"Sir, this...?"

Noticing the situation, Costate immediately sought Ronald's advice.

Now, with the death of the holder of Essence Theory, all the spells he had cast before, including the Complete Technique: Immortal Substance, had naturally dissipated at this moment, and the earth had thus regained its rightful hardness.

In contrast, the terrain changed by Earth's Face remained permanently on the island.

Below lay the underground ruins with three cavities.

They had been thoroughly buried after the battle ended.

"Costate, you start digging down; you should remember the general direction," Ronald instructed Costate, then took the dry corpse of the nun and walked to a quiet corner nearby, "I'll dig a grave for this lady; we shouldn't leave her exposed in the wild."

Ronald and Costate went their separate ways.

Before long, Ronald buried the nun's body at the edge of a forest not damaged by the previous battle.

During this time, Ronald also considered using the spell he just received from Earth's Face to summon the nun back as an undead, so at least he could understand the actual situation more clearly.

But unfortunately, the original text is quite strict about the spell target.

The recently deceased nun obviously doesn't meet the criteria defined in Fossil Path for skeletal fossils; this spell couldn't awaken her.

After the attempt proved futile, Ronald decisively gave up this act of desecration and then bowed his head in front of the grave:

"Honorable lady, I don't know your name."

"But your unwavering will and faith tell me you were undoubtedly a devout believer in life."

"Although we only met today, please allow me to bid you one last farewell; may you rest in peace here..."

Buried on the deserted island, the nun was clearly unlikely to have anyone come to pay respects.

After erecting the tombstone for the other person, Ronald offered a few simple words of mourning before leaving and returning to Costate.

Within a few short minutes, Costate's excavation work was progressing very smoothly.

She stood in place, controlling air currents like a hoe to dig into the ground; the tireless spell worked at a speed several times faster than professional excavation machines.

Ronald certainly wasn't content to just watch from the sidelines.

Seeing the situation, he also chanted a spell to move forward and assist Costate with the excavation.

The newly acquired Earth's Face was best suited for such occasions.

After Ronald joined, their combined spell efficiency greatly improved, even producing an effect greater than one plus one. It wasn't long before they dug a hole that was pleasantly wide and deep in the center of the island.

During the excavation process, Ronald even began to daydream.

This spell-derived engineering capability far surpasses any construction method he's seen; if such power could be applied to engineering construction, what a time-saving and labor-saving sight that would be?

...

This digging lasted for an hour.

Ronald and Costate's position was already quite close to the depth of the lowest layer among the original three layers underground.

Feeling the timing was right, Ronald immediately called out to stop Costate's spell:

"Costate, stop for now."

"Below is a considerable-sized buried relic. Although it might not be in a good state right now—we should do our best not to damage it, so the remaining work I'll handle."

The maid nodded slightly and immediately withdrew.

Ronald took over all the work and, relying on the terrain data he had previously collected from Star Map underground, began carefully excavating, trying his best not to damage the already severely destroyed ruins.

He had seen the professionalism of experts at archaeological sites.

Though he couldn't be as comprehensive as the professionals, he was certainly better than a pure outsider doing rough digging.

The simple work turned complex, naturally greatly slowing down the excavation speed.

Until the time reached dusk.

The soil beneath Ronald's feet changed, revealing criss-crossed ruins from the once thick and hard soil.

"That's right, this is it; we're close!"

Ronald's spirit surged.

Such focused operation ensured mental exhaustion was inevitable.

But realizing today's work wasn't in vain, all fatigue vanished and even transformed into an expectation and joy of discovery.

Ronald immediately began to clear the building debris that had become thoroughly ruined, calling Costate back to help.

As the various wreckage was cleared by the two of them, a familiar voice called down vertically from the top of the pit:

"What are you two doing down there?"

Ronald looked up, noticing a small black dot appearing at the hole's top.

With his exceptional eyesight, he immediately recognized it as Anthony.

After half a day's time, this local caster from the Southern Continent had finally returned.

And judging by his condition.

He hadn't been affected by the previous island battle, remaining completely unharmed as when he had just arrived on the island.

Ronald immediately shouted upwards:

"Anthony, we're digging something down here; if you'd like to take a look, you can come down!"

Anthony accepted the invitation and slowly descended from the top of the hole.

This caster wasn't adept at flight spells, so he could only rely on his ability to descend bit by bit, like a climber ascending and descending a cliff.

Seeing this, Costate took the initiative.

Without needing Ronald's command, the maid used her air-controlling spell to catch Anthony, assisting this elderly caster to descend rapidly from the air to the bottom of the hole.

"Lady, thank you very much," Anthony immediately expressed gratitude once at the bottom, but soon his attention was drawn to the ruins underfoot and he cast a curious glance at Ronald, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be the relic developed by Nade's Nine Commandments?" How did it become this way?"

Ronald explained without embarrassment:

"Yes, this is the place."

"It's just that during the battle with enemies, our spells unfortunately damaged part of the relic's items, eventually leading to the complete burial here by the opponent's spells."

Anthony's expression relaxed, then he consoled:

"Most of the time, things buried underground are far better than being exposed to the air. But seeing you dig here, it's probably not just about rescuing or protecting the relic, right?"

Ronald pointed to the ruins beneath their feet, smiling:

"Exactly, I've dealt with one of their original text holders; that guy's corpse is now at the bottom of these ruins."

"For important spoils like this, I think it's necessary to collect them back."