After Saira regained his composure, he wiped the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand and glared at Lin Ze.
Lin Ze shrugged and walked towards the second floor.
The layout of the second floor is similar to that of the first floor. It is also a circular space, but the area is smaller.
There were three narrow windows embedded in the wall, the window frames were so rusted that only the iron frames were left. The twilight filtered in from the outside, making the entire space look like an old photo.
The ground was covered with wooden boards, but there was a large area of ground sprinkled with flour or salt, forming a circular pattern about three meters in diameter, which looked like a magic circle.
Lin Ze squatted on the edge of the magic circle and did not step in hastily.
Saira followed, took a look at the lines on the ground, and then looked at Lin Ze's expression.
"What is this?"
"It seems to be some kind of magic circle..." Lin Ze said hesitantly.
"Huh? It seems? You don't recognize it?" Sela asked.
"I don't recognize..."
"Aren't you a wizard?"
"A wizard must know all magic circles?"
"..."
Lin Ze really doesn't recognize it.
Although he had studied Ancient Runes in Hogwarts, he had also read through many illustrations of magic circles.
But the one in front of him didn't match any of the magic circles in his memory.
The magic arrays taught by Hogwarts pay attention to symmetry, geometry, and replicability. Each arc has its reason for existence, and each intersection corresponds to a magic node.
In this array, the arc is broken and the fractures are uneven.
Some lines suddenly turned a sharp corner halfway through and extended in another direction. There were no nodes or auxiliary symbols at the corners.
There is no core symbol at the center of the formation, just a blank space.
The whole pattern looks like it was scrawled on the floor by some madman.
However, Lin Ze could feel the weak magic power flowing slowly under the soil.
This magical power gave him an indescribable strange feeling.
Lin Ze raised the wand, with the tip hanging half a foot above the magic circle.
The magic power seeped out from the tip of the staff, like testing the temperature of water, and penetrated into the intermittent arcs bit by bit.
Saira stood beside him, his scimitar hanging by his side, the tip of the knife touching the floor, his eyes turning back and forth between the magic circle and Lin Ze.
"Did you find anything?"
"Don't talk."
Lin Ze Close your eyes.
The magic power that the tip of the wand penetrated had just come into contact with the magic power flowing in the magic circle.
From his perception, it was as if he had put his hand into a slow-flowing river, and the cold water slowly washed away his magic circuit.
The broken arc in the magic circle suddenly lit up.
The bright light moved from the outer circle to the inner circle, going very slowly, and stopped at the break.
After a second or two, it continued from the break of the next arc, and then walked inside.
Just go on and on, stop and go.
Lin Ze's magic power follows the dark red light.
Chase all the way to the empty space in the center of the magic circle.
A blur of writing appeared in the blank space.
Those writings were different from the circular writings Lin Ze had seen on boundary monuments and copper plates. They were a type of font that he had never seen before.
He can't understand.
But Saira suddenly exclaimed, "I recognize this word!"
Lin Ze looked back at her.
But he saw Saira staring at the floating writing in the center of the magic circle, his eyebrows twisted into a vertical line.
"Do you recognize it?"
"Eastern Tribe's characters." Saira used the tip of the knife to compare the appearance of those characters in mid-air.
"It means...Morgana."
Morgana?
Lin Ze blinked, he had heard of this name.
Hogwarts's History of Magic textbook mentions that she is Merlin's biggest enemy in life and his only student.
So... this is the Europe continent in the Merlin era?
"Are you sure?" Lin Ze asked.
"I'm sure, the old farmers in the east sometimes use this common style when writing land deeds." Saira nodded affirmatively.
"What...Morgana is? Is it a name?" Sela asked.
"Yes, and he is a very famous wizard."
Lin Ze stood up and removed the wand from above the magic circle.
The dark red light slowly went out, as if someone had pinched out the last bit of fire in the furnace.
Saira looked at him. "Your expression seems wrong?"
"Nothing." Lin Ze shook his head.
"Just the name reminds me of something."
"Have you ever heard of this name?" Lin Ze thought for a while and decided to ask.
Saira tilted his head and knocked the tip of the knife lightly on the floor twice. "I haven't heard of it. Eastern Tribe has many names. She may be a goddess in a certain village, or she may be a young lady from a wealthy family."
"What about this magic circle? Have your patrol team seen it before?"
"No." Saira walked to the edge of the magic circle and picked up the off-white powder on the ground with the tip of his knife.
"This stuff looks like salt, but it's different."
Lin Ze squatted down, took a handful of powder and rubbed it with his fingers.
The powder is very fine, and there is a very light astringency left on the fingertips, which is indeed different from salt.
He put it to the tip of his nose and smelled it, but there was no smell.
The two of them bypassed the magic circle and continued walking deeper into the second floor.
There is a small door against the wall of the circular space. The door panel is half-open, and the narrow space inside is exposed through the crack in the door.
Lin Ze Pushed the door open, and there was a storage room inside. The items on the shelves had long been turned over, and there were several bundles of moldy ropes, two wooden barrels with leaky bottoms, and a rusty shovel scattered on the floor.
There is also a half-broken shield leaning against the wall. There is some kind of heraldry painted on the shield, but it is so rusted that it can only be seen in the shape of a raptor.
It looks like it was left by the sentry who was stationed here before.
The two of them exited the storage room and returned to the magic circle.
Lin Ze squatted down again and studied the magic circle carefully.
Sela stood aside without saying a word, just silently watching Lin Ze in a daze.
"Let's go up and take a look at the observation tower." Lin Ze looked at it for a long time but found nothing new. Sometimes he always felt that his knowledge still needed to be improved, so he should wait until he had time to ask Tom behind Sela's back.
The two of them continued to go up along a narrow ladder against the wall.
The observation deck on the third floor is smaller than that on the second floor. There is a large window on each side. There are a few strings broken by the wind on the window frames, which were probably used to hang curtains in the past.
Looking out from here, the whole picture of Bitterwater Swamp is spread out under your feet - the gray water surface extends to the horizon, with a few small islands scattered here and there, and white waterbirds skimming the water in the distance.
Saira stood by the window and watched for a while, then suddenly said, "Tell me, what did those three crazy people see in the tower?"
"I don't know, but it must have something to do with this magic circle." Lin Ze walked to the window opposite her and looked out.
"What are you going to do next?"
"First check the inside and outside of this tower to see if there are any other clues."