Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 517 - 80 Trumpet_1

Chapter 517: Chapter 80 Trumpet_1

"Hmm?" Catherine’s digging suddenly halted, she froze for a few seconds with her shovel in the air. Carefully, she placed the shovel aside, then slowly knelt down, cradling the white bone in her gauntlet-covered palm. "Could it be that the mission target is this tiny bit of bone?"

"That can’t be right." Catherine vehemently shook her head and chided herself aloud: "How could I become so foolish all of a sudden? This is clearly a human bone, it must have been left by the archbishop who carried something with him. Yes, it has to be him. If his skeletal remains are here, the mission item can’t be far now. Just as I thought, this is the place we are looking for. Alright, let’s continue digging."

The sound of scrapping echoed as Catherine continued to dig under the watchful stares of the numerous controlled sea creatures. The surrounding crowd of sea creatures steadily grew larger, so much so that it was shoulder to shoulder, each glared at Catherine with hostile eyes, as vicious as if they were ready to pounce and tear her to shreds at any moment. If it was anyone else, they would have collapsed due to the pressure from the gazes alone, if not, would have no strength left from fear to even dig. However, Catherine remained calm, no trace of fluctuation on her face, she even took a few moments to gaze back at the controlled sea creatures during her breaks, occasionally flashing a smile.

As Catherine dug deeper, more and more rubble was moved away revealing the soiled white bones beneath. The deceased seemed to be a female, rather petite, with only one lower leg; the other having been severed. Looking at her skeletal remains, apart from the missing lower leg, there was no noticeable damage to her lower torso. However, her upper body was a different story, with eight broken ribs along with a fractured sternum, from the look of it, they had been broken prior to her death. Her skull had several tiny fractures, evidence that her head had received a severe impact during the fight.

"To have suffered such severe injuries and still be able to painfully swim here from the sunken ship, not to mention enduring the agony of ascending from the deep sea. Phew, I have to say, I admire you." Catherine carefully arranged each bone that she unearthed aside, attempting to depict how the deceased looked in life. Upon discovering the severe injuries, Catherine could not help but draw her longsword, holding it upright in front of her as she bowed deeply to the near-complete skeleton, whispering, "Regardless of where we stand, you held onto your beliefs till the end, even in death, you did not forget. For that alone, your resolve is to be admired. I may not agree with your beliefs, but I respect your will. Therefore, please accept this tribute from an ordinary knight."

"Big sis, big sis." In the defensive fortress, even though they knew it was calm on the other side, Catherine’s long silence became worrisome, finally, Lina could not stand it any longer and shouted, "How’s it going over there, are you sure it’s safe?"

The distance of over forty meters made the shouted words faint by the time they reached her. But due to the silence on the island, apart from the sounds of the waves, the ever-increasing number of controlled Sea Race were quiet. Hence, Catherine was able to hear Lina’s shout. She gently smiled, heart warmed as she shouted back, "Everything is fine here, I’ve made a big discovery, a groundbreaking one. I’ve unearthed a human corpse, likely that of the Archbishop who managed to escape in his dying moments."

"Good news." Lina shouted: "The mission item should be near the corpse. Considering the Archbishop’s piety, even in death, he wouldn’t let go of a Divine Artifact; it mustn’t be far from him."

"It’s a she." Catherine corrected: "I’ll continue digging; don’t worry about me and focus on defending, I am fine."

"The frequency and intensity of attacks on our side are decreasing." Freya joined in the shouting, "Given the situation, even without strengthening our defenses, we can hold out for another half an hour no problem."

"Then, you guys just wait patiently," Catherine shouted back, "I’ll be back soon once I find it."

Shifting her attention back to the excavation, Catherine found less and less of the Archbishop’s skeleton. Most of the Archbishop’s remains had already been moved from under the rubble to the ground, but the mission target was still not found. However, Catherine was not worried, since she still hasn’t found the two crucial hands. Given the Archbishop’s state then, she most likely held the Divine Artifact tightly in her hand making the hands the key objective. Although the mission objective was not found, she discovered a few man-made items while digging, such as fragments of parchment scrolls, energy-depleted crystals, and Mithril thread used for casting spells. These items were small and were under the skeletal remains. It seems that after the Archbishop fell face down for the last time, she never got up again.

Catherine stood at her spot and thought, replaying the scenario in her mind. The Archbishop escaped from the sea, in order to keep the Divine Artifact as far from the sea as possible, she persisted and climbed uphill. But she was already inflicted with multiple fatal injuries. Even with her Demigod physique, she could hardly hold on much longer. Her injuries were quickliy taking a toll, slowing her down, especially since she had already lost one of her legs and was left to crawl on her hands and knee. No, probably only one hand was available. Judging from the artifacts she had on her, she had no bag or pocket large enough to hold anything moderately sized. She had no choice but to clutch the Divine Artifact in one hand, leaving her with only one hand and a leg. Finally, when she ran out of vitality and could no longer move, she tragically collapsed halfway up the hill.

"What was she thinking in her last moments?" Catherine tried to view things from the Archbishop’s perspective, "If it were true that she was trying to gain as much distance from the sea as possible while climbing uphill, then her goal was to protect their Divine Artifact. If that was the case, her last action before dying would have been to hide the Divine Artifact under her. But, there was nothing under the corpse."

"No, that’s not right, by then, her consciousness must have been wavering, she wouldn’t have thought of something so convoluted, instead, she would have acted instinctively to fulfil her initial desire. Her desire was what ? Hmm, it should have been to climb uphill, to prevent the Divine Artifact from falling into the sea. Thus, her last move would probably have been to raise the Divine Artifact above her - so it must be somewhere above?"

Catherine nodded, convinced in her deduction, and began to excavate upwards from the side of the skeleton’s head. Sure enough, not too far up, she found an arm bone that was detached due to a landslide. Following the arm bone upwards, she dug out the forearm and hand bones. The alignment of the bones in these three areas was linear, indicating that the deceased had made a final effort to stretch her arm upwards. However, to Catherine’s disappointment and confusion, the hand wasn’t holding anything, and nothing was found under the rubble that the hand was resting on.

"This doesn’t make sense," Catherine fiddled with the rubble around her with her shovel, pacing back and forth around the hand bone location, "The observable behaviors of the controlled Sea Race indicate that the mission target has to be in this vicinity. Her physical condition wouldn’t have allowed her to hide something elsewhere. But where could she have hidden it? There’s no other hand bone here."

"No, I must have missed something. Let’s think it through again," dropping her shovel, Catherine slapped her cheeks forcefully in self-encouragement," "No issue, Catherine, you can figure this out."

"Before her death, she must have tried to lift the Divine Artifact as high as possible. This idea seems right, as indicated by the position of her skeleton. But why is it not there? Strange, did she intentionally hide it? But she was on the brink of death, fallen on the ground, how could she hide something?"

"No, I’ve got it. After her last fall, she realized she was going to die soon, so instead of attempting to climb again, she used her last energy to hide the Divine Artifact. So, the artifact could only be within her reach, most likely within the range of an arm’s length, because she wouldn’t have had the strength to move, probably only her arm. However, her arm was clearly stretched upwards, could this be a decoy?"

"Would she have had enough strength for a ruse right before her death? Maybe so, in order to protect the Divine Artifact, she used her last strength to deceive. So, if I’m not mistaken, umm..."

"Lina," Catherine suddenly called out, "If you were lying on the ground without the strength to move and wanted to hide something, where would you hide it?"

"Me?" Inside the fortress, Lina hesitated then answered, "Definitely under my body, covered by my body. That’s the best way to keep it hidden from others."

Catherine did not respond, merely nodded silently, unconcerned if Lina saw.

"That’s it, everyone must think like that. Now I see, if a normal person would think that way, someone wanting to hide something would have to do the opposite. So, the object would rather be hidden outside of her body range so no one would guess. Her left arm stretching forward seemed as though she was trying to move the object as far away from the sea surface as possible, but on second thought, maybe this was a disguise. Alright, try digging around her left."

Determined, Catherine forcefully wielded her shovel, starting a broad excavation on the left side of where the skeleton was found, all the way to the depth where the bones were discovered. Yet, she found nothing. Catherine frowned, tilted her head in thought, gritted her teeth, and continued to dig. As she dug nearly half a meter deeper and lifted her shovel from the ground, a wisp of black mist emerged from the ground, redolent with an aggressive aura.

However, as soon as the large mist floated up from the ground, it was hit by the Silvery Moon’s light. It let out a mournful shriek under the moonlight, quickly evaporating as snow does under the scorching sun. The mist dissolved into a wisp of white-blue smoke that hung in the air.

As the mist dispersed, the object below was revealed. It was a small horn, about the size of a palm, completely black, smooth and spotless. It didn’t look like it had been buried for thousands of years at all.

Catherine dropped her shovel and stood on the spot thinking for a while before finally bending over to retrieve the black horn from the hole. As soon as the horn was in Catherine’s hands, the controlled Sea Race nearby underwent an astonishing transformation. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to (qidian.com to vote, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)