Zeno couldn't just suddenly appear before those elves; she needed a well-prepared opportunity to make her entrance.
Before that...
Claude, having been squeezed dry of all his memories, no longer held any value.
It was time for some waste reclamation.
Dalun Li extracted Claude's life force directly from the Life Casket and began to devour it.
[Earth Vein Power +2000]
[Medium Piece of Earth Vein Essence x5, Small Piece of Earth Vein Essence x2]
As expected of a fourth-rank Holy Light priest, his purity was indeed high enough to produce so many relics.
Although Dalun Li had achieved a steady supply of Small Pieces of Earth Vein Essence thanks to the contributions of numerous adventurers, Medium Pieces were still rare for him.
Medium Pieces of Earth Vein Essence only dropped from extraordinary beings of the third rank or higher, making them quite scarce.
Now that he had suddenly obtained five of them, he wondered how best to use them.
“The reward I promised Feiwan last time... I don't think I've fulfilled that yet.”
Dalun Li thought for a moment and took out one Medium Piece of Earth Vein Essence.
Feiwan was his capable assistant and one of the only three guardians of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
He had to create a greater magic grade magical artifact that befitted her status.
He would craft an item tailored to Feiwan's specific abilities.
Dalun Li didn't plan on making a defensive magical artifact.
Zeno's Fire-Extinguishing Light Armor was meant to compensate for her weaknesses and flaws.
Furthermore, Zeno's power characteristics dictated her role as control and survival in battle, so defensive magical artifacts suited her better.
But Feiwan was different. She was a guardian of violent destruction created by Dalun Li, a power of annihilation.
The magical artifact created for her had to possess that same destructive power.
Dalun Li retrieved a bundle of spider silk.
This silk was a drop from the giant spider queen in the subordinate floor and possessed spatial properties.
Next, he took out some dragon flame crystals.
The large pieces mined from the Lava Stratum had been used up, leaving only various small fragments.
However, as auxiliary materials for creating a magical artifact, they were more than sufficient.
Then, Dalun Li added various monster materials from the Lava Stratum as further supplements.
“Monster Creation!”
As his ability activated, the pile of materials before him began to merge.
The spider silk seemed to come alive, absorbing the power of the other materials and beginning to weave itself as it fused.
Dalun Li then added a magic iron ingot, melting it into the surface of the silk.
Before long, the prototype of a pair of gloves appeared.
The gloves were primarily black with a dark red sheen, their surface covered by a layer of silver hand-armor as thin as paper.
The magical artifact completed its final fusion just as the power of the Medium Piece of Earth Vein Essence was exhausted.
A pair of glove-type magical artifacts lay before him.
【Lava Restraint】 Greater magic grade. Gloves formed from shackled fire power, capable of unleashing destructive flames.
[Special Effects] 1. Flame Compression: Can control and amplify the power of compressed flames.
Fire Binding: Controlled flames possess sealing properties, allowing for fire seals.
Threads of Fire: Can condense compressed fire into threads with spatial properties.
The effects were quite good.
Looking at the Lava Restraint, Dalun Li felt it would be a significant help to Feiwan.
At that moment, Tongmu, who had recently returned from the subordinate floor, began to glow.
“Next time. I’ll definitely prepare some good materials for you next time.”
Tongmu continued to glow, but this time the light turned red.
Was it fuming with anger?
No, that was a danger warning signal. Had another dangerous individual entered the town?
Dalun Li now had some confidence and didn't panic.
He quickly connected to Tongmu's vision and locked onto the figure entering Eternal Imprisonment Town.
He was immediately startled by the ominous aura.
“What a powerful scent of death! What is that thing?!”
The figure marked by Tongmu was a man dressed in gray robes, appearing to be a mage.
He looked incredibly haggard. Despite being an extraordinary mage whose physical and mental stamina should far exceed normal people, his eyes were sunken, his skin was pale, and the areas around his eyes were a lifeless, pitch black.
He looked as if he might drop dead at any moment.
However, Tongmu's marking wouldn't be wrong; the energy within this man was staggeringly high.
Such a powerful existence couldn't possibly be unknown in the Northern Territory.
Dalun Li currently possessed the memories of the fifth-rank mage Philia and the fourth-rank Holy Light priest Claude.
Searching through the memories of these two well-traveled individuals, Dalun Li found a matching profile.
Fifth-rank mage, Zahra D. Locturn.
A mage famous across the North Sea, a blonde noble from the Geri Kingdom who had settled in the Northern Territory and mastered mysterious foreign magic.
He had once effortlessly killed a fourth-rank swordsman, and no one had even figured out how he did it.
In the Lanxi Kingdom, his methods were considered unfathomable.
According to Philia's memories, however, Zahra had brilliant blonde hair and an extraordinary bearing—a handsome foreign man who left a strong impression on anyone who saw him.
Yet the Zahra before him had sunken eyes, a gaunt physique, and no trace of that noble bearing.
If it weren't for the massive mana that allowed Dalun Li to identify him as one of those high-rank mages, he wouldn't have been able to tell this was the same Zahra at all.
“Death power... there's no mistake.”
“The death energy swirling around this guy doesn't belong to a living person.”
“Where did he get such dense death power? If it weren't for his massive mana and the powerful constitution of a fifth-rank mage supporting him, he probably would have died long ago.”
Through Tongmu's vision, Dalun Li quickly confirmed the nature of the aura on Zahra.
At the same time, he identified the source of that death power.
It was the thick black book tucked under his arm.
“A book?”
“The source of such powerful death power is a book?”
“Is it a magical artifact? It doesn't quite look like one.”
Dalun Li truly couldn't imagine what else, besides a magical artifact, could withstand and contain such potent death power.
Having analyzed the situation, Dalun Li now had to determine the man's goal.
The reason for someone like him to come to this godforsaken border was obviously only one thing: the dungeon itself.
“Why come to the Well of Eternal Imprisonment instead of the neighboring Gray Mist Valley?”
“...Wait, with the value the Well of Eternal Imprisonment is currently showing, it's not exactly unreasonable for it to attract a fifth-rank.”
The inertia of old habits was truly a pitfall.
He was no longer the insignificant Well of Eternal Imprisonment of the past; he was now a treasure dungeon truly capable of attracting serious attention.
Rate on N.U.
