"Hmm? I didn't expect such an unexpected bonus."
Looking at the ruins that were now completely destroyed, Linde felt a mixture of surprise and regret.
"It would be great if we could bring Ellie along this time. She would definitely want to see these ruins, and it would be wonderful if we could find some relics from a pre-civilization era."
Linde pulled out a map and made a small triangle mark on their current location.
"Search the surrounding area to see if there are any similar things."
Lind directed his soldiers to begin searching around the ruins, and soon they discovered a similar ruin that looked more complete not far away.
"Oh my, there really is one, and this one looks much more complete."
The ruins before us stood like a small spire, and although the marks of time had not completely destroyed them, their surface was covered with unknown vines.
Linde drew his short sword and cut all the annoying vines off, revealing its complete form.
A metal stake, resembling an Egyptian stele from a bygone era, came into view.
It is covered with strange magical patterns, telling people about its former power.
"With so many magical runes, they must have a significant purpose..."
The patterns on this are much coarser than those on the replica core Alice obtained before, indicating that its energy utilization level is definitely much higher than that of the previous replica core.
However, this also means that this thing is definitely much more dangerous to use than the core, and it must be from some large-scale creation.
Just like the large core that Alice created, the thicker the magic lines, the greater the flow of magic it can hold, and the larger the size and power of the object.
"Once we've wiped out the barbarians this time, I'll bring Alice here next time. She'll definitely gain a lot from that."
Linde looked around and, through his sensory activation, discovered many similar vine-like structures.
Moreover, according to the order of their arrangement, these things seem to be arranged in a circle, surrounding something.
And judging from the angle, this circle is quite large.
"It looks like there's a pretty large ruin here..."
Just then, a soldier noticed something amiss.
"What is that? Enemy attack!"
The expected attack did not materialize. Finally, a soldier walked over, carrying a goblin who had been knocked unconscious.
"My lord, we've just captured a goblin. We should be close to their lair now."
He then threw the bound goblin in front of Lind.
To be honest, this was the first time Linde had ever observed a living goblin so closely.
In previous instances, no one was left alive, but this time it was a rare case of capturing someone alive.
Linde observed it carefully and found that the goblin was not much different from the goblin he had imagined. It was not as ugly as the goblins in some works, but it was not as smart as the ones in Warcraft.
This goblin was short, with dark green skin, pointed ears, and a face covered in rough wrinkles.
It was dressed in clothes simply pieced together from animal skins and leaves, and held a crude stone axe in its hand.
Linde crouched down and carefully examined the goblin for any special markings or items.
At its waist, Lind found a small pouch made of bone containing some faintly glowing powder.
Linde had an idea and decided to use the deconstruction halo to see the origin and function of these things.
Soon, information about these powders came to mind.
These powders grew from some strange ruins and were then scraped off by the goblins with bone knives.
Linde felt that it looked familiar and finally discovered some clues.
Although these crystals grew very irregularly, they looked remarkably like something.
Crystal Remains!
"Wild crystal remains? So these things are crystal remains powder?"
Lind found it unbelievable, and then he was shocked.
Because from the information he saw, he came to a very frightening conclusion.
These mindless goblins are also collecting this crystalline powder in swarms.
It is clear that they have discovered some function of the crystal skeleton and are making use of it.
Linde frowned, a sense of unease rising within him.
The goblins' collection of crystal fragments must be hiding a huge conspiracy.
He immediately realized that the barbarian problem was perhaps more intractable than he had imagined.
After finishing off the ugly goblin with a single blow, Lind stood up, his eyes resolute.
"The whole team is retreating."
The soldiers acted swiftly, drawing the entire column together.
Meanwhile, Lind decided to speed up the search to find the goblins' lair as soon as possible and thwart their plot.
During the ensuing search, Lind and his soldiers discovered more traces of activity. These traces all seemed to point in one direction: a mysterious place hidden deep in the jungle.
Most importantly, the direction of these goblins' activity was exactly where the center of the ruins had been identified earlier.
Lind had a bold guess in his mind: the goblins collected the crystal powder either to add to the sacrificial cauldrons or to... activate the ruins.
According to the clues Linde had previously obtained, this barbarian tribe must have a high priest, whose strength is at least at the silver level.
Furthermore, the crystal remains are intricately connected to this ancient civilization, and using them to activate ruins or certain things within those ruins would certainly be no problem.
"My lord, it's just ahead."
As the search continued, Lind and his soldiers finally arrived at the mysterious place.
A massive ruin appeared before them, surrounded by barbarian camps.
The barbarian camp was built almost entirely around this towering ruin, which was now covered with the barbarians' illegal structures, making it look quite incongruous.
Lind's aura of life kept telling him that a huge number of goblins and trolls were currently gathered in this massive barbarian camp.
There was even a very powerful... troll?
"Trolls can grow this big? This is a troll?"
Linde saw this terrifying behemoth from afar.
Its five-meter height brought immense pressure, and the strange giant sword on its back told everyone that it was definitely not one of the ordinary creatures they had seen before.
Linde looked at Astaire and asked:
"Aster, are you confident you can take it down?"
Aster also saw the enormous creature and was filled with unease, as it was the first time he had ever seen such a large troll.
"It shouldn't be a big problem. Its strength shouldn't have reached the Gold level yet. However... it's hard to say if it has the assistance of a High Priest."
Lind quickly noticed a small figure at the troll's feet.
The giant troll's enormous size makes it hard to notice the tiny creatures at its feet.
Within the activated vision, Linde also saw something else on the priest: a constantly pulsating fusion core.
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