Heidi finally sensed that the magic reaction was right in front of them. Perhaps there was only one last intersection left. After roughly estimating the distance in front of the team and the terrain of the Gloom Mountain Range, Gawain believed that this was already the center of the mountain range.
The Gondor expedition might have really hollowed out a section of the mountain to build this incredible facility.
What was there that made them build such a monstrous facility for research and guarding?
But no matter what was there, they eventually gave up on this place.
Heti recharged the light ball of the illumination spell. The light ball, which had begun to dim, once again illuminated a large area around them. Gwen saw a neat corridor made of grey-white 'stone slabs'. The walls on both sides of the corridor were inlaid with magic crystal lamps that had lost their effectiveness. There were also some closed doors. At the end of the corridor was a bronze door with an eye and a triangle engraved on it.
The bronze door was not completely closed. There was a wide gap. Gwen activated his ability to sense danger and did not find any hidden threats such as traps and poisonous gases behind the door.
But he still could not let his guard down. Before pushing the door open, Heti first summoned a glowing rune that looked like an eye. The rune slowly floated through the gap of the door. Heti's eyes also glowed faintly at the same time.
"It's a round, empty room. It's very big. There are many broken long tables and shelves. There are many pipes on the wall. In the middle of the room is a sunken pit. There is a strange ball-like thing in the pit. There are also many chains and tools hanging down from the ceiling."
Heti frowned and said what she saw. Suddenly, she exclaimed in a low voice and the spell was interrupted.
"What's going on?!" Gawain looked at Heidi nervously.
Heti rubbed her eyes and said awkwardly, "I ran into a wall."
"… Err, is there anything that looks dangerous or like a trap?" Gwen asked.
Heti shook her head. "No. It looks like a laboratory, but many times bigger than the ones I know. There are many devices that I don't understand. I also confirmed that the magic reaction came from the ball in the middle of the room. But it's a form of energy that I have never seen before. "
After confirming that there were no traps or ancient magic puppets that had gone out of control, Gawain heaved a sigh of relief. As for the strange form of energy that Heidi mentioned, he could only study it carefully after he entered.
Two strong soldiers came forward and pushed the ancient bronze door with Byron and Knight. The rusted and weathered hinges creaked under the strong push. In this silent and enclosed space, the sound of the door shaft turning was unusually harsh and spread far and wide along the corridor.
Heti subconsciously clenched her staff and looked back at the dark corridor, as if some indescribable ancient monster would be awakened by the sound of the bronze door opening at any time and pounce out of the shadows. But in the end, nothing happened.
The door was pushed open, and Gawain walked in. Soon, he saw what Heidi saw: the circular hall, the broken long tables and shelves along the hall, the magic conduits on the wall, the sunken ground in the center, and a big ball that looked like a stone lying in the sunken ground.
Gawain came before the sphere. He roughly estimated its diameter to be about one and a half meters. Its shape was rather regular, and if the rough surface was not taken into account, it was almost a standard sphere. It seemed to be made of stone, but under the illumination of the Illumination spell, it had a metallic texture.
It was a bit like a natural stone ball, but a little too round. But to say that it was some kind of man-made magic device, it was completely different from the style of the Kingdom of Gondor. Moreover, there were no runes or metal connection points on its surface. It did not look like an ancient magic device at all.
"The magic reaction is indeed coming from inside," Heti frowned. "But it's so strange. I don't even think it's like magic, but a completely different kind of energy wave. Ancestor, is this also made by the ancient Kingdom of Gondor? "
"No, it doesn't look like it," Gwen frowned and reached out to knock on the 'stone ball'. It felt like a real stone, hard to the touch. "Looking at the array here, rather than saying that they made this ball, it's better to say that they were studying it."
"Is this entire facility built to study this ball?" Byron and Knight felt incredulous. "The Kingdom of Gondor spent so much effort just to study this ball?"
Gwen thought for a moment and felt that even in the Age of Sparks where magic was free, the Gondor people should not have been so stingy. "No. When this facility was dismantled, the people here took away almost everything that could be taken away in an orderly manner. They would not have left behind the most important thing. This ball should be an item that they were studying, but it's most likely just one of the items, and it's not that important and they had already decided to abandon it. They probably studied it for a while and found that there was no progress. When they were about to get rid of it, they received an order to evacuate and left it here. "
"So after so long, we only found this thing," Byron and Knight scratched their chin. "My lord, how do we deal with it?"
Gwen was also a little worried. How were they going to transport this stone ball out of here? He reached out and pushed the surface of the ball, muttering, "It takes up a lot of space and it's heavy. No wonder the Gondor people would give it to … Eh?"
After being pushed by him, the stone ball swayed and shifted its position.
Gwen suddenly felt a little embarrassed. "It's not heavy?"
The weight of this' stone ball 'was beyond imagination!
Gawain had thought that such a lump would weigh at least a ton, but he did not expect it to move so easily with a gentle push. When he tried it again, he estimated that the stone ball weighed only a dozen kilograms. Even Heidi could easily push it away. This could only mean that it was not made of stone at all!
Otherwise, it was hollow inside …
Suppressing the urge to break it open to see what was inside, Gwen made a judgment based on the size of the research facility and the traces left around the ball. The 'stone ball' should be a 'Category 1 Safety Wonder' in this research facility, which was a 'harmless but unique research object'. So he made a decision. "Let's take this thing out and bring it back to the camp to study it … Wait, it's not appropriate to put it in the camp. For safety's sake, put it on the newly leveled ground next to the camp. Send two soldiers to watch over it and set up a tent for it tomorrow."
After all, the Kingdom of Gondor and the present era had a technological gap of several generations. The safe and harmless research object of the past might not be harmless today, so it was better to be a little more cautious.
Gwen was nervous when he came, but he pushed a ball back. Needless to say, the scene of him pushing a ball in the team greatly eased the tension of the soldiers, but it also made Gwen feel very uncomfortable. He always felt that the atmosphere of his first exploration of an otherworldly ruin was ruined by the ball. It was like wearing the legendary armor, carrying the best sword in the village, accepting the title of 'Hero' from the king, and even teaming up with four sages as teammates, ambitiously embarking on a journey to eliminate the demon king, but the demon king turned out to be Patrick Star …
Why would the people of Gondor in the past study a sphere when they had nothing better to do?
With Heti's magical mark and Gwen's almost cheating map in his head, the speed of their return was much faster than when they came. Although they still had to push the ball, the unbelievably light thing was not much of a burden. When they had to go up a slope or up a flight of stairs, Heti would just summon her formless hand and carry it up.
The team went back the way they came, and soon the glimmer of the exit appeared in front of them.
The soldiers outside had been waiting for a long time, and even began to feel uneasy. They finally breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the sound of footsteps and commands from the depths of the central door. But the sound that came with the footsteps made them look at each other. It sounded like something was rolling on the ground …
The scene of two soldiers pushing the ball appeared before them. In fact, one person could push the ball, mainly to maintain balance.
"Let's go back." Gwen exhaled a long breath as he returned to the entrance hall. He put one hand on the stone ball. "This is the result."
The soldiers looked at each other.
The next day, everyone at the edge of the camp saw the strange ball.
It was placed in an open space outside the camp, and several heavily armed soldiers were guarding it. A circle of wooden stakes was set up around the ball, and ropes were used to form a partition around it.
It looked so awkward that the soldiers on guard must have lost in a game of cards. People whispered to each other.
Rebecca heard the news when she woke up. She quickly came to see what was going on. She saw her ancestor and Aunt Heti were there, so she squeezed her way through and looked at the ball curiously. "Ancestor … Is this what you brought out of the ruins last night?"
"We also brought out some metal samples. There are still a lot of good things in the ruins," Gwen said, nodding. "But I can't understand this thing."
Rebecca curiously circled the ball twice before coming back to ask the ancestor. "Can I touch it?"
Gwen waved his hand. "Don't throw big fireballs at it. Anything else is fine."
Although the 'stone ball' was strangely light, it was actually very strong. He had tried it before, and without using his supernatural powers, ordinary swords and swords could hardly cause any damage to the ball. So it should not be a problem to hit it twice.
But it might not work if he hit it with a big fireball. Especially with Rebecca's stubbornness, she might just hit it with a big fireball the size of a bathtub.
Rebecca curiously put her ear to the surface of the ball and hit it twice with her iron staff. She then turned to Gwen and said, "It's not hollow!"
"Yes, it's solid, but incredibly light." Gawain shrugged. "Your aunt scraped off some of the fragments and found that they were a mixture of substances with a high metal content. If the whole ball was made of the same substance, it would definitely be heavy enough to kill a person."
"Maybe only the outer layer is a shell, and the inner layer is actually very light?" Rebecca showed a strong interest in studying it. "Do you want to cut it open to see?"
Gwen laughed. "I was thinking of that, but not now. Let's study it in various ways without damaging it first. If we can't find anything, then we'll consider cutting it open. After all, the Gondor people used so many tools to study it, but in the end, they did not destroy its shell. There must be a reason why. "
Rebecca looked a little disappointed. "Oh …"
Gwen looked at her and smiled. "Instead of studying this ball, I have something else I want you to do. If you have time."
Rebecca's eyes lit up. "Huh? I have time! I don't need to do anything at the Weave No.1. The craftsmen and apprentices are digging trenches to refine the quartz sand. I'm free! What do you want me to do? "
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