn't be able to harm him. After all, it was Zhao Ji who had rescued that little thing from the evil Stone Statue, and secondly, after he fell asleep last night, he had absolutely no ability to defend himself, yet that little thing hadn't harmed him. From this, it seemed the other party had no malicious intent.

Thinking this, Zhao Ji placed the Small Hat from his hand in the middle of the dugout and lay down in his bedding.

However, looking up and seeing the Elf Ring hanging on the ceiling of the dugout, he considered it for a moment, then took the ring—which would make him enter dreams—outside the dugout and placed it by the campfire.

Only then did he return to the dugout to rest.

The physical fatigue made Zhao Ji, who had wanted to stay awake longer to try and communicate with the little thing, quickly drift off into dreamland.

After a long while, earthy-yellow light emerged from the floor of the dugout, but the Spirit inside the soil seemed to have reservations. It still didn't emerge directly from the ground, but instead came out outside the dugout, then carefully poked its head in from the dugout entrance to scout the inside.

Discovering there were no axes that looked fierce, it then walked into the dugout.

Seeing its hat sitting on the ground in the middle of the dugout, the Spirit, which hadn't found its hat after searching for a day, was overjoyed. Taking small steps, it scurried over, picked up the Small Hat, and put it on its head.

But then it frowned, took the hat off, and sniffed it carefully with its nose. It smelled the scent of a Human; its hat had been discovered by a Human and returned only after being played with.

Angrily putting the hat back on its head, the Spirit looked at Jier, who was sleeping soundly due to fatigue. Its little eyes darted around; it wanted to do something to warn this Human not to destroy the place where the Elves worked.

Summoning its large Snail Shell, it sat on the shell and flew to Jier's side. Looking at the sleeping Jier, it giggled mischievously and cast Magic, causing Jier's entire body, except for his head, to be wrapped up in the Wolf Fur Cloak, the Dog Fur Sleeping Bag, and the bedding, rolled into an oval ball.

It looked just like a moth chrysalis.

Thinking of the Human waking up the next day and discovering his state, the Spirit giggled weirdly and flew away.

The next day, near noon, Zhao Ji finally woke up.

He had been busy until his body was quite exhausted before resting yesterday, which made him sleep for a long time.

However, as soon as he woke up, he felt his body was very hot, and his breathing felt stifled. Opening his eyes, he discovered he had been wrapped up by all the warm bedding he had brought.

The Wolf Fur Cloak covering him was wrapped tightly around him, further outside was the Dog Fur Sleeping Bag, and further outside that was the bedding that had been spread on the bottom.

"What's going on? How did this happen?" Zhao Ji muttered nervously while trying to break free.

Twisting left and right, his body strained and pulled; fortunately, both the wolf skin and dog fur had elasticity, and after struggling, he managed to squeeze himself out of it.

Arriving outside, Zhao Ji drew his Long Sword and rushed out of the dugout, but he found no enemies.

Returning to the dugout again, he noticed that the glowing Small Hat he had placed in the middle of the dugout last night was gone.

Zhao Ji finally understood what had happened and muttered a complaint: "It's not like I stole the hat; it clearly dropped it itself, yet it still came to mess with me."

Stooping down, he finally untangled the bundled-up clothing and bedding.

The bedding and other items bundled into a ball weren't just wrapped together simply; they were tightly adhered to one another as if by Magic, looking just like Velcro or as if they had been glued.

Zhao Ji had to pull the entire bedding apart before the magical effect finally dissipated.

Not understanding what that mysterious and magical little thing was thinking, Zhao Ji arrived at the Yingdi to eat, move about, and exercise.

The fatigue of yesterday was swept away, and after eating his fill, Zhao Ji felt his body growing stronger day by day.

Of course, this was also related to his hard work in the ruins; he himself was not clear if there were other deeper reasons. However, continuing to grow strong like this, he wondered if he would be able to meet the training requirements of Knight Kela by next spring.

When he left Kendall City this time, he had already handed a large piece of Element Crystal to Jamula, and he carried the remaining Element Crystals with him, placing them on the Handcart.

Zhao Ji unloaded all the supplies from the Handcart one by one and moved them into the cave. Fortunately, the cave space was not that small, and the supplies from one Handcart could still fit.

As for the empty Handcart, Zhao Ji pushed it outside the Petrified Tree Stump where the ruins were located and tied it to the Rope hanging down from the top of the stump. Then, Zhao Ji climbed up along the Rope tied to the Handcart. After standing on the top, Zhao Ji began to grab the Rope with both hands, pulling up the Handcart, which weighed at least several tens of kilograms, bit by bit.

Not far away, the little fairy poked half of its body out from the Petrified Tree Stump behind Jier's back.

Seeing that this Human still wouldn't give up on wanting to destroy the workplace of the fairies, it put its hands on its hips, intending to give this Human a taste of its power.

However, before it could play a trick on Jier, among the Heavy Weapons placed beside the Crane, the Two-handed Axe seemed to sense something. Its axe face flipped over, bringing the side with the Monster head face-up. Then, the entire axe trembled, and the whole axe stood up at an angle.

The side with the Monster head stared fixedly at the little fairy that was about to do something bad.

The little fairy, being stared at by the axe, was startled. Regardless of the fact that it was currently standing with its hands on its hips, looking imposing and about to cast a spell, it directly covered its face with both hands, not letting itself see the fierce axe.

The little person then swooshed and sank into the interior of the Petrified Tree Stump, fleeing.

Seeming to sense that the thing intending to do bad had run away, the axe also fell back onto the wooden board, making a thud sound.

Zhao Ji was pulling the Rope vigorously and just glanced in the direction of the Crane, guessing that the sound was made by one of the tied-up pieces of wood. After all, he had only made a simple Crane, and the wood used had not been dried or dehumidified. It could barely be used for a short time, but if it were used for a long time, it would definitely deform and collapse.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji exerted even more force; he must move all the supplies out of the ruins and hide them before those pieces of wood deformed.

Only the things he hid were his; if things were left here, it was uncertain when they would be discovered by other Humans. At that time, those things would have nothing to do with him.

After pulling the Handcart up, he still had to slowly lower it down.

Fortunately, the Handcart was not really very heavy and was still within his strength control. After the Handcart landed on the ground inside the stump, Zhao Ji climbed down along the Rope.

As for how to get the Handcart into the ruin entrance hanging in mid-air, the method Zhao Ji used was to first get the Handcart under the entrance himself, then climb up to the entrance himself, and inside the ruin passage, pull the Rope tied to the Handcart to pull it up.

Once the Handcart was inside, it was convenient.

Zhao Ji first lit the Oil Lamp in the passage, then nimbly pushed the Handcart into the latter half of the passage.

Not in a hurry to move the Silver Wall Panels out, Zhao Ji first busied himself for a while, unloading all the remaining Silver Wall Panels that had not been unloaded yesterday.

After resting for a while, he came to the stone door of the passage and began to load as many Silver Wall Panels as possible onto the Handcart from there. Loading over a hundred kilograms of Silver Wall Panels at a time, Zhao Ji transported these Silver Wall Panels to the entrance of the ruins along the flat passage floor.

At the entrance, Zhao Ji stopped the Handcart, personally took the Silver Wall Panels off the Handcart, and threw them with all his might toward the open space under the Crane opposite.

Through the farthest distance of throwing the Silver Wall Panels, Zhao Ji discovered that his arm strength had increased a lot. When throwing, in addition to the left-and-right-handed method, he also used the short-sprint throwing method, and the method of Olympic athletes from his previous life throwing the discus, turning his body to spin and throw the Silver Wall Panels out.

This method had the longest distance and could very well throw the heavy Silver Wall Panels one by one onto the ground opposite.

The farther the distance, the less walking and carrying he would have to do later when using the Crane to move the Silver Wall Panels; he could use them directly under the Crane.

On the top of the passage behind Jier, the little fairy poked out half its head upside down. It carefully observed and discovered that there was no terrifying axe near the Human.

But it was still cautious, only poking out one hand, muttering something in its mouth, and waving its hand to point at the Human, to give him a taste of color.

Hmph, daring to be so bold as to destroy the workplace of the fairies!