Chapter 384 - 383: Red Rune Box

Chapter 384: Chapter 383: Red Rune Box

’This wind looks terrifying, though. If it’s as damaging as the Wind Blades outside, or these pale-green currents of pure air, walking straight in would be no different from suicide, would it?’

She took out another piece of jerky to test the wind’s destructive power.

’If the Gloom Hatchling were here, it would have started squawking about what a criminal waste this was the first time I used jerky for a test.’

Of course... that was purely Seraphina Sinclair’s imagination.

After all, the Gloom Hatchling couldn’t even speak, let alone use a sophisticated phrase like "criminal waste."

Seraphina Sinclair held up the jerky, not touching the current directly, but cautiously hovering it about a centimeter from the edge of the airflow.

Seeing that the jerky was unharmed, she carefully moved closer.

When the jerky touched the wind, the currents gently altered their course, not harming it in the slightest.

Seraphina Sinclair breathed a sigh of relief, but then let out another sigh as she prepared to move forward.

She lowered her head and patted her cheeks, then took out the Advanced Medical Box and healed herself until no more injuries remained. Only then did she put it away and take out an Energy Potion.

She hadn’t rested well last night, and today had been exhausting.

’If a tough battle lies ahead...’

Seraphina Sinclair gave a bitter smile, tilted her head back, and downed the Potion.

A few days ago, when she left the auction house, she had been overjoyed, thinking the Sunflower’s problem was solved.

But when she expanded the Portable Ecological Maintenance Device she’d spent eight thousand Black Fog Coins on to its maximum size, she was dumbfounded.

The device’s largest setting wasn’t even as big as the behemoth Sunflower back home. How was it supposed to get inside to bask in the sunshine?!

’As for channeling the sunshine out...’

’That was even more absurd. The quality of the damned light plummeted after being reflected by the lens!’

The Sunflower wouldn’t even consume the faint light that shone directly on it, let alone this pathetic glimmer created by refracting the device’s already lower-quality light.

Helpless, Seraphina Sinclair had plopped down between the Sunflower and the Portable Ecological Maintenance Device, looking from one to the other.

She couldn’t stand that the item she’d spent eight thousand Black Fog Coins on was useless. Nor could she accept that even with a light-producing device right there, the Sunflower was still, for whatever reason, on a hunger strike.

After pondering for a long while, Seraphina Sinclair had simply grabbed the Sunflower by its head and tried to shove its face into the Portable Ecological Maintenance Device by itself.

The result of forcing a child to eat against its will was predictable.

The Sunflower had immediately puffed up in a huff and twisted its face away, refusing to look at Seraphina Sinclair. It took a whole night for it to get over its sulk.

Thinking back on it now still gave Seraphina Sinclair a headache.

She felt like a parent dealing with a mischievous child—she couldn’t hit it, and she couldn’t scold it. If she pushed too hard, not only would the child get mad at her, but she’d end up infuriated herself.

Seraphina Sinclair took a deep breath and suddenly remembered that she had bought more than just the Portable Ecological Maintenance Device at the auction.

She had completely forgotten about the Illustration Card and the Enhancement Scroll.

’Otherwise, I would’ve known what the reward for completing the F-level monster compendium was ages ago.’

’It’s all the Sunflower’s fault.’

’That damned Sunflower.’

Seraphina Sinclair shook her head, pushing thoughts of the Sunflower to the back of her mind. She took a deep breath to steady herself, then stepped resolutely inside.

With no human present, the bowl-shaped depression fell silent once more. The pale-green currents of pure wind flowed gently, as if they had been doing so through long, quiet eons.

But in truth, only a moment later, Seraphina Sinclair reappeared.

First, she stood in silence. Then she suddenly crouched down, propping her face in one hand. Her brow was furrowed, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.

’There’s no way I saw that wrong. I’ve survived in The Black Mist World for this long; I wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake.’

’So...’

’There really is a giant Silver Dragon lying in the core of the Wind-carved Fissure?!’

’It’s so big! That majestic Silver Dragon?!’

Majestic as a mountain, imposing as a deity.

The moment Seraphina Sinclair stepped into the core, she was greeted by a sight so shocking it stole her breath.

A vast, immeasurable subterranean cavern, its ceiling far higher than the fissure outside.

The ceiling was a vast vortex woven from countless pale-green and silver-white air currents—a magnificent, deadly, inverted sea of storms.

It seemed this vortex was the source of the endless Wind Blades that filled the core.

And directly beneath this swirling storm, the silver beast lay prone.

Its body occupied nearly a third of the core. Each Dragon Scale was distinct, and a single glance was enough to reveal their hardness.

Its long, draconic neck was coiled, its head resting on its foreclaws.

A single golden, vertical pupil had locked onto her the instant she entered.

If Seraphina Sinclair hadn’t had the presence of mind to retreat instinctively, she would probably be...

...decapitated by now.

Seraphina Sinclair pondered for a long time, and the more she thought, the more she began to question all her life choices.

’What in the world is going on? What is with all this stuff happening to me?!’

First, the Sunflower went on a hunger strike, meaning Seraphina Sinclair was stuck. She hadn’t given up, though. She went to the auction house and bought the Portable Ecological Maintenance Device, but the thing was completely useless.

Not discouraged, and unwilling to waste time, Seraphina Sinclair had used the downtime to earn Black Fog Coins and come to the Wind-carved Fissure to grind for attribute points.

’And what’s the result?’

’It’s like the heavens are playing a giant cosmic joke on me.’

’There’s a damn Silver Dragon sprawled out in the core of the Wind-carved Fissure!’

’That’s a dragon!’

It was precisely because she had a Gloom Hatchling at home that Seraphina Sinclair knew just how dangerous they were.

Seraphina Sinclair had sharp eyes. In the brief moment she’d been inside the core, she had spotted not only the Silver Dragon but also a Supply Box behind it.

The box was glowing red. One look and you knew it was a rune box.

The last time Seraphina Sinclair had seen a rune box was the Blue Rune Box that yielded the Water Dragon Roar scroll.

The Blue Rune Box was B-level. This red one, guarded by a Great Dragon...

Seraphina Sinclair swallowed hard. This was like placing a perfectly cooked, fragrant piece of meat in front of a predator, then warning it that eating the meat would get it beaten, or even killed.

It sounded absurd, but that was exactly the situation Seraphina Sinclair found herself in.

The temptation from the red-glowing rune box was almost tangible, waging a fierce tug-of-war in her mind against the suffocating sense of death radiating from the Silver Dragon.

"Calm down, I have to calm down..."

Seraphina Sinclair leaned against the smooth rock wall and slowly slid to the ground. She hugged her head with both hands, her fingers digging into her hair.

"The box is right there, and the dragon... is right there, too. A frontal assault is suicide," she analyzed in a low voice, as if speaking to herself, trying to claw a path to survival out of this impossible situation.

"But it didn’t attack me immediately. That means it’s not some monster that kills on sight... Or maybe there’s something wrong with its current condition? Or could it be an NPC I can talk to?"