Elvira leaned forward slightly, her tone casual yet curious. "Ah, you mean fiction? Of course. It's one of my hobbies to pass the time."
"Now imagine real-life actors performing the scenes, while everything is recorded and played back later for people to watch. That's what I call a movie."
Elvira's eyes lit up. "Ah, so a projection show. We have something like that here too. Do you want to see one?"
Ben was intrigued. He knew that through entertainment like this, he could learn more about the world's culture and perspectives, which would help him adapt faster. So far, he had only encountered beasts or ridiculous monsters like the Hellworm. "Sure, let's check it out after we get back."
Elvira nodded, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah, you promised to show me your memories of the old world. Can you do it now?"
"Now? You know we could run into combat at any time." Ben glanced around the tunnel. Right now, he didn't sense anything, but who knew if something would suddenly show up? And there was also the white magma—he couldn't sense anything inside it either.
"Of course, I don't mean watching it now. But I need to cast the magic on your mind—the sooner, the better. The spell will copy all your memories. Don't worry, it won't affect you in any way, as long as you don't resist it."
Ben stared at Elvira, suspicion creeping into his mind. He had a feeling she had already siphoned some of the white gemstone's mana for this purpose. But he didn't say anything. "Fine, do it. Start from my earliest memories."
"Okay, turn your back to me."
Ben nodded and turned his gaze forward. The tunnel wasn't too far—just a few kilometers—but with the boat's slow pace, it would take around thirty minutes to get there.
Elvira placed her palm on Ben's back. "Relax your muscles. I'm starting."
A ripple of mana spread from her palm. Ben felt the foreign energy moving through his veins, heading toward his brain. His instincts flared, warning him to resist, to block the intrusion—but he forced himself to stay calm. He took a few deep breaths. 'Relax. If she wanted to do something weird, she would've done it already.'
After their fight with the Ant King, Ben found himself trusting Elvira more. She had drained all her mana until she collapsed, leaving herself completely vulnerable. Their lives were also linked—if she tried anything suspicious, like controlling his mind, he could just blow his own head off and regenerate later. Worst case, he'd rather die than be mind-controlled.
Elvira's lips curled into a warm smile as she felt little resistance from him. The magic seeped into his brain, mapping out all the neural pathways. "Alright, it's done. It'll feel weird for a while, but just bear with it. When the process is complete, I'll know."
"Okay…" Ben replied. Saying it felt weird was an understatement. It was like thousands of ants crawling around inside his skull. If he were still a normal human, he'd probably go insane from the sensation. Pushing it to the back of his mind, he changed the topic. "How strong are you now compared to your peak?"
Elvira hummed in thought. "Hmm… hard to say. As a mage, I'm not built for direct combat. But based on the level of spells I can cast and my current fighting ability… I'd say I'm barely at 5% of my peak."
"What do you need to reach your full strength?"
"Mages grow stronger in two ways—slowly increasing mana capacity while hoarding knowledge, or finding powerful relics that complement our skills."
"Ah, like the combat suit you mentioned before?"
"Yes. In the past, I had a stone catalyst that massively increased my mana capacity. It pushed my strength to a whole new level. I've had many artifacts, but that one… that one was the best."
"Since you're regressing, don't you know where to find it? Have you gathered all of them?"
Elvira shook her head. "That ruin exists in the second layer, near Aetheris territory. Right now, I'm like a fugitive. It's too dangerous to go back for it. As for the others, most of them came from auctions, so I can't get them now. I do have knowledge of some ruins we could explore, but we're way too far from them. Honestly… I don't even know which layer we're in right now."
"Somewhere much deeper than our last one. If you have any information on the average temperature, we might be able to estimate. The deeper we go, the hotter it gets."
"Hmm… I see. Well, I've never seen this white lava before either. But…" Her eyes gleamed as she added, "It's beautiful."
Ben smirked. "Yeah. And before you ask what the sky looks like—imagine this white lava, but completely black, with shimmering magical energy. That's the night sky."
"Hope I can see it one day…"
"You've really never been to the surface? No information at all?"
"No. Anyone who tried never returned. We were always told that nothing can survive up there. Even at my peak, I had zero knowledge of the surface."
"When was your strongest peak? The first regression or the second?"
"That would be…" But her voice trailed off as the boat approached its destination.
Ben turned his gaze toward the massive opening where the white lava flowed from. His eyes lit up, lips curling into a wide grin. "We're rich."
Through the opening, they could see an endless spread of white gemstones—embedded in the ceiling, the walls, everywhere. Some even jutted out from the lava itself.
Elvira, however, was surprised for an entirely different reason. On the left side of the area, she spotted carvings etched into a slab of rock. Ben might dismiss it, but she knew exactly what it was. A ruin. A ruin from a bygone era. And from the carvings… it was from that period—the mysterious age. The era when humans were spoken of as gods.
The period with the least amount of recorded history.