Cain speed walked his way down the cracked hallway until he caught up with Victoria. The air inside was moist and humid. Although Cain couldn't feel it due to the Poison Immunity prototype circles constantly improving the air quality, he could see the droplets on the weeds near the walls.
"Everything alright?" Victoria asked once Cain was a few steps from her. She held a piece of parchment and a quill, occasionally stopping and using the light of the torches carried by Catehrine and Jared to mark the map. "Yep. Everything is good, just had to talk about something with the guards." Cain replied while noticing the presence that he had felt since they left the capitol getting further away.
'That must be the guardian Dresil mentioned a few days ago… I guess they're not going to come into the ruins with us.' Cain thought as he and the party continued to walk through the ruins. "Man… I hope we get another storage ring or something like that." Jared's wish echoed off the walls of the narrow hallway, making its way down to Cain.
"Are those rare?" Cain asked, elevating his volume slightly so Jared could hear him. "Not really. They usually appear in tombs with a bunch of traps and books with something about qi. They're difficult to raid though since they'll occasionally stack traps in a formation." Jared's reply once more echoed off the hallway.
'...sounds like a cultivator's tomb. Shouldn't the contents of the ring be more valuable than the ring itself then?' Cain pondered while coming to an abrupt halt. The range of the Poison Immunity gently grazed Victoria's back. While Jacob and Jared were doing their thing, Victoria turned around and stepped closer to Cain.
"Weird… why does the air here feel the same as the air outside?" She asked him suspiciously. Cain took a deep breath, feigning his ignorance with the action. "Huh… I guess the technique activated when I didn't notice.
"It's something my master taught me to improve the air quality around me since we used to spend months inside a room or small cave." Cain explained smoothly while keeping an eye on Jared and Jacob's situation in case of any unforeseen circumstances. "Huh… That's a pretty good technique. Does that mean the air quality here is bad?" Victoria asked while taking several steps back and forth, trying to figure out the edge of the zone.
"Nah. It's just because it's humid most likely. It's a rather fickle technique because of this; there are some cases when it even activated when I was outside." Cain successfully cleared the last of Victoria's doubts with this statement. She nodded her head in understanding then joined the rest of the party in the clearing.
The group had stopped because Jacob had come across an open clearing. He gestured for Jared to check for traps while Cain and Victoria were conversing in the back. Jared handed the torch to Jacob then threw a few stones on suspicious tiles then plucked a nearby weed and threw its leaves into the air to check for a change in air flow. He continued to do this until the entirety of the chamber was cleared.
Jacob distributed torches from within his storage ring to the party members; Cain and Victoria finished conversing at this time. Cain stood off to the side as the party mounted the torches to the stone walls. Occasionally they would have to use their daggers, knives, or magic to make holes to insert the torches in. After a few minutes, a light reddish orange competed with the shadowy black for space on the walls of the clearing.
"Alright everyone. Rest up, check your gear again. There's no guarantee that we'll get another chance to stop in a place like this." Jacob directed once the party regrouped near the pathway they came from. 'A break already? My kind of expedition.' Cain thought to himself as he plopped down next to the wall.
"Hey, Jared. Is there anything inside the storage rings?" Cain took this chance to ask Jared about the puzzling piece of information he deduced while walking down the hallway. "Not really. Just a lot of dust, ash, dirt, and some books.
"Some people have tried to translate them, but the most we could get was that the books described a 'Qi Circulation Technique,' very arrogant names for simple moves, and something about achieving immortality through tao. Whatever that is." Jared explained the usual findings within the storage rings.
'So that means all of the refined pills, weapons, armor, etc. have been turned to dust…? But why… also how. It's nearly confirmed They were left behind by immortals… but a true immortal or cultivator would have left behind some of their refined items.' Cain contemplated the disconnect between what he knew and what he heard. During this time, Victoria was busy mapping out the clearing and the connected passageways.
A hallway laid within each wall, with the one across from them being the widest but also heading downwards. "Looks like this one is going to be an underground ruin. What do you guys think our next move should be?" Victoria asked the group once she finished charting everything she could see.
"Is there a difference between underground ruins and aboveground ruins?" Cain asked the party when he detected that there were a few significant differences from their tone and context. "Above ground ruins are usually safer with less traps and less valuable loot. Underground ruins are the exact opposite but we also have to consider if the structure will collapse while we're fighting off the traps." Victoria clarified the details to Cain swiftly.
"Well, if the place collapses I can just teleport all of us above ground. You guys should be able to deal with the traps and dangers pretty well by yourselves though." Cain eased some of their worries with his offer. "You got clairvoyance too or something?" Jared asked when he saw how sure he was.
"Nah, it's just a gut feeling." Cain replied while standing up and brushing the dust off his butt. 'Veronica has been awfully quiet…' Cain peeks around to look at Veronica and sees her attentively observing their surroundings. 'Ah, how astute of her. I guess we've been pretty carefree though. Meh, time to analyze the results of the Poison Immunity prototype.' Cain began to sift through the data collected from the short experiment as the party discussed which pathway to take.
'The prototype seems to be doing its job well. There's not much mana drain since the mana coming from the converted atoms contribute towards recreating what's needed. I can just set the prototype to consume mana from the Mana Zone since it's set to replenish itself whenever it dips below 10 mill…
'Hah… I really need to figure out how to automate turning natural mana into my mana as well as getting a separate processor or something similar up. The only concern of the Poison boi is the range is fixed to a 2-meter diameter semi-sphere…
'That'll be a pain during a change of elevation since it might accidentally convert the terrain… But it didn't convert Victoria when she stepped into my zone, nor did it asphyxiate her by converting the air within her body. Is it perhaps because of the tag combined with that I didn't recognize her as air?
'I'll have to figure out how to automate this for the terrain and make sure it's foolproof.' Cain completed the self-vocalization of his analysis a few seconds after the party came to a decision. They decided to head into the passageway on the left wall. It was the narrowest of all 4 connected to that room and thus the most troublesome.
—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (50ms)
Rex: Why do you vocalize your thoughts like that?
Cain: It's less work. Also if I analyze w/o it you'll probably bug me to fill you in.
Rex: true…
Rex: Ah, right. Doesn't your Mana Zone already convert natural mana into your mana automatically?
Cain: Eh, it kinda does. It converts the natural mana within it. I need something to draw natural mana to the magic circle then convert it.
Rex: I see… kind of.
Bob: He's improving.
Dresil: Indeed, he's growing up.
Rex: :proud:
Dresil: But he still forgot to ask one thing.
Rex: I did? Oh shiiii, I did.
Rex: Aren't you super op? How is your gut feeling accurate for them?
Cain: I got power too fast for my instincts to match up with it so it still needs to catch up.
Cain: Right now, it's probably on par with an A-class adventurer. So if they find something dangerous, then my instincts will also tell me it's dangerous.
Rex: Isn't that… dangerous?
Cain: Yep. If I ignore the wrong signals when it's actually something that could threaten my life, then I'd be screwed.
Rex: Yikes.
Cain: …are you two just pushing your questions to Rex though?
Dresil: Maybe.
Bob: Perhaps.
Rex: Without a doubt.
Dresil: Rude, how could you just sell us out like that?
Bob: Indeed, where's the sense of comradery?
Rex: :hmph: It'll form once you are forced to study thermo within a few days.
Rex: Cain had incomplete memories of the textbook too, so it's not like it was that simple either.
Cain: It's not my fault I didn't need the textbook to ace the class. :shrug:
--------------------------
Cain suppressed a laugh, lest the party think he has gone insane. 'Ah… reminds me of a meme.' The sudden memory almost made him laugh notably. Luckily the party walked towards the left passageway, with Cain in tow at the end, thus no one could see his struggle. As long as he controlled the volume of his stuttered breaths, no one would notice he was on the verge of laughing his lungs out.
The party train, erm, the single file line of the party walked cautiously through the hallway. They stopped abruptly with Victoria and Cain still yet to enter the hallway. Catherine, Veronica, Jared, and Jacob slowly backed out of the hallway. Catherine and Veronica then entered the small room.
"Everything ok in there?" Victoria asked Jacob after the two girls went in. "Yep, it's just a somewhat long hallway that leads to one room at the end. There appeared to be 2 more rooms on the side, but the entrances were blocked by debris. I sent Veronica and Catherine in there since they're nimble and can navigate the slim passageways easily." Jacob explained the details of the current situation.
Jacob's description of the interior intrigued Cain, so he leaned his back on the wall close to the hallway entrance. To the group, it appeared as if he was just relaxing; in reality, Cain was using his Mana Zone to map out the intricacies of the rooms. 'It reminds me of the office suites back on earth… weird.' He thought to himself. A few moments later, the girls walked out holding a few metal trinkets.