Skill Extraction: Exploring Dungeons

On the scorching Gobi Desert.

A white fog wall stretches across the sky, extending into the distance.

Kane and the others slowly advanced along the white fog wall.

After leaving the previous small ruins.

They didn't encounter any other ruins, but they did come across one or two solitary mechanical monsters.

Having seen the white fog wall, they have been following the wall's path for almost three hours now.

The endless Gobi Desert, the repetitive scenery, the scorching sun, the burning air, all these made them feel somewhat annoyed.

Up in the sky,

Kane was completely sprawled on top of Cotton Candy, sticking out his head to look down, fulfilling his scouting duties.

Finally, he saw another ruin in the distance.

Kane couldn't wait to fly back to his team to share this good news with them.

They quickly headed towards the newly discovered ruins, which were similar in size to the previous two Kane had found.

Once inside the ruins, mechanical monsters appeared from all directions, predictably scorpions and sand worms.

This time, however, there seemed to be more mechanical monsters than before.

Of course, this was good news for Kane and his team.

With the experience from previous kills, their speed at eliminating monsters this time was even more efficient.

It took them less than 10 minutes to wipe out all the mechanical monsters in the ruins.

They each started to gather their loot from their respective directions.

And handed the magic materials they collected to Kane.

This time there were nearly 30 monsters, and the materials obtained were directly 22.

So Kane now had 25 trace magic materials and 4 medium magic materials.

However, two of them were for deciphering items, and since he didn't know how many were needed yet, he couldn't use them.

He could still extract a skill once.

After sorting out the loot, the group easily found their way to the center of the ruins and indeed discovered another lifeless mechanical puppet.

This time the puppet was lying directly on the ground.

After flipping it over, a slot for materials was revealed in the center.

Expending two trace materials, they activated the puppet.

Defeating it would yield two medium magic materials.

Regarding these kinds of monsters, Kane could only say.

"Bring more, I can handle it."

As usual, they controlled the puppet with spider silk first.

After the puppet absorbed the energy, its eyes emitted a red glow, showing hostility, the group quickly dealt with it.

As for why not destroy it immediately upon discovery but wait until it showed hostility, it's because if there's an intellectual mechanism, they might miss out on important information.

Though it's uncertain if such an entity exists, better safe than sorry.

After all, it doesn't take much time.

Why not do it?

Once the puppet's remains turned to dust, Kane dug out two pieces of magic materials from the pile of dust.

They were akin to those obtained from previous puppets.

This ruin was considered cleared.

The group resumed their journey along their planned route.

Starting another tedious and dull journey.

Only occasionally encountering small ruins could slightly lighten their boring moods.

These ruins still didn't have any novel monsters, just mechanical scorpions and sand worms.

They didn't even encounter the kind of mechanical monsters joined by gears they had met before.

It seemed that this area was dominated by these two monster types, perhaps encountering other kinds next time would mean leaving the initial area.

Now, they were resting inside a relatively intact small ruin.

According to the timekeeping tools they specially bought in the city, it should be approaching night outside.

They planned to take a brief rest here then proceed, and after finding the next ruin, they would have a longer break.

The group sat together.

Eating the meals prepared the night before.

"This dungeon environment is more disgusting than the monsters," Longbei said irritably while biting his meat pie.

Lilu lay entirely on Cotton Candy, munching on an unknown fruit.

She didn't seem to be fond of meat; she had been eating desserts, cakes, and fruits all day.

"Ah! Lilu feels like dying here, it's all just metal heads, no beloved animal friends."

Everyone knew it was her grumbling.

But it seemed to affect one member of the team.

Near Cotton Candy, Yoyo emitted a low mechanical sound and snuggled into Kane's embrace.

With its cute mechanical eyes, it looked at Kane and asked, "Is Yoyo a bothersome metal head too?"

Hearing Yoyo's question, Kane helplessly smiled, then extended his hand to pat its head.

"Of course not, Yoyo is an indispensable member of our team, having helped us so much. How could you be a bothersome metal head!"

Lilu realized her mistaken words.

A rainbow flash quickly appeared by Yoyo's side.

"Sorry, sorry, Lilu didn't mean it. Lilu was referring to those ugly bugs, not cute Yoyo."

She hurriedly hugged Yoyo after saying this.

"Hehe, Yoyo knew, was just pretending to liven up the atmosphere."

Yoyo emitted cheerful electronic sounds and joyfully spun around.

After hearing Yoyo, Kane found it amusing.

Tap Yoyo's head.

"Who taught you all this?"

"It was Longbei, wasn't it lively? Master."

"Yes, yes."

Kane responded, a bit helplessly, and glared fiercely at Longbei.

Faced with Kane's gaze, Longbei awkwardly laughed.

"I only said you could do it; I didn't teach it anything. It figured it out itself."

"Really?"

Upon hearing the praise, Yoyo happily slid away.

Finally, Kreya couldn't resist, hugged Yoyo and rubbed her face against it.

"Of course, Yoyo is the cutest."

Thus, the group rested in a light-hearted banter, recovering some of their fatigued spirits.

After nearly an hour had passed.

Kane stood and clapped his hands.

"We're almost done here; time to move on. Let's set up camp at the next ruin."

Upon hearing Kane, everyone got up, dusted off, packed up their belongings, and organized the team to proceed along their planned route.

Kane again took to the sky on Cotton Candy, maintaining his scouting duties.