Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The Joy of Unlocking Maps Is Beyond Your ImaginationQuickly picking up the four Copper Treasure Chests on the ground, Lin Yue glanced around and then grabbed the weapon from a Lizardman’s corpse.

    "So there’s even a bow and arrow? But it seems pretty decent." After tossing the crudely made wooden bow and arrows into the Storage Space, Lin Yue took their torches as well and after some thought, stripped off all their other weapons and armor.

    You have to pluck the feathers as you go—it’s a must.

    "Pujiji?" Bai returned to Lin Yue’s side and was stunned at the sight of the cleaned-up corpse of the Lizardman.

    "Bai, still not used to your master’s habits?" Lin Yue patted Bai’s head and continued forward with the Steel Repeating Crossbow.

    Bai, with a confused look in its eyes, glanced again at the Lizardman corpse and caught up with Lin Yue.

    However, Lin Yue walked all the way to that large door he had seen before without seeing a trace of the Lion-headed Bear.

    Looks like the Lizardmen’s supply of Lion-headed Bears isn’t enough.

    "Why are the Lizardmen so inefficient? Someone could loot their place and they wouldn’t even know." Lin Yue complained.

    This was the deepest he had reached in the Underground Ruins F Zone so far, and if he wanted to continue forward, he had to pass through the door in front of him.

    The torches on the walls illuminated the surroundings, but their distance from each other was too far, making the entire passageway much darker.

    Moreover, the corpses of Lion-headed Bears and those Lizardmen were also gone, not even a trace remained.

    "Pujiji pujiji." Bai stood by the door, indicating to Lin Yue that it was safe inside and out.

    Lin Yue stood in front of the door, took a deep breath. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    So, should he take the risk to explore this map or go back to the mine to collect supplies?

    Lin Yue quickly made a decision.

    Open the map first!

    It’s nighttime now, so do the Lizardmen have a sense of time and might not come out, or at least have fewer numbers?

    At least from the fact that there were only four earlier, and no guards by the door, it seems they indeed have fewer numbers here.

    During the day, soon after entering the passage, he heard the whispers of Lizardmen, and met over a dozen by this door.

    Until now, he only encountered four at the crossroads.

    Opportunities always come with challenges, Lin Yue firmly believed in this principle.

    Especially now that he had some understanding of the Lizardmen. Unless he encountered a massive troop movement, his weapons and the mighty Bai were more than enough to handle them.

    Even if he couldn’t kill them all, escaping was still doable.

    Especially when he could use the system’s various functions here. If worse comes to worst, he could create a stone wall to block them, right?

    After loading enough Crossbow Arrows into the Steel Repeating Crossbow, Lin Yue found a couple of handles on the wooden door.

    He gently pulled them open, quickly hid to the side, and only after Bai confirmed there was no danger did Lin Yue turn on the flashlight again.

    Inside the door was silent, eerily quiet.

    Lin Yue cautiously moved forward; this passage was slightly narrower than before, but the number of those large jars on either side had increased.

    He glanced briefly inside and found the same skull skeletons he had seen before, and judging by the shape, they were indeed human.

    Could it be that these skeletons are what’s left after the Lizardmen came up and completely devoured the Survivors?

    Or were they just collected by them?

    The mysteries were becoming more numerous.

    Lin Yue moved ahead cautiously, ready for anything, and soon reached a crossroads.

    Without a map of the area, he would’ve been blind, wandering around aimlessly, possibly ending up in a dead end.

    But with the map, it was simple.

    The map showed that two of the three paths led to more complex areas, maze-like, while the remaining one was much simpler, leading straight to a larger space.

    The main purpose of coming this time was to simply explore, to open the map.

    The joy of opening a map is beyond ordinary words.

    However, since it was getting dark when he entered, an extended exploration would not benefit him much.

    Also, going too deep wasn’t necessarily the right decision.

    Who knows what the total number of Lizardmen was.

    So, excluding the other two options, he chose the shortest path to see what was in the big space, then go back to the mine.

    Determined, Lin Yue continued forward, while Bai, looked around at the crossroads then followed.

    "Why are there more jars? And the color has changed too?"

    Lin Yue noticed that the jars on both sides of the passage had darkened from light gray to deep gray, almost black, and had strange symbols on them, like chicken scratches.

    As he continued forward, a large door appeared in the distance, and according to the map, the space beyond the door was the large area.

    Although Bai was on high alert, it hadn’t detected any enemies.

    "Wait, what’s this... smell?" Lin Yue suddenly sensed a faint fragrance, but mixed in were more peculiar and indescribable scents.

    "Bai, do you smell it?"

    "Pujiji." However, Bai showed no special reaction.

    Lin Yue thought it odd as he approached the door, looking up and furrowing his brow.

    "Wait, these lines and circles seem off?"

    On closer inspection with the flashlight, Lin Yue noticed these were engraved deeper than those on the previous door, and some blackish-red pigment inside made the whole door look extremely eerie.

    Something... wasn’t right?

    The faint fragrance grew stronger, seemingly emanating from behind the door.

    Pulling the handle on the wooden door, Lin Yue and Bai carefully entered, with the flashlight’s beam sweeping across the dim space.

    "Seems like just a large arena? Could this be the Lizardmen’s training ground or their dance hall?"

    Lin Yue joked as he glanced around.

    The ceiling here was three to four meters high, while all around...

    Jars, jars, jars.

    There truly were an abundance of jars.

    He took a deep breath and reached the very center of the space.

    There was a large round stone platform, about a meter high, with some dark markings on it.

    "Pujiji pujiji." Bai walked around the platform once and headed toward the innermost wall.

    Lin Yue shone his flashlight over and discovered a black mass that looked like a statue.

    He hurried forward, saw clearly what it was, and gasped in shock!

    "W-What, how is this thing here?!"