Chapter 2587: Chapter 2588: Transfer Station
"This window is also part of the Magical Energy Array, so unless necessary, try not to touch this areaâs array," Angel said. "I suggest we first look for an exit in this building."
"Of course, itâs just my personal suggestion. If you have other ideas, feel free to bring them up."
Angel was very self-aware; he became the leader largely because he knew the location of that wall. In terms of exploring ruins, he might not even be as experienced as Kaier. Therefore, he wouldnât act arbitrarily and would listen to his teammatesâ suggestions... especially the one from a teammate with strong inspiration but unaware of it.
Angel glanced around; Kaier and Vay dared not speak, and for some reason, the Black Earl also remained silent.
Only Dox nodded and said, "Though I think breaking open this window, even if the magical energy array counterattacks, it shouldnât be too severe. But letâs go with your suggestion; perhaps thereâs more information here since this building is the stronghold of those Demon God cultists."
After finishing his words, Dox glanced at the floating slabs in the distance: "Just to say beforehand, if the information we gain here is written in that weird Weinus language again, some folks better not withhold important information."
Although everyone knew who Dox was referring to, and they agreed with Doxâs words, his tone made their hearts skip a beat.
The tone is far too sarcastic... So, is he directly confronting the Black Earl?
Vay cautiously looked at the Black Earl, afraid his lord would overreact, but to his surprise, the Black Earl wasnât angry.
The Black Earl simply and indifferently replied, "The agreement between Angel and me is already set; what I say is my own choice."
Dox wasnât surprised by the Black Earlâs refusal, but the Earlâs calm reaction made him slightly suspicious. However, Dox didnât voice this doubt, instead putting on a feigned look of resignation and saying to Angel, "I felt there was really no need to make an agreement with him earlier. Now look, isnât he just feeling pleased with himself?"
Angel smiled and said nothing. Without setting rules, if the Black Earlâs True Body came, their exploration would almost be a wash. Angel was acutely aware that this relic exploration couldnât avoid the esteemed ancestor of the Noah ClanâAugustine.
After all, even the Alchemy Omen that appeared for the "key" refining the wall was personally judged by Augustine, which explains everything.
"Since everyone doesnât object to exploring this building first, letâs begin," Angel said, looking toward the hallway ahead: "There are corridors on this floor, so there must be rooms. Letâs check out the rooms on this floor and see if there are any clues related to this place."
Although the corridor splits into two ways, they didnât separate, not out of fear of danger if they couldnât support each other, but purely because Dox worried the Black Earl might find some intelligence and not share it with them.
Of course, even if the Black Earl accompanied them in finding intelligence, whether he was willing to share it was his choice. But at least theyâd know of its existence rather than being completely unaware of what the Black Earl had gained.
Doxâs intentions were all too evident. Everyone guessed them, including the Black Earl, who also saw through them. Yet he didnât say anything and chose a direction with the group and started moving.
After three minutes of exploration, they roughly understood the structure of this floor.
The layout was like a "return" character, with the corridors fully connected. On each side of this "return," there was a room, but three of them yielded nothing, neither completely empty nor containing anything useful.
As for the last room, although named room, itâs actually a hall larger than the other three rooms, and here they also discovered a staircase leading upwards.
"There seem to be some stains here, which is somewhat strange." The speaker was Kaier, who was squatting near a stone wall in the hall.
The wall material was Star Color Stone, but unfortunately, the wall remained blank, with the paintings having long disappeared. However, on the lower right of the stone wall, there was a bit of stain, black mixed with gray.
"The disappearance of the murals on the Star Color Stone, yet the presence of stains here, indicates it was left by later comers. Furthermore, the timeframe should be around a millennium ago." Angel glanced for a moment and discerned the context: "Although Star Color Stone easily retains color, not every pigment can stain it; at least there must be a trace of extraordinary energy present. As for this stain, it doesnât seem like someone deliberately mixed pigment with extraordinary power and painted it."
"Therefore, the only possibility," Dox seized the pause in Angelâs explanation, quickly interjecting to show his presence, "is that someone might have fought or been injured here. Judging by the shape of the stain, it doesnât look purposely left, so the likelihood of the former is higher?"
"Fought? Why?" Vay asked Dox in confusion.
Dox rolled his eyes at Vay: "These years youâve really got muddled like a dog. Whereâs the passionate boy from before?"
Vay turned away, with a look of "never mind if you donât explain."
Pausing briefly, Vay turned again to Angel, eyes slightly glowing, with a hint of expectation.
Angel understood Vayâs eye signal, wanting him to explain, though he didnât quite understand why Vayâs eyes seemed somewhat odd.
Angel didnât dwell on it, joining in, saying: "Because the stain highly likely is blood, whether Wizard blood or Magical Creature blood, both contain extraordinary energy, allowing the Star Color Stone to be stained."
"To cause blood to appear on the Star Color Stone, only the scenarios Dox mentioned could fit."
"As for why the blood eventually turns black-gray, considering the Star Color Stoneâs texture and excluding human tending, itâs basically certain to be a millennium ago or around one to three hundred years more."
Angel further gave a rough timeline.
The explanation was comprehensive; naturally, Vay understood, looking at Angel with even more admiration.
"Admire this kid? How many times have you met?" Suddenly, the Black Earlâs voice sounded in Vayâs mind.
Vay was startled, scratching his head timidly, saying, "Not to the level of admiration, just think the Transcendental Wizard is impressive. Especially earlier when he repaired so many Magic Pattern layers simultaneously; it was simply unprecedented."
The Black Earl snorted coldly, yet didnât continue to speak because even Angelâs technique mending the Magic Pattern layers made him somewhat incredulous.
Originally thinking the Research and Development Institute invited Angel just because he had almost touched the mysterious hierarchy purely by luck, now it appears Angel is completely qualified to be a member of the Institute.
Though Angelâs skills only appeared briefly now, the Black Earl had a premonition that Angel is merely keeping a low profile in alchemy for the moment; itâs just a matter of time before he makes a splash and firmly secures his position in the Institute.
So when Vay mentioned this and showed some admiration, even the Black Earl couldnât dismiss it.
"Moreover, the Transcendental Wizard seems easy-going and is likely an Academy Faction White Wizard." Vay liked Academy Faction White Wizards... or rather, few Wizards dislike the Academy Factionâs White Wizards.
No matter how they mock such people as weaklings with their words, in their hearts, they still trust the Academy Faction White Wizards more.
Take the "Holy Light Walker" Gandolf, for instance, be it Wandering Wizards, Family Wizards, Black Wizards, or any other category of Extraordinary Life, theyâre all incredibly fond of Gandolf. This Potionology Alchemy Master is an Academy Faction White Wizard, particularly agreeable, willing to refine potions for you for just the cost of materials as long as you give a reasonable reason. Imagine, an Alchemy Master who only charges material costs to create potions for youâitâs practically a golden opportunity.
Thus, Gandolf being called "the walking opportunity" has its reasons.
"Academy Faction White Wizard? Hmph, do you think Sanders, that guy, can teach Academy Faction White Wizards? Would he tolerate his disciple being an Academy Faction White Wizard?" Black Earl snorted coldly.
"Put yourself in the position; if I were the Illusion Demon Master, I definitely wouldnât want my disciple to be a White Wizard. But if this White Wizard is talented, has skills, I think adhering to principles might not be necessary," Vay said, "like if the Transcendental Wizard became your student, would you refuse?
The Black Earl suddenly choked a bit, since when did Vay become so glib...
Moreover, he really couldnât refute him.
If there was indeed a chance to bring Angel into his family, how could he possibly refuse?
However, to maintain his dignity, the Black Earl stiffly said, "There is no âifâ in this world. All assumptions can be caught off guard by sudden changes."
"Whether Angel is an Academy Faction White Wizard or not, you can observe for yourself from now on. I donât think heâs a White Wizard, and he may not even be from the Academy Factionâa question mark remains."
After saying this, the Black Earl stopped paying attention to Vay. But Vay was completely unaffected by the Black Earl. With the precedent of a few prior events, itâs very hard to dispel the filter of the little fanboy currently.
...
In this hall, apart from the bloodstain of the Star Color Stone, there were no other discoveries. There were some pieces of furniture made from Extraordinary Materials, but... as the previous people who searched didnât take them, it shows that these things wouldnât be worth much to take out.
Since there were no clues in the hall, their only choice now was to continue upstairs.
As they climbed the stairs, Kaier rubbed his chin and said, "This is a bit strange. The place we came out from should be the basement; this is the first floor, so going up would be the second floor... whereâs the door then?"
Generally, the exit door would be on the first floor, but they had just wandered around an entire corridor without seeing an exit door. They did see two windows, but these two windows happened to be at the "corners" of a square, leading to alleys outside, without other findings.
"Does it matter if thereâs a door?" Dox said lazily, "Moreover, this is the Underground Maze; who says doors here have to be built like those on the ground, necessarily on the first floor? Maybe the door here is upside down, on the top floor."
"Is that so?" Kaier was a bit skeptical.
"No need to worry about that. If thereâs truly no door, Iâll make one." Dox said as he twisted his mouth with a grin, rubbing his fists with a look as if heâd punch the wall if met with defiance.
No one replied, not wanting to engage, and Kaier didnât dare respond, afraid that the fist glowing red would land on him.
Silently, they continued upwards.
The second floorâor letâs call it the second floorâhad a similar layout to the first, with a "square" corridor, just slightly smaller without windows.
This second floor also had three small rooms and a hall. After their search, they finally found the first clue to the building: a plaque on each roomâs door.
On it were familiar words.
Universal Language of the Continent, though from an earlier, unsimplified version.
Everyone recognized it.
The plaques defined the roomsâ functions: Cleaning Room, Evaluation Room, Transfer Station.
Though they knew this, they couldnât precisely deduce their purposes. The Cleaning Room didnât look like it held cleaning supplies; the Evaluation Room was odd too, with nothing inside.
As for the Transfer Station, it was the most peculiar place.
Because they found a familiar material hereâthe Human Face Eagle Demon Bloodstone.
However, the Human Face Eagle Demon Bloodstone here was merely a base; on this base was a broken altar. This altar was mostly shattered, revealing some magic patterns engraved on it.
Unfortunately, it was too fragmented, and even Angel couldnât restore it. He could only barely identify a few magic patterns, seemingly related to teleportation in space magic patterns.
But if this was a teleportation array, why was it built like an altar? Moreover, the altar wasnât big; it would be difficult to teleport a person.
Angel shared his analysis and asked, "Whatâs your take on this?"
Dox, eager to show his presence, answered immediately without thinking, "Letâs not talk about the other rooms, I have a hunch that this room was definitely arranged later, with the Transfer Station being its original purpose, only for it to be taken by the Mirror Demon Godâs followers later, setting up this altar."
"Do you have a reason?" Angel looked at Dox.
Dox hadnât thought it through, so there was no reason, but not wanting to admit he was spouting nonsense, his eyes darted around.
Not long after, Dox pointed to a wall: "Look at this wall, the color is slightly different, like a kind of imprint. The size may be similar to the cabinet in the basement."
"Meaning, there might have been a cabinet like the one in the basement here. Consider the material of that cabinet, then look at the material of this altarâtheyâre obviously not of the same style. Therefore, itâs possible I was right about it being arranged later."
The more Dox spoke, the more convincing it seemed, and everyone thought it made sense.
Just as Dox sighed with relief internally, almost everyone believed Doxâs reasoning was sound.
Only Angel sensed Doxâs emotional shifts, inadvertently guessing the truth.
Yet Angel didnât point this out because Doxâs subsequent explanation might actually be possible.
"Since this place might be set up later, and by followers of the Mirror Demon God, then it might very well be a sacrificial altar. As for the sacrifice target, it could be the so-called Mirror Demon God."
After speaking, Angel contemplated and added, "I remember a friend in the Abyss once told me that for an altar of an ordinary Demon God, the corresponding Demon Godâs mark, also known as the true name marks, must be engraved. Only the altar of a Great Demon God or the Unparalleled Great Demon God can skip marking the true name marks."
This was mentioned by that adorable clerk Canaan during casual chats while he was running a shop in Lassudral.
Though, this isnât considered exclusive information.
Humans have dealt with demons and Demon Gods for so long that this could be figured out, just not by lower-ranking people.
People present, like the Black Earl, were aware of this information.
As for Dox, he had the qualifications to know but as a Wandering Wizard, lacked cutting-edge intelligence sources.
"I donât know if the Mirror Demon God is a regular Demon God; if so, we might find some traces related to Him on this altar."
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