The Ruins Are Alive
The interior of the Edenberg Ancestor's trial ruins was cleaner than I expected. The passages showed no trace of dust, as if some kind of magical preservation had been applied. Ancient, inscrutable patterns were engraved across the walls and ceiling. The place was so beautiful that it felt less like a ruin and more like I'd wandered into a palace by mistake.
Standing at the front of the exploration party, I scanned the path ahead with cautious eyes.
"Be careful. There's no telling what kind of traps might trigger."
"Yeah."
No matter how lovely it looked, this was a ruin designed a thousand years ago by Edenberg himself. I was certain it wouldn't be easy—after all, he'd built it specifically to torment his descendants. I advanced slowly, checking for traps with every step.
"Why is it so clean?"
"It really is clean."
The complete absence of traps left me deeply unsettled. According to Veil, Edenberg had incorporated trials into every one of his ruins. Some form of suffering was supposed to be guaranteed. If that suffering wasn't activating, it created a serious problem from our perspective. It felt exactly like a programmer discovering zero bugs in their code and immediately growing suspicious.
"This is strange. Are there really no traps? Could they have broken down over time?"
"I've looked everywhere and found nothing. The mages would probably say the same."
Veil seemed to sense the wrongness too. He had one of his knights—who had learned magic—perform a thorough scan, but no traps appeared. We continued forward with our nerves stretched taut, like we were carrying a bomb that could detonate at any moment.
After walking for what felt like an eternity, a new space revealed itself at the end of the corridor. The exploration party slowly entered what we never expected to find inside a ruin.
"This is..."
"An arena."
"Something feels off about this."
A wide circular coliseum dominated the center, ringed by flickering blue flames. The magical fire lit up the interior brilliantly, eliminating any problems with visibility. Behind the blue flames stood statues of warriors, as if greeting us as we entered the passage.
The appearance of such an ominous space darkened the exploration party's expressions. It was clearly a combat arena. Every gaze from the subjugation force turned toward Veil.
"Lord Veil, it would be best if you withdrew here."
"Why?"
"We have no idea what might happen inside. If we take you in and something dangerous occurs, it would be a disaster."
"I've learned some self-defense techniques."
"This is a ruin. Self-defense techniques won't be enough to survive."
At the guard's resolute tone, Veil let out a sigh. Looking at the knights' hardened faces, it seemed this was as far as he would go. Having someone to protect right before a battle increased the danger, so the decision was only natural.
"What if I wait in the corridor?"
"We cannot guarantee safety there either."
Veil had come all this way and clearly didn't want to turn back, but the knights refused to yield this time. Veil was the regent of Edenberg. Excluding the family head and direct descendants who fought on the front lines, he was essentially responsible for the countship's internal affairs. The fact that he'd come this far was already risky. If they allowed him to participate in combat, they would be failing in their duty as knights. And since his personal combat ability was comparatively weak, there was no way they could permit it.
"I understand. I'll accept your counsel."
"Thank you for heeding our advice."
"Haah. I thought I'd finally get to do something warrior-like for once."
As Veil finally turned to leave the ruins after accepting the knights' counsel, Adela—who had been staring intently at the arena—tilted her head.
"Weird."
"What is?"
"This ruin feels familiar."
Familiar? I looked at Adela with a puzzled expression. If she were an ordinary person, I might have dismissed it as imagination, but Adela was a monster. Not just any monster—she was a War Ant Princess. Her instincts were sharp enough that I couldn't ignore them.
After looking around for a moment, Adela spoke in a suspicious tone.
"This space. It's alive."
"Alive?"
"Yes. It's alive."
Still not fully accustomed to human speech, she only offered the bare minimum of words. Neon, who had approached at some point, interpreted for her.
"Does she mean a territory?"
"That's right. Territory. This is a warrior's domain."
"Interesting. So they applied the concept of a monster's territory to a dungeon. I suppose we can't underestimate the mages of the Dawn Era."
While Neon examined the arena with scholarly curiosity, I quietly mulled over their conversation. The moment the meaning clicked, my eyes widened.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me...! Everyone, get out of the ruins!"
The situation was too urgent for formal speech, but it was already too late.
Rumble!
The corridor that had been perfectly open just moments ago sealed shut without a single gap. The party only panicked for a brief moment. Composed entirely of veterans, the exploration team immediately formed a protective formation around Veil.
"What just happened?!"
"We didn't touch anything that should have activated!"
"Argo! From that shout, it sounds like you know something about this space. Can you explain?"
While everyone was still processing the situation, Veil maintained his composure and asked me for clarification. I answered with a grave expression.
"This ruin is a type of domain!"
"A domain? Like the territories monsters create?"
"Yes! It's a space that roughly replicates the abilities of such a domain!"
In a way, it meant the ruin itself was alive. It likely activated the moment people entered its interior. And the method it used to detect intruders was probably...
"It seems the mage from the Dawn Era who helped create this ruin was capable of handling Mystery."
"Hmm. So at least a hero-class mage was involved."
"Exactly. The moment we stepped inside, escape became impossible."
"So that's why my ancestors cursed the founder so much."
I sighed as I felt the power of Mystery filling the arena. The coliseum, having detected prey, was waking from its long slumber.
Grrrrrr.
The statues that had slept for so long began to move. After a thousand years of silence, they loosened their creaking joints and started moving like living people. They spun their weapons lightly, adjusted their shield grips, and lowered their stances. We prepared for battle in the same manner.
The senior knight at the front gazed at the statues with sunken eyes. He was one of only three senior knights in Edenberg, and with Rohan and Clorin resting after the War Ant subjugation, he was the only one present.
"I can't determine their level. Is it because they're golems?"
"You can't tell if they're Bronze or Silver rank?"
"It feels like the Mystery is blocking my senses. But don't worry. Our forces aren't weak."
As the senior knight said, the exploration party's strength was formidable. While monsters usually raised a ruin's difficulty, the high baseline level of the ruin itself had prompted us to bring a correspondingly strong team. Veil's personal participation had raised the overall quality even further.
The senior knight, having coldly calculated the difference in power, stepped forward.
"No matter how vicious this ruin is, if we fight head-on, we will win."
His confident words boosted the party's morale. They began advancing slowly toward the golems.
We didn't know the exact strength of the golems, but they couldn't all be Silver-rank. If the ancients had been able to deploy that many powerful golems, the Northerners would have conquered the North long ago.
In contrast, even excluding the adventurers and treasure hunters, we had ten Blue Stag Knights. Each of them possessed at least upper-Bronze capabilities. They weren't the kind of fighters who would fall easily.
Yet I couldn't shake my unease.
It's going this smoothly?
This was a thousand years of preparation. The same person who had hidden these ruins so thoroughly that the entire countship couldn't find them all, and who had created countless trials, wasn't going to hand over rewards so easily. If there was one thing Edenberg excelled at, it was tormenting his descendants.
The exploration party had probably prepared for this, but traps were always most dangerous when you knew they were coming. And Edenberg had likely understood the worst kinds of traps better than anyone. Otherwise, his descendants wouldn't have cursed him so thoroughly.
Whoosh!
Suddenly the blue flames went out, plunging the arena into darkness. Even the torches and light spells held by the exploration party were extinguished.
"The lights are out!"
"Get the torches lit!"
"Cast Light Magic!"
Despite the abrupt change, the party responded according to their preparations. I could sense them lighting torches and preparing spells in the darkness. Just before the golems could charge, the light magic activated.
Flash!
The moment the previously dark arena brightened, the presence of everyone around me vanished. Since the presences that should have been there were gone, their physical forms were naturally nowhere to be seen either.
It was an unexpected development, but I'd instinctively guessed something like this might happen, so I kept my composure.
"Only one golem?"
It seemed that as the people were separated, the golems had been divided as well. Only a single golem stood before me. Even though there was just one, my expression didn't relax.
"No matter how I look at it, this thing seems stronger than me."
The golem's aura, which I hadn't sensed before the lights went out, now bore down on me. The fighting spirit of a warrior preparing for battle was at least equal to mine, and if I was being honest, it possessed power a cut above my own.
To think an opponent this troublesome would appear so soon after I'd gotten stronger—I held back a sigh and muttered.
"I can win this, right?"
"I guess."
It was a mutter to myself, but when an answer came from beside me, I instinctively turned my head. There stood Adela, who I had assumed had disappeared with the others. She was staring at the golem with perfectly calm eyes.
Just in case, I looked around. But in the entire arena, there was no one except me, Adela, and the golem.
After confirming that everyone else had definitely vanished, I looked at Adela.
"Why are you here?"
".....I guess?"
Only then did Adela seem to realize the strangeness of the situation. She blinked with a blank expression.