Ben slept in the coffin because it was the most comfortable thing there. The ground was uneven, so it wasn't comfortable at all. He fell asleep as he closed his eyes as he was exhausted.
The next morning, Ben woke up with a growling stomach. He hadn't eaten a thing since he entered the Dark Valley. His provisions were burned by the heat and became inedible.
"I need to hunt first even though I'm very hungry. Such a hassle." Ben said as he prepared to leave the area.
As he started to walk, Ben noticed that the temperature went down. With Escanor's defense mechanism gone, the temperature also dropped because there's no longer a heat source. But there was nothing to be protected here, so there was no point for it.
Ben looked at the skeletons and came up with an idea. He grinned mischievously and picked up the skeleton that was in excellent condition.
"He he, I don't know if it can fool anyone, but I hope it will. Now I just need to make it more believable." Ben said with a naughty expression.
After moving the coffin's lid back in place, Ben wrote something on it. He wrote runes on the coffin as another defense mechanism. It was similar to the one Escanor made.
Well, his magic wasn't as strong as Escanor's, but at least it is the same magic. With A.I Chip's guidance, Ben can make a similar defense mechanism like before. He also wrote runes that made the temperature increase to 2000 degrees Celsius again, so people won't notice the real corpse had disappeared.
"Nice, when someone opens it, then it will go *BOOM* HA HA, I want to see it, but that won't happen. He he he, take this you greedy bastards." Ben laughed like a maniac.
Ben left the area immediately and ran like he was caught stealing. There's no one here, but he still ran as fast as he could. But it just made him hungrier, so he walked normally after getting a far distance away.
He arrived at the border after a moment and realized that the temperature here was lower. His magic range is far smaller than Escanor's even though it has the same temperature.
"Hmm, I hope it won't make people suspicious. They will just think that it became smaller because it has gotten weaker by age. Well, it's not my problem." Ben said as he left the Dark Valley.
Ben took out his magic revolver and tried to find prey. He uses his magic sense and found a green goat. This goat was grazing on grass and didn't notice Ben's presence. He shot it and killed it easily then roasted it using his Fire Magic.
"Thank you for your sacrifice." Ben said to the roasted goat before he ate it.
Ben ate every edible part of the goat and didn't leave anything behind. It was a lot of food, but he was able to finish it all. He always had a big appetite, but now it was a lot bigger.
"Damn, I'm still hungry. Is it because of the Devil Slayer Magic?" Ben asked out loud.
[No, you are just a glutton.]
A.I Chip suddenly chimed in and Ben sweat dropped. But maybe she was right because he had a big appetite. Besides, he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday, so he was really hungry.
So Ben resumed his hunt and found 2 more goats. The area was full of them and other herbivores. It's because the place was close to the Dark Valley and safer than other areas.
After his stomach was full, Ben went to the ruins of the village he found yesterday. He investigated it thoroughly to find any remains of the past mage's civilization. There might be something interesting here.
"Hmm, it seems some people found this place and took the valuables. The ones that were left here are just the broken items. Well, many people have gone to the Dark Valley, so this village must have been found too. But there should be hidden items or something else." Ben said as he looked around.
Ben used his magic sense and A.I Chip's scanning ability. A place like this must have some secrets that aren't easy to find. It just required a lot of effort to find those secrets.
His feeling turned out to be accurate as Ben stumbled upon a secret after 3 hours of searching. He looks at the map that A.I Chip made as he walked around the ruins. This village was built in a strange pattern and there are small stones scattered everywhere.
The stones didn't look strange at first, but they become strange if they're watched from above. The scattered stones are actually becoming a formation. It is a formation of big 3 layered circles with some big runes inside.
Ben inspected the stones and they all have hidden runes written on them. People without knowledge of runes and a good magic sense won't notice them because they're hidden really well.
"What rune formation is this? Does it still work? Hmm, there's only one way to find out. But first, I need to scan all of these runes." Ben said.
Using A.I Chip's scanning ability, Ben scanned every rune on the stones. He needs to know about it and save it for references. These runes might be useful in the future. Besides, this is a ancient rune formation, so he needed to research it.
It only took him a half hour to finish the scan. A.I Chip's scanning ability had increased over the years because Ben kept using it. He saved all the runes in the database before getting ready to activate the rune formation.
Ben went to the outer layer and stood outside the formation. He took a deep breath and prepared his magic power. Then he slammed his right hand down and his magic power flowed into the formation. The formation glowed blue for a moment before becoming dim again.
"Hmm? It seems this thing is getting rusted." Ben said.
He tried again and it still failed. Some more tries and they all failed. Now Ben started to think that there was something wrong with the formation. He checked the result of the scan in A.I Chip's database and tried to determine the problem.
But without any knowledge on the rune formation, he can't easily discover the problem. Even with A.I Chip's high computation ability, it was still difficult. He needed to find clues, so he checked the ruins again while A.I Chip analyzed the formation.
As he checked the ruins, Ben found some drawings in the ruins of the houses. He looked at them and tried to study them. He keeps looking them over until finally, he realized something.
"This village was home to demons, not human mages." Ben said with a surprised tone.
Through the drawings, Ben found out that the inhabitants of this village were demons. They established their village here to avoid coming into contact with humans who would hunt them down. That's also why Escanor buried Midas near the village because the ancient demons respected him.
"Hmm? So that's how I should activate the formation." Ben realized what he needed to do.
He went to the formation's outer layer again and did the same thing as before. But now he used his Devil Slayer Magic to activate the formation.
"If this village was the home of demons, then they must've used demonic power. Luckily, I have that power now." Ben said with a grin.
Now the activation was successful and the blue light didn't dim. A lot of his magic power flowed into the formation until it was fully activated.
When it was fully activated, a wide square-shaped stone was lifted in the center of the village. Underneath the stones was a set of stairs that led underground.
"Going underground again? I hope there aren't any giant centipedes there." Ben said as he walked down the stairs.