Once she passed the 'entrance,' the Cave Bats disappeared. In fact, Lan Qingyou didn't encounter any other 'swarms' at all, only a few solitary cave monsters.
It made sense when she thought about it.
If there were truly that many social monsters around, no one would likely come here to live or hide treasure, right?
Despite that, Lan Qingyou didn't let down her guard.
The necessary caution was still there.
First gear was slow, but it was safe.
Furthermore, as she flew, Lan Qingyou scanned and recorded the terrain on her cards.
This was a cave, after all—a purely natural stalactite grotto—and there were far too many branching paths along the way.
If she didn't record her scans, with her sense of direction, she would surely get lost.
Of course, it wasn't that she was bad with directions; it was simply that the terrain inside the cave was too complex.
“Another dead end...”
Lan Qingyou let out a lament as she found herself facing a bare cave wall once again. She had no idea how many times she had reached a dead end already.
However, there was nothing to be done about it; caves were just like that.
Originally, she had hoped Little Spoon could act as a guide.
But after entering the cave, she found that while Little Spoon could sense the presence of treasure, it could only sense the distance to it.
Consequently, Lan Qingyou could only keep wandering around this area.
Little Spoon's reactions told her the treasure was very close, but these spots were all dead ends with no other way forward.
Little Spoon could indeed sense treasures and their distance.
It was very useful, but that was the extent of it.
It couldn't determine verticality. In other words, its treasure sensing was essentially a sphere.
The treasure might be behind the cave wall, it might be above the ceiling, or it might be below the cave floor.
But this level of difficulty wouldn't stop Lan Qingyou.
After circling the area several times, Lan Qingyou selected the dead end with the highest probability and took out her Explosion Potions.
Up, down, left, or right? Were those even still problems?
She studded the cave wall of the dead end with a full two hundred bottles of Explosion Potion.
Flying back a certain distance, she ordered a pink infantry golem to throw one final bottle of Explosion Potion and then raise its shield to protect itself.
Boom!
A violent explosion echoed through the cave, followed by a series of earth-shaking tremors.
This was, after all, two hundred and one bottles of Explosion Potion. In such a cramped space, the blast power far exceeded what it would have been in an open area.
Fortunately, Lan Qingyou had the foresight to have all the pink infantry surround her and raise their shields. Combined with the fact that she had retreated to a recess over a hundred meters away, she barely managed to withstand the shockwave from the explosion.
Even then, she had to sit on the ground.
If she had still been flying in the air, the shockwave might have blown her away.
“Cough, cough...”
Lan Qingyou coughed slightly and fanned away the swirling dust with her hand.
Although the stalactite cave was relatively damp, dust was inevitable after such a large-scale explosion.
Especially since Lan Qingyou was so close.
“Great, another one scrapped. And it’s a humanoid one... Oh, wait, it’s just the armor that’s damaged.”
When Lan Qingyou walked over to the pink infantry golem that had thrown the potion, she saw its pitted shield and damaged Power Armor and thought it was broken.
But when she issued an order, she found it could still move, which relieved her.
After all, she only had about twenty humanoid golems. Losing even one would make her heart ache for a long time.
Although she could repair the parts, she hadn't had time to draw the design blueprints yet.
It would also take time for Chariot to prepare the materials.
But really, Explosion Potions were incredibly handy.
Whether used as boosters for bullets, bombs for a bomber, or gunpowder for clearing mountains and splitting rocks, they were extremely effective.
When Lan Qingyou stepped forward to check the results, she found a small sliver of light shining into the stalactite grotto from the ceiling.
It was very small, just a tiny crack.
Lan Qingyou looked up, wanting to see what was outside the crack.
But because the hole she'd blasted was too small and the crack was relatively far away, she couldn't see anything. Her eyes even felt a bit dizzy from the sudden glare of that beam of light.
But that didn't matter. At least she had a direction now, didn't she?
Lan Qingyou licked her lips and redoubled her efforts. After spending another hundred or so Explosion Potions, she expanded the hole to the point where a person could pass through. Then, she retracted her golems and climbed out through the ceiling—which was about a meter thick—accompanied by Steel Wool and Little Spoon.
She then found herself in a passage covered in Glow Mushrooms.
Yes, a passage.
The reason Lan Qingyou used this word was that there were signs of artificial excavation in this tunnel.
She even suspected the Glow Mushrooms might have been artificially cultivated.
After all, these Glow Mushrooms were far too neatly arranged, all lined up along the walls on both sides of the passage.
Perhaps this was the correct entrance leading to the treasure.
It was just that she had used a different method to get here.
While thinking, Lan Qingyou took out her golems to protect herself and then looked down at Little Spoon.
“Little Spoon, which way?”
“Squeak!”
Little Spoon pointed to the left.
And so... Lan Qingyou moved slowly forward in first gear toward the left, while having the pink infantry harvest the Glow Mushrooms along the way.
Since mushrooms could regrow as long as the rhizomes were left behind, it didn't count as destroying the environment.
Lan Qingyou considered herself a very environmentally friendly person.
Of course, after these mushrooms were harvested, they were all sent to Shang Chuan.
Since her cards and herb bag were nearly full, she had already informed Shang Chuan that she would be sending her harvests to him for temporary storage during the rest of her mission.
They were partners, anyway, and he couldn't use the things she needed. Lan Qingyou wasn't worried about Shang Chuan double-crossing her.
That guy wasn't stupid enough to do that.
When Lan Qingyou followed the passage to a relatively open area, the Glow Mushrooms disappeared.
In their place was pitch-black darkness, a path ahead with no light at all.
“Interesting,” Lan Qingyou muttered, frowning slightly.
Previously, she had thought those Glow Mushrooms were meant to illuminate the passage and guide the way.
Now it seemed that while those possibilities existed, they weren't the whole story.
No matter the creature, as long as it used eyes to see, it would be affected by light.
Especially now.
The previous brightness made the current darkness feel even deeper.
An ordinary person coming here would certainly feel apprehensive. At the very least, they would have to deliberate seriously about whether or not to enter.
But Lan Qingyou was different. She was no ordinary person!
“Do you believe in light?!”
Lan Qingyou took out a blue dispelling light ball and had a pink infantry golem throw it directly ahead.
In an instant, light finally returned to the pitch-black open space.
Rate on N.U.
