A Monumental Discovery
After experiencing the earth-shattering shock of this monumental discovery, I moved to inform my companions. We had agreed to send a signal through the magic tool if anything happened and gather in the central hall, so I sent the signal. Before long, the party members who had scattered in all directions gathered. Emerging one by one from the corridors, they spotted the monsters around me and widened their eyes. When they asked for an explanation, I told them I would explain once everyone was together. After some time, Neon and Beatrice's party, who had gone the deepest, finally returned.
"Oh my god, what the hell is that!" As expected, Neon, who had a deep grudge against Nepentulas, reacted violently. Pointing at the Nepentula behind me with a horrified expression, he shouted, "Argo! Behind you! That thing! That thing's there!"
"Calm down. I tamed this one."
"What? What are you talking about? Taming only works with creatures you can communicate with. That thing's a lunatic that doesn't even talk!"
Neon was right—Nepentulas were untamable. It took two hands to clap, after all. If you tried to talk to a Nepentula, its tentacles packed with concentrated synthetic poison would come flying at you. To survive, you had to kill it before attempting any taming. But someone once said there are no absolutes in this world. Surprisingly, a non-violent Nepentula existed in this world, and that Nepentula was now standing beside me.
"Let me introduce you. This is the adult Nepentula I just tamed. I haven't named it yet."
"Kiiik." The Nepentula slightly raised one of its legs in greeting. Neon stared blankly at the sight before closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead. "...Am I under an illusion spell? Why am I seeing something that shouldn't exist?"
Having been stalked by a baby Nepentula for months during his time with the Flame of Doom black mages, Neon knew their madness all too well. Understanding his denial, I let him rest for a moment. Once everyone had gathered, I explained what I had seen. Showing them the contents stored in the video orb as well, Ruin and his sister spoke up after grasping the situation.
"So you're saying that during the ancient civilization era, the Central region screwed up big time and the world went to hell."
"To fix it, the King of Valor... meaning the Northern king, from the context, gathered forces from other regions and dragged most of the Named Monsters into the Demon Realm?"
"And among the Named Monsters left in this world, the most dangerous one is the Mountain Dragon?"
"If we take that one down, there won't be any monsters left that can threaten the North?"
I nodded at the siblings' clean summary. Then Luna, deep in thought, looked at me with clear eyes.
"So basically, the Central region were total bastards?"
"Sounds like the Empire."
"Uh, sorry, but even if the Empire is a mess, it wasn't that bad."
"Right. At least we didn't go so far as to wreck the entire world."
At our exchange, the students from the Empire quickly distanced themselves from the ancient Central region. Even they found the ancient Central's trolling so absurd that they wanted nothing to do with it.
"I've accomplished my goal in calling you all here. Anyone find any information?"
Since we were already gathered, I suggested sharing what we had learned. Each member pulled out the information they had collected.
"Apparently the facility manager was the chief goblin scientist. Name's Gor."
"I found information about the Demon Realm. It was just a name from fairy tales when I was young, but I never thought it actually existed."
"I learned about the dragons. It seems the ancient civilization sought their cooperation to carry out some plan."
"I found some research documents. They mentioned information about Rata and the giant squirrels."
"I found this."
Among the various useful pieces of information, Ar cautiously took out a video orb and showed it to us. The orb held by Ar, the third son of the Close Countship with a gloomy but cute appearance, displayed text written in the same handwriting as the paper I had found.
The Demon Realm is like cockroaches that occasionally invade our world. I don't understand why they keep attacking when they're weaker than us. The Demon Kings have annoying abilities that cause damage to accumulate bit by bit, so let's deal with them all at once while we have the chance.
"This era was way more intense than now."
"Yeah. Since they couldn't just die quietly, they planned to take the Demon Realm, which had been building up dislike for ages, down with them."
Most of the entries were like this and didn't contain particularly useful information, but since they recorded general knowledge about daily life in the ancient civilization, scholars would be thrilled. This content might even shift the main excavation site of the ancient civilization research team to the North.
After organizing the information we had gathered, we decided to finish the exploration. Thanks to our scattered search, we had already found all the noteworthy locations. The only place left to explore was the central facility that Neon and Beatrice had been searching.
"Phew, the place we found is the central facility of these ruins."
"The cube we put in the entrance earlier was moved there. It seems to be a power device needed to maintain the facility."
Listening to Neon's explanation—he had come to his senses and accepted reality—we moved to the central facility. As he said, there was a massive device presumed to be the power source in the center of a large room, and the cube we had inserted earlier was visible in one of the spots where a core might go. I looked at the device with curious eyes—it was something that could never be made with the technology of this era.
"There are multiple spaces where the cube can be inserted."
"Maybe there are multiple keys that can enter here?"
"Well, if the only key had been at the altar in the imperial palace basement, the chances of finding it would have been almost zero."
By chance, we had obtained the key from the least likely place, but I figured it was all good and looked around the inside of the central facility. Most of it had weathered away, but a few things were still functioning. When I carefully touched one of them, a hologram appeared in the air. The hologram displayed a map of the entire continent, marked with various pieces of information.
"Valor of the North, Cycle of the West, Harmony of the East, Reason of the South, Balance of the Central... Are these the characteristics of each region?"
"Yeah, each region has its traits written down."
Reading the descriptions for each region, I made an intrigued expression. The North of Valor, renowned for its strong warriors and outstanding talents; the South of Reason, leading the continent's technology; the East of Harmony, mediating so that numerous races wouldn't fight. The way the continent was divided into five regions, each with its own role, was enough to prove the hypothesis scholars had long proposed.
"As expected, the ancient civilization was a single nation."
"Seems so. Dividing roles across the entire continent like this is only possible within a single nation."
Whether they worked together as an alliance or as vassal states, it was certain they operated within the framework of a single nation. This information would also delight scholars, so I decided to share it with them later and touched the other objects. Most of them weren't particularly useful. The one piece of information we did gain here was a device containing monster data, but it was all things Northern scholars had already discovered through research, so it wasn't very helpful. It might have been useful if discovered hundreds of years ago. The only real harvest was the information that Rata and the giant squirrels were biologically related. Reading that they had been miniaturized and created as pets and guardian creatures for the upper class, I looked at Rata with fresh eyes. Because they were made as suitable vessels for Mysteries, they could be used as a last resort in emergencies. Considering the performance of the lightning Mystery Rata possessed, it wasn't wrong. Thanks to being fed only the best all this time, Rata's lightning was strong enough to stun even Silver-rank monsters. It was only because the opponents I faced were irregular that it seemed otherwise—Rata would have been an excellent guardian creature for the upper class.
"You were a more impressive guy than I thought, huh?"
"Kiiit!"
I patted Rata, who stood with hands on hips looking triumphant, and continued the search. However, it seemed the beginner's luck had run out—everything we found afterward was things like schedules or meal plans that only scholars would like. But even without greater gains, it was enough. The biggest harvest of this expedition was the monsters.
"With this, we don't have to worry about armor materials."
"Kiiik."
Smiling as I stroked the docile Nepentula, I thought about how, unlike the monsters that had gone wild and deviated far from their original species over a thousand years, we had obtained nearly a hundred original specimens from this facility. The increase in combat power was a benefit, but what was even more delightful was that we could utilize the designed monsters' abilities almost perfectly. The prime example was the Nepentula's silk thread, specialized in producing high-quality fibers. I tapped the thread it had produced.
"So this is the real thread used in ancient times."
Just from the touch of a finger, I could feel it was incomparably more refined and durable than the thread of wild Nepentulas.
"We'll have to keep the armor we're currently making as backup."
"Making armor with this would be incredible."
"I can't believe such a perfect material exists."
The party members also marveled at the thread's unbelievable texture. At this level, just selling the thread alone would bring in a fortune, and that was without even considering the other monsters' abilities. The future profits were beyond words. Smiling happily, I looked at Adela and Beatrice.
"Looks like we can upgrade the fortress we're building now?"
""......!""
At my words, the two queens showed surprised expressions. The queens, who had been indifferent until now, looked at the Nepentula with eyes dripping with honey at the mention of upgrading their nest. I chuckled at their transparent excitement. Perhaps what the Flame of Doom had been after was also the monsters sleeping in these ruins. Given that their leader possessed the same ability as me, the Flame of Doom's leader would likely have used the monsters here to amass enormous materials and wealth. Smiling pleasantly at the fact that I had prevented that plan, I looked at my companions.
"Well, it seems we've obtained all the worthwhile rewards. Shall we share this amazing news with the world?"
"Of course!"
"This will turn the North upside down, won't it?"
"Won't the ancient civilization excavation team come here?"
Everyone nodded excitedly at my words. After leaving the ruins, we explained the situation to Trajan Village and used the communication magic tool to relay the news to the Edenberg Countship. Upon receiving the unimaginable information, the entire Edenberg region was thrown into an uproar. Naturally, it didn't take long for the news to spread throughout the North.