Constructing-Style Wizard

Chapter 723: 230. Nail Clipper Box_3

On the walls on both sides of the tunnel, there was a dark narrow entry or a twisted crack every couple of meters.

Noland Lee activated “Life and Death Tracking” and swept a look across these dark areas.

He saw some small underwater serpents that were inhabiting those areas, but no larger sea serpents.

This was a bit strange.

Noland Lee asked Hadley Grant about it, but he also couldn’t quite figure out why, only mentioning that as long as they didn’t venture into the dark areas, they wouldn’t be attacked by the sea snakes.

Seeing Hadley only worried about young sea snakes in the dark areas, Noland set aside this peculiar phenomenon for now.

When the two reached a fork in the road, an aggressive undercurrent emerged from somewhere, brushed past Noland, and rushed towards the tunnel on the other side of the junction.

Two pillars of water jetted out from under Hadley’s feet, carrying Noland out of the undercurrent and leaving the turbulent sea water behind him.

“Good thing you also know the ‘Deep Sea Swimming’ Magic Spell. You reduced the resistance of the undercurrent to the minimum. Otherwise, I think pulling you out of the undercurrent would have cost me a lot of mana.”

Hadley looked back at Noland and muttered, then continued swimming ahead.

The further they went, the more relics from the Dragon Clan were scattered on the ground.

After enduring several more “ambushes” by undercurrents, they finally reached the giant cave rumored to hold many Draconian collectibles.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Just as Hadley had described, this place was extensive, with an estimated width of over 500 meters and a height of more than 20 meters, making it a truly large cavern.

There were several five-to-six-meter tall mounds on the ground, all made up of Draconian collectibles brought here by undercurrents.

Just as Noland arrived, a powerful undercurrent surged through the cave.

This current swept up more than half of the mounds on the ground, causing Draconian collectibles to float around like confetti.

It took a full three minutes before the floating Draconian collectibles slowly fell down, reforming into several mounds and a carpet that covered the ground.

“We’ve arrived, Jarvis.” Hadley pulled out several bowl-sized metal nails from his magic pouch:

“I’ll first drive these nails into the walls of the cave. They are our safety pins against the undercurrents. When you’re searching for collectibles, you must always ensure that the rope around your waist is connected to the metal nails, so you won’t be swept away by the undercurrents here. You saw it just now, didn’t you? The undercurrents here are far more ferocious than the ones we encountered earlier, and no one knows their patterns.”

Hadley cautioned a few words, took out a hammer, and started fixing the metal nails onto the wall, creating a crisp clanging sound.

Having nothing to do, Noland looked around.

That previous undercurrent had surged in from a deep hole in the cave.

Inside that hole, there was no moss emitting blue light, only darkness. It was rather eerie.

The light conditions in the rest of the cave were not much better, with only a few areas where bioluminescent moss existed.

The Deconstruction Technique followed Noland’s line of sight, scanning the entire cave.

[System Message:]

[You are about to use Deconstruction Technique on “rusty anchor”.]

[You are about to use Deconstruction Technique on “moldy silverware”.]

[You are about to use Deconstruction Technique on “rusty metal objects”.]

[You are about to use Deconstruction Technique on “undetermined Draconian tools”.]

…

Row after row of system characters was refreshed in his mind.

In general, about one out of every four items was directly related to the Dragon Clan.

For this trip, Noland had prepared five large-capacity underwater magic pouches.

This kind of magic pouch could be used underwater, so they don’t need to worry about seawater flooding in while storing items.

These five pouches would be used by Noland to carry small items that have high energy reserves.

If an item was quite large, Noland planned to destroy it on the spot, using passive deconstruction to get the energy reward.

For example, that object that looked like a metal cupboard.

The name given to it by Deconstruction Technique was “an uncertain Draconian object”. Deconstruction would consume 100,000 energy points.

It was quite large, about two meters high and one meter wide, with a thick metal door, and was one of the few heavy objects that weren’t carried away by the currents.

Such an old and heavy object wasn’t really convenient to put into a magic pouch.

Destroying it on the spot would be the best choice for Noland.

Noland’s gaze fell on this cupboard-like object, memorized its location, and planned to smash it later.

“Thud…”

A soft clinking sound came from the cabinet Noland Lee was looking at.

This sound, mixed with Hadley Grant’s hammering of metal nails, wasn’t very noticeable, but was detected by Noland Lee who had activated ‘Enhanced Perception’.

Noland Lee couldn’t help but pause.

“Thump, thump-thump, thump-thump-thump…”

A series of clinking sounds echoed in the cave.

Hadley Grant stopped what he was doing, glanced around the cave with a puzzled look, and finally joined Noland Lee in looking at the large metal “cupboard”.

“Uh, Jarvis, did you hear that thumping sound? It seemed to be coming from that Dragon Clan’s nail box,” Hadley Grant said uncertainly.

“Nail box?” Noland Lee asked.

Hadley Grant pointed at the “cupboard”:

“Yes, the metal cabinet you see there. For us humans, it somewhat resembles a cupboard, but in the Era of Dragons, it was used by the Dragon Clan to store their nails, typically containing nail clippings from dragon claws.”

“Thump, thump, thump…”

The thing in the nail box, upon hearing the two’s conversation, knocked against the metal cover at a faster rate, as if it wanted to get out.

Noland Lee and Hadley Grant exchanged glances and shook their heads slightly:

“My ‘Life and Death Tracking’ tells me there are no living beings, corpses, or undead in the nail box, I don’t know what’s knocking on the lid.”

Just as Hadley Grant was about to speak, Noland Lee raised his hand, gazing intently at the nail box, interrupting him.

“Wait, Hadley. I see something inside the box. It’s a Merfolk. It seems to have lifted some magic that shields it from detection. I only just saw its figure in my Magic Vision… it seems to be seeking help from us.”

“Merfolk??” Hadley Grant’s eyes widened:

“Are you sure? Could it be a sea monster? Both sea monsters and merfolk have tails; one resembles a snake’s tail, while the other a fish’s tail.”

“I’m certain. I can’t be wrong, it’s a merfolk with a fish tail, not a sea monster.” Noland Lee nodded confidently.

In his Magic Vision, he saw a petite merfolk with a fish tail.

The information fed back by the Deconstruction technique also confirmed that Noland Lee was not mistaken.

[System Message:]

[You are about to use the Deconstruction technique on an ‘Unknown Female Merfolk’.]

[Expected to consume 70,000 energy points, the degree of deconstruction can reach 100%]

The consumption of 70,000 points for Deconstruction was equivalent to deconstructing a four-circled wizard.

Noland Lee temporarily considered the female merfolk trapped in the nail box as having the strength of a four-ring Deep-sea Wizard.

Seeing Noland Lee’s conviction, Hadley Grant reached out his right hand towards the thudding nail box.

His palm extended outward, turning into several streams of water, touching the top cover of the nail box from a distance of several tens of meters away.

After fumbling on both sides of the top cover, Hadley Grant, relying on his own research on the Dragon Clan’s collection, successfully unlocked the mechanical lock on the outside of the cover.

“Click.” The lock clicked open.

A petite pink figure burst out from inside, looking tearfully at Noland Lee and Hadley Grant.

“It really is a merfolk. Her skin and scales are pink, and she’s quite small.” Hadley Grant pondered for a moment and said:

“This should be a prepubescent female merfolk, equivalent to a human girl of about fourteen or fifteen years old. How could she appear here alone and be trapped in a nail box? …I can’t make sense of it.”

“Yah yah yah~ yah yah~” The female merfolk called out a few sounds to Hadley Grant, showing no fear as she swam over.

Leaning his head to the side, Noland Lee said to his companion:

“Do I get the feeling this Mermaid Lady knows you?”

Hadley Grant scratched his liquid-like beard:

“I have the same feeling. But I don’t have any merfolk friends, so how could she know me…”

Upon pondering something, Hadley Grant smacked his palm and looked at the female merfolk, saying:

“Ah~~ I remember now, you wouldn’t happen to be the merfolk baby left in the shell by that merfolk squad two months ago, would you?”

The Mermaid Lady might understand human language, or perhaps she understood Hadley Grant’s tone and expression.

In any case, after Hadley’s exclamation, she nodded continuously and let off a string of “Yah yah yah”, releasing a long speech.

This left Hadley Grant at a loss; he didn’t understand the merfolk’s language, so he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

Noland Lee contemplated for a moment and directed a comprehensive regular Deconstruction at the female merfolk.