Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Awakening
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“You mentioned you were a princess, so you must be familiar with the structure of a castle.”
“Well… yes, I am.”
“What are the essential structures in a castle?”
“…What? Hold on a moment.”
Pondering his sudden question, she began to count on her fingers.
“First… there are the rooms for my father—no, the king and his family, guest rooms and reception halls for visitors, an audience chamber, meeting rooms, a grand hall and dining room for banquets, a library, and also, a treasury for storing treasures, and…”
Offices, supply depots, armories, guard posts, soldiers' quarters, basic facilities for various government agencies, stables, training grounds, spires, castle walls, baths, a kitchen, a banquet hall, various private facilities for royalty, servants' quarters and living spaces, private gardens and hunting grounds, food storage, a small magic tower…
Matheus, looking fed up with the endless stream of structures pouring from her mouth, shouted.
“Enough, enough! There’s one more, isn’t there? The most essential one.”
As Bielly sank into deep thought at his words, Abelin spoke up.
“Essential? I haven’t lived in a castle, but it seems like you’ve covered most of them.”
*It wasn’t a castle, but a place similar to one,* Julius thought.
He bit his tongue. He had to feign ignorance of her past, as their trust wasn't deep enough yet.
“I’m talking about a place you visit three times a day.”
“Three times…?”
As everyone tilted their heads in confusion, Matheus sighed and gave the answer.
“The lavatory. I mean the lavatory.”
“Ah, right!”
“There is that.”
They hadn’t considered it, their minds focused elsewhere.
Abelin and Bielly both nodded as if they had forgotten.
“Well, it seems to be a trend these days to remove them for aesthetic reasons… But excluding such cases, it’s a place that must exist.”
“But why does that matter?”
“Have any of you seen a place like a lavatory, or even a single guest room, while we’ve been wandering around here?”
“Come to think of it…”
They had explored many rooms, including armories and storerooms, but there were no signs of anyone having lived there.
“Even with traps and guardians, entire sections of the original ruins don’t just disappear.”
“…That’s true.”
Bielly nodded gravely.
“If you think about it, were there any rooms we entered or common areas that could have been used as living quarters?”
“No…”
“To think we’re only realizing this now.”
Both of them shook their heads, as if just now grasping the fact.
“And who would decorate a castle's hallways in such a drab gray without a single window? So it can't be a religious structure either.”
Given the aesthetic emphasis of religious architecture, this place could be neither a castle nor a temple.
“But isn't it strange to say this place is a prison? Or maybe it was built to store something important, or to confine heinous criminals like demons.”
Belzec, the warrior who couldn't use prana and was keeping watch ahead, spoke for the first time in his heavy voice. Matheus stroked his smooth chin.
“Hmm… an interesting perspective… but that would mean a structure of this size was built just to store items.”
“Right.”
“Why build a separate building when you could just store it in the castle's dungeons? And why go to the trouble of building and maintaining a place this large for heinous criminals when you could just execute them? What’s the point?”
“That’s also true.”
“Therefore, I concluded it must be a prison or a similar type of structure, since we don't know its exact purpose.”
“It was a pointless question. My apologies.”
As he apologized in his still-subdued voice, Matheus replied with a mischievous smile unique to a child.
“But your opinion was a good one, Mr. Belzec. Who knows? Maybe an ancient phantom is trapped down here, just biding its time. Hahahaha.”
“If that were the case, we wouldn't have been allowed into these ruins in the first place.”
“That's right.”
If there was something unmanageable inside, the investigation team would have screened it out.
“Well, I'm sure it had some purpose we're unaware of. It is, after all, a ruin of the ancient empire. It must have been useful for something.”
“Won't that be a job for the scholars who come after us?”
“Yes, we just need to grab some artifacts, get a good score, and leave. I'm sure they'll figure out the details, won't they?”
“Haha, right.”
She nodded and slowly began to rise from her seat.
She had sensed a familiar presence approaching.
Erini approached with light steps, her red hair swaying.
“There's a fork in the path up ahead. To the right, there's a slightly dangerous trap…”
Watching his team members move as they listened to Erini's explanation, Julius looked at Matheus with satisfied eyes.
*As I thought, Matheus is essential for exploring ruins.*
Matheus, the second son of a family renowned for architecture and design.
He had come to the academy for the blueprints his family's founder was said to have spent a lifetime creating, making him indispensable for ruin exploration.
That was why, even in the original story, Matheus's help had been crucial when exploring ruins.
*I know where the blueprints are. If I use them as bait to draw Matheus's family to my domain…*
If he could do that, he could even recreate modern inventions like cars or airplanes with his ideas.
He didn't know the detailed principles, but if he gave a rough idea, they would figure out how to build them. That was the role of an engineer, wasn't it?
Subways and trains already existed in this era, so if anyone asked, he could just say he found the blueprints in some ruins. Nothing to worry about.
*Not much longer now.*
With a pounding heart, Julius opened the quest window.
[‘Personally’ kill the ancient monster sealed in the ruins and prevent the disaster! Time Limit: 4:17:34]
[Reward: Fragment of Truth (???)]
The afternoon had passed, and the evening, painted with a deep sunset, had given way to twilight.
***
The party moved quickly toward the nearest trap.
They arrived at the northwest section of the 3rd floor, guided swiftly by Alexius, and activated the trap.
*Wooooong-*
They had been uncertain until the moment they arrived, but felt relieved when the space resonated and the surrounding area rippled in a long, oval shape.
“I hope this takes us as far as possible…”
With Eriel's hopeful words, their vision blurred for an instant. *Thud!*
“Evan!”
“On it!”
The moment he was sure they had teleported, Evan moved. He raised his shield toward the presence he sensed, and a heavy impact jolted his body.
“One!”
At his call, Eriel nocked an arrow. She poured her prana into it, intending to end this with overwhelming firepower. Green prana surged, coiling around the wind.
“Duck, Evan!”
*Whoosh!*
Evan quickly shoved the golem's torso hard with his shield, throwing himself to the side. A sharp, spinning arrow, imbued with wind, pierced the golem's body.
*BOOM!*
As the dust settled and the golem's form was revealed, Evan pushed himself up from his crouch.
“Pierced the core in one shot. Lucky…”
“Evan!”
William shouted loudly. Without a moment's hesitation at his cry, Evan scrambled out of the way.
*CRASH—*
Evan checked with an urgent expression; despite its central core being shattered, the golem hadn't stopped moving.
“Does it have two cores?”
Evan assessed the situation in an instant.
His eyes grew cold. He had one chance to attack at close range. The guardians nearby would be drawn by the sound.
To resolve this smoothly, he had to end it with the next blow.
*Then where?*
The core was in the center of its body, so the heart? Or the spine?
“Evan, the head! Aim for the center of the head, just below!”
William shouted immediately, as if sensing Evan's dilemma. Evan trusted William's words.
*William is smarter than me.*
It was a fact he would have ignored rather than admitting in the past.
But after spending well over a month together, he had come to accept it. William was not someone to be dismissed as a commoner.
“Got it!”
He was now a trusted comrade.
His legs surged with blue prana, accelerating his movements.
Baroque Style Secret Technique - Wolf Fang. His body stretched out as he thrust his sword upward like an awl. The blue-tinged blade dug in fiercely like a beast's fang, shattering something with a crunch.
Feeling the sensation in his hand, Evan immediately used the force of striking the golem's body with his shield to recoil backward.
*Crackle-*
He watched the golem tensely, not letting his guard down, but it staggered and then collapsed to the floor.
Only after watching it for a while longer did he relax.
His shield remained pointed forward.
“…It's really over.”
“Evan, are you alright!”
As William approached to check on him, Evan laughed heartily and raised a hand. Seeing he was fine, William gave a wry smile and raised his own hand.
*Clap-*
The crisp sound of a high-five echoed.
“Ouch… You could have gone a little easier.”
“Hahaha! What kind of man complains about that! Well done!”
“…We're comrades. This is only natural.”
Once the situation was clear, Allen scanned the area with his senses, confirmed there was no further danger, and turned to Alexius.
“Alexius, what floor are we on?”
“Please wait, I’m checking now…”
As he looked at the map, his expression changed. William approached with uneasy steps.
“W-What is it? Did we teleport to the wrong place…?”
“The 7th floor.”
“Pardon?”
“We’re on the 7th floor…”
At first, the party didn’t understand the meaning of his words. But as it slowly dawned on them, they erupted in cheers.
“D-Did you just say this is the 7th floor…!”
“Allen! You were right, junior! Wow! This is a first for me too.”
“The 7th floor…? Hmm, so that's why the impact…”
“This isn't a dream, is it…?”
Their voices only quieted after they had dealt with several more groups of golems drawn by the noise.
But even if their voices were lower, their joy was unmistakable, their eyes shining brightly.
“Now, if we can just defeat the ruin guardian in the deepest part of the 7th floor and make it back…!”
“First place is in the bag. We'll definitely get a lot of contribution points for this, so really…”
Allen waited a moment for his team members to savor their joy, then spoke once they had calmed down.
“We can't waste any more time. If there are other students who gathered information and reached this place like we did…”
Allen intentionally trailed off, and they scrambled to their feet.
“Let's go, quickly!”
“We can’t let them catch up to us here.”
“Let’s go, juniors!”
Traversing the 7th floor was not easy.
The guardians and traps were stronger than before.
Moreover, since no vanguard team had entered first, the number of enemies they had to face had multiplied.
However, it wasn't enough to hold them back.
Because Allen was fighting with some degree of seriousness.
He formed a hand seal with one hand. Threads of prana began to gather. There was no need to imbue them with an image. Creating an opening would be enough.
*Spear of Multiple Mutations.*
Using the threads as his medium, he moved his fingers. Delicately, as if playing an instrument. Not with too much force, but rather, by easing up slightly.
*Ding-*
The sound of bells began to ring out.
*Ding ding ding-*
A set of tubular bells, composed of twelve round metal tubes, rang out with varied chimes, gradually scattering clear waves of sound.
The golems, which had been growing in size, began to oxidize in parts. Seizing the opening, Eriel's green-tinged arrows and Evan, wreathed in blue prana, finished them off.
“To the center of the 7th floor, the core, before more of them swarm us!”
“Alexius, please handle the traps!”
The party truly gave it their all.
Class B. Class C. Class D.
First-years. Third-years.
Students. Guides.
They pushed forward, none of that mattering.
“Healing, I’ll start healing!”
William had overcome a burden on his heart—what one might call a wall.
His skills were now more than enough to easily place him in Class A.
“Evan, hold them off for five—no, three seconds! I'm going for a big one!”
“Kuh, got it!”
Eriel and Evan had grown immensely this time.
If they built upon this experience, they would likely advance to Class B next semester.
“Evan, watch your step! Eriel, control your prana and fire an arrow northwest at a 30° angle!”
Milade truly did her best to help them.
Even though excessive intervention could earn her demerits.
Allen's meticulous planning had reduced her workload from the start, but she still found a role for herself within it.
“I will handle the enemies approaching from behind. Take the right path at the second fork!”
Alexius, too, silently fulfilled his duty.
Though Allen had promised to help him with his conquest, Alexius never pressed him to fulfill that promise.
Allen was a part of that scene.
Though he hadn't completely blended in, he was there with them.
It was quite enjoyable.
The feeling of being on a real adventure was a refreshing departure from the everyday.
They pushed through their limits, but never beyond them, fighting through a level of difficulty that was just right as they advanced toward the core of the 7th floor for hours.
How many hours had passed?
They drank all the potions stored in their subspace, and William cast healing spells until he was on the verge of collapse.
In this way, each of them unleashed their potential, and they were finally able to defeat the golem guarding the center.
“We finally made it…!”
“Now we just have to go back…”
*Ruuuumble—!*
The ruins shook violently as if in an earthquake, and a white book fluttered in mid-air as if it had been waiting for this moment.
『The book connected to ■■■■ confirms the conditions. Acknowledging ■■! The target associated with ■■... Correction! Acknowledging the existence of the Incarnation of Knowledge, Veðr■■lnir!』
『Not the target associated with ■■! However, the possibility of cor■ption exists! Requesting the annihilation of the fa■en ■■!』
『Conditions temporarily met. The ■■ of ■■ (provisional name) manifests!』
『?Evacuate a 300m radius within 3 seconds. Failure to comply will result in strengthened mental barriers and resistance to spatial movement. Escape from the ruins required within 17 minutes and 18 seconds.』
At the same time, a tremendous cry was heard.
A cry that sounded as if it were just now waking up.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah—”
The exiled Incarnation had awakened from its slumber.
***
Zaqnir closed his eyes and slowly surveyed the ruins in his mind.
“Hmm… I can't seem to figure out the reason.”
The sensory range he deployed covered 234,375 meters, roughly 234 kilometers.
An immense range, vast enough to survey a small island in its entirety.
Due to the overwhelming amount of information flooding his mind, he didn't examine every detail, but it was safe to say that few beings could escape his notice.
“And yet…”
*Woooong-*
The eight rings in his chest resonated with each other, ready to spring forth at any moment.
He focused his senses on the area where the students had collapsed, but he couldn't find anything.
“Is there really a new trap?”
The early stage of the 8th Circle.
Considering that most of the Eight Strongest were at the peak of the 8th Circle or even the 9th, his power might seem lacking, but that didn't mean he was weak.
Even on a global scale, his skills would still rank within the top two... no, top four.
For someone like him to be unable to grasp a single trap in these ruins, no matter how many secrets they held?
“…This is strange. These ruins hold many secrets, but this is particularly odd.”
Despite sensing something was wrong, Zaqnir wasn't particularly worried.
Of course, that was only natural.
He was one of the Eight Strongest. One of the most powerful beings in the world.
He was in a position where he didn't worry about being attacked, but rather made others worry about him attacking them.
“Was Professor Delern next? In any case, it's about time, so I should call him as promised…”
And so, his guard was slightly lowered.
“…and we can talk about Circles…”
“—I've been waiting for you, little boy.”
*Shunk-*
His reaction to the attack was too slow.
“Kuh, who are you!”
“Oh my, was that a bit too shallow?”
A sphere of light exploded outward, creating a wall of brilliance.
The mysterious woman leisurely retreated, avoiding the curtain of light. She licked the blade that had stabbed Zaqnir and smiled sensuously.
“With this face, you must be wondering who I am, right? It's me. The one whose twilight years you threw into a cesspool. Remember?”
*Ruuuumble—*
The ruins belatedly began to tremble.
As Zaqnir remained on guard, his face still tense, her smile gradually faded.
“Looks like you've already forgotten. But that's okay. You'll know soon enough. The Silent Dagger, the King of the Shadows, the Hidden Serpent Beneath Your Feet—”
As her words continued, Zaqnir's expression slowly changed.
“Bionna. The woman who lost everything because of you, and the old lioness who has nothing left but revenge. Roar.”
“…What?”
Despite the loud vibrations, her voice struck his ears with perfect clarity.
“Don't lie! She was clearly an old woman…”
“I worked hard because of you, you know?”
She laughed playfully, but Zaqnir couldn't laugh.
If what she said was true, it meant she had surpassed her limits at that age, or at the very least, had regained her youth through some unknown means.
“Do you believe me now? Your suspicious nature hasn't changed a bit. In that case, since we're done with the introductions, it's time to—”
Her body suddenly melted into the darkness. No, the shadows began to pool like water.
His senses lost track of her presence.
“—die for me?”
The former member of the Eight Strongest, defeated by Zaqnir.
The loser who retreated from the battle three years ago.
The Queen of Shadows.
She has returned.
***
The encampment of the Minima and Arachne tribes.
As the sky turned black and the moon waxed blue, their encampment, located a short distance from the main camp, was utterly silent.
Most of the young tribe members who could work as guides were out, and others had been busy for days with special ‘preparations’.
Besides them, the only people left in the encampment were himself, the Minima chieftain, and a few others with mobility issues.
The Arachne chieftain was also waiting elsewhere to prepare for the ritual, so the spacious tent was sparsely occupied.
“…Therefore, we believe the time will come tonight, or in the early hours of the morning.”
“Good work.”
“Not at all! May all of this bring glory to the wandering stars!”
“Yes, you may go and prepare.”
As the young tribe member left the tent, the chieftain's wrinkled eyes turned toward the sky.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the tent's ceiling, looking at the night sky beyond.
“So, a meteor is going to fall…”