Chapter 102: Sealing the Ghost Stone Gate

Before the group of ghost skeletons could be lured over, Su You had already taken down the first one.

This was a tactic she and Doya had agreed on beforehand: Doya, with her superior archery, would attack the ghost skeletons behind Lake to draw them over, and then Su You would finish them off.

This way, Lake wouldn’t be chased for too long and exhaust himself, and Su You could attack without worrying about accidentally hurting him or wasting her own damage output.

Once the first wave of ghost skeletons was dealt with, Lake would bring over the second wave... and so on, until the fifth wave was finally lured to the arrow tower and taken out by Doya and Su You working together. Only then did things finally settle down.

...

The moment the last ghost skeleton fell, Lake collapsed onto the ground without a care for his image, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

Su You knew exactly how exhausted he was—after all, he’d been running at full speed for over ten minutes.

What’s more, he not only had to run, but also stay alert to his surroundings at all times to avoid getting ambushed. No normal person could handle that much exertion... and Lake was just a regular person too. He wouldn’t have lasted if not for the agility potion Su You had given him—otherwise, he would’ve been down after seven or eight minutes.

Knowing how tired he was, Su You didn’t disturb his rest. She just had Doya bring him some food and water to help him recover, while she herself headed straight for the stone gate and picked up the black stone.

She circled the stone gate, feeling around carefully, and finally placed the black stone into a barely noticeable groove in the gate.

The moment the black stone was set in place, Su You received a notification that the stone gate could be sealed—

[Do you want to seal the Ghost Stone Gate?]

[Kind Reminder: While the Ghost Stone Gate is sealed, ghost skeletons will continue to spawn, but at a 30% reduced rate. Any ghost skeletons spawned during this period will be trapped inside the gate and unable to leave. Once the seal is lifted, all ghost skeletons generated during the seal will escape from the gate.]

Just as she expected.

Su You’s eyes flickered, then she pressed the black stone down firmly, making her choice with action.

[Ghost Stone Gate has been sealed. Seal duration: 120 hours.]

With the gate successfully sealed, Su You breathed a sigh of relief. She looked around, checking if there was anything else of value nearby.

But no matter how hard she looked, all she saw were flowers, grass, and trees—nothing else of any real worth.

Su You wasn’t disappointed, though; she hadn’t expected much to begin with. After returning to the area near the arrow tower, she started picking up the loot dropped by the ghost skeletons.

[Obtained Copper Coin x35]

[Obtained Copper Coin x17]

[Obtained Unknown Bone x6]

[Obtained Scale Powder x43]

...

The ghost skeletons mainly dropped three things. First, copper coins—no need to explain their use.

The other two were “Unknown Bones” and “Scale Powder.”

The “Unknown Bones” looked just like regular bones. Their main use was to be processed into “Bone Meal,” which is one of the ingredients for “Growth Fertilizer.”

Growth Fertilizer, as the name suggests, is used on crops to reduce their growth time.

The higher the grade of the crop, the less effective the fertilizer becomes, and each plant can only be fertilized a limited number of times—usually five.

Besides making bone meal for fertilizer, bones had other uses too: they could be crafted into bone spikes (weapons), bone clubs (weapons), or even some rather creepy decorations like skull vases, skull ornaments, or skull tables.

As for the other material, scale powder, it was a white powder that dissolved in water—a common alchemy ingredient.

Speaking of alchemy, it’s worth mentioning how it differs from potion-making. The biggest and most obvious difference is the raw materials.

Potion-making uses herbs as ingredients, and the process is delicate—every step must be precise, or the potion could fail. At best, it just won’t work; at worst, a healing potion could turn into deadly poison.

Alchemy, on the other hand, uses all sorts of materials. Besides scale powder, anything could be used—berries, herbs, ores, animal skins, teeth... all kinds of odds and ends.

Alchemy is all about experimentation—“There are only materials you can’t get, not things you can’t make.” That’s no joke.

Of course, just because you can throw things together doesn’t mean you’ll get anything useful—without the right recipe, who knows what you’ll end up with.

Su You, however, knew an alchemy recipe involving scale powder. Using it as the main ingredient, along with a few other materials of similar properties, she could make a transparent solution.

Applying this solution to the body would coat it in a thin film, making the user nearly as invisible as a ghost skeleton—a common concealment (not true invisibility) item.

...

After cleaning up all the loot, Su You took out the remaining materials from her backpack and began setting up more defenses—preparing for when the seal would break in five days.

By then, she’d probably have recruited Meike and would bring him along to deal with the ghost skeletons. But that was just the plan—plans rarely keep up with changes, and Su You had altered her plans plenty of times before due to unexpected events. So she had to be prepared.

While Su You was busy setting up defenses, Lake, now rested, came over to ask if she needed anything. Seeing her shake her head, he headed off to the mine to continue digging.

Although he hadn’t brought a pickaxe this time, Su You had already built a wooden chest at the usual mining spot. It was stocked with everything Lake needed: pickaxe, whetstone, basic healing potions, and enough food for two or three days.

There was even a wooden cart parked there for transporting stone.

Once Lake left, only Su You and Doya remained in the area."

"Here is a fluent, natural English translation of your text:

---