Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Survivor’s Relics

Xu Xin looked inside the stone house, relieved to find no humanoid stone statues this time.

He didn’t want to see another humanoid stone statue; it was too eerie.

This room was much smaller than the previous three, empty except for an old box in the center, with a rusty lock hanging on it.

“The whole room has just one box; why does it look so much like a trap room in a game?” Xu Xin cautiously refrained from entering right away and tossed a stone inside, but nothing reacted.

Keke, perched on his shoulder, didn’t sense any danger. Seeing Xu Xin so cautious, it jumped directly into the room and turned around to “whimper” at Xu Xin, indicating the room was safe.

“This little guy.” Xu Xin shook his head and stepped into the room.

The box was locked with a rusty lock, and Xu Xin didn’t have a key. Though he didn’t feel like searching for one, he drew his iron sword and slashed at the fragile-looking lock.

“Crack!”

The lock snapped and fell to the ground.

“Who needs a key when brute force does the trick.”

Xu Xin habitually moved to the back of the box, always afraid something might suddenly jump out.

The box was wooden, emitting a strong decaying odor. Xu Xin intended to lift the lid, but as the box was old and neglected, with a “crack,” the lid broke off entirely.

The items inside the box came into Xu Xin’s view.

“Huh? Is this a green-grade beast skin backpack?” Xu Xin was a little surprised to find something here only craftable in a survival treehouse. He picked up the backpack, and indeed, it was a bag (green).

Underneath the backpack was a neatly folded set of clothes; Xu Xin picked it up–it was a green-grade leather armor set, but it was almost completely damaged and broken.

The contents of the backpack also startled Xu Xin.

“A stone pickaxe, stone axe, stone spear, bow and arrows, various rotting fruits, wood, stones. This really is a survivalist’s backpack!” Xu Xin emptied the backpack, revealing basic tools and materials.

Could these be the relics of a survivalist who died in this dungeon?

Judging by the degree of damage to the armor, its owner must have been attacked violently, with virtually no chance of surviving.

Xu Xin suddenly recalled the mysterious voice’s words: [Countless treasures left by predecessors in the city]. Could these “predecessors” refer to past survivalists?

And those dead survivalists, did they leave no remains? But if they truly left no remains, who neatly folded these tattered clothes, placed them and the backpack inside the box, and even locked the box with an iron lock?

The green-grade backpack didn’t contain anything valuable; the only usable items, the bow and arrows, were mostly wooden and were already quite rotten, easy to break with a snap.

Xu Xin took nothing and left the room.

The fifth room was directly opposite this one; Xu Xin pushed the door open and entered.

Sure enough, this room also contained a wooden box. Xu Xin once again slashed the rusty lock with his sword and opened the box.

A green-grade backpack lay atop a broken iron armor set.

This was probably another survivalist’s relic.

The backpack, too, didn’t contain any valuable items, just basic materials that Xu Xin found cumbersome to carry but wasteful to discard–truly tasteless.

Continuing forward, the subsequent rooms were the same story, a locked wooden box, easily severed lock, containing a backpack and a broken armor set.

Until the tenth room, the room finally changed.

The door was locked again from the inside, and Xu Xin used his old trick to force it open.

“Another humanoid stone statue,” Xu Xin noted as he looked at the stone statue of a female servant holding a broom.

The maid statue was of a middle-aged woman with incredibly lifelike wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. She held a real broom, poised in a sweeping motion, focused, her eyes directed at the ground as if genuinely sweeping.

It was too lifelike, far too lifelike.

These statues resembled actual residents of this dungeon.

The first room housed the dungeon’s male owner; the second room, the female owner; the third room, their child; while this room’s statue portrayed a maid handling chores.

These statues seemed to live genuinely in this dungeon, carved so lifelike that even their postures appeared natural.

Xu Xin increasingly sensed that these statues might actually come to life at some opportune moment!

Chills ran down Xu Xin’s spine, but fortunately, he wasn’t alone; beside him was a little panda that could sense danger.

“Keke, if there’s danger, you must warn me.” Xu Xin patted Keke’s head and stuffed a blue-grade berry into its mouth.

“… Whimper!” Still munching the berry, Keke replied indistinctly.

The broom in the maid’s hand emitted a blue glow, clearly a blue-grade tool.

Cautiously, Xu Xin extracted the broom from the maid’s hand, afraid that excessive force might indeed bring the statue to life.

[Special Broom (Blue): A tool feared by mutated beasts, used to repel low-level mutated beasts with a simple wave. So mutant beasts are afraid of brooms!]

It was yet another tool related to mutated beasts, used to repel them, opposite to the [Little Windmill (Blue)].

It truly was a complete set of tools to handle mutated beasts.

It seemed there should be captive mutated beasts somewhere in this dungeon.

Xu Xin packed the broom into his backpack. This broom should prove very useful in this dungeon.

Leaving the maid’s room, Xu Xin continued down the corridor.

The subsequent rooms were similar to before, all with locked wooden boxes.

After searching several rooms, he found nothing valuable.

Entering a new room yet again, Xu Xin skillfully cut through the lock and opened the box.

“Huh? Good stuff!” A blue light shone–it was a blue-grade backpack and a blue-grade set of severely damaged leather armor.

“Even someone equipped like this died here?” Xu Xin murmured. He also wore blue-grade leather armor and carried a blue-grade backpack; did this mean the backpack’s owner was at his level?

Xu Xin took out the blue backpack and checked its contents.

“Wow, so many blue-grade fruits, and they’re still intact!”

Inside he found blue-grade berries, apples, and oranges, with dozens of each, perhaps preserved by their blue-grade, ensuring they were still edible.

“This is… logs and fine woods! So many! Why did he bring so many logs and fine woods, but lucky for me.”

Coincidentally lacking logs and fine woods, Xu Xin gladly accepted them.

He even found weapons inside.

Blue-grade iron dagger, blue-grade iron spear, blue-grade crossbow.

Iron weapons! The backpack’s owner could make iron weapons, likely a top-tier survivalist familiar with the secrets of this world, like Xu Xin!

Of course, it was also possible this person had developed in this world for a long time as a regular survivalist. Regardless, their comprehensive abilities weren’t vastly different from his own.

Even someone like that, died in this dungeon?

What danger did this dungeon conceal after all?