Chapter 283: Guarding the Treasure

Joo Joowon had only one thought.

Get rich overnight.

As expected, the saying was true: Building bridges and roads leaves no corpses behind, while killing and setting fires earns a golden belt.

After the brief surprise, Joo Joowon could not help feeling a headache over how to deal with these things.

The items he had picked up earlier could be left aside for now. With the spatial waist pendant and the bundle he had made from spider silk, he could still carry those back safely.

However, there was no way he could take the things in front of him away. Many of them had already liquefied, which should have been caused by the earth fire’s previous actions. Joo Joowon had no containers to store them in. Even if he had, it would have been impossible to carry so much away.

However, if he simply left them alone, there was no way these things could be preserved properly either. Within a few days, they would inevitably be completely consumed by the nearby extraordinary creatures.

The earth fire certainly had a considerable deterrent effect on the creatures in the surrounding area, but this deterrence would not last forever. After a few days, once they saw that there was no movement on the mountain, they would inevitably come over to investigate and redistribute ownership of the mountain.

Without the earth fire’s concealment, the aura of these energies would be the brightest star in the night sky. They were so conspicuous that it would be impossible for them to go undiscovered.

In Joo Joowon’s view, only a formation or some special skill could conceal everything. Another possibility was to deceive other people’s perception, making them wander around like headless flies even after finding this place.

There were indeed concealment formations freely displayed in the Astral Palace. However, leaving aside how ordinary the publicly displayed formations were, the fact that he had no formation materials in his hands meant that this method was destined to fail.

The formations in the Astral Palace naturally needed the assistance of the stars. Therefore, even the lowest-grade materials required were extraterrestrial meteorites. It was not possible to create a formation by simply finding some random objects.

Although the pond only looked exaggerated, its actual value lay more in its quantity than its quality. It would not attract any particularly powerful creatures. At most, it could probably help one or two mutated beasts advance to Levels 9 or 10. However, in the current situation, even Level 10 was already an extraordinary level of strength. Hwi had not even reached Level 10 yet, so Joo Joowon wanted to leave these things for him to consume.

Even if Hwi could not use them, Joo Joowon could not possibly give them to an enemy to strengthen them.

Whether they were players or mutated beasts, as long as they did not belong to his own faction, helping them was considered strengthening an enemy.

After thinking about a solution, he decided that directly releasing the earth fire to guard this place would definitely not work. The other party had not completely submitted yet. Letting it out would be no different from releasing a mouse into a rice jar.

After all, there was no contract or anything similar between him and the earth fire like the one that normally existed between beast tamers and their contracted beasts. At most, it could be considered a temporary pet. If he did not keep it under his watch, the moment he left, the other party would take the opportunity to escape.

However, this matter could not wait. There was no way to conceal the situation here. If there were mutated beasts similar to treasure-seeking mice, which were highly sensitive to heavenly treasures and earthly treasures, they could easily discover what was happening inside the mountain.

In fact, it was not even necessary for them to be extraordinary creatures. Even ordinary animals that climbed the mountain could find this place and secretly eat from it under the influence of their instinct to evolve.

The reason everything had remained safe and peaceful in the past was simply that the earth fire was still around. It had eaten everything in the surrounding area to extinction. However, zombies and similar creatures could replenish their numbers very quickly. Even if they could not "respawn" after dying, they still could not create any kind of vacuum in such a short period of time.

Therefore, Joo Joowon only weighed the advantages and disadvantages for a moment before deciding to call the Ant Queen Gaemi over to guard the entrance.

Of course, the prerequisite was that he could actually call her over.

Just like the earth fire, Gaemi also possessed a certain degree of instability. She was unlike Byeol, who had a deep bond with him. Even without a contract, that bond would not be affected.

While Joo Joowon had been unconscious, the mental mark he had placed on Gaemi had already begun naturally fading away with the passage of time. Therefore, he had long since lost the ability to sense Gaemi’s location.

Because of this, he had not made a special trip to look for her after leaving the house. In any case, there were only three possible outcomes.

Either she had escaped, she was still there, or she had already mutated under the influence of the Whispers.

Regardless of which of these three outcomes had become reality, none of them would affect him. He could completely wait until [Revival of the Darkness] ended before going over to check. There was no need to go there now.

After all, if the Ant Queen had not escaped, one more day would not matter.

The earth fire had only just caused such a huge disturbance, and it had already thoroughly ravaged the surrounding area. Leaving the energy pool there for a short period of time should not result in it being stolen. It was enough to support Joo Joowon going down the mountain and bringing Gaemi back.

However, if she really had escaped, then Joo Joowon could only choose another method of dealing with the situation.

Recharge.