The ancient ruins lay dormant in the darkness. Thousands of years had not eroded the sturdy man-made materials, but it had eroded the scent of humans that had once existed here. A cold and humid air lingered in the corridors and rooms that had weathered the vicissitudes of time. There was neither life nor death in the air.
This atmosphere lasted for a long time until it was broken by outsiders.
The light from the magic stones illuminated the way forward. The heavily armed Cecil Combat Squad, led by Byron Knight, walked in the depths of the corridor. They were cautious and attentive, as if they were ready to deal with the monsters that pounced out of the darkness at any time. Although the biggest creature they had seen since entering the ruins was only a few rats.
Byron Knight walked in front of the team, and a soldier behind him carried an oil lamp. In the case of the bright magic stones, the oil lamp was not very useful. Its main function was to warn when there was a lack of oxygen in the surroundings, and to respond when there were shadows and unclean things around.
According to Gwen's order, they went deep into the ancient ruins. It was now the second day in the ruins, and the things they saw along the way had not changed much. They were just neatly planned, amazingly wide corridors and empty rooms. The structure of the buildings in the mountain was very complex at first, but after a period of exploration, they could grasp the pattern. This facility was obviously not designed to let people get lost.
However, no matter how boring the things they saw along the way were, Byron dutifully drew the map and marked the rooms.
The light of the magic stones shone into another deep room. Byron and others came to the end of the corridor that was temporarily marked as the third corridor. The soldiers moved forward in a vigilant formation. After confirming that the room was safe, they set up a sentry post at the door. They were going to take a break here.
Exploring the dark ancient ruins was a very exhausting thing. The physical exhaustion of walking was not much, but groping in the dark was quite a test of one's spirit. This time, the soldiers were experienced and strong-willed veterans, but they still needed to rest in time.
After checking for danger, the soldiers set up camp in the corner of the room. They put the magic stones around to provide light, and then took out their dry food and water to replenish their strength. Byron sat next to a magic stone and looked at the map in his hand with the help of the light.
This hand-drawn map marked the areas that had been explored so far. Because the corridors and rooms were very regular, the map was very simple and easy to understand. Although the three-dimensional interior of the facility caused some trouble in drawing the map, it was not a problem as long as the plane of each floor was drawn separately on paper.
Byron, who used to be a mercenary, was very familiar with the process.
"Sir, there seems to be nothing on this floor," a veteran said. "Everything useful has been taken away."
"Valuable things are often in deeper places," Byron replied and pointed to a place on the map. "According to the previous pattern, this should be the big staircase that leads to the next level. Let's go this way later."
"Yes."
Byron turned his attention back to the map and glanced at the oil lamp that had just been turned on. The bright flame was still burning and trembling slightly in the breeze.
Wait a minute … Wind?
How could there be wind in the completely sealed mountain ruins? Even the ventilation holes would not produce such a strong airflow, right?
Byron's vigilance cultivated during his time as a mercenary did not let go of this detail. He immediately closed the map, wet his finger with saliva and carefully sensed — there was indeed wind.
"There is airflow here," he immediately reminded. "Light a few more lamps and look for it separately. There should be more than one entrance and exit in this room."
The soldiers immediately began to look for secret doors and mechanisms in the room. Soon, they found something unusual.
At the end of the room, there was an obvious rectangular depression in the wall, which was shaped like a door. Next to the depression, there was a pile of rotten debris — wood shelves and steel scraps that had been weathered for thousands of years.
The room was dim, and there were similar wall depressions and piles of debris everywhere in the ruins. Most of them were traces left behind by the dismantling of equipment. So, the soldiers did not notice these things at all.
But there was an airflow coming out of this place. It was obviously connected to the outside world.
Byron ordered the soldiers to clear away the piles of debris. As a result, a section of metal was half-buried in the wall. It was a cylinder less than half a meter in diameter, perpendicular to the ground. Half of it was buried in the wall, and the exposed part was covered with complex patterns. The upper half of it was slanted downwards. Obviously, it could not be used as a table to store items.
"What is this thing?" A soldier looked at the metal column curiously, with a nervous look on his face. "Could it be a trap?"
"No." Byron shook his head and recalled some of the common sense that Gwen had told him. "According to the duke, this kind of appearance is usually used like this …"
As he said, he put his hand on the inclined surface of the metal column, but the column did not respond.
Byron was not embarrassed at all. "Of course, most of these things can't be used. After all, they will break down after a long time. This is common sense."
A soldier said casually, "Sir, can you take off your gloves and try?"
Byron was not embarrassed at all. He glared at the soldier and said, "Then you try!"
The other party was worthy of being a soldier trained by Byron. He wasn't polite at all. He took off his gloves and imitated Byron's actions, placing his hand on the slanted surface.
In the next second, the complex patterns on the surface of the metal object faintly lit up. At the same time, a slight vibration came from an unknown place. While the soldier's face revealed a look of astonishment, Byron heard a somewhat distorted and abnormally stiff voice coming from the metal object. "Test … … sample tester … … stable period … … allowed to pass. Opening isolation door … "
Then, accompanied by the creaking sound of an ancient mechanism, the depression on the wall actually shrank inwards, revealing a previously hidden passageway!
Everyone looked at each other in dismay, dumbfounded.
"I … I didn't do anything." The soldier quickly retracted his hand, looking nervous and helpless. "You all saw it."
Byron glanced at the dark passage behind the door, suddenly took off his gloves, and put his hand on the inclined surface of the metal column.
The metal column also lit up, and soon a distorted voice came from inside. "Test … sample tester … stable period … approved. The isolation door is in an open state."
"Even I can do it?" Byron was stunned. He then frowned and randomly picked a soldier. "You try it!"
The soldier followed suit and put his hand on the column. Then, the same thing happened: the metal column lit up, and a voice came from inside, telling them that they were approved.
Anyone who put their hand on the column could pass the test.
"It's probably broken …" After testing two more soldiers, Byron breathed a sigh of relief. "After all, it's such an ancient thing."
A soldier cautiously asked, "Sir, we still have …"
"Let's go in and have a look." Byron's face was still cautious, but his heart was slightly excited. As a former mercenary who had explored the ruins of the Southern Territory without fail, he seemed to have smelled something good. "After searching for so long, we finally found something!"
…
While Byron and his party were going deeper into the ruins in the mountains, a new guest also set foot on the new territory of the Cecil family.
It was a young woman with a graceful figure. She wore a light gauze dress that did not look like the style of Ansu. Her long hair was draped over her back, and a lavender veil covered her face, leaving only a pair of bright and lively eyes exposed. She walked into Cecil's territory, passed through the soldiers' post, passed through the gate of the camp, which was now a small town, and walked among the neat wooden houses.
Cecil's people were busy coming and going around her, but everyone turned a blind eye to her.
The veiled woman walked around the town, curiously observing the town that was theoretically only a few months old. Those neat wooden houses could be regarded as qualified town buildings in other places. After all, in most places in this era, the living conditions of civilians were even worse than these houses. But in fact, these wooden houses were still obviously "transitional buildings" because on both sides of the town's main road, there were houses that were being demolished and rebuilt. Those houses had a solid foundation and were built with bricks and tiles. Obviously, they were the next generation of houses in this town.
A strange noise came from not far away. The veiled woman looked in the direction of the noise and found that it came from a smoke-spewing factory. She walked over curiously and opened the door openly. She was stunned when she saw the scene inside.
It turned out that this was the place where bricks were fired. But in the shelter in the middle of the yard, there were two strange-looking machines. One of the machines had an obvious magical reaction. It rotated under the drive of some kind of magic gear and used a powerful shaft to drive another machine connected to it. The other machine was constantly pressing the raw material, a mixture of mud and sand, into neat porcelain blanks. The two machines were not only amazingly efficient but also did not require complex control. Only two civilians in coarse clothes were watching the machines while more people were busy loading the rapidly forming blanks onto a cart and pushing them to the row of ovens on the other side of the yard that were several times larger than the ordinary brick ovens.
Those two large magic gears … What are they?
Magic gears? But what about the mage controlling them? Who is infusing them with magic? Who is regulating their magic flow? Who is controlling their speed, start and stop?
Could it be that they were the two ordinary people who didn't have the slightest bit of magic?!
Speaking of which … It seems that there are magical reactions everywhere in this place. It is really strange. Could it be that the whole territory was built on a magical focal point?
The veiled woman furrowed her beautiful brows. She really wanted to take the two machines apart to take a look, but to do something so outrageous, she was afraid that even the best stealth or hypnosis would be ineffective. So, she could only shake her head regretfully, leave the yard, and close the door.
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