After confirming that the traps had all been triggered, Ryan carefully checked the area around the steel gate. Only after making sure there was no danger did he call Jelona and the others over.
Ryan looked up at the massive steel gate, its surface gleaming with a metallic sheen. Three times the height of a person, it stood at the end of the passage, cast entirely from reddish-purple metal. Its blood-red surface was engraved with reliefs of wizard towers and all manner of legendary creatures.
To Ryan, even the smallest details of the gate revealed the ancient magical empire's grandeur and opulence. The enormous, timeworn gate was made entirely of special red iron steel. Despite lying buried deep beneath the mountains for more than a thousand years, its complex enchantments had kept it gleaming like new, without a trace of rust—a testament to the beauty of steel and the wonders of magic.
Buried beneath layer upon layer of mountain rock and soil, the deep-red iron gate was as cold and sinister as though it connected to the blood-red Abyss, sending a chill down the spine.
Ryan tapped the gate a few times with the end of his staff. The clang of steel against steel rang low and clear. He estimated its thickness in silence. Judging by his magical probing and the sound of the echoes, the gate was at least three feet thick. No one present could force it open through brute strength.
Ryan stared at the recess in the middle of the tightly sealed vermilion gate, thinking for a moment. Then he turned to his companions, who were inspecting the steel structure, and suggested, "If this is a trial, then there can't be a dead end. Everyone, search the area and see if you can find any clues."
The other three answered and spread out to search the area around the gate. Ryan glanced at the sealed steel doors, then took his staff and began checking the surroundings as well.
Only then did Ryan begin to feel like he was truly exploring a ruin. In an ancient, shadowy dungeon, adventurers and their companions would carry torches and swords through passageways, disarm traps, clear obstacles, then face the boss and slay its monsters. After a fierce battle, they would defeat the Demon King and return home laden with rewards and glory, ready to marry a noble and beautiful princess.
But that was nothing more than wishful thinking from the corporate drones of his previous life, who had enjoyed peaceful, comfortable lives and dreamed of another world. The real otherworld was far more cruel and dark than those pampered fools could imagine.
Unlike the plots of the anime and games from Ryan's past life, adventurers on Faerûn rarely hoped to encounter living creatures or bosses while exploring ruins. The lightless, bottomless underground ruins were usually home only to dangerous monsters and cold, undead creatures. That meant a desperate, bloody battle—and a cold, gray eternity of death.
Suddenly, Arata cried out, "Come over here! I found something!"
At his call, Ryan and Jelona hurried over to where the barbarian was. The hulking man was crouched in a corner to the left of the gate, apparently scraping at something on the ground with his hand.
Curious, Ryan asked Arata, "What are you looking at?"
Arata gave a hard tug and nearly toppled backward onto his rear. He got to his feet and held the object in his hand high, a simple, delighted smile on his face. "Look! I found a treasure!"
Ryan examined the object in the barbarian's hand. It was a flawless white crystal, shaped like a teardrop. Under the Light Spell shining from the tip of Ryan's staff, it gleamed brightly.
Ryan looked at the object, then back at the recess in the steel gate. There was no doubt: this was the key to opening the gate. He asked Arata, "Where did you find this?"
"I was about to go take a leak nearby—no, I mean, while I was searching, I tripped over this thing. I thought it was a rock sticking out of the ground, but when I looked closer, I saw it was something strange."
The barbarian grinned foolishly. The dwarf shield warrior beside him, who prided himself on being an expert explorer and tunneling whiz, was so annoyed he could hardly stand it. Arata's ridiculous luck left him feeling miserable.
Ryan was pleased, though. He took the teardrop-shaped crystal Arata handed him and examined it closely. To his surprise, even with all the knowledge he had accumulated, he couldn't immediately identify what it was made of.
The teardrop looked like a flawless, colorless crystal, but it didn't feel hard and sharp like a gemstone. Instead, it was soft to the touch, like running his fingers over the fine, lightweight silk of the highest quality.
But investigating the strange crystal's material wasn't the priority. With his companions watching expectantly and curiously, Ryan placed it in the recess in the gate. Just as he had thought, it fit perfectly. The recess was exactly the right size, holding the crystal snugly in place.
As the crystal settled into the recess, it seemed to receive an influx of energy and activated at once. A beam of light shone from the flawless crystal onto the gate. The intricate patterns on the vermilion doors lit up one after another, and shimmering lines of light began to flow across the reliefs.
At the strange sight, everyone readied their weapons, wary of whatever might happen next.
To their surprise, no spell or trap was triggered this time. A screen of light appeared in the air before Ryan and the others.
At the same time, the cold, mechanical voice Ryan had heard at the ruin's entrance sounded again. "You are about to enter the first biological laboratory. Checking access list. No matching subject found. Connecting to main hub archives. Legacy mode activated. Entry permitted. Please solve the level-three lock to obtain authorization."
Ryan listened quietly to the mechanical voice. When it announced that there was no matching subject, he tightened his grip on his staff. Only when it said entry was permitted did he relax.
Ryan let out a breath as he looked at the magical lock on the screen. He handed his staff to Jelona, who could only stare helplessly at the puzzle, and began working through the solution with practiced ease.
Thanks to Yefalin's mischievous streak, whenever Ryan went to see her, he had to face all sorts of magical tests. Sometimes it was a tedious, complicated magical lock; other times it was a teleportation trap. The expert diviner and archmage never seemed to tire of finding ways to amuse herself at Ryan's expense.
Yefalin had watched the boy at her door go from clumsy to practiced, from being repeatedly caught out to handling each challenge with ease. Seeing her prized student grow had brought her joy and delight, as befitted a capable mentor (not really). The unreliable, carefree teacher always found happiness in it.
As the one being toyed with, Ryan had endured a teleportation gate that dumped him into the freezing sea, forcing him to swim for two days to reach shore (he hadn't learned Fly yet); a failed attempt to unlock a magical lock, followed by a harmless Lesser Fireball that left his whole face black with soot; and the time he carelessly stepped on a trap, was transformed into an orange cat by Baleful Polymorph, and then spent a day and a night being petted. After all that, Ryan figured anyone normal would have made tremendous strides in the application of magic.
Still, even Ryan, who had come through all those unspeakable ordeals, found the lock on the screen challenging. The work of ancient Arcanists differed from the magic used on Faerûn today. That didn't mean older magic was more powerful; magic continually evolved, driven forward by spell fanatics and master researchers. Ryan had never believed the nonsense that ancient magic was necessarily stronger.
It was just that ancient magic had certain structural and design differences from the current system, with both merits and shortcomings in its guiding principles. After studying it and trying a few things, Ryan finally found a path to success by using the system to organize and compare the information.
Holding Ryan's sapphire staff, Jelona watched the handsome blond youth's profile as he concentrated on the screen before him. There was a particular charm to someone who poured his whole heart into a task.
Time slipped quietly away like sand through the fingers. As Ryan drew the final stroke, the screen in front of him flickered and disappeared.
"Beep. Lock released. Welcome to the first biological laboratory. Friendly reminder: before entering the laboratory, please read the laboratory rules and precautions. Applications are required to use precious specimens!"
As the announcement ended, the grinding and clanking of machinery came from deep within the gate and the rock walls on either side. Ryan felt the ground tremble beneath his feet. With the rumbling, the steel gate slowly slid apart.
Hearing the familiar announcement, Ryan looked nostalgic, as though he had returned to the carefree, happy days of working in a laboratory at the ivory tower. But as soon as he remembered that senior's crazy exploits, he couldn't help thinking, What the hell?
"Stay alert, everyone. Be careful!" Ryan took back his staff, ready to cast a spell at any moment, and watched the opening vermilion steel gate with a grave expression.
This time, the dwarf shield warrior took the lead, carefully advancing behind his tower shield. The four of them warily looked around as they entered the laboratory beyond the gate.
But this time, there was no door-opening ambush or insidious trap like Ryan had expected. As the four stepped into the spacious room, the lights came on with a crackle, and the chamber was instantly as bright as day.
But the laboratory's contents and the scene before them made Ryan and the others feel as though they had fallen into an abyss. Their hands and feet went cold, and they stood frozen in the room as if they had come face-to-face with an ancient, enduring horror—some terrifying, unfathomably dark thing.
The thick-headed dwarf stared at the hellish scene before him, mouth agape. Dazed, he murmured, "Moradin's beard, what in the world is all this?"
Before you continue