Exploring the Ruins (End of Volume)

Drip! Drip!

Water droplets fell from cracks in the ceiling into small pits worn into the ground over countless days, then flowed away through cracks in the floor. Thus, aside from the damp air, there was no standing water anywhere in the underground passage.

Whoosh! Whoosh! John cautiously refrained from moving forward right away. Instead, he raised his longsword and flung out several clusters of Battle Qi. This was the most basic application of Battle Qi, nothing technically demanding. The purpose was simply to check whether there were any traps in the passage.

Bang! Bang! Bang...

The Battle Qi clusters struck the passage walls, ceiling, and ground before exploding, blasting down some fragments of stone.

"There shouldn't be any traps."

Even so, John remained extremely cautious as he entered the passage. Parr followed closely behind him just as carefully, his faintly glowing eyes sweeping the surroundings. He had already activated Low-level Elemental Vision.

Everything he saw appeared normal, which made Parr sigh inwardly in relief. He was afraid that lightning, lasers, or something similar might suddenly appear. This was a mage's private laboratory, after all! Perhaps there had never been any traps, or perhaps time had caused them all to fail. In any case, John and Parr safely reached the end of the underground passage, where they found a lapis lazuli stone door.

"Careful!"

John suddenly stopped. He did not explain why, but Parr had already seen the reason. Within his Low-level Elemental Vision, the stone door at the end of the passage emitted a faint glow that flickered at a highly regular pace. There was magic on it.

John had stopped because he had noticed this as well. As a Bronze-level Knight, he could still sense traces of elemental aura.

"Step back."

After standing there and thinking for a moment, John led Parr backward, then raised the Dark Knight One-Handed Sword in his hand.

"Blood Moon Slash!"

John's usual Skill appeared once more. A crescent of blood-red light shot from the blade, crossed the short distance, and struck the lapis lazuli stone door.

Bang! After a dull thud, Parr looked again and found that the flickering glow on the door had vanished.

"It's fine now. It was only a damaged defensive Magic Array."

John stepped forward again, but rather than pushing open the stone door, he reached out and touched the crack that had been slashed into it. After carefully examining the crack, a smile appeared on his face. Pointing at the door, he said to Parr, "Come take a look, little one. This isn't ordinary lapis lazuli. This is Azure Gold."

"Azure Gold?"

It was Parr's first time hearing of the material. He walked forward and inspected it carefully, discovering that the azure-gold color on the surface was indeed richer than that of lapis lazuli. Looking through the crack, he could see that the surface of the stone door was covered by a layer of metal resembling lapis lazuli. This had to be Azure Gold.

Sure enough, John explained as he used his sword to peel the Azure Gold off the door.

"Azure Gold is a rare companion metal of lapis lazuli. It's one of the materials used to forge Spiritual Tools, and adding it to weapons can improve their toughness. It's worth a lot of money."

"Spiritual Tools?"

Parr had learned another new term from John. He did not understand it, but he could ask.

"Uncle John, what are Spiritual Tools?"

"Tools with special effects."

John gave a casual explanation, then offered an example.

"Like the translucent shields those spellcasters we encountered had. Those are the lowest-grade kind of Spiritual Tool. Their forms can vary, and they're consumable items. Once broken, they won't recover."

"Oh! So that's how it is!"

Parr nodded to show that he understood. Aren't those just enchanted items? Tools with special effects...

As he thought about it, Parr could not help lowering his head to look at the Black Short Sword. This sword was so extraordinary—it should be a Spiritual Tool too, right?

Swish, swish, swish...

John quickly stripped the layer of Azure Gold from the stone door, rolled it into a ball, and tossed it to Parr.

"Huh? It's actually soft!"

Parr squeezed the apple-sized lump of Azure Gold in his hand and was surprised to find that the metal was very soft. No wonder John had effortlessly rolled it into a ball earlier.

"Put it away. With this, this trip won't have been a loss."

John turned back with a smile and reminded Parr, then turned forward again, took a deep breath, and gently pushed open the stone door.

Creak, creak...

It was somewhat difficult to push, but that was no challenge for a Bronze-level Knight. Dense Battle Qi rose around John as he easily pushed the stone door open a crack.

Whoosh...

A burst of foul air rushed out at once. John hurriedly grabbed Parr and pulled him back several steps. Only after the stale air had dispersed did he step forward again and push the door fully open in one go.

Creak! Bang!

Then, a space roughly a hundred square meters in size appeared before John and Parr.

"What's that?"

Parr's gaze was immediately drawn to several glowing things on the ground.

They were soft and round, in all sorts of colors. There were at least a hundred of them, slowly wriggling across the floor.

"Slimes. They're Slimes."

After seeing that there was no danger, John stepped forward, picked one up, and tossed it to Parr. Smiling, he explained, "Slimes are harmless creatures that appear in places with dense elemental energy. They have no intelligence."

"Slimes!"

Parr caught the palm-sized Slime. It was one of the smallest ones there. He turned the water-ball-like creature over in his hands and came to a conclusion. Aren't these the little monsters that always showed up in fantasy games in my previous life? What a coincidence. I never thought this other world would have them too.

"Huh?"

As he looked, Parr noticed something wrong. The Slime in his hand was shrinking.

"Uncle John, what's happening?"

"This used to be a sealed environment. Because of these Magic Crystals, the elemental concentration here was very high. But I broke it open, so..."

John held up a Luminous Crystal as he examined the underground space. Hearing Parr's question, he pointed at several translucent crystals embedded in the walls. Those were Magic Crystals that had already run out of energy.

"The elemental concentration has dropped, so the Slimes are going to die?"

Parr pinched the little creature in his hand. In that brief span of time, the palm-sized Slime had already turned into a sheet of skin, rubbery in texture.

"That's just how these creatures are. Don't be sad."

John grabbed the Slime Skin from Parr's hand and tossed it into his mouth, chewing noisily as if he were chewing gum.

Parr: "..."

Wouldn't eating things so randomly upset his stomach? As if he understood Parr's look, John explained while chewing.

"It tastes pretty good. Slime Skin is a type of Magic Potion Ingredient. Eating it refreshes the mind and gets rid of fatigue. Different colors taste different too. I like blue and purple ones. One is as refreshing as eating ice, with a hint of sweetness! The other makes your mouth tingle—it's seriously addictive!"

"Different flavors? Tingling?"

Parr's big black eyes lit up. He eagerly asked, "Uncle John, is there any Slime Skin that tastes spicy?"

"There is."

John nodded, bent down to scoop up a red Slime that had crawled over, and tossed it to Parr.

"This kind of red one. It tastes fiery and spicy, like your mouth is burning. It's not good at all."

"Hehehe..."

Ignoring John's evaluation, Parr held the slightly warm red Slime and laughed. He could not have been happier. He had found it—he had finally found it! Spicy Rabbit, hehehe...

After the little Slime incident, Parr followed John as they searched the underground space. First, they pried the depleted Magic Crystals from the walls. Even without energy, those things could still be sold for money.

Then they searched the somewhat empty place inch by inch. Aside from the Slimes, there was nothing else on the ground. Against the surrounding walls, however, stood a long stone table, a chair, a bookshelf, and a wooden bed.

They skipped over the wooden bed, which had already rotted into scraps. After confirming that there was nothing else on the ground, John led Parr to the bookshelf. Due to the passage of time, the wooden shelf was on the verge of collapse, and the books on it were even worse. They looked so rotten that they would fall apart at a touch. Only one book with a yellow cover seemed intact enough to handle.

John examined it, then reached out and removed the yellow-covered book. He carefully flipped through several pages, immediately narrowing his eyes as the corners of his mouth curled upward into a lecherous grin.

"Who would've thought? Mages from a thousand years ago liked this sort of thing too. And it's an illustrated collector's edition! No wonder it was recorded on Magic Beast hide! Hiss... so exciting. Slurp!"

Wind Wolf Script was the flowing abbreviated form of the continent's common writing from a thousand years ago, so John could understand what was written in the book.

"..."

Parr had been about to ask what kind of book it was. The instant he saw John's expression and movements, he understood. He immediately shifted farther away, making it clear that his pure self had absolutely nothing to do with lecherous John.

"Ahem."

John also realized that he had lost his composure. He coughed awkwardly, slipped the yellow-covered book into his clothes without drawing attention to it, then walked solemnly toward the stone table. It was the last place that had not yet been searched.

"It looks like the owner here left in a hurry, but never returned."

John examined the arrangement of the items on the stone table, then said to Parr, "Look, little one. The things on top are neatly arranged. There's even a sheet of paper in the very center that has already rotted away, with a pen placed on it. It's as if the owner merely left temporarily because something came up. Only, that departure lasted a thousand years, and they never came back."

"That really does seem to be the case."

Parr saw it too. Most of the stone table was covered in scattered sheets of paper and several thick notebooks, but they were all ordinary objects. With the passage of time, the writing on them had become too blurred to read clearly. From what little he could make out, they seemed to be records of research into something.

Besides those things, against the wall at the center of the stone table sat a gray square box. It was around twenty centimeters in both length and width. Its material was difficult to identify—it seemed neither like wood nor stone. Yet there was no denying that this box was the best-preserved item in the room.

"..."

Looking at the gray box, even the well-traveled John stroked his chin and pondered for a long while. Then he suddenly cried out, "Millennial Ironwood!"

Before Parr could ask, John stomped his foot with a heartbroken expression.

"Ah! Millennial Ironwood is excellent for making magic wands! How could it be used to make a box? What a waste!"

"Uncle John, if a box is made from such precious wood, then the thing inside should be valuable too, right?"

At that moment, Parr asked what seemed like an innocent question. What he meant was: hurry up and open it to see what was inside! Stop dragging it out!

"That's true."

John stopped stomping. He drew his sword and extended it toward the box, then flicked it open.

"What's this?"

There were no traps. Parr leaned over to look and discovered that the gray box contained only a fragment of white metal.

"No way! It's actually a fragment of the Holy Sword!"

John withdrew the Dark Knight One-Handed Sword, which had begun trembling in his hand. His face showed a mixture of astonishment and delight.

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