“Wow…”

Looking at the fortress in front of them, Meng'er and others couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

The fortress in front of us was built on the top of a mountain. Generally speaking, this is not a good place to build a fortress. However, this ruin is more like a building like an observatory in the modern world than a fortress. It was originally supposed to be semicircular, similar to the shape of an opera house, but now there are only large ruins. The only thing to say is that when you look up at the sky, you will have a wider view.

This place was discovered by Ellie after the battle last night. From a geographical point of view, she didn't understand what this thing was built for, because the location of this fortress was obviously strange. As mentioned before, it was neither a natural fortress nor a well-connected transportation hub. It was more like an observatory specifically used for observing the stars.

Although this place is not far from the border city, it looks like no one has ever been here. Perhaps it is because of the terrain here. After all, this strange fortress is located on the top of a mountain. Unless you look down from above, you will never be able to see the ruins on the top of the mountain.

"This place looks so beautiful... Meng'er really likes it here..."

Meng'er's voice was still as leisurely and cheerful as ever. Ai Li smiled and nodded, then she looked around.

"We haven't found any monsters here. We'll just stay here tonight. I'll start repairing this place tomorrow. By then, I'll ask you to clean up."

"Yeah, no problem, leave it to Meng'er."

Meng'er nodded, and the two girls beside her did not object.

Just when Ai Li was about to find a place to shelter from the wind, Nana suddenly ran over from the other side.

"Hey, I found something weird here."

"oh?"

Hearing Nana's words, Ai Li raised her eyebrows, then walked to Nana's side. Then she saw Lala, Mengmeng and others gathered around a cave, looking around.

"What's wrong?"

"I just asked it if there is any place nearby where we can take shelter from the rain."

As she spoke, Nana stroked a strange animal beside her. It looked like a plucked hedgehog, a local wild species. It was lying obediently at Nana's feet. Ai Li was not surprised by this. After all, Nana had the ability to communicate with animals, so it was normal for her to be able to talk to animals in this world.

"Then, it told us there was a strange place here, but it didn't dare go down because it was very dangerous."

"Danger?"

Ellie walked to the cave entrance and looked down. Then she understood why the others stayed here, because this was not a cave entrance strictly speaking, but a staircase leading down. It extended all the way down, and at the end of the staircase was a sealed stone door.

"Is there some gold, silver or treasure behind this?"

Lala's eyes were also shining at this moment - seeing her like this, Ai Li knew that the countdown for Erha to destroy the house was about to begin.

"let me see."

As she spoke, Ellie walked to the door, and then she stretched out her hand to push the door - it certainly couldn't be pushed open. Not only that, she also felt a strange force blocking the door. Obviously, this should be a seal.

Thinking of this, Ellie raised the magic wand and tapped the door lightly - then a dazzling blue light flashed, and then the stone door made a "rumbling" sound and slowly opened to both sides.

“Ohhhhhhhh!!”

Seeing this scene, the other girls screamed with emotion. However, after the stone door was opened, it was pitch black inside and nothing could be seen. Ellie reached out, picked up the magic wand and waved it in the air. Soon, a ball of light appeared, illuminating the space in front of her.

This is a cave.

A dark cave stretched forward. Under the dim light, there was nothing here except dust. The whole passage stretched downward, as if it went deep into the mountain. Some stone stairs could be vaguely seen. But these stairs had long been buried by the soil.

"What's in there? There must be treasure, right??"

Lala was jumping around behind Ai Li. If Nana and Mengmeng hadn't held her, she would have probably run inside.

"Treasure... I think this place is more like a tomb."

Ellie frowned slightly and whispered.

"Eh? Really?"

"Well, generally speaking, tombs are buried underground, right? This place looks more like a mausoleum, doesn't it?"

"Well……"

Hearing this, Nana's face turned pale, and Xiao An also frowned.

"Indeed, there is a bad feeling in it."

"I'll go in and take a look."

Ellie thought about it for a moment, then made a decision. She turned her head and looked at the others.

"The situation in here may be complicated. I will go in and take a look. You guys stay outside and rest first."

"Is this okay? Do you want us to go with you?"

"There is a magic barrier here. You don't seem to understand how magic works. Although you all seem to have strange powers, you probably know nothing about magic. In this case, if I rashly bring you in, I'm afraid it will only hinder me. If I'm alone, then it will be much easier to fight or run."

"Hmm... this..."

Hearing this, the girls looked at each other. Indeed, as Ellie said, although as the princess of the planet Deviluke and nanomechanical cyborgs, they all possessed unique powers, magic was really beyond their ability to handle.

"I see."

Xiao An, as the cosmic killer with the most combat experience among them, gave an answer quickly.

"We will wait here for you until morning, and if you are not back by morning, then we will go look for you."

"OK."

After a brief explanation between the two parties, Ellie ignored Lala's look that said "I want to go too" and walked into the tunnel.

The whole tunnel was very long, and it seemed to be going in a circle downwards. Ellie held her magic wand and quickly passed through it on her broom. At first, she thought it was a mausoleum. But now Ellie felt that her guess was not right, because if it was a tomb, there should be all kinds of decorations, or the deeds of the tomb owner should be written on the wall. But there was nothing here, just a blank space.

No, it’s not completely blank.

The tunnel in front of us finally seemed to have come to an end, and Ellie flew out on her broom, and then...

"What the hell is this..."

Looking at the scene in front of her, Ai Li couldn't help but widen her eyes in surprise.

Below her, she saw an extremely huge hole, which looked as if the entire mountain had been hollowed out. In this huge hole, there were stone bridges that looked extremely dangerous and could only accommodate two people walking side by side. They crisscrossed with each other and connected the passages around the cave wall.

In other words, if a normal person walked in, they would need to walk across this stone bridge that had no support and looked like it would collapse at any time, and they couldn't even turn around, then come to the passage on the opposite side, and then find a way to continue down from the passage on the opposite side...

"Wow... this is so unfriendly to people with poor directions."

Just looking at the numerous passages extending in all directions, Ellie couldn't help but scratch her head. Fortunately, she could fly, otherwise she would be exhausted to death walking through this thing.

Thinking of this, Ellie sat on the broom, lowered her altitude, and moved towards the bottom of the cave.

But obviously this is not a simple matter.

“Crash!!!”

Just as Ellie was descending in altitude, she seemed to have alarmed some kind of existence. Suddenly, a sound like the tide came from all directions. Then Ellie saw a large black cloud coming out of the cave and rushing towards her - it was a bat as big as a falcon, with sharp teeth.

“Wow… This place is so inhumane…”

After casting a shield to wrap herself up, Ai Li couldn't help but sigh as she watched the bats rushing towards her. Obviously, if ordinary adventurers walked here, they would also be attacked by bats. At that time, they would either be besieged and killed by the swarm of bats, or slip and fall to their death - MMP, this reminded Ai Li of how Fang Zheng was in the world of Dark Souls. The ground was so narrow that he couldn't move, and those bastard knights were waving their swords to kill him. At that time, Fang Zheng subconsciously rolled over to avoid the attack, and then his feet were empty...

Then when I opened my eyes again, there was a bonfire.

Fortunately, I don’t have to suffer this now.

"Death Cloud Technique."

Ellie gently waved her magic wand, and soon, a dark green cloud appeared out of thin air, covering the surroundings. Then, the bats covered by the cloud fell down one after another, and soon, not a single one was left. Ellie then continued to descend.

But soon, she realized something was wrong.

"How deep is this place?"

The hill where the ruins were located was not very high, not to mention that Ellie was descending vertically. At this speed, she should have reached the bottom in three to five minutes. However, the fact was that half an hour had passed and it was still dark below. Ellie had suspected that this was some kind of space seal, but she used magic to check and found that it was not the case. This place was simply... very deep.

So what's down here?

Now Ellie is getting more and more curious about this. Whether this hole is man-made or naturally formed, it is obviously to hide something. Otherwise, there would not be such a door built on it, and there would not be so many traps set up. In fact, all the way down, Ellie also found a large number of monsters, whose number and strength far exceeded those of goblins and orcs outside.

It can be said that if all the monsters here were released, the fortress city next to it would be wiped out in less than half an hour. However, they all stayed down here, like a self-contained underground ecosystem.

Maybe we should bring Nana here, at least she can talk to animals, so it shouldn't matter even if the other party is a monster. Maybe if she talks to the monsters here, she can learn something about this place.

“Ohhhhhh!!!”

A huge monster that looked like a rhino in a crab shell spewed flames and rushed towards Ellie. In response, Ellie just raised her magic wand and moved forward a little. Soon, a green beam of light shot out and knocked it to the ground.

"The deeper we go, the more monsters there are. It's really a headache..."

Ellie sighed and looked around. She had no idea how many times she had encountered monsters. The monsters became more and more powerful as she went deeper. Although she could kill them instantly with one move, she was now more and more curious about what secrets were hidden there.

Could it be that there is a giant dragon sealed underneath?

This is a fantasy world after all, so it’s not surprising that a dragon appears here, right?

"Um?"

After walking out of the passage again, Ellie stopped because she found a very strange and wide space at the end of the path. In the center of this space, there was a very solemn and majestic door, and on both sides of the door there were a pair of Cyclops statues.

"Finally I see something decent. I thought this was some kind of monster zoo."

Seeing this, Ellie finally breathed a sigh of relief. She had gained nothing along the way and had killed so many monsters that her hands were tired. Now she finally made some discoveries, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

While thinking, Ellie walked to the door, then reached out and knocked on it gently.

“Ohhhhhhhh!!”

However, at this moment, suddenly, a red beam of light flashed, and then the Cyclops on both sides, which were originally like stone statues, gradually began to change, just like the guards guarding the tombs that often appear in tomb-robbing movies. They stood up from the stone wall with a roar and opened their arms to the invaders - then Ellie took the magic wand and gently waved the two Cyclops, and the next moment they flew out as if they were hit head-on by a truck that ran a red light at an intersection, and hit the stone wall on the other side and turned into a pile of meat paste.

"Okay, now let me see what's in here."

As Ai Li spoke, she reached out her hand again and pushed open the stone door - this time, the heavy stone door did not respond and was pushed open by the girl.

Then, Ellie walked in.

Just like a scene in a tomb-raiding movie, after Ellie entered the stone gate, the originally dark space instantly lit up as if it was equipped with a sensor light, illuminating the dark space.

After seeing the situation inside clearly, Ellie couldn't help but whistle.

"I never thought there would be a treasure..."

In front of Ai Li, there was a person.

Strictly speaking, it is a girl buried in a cube. She has long golden hair and bright red eyes, and her hands and most of her body are buried in the cube as if they were poured into cement - well, in any other situation, this would be the classic scene of murder and burial in Tokyo Bay.

Perhaps sensing Ellie's presence, the blonde girl slowly raised her head and stared at Ellie.

"Please...save me..."

Then, the blonde girl started begging.