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"If you don't know about it, then never mind. The information should have revealed itself the moment you gained Guardianship. There must be some type of issue, perhaps an F Rank isn't enough to help," Priscilla commented with a derisive undertone.
Meanwhile, Cezar looked at Lucian with a complex expression. Something was amiss and the feeling just kept growing. 'Everything surrounding this guy is just abnormal. Just what happened to this guy?'
Noticing Cezar's current expression, Matthias became inquisitive as well. 'Was it truly the best choice to invite him here? In the long run, perhaps our actions may have condemned more people than we expected.'
Although Lucian frowned, he didn't voice his displeasure. Unlike before, where Elaine mediated the conflict, it didn't seem as if anyone was coming to his aid. Hence, Lucian would much rather just distance himself.
"Never mind," Lucian replied after a while. Rather than continue to feed into the dissension, he invested his time elsewhere. While running his fingers along the wall, Lucian resumed his earlier actions of committing the markings to memory.
Gradually, Lucian returned to following behind the others as they advanced. But, Lucian noticed something odd during his actions. Despite advancing for nearly half a kilometer, Cezar didn't indicate the presence of a single Knoll and the same set of images repeated continually.
In a layout like this, they should have already come in contact with at least a few foes.
After turning the upcoming corner, they soon found out why it was so silent.
"Mm, quite a few rooms, but similarly, they don't have any life signatures inside. Is this crap abandoned?!" Cezar shouted, clutching at his hair.
"Shouldn't we just check?" Lucian questioned, nearing one of the rooms. However, both Matthias and Cezar advised against it. They were insistent that the rooms were useless.
"This kind of sucks that we've yet to come in contact with any of the Knolls," Cezar grumbled. "It's just leading us on a wild goose chase! FUCK! I want to hit something."
"You're forgetting a prime aspect of the Knolls and Goblin kind, they tend to group to engage in activities. Without a patrol present on the outskirts, it would seem their activities are quite significant. Advance faster, just keep an eye out for change," Matthias suggested, dashing forward before the others.
At the same time, he withdrew his bow, traveling with it preemptively nocked. Similarly, the others followed behind him with battle-ready postures, save for one.
'No, something's wrong. I don't think this area is empty for no reason,' Lucian thought. While the others advanced, forgetting about his presence, Lucian separated from the group.
According to the information in his mind, these rooms weren't as simple as they seemed. While connecting the images, the patterns seem to mirror the orientation of the room. But, the complex inner patterns were still a current mystery to Lucian.
Once the others disappeared far enough, he entered the room nearest to him. 'There has to be something here, I know it. The cryptic wording of the objective couldn't have been meaningless!'
Even if he didn't acquire any points from the others eliminating all of the Knolls, Lucian wasn't worried about it. Since they were of little to no use to him at this very moment, he focused on other matters. Thus, thoroughly scrutinizing the room's interior.
Unfortunately, the first three rooms Lucian scoured were empty, devoid of any useful information or items linking it to the engravings on the wall. Usually, such dismal findings would deter one from continuing but Lucian was persistent.
There were a total of 4 cubed-shaped rooms with pristine measurements, ostensibly achieved by the use of some type of tool. Thus, Lucian ventured to the last room.
"Something has to be here," Lucian mumbled while inspecting the room. Suddenly, a piece of aged paper caught his attention.
An ancient piece of papyrus containing indecipherable symbols, probably of an unknown language, rested underneath some faint blue light radiating from a marvelous gem. It was similar to sapphire except it produced a luster on its own.
If Lucian hadn't paid extra attention to his observations by scanning everything twice over, this would have escaped his inspection since the table blended seamlessly into the wall.
Besides the etchings was a set of tools crafted from an unknown material. Yet, from what Lucian understood they seemed to be related to crafting.
At a glance, the room reeked of a crude cavernous appeal, however, there was a presence of tools that betrayed this setting. As he picked one up, Lucian recognized a cerulean liquid flowing through the interior and it felt faintly familiar.
'Is this Mana? Liquid...Mana? It can exist in this form? It's so dense!' Lucian mused, astonished by the purity of the Mana flowing through the tools' ridges.
After inspected them, Lucian wasn't quite sure of their value. However, it seemed to be a set for forgery of some kind. On another identical table, there was a set for potion-making.
Once he had seen the items, Lucian could bring himself to leave them there. Who knows, it could end up being quite valuable.
Hence, Lucian stowed the items, for now, stashing them away in his inventory. Although their use was undetermined for now, it was possible for it to hold some purpose in the future.
However, that wasn't the end of his discoveries. When stowing the items in his inventory, Lucian's hip bumped the table by accident. Typically, such an action wouldn't warrant suspicion, but then Lucian noticed some discrepancies in the hollow sound emitted by these collisions.
He bent down, tapping his knuckles along the back of the tapping, searching for any variations in pitch to verify his suspicions. A few taps later, he confirmed the area behind the middle of the table seemed hollow.
"I was right, there are hidden secrets in this room!" Lucian exclaimed gleefully. Excitement coursed through his body as he struggled to contain his joy.
Without delay, Lucian strained himself to move the table aside but was dismayed by how heavy it was. Even after exerting all his strength, it barely moved.
'This… is going to take a while.'
Continuous grunts of exertion were heard as Lucian proceeded to stubbornly push the table out of the way. Only after numerous painstaking attempts did his efforts yield results!
Regrettably, Lucian didn't quite know how to respond to what he saw—a narrow tunnel of darkness.
'Do I enter? My instincts are telling me to do so, but. No, no buts. Doubting myself won't change my current predicament. What else do I have to lose, except my life? Damn it, this is kind of hard!' Lucian thought with a troubled expression.
"You know what, it's not like my presence is impactful to this journey. I need to prove this to myself! Huh, hold on a minute!' Lucian stopping fretting and closed his eyes to recall the engravings.
'T-this might be a map!'
In the diagram of the engravings, there was a distinct circle labeled on one of the boxes. Based on his experiences, the other boxes symbolized the empty rooms but the more complicated one referred to this room housing the tunnel!
Lucian then entered the tunnel a few seconds after coming to this realization, welcoming the darkness boasting an unknown length along with possible dangers.
Once Lucian connected the few signs and ventured down the hidden tunnel, all his apprehension vanished. For some odd reason, he actually felt accomplished. Whereas the others weren't astute enough to scour this area, he was. And, this action resulted in potential gains.
Of course, despite the absence of his apprehension, Lucian still proceeded with caution, keeping a hand against the wall to both steady himself and map the route he was taking. Since he didn't have a source of light, nor did he have the volume of Mana need to manifest the emission light.
In short, he was advancing without sight.
Thankfully, his steady steps allowed him to limit the interaction he made with his surroundings. Only his immediate surroundings entered his sights, barely. Not to mention, his Perception attribute allowed him to locate any abnormalities in the area despite his lack of sight.
Soon enough, the roughness of the wall changed. From the rough, rocky surface, it started to grow smooth, resembling polished marble. This was odd. But, not for long as Lucian began to sense waves of Mana undulating towards him.
They were unlike any he had ever sensed before!