Chapter 43: Wraith Soul Fire

In fact, the commissions currently accepted by the Earth Claw squad were not limited to protecting Li Rui from undead.

The baseline "slay undead" task was actually one of a large stack of monster hunting commissions that Guild Master Nova had handed to Li Rui, and it happened to be one that had already been rescinded and invalidated.

Before the descent of the pure white city, the miners of the Amos Mine had already discovered undead deep underground. The lucky ones who ran fast enough to escape without casualties triggered a strike at the mine.

Immediately after the incident, the mine owner posted a commission at the Adventurers' Guild.

However, since most adventurers were concentrated in the three towns at the edge of the low-level monster forest, and the passing or retired adventurers in the local area lacked either the ability or the nerve to resolve the matter, the underground undead were not eliminated right away.

By the time adventurers with the courage to face undead finally arrived, they were astonished to find that the mine owner had gone bankrupt, the mine had been abandoned, and the relevant commission had been withdrawn at some unknown point.

The arriving adventurers could only leave with curses of bad luck.

Furthermore, because the undead had never killed a single person, never ventured to the surface even after the mine was abandoned, and most importantly, because no one was willing to pay a bounty, the task had been shelved until now.

But now, Copper Ore Town had no choice but to deal with these undead.

Copper Ore Town had a total of three mines. The Amos Mine was located to the southwest of the town, while the other two were to the north and southeast.

Because the northern mine of Copper Ore Town was situated on the Gold Wheat Plain, once the evacuation of the three northern towns was complete, the entire Gold Wheat Plain would be directly exposed to the vanguard of the mind flayer forces.

Realizing this, the miners of the northern mine terrified that the mind flayers would capture them and devour their brains, went on strike one after another and fled back into the town behind the mountain pass.

However, Copper Ore Town only had three mines in total. With one abandoned, there were still two others to accommodate the displaced miners, but now two mines were compromised in quick succession, and a flood of refugees was pouring in from the north...

This was catastrophic!

Consequently, the leaders of Copper Ore Town pooled their money together and reposted the undead eradication commission at the Adventurers' Guild.

And then, this commission was picked up by the Earth Claw squad, who had already accepted the job of "protecting Li Rui while he slays undead."

"Hey! I didn't expect a windfall!"

When Li Rui and the other four went to the Adventurers' Guild, they originally only intended to gather information about the underground conditions of the Amos Mine, never expecting a pleasant surprise to be waiting for them.

Yet apart from this unexpected bonus worth two hundred gold coins, there was nothing else.

In the past, when undead appeared in the Amos Mine, they were so slow that even the miners could outrun them, allowing everyone to escape safely. Afterward, the mine was merely sealed off without anyone being sent down to explore, leaving Li Rui and his companions completely in the dark regarding any details.

Thus, they had no choice but to investigate the Amos Mine in person.

The Amos Mine was located at the foot of a hundred-meter-tall hill, with the mine entrance situated beneath a cliff face tinged with a verdigris green.

Just by looking at this cliff face with its pale green base, Li Rui, possessing a modest amount of relevant knowledge, could tell that a copper ore vein surely ran deep beneath the mountain.

At this moment, however, the mine entrance had long since been sealed off with soil and rocks by the miners, making it look half like a burial mound. If they wanted to go down and clear out the undead, they first had to dig a path through this "burial mound."

This was the moment for the two muscular powerhouses, Galon and Brook, to take the stage.

While the two men stripped off their gear and shoveled away with furious effort, Li Rui activated his golden finger, equipped the [Soul Fire] trait from his alternate trait slots onto the trait frame, glanced at the sealed mine tunnel, and immediately unequipped it.

The [Soul Fire] trait would not burn away his soul within a single second, but within that exact second, he could use the passive ability [Undead Vision] granted by [Soul Fire] to clearly see whether anything was lurking behind the blocking soil and rocks, waiting for them.

The result was nothing. There were no signs of life, nor could even the soul fires of undead be seen behind the earth and stone.

Li Rui breathed a sigh of relief inwardly—it seemed they would not be ambushed the moment they cleared the obstruction.

After confirming that the area behind the obstacle was safe, he joined Paul and Millie to start preparing lunch and dinner for the day.

The entrance area could not simply be a dog hole just large enough to crawl through, because they were not here to grave-rob; they were here to throw down in battle.

If the entrance could not be dug wide enough, once they failed to defeat the underground undead, escaping would be nearly impossible.

Therefore, they rested here for the night and continued digging the next day until they cleared a passage wide enough for three people to run shoulder-to-shoulder.

"Alright, let's head down now for a preliminary exploration."

Having secured their retreat path, the group shouldered their bulging backpacks and set off underground.

The backpacks, fully loaded with supplies, were preparations made for the worst-case scenario. Should they somehow get trapped underground due to an unforeseen accident, they could at least die with full stomachs thanks to the provisions inside.

Adventures were never easy; they were life-or-death struggles concerning survival. Because of this, the earnings of adventurers were vastly higher than the incomes of ordinary people.

On this day, they did not push all the way to the deepest recesses of the mine. Instead, they thoroughly explored every branch tunnel they encountered along the way, ensuring that a horde of undead wouldn't suddenly blindside them from behind.

Judging that the time was approaching evening, they retreated from the mine tunnel and rested for yet another night.

On the following day, they truly penetrated deep into the mine.

Holding torches aloft while continuously searching, stepping into one branch tunnel after another, and leaving markers along the way, they finally arrived at a peculiar location around the afternoon.

Unfolding before the group was a massive, entirely green karst cave.

"Well," Paul turned around, looked at the tunnel opening they had just crossed—clearly carved out by pickaxes—and said in a low voice, "Now we know why the miners dug up undead from the underground yet suffered no casualties."

The area of the cavern before them was likely tens of thousands of square meters, if not larger.

Stalactite pillars of various sizes, gleaming with a copper-green luster, hung down from the cavern ceiling thirty or forty meters high, tier upon tier, obscuring their view of the distance.

"Let's move forward a little and take a look." Paul raised his torch high, trying to cast the firelight further into the gloom.

"Wait," Li Rui reached out at this moment to stop him: "Let me take a look."

Paul paused for a fraction of a second, then nodded and stepped back behind him.

Ever since the encounter with the brain-eater at the edge of the pure white city, the Earth Claw squad had known that Li Rui possessed some kind of special ability that allowed him to detect the number of brain-eaters hidden behind structures.

After forming the party, Li Rui had openly told everyone that he possessed an active ability that could detect living creatures and undead through walls, though he omitted the specifics regarding the [Soul Fire] trait's description.

Equipping that trait would convert him into a life-attribute undead, and an undead—even of the life attribute—was still an undead. It was truly not suitable to share with teammates, lest it breed unnecessary alienation.

Upon equipping the [Soul Fire] trait, Li Rui fixed his gaze forward and looked ahead.

Pint-sized, starry flickers of tiny flames abruptly popped into his field of vision.