The team leader quickly arrived at the spot his subordinates had indicated—a depression some distance from the bombing zone.
By now, daylight had fully broken, and the glorious giant sun cast its brilliant radiance over Wolf Ridge Mountain. Under the sunlight, the obsidian-like crystals formed by melted and resolidified rock at the edge of the bombing zone gleamed with iridescent reflections. The members of the ground team dispatched from the outpost research ship had gathered around a strangely shaped mass of molten material, using mana detectors, life-sensing equipment, and various other devices to examine an odd-looking wreck embedded within the melted crystals.
The sound of metal boots striking the ground came from the mountain path. The team leader joined his members and, through his heavy protective mask and Breeze Shield, frowned slightly at the strange wreck they had discovered—it was wrapped in a blackened mass, half-buried in a slope that had taken on a fluid-like form. Had its discoverers not been sharp-eyed enough, it would have been easy to mistake the thing at first glance for an unremarkable rock.
But on closer inspection, it had edges and surfaces more regular than any stone. Though it had been warped overall, traces of artificial craftsmanship could still be seen. Through a damaged opening somewhere on it, the team leader could also make out what appeared to be a more complicated inner structure, with crystal-like inlays and curled metal "branches."
"Chief, what do you think this thing is?" one of his subordinates asked. "It was made artificially, right? But it obviously wasn't left behind by the beastmen... Could those monsters that ran out of the Wasteland make something this advanced?"
"Those monsters may lack intelligence, but the ones controlling them do not—don't underestimate our enemy. Those Dark Priests actually possess highly advanced technology.