Demon Chapter

Chapter 19: Back into the Mine

Two hours had passed since entering this task world.

Gavin Lin carefully evaded the two senior contractors patrolling outside, then slipped into the second floor of the inn. When he suddenly appeared before Mo, the thief trainer, the latter was visibly startled.

“It seems you’ve already learned how to better apply the art of Stealth!” Mo said, quickly regaining his composure, his tone tinged with admiration.

Gavin Lin hadn’t come for idle chatter—especially not with this old lecher. He was here on a mission. Without wasting time, he gave a detailed account of the eerie scene he’d witnessed in the mine. He’d sought out Mo because, in this mission, Mo was the person he knew best.

Upon hearing about the inverted pentagram array, skeletons, candles, and stitched human skins, Mo’s expression darkened.

“That’s definitely dark magic! My God—who could have set all that up in that cave? No… for matters like this, Martha knows far more than I do. Let’s go ask her!” Without ceremony, he grabbed Gavin Lin and pulled him into the next room on the second floor.

There, Gavin met a woman in a purple long dress, holding a staff, accompanied by a small spirit.

She was the sorcerer trainer—an expert in precisely these kinds of mysterious and unsettling phenomena.

“Is there really such a thing?” Martha’s face also turned grim after listening to Gavin Lin’s description. Frowning, she said, “Evil forces may have secretly infiltrated Golden Spark Town!”

After a moment’s thought, she turned to Gavin Lin. “Since you were the one who discovered that place, would you be willing to return? This time, take my little spirit with you. It can activate the magic array—and only then will we uncover what truly happened there!”

Martha was far more composed than Mo. As she finished speaking, she gestured and recalled the little spirit hovering in the room. Her hands then glowed with a soft purple light, as if casting a spell. Moments later, a diamond-shaped purple crystal materialized in her palm.

While Gavin Lin watched, curious, a system prompt suddenly appeared before him:

Sorcerer Martha is deeply intrigued by your discovery and has formed a theory. She requests that you carry the soul stone containing her little spirit into the mine and allow the spirit to activate the abandoned evil magic array. Doing so may lead to a significant breakthrough!

Mission: Activate the Evil Magic Array

Difficulty: Moderate

Reward: Granted 5 hours after completion

Success unlocks the “Golden Spark Town Eerie Event” mission chain.

Failure: Subsequent missions remain locked.

Contractor #1065—accept this mission?

Gavin Lin was stunned. This outcome was completely unexpected. He’d only sensed a possible link between the child’s skull in the cave and the skulls found near the skinning trainer Adler Feud’s house—but he never imagined his accidental discovery would trigger the key mission chain of the entire “Golden Spark Town Eerie Event.”

So this was how it worked: simply reporting the mine’s discovery to Mo—or coming directly to Martha—was enough to unlock the next stage of the questline. Naturally, Gavin Lin wouldn’t refuse. His curiosity was now fully piqued. What had initially seemed like a mundane, pointless task was clearly hiding deep secrets.

After accepting the mission, the sorcerer trainer Martha handed him the soul stone containing the spirit’s essence.

“Remember,” she said, “once you reach the site, shatter the soul stone to summon the spirit. Leave the rest to it.”

Gavin Lin placed the soul stone into the storage compartment of his belt and quietly slipped out of the inn.

Outside, the two contractors were still on watch. Gavin Lin had briefly considered ambushing them—but he quickly realized they always stayed close, covering each other’s blind spots. There was no opening for a surprise attack, so he abandoned the idea.

Now that he had a critical mission, completing it would give him the freedom to strike on his own terms.

As before, Gavin Lin made his way back to the mine. There were no zombies or undead wizards this time—but several dogheads stood guard outside the entrance. Clearly, the previous attack had prompted them to bolster their defenses.

Since Gavin Lin had a mission to complete, he had no reason to provoke unnecessary conflict. He chose a secluded path, intending to bypass all the dogheads and slip into the mine unnoticed.

Just then, he spotted a body lying near the mine entrance.

It belonged to one of the contractors who’d been chasing him alongside the undead wizard. Having fallen behind, he’d been caught by the dogheads and killed. Gavin Lin had even witnessed his death.

The dogheads showed no interest in the corpse, so it had remained untouched.

Gavin Lin felt no sympathy—but what caught his eye was the equipment still on the dead man.

Without hesitation, he crept over. The deceased was a slightly overweight middle-aged man, clad in a leather breastplate reinforced with black iron plates for extra defense. He also wore matching leg guards and held a wooden shield and a longsword.

The nearest doghead was five meters away. Taking advantage of the moment it turned its back, Gavin Lin swiftly dragged the body behind a thicket of brambles.

Throughout the process, he remained perfectly calm—and by the time he’d hidden the corpse, the doghead hadn’t noticed a thing.

The moment he touched the body, system information appeared:

Target: Contractor #939

Gender: Male

Level: 4

Class: Warrior

Status: Deceased

Up close, Gavin Lin saw the man’s face clearly—utterly ordinary, the kind you’d pass on any street. Yet his final expression, frozen in terror, was unmistakable.

“You can’t blame me,” Gavin Lin muttered inwardly. “If you hadn’t come to kill me, you might still be alive. This is just karma.”

He began stripping the gear from Contractor #939.

The leather cuirass, leggings, wooden shield, and single-handed sword were all claimed by Gavin Lin—a windfall.

Robust Eaglehide Armor

Type: Light Armor

Quality: White

Defense: 19

Requires: Strength 8, Level 2

Durability: 24

Robust Snakehide Leggings

Type: Light Armor

Quality: White

Defense: 7

Requires: Level 2

Durability: 24

Both pieces were a perfect fit for Gavin Lin. Among white-quality gear, items with descriptive prefixes like “Robust” were considered superior—they offered better stats than standard versions and fetched higher prices at auction. Acquiring such gear wasn’t easy.

Without delay, Gavin Lin equipped both items. Instantly, the once-loose armor molded snugly to his frame, as if tailor-made.

His defense jumped from 14 to 40—a threefold increase.

The wooden shield displayed the message: “Cannot Be Equipped.” Slightly disappointed, he stowed it in his belt’s storage. Then he examined the sword—and was surprised to find it was blue quality:

Slaughter Wolf Shortsword

Type: One-Handed Sword

Quality: Blue

Damage: 11–19

Requires: Dexterity 15

Durability: 35

Blue Bonus: +3 Damage, 10% chance to inflict ‘Rip’ effect (2 damage per second for 5 seconds)

Gavin Lin’s heart leapt—until he saw the Dexterity requirement. At only 13 Dexterity, he couldn’t wield it yet. It was an excellent weapon, but useless to him for now.

After storing the shortsword, he crouched low and slipped silently into the mine.

Thanks to his prior experience, he easily avoided the goblin dogs along the way. Soon, he spotted another corpse—the contractor he’d killed earlier with a well-placed stone.

This one clearly came from a wealthier background: full plate armor, a helmet, and a two-handed sword that emitted a chilling glow.

How could Gavin Lin pass up such loot? Even the unusable wooden shield could sell for around 10 hours on the auction house. This contractor’s gear was bound to be far more valuable.

After waiting a few minutes for the right moment, Gavin Lin swiftly stripped the most valuable items. But then he hit a problem: his belt’s storage compartments were nearly full.

Without hesitation, he kept the soul stone in hand and took only the dual swords and the helmet from the body.

Both were white quality—but both bore the “Superior” prefix. The rest of the gear was standard white quality, so with no space left, he left it behind.

Unlike equipment, non-equipped items couldn’t enter Stealth with him. But as long as he held the soul stone, he didn’t need to worry about the goblin dogs spotting it.

After this brief detour, Gavin Lin finally reached the chamber with the pentagram magic array. As before, two goblin dogs stood guard inside.

Now came a new problem: to investigate the array, he’d need to exit Stealth—but doing so would immediately alert the goblin dogs. He’d then have to fight two of them at once.

Gavin Lin was confident he could handle one—but two? That wasn’t just difficult; it was likely fatal.

Goblin dogs were twice as fast and strong as ordinary humans, and their low stature made them agile and hard to hit. In the past, he might have abandoned the mission—his survival odds would’ve been less than 10%.

But now, with two pieces of upgraded leather armor equipped, Gavin Lin finally had the leverage to take a risk.