Chapter 296 - 009: Fragments of Knowledge

Chapter 296: 009: Fragments of Knowledge

Lynch raised his right hand.

“Clang!”

A pile of scattered bones loosened on both sides, and something buried beneath flew upward.

Lynch extended his hand and steadily caught the object that flew out from the pile of bones. It was a small metal box, its surface covered in intricate patterns. Despite the traces of dust and the passage of time, the box’s exquisite craftsmanship was still discernible.

“Did I actually find something useful?” Lynch muttered with surprise.

After all, ruins like these had attracted countless explorers in the past, igniting waves of exploration multiple times. While not entirely excavated, areas near the surface should have been thoroughly picked apart already.

“This must be luck!”

Lynch wiped away the dust on the box and opened it. Inside were several delicate glass test tubes containing grain-sized crystals. They varied in colors—blue, red—with each test tube holding crystals of a distinct hue.

“What is this…”

“Hair dye?”

Lynch summoned the All-Knowing Book and quickly identified the items. They were hair dyes commonly used by residents during the Acadica Era.

The sophisticated Wizard Civilization fostered a thriving material and spiritual culture. To cater to aesthetic pursuits, items like hair dyes and cosmetics already existed—quite unlike now, where even bathing felt like a luxury of cleanliness.

The regressive steps of history truly were lamentable.

Lynch put the box away. Now that he was a wanted man, altering his appearance for disguise was undoubtedly necessary. The hair dyes were timely, coming at just the right moment.

He could technically change his hair color directly using Magic, but as he was no professional colorist, Magic couldn’t provide him the exact shade he desired. Nature’s spectrum held countless variations, and even the slightest divergence in a single blue tone could lead to drastically different results.

These hair dyes, however, had undergone countless layers of refinement based on human preferences to achieve the most suitable colors for showcasing beauty.

Wizards could use Magic to accelerate wheat growth—or even cultivate protein-based matter—but they couldn’t conjure up exquisite culinary dishes out of thin air. Magic could produce vibrant colors, but it couldn’t paint breathtakingly beautiful artwork by itself.

Elegant clothing, fine cuisine, ornate carriages, grand palaces… All these things required forethought and design before Magic could bring them into being. They were what made the world lively and colorful, breaking up monotony. Perhaps this was the true meaning of civilization’s existence.

The exploration continued.

Walking forward with Shea, Lynch took ten or so steps before passing a Wizard Tower-like structure. Suddenly, new ’monsters’ emerged from within.

This time, it was rows of rusty armor, seemingly animated by an Activation Spell, but actually controlled by soul energy. The souls inhabited the armor, driving it upright—similar in principle to the skeletons he had encountered before.

“Swish! Swish! Swish!”

Lynch fired one arrow after another, quickly taking out all the armor. When the armored forms collapsed, a remarkable discovery awaited him.

A genuinely significant discovery…

“What is this…”

Lynch approached a fallen suit of armor and noticed a fist-sized orb of light floating above one of its metal fragments. Upon examining it through Perception, it appeared similar to Soul Flame—it was soul material but seemed distinct. Its color wasn’t the usual ghostly blue but pale yellow instead.

“What is this?”

Curious, Lynch picked up the metal fragment and examined it closely. After scrutinizing it for a while, he quickly deduced: it seemed to be some kind of information carrier? f r\eeNovelFire.c(o)(m)

He expanded his Spiritual Field and swept over it.

It was just as he suspected.

When his spiritual power scanned the orb of light, several strings of characters were instantly read from it. At the same time, these strings appeared distinctly in the center of the orb. They were written in Ancient Rune Language, arranged and combined to resemble…

“Magic Formula?”

Observing closely, Lynch discovered that the strings in the center of the light orb were indeed a Magic Formula!

To confirm further, the system’s prompt sounded at that moment: NovelFire

[Knowledge carrier “Magic Formula Number AC306” detected. Auto-loading completed.]

[Magic Formula Number AC306, Level 0: 0/50.]

Lynch’s eyes widened.

It really was…

But why did this suit of armor contain a Magic Formula? Was it coincidence, or… Wait… Wait a minute…

Suddenly, a possibility crossed Lynch’s mind.

His gaze once again scanned the surrounding broken streets and wandering Undead. The astonishment in his eyes surpassed his earlier reflections.

If his guess was correct… the truth of this place would be unbearably cruel.

“I’ll confirm it and find out…”

He pressed onward, sweeping through several more Dead Spirits. From them, he acquired multiple light orbs, all identical to the previous ones. Inside each orb was one or more pieces of information.

“So it really is this…”

These light orbs were soul material, similar to Soul Flame—transformations of human souls after death brought about by soul energy. One portion of the soul energy became Soul Flame and attached itself to the Undead, while another portion formed these light orbs. Fundamentally, they were of the same origin.

However, the formation of these light orbs wasn’t accidental but a deliberate act by Wizards.

Wizards engraved messages directly onto people’s souls. After death, the soul was transformed into pure soul energy. At that moment, the engraved messages would manifest one after another.

At last, Lynch understood why the Wizards of Acadica chose to attempt Magic transfer of an entire massive city despite knowing it was impossible. What they sought to transfer wasn’t the city’s civilization…

It was the Magic Knowledge!

Yes,

the Wizards divided the knowledge into individual categories, dispersing them into the souls of people. Under the guise of transferring civilization, they effectively sealed these souls—and the knowledge contained within—beneath the earth, preserving it entirely.

The soul was the best medium for preserving knowledge, bar none.

Paper would yellow and fade, carvings would erode, Crystal Balls would deplete energy—each medium had its flaws.

But what was inscribed onto the soul remained unchanged, whether over a thousand years or ten thousand years.

“This really is…”

Lynch felt at a loss for words. Earlier, he had considered the Wizards’ efforts to save millions of lives during imminent catastrophe to be admirable. Now, it turned out they hadn’t intended to save people at all—they had only used them as storage disks.

Damn!

“No wonder those top Wizards from Witch Domains are perpetually keen on exploring this place! Turns out the real draw lies here!”

For millennia, regardless of how Wizard World’s dynamics shifted, there had always been Wizards initiating exploration of these ruins under various banners. Both renowned and obscure Wizard Organizations had participated in these excavations, drawing countless Wizards here.

Of course,

none of these attempts yielded significant results. Despite initial fanfare that drew global attention, most explorations fizzled out quickly, achieving little. They were typical cases of big talk with minimal action.

To this day, only a tiny fraction of the Acadia Dungeon has been unearthed—barely 2% of the total estimated underground city.

“I wonder… if the fragmented Magic Knowledge could be accepted by the Furnace of Knowledge?”

Touching his chin, Lynch gazed at the new data entries displayed on the system panel. A thought quietly emerged in his mind.

If validation proved successful…

Perhaps he could significantly accelerate the progress of opening Wizard Somda’s second door within the Time Hut…

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