novel(6)
| ← Ch.147 | Ch.149 → |
From a dense forest located near Lotten, Malecia looked at the ruin in the distance. At night, the torches were lit up around the ruin for the guards.
"You're late, " Malecia said without taking his eyes off the ruin
Right then, Jiren and a group of magicians appeared from the forest, releasing their concealment magic.
"You're the one who pulled the schedule ahead all of a sudden, " Jiren replied angrily.
Malecia looked at him with emotionless eyes. At the cold gaze, Jiren unknowingly flinched then bit his lips as if his pride was hurt.
"I believe I already told you the reason for moving the schedule forward?"
Jiren snorted at Malecia."Hnng, are you that scared because one retired knight might come!?"
When Jiren seemed to imply that Malecia was a coward, the latter's subordinates put their hands on the handle of their swords. At the same time, Jiren's subordinates clenched their magic wands.
As the situation became tense all of the sudden, Malecia stopped his subordinates from acting with a nod. When they removed their hands from the sword handles, the magicians relaxed their grip on their magic wands.
"Glont is too strong to be considered like any other ordinary retired knight."
"Ha, have you ever seen such a coward?"
As Jiren's ridiculed, Malecia read his subordinates' thoughts before they would get angry and pull out their swords.
"Resolving personal feelings is done after the work is complete."
"Yes."
The subordinates just stared at Jiren and clenched their teeth.
Malecia told Jiren, who was looking at him in high spirits, "All of our work could be ruined because of one person."
One person could change the tide of the battlefield. The magician in front of him did not know that a single person's power could change everything.
Glont was a monster when he led the adventurer's unit five years ago, and when he organized the Black Water Buffalo Knights more than a decade ago and ran wild with Bloody. It would be hard for Jiren to understand that since he had never experienced war and especially since he had never experienced Glont's sword before.
Malecia felt his eye throb again.
"Perhaps for ruffians who only play with swords."
At Jiren's words, Malecia inwardly clicked his tongue.
When they first met, it seemed the act of having an assertive initiative had solidly scratched his pride. Of course, he didn't regret it. If he hadn't acted like that, Jiren wouldn't have even come out when called like this.
"The target is the last legacy of the Holy Tribe, the Miracle Crystal, that is presumed to be in the center of the ruin."
At Malecia's declaration, everyone put on a black mask.
"The operation will start now."
-o-
I killed my presence and snuck past the guards the best I could to successfully infiltrate inside the ruin.
"What... What's going on here?"
As soon as I entered the ruin, the amount of mana I felt decreased. It felt as if moisture disappeared and the air had become dry.
"Heliosphere!"
I made a shining sphere with magic instead of a flashlight to light up the surroundings. Although it was not a good environment to use magic due to the low ratio of mana in the air, it was not enough to feel inconvenienced. For magic, the magician's ability and mana capacity were important, but the surrounding environment was more important.
The interior of the ruin that I could roughly see was like a labyrinth from a game, built of large square rocks. In fact, it was a labyrinth with winding and divided roads. The walls were filled with murals that archaeologists might even feel a fetish for.
The murals seemed to show a record of the Giant War from about 500 years ago. Occasionally, at the crossroads, there was some writing in an ancient language.
Upon seeing ancient words suddenly after a long time, I suddenly got annoyed at an old memory.
It's a story from when I was just learning magic. I explained what a bidet was and asked Elder Mirpa to make one with magic, but he told me to make one myself while throwing me a book. The book was written in the ancient language.
Elder Mirpa forced me to learn the ancient language along with the runic language and the Fairy Tribe language, saying that they needed to be mastered to use magic.
I tried my best to learn in order to make a bidet.
When I first learned it, I thought it was a programming language like JAVA or Python used in magic, so I studied hard. But later on, it turned out that I didn't need to know it at all. Thinking of being deceived by that senile old grandpa, Mirpa, I still got annoyed.
Well, later on, using the languages, I'll use 'Gae Bulg', which kills the target regardless of causality. 'Thunder That Races Across The Sky', a modified version of the basic attack magic, magic bullet, which could extinguish a small mountain. I also made "World Reversal" which sends the entire region to the far side of the anti-war world.
In addition, there were quite a few magic spells that I created from boredom. There was no particular reason that I created such magic. I was just bored because my hometown was in a very remote place.
After being distracted for a moment, I took a glance at the ancient words written at the crossroad. It roughly said:
"The Holy King says to the princess, do not look favorably upon that lowly person. When I received a new round table and a new knight, his eyes and hair were black like the savage Crow Tribe." Among the witches who committed the seven sins, the Witch of Envy dared to make a prediction that when the princess finds love, she will sleep forever. The angry king tried to punish the Witch of Envy, but the Witch of Lust and the Witch of Greed hid the Witch of Envy and fled to the land of Giants far in the North. The insolent Giant was deceived by the Witch's temptation and aimed for the Holy King's life. The 12 holy knights gathered at the round table and cut off the Giant's neck, raising the status of the nation of prosperity."
Just looking at the murals and their contents, it seemed like some kind of myth. Records showed that the Giants had a special power to expand their body by several times. But were they referring to my ancestor when they mentioned the savage Crow that came in as a new knight of the roundtable?
Names such as my big brother's, Gallahad, or small brother's, Gawain, had influence from the Holy Kingdom. Then, they were probably quite close. But to call him a savage, the creator of this ruin must have been heavily affected by my ancestor's betrayal. 𝒇𝐫e𝑒𝒘ℯ𝑏noѵ𝐞𝑙 - 🅽🅽novel
Let's stop studying history and move on to a full-fledged exploration of the ruin.
According to the information provided by Milpia, the ruin was believed to be a labyrinth in the shape of an inverted pyramid underground. Based on the information regarding the ruins from the era of the Holy Kingdom, the most important treasures would be located in the central part rather than deep underground.
Honestly, I was not interested in expensive items. What I wanted was the magic of the now extinct Holy Tribe. Even just a trace was fine. As long as there was a clue, it may be possible to restore the magic of the Holy Tribe.
Of course, even if I were to restore it, it's questionable whether it could be called the Holy Tribe's magic since there was no original, but it would still be of great help for the development of magic.
I rummaged through the data Milpia had given me again.
"As expected, there's no map of the labyrinth."
As expected, there was no map of the inside because it had been less than a month since the ruin was discovered.
If there was one, it would mean that all the information on the ruin was collected in less than a month. That would be frightening in its own way.
Actually, even without a map, I could just walk around the labyrinth and memorize all the paths so it wouldn't be a problem even without a map. However, if you made a map in your head like that, it would take too much time to explore.
A map was essential to quickly get through the labyrinth to the center. Well, I could just make one if there wasn't one.
I carefully released my mana and cast exploration magic so that the magicians outside the ruins wouldn't notice.
"Spiders cursed by God set up large traps. Long, long, the spider webs stretch out in search of pitiful prey."
A thin thread of mana stretched out from my hand into many branches.
"The Thread of Arachne."
The magic thread stretched out quickly and told me the layout of the area. It was not an exact outline, and only the paths were shown. The size of the ruin was larger than expected, as my mana continued to get sapped away.
Briefly focusing on the mana threads, I was able to memorize the approximate terrain around here. However, unlike the information given by Milpia, it was not in the form of an inverted pyramid.
In comparison, it was a structure like a giant three-dimensional magic circle. The information said it was just speculation, but still, it should at least be close. Otherwise, it has no credibility.
'Then shall we slowly head to the center?' The night was still long.
-o-
"Next is a right turn."
After successfully infiltrating into the ruin, Malecia and his subordinates were charging through the labyrinth as quickly as possible.
"Are we certain this information is correct?"
When his subordinate looked anxiously at him, Malecia shrugged."It's information given to us by the Master, so we have to believe it."
If Jiren and other magicians that worshiped Aries heard it, they would have foamed at the mouth, angrily asking how they could doubt that person's words. Fortunately, however, there were no magicians here who worshipped Aries like a God.
"It's a compilation of all the information that he's found while searching for decades, so it should be fine to believe in it."
Malecia's subordinates were not fully reassured but nodded with an expression of being convinced. In fact, it wasn't only due to Aries's information, but also thanks to Jiren, who continued to lurk in Lotten to collect data.
He didn't want to admit it, but without Jiren's information, it might have been impossible to break through the labyrinth in such a short time. Most of the data that his subordinates were reading in real-time and giving directions were Jiren's achievements.
But honestly, his subordinates didn't see Jiren in a good light. Sometimes not knowing could be medicine.
"We're running out of time if we want to obtain our goal within today. We're speeding up."
If they happened to face the empire's excavation team in the middle of a path, it was guaranteed to be troublesome.
"Yes!"
The subordinates responded vigorously to Malecia's order and sped up.
-o-
Even though it was late, Kermin urgently convened the magicians of the court magician division.
One guide, an archaeologist, and a treasure hunter, making up a total of three. Six knights from the Black Water Buffalo Knights were called to the entrance of the ruin to be escorts.
"Why did you call us at this late hour?" asked Molk, a veteran knight who led the Black Water Buffalo Knights.
Kermin answered with a serious face, "It looks like there's a very important artifact sleeping in this ruin."
"An artifact? Well, there being artifacts in a ruin is a given. I don't understand why you called us at this late hour for that." Molk frowned and looked at Kermin.
Kermin looked at Dane Walker and introduced, "This friend, who you know well, will explain."
Molk and Dane Walker just greeted each other with their eyes.
"Long time no see, Magic Swordsman of Thunder."
"Ahahaha, long time no see."
Dane Walker laughed as he took out a document from his chest.
| ← Ch. 147 | Ch. 149 → |