The Hidden Sanctuary
When the Sea Dragon fell, the few remaining monsters scattered in every direction. With their leader dead, they fled for survival. As I watched them run, the fleet approached the Sea Dragon’s corpse.
“Thanks to all of you,” I replied, waving casually at Jackson, who was laughing heartily from the bow.
The field he created allowed us to fight on water, and his crew had taken on the smaller monsters in our place, making the Sea Dragon hunt far easier than it should have been. If we were measuring contribution, they probably deserved three or four out of ten.
With that thought in mind, I climbed aboard. The moment I did, Jackson pointed at me and shouted.
“Uwooooooh!”
The sailors cheered at the word “party.” Jackson grinned at them, then tossed us a waterskin filled with cool water. I caught it mid-air, unscrewed the cap, and took a long drink. Watching us, Jackson spoke again.
“I’ll leave one ship behind so you can rest. We’ll head back to the port, resupply, and bring the excavation team.”
“You’re not all going together?”
“We fought side by side. No need for formalities. Besides, if we all go back to resupply, the employers will throw a fit.”
Jackson pointed, and I saw Delian and Urek already preparing to dive, along with the rest of the excavation team that had followed us this far. I nodded in understanding. If we told them we were heading back to the village, those people would probably collapse on the spot.
“Leave the Sea Dragon to me. I’ll tow it to the port and butcher it there.”
“Then I’ll entrust it to you. We can divide the byproducts once we’re back in the village.”
We hooked the Sea Dragon and began dragging it toward the village. The scholars, having finished their preparations, moved to the bow with bright, eager expressions. Curious, I watched them. Delian waved me over and handed me a card that glowed with a soft blue light.
“Thanks to you, we can resume our exploration and excavation. It’s only right that we repay the favor.”
“What is this?”
“A diving suit made with magic.”
“This?”
“We commissioned it from the magic tower in the North.”
To demonstrate, Delian poured mana into the card. It emitted a faint glow, and a protective barrier formed around his entire body. Without hesitation, he jumped into the water.
I exchanged glances with my companions, then poured mana into my own card and leaped in after him.
Splash!
The moment I entered the water, white bubbles clouded my vision and a refreshing sensation enveloped my whole body. After a few seconds, the bubbles cleared, revealing the crystal-clear underwater world of the lake.
Sunlight pierced the surface in shimmering pillars, and schools of fish swam lazily in every direction. The emerald waves glowed beautifully. I couldn’t help but open my mouth in awe.
“Whoa… huh?”
I had let out a sound without thinking, only to realize I was breathing freely with no obstruction. Surprised, I looked down at the card. The way I moved through the water felt completely natural, and I couldn’t even feel the resistance. As I stared at it in wonder, Neon, who had entered right after me, clicked his tongue.
“Just how many spells did they cram into this card? Shield, water current manipulation, air generation, temperature control, remote communication… and that’s only what I can see right now.”
“How impressive is that, exactly?”
“Mass production is completely impossible. It would require elder-level mages from both the Blue Tower and the White Tower working together just to make one.”
“Then it must be insanely expensive.”
“If it just ended at being expensive, that’d be lucky.”
The higher the level of a mage, the heavier their backside tends to be. That much was obvious. Still, since it had been commissioned from the Northern magic tower, it was probably a bit cheaper than it would have been elsewhere. That tower was always short on funds because they experimented on every topic imaginable. In exchange, their skills were top-notch. It was famous for being the kind of place that could make anything if you paid enough.
After examining the cards for a while, we spotted the excavation team descending and followed after them. As we dove deeper into the lake, an ancient city emerged from the seabed covered in coral and seaweed.
Beautiful fish swam between the submerged stone buildings. Crabs scuttled busily across the bottom. Seaweed swayed gently in the current. The sight was full of mystery and wonder.
I took it all in, my face filled with curiosity as I looked around the city.
“Just from the visible size, it’s bigger than most normal cities, isn’t it?”
“My god, an ancient ruin this well-preserved?”
“This is the first time I’ve seen a ruin in such perfect condition!”
The city was far more impressive than expected. Neon and Beatrice’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Come to think of it, Beatrice had mentioned she was very interested in ancient civilizations. To her, this place must have felt like paradise. Neon, too, had grown interested in ancient civilizations after all the ruins we had cleared so far.
Watching the two of them get worked up, Delian and Urek chuckled warmly.
“The past from a thousand years ago is an era full of secrets.”
“Countless scholars have devoted their entire lives to lifting the veil that hides it.”
The way they looked at us reminded me of professors watching graduate students. A chill ran down my spine, but since I wasn’t the one being targeted, I let it slide.
The two scholars continued with fond eyes fixed on Neon and Beatrice.
“Even in the North, aside from the story of the First Great Warrior who appeared during the Great Opening, there is almost no information.”
“The same goes for the South. At best, we only had crumbling buildings or ruins presumed to have been left by the ancients.”
The nearby scholars and mages nodded in agreement. The fact that they had come all the way here meant they had either majored in history or poured an equivalent amount of time and effort into the subject. Their eyes burned with longing as they gazed down at the ancient city.
A city hidden by the ruler of the lake. A secret of the ancients that no one had ever discovered or revealed. The scholars who had seized the chance to uncover it smiled brightly.
“How could we possibly miss this opportunity!”
“The ruler of the lake is dead! There are no more obstacles!”
“Even if there are traps inside, nothing can stop me now!”
“Uwoooooh! Wait for me, ruins! I’m coming!”
Regardless of age, they had all regained the passion they felt when they first became scholars. They searched the city with burning enthusiasm. Rubbing magic tools against embossed patterns on stone buildings, digging through sand-covered floors—none of it was too much for them. Some mages collected plants that had grown in the ancient city, claiming they might be unique, while scholars fearlessly entered buildings on the verge of collapse.
Neon and Beatrice joined the procession of knowledge-seekers who wandered around with manic smiles. Adela and I, watching the scene from above the city, looked at each other and shook our heads.
“Let’s just explore the city on our own.”
“Yeah.”
Bothering scholars lost in their obsession was no different from poking a sleeping monster. I still remembered the time during my guild employee days when I hadn’t known that and ended up trapped by scholars for twelve straight hours of nonstop lectures. I shuddered at the memory and swam away from the city’s upper area.
Thanks to the special diving suits custom-ordered by the ancient civilization excavation team, I could swim quickly while looking down at the city. Sunlight shimmered and danced across the structures in time with the waves above. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The fish swimming around us were so peaceful it was hard to believe we had just fought a Sea Dragon nearby. Aside from the occasional laughter of the scholars, everything was perfect.
“Looking at this place makes my head feel itchy.”
“Does your head itch? Want me to scratch it?”
“Not like that. It feels like there’s a forgotten memory trying to surface.”
Maybe it was because this was my first time encountering a proper ancient civilization. The corner of my mind tingled, as if a buried memory was on the verge of rising but couldn’t quite break through.
“Ugh, this feeling is weird.”
“What is?”
“No matter how I think about it, it feels like there’s some secret related to the ancient civilization. And not just the obvious one everyone’s talking about. It’s like some kind of power is deliberately preventing me from recalling memories about it. That’s the gut feeling I’m getting.”
If it had happened once or twice, I might have brushed it off. But I had felt this uneasy, strange sensation multiple times now. As my skills improved, my body grew stronger and my memory sharpened along with it. The fact that certain parts remained unusually blurry was proof enough.
I let my body drift in the water and stared at the ancient city, lost in thought.
“Is it a Mystery phenomenon? Or ancient magic?”
“Hmm. I don’t know.”
I tried to use every bit of knowledge I had, but no clear answer came to mind. It seemed the only way to uncover this secret would be for the excavation team to dig something up that could give us a hint. Just as I was thinking that, a spot where the sunlight shone unusually strongly caught my eye.
“Over there?”
The sunlight was refracting at a slightly different angle, sending several beams of light down onto a half-collapsed building. Compared to the surrounding structures, it didn’t seem to have any special features. Considering the waves above, it might not be that strange. But for some reason, my curiosity toward that building was overwhelmingly strong.
“That building… should we go inside?”
“Why?”
“I suddenly really want to go in there.”
I wasn’t sure if this was just a feeling or the influence of a Mystery, but I had the strong sense that I would regret it if I let this go.
So I descended with Adela and entered the building. The interior wasn’t particularly special. From the scattered remnants of what appeared to be household items, it seemed this had once been an ordinary home.
As I looked around without any particular thought, I noticed a place where light poured in through the collapsed ceiling and swam toward it.
“It’s a hidden space.”
“It’s not that big. Maybe a shelter prepared for disasters?”
I cleared away the seaweed that had grown over the half-rotted wooden floor. The space hidden beneath it was revealed. My heart pounded at the unusual atmosphere. I calmed it and stepped inside without hesitation. There might have been danger, but my senses picked up nothing, so I moved forward confidently.
“This is…?”
“What is this?”
We discovered something completely unexpected in the hidden space and widened our eyes. Why was this here?