Chapter 688 Do you want to pass on the fire?

[Are you here? I'm feeling a bit empty. Can we exchange some monsters?]

“.”

The first sentence in Chiya's letter was as effective as a silencing spell, forcing Gong Qiying into silence for a few seconds.

"Have I overestimated his seriousness a little?"

Could it be that Chiya is the type who is serious and polite to strangers but reveals his true nature once he gets to know them well?

"I still don't understand why he's the only one with a kink for dragons. Is there really anyone who likes dragons?"

As soon as he said this, he thought of Monster Hunter. After realizing his gaffe, he was silent for a few seconds, and finally continued reading the letter.

【Just kidding, it’s okay if we don’t exchange】

Your twisted emotions of wanting to show your desires but not wanting to be too explicit are all clearly visible on the paper. It makes me feel that you are so tragic.

Sometimes, Gong Qiying is very interested in complaining like the new Baji.

[Let's get down to business. After a brief investigation, I've found information about the sealed artifacts in the dungeon you're about to visit—the Fanatic Dungeon. Enclosed is a piece of paper with the seal written on it.]

Other city lords now discuss things by sending voice messages or simply meeting in person, but only Chiya and a small number of people still insist on the traditional practice of writing letters. It seems that this has become his obsession.

Maybe if you look through history books and see which era was most popular in writing letters, you can also guess Chiya's age.

Gong Qiying took out another piece of letter paper, which actually had illustrations on it. It looked like it was hand-painted by Chiya, and the quality was quite good, very lifelike.

The illustration depicted a classic cross, so classic that at first glance he had a vision of a man with holes in both hands being nailed to it, but in reality it was just an empty cross.

Next to the cross were two upright figures. They looked like humans, but their limbs and bodies were more slender and their skin was pale and hairless.

"Honestly, Akaya could definitely be an illustrator while writing light novels."

After making a casual complaint, he began to read the introduction of the sealed object.

[The Sealed Artifact of the Mad Belief Dungeon—The Unbeliever]

[The main body is a cross, and the pale humanoid creatures are derivatives of the cross, called the Faithless]

[Injury to either side will not affect the other, but destroying the cross can temporarily delay the actions of the unbelievers. The cross cannot be destroyed and can be regenerated every 666 minutes.]

It cannot be destroyed, which indeed meets the conditions for being sealed. If it can be destroyed, why bother sealing it?

[Each Faithless is born from a cross, possessing heroic strength and precise movements, but no special abilities]

This seems pretty weak, but the more ordinary this derivative looks, the more powerful the cross is.

[As the source of unbelievers, the cross cannot be destroyed and will have a drastic impact on the spirits of surrounding creatures, specifically affecting their "faith." Even fanatics who are willing to slaughter their own kind for their faith will have their faith in God vanish without a trace once they step into the cross's range of influence, and they themselves will be transformed into unbelievers.]

[The power of faith that was sucked away from the fanatics will become the source of power for the Cross. Whether it is to produce non-believers, strengthen non-believers, or other abilities, this power is needed.]

[When the non-believers are unable to absorb faith for a long time and are threatened, their intelligence will rapidly evolve and they will worship the cross as a god. The cross will then absorb this faith and feed it back to the non-believers, strengthening them. The non-believers whose faith is absorbed will experience a significant decline in intelligence.]

[This ability certainly has its limitations, but once used in battle, the intensity of the battle will increase significantly.]

[To fight against such a sealed object, I recommend using something like a puppet that has no self-awareness. However, be aware that even with a puppet, if the operator attaches their own spirit to the puppet and controls it, the faith of the unbeliever will be sucked away, causing the spirit to become weak and useless.]

Faith does not necessarily have to be in a god. Even if it is faith in a motto, a celebrity, a zodiac sign, tarot cards, or even lifestyle habits, as long as you believe that something will have a certain impact on you, it can be considered faith.

[Even the dungeon master must be extremely careful when facing this thing.]

The Unbelievers were born in an era when people's faith in the gods was at its strongest, causing a world-destroying catastrophe. Looking further ahead, the decline of faith in the gods today is also due to them.

Gong Qiying roughly understood it.

This sealed object called the Faithless is a special attack object against "intelligent creatures".

According to this thing's definition of faith, any intelligent creature cannot escape the scope of faith. Even after becoming the city lord, Gong Qiying himself still believes in the saying "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy." This can probably be regarded as faith for non-believers.

This seal is really unreasonable.

If that's the case, then monsters with a rudimentary level of intelligence might also be within the cross's range of influence, so you'll need to be careful and cautious when selecting monsters.

The cross is the biggest trouble.

If this thing can't be killed, the only way to suppress its actions is to destroy it repeatedly at regular intervals. This will take six hundred and sixty-six minutes, a little over eleven hours.

It's impossible for him to go down and beat up the Faithless every day after taking over this dungeon. That would be too torturous.

"etc."

Gong Qiying looked at the cross on the illustration, and his eyes suddenly became sharp like Tu Meichan's.

No matter how you look at it, this cross looks like it's made of wood.

When people talk about wood, they will definitely think of Melina. No, no, it must be the fact that wood can be used as fuel.

so.

"Can the Faithless be burned as a Cinder King?"

When he thought of this, he suddenly felt an urge to try it out. If the Faithless evolved wisdom that could understand human speech, he would definitely go over and ask:

"Passing the fire?"

If the cross is reborn in the same place instead of a random location, then perhaps it is really possible to burn it with the First Fire.

[Also, I will invite the lords of the three dungeons, White Blood, Holy Light, and Explosive Flame, to participate in this Sealed Artifact crusade. I'd like you to take this opportunity to observe their words and actions and select the most suspicious ones.]

[Also, I haven't told them that you'll be taking over this dungeon in the future. I'm afraid they won't want to come if I tell them. Don't let it slip then.]

"Chiya is quite thoughtful."

Gong Qiying also replied, and after some back and forth communication, they decided on the time to defeat the Sealed Object.

Just two weeks later.

(End of this chapter)