Chapter 178 Sacrificial Gate
In a small village near Redwood County, the usual zombies were nowhere to be seen. If it weren't for the scattered bones and occasional mutated animals, you'd think the place was still peaceful.
On the roof of the biggest two-story building, a golden dog was sunbathing, occasionally licking its paws and twitching its ears at every sound.
Someone tossed a piece of jerky onto the roof. The lazy dog suddenly sprang up, caught the jerky, and devoured it in a few bites.
"Pill, do you even taste that when you gulp it down? You gotta savor your food," Jack's lazy voice called from below.
Pill glanced at the human lying on the wall in the yard, giving him a look of disdain.
It was the fourth day since the team had come down from Redwood Mountain.
They had rested in the mountains for a night and arrived here the next day, heavily injured.
Evolving persons heal fast. After two days, those with lighter injuries were almost fully recovered. Only Candice, Natalie, and Cecil hadn't fully healed yet.
Candice and Natalie mostly had external injuries. They weren't fully healed yet but could still move around without much trouble. Another day or two, and they'd be fine.
Cecil was in the worst shape. He had been at the forefront and, despite the white shield and professional skills, was the most injured. He had just woken up last night and still couldn't get out of bed.
Lucy’s Apostle of Light skill, Restoration, was great for external injuries but not so much for internal ones. Cecil's slow recovery was due to internal organ damage from the heavy impacts he endured.
There was some noise at the village entrance. Pill's ears twitched, and it lifted its head to look.
William, David, and David's two assistants were walking towards the building.
Pill jumped off the roof and ran to the village entrance, its tail wagging like crazy.
Moments later, William and his group gathered downstairs.
"Hey, did you find anything to eat? I'm sick of jerky," Natalie called sweetly from the second-floor balcony, her long legs swinging as she looked down at William.
"Natalie, are you sure you're not feeling sick because you're pregnant?" Michelle teased, grinning.
"Michelle! What do you mean by pregnant? I don't get it!" Natalie replied in a mock-innocent voice.
Everyone shivered and backed away, leaving the two women laughing on the balcony.
William dropped the large bag he was carrying and took a water bottle from Lucy. After a few sips, he asked, "How's Cecil?"
"Better than yesterday, but he still needs rest," Lucy replied, looking tired. She'd been casting Restoration spells non-stop, helping the team recover quickly, but it left her drained.
She added, "Also, the red-haired iron corpse's injuries aren't improving much."
Lucy was the kindest in the team. The red-haired iron corpse had saved her during the final explosion, so she felt grateful enough to use Restoration on it, but it didn't help much.
William frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's leave it for now. I'll figure something out."
He pointed to the bag they brought back and said, "David and I found some canned fruit. Let's share it with everyone."
The team had risked their lives with William that day. The outcome was good, but the process was nerve-wracking. Even now, thinking back, they still felt uneasy.
The final plan involved a massive explosion, like mutual destruction. These Evolving persons, while scared, also gained new respect for William's courage.
If anything had gone wrong, they would all have been doomed.
The explosives used were leftovers from Michelle's controlled demolition of the two buildings blown up at Hope Base. They also included grenades and other explosives the team had gathered from the roulette or survivors over the past few days.
William's final step was to detonate these, causing fatal damage to the monster while having Cecil block all the damage.
This way, they got the reward from Devil's Gamble, killed a bunch of high-level mutants, and kept the team safe; a triple win.
The process was tough and extremely dangerous. For instance, they had to kill a level-three mutant under harsh conditions to fix the roulette.
The final explosion's power was more than expected, causing Cecil's Immovable Rock skill to only withstand the initial blast, leaving the team to endure the aftermath.
Luckily, everyone made it through. All the mutants at the explosion's center were severely injured, and William managed to deal with them later on, though it came at a cost.
Even though they still felt scared thinking about it, the rewards were worth it.
William first checked on Cecil. After chatting for a bit, he looked at the unconscious red-haired iron corpse before finally heading to his room.
This time, the gains were huge. He hadn't had a chance to sort through them yet. Now that his injuries were healed and they had enough food, it was time to do an inventory and study their loot.
The most valuable rewards were the Magic Crystals. From this battle, they got nine Level 2 Magic Crystals and fifteen Level 3 Magic Crystals.
When Devil's Gamble summoned the monsters, William had no idea how many there were. He just killed every one he could find. Whether there were any that escaped during the explosion, he didn't know.
Level 2 Magic Crystals were still manageable; he could collect some if he went looking for them. Almost a month into the apocalypse, the first wave of evolution had arrived and significantly increased the number of Level 2 mutants.
The truly precious ones were the Level 3 Magic Crystals. Level 3 mutants were extremely rare now. In a city with a population of a million, having five or six was already impressive.
But now, William had fifteen, which was a considerable fortune. He could even spin a Level 3 roulette twice with this amount.
Who knows, maybe he'd get lucky and land a three-star Evolution Elixir!
William smiled and put away the Magic Crystals. They'd be used soon.
Besides the Magic Crystals, there were materials collected from the monsters. These were all valuable, especially for William, who was a craftsman. These materials could significantly enhance the quality of the weapons and equipment he made.
Among these materials, one item was particularly special; it was a red bead.
This was the heart of the Heavy Armored Skull.
For undead creatures, they didn't have Magic Crystals to show their level; their strength was marked by the color of their bones. Killing them didn't yield Magic Crystals but their hearts could be collected.
In the previous life, survivors called these hearts Soul Pearls.
Soul Pearls were useless to ordinary Evolving persons, but for certain crafting professions, they were invaluable.
For example, craftsmen needed Soul Pearls to create equipment with special attributes. When making green or higher-grade weapons and equipment, Soul Pearls were indispensable.
Many professionals also required these for certain recipes and skill releases.
The Soul Pearl from the black-boned creature was quite valuable.
Holding the red Soul Pearl with black streaks, William had some ideas and thought he might experiment with it later.
Setting down the Soul Pearl, William took out another item.
Even after living through ten years of the apocalypse, William couldn't hide his excitement when he saw this item. His body even trembled slightly.
This was the second time William had obtained a door-shaped item from Devil's Gamble.
It was indeed a door, but not a large one. Its design was extremely simple, resembling a rudimentary version of the Arc de Triomphe.
However, the door had a unique feature; in the center was a mirror-like surface that rippled like water when the door moved. There was a colorless gem in the door frame, which was hollow inside.
William gently touched the door-shaped equipment, which was only a foot high, with an unusually tender expression.
This item was called the Sacrificial Gate.
William had never heard of it or seen it in his previous life, yet that didn't stop him from being enamored with it. He had already played with it several times over the past few days.
As a Craftsman and equipment maker, when he obtained this item, he had a general understanding of how to use it. It was a trait of professionals; they were adept at things related to their profession.
It was just like a Pharmacist, who could identify the general purpose and effects of an unknown potion after some simple research.
William's Craftsman profession was the same. Although he had never heard of or seen this equipment, as a craftsman, especially one with a prefix, he figured out the general use of the Sacrificial Gate after some tinkering.
In simple terms, the user could offer something as a sacrifice, and the Sacrificial Gate would return something based on the value of the offering.
More importantly, it was a piece of golden equipment, which excited William to his core.
