"My good friend, we meet again."
Benjamin walked to Vinayak, who was lying on the ground bound like a cocoon.
With one hand, he lifted him upright and gently leaned him against the well.
"Raghaf, is this how you treat your friends? There's no treasure here. I'm just cleaning out the ancestral basement."
Vinayak's eyes were filled with resentment, but as he spoke, his gaze kept drifting towards the well cover beside him.
He had long regarded this temple as his ancestral home.
The reason he didn't buy a house elsewhere was that he thought he already owned this house with infinite gold coins.
And Benjamin and his companions were, in his eyes, robbers who had broken into his treasure vault.
"Boss, this kid's not being honest. Look at his eyes."
"Tumbbad's treasure is definitely in this well. Let's go down and find it!"
The man with the yellow braid said impatiently.
Hearing this, a hint of smugness lurked deep within Vinayak's angry eyes.
"Since you're in such a hurry, why don't you go down and look for it first? I'll catch up with an old friend."
"Here, take this. Stick it on the very edge of the lower entrance to the passage."
Benjamin didn't refuse.
He gestured to the dark-skinned middle-aged man with his eyes, then handed the man with the yellow braid a stick-on wireless camera.
This device, along with the tracker, were small items from a modern technology package, which also included two walkie-talkies, a mechanical claw, a small robot, and a series of other tech gadgets.
This was why Benjamin had bought the package.
"Okay, okay."
The man with the yellow braid nodded eagerly. His heart was now filled with greed and desire for unlimited gold, and he had even forgotten his respectful tone.
The dark-skinned middle-aged man quickly tied a rope around the man with the yellow braid's waist, opened the heavy metal manhole cover, and lowered the man down.
"Aren't you going down and take a look? Maybe there really is treasure. Be careful your subordinates don't hoard gold."
Vinayak said sarcastically, but a hint of anticipation lingered deep in his eyes.
"Good friend, the treasure isn't urgent. After all, we'll need you to go down first."
"Now, let's talk about 'Hastar.'"
Vinayak's scheme of trying to cover up and attract Benjamin to enter the Well of God directly had long been seen through by Benjamin.
Benjamin directly exposed him and was too lazy to continue dealing with him hypocritically.
"You…you actually know!" Vinayak exclaimed in shock.
"Of course I know, I just wanted to confirm it."
Benjamin saw that the man with the yellow braid had already gone down and turned on the display screen in his hand.
The interior of the Well of God was a blood-red mess, like the disemboweled abdomen of an animal, with fascia and blood vessels wrapped around the fleshy walls.
The man with the yellow braid felt a little scared down there.
There was nothing around him except for the crimson expanse, but he felt something was lurking nearby, watching him.
"Hakob, pull me up! There's nothing here!"
The man with the yellow braid shouted urgently towards the top of the passage.
"Boss?"
The dark-skinned middle-aged man turned to look at Benjamin upon hearing the voice.
"Don't panic, the gold coins are down there. Let me talk to Vinayak first about how to get them."
Benjamin spoke into the display screen, and his voice clearly transmitted into the Well of God through the camera.
He then said to the dark-skinned middle-aged man,
"Put the well cover back on first, I need to say a few words."
The swarthy middle-aged man quickly did as he was told, and the metal manhole cover, with the rope pressed underneath, was closed.
"Vinayak, why can Hastar eat flatbread, yet fear circles drawn with flour?"
Benjamin asked the protagonist, who had been completely exposed and lost all hope of escape.
"Raghaf, you've won. I'll tell you everything, but I want to cooperate. We can find gold coins together, and they're unlimited."
"Okay."
"Alright, then I'll tell you. The Goddess of Prosperity revived Hastar and hid it in the Well of God, which also made it unable to accept the faith of mortals."
"Hastar monopolized the goddess's wealth, driving the gods mad with jealousy. Unable to find it, they joined forces to curse it, condemning it to be burned by food and eternally suffer the torment of hunger."
" However, it still has a way to avoid the curse and alleviate its hunger, which is that it can eat the food offered to it by mortals."
"The flour scattered on the ground is ownerless and can burn Hastar, while the small dough figures kneaded are offerings to it, so it can eat them."
Vinayak simply revealed everything at once, hoping Raghaf would honor the agreement for the sake of friendship.
"If we don't bring food down, will Hastar attack?"
After hearing this, Benjamin felt that it was roughly the same as what he had guessed.
Then he glanced at the screen. The person with the yellow braid was so scared at the bottom of the well that he didn't move at all, and he heard a strange gasping sound.
However, after such a long time, the person with the yellow braid was still safely staying at the bottom of the well, and Hastar has not appeared.
"Generally not. Legend says it's closely connected to the goddess's womb, often relieving its hunger through slumber. Only food will lure it awake."
Vinayak recalled everything his great-grandmother, who had become a monster, had told him.
"Alright, then I'll have to trouble you again, friend."
Benjamin gestured to the swarthy middle-aged man, and told the yellow-braided man on the screen to untie the rope, tie it around the waist of Vinayak, who was tied up like a silkworm chrysalis, and slowly lower him into the Well of God.
"Quick, see this dough ring? Seal the gap in it!"
Vinayak shouted urgently to the yellow-haired man as soon as he reached the bottom of the well.
"You think I'll just surround it because you tell me? You'd better just tell me where the gold coins are."
The man with the yellow braid grew bolder when he saw someone coming down, his eyes filled with greed.
"Shut up the flour ring, Shahu."
The voice came from the camera.
"Yes, boss."
The man with the yellow braid quickly dropped his arrogance and filled in the gap in the flour ring.
The dark-skinned middle-aged man also followed him to the bottom of the well.
Benjamin, holding the monitor, watched for a while, confirming that Hastar showed no intention of appearing.
He then pressed his ear against the passageway of the large well outside to listen, and hearing no movement of outsiders approaching, he slid down into the well along the rope.
In the movie, Hastar doesn't eat people, but it bites them. Anyone bitten by it will live a long life.
However, they will also become covered in sores, suffer endless hunger, and have physical strength worse than a normal person, like a slug that has been half-melted by salt but refuses to die.
Benjamin placed the ten exorcism talismans he had bought for 200 survival points at the Lighthouse into his pocket.
According to the Lighthouse's assessment, they possessed a weak exorcism effect, but as a curse disciple, he only felt a slight warmth.
Then, like a special forces soldier parachuting, he swiftly slid down the rope to the location of the camera inside the Well of God.
The Lighthouse mark on his hand transmitted a message:
[Completed Story Mission One: Entered the Well of God, gained 1000 survival points, exploration progress and story score increased]
Upon sensing this message, Benjamin instantly gripped the rope with his feet and exerted force with his hands.
He rapidly climbed up to the well's opening, then threw the rope into the well and closed the metal well cover.