Summoning the Holy Sword

Translator: AtlasStudios Editor: AtlasStudios

The storm and thunder that the Spirit Bird released instantly suppressed the lizardmen's wild and offensive attacks. At this time, Rhode immediately activated Shadow Flash and Thousand Shadows. In just a blink of an eye, he arrived at the high platform. The red sword in his hand flashed in the air and he attacked the lizardman before him with the Blade of Destruction. These lizards were not very intelligent, and the Spirit Bird's sudden appearance was enough to make them panic. In addition, facing Rhode's ambush, they felt extremely scared. Rhode's Blade of Destruction actually had no effect on them, but upon seeing the sword attack, they immediately screamed in panic and scattered to the side, trying to avoid this attack. At this moment, these low-level animals began to get disorganized. They no longer cared about protecting the important figure that stood in the center and directly ran away.

Rhode flew past the lizardmen like a breeze.

He thought he might need more strength to get these annoying guys off, but he didn't expect that these lizards were more incompetent than he thought. Of course, this was better. No one would want their enemy to be strong and smart, right?

When Rhode arrived before the lizardman with the magic stick, it was jumping to the ground while holding its stick. It waved its stick while twisting its "slender waist" as if performing a folk dance. Seeing Rhode's appearance, the lizardman was clearly startled. It flicked its tail and was going to jump backward. However, how could Rhode miss such a good opportunity?

As the lizardman jumped down, Rhode swung his sword towards it. Seeing the sharp sword in front of it, the lizardman felt a chill. At the same time, it rolled back instinctively. This lizard man was really unscrupulous; it actually threw the stick at Rhode in order to save its life!

Rhode felt a little surprised as he saw this strange scene. He had never seen a boss who threw away their weapon in battle… Was it a trap? Anyway, this kind of question was meaningless to him. He dodged the stick and continued to thrust forward.

"Whoa!!"

However, the lizardman was quite lucky. It actually stumbled as it retreated, making it lose its balance. Once again, Rhode's sword passed him by.

What the heck is this?

Rhode was a little surprised to see that his attack failed. He had never experienced such a thing before. Fortunately, as an experienced player, Rhode had been accustomed to all sorts of unexpected situations. Though his sword failed to hit the target, he immediately rushed forward and kicked the lizard's belly with full force. The poor lizard shouted and fell unconscious.

Right now, he had no time to check whether it was dead or alive because, at this moment, the other lizardmen heard the lizard mage's scream. They immediately reacted and swung their weapons towards Rhode.

No matter how powerful he was, he still didn't want to be surrounded by so many lizards.

Facing the lizardmen encirclement, Rhode did not hesitate. He once again stretched out his right hand and a white card appeared in his palm. In a moment, a dazzling white light emerged. At the same time, he swung the sword in his hand towards the group of lizardmen. With a touch of red light, several lizardmen fell onto the ground. After seeing the death of their comrades, the other lizards also immediately slowed down.

However, that still didn't make their situation any better.

Celia suddenly appeared from the light. She spread her wings, raised her sword high, and immediately announced the fate of these lizardmen with her action.

"Now!"

Seeing the beam light before him, Kavos immediately reacted. He put his finger to his mouth and blew a whistle. Hearing this sound, the mercenaries, who had been waiting, immediately rushed forward from their hidden place!

The angelic maiden waved her swords, emitting sacred flames. The lizards, who had been besieged, were forced to retreat. At this moment, the lizards were shouting and jumping towards Rhode and Celia. They completely forgotten about the rear. The mercenaries, on their way to the platform, proceeded smoothly and arrived at the scene. There, they could see the lizardmen exposing their back towards them…

The next action was simple.

They actually dared to expose their backs toward the enemy. Although they had the advantage in number, their low IQ was a mishap. In addition, they were also unorganized. As long as the lizard mage fell to the ground, they were completely at loss, not knowing what to do. For the mercenaries, a group of panicked, helpless enemies weren't threatening at all …

Soon, the battle was almost over.

The platform was filled with lizard corpses. They were lying on the ground and their blood was flowing out. The mercenaries picked up their bodies and dug up the gems on their foreheads just like before. As usual, they also sneakily turned around to look at the angelic maiden who stood beside Rhode.

It wasn't their first time seeing Celia, but seeing her suddenly appear at this place startled them. They knew that Celia wasn't a member of their mercenary group, but rather Rhode's subordinate, unlike Gillian. As an angel, she was also really mysterious and everyone rarely saw her. This time was also the same; they were sure that they didn't see Celia along the way here. So how did she suddenly appear here?

The mercenaries were baffled, but they had begun to get used to it after following Rhode all this way. People were just like this; if they always saw strange things, even if they did not understand the truth behind it, they also wouldn't think about it. On the contrary, they usually scoffed at new mercenaries who were surprised when they first saw them even though they had no idea what was going on either.

The reason these mercenaries were peeping at Celia wasn't because they were enticed by her beauty, but because they were worried about whether the Holy Angel would think bad of their actions just now. Although the lizardmen weren't human, digging up the gemstone on their foreheads wasn't a very good thing to do. The mercenaries were trembling and afraid of causing trouble. Luckily, Celia didn't seem to have any opinion towards their actions. She just stood beside Rhode quietly while closing her eyes. Obviously, she understood the principle of what remained unseen was deemed to be clean….

….

However, the look on Rhode's face at the moment was somewhat complicated.

Although he managed to get rid of the lizardmen, he did not feel relaxed. Instead, he was frowning while standing in the center of the platform. He was looking at the tall stone wall before him. It was about eight to nine meters tall. It looked very ordinary, and nothing seemed strange. However, he thought that this place was quite strange.

He remembered clearly that this group of lizards on the high platform was the boss. After the player killed these guys, they continued to move forward through a cave that led to the ruins below and continue fighting. But… the stone wall before him remained intact.

What about the cave? Where's the five-meter-high cave?

Rhode was baffled, but it confirmed his speculation that these ruins had been excavated by the NPCs before the players. But… where did that cave come from?

In the game, the passage looked very well-made, so the players didn't really feel strange. They only thought the platform was connected to the second layer of the ruins. But now it seemed really strange. Did those Ophenians dig a way out themselves? Wasn't that illogical? They weren't dwarves. Even dwarves, who were known as underground moles, needed a few years to dig a cave like that…

Rhode circling around the platform for half a day, wanting to find the hidden gear in here. But soon, he realized the problem and felt a little disappointed because the platform had been completely ruined by those lizards. It was really dirty despite still looking somewhat majestic and domineering from far away.

"Everyone, spread out and check the surroundings."

Thinking until here, he quickly issued an order. When the mercenaries heard his orders, they quickly nodded and scattered around. At this time, Rhode looked at the dark passage not far away from him and used telepathy to communicate with Gillian. Ever since she manifested, their telepathy had been limited to the normal level. If Gillian had something to say to Rhode, Rhode would be able to sense her mental fluctuations, similar to a ringing phone. This was also one of the reasons why Rhode chose Gillian as his Core Card. He couldn't stand her suddenly harassing him anytime and anywhere. Although she usually seemed quite clever and sensible, after interacting with her for some time, he could be sure that if he flirted with a woman or did something beyond that, Gillian would definitely jump out of nowhere and give him a surprise. Judging from her character, she would definitely do something like that.

Since he couldn't find any access to the entrance, he decided to give up. He informed Gillian to let those people come in. Since he couldn't find it himself, he wanted to see whether those Ophenians could find it or not. After all, players were only good at killing monsters and digging graves, not archaeological research…

Soon, the remaining mercenaries under Shauna and Gillian entered the podium.

The Ophenians, who saw the lizardmen corpses, clearly felt somewhat uncomfortable. Many of them frowned and showed their discontent, but were clever enough not to say much. At this moment, the grizzled old scholar came to Rhode's side.

"This… Mr. Rhode. "

"What's the matter?"

"It's like this. " Facing Rhode's inquiry, the old scholar hesitated repeatedly. At the same time, he looked at the angelic maiden who stood behind Rhode. The Ophenians thought angels held a special significance, but now was not the time for him to ask this question.

"This… I know it's a bit presumptuous of me to ask, but… if I may, could you have your subordinates clean up the podium and put the tattered bodies … aside? Is it okay?"

Oh?

When he heard the old scholar's request, Rhode tilted his eyebrows. Then, he withdrew his gaze and began to look at the platform surface for the first time.

In his opinion, this circular podium was just an ordinary ritual platform, carved with mysterious patterns and symbols. It seemed disorganized and not some kind of magical array. But since the old scholar actually made this kind of request, his real goal was …

"No problem. "

Rhode did not think for too long and soon nodded in agreement with the old scholar's proposal. After that, he waved at Shauna.

"Shauna, go tell the others to clean up the platform and everything, okay?"

"Here?"

Shauna was surprised upon hearing Rhode's request. But soon, she nodded and turned around. Seeing this scene, the old scholar no longer said anything besides a word of thanks to Rhode, quickly going back to the crowd to start his own work.

However, that didn't mean he had the leisure to rest.

Now, the most important thing was to figure out what happened to Lapis.