"IT'S ALREADY INSIDE!! AAAAAHHH!!!" Ragni sobbed, pressing herself against the wall.
"Hush! The thumping is coming from somewhere beneath the floor," I listened carefully, and faint footsteps could be heard downstairs. "It seems someone is in the basement."
"We have a basement!?" Katrina and Ragni asked simultaneously.
"Katrina, you should have explored the house when you bought it. We actually keep our trophies down there."
"Is that true? Where is the entrance?" If my memory serves me right, I moved the right sofa aside and lifted the carpet, revealing a small hatch with a simple latch.
"One thing I don't understand is how someone could get inside if this is the only exit." I regretted saying that; the girls started trembling with fear even more.
"Alright, I'll open it," I lifted the lid and peered into the darkness of the basement. There was no lamp or windows down there, making it impossible to see anyone. But as soon as the light from the living room penetrated the basement, strange sounds began to emanate from there. It seemed like someone was moving furniture, trying to reach the exit. Soon, loud footsteps echoed on the stairs.
"He's coming up, whoever it is!" a new wave of ear-piercing screams almost deafened me. Soon, the footsteps ceased, and something began to emerge from the dark opening. It was RumY, with a cookie in her mouth.
"What took you so long? I'm tired of knocking for you," she said nonchalantly.
"TEACHER RUMY!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? And why did you end up in our basement?" Katrina rushed at the teacher, infuriated by the fact that she had just believed in ghosts.
"Why? I'm your mentor, so why can't I drop by? Plus, it's nice to be in this little house again."
"But why in the basement?! And how did you even get in; the door was locked from this side!"
"I came through the secret entrance; it's faster. I didn't think you would block it over time."
"What secret entrance? We didn't even know there was a basement!" "Oops! Katrina, speak for yourself," I looked at Katrina with disdain.
"You've been here for months, and you still haven't found it! Ha, come, I'll show you." Rumy descended into the basement, and we followed her. When we reached the bottom, Katrina lit a small magical light, and we inspected the room. In one corner, our trophies were piled up: a barrel with hydra blood, the blades of the ant queen, and a jug of dragon blood. Besides that, there was old furniture, seemingly stored here by various guilds over the years.
"This way, this way. Someone propped the door with a wardrobe, and I had to move it," Rumy confidently walked in the darkness towards the west wall of the basement. We bumped into a large wardrobe standing in the passage.
"Alright, guys, move it, and I'll show you everything," this teacher wasn't spoiling us. Behind the wardrobe, there was a door that led to a mysterious corridor with numerous doors along the walls.
"Wow, you have such a huge basement; we wish we had one like this!" Miriam exclaimed excitedly.
"This isn't a basement. It's a network of secret passages under the academy. I don't know how old it is or what magic created it, but only the highest-ranking mages of the academy and members of the royal family know about this secret."
Katrina's explanation only fueled even greater enthusiasm among the people who found themselves in such a marvelous place.
"Hmm, it must be something important, but then the question is: how does she know about it?" Vina looked at Rumy with suspicion.
"Oh, what about me? My brother was one of those who made these passages, and it wasn't such a big secret before," Rumy replied.
"Hold on. How old is the academy, anyway?"
"And why do you assume these passages are related to the academy? They were built long before it, but when they were constructing the first academy, they decided to use them for quick transportation of teachers. So they widened the passage, added new doors, and locked some of the old ones to prevent people from wandering where they shouldn't."
"The first? The academy??"
"Yes, this is already the fourth academy. The first three were destroyed in major wars; only the foundations of some buildings and this passage remain from them. It's sturdier than you think."
The unintentional facts that Rumy revealed surprised those present. Not only did no one know about the passages, but no one knew that the academy had been destroyed three times. The oldest records about the academy were from its reconstruction after a natural disaster two thousand years ago, but nobody knew what was on that site before that.
"Rumy, how old are you?" I asked the question that concerned many.
"Krito, it's impolite to ask a lady about her age," her embarrassment was quite out of place, "but I can tell you that I became a golem at the age of twenty-two, so you can consider that my age."
"Don't play coy; you know what I was asking about."
"Well, it's hard to say. I spent so long in that tomb that I lost track of time. I can only recall important events that rare visitors told me about."
"Sorry, it must have been tough for you all that time."
"Oh, it's nothing. I vowed at my brother's grave that I would only leave his tomb with someone stronger than me. And in the end, that's how it turned out."
"So you were there for so long, and you probably know many interesting stories. Will you tell us?" Seleria unexpectedly came alive. It seemed the crimson princess was interested not only in trinkets and fashionable clothes.
"Well, okay, I'll tell you what I can, but let's go upstairs. I don't like this place."
Everyone agreed and headed towards the exit of the passage when Asura noticed unusual inscriptions on the door frame. They were made in an unfamiliar language to her, but they looked familiar.
"Krito, come here for a moment," Asura drew her katana and placed it against the door jamb. The inscriptions on the blade closely resembled the ones on the door, though some symbols were different, the letter forms were similar. They reminded her of her native language's hieroglyphs and the runes of the northern peoples.
"Can you tell me what this means?"
"Ah, so this is a network of enchanted artifacts. That's why the magic persists even after the creator's death."
"Hmm, I recognize some of these letters; they look like the language of dragons, but I don't recognize some of the symbols."
"Damn it, Ragni, who asked you to learn the dragon language? I thought you kept it as the greatest secret of your people!"
"Sorry, I forgot."
"Forgot? Your mother wanted to kill me when she found out that I taught you!"
"Ahem," Katrina deliberately coughed, "Krito, it seems you have a few secrets from your guild master! Don't you want to share them?"
"Well, it looks like I'll have to. Come on, I'll tell you what I know."
Everyone returned to the room and settled on the sofas. In our small guild house, it was starting to feel a bit cramped with such a crowd.
"So, does this mean that's the secret of enchanting?" Vina got straight to the point.
"I'll explain now. Just let me find that book."
I walked along the bookshelves; after tidying up, all the books were neatly arranged there. Soon, I pulled out the required book, "Ice and Flame," a book about creating enchanted items. I took it off the shelf and placed it on the table in front of everyone.
"Hmm, a diary?" Apparently, no one noticed Rumy's comment; all the attention was focused on the book.
"I found this book when I had to spend the night in this house for the first time," I shot a sidelong glance at the culprit, and she just grinned foolishly, scratching the back of her head. "And there I found the basic principles. Which materials and shape are best to use, also, that magical weapons require catalyst stones, and precious stones close in color to the element you want to use are best for that purpose."
"Ho-hoo, so if we sold this book, we could become millionaires!" Vina's eyes gleamed with a malicious light.
"No, no, no. You're not listening to me again. This book is useless for others because it lacks the most important thing," I opened a section that explained which spells needed to be inscribed on the weapons to achieve the desired effect. "Here are all the necessary spells, but they must be written in the Language of Force, the language of ancient gods."
Everyone fell silent and carefully studied the pages of the book. The phrases resembled ordinary spells used by mages but were more elaborate and invoked sources of power.
"Hmm, alright, where's the dictionary then? You probably found that too?" Vina couldn't let it go.
"You can stop looking; there's no such dictionary. Only dragons know the Language of Force, and not all of them. Moreover, it's forbidden for them to pass on this knowledge to humans. If anyone finds out that a dragon shared this knowledge with a human, they'll both be killed."
Everyone fell silent and looked at me.
"Krito, you must be joking, right? You know the language, and nothing happened to you," Vina seemed visibly nervous.
"No, I'm not joking. At our first meeting, Ignis wanted to kill me."
"Mom! That can't be true; you wouldn't have survived then!" Ragni stood up in defense of her mother, though her effort was feeble.
"I swear, but when she found out how I learned it, she decided that killing me and my khym... 'teachers' would be too much trouble. So, she passed on the last pieces of knowledge to me so I could fully understand the language. Now, I'm the only human who knows it."
Once again, everyone fell silent.
"No, Krito, this is utterly useless! If only you can do it, then there's no point in it!" Vina exclaimed in frustration.
"I told you, you won't make money out of it."
"Well, at least you can craft weapons, and I'll sell them. How about that?"
"Mmm, not interested. I'll only make weapons for my friends," I smiled and leaned back on the sofa. "What interests me is that door in the basement; it had the inscription 'Wanderer's Path'. It must be a powerful artifact. Your brother was such a great master."
"He had a good understanding of all these magical things and magic in general. And I was only good at one thing: punching someone in the face," a hint of sadness flickered in the golem's eyes. "We had some fun days; we grew stronger together, he as a mage, and I as a warrior. And then I met an enemy I couldn't defeat. Perhaps if I had taken the enchanted chainmail my brother made for me, I would have survived."