Chapter 96

All of the Enpyrian knights were dead, including the 12 Imperial Guard Knights waiting outside.

The members who confirmed this went straight into the ruins.

In the midst of contemplation in front of the two paths, the stairs collapsed with a loud bang from the back. What’s broken is what’s broken

“Since I had to find the sutra, I thought a lot about whether I should go left or right.”

“How did you guess that?”

What would have happened if I had gone to the right from there? Or if the Imperial side was right from the start.

It’s a development I don’t want to imagine.

“Your Highness has decided.”

“I don’t know either. just… … It seemed to be on the left.”

“Haha, thanks to you, I’m alive.”

“I should have brought Maria. He gave me a vacation.”

“You should rest, Maria too.”

So there was no Maria.

Hira put a bandage on the elbow that was cut from the fall.

After barely breathing, I sat down on my back for a while and closed my eyes. Is there a way

“Frid, can’t you break through with your magic?”

“It’s hard because it completely collapsed from the top. Even if a new road is built, it is likely to collapse again.”

It means dangerous.

How did things come to be like this?

I never imagined anything like this. When it comes to variables, there should be something that comes to mind, but it is not.

“It happened.”

“Lox, what about the others?”

“Everybody is dead except for me. To those who were chasing me earlier.”

“Not even the Rocks know who it is.”

“okay.”

He answered Hira’s question.

The enemy was unmistakable.

Have you ever been aiming for an artifact? Only I know that there are artifacts here in the first place. I never envisioned an event like this.

“There is no support.”

at least a week. The chances of any outside help coming in any form are zero.

“No resources.”

Did you bring some water to drink? The hands of the members are light. The one bag that Frid slung over his shoulder was all.

50m underground.

Deep and dark in the ground, helplessly trapped. Not a solution, only a sigh came out.

“Anyway, Rocks.”

Ai-nim walked in front of me and bent his knees. It was clearly a forced laugh.

“We will get out safely.”

“… … Absolutely. I am thinking of a way now.”

“It’s also Rocks.”

Then I’m afraid I’ll just sit still and die of starvation. You’re sounding normal

“senior. Come this way.”

Once I called Baeller, I drew a picture on the floor. This is the picture Philip drew on a notepad.

“It is an ellipse with a long diameter of 600 m and a short diameter of about 500 m. We are here.”

“I never thought I would see this again.”

“That is also true. I mean, it’s still underground. Anyway.”

The situation is similar.

I marked the place where the stairs used to be and the passage that just collapsed with an X. where it is blocked

Even the eight spacious rooms, equivalent to a slice of pizza, were not left empty by Philip. There is also some structure inside.

“Because the last space I saw looked like this.”

“I remembered.”

“It’s such a large space. There won’t be only one entrance. We have no choice but to go in and look for them one by one.”

“Then what if I ran into them?”

Baeller said, pointing across the collapsed hallway. I don’t know the purpose, but the other side is also trapped. If you turn around inside, you will surely encounter them someday.

“I’m not sure either way.”

He must have known that this side’s strength was formidable, so he wouldn’t dare attack. That’s enough for now.

I didn’t feel any magic power even while chasing them, so it’s a relief that there are no wizards among them.

I don’t know if there is an exit or not, but I’m sure you can get artifacts in some rooms.

It was necessary to move quickly before the distance to the enemy was reduced.

“Let’s take a look inside.”

There was a road leading into the room right in front of me.

Unlike the hallway, which had at least a polished shape, the inside was almost like a natural cave.

“Come to the front, Frid.”

“Because it folds again.”

“I feel relieved when you are by my side. I can’t see half of it.”

Even if there are only five of them. Put Frid in the lead with me.

Sometimes the ceiling suddenly came down and hit his head, and sometimes he tripped on the bumpy or suddenly hollow floor and fell.

“What was this place like? I don’t know what its purpose is.”

“Usually, there is a high probability that a ruin this large is used as a storage space, but according to the expedition team, it doesn’t seem like a storage space.”

“There is something like a sack.”

Ainim picked up the empty sack and threw it away. Only dust was blown lightly.

There is nothing visible.

Even if I looked at the pillars that light up the appearance sparsely, there were no graffiti painted on them like in the hallway.

One difference, if any.

“But there’s nothing inside here, but there’s just a lot of magic power.”

Ainim looked at the pillar and said.

As the saying goes, unlike the hallway, the interior space is thick with magical energy.

It was not harmful to the body, but the level was very appropriate, so it was an appropriate space to use magic. In short, the environment was like a practice room in Somerset.

“If there is a place that is said to have more magical power than other places… … .”

“Are you talking about a place like this?”

“Oh, did you find it?”

There are artifacts right there. I was lucky to find it right from the first room.

At first glance, there seems to be nothing, but I wrote a script like ‘I found an artifact hidden inside a pillar’.

But when I approached Hira who raised her voice, there was no pillar.

“floor… … ?”

“yes. It’s subtle, though.”

Hira was squatting on the floor. Actually, it was different from what I was looking for.

Artifacts are objects that contain powerful magic in themselves, so if you are a wizard, you can easily find out where the magic is concentrated.

However, the magic power was not concentrated in the place Hira pointed to.

“Everyone is looking at the pillars, so I don’t think there is a need to look at the pillars anymore. I only looked at the floor.”

The wizard’s way to find traces of magic is simple. Magical power, when concentrated, looks like a kind of spectrum.

For example, this space is filled with reddish magic, and the floor where the heat radiates is the darkest among them.

The degree to which this can be seen varies greatly from person to person, but to my average eye, it was barely noticeable after looking for a long time. It was a very subtle difference.

“It’s sticking out.”

“yes.”

On the other hand, Aini notices it as soon as he sees it.

The color of magic power that was relatively evenly distributed along the floor was convex and protruding in only one spot.

“I’ll dig.”

Instead of digging with his hands, Freed dug up the soil with his magic.

The handle is attached to a round disc made of iron. As soon as everyone saw it, they knew what it was for. Because something similar was also on the northern wall.

Turn it, pull it, and it opens.

What is in this ‘subterranean underground’ space that does not appear in ＜Academy Summer Turge＞?

“Back off.”

The worry didn’t last long.

The exit was blocked anyway, so if you were looking for a way, you had to find another way.

drooling.

Pulling the handle brought out a ladder that went down. I put my ears to the floor for a while, but I couldn’t hear anything.

“It’s not very high.”

As soon as I threw a stone, it made a popping sound. Even when the light shines down, the floor is clearly visible.

“I’ll go down first.”

“Rox!”

“Are you okay?”

climbed down the ladder

When I lifted up the light I was holding in my mouth and illuminated it, it turned out to be a surprisingly small space. First of all, I thought it was safe, so I let the members come down.

“I think you can come down!”

“Yeah, but Rocks?”

“yes?”

“Are those lights kept shining on purpose?”

“ah.”

Oops, lack of sensitivity.

At the child’s point, I turned the light that was shining upward.

“What is this? It looks strange.”

While the upper part was a spacious vacant lot, as soon as we came down, we saw a hallway branching in all directions.

There are wooden doors on either side of the hallway. Compared to the upstairs, which was only a pit dug in the soil, it smelled like a man.

“It looks like a prison.”

“It wouldn’t be a prison because there were no latches.”

It was an ordinary wooden door. This thing breaks apart with just a kick.

I walked down the hallway, and this time I listened first, then carefully opened the door when there was no sound.

It was a large room.

no, not exactly.

“living room… … ?”

A square table and chairs. carpet on the floor. A jar on top of a drawer.

An ordinary looking living room.

There was a proper housekeeping in the basement of these muddy ruins, so there was a sense of incongruity.

“There is also a bed in the master bedroom.”

There is even a straight wooden bed, although the fabric is rotten and looks ugly. Perhaps it was a proper bed in the distant past.

When I left the hallway again and opened another door, it was an ordinary house with only slight differences.

“It seems that quite a few people have lived here.”

“It must have been a very long time if the bones were gone.”

“There’s something at the end of the hallway.”

Rather than inspecting the identical room, Ai-nim ran all the way inside and arrived at the end of the hallway. I saw something round and blue stuck in it.

“her.”

Baeller was the first to react. Among the members, it was the most familiar item to Baeller.

[ITEM]

[Inexpensive magic core]

: A bead created by compressing magical power. Maintains the magic concentration of the area to make it easier to use magic.

do you have this again?

“That’s not a magic core… … ?”

“It’s the same shape, but much weaker compared to the one in Summer Turge.”

“To what extent?”

“10%.”

If the words were 10%, compared to the original mana core, 10%, this was a terrifying thing. What’s more important.

“It’s also stuck in the wall over there.”

It wasn’t just one. A total of 3 magical power cores lined up along the wall.

Seeing that there is no particularly connected device, it only seems to be used to maintain the concentration of magical power in this space as explained.

I reached out for the magic core.

Oops!

“Hick! Can I pull it out?”

“sure. It will come in handy.”

“In fairy tales, the floor just collapses, the ceiling collapses, the walls narrow… … .”

Contrary to the child’s worries, it was quiet.

I also pulled out the other two magic cores and put them in my pocket. A hundred times better than clumsy art facts.

Furthermore, Baeller, who had been touching the wall for a while, said.

“Rockstrin, it’s just the structure that’s complicated here. It’s about the same size as the upper floor.”

“While going around the hallway, the mana was almost constant, so it should be the same in the other rooms.”

“Let’s get everything for now.”

I mean something. There are 8 rooms.

24 10% magic cores?

Even calculated with the initial mana cores consumed in the Northern Neutral Zone, it is almost 2.5. It was enough to block two more air raids of that size.

‘It’s much better than that.’

If you are an excellent magician, you can handle such a reaction. Right now, Baeller can juggle with this.

You don’t necessarily have to sacrifice yourself.

It can be revived after properly consuming the necessary amount of mana.

“You look good, Rocks.”

“sure.”

What if we gathered the scholars of the Society of Magic and studied it?

In the beginning, there was only one magical power core, and proper research was impossible because it could not handle the compressed magical power.

The popular magic core is different.

“Because this is the treasure I was told I might find.”

The magic power contained is also small, and since there are several of them, many people can study them at the same time. By doing research like that.

What if it can be mass-produced?

What if you could collect and store mana that you don’t use in normal times and then use it?

There is no reason to fear monsters anymore. It’s like a dream, but it’s also a story with plenty of possibilities.

Hira said in a worried voice.

“But Rox, earlier… … .”

“Ah, it’s okay.”

It is said that they can escape by digging a tunnel with a spoon, but there is nothing to be afraid of.

“You can just kill it and leave.”