Chapter 64 — Deep Within the Ruins

Gawain had actually intended to bring Rebecca along as well, but she had been busy with the construction of the Magic Web No. 1 these past days and had not had a proper rest in a long while. Tonight she had finally managed to get to bed early, so Gawain did not disturb her.

After all, bringing her along would only add one more fireball launcher to the party, which he reckoned would not be of much use—certainly not as effective as Gawain himself drawing his blade and cutting people down.

Hetty had not yet retired. She was in her own tent studying the systems and plans Gawain had written when she heard that something had gone wrong at the ruins in the mountains. She immediately threw on her outer coat and hurried over.

Seeing her somewhat tense expression, Gawain reassured her: "Don't panic. It's just some abnormal noises—probably one of the ancient facilities inside shifting a little. If a real collapse were coming, it wouldn't be this quiet."

Hetty nodded, her brow still knitted with worry.

Sir Byron quickly selected a squad of seasoned soldiers, and then, led by Gao Song, they passed through the mountain path and arrived before the main gate of the ancient ruins.

A temporary sentry post had been built here out of plank houses, with five soldiers permanently stationed to guard the gate. Torches lit the area around the entrance, making the situation plain at a glance: apart from a few nervous-looking soldiers standing about, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary.

"My lord," one soldier stepped forward and saluted at once upon seeing Gawain, "there were two more noises from inside just now."

"Mm. I'll take a look myself," Gao Cen said as he walked toward the ruins gate. "The rest of you wait outside. No one enters without my order."

Arriving before the gate, Gawain used the platinum disc to activate the ancient Gondor runes. Seeing the heavy purple-steel doors begin to flow with magical radiance as usual, he relaxed somewhat: at least the mana channels here were still functioning, which meant there would be no major upheaval inside.

Hetty instinctively tightened her grip on her staff, first sketching out the spell model for an Ice Arrow, but a second later she dispersed the mana and switched to a support spell—if it missed, it would be embarrassing.

The purple-steel doors slowly swung open, driven by magic, and the mana crystals set in the hall immediately brightened. Gawain laid his hand on the hilt of the Pioneer's Sword and stepped inside, on his guard.

The hall appeared utterly normal. The metal ingots and weapons and armor that had not yet been moved out still sat where they were, gleaming under the bright, steady light of the mana crystals. The whole hall showed no sign of collapse or loosening—everything seemed as it should be.

But after sweeping his gaze around, Gao Shao immediately noticed a change: at the far end of the hall, several doors stood open.

This ancient ruin was not limited to the single hall before them. Within the mountain itself it had a far vaster structure—something that could be judged from the scale of its entrance and the architectural forms occasionally visible on the rock walls. But until now, Gawain and his people had only made use of this one hall at the entrance. It was not that they did not wish to go deeper; rather, the doors leading further in were locked fast.

As far back as seven hundred years ago, when the Northern Pioneering Army found this ruin, the doors to the deeper levels had already been locked, sealed with a magical seal entirely different from that of the outer gate. The pioneers of that era had cracked the mana key to the first entrance but were powerless against the doors deep in the hall. So they had simply used the hall as a treasure vault, set new seals upon it, and left. And now, seven hundred years later, Gawain had led the Cecil pioneering party back to this place—and he and the people he had brought still had no way to deal with those doors.

Hetty had once studied the vault hall for a full day and had failed to break the seals on those doors: that was the magical technology of Gondor at its zenith, far beyond the ability of a third-rank mage like Hetty to crack.

Gawain had originally planned to set those doors aside for the time being and consider how to deal with them once matters had stabilized in the future. He had never expected that today, of all days, those doors would open on their own.

Hetty noticed the state of the doors as well and tugged uneasily at Gao Song's clothes: "Ancestor, those doors..."

"I see them. Heaven knows how they opened." Gao Qi's brows furrowed as he spoke, but his mind could not help turning to the red-spot eruption and the surge of mana a few days earlier. Could that surge have spread all the way to the ruins and loosened the seals within? And then, lately, he had frequently had Hetty or Rebecca bring the platinum disc here to open the doors and move things out—could the frequent opening and closing of the first layer of seals have, by some strange coincidence, activated the doors deeper inside?

Based on Gawain's understanding of the magical technology of the ancient Gondor Empire, this was quite possible.

He led a few soldiers to those three doors and began to ponder.

If this followed the usual plot, sneaking into a suddenly opened ruin in the dead of night to explore would basically be a death wish—but the specifics depended on the genre. If this were an American show, pretty much everyone who went in would be dead soon. If it were a Japanese drama, before dying they would very likely catch a glimpse of a female ghost or something. But if it were a domestic drama... then after going in, he would very likely end up dating the female ghost...

Gawain glanced at the people around him. This bunch in armor and helmets, clutching staffs—by any artistic measure, they were clearly in an American show.

Not going in meant certain death, and he wouldn't even get to see a female ghost before dying.

But just as he made up his mind and was about to order the doors sealed for the time being, to be explored later when conditions were ripe, he heard Hetty suddenly mutter: "There seems to be a mana reaction inside... very deep."

Gawain raised an eyebrow: "A mana reaction? Deep inside?"

"It's coming from deep behind this door," Hetty said, pointing at the middle one of the three. "The door probably blocked the flow of mana before—I never sensed it. But now that the door is open, I can faintly feel something inside... possibly a magic array in operation, or something like that. But the reaction is very, very faint, and it's fading steadily. I'm afraid it could vanish completely at any moment."

Gawain: "..."

He forcibly suppressed the urge to turn and walk away, and sighed inwardly: humans really are creatures that cannot help but court death.

Whatever was inside, it seemed he had to take a look before leaving.

Gripping the Pioneer's Sword, Gawain silently layered several protections on himself with knight skills, then took the lead and walked at the front.

There was no light deep in the ruins; passing through the doors into the corridor, it grew darker and darker. Hetty raised her staff and murmured a few syllables, and a glowing orb of mana floated up from the staff's head, illuminating the way forward.

Someone who could cast a Light spell was a true mage.

Looking at the corridor growing ever deeper ahead and the tall, broad spaces on either side, Sir Byron could not help clicking his tongue in wonder: "As expected of something built by the Gondor Empire in its heyday... just how big is it in here?"

"Heaven knows. The ruins gate follows the form of a large fortress from Gondor's Spark Era—a fortress of that size could have an entire mountain hollowed out," Gawain said with a curl of his lip. "I wonder whether Amber really did abscond with the funds. If only she were here."