Even though rifts are a great way to get new add-ons and energy, those are not the only loot you can get from them.

There are other treasures for worldbuilders inside them, such as the Waste Devouring Crystals.

These objects "clean" your add-ons, eliminating useless lines from the runes and leaving only those with the functions that the owner of the world wants, making the rune work smoother and more efficiently.

At low ranks, this may not be very useful, but after upgrading an add-on a few times, the rune usually would have tried to improve in various ways that may not be likable for the creator. A creator using a Waste Devouring Crystal would be able to maximize the potential of his runes while wasting less energy than before.

The power of a Waste Devouring Crystal depends on the rank of the rift where it was found, with low-ranking Waste Devouring Crystals being almost useless for high-ranking add-ons.

Even though Waste Devouring Crystals are one of the most popular items found on rifts, they are not the only ones. Items with all kinds of functions exist inside them, and the more time passes, the more items humanity finds.

—Extract from the Builder’s Magazine #34, "Reasons to Take part in a Rift."

When returning, the cultivators decided to find another path so they could explore more of the tunnels while they were doing it.

Even though they got lost a few times, thanks to Frankie guiding them across the whole structure, they managed to find their way back each time.

But even when exploring more, they didn't find many more dwarfs, only ten more across all the rooms they checked. After half an hour, they returned to the tunnel and met the rest of the cultivators.

"Have you found anything?" Zack asked as soon as he saw them returning.

"Tunnels, a lot of tunnels," one of the cultivators replied.

"We've been looking around for a while but only found a few dwarfs. There was a group talking under a statue, but apart from those, not more than twenty." Sylda, the young cultivator, explained what she had seen.

"How many individuals were in that group?" Ethan asked.

Another of the cultivators replied, "We didn't have time to count them, but they should be at least fifty or a little more."

"That doesn't sound like a lot of enemies," Owald said, surprised.

"That's what we thought too. But that's not all. We also found many rooms filled with bunk beds, but almost all were empty," Sylda said.

"A lot of beds but few people," Zack said, with a pensive look.

"I think it is pretty clear what is happening here," Ethan said, decided.

"Is it?" Zack asked while arching an eyebrow.

"Yes, it is. Think about it. A city filled with undead is not too far from here. The structures we saw outside were in ruins while they attacked anything that came close to the mountain. If I had to bet, I would say that they have been in a war of attrition against the undead for a long time, which has reduced their numbers to the brink of being wiped out." Ethan explained.

"That makes sense," Owald said while rubbing his chin."Should we start an assault on them then?"

"Let's plan how to do it before starting, but yes. Without the mountain's defenses, they should be much easier to defeat, especially if we catch them by surprise and don't let them prepare." Ethan said with a cold smile on his face.

After that, most cultivators returned to the camp while leaving some cultivators behind to keep watch, so no one discovered the tunnel.

Once again, the leaders of each group meet in one of the tents to plan the attack. This time, Ethan, Owald, and the other summoners joined the meeting.

The cultivators explained what their men had found while searching through the tunnels to the rest.

"I see. If that is the case, I think the best plan would be for some of us to distract them on the surface while the rest of us enter through the tunnel and find what we are looking for. That way, we may not even need to kill them all." the cowboy suggested.

"Sounds good to me. Any other suggestions?" Zack asked.

One of the summoners asked, "Who is going to be the bait?"

"My men can take care of that. After all, our mounts allow us to move much faster than you do," the cowboy offered himself.

"Well, I think we have everything. When do we start?" Owald asked with a smile on his face.