Chapter 33: Place of Magic

After dealing with the gargoyles, Geralt did not linger, nor did he choose to return to the camp; instead, he continued to explore the interior of the banquet hall.

As he explored, Geralt discovered that this underground ruin was, in the past, very likely a royal underground palace of the elves.

Besides the fact that the statues and murals here were extremely exquisite and luxurious, another reason was that ordinary elven nobles or other figures would likely not possess such a massive palace; perhaps only those royal members who ruled the elven race had such power.

It was a pity that, although the history of the elves was long, traceable back to the period when the White Ship landed thousands of years ago.

Yet, following their brutal wars with humans, many things had long since lost their records and could not be examined; countless unknown secrets had already been hidden in the dust of history.

I fear that apart from those old antiques who survived from the White Ship era, no one knows exactly what happened here.

But it did not matter; Geralt was just a witcher, neither a historian nor one of those spellcasting sorceresses. Seeking the truth of history held no great significance for him.

What truly troubled him was that this ruin was simply too large. With areas large and small and all kinds of rooms, besides the many gargoyles set as guards, a large number of underground monsters also inhabited every corner of the ruins.

In this dark environment, he not only had to remain vigilant at all times to prevent enemies that might ambush him at any moment, but he also had to explore the correct route in this complex environment, which was time-consuming, laborious, and quite troublesome.

This resulted in him only exploring one banquet hall and several rooms adjacent to it for the entire second day, with no time to explore other areas.

As for the results of the exploration, besides finishing off three gargoyle guards, he also killed over a dozen endrega swarm monsters and blocked the tunnels they had dug from the underground into the ruins.

When he dragged his exhausted body back to the camp, Toruviel immediately came to greet him.

Geralt did not hide anything and told this elven leader about his work progress and related speculations.

After chatting with her about the plan for how to explore the ruins later, he returned to his tent to rest.

In the following few days, Geralt's life became exceptionally fulfilling.

Every day he would gather herbs, brew potions, participate in battles, collect loot, return to the camp to rest, eat lunch, and then continue the afternoon's exploration; it repeated like this, with no time to do anything else.

Such high-intensity living not only allowed him to see monsters he had never encountered before, such as rotfiends, chort, and wraiths, and learn how to fight them, but it also allowed him to apply the combat techniques he had learned at Kaer Morhen to actual combat one by one, greatly enhancing his practical combat ability.

Besides this, he certainly did not forget the quest system that he could exploit every day. Before setting out for battle, he would always accept a common-level combat quest from Geralt to exploit a few experience points and a common-level treasure chest, which could be considered an extra harvest.

And unlike his fulfilling and busy life every day, Geralt, that guy, had been living quite freely during this period.

After his chest ribs were injured, Geralt could only stay in the camp to recuperate, but he was inherently of that uninhibited character; how could he stay idle while recuperating from his injury? He soon became addicted to Gwent.

Not only did he shamelessly borrow his deck and quite a few ducats, but he actually hooked up with a half-elf widow during his recovery period, eating meat every night, living quite comfortably.

On the contrary, Geralt himself, in order to improve his strength, not only had to complete a quest every day but also had to find time to constantly exercise his various skills, with no time to rest at all.

He was simply a wage earner who worked all year round without a break, a workaholic who pushed himself.

However, the underground ruins were not infinitely large. When time reached the seventh day, through Geralt's constant fighting and constant clearing, this expert-level contract finally came to an end.

In the entire underground ruin, only the last area remained that had not been explored.

And when Geralt was prepared and had finished off the two gargoyle guards guarding this area, what came into his view was a huge metal door forged from an unknown metal.

Countless years had passed, and the black metal door was already covered with cobwebs and dust, but Geralt could clearly feel that this door was not only incredibly heavy but also exceptionally sturdy; even after the passage of time, there were still no signs of rust, clearly extraordinary.

After confirming there were no other enemies around, Geralt cautiously approached a few steps.

But when his distance from the metal door was less than half a meter, the witcher medallion hanging on his chest actually began to vibrate again.

A stream of unknown magical energy actually passed through this door and onto his body.

At the same time, the emotionless voice of the system actually rang in his ears again.

Ding! High-concentration magic energy node detected; absorbing it can yield three ability points.

Note: If you choose to absorb it, it will permanently destroy this energy node, disrupt its spatial structure, and form a dimensional rift; please choose carefully.

And after hearing the system's voice, Geralt immediately understood that behind this heavy metal door was actually the Place of Power he had been thinking about for a long time.

A magical place that could provide him with ability points.

This time, Geralt only considered it for a few seconds before immediately making a decision.

He had explored here alone, there were no witnesses around, and including himself, no one could predict what he would encounter in the ruins.

Wasn't this a great opportunity given to him by heaven?

Thinking of this, Geralt did not hesitate and immediately chose to confirm.

In an instant, under the intervention of an unknown powerful force, Geralt only felt as if he had turned into a super sponge capable of absorbing water.

The magical energy on the other side of the metal door, under the attraction of an unknown force, surged toward his body like a raging tide.

And his body did not fall behind, absorbing all the chaos magic surging around him into his body like a whale, at a speed unimaginable to mages.

That terrifying speed even formed a huge mana vortex around Geralt.

However, this phenomenon came quickly and went quickly.

About five minutes later, Geralt felt his body regain control; that invisible magical force had already disappeared, and his body also felt as if it had been nourished by the Fountain of Life; fatigue, injuries, and mental exhaustion had all disappeared.

Just like what was set in some games, everything had returned to the most perfect state.

And most importantly, in his attribute bar, the ability points had increased from the remaining two points to five points.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 34 =====