It wasn't long before Tata reminded him again:

"Mr. Knight, hurry and finish the combat."

"What's wrong?" Fang Hong wanted to ask why. But suddenly, he heard a faint 'kaka' sound from his Magic Guided Reactor, and the Magic Power Output began to steadily decline.

At that moment, he realized—there are more enemies around!

Miss Tata also said, "Quite a few things are approaching from the direction we came."

Fang Hong couldn't help but feel a chill on his scalp; just one of these things is at BOSS-level, and there are more. What kind of place is this? No wonder so few are willing to come here; the castle's underground is simply crawling with Elite Monsters.

The Vampire from before wasn't worth mentioning, but this Strange Shadow couldn't even be identified by the system in terms of species or Level, likely making it a Lord Level creature. Of course, it could be due to his lack of Knowledge, but Fang Hong preferred to believe it was the former.

And that Strange Shadow didn't seem like it intended to fall anytime soon.

Fang Hong, helpless, had no choice but to let the Energy Angel give up its defense and thrust a sword into the shadow's thin chest and abdomen. The shadow's elongated Shadow Sword also pierced into the Energy Angel's chest, and both impaled each other at the same moment.

The Strange Shadow let out a scream and exploded into countless shards. At that moment, Fang Hong felt a sharp pain, as if something passed through his body, but he had no visible injuries. A check revealed that more than half of the Magic Power in his Magic Guided Reactor was gone.

He finally realized that this thing could self-destruct, and the self-destruction also involved Mana burning.

Fang Hong was speechless. But Miss Tata had mentioned that the thing itself had Magic Power Attributes, so having such a power wasn't surprising. He checked his Energy Angel and found that, fortunately, the sword hadn't damaged too many precision components—'Engineering Machine' remote repair could only fix the structure and armor, and the battlefield lacked the conditions to repair internal precision components.

He had only three main Energy Angel combat forces; losing one meant losing a third of his combat power, which wasn't ideal in a place like this.

The 'kaka' sound of the Magic Guided Reactor grew louder. Fang Hong knew those Strange Shadows were closing in on his position, so he dared not stay longer, packed up the Energy Angel, and prepared to leave.

But at that moment, Fang Hong stopped in his tracks.

He found that a line of notification had appeared in his system unbeknownst to him—

'The 'Dragon's Witch' lower-level event directory has changed.'

'Character killed 'Dragon's Shadow', absorbing Origin Power.'

And it was then Fang Hong noticed a new entry in his craftsman Attributes:

Legendary Inspiration, Sorrow.

He was completely dumbfounded. The last time he obtained a Legendary Inspiration was after killing the Ancient Monarch Hunter, from whom he had obtained the Sorrow Inspiration by absorbing it from the Pale Flame of his sword. But what class of Monster was the Ancient Monarch Hunter? Even though it was just a Phantom, that did not detract from its Legendary status.

Moreover, absorbing inspiration from a Legendary Weapon wasn't strange for a craftsman. But how did killing one inexplicable Shadow grant him a Legendary Inspiration?

So if he killed all the Strange Shadows here, wouldn't he gain countless Legendary Inspirations?

Of course, Fang Hong could only entertain this possibility in his mind. What intrigued him more was the concept of Origin Power and what Dragon's Shadow actually was.

He had heard of Dragon's Claw, had even seen and fought against it. But Dragon's Shadow—he had never heard of this term—if Dolifen's Shadow of Nicopolis counted as a Dragon's Shadow, then the difference between them was too vast.

He really couldn't see how this eerie Shadow was related to dragons.

"Mr. Knight, look down." Tata reminded him at this point.

Fang Hong started, then looked down to find something left at the spot where the Strange Shadow had fallen, lying quietly on the ground.

It was a dark metal fragment, apparently unremarkable.

But that 'Dragon's Shadow' didn't have a physical form, so dropping a metal fragment was already very odd. Eteliria isn't truly a virtual world, where killing Monsters results in loot.

Fang Hong picked up the metal fragment, which was denser than expected, appearing to be very thin, yet it felt quite hefty in his hand.

Tata fixed her gaze on the metal shard in his hand and suddenly spoke: "Mr. Knight, this is Cold Steel, with a scent of Fairy Blood on it."

"Cold Steel?"

Fang Hong glanced back as he exited the stone chamber and asked.

"A rare metal that can withstand Fairy magic, even rarer than Fairy Gold. They like to use it to forge Weapons..." Tata pondered her words. "But fairies typically don't leave their scent on it, unless..."

"Unless?"

Miss Tata shook her head, not voicing her thoughts.

Fang Hong sensed her mind was preoccupied and, feeling a sense of shared understanding, didn't press further.

Meanwhile, with pursuers closing in, he had little inclination for further curiosity. After leaving the stone chamber, as the passageways became increasingly complex, Fang Hong couldn't risk staying longer or figure out if he was on the right path, relying solely on his intuition to move forward.

On two occasions he encountered traps but managed to carefully avoid them.

After some time, he gradually felt the prickling sensation on his back fade away.

But Fang Hong couldn't be certain if his feelings were correct, so he continued forward for a while longer before stopping. The surroundings had gone completely silent, with only the faint glow of the Illumination Crystal remaining.

The 'kaka' of the Magic Guided Reactor had also completely stopped, and Fang Hong glanced back, finally sure that those 'things' had departed.

"They seem to have suddenly left." he whispered softly.

Miss Tata nodded. "Probably around that last intersection, they turned back."

"What's going on?" Fang Hong found the underground world to be exceptionally bizarre.

"Maybe there's something nearby."

Fang Hong surveyed his surroundings and suddenly spotted a glow ahead. His heart tightened with fear that he had unknowingly circled back to the vicinity of the stone chamber and was about to summon the Energy Angel when a timid voice behind him tried cautiously, "Brother Ade?"

"Gita!"

Hearing the voice, Fang Hong was greatly surprised—It was the little girl Natural Historian who had been missing for a long time.

He rushed over and indeed found Gita sitting alone against the wall, clutching an Illumination Crystal, with an arm wound, looking at him apprehensively.

...

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