The stairway was paved with blue stone, and several magic lamps made from low-grade Magic Power Crystals hung on the walls on either side.
Their design was very commonplace, much like lanterns: transparent blue Magic Power Crystals enclosed a piece of brightlight stone at the center, inscribed with a magic array.
They presumably worked by continuously stimulating the brightlight stone with mana, causing it to emit white light.
The construction was extremely simple. After taking a look, Kroya felt that if he could dismantle one, study it, and reproduce the array, he could make them himself.
"So it's this simple structure that makes them stable."
He looked at the magic lamps hanging on either side. If this place really was connected to the mage who had traded with the Merfolk Tribe, they had to be at least two hundred years old.
For such a simple structure to keep working for two hundred years was honestly very practical.
"I'll deal with that on the way out..."
Forcing down the urge to pry one off and study it, Kroya continued forward.
Tap... tap...
His footsteps were the only sound on the silent stairs. Normally, breathing should have been difficult this far underground, but strangely enough, he did not feel stifled at all.
After about two minutes, he reached the end of the stairs-a wall that looked no different from the surrounding stone walls.
Although everything about this place seemed suspicious, there really was nothing but a wall, and its surface was perfectly smooth, without any markings.
He felt around it with his hands but found no protruding mechanisms, and his mana perception detected nothing unusual either.
"Hmm, of course it wouldn't be that easy to get in... But if that Archmage left this behind..."
Kroya thought for a moment, then took the