Ancient ruins lay dormant in darkness, millennia of time not eroding away the sturdy materials of man-made buildings, but they did erode away the human breath that once existed here, a cold, damp air entrenched in the vicissitudes of life and in the rooms, and there was neither life nor death in the air.

This atmosphere lasted so long until it was broken by outsiders.

The light from the magic hedron illuminated the way forward, and the heavily armed squad of Cecil Combatmen, led by the Byron Knight, walked the depths of the corridors, cautious and preoccupied, as if ready to deal with the monsters that swooped out of the darkness - though the largest creatures they had seen since they entered the ruins had been no more than a few rats.

The Byron knight walked at the front of the group, while a soldier behind him carried an oil lamp - in the presence of bright magic crystals, the oil lamp was not very illuminating, and its main function was to provide early warning when there was a lack of oxygen in the surrounding area, and to react when there were dark shadows and unclean things around.

Following Gawain's orders, they went deep into the ancient mountain ruins, which were now on their second day, and what they saw along the way still hadn't changed much, except for neatly planned, amazingly wide corridors and empty rooms, and the structure of the mountain felt complicated at first, but after exploring for a while, they were able to grasp its rules: this facility was clearly not designed to make people get lost.

However, no matter how boring the things he saw along the way, Byron dutifully drew the map and marked the various rooms.

The glow of the magic hedron shone into another deep room, and Byron and the others came to the end of the corridor tentatively labeled "The Third Corridor", where the soldiers marched in a vigilant formation, and after confirming that the room was safe, they set up a sentry post at the door: they were going to rest here for a while.

Exploring the dark ancient ruins is quite a draining task, and the physical exertion of walking is nothing, but groping in the dark is quite a test of the human spirit. The soldiers brought this time are already experienced and ambitious veterans, but they still need to rest in time to go on.

After checking the dangers, the soldiers set up camp in an open space in the corner of the room, they placed the magic crystals around to provide lighting, and then took out their dry food and water, and hurried to eat and replenish their strength, while Byron sat next to a magic crystal, looking at the map in his hand by the light.

This hand-drawn map shows the areas that have been explored so far, and because the corridors and rooms are regular, the map is very concise and easy to understand, and although the three-dimensional interior of the facility causes some trouble to draw the map, it is not a problem to draw the plane of each floor separately on paper.

Byron, a mercenary, is well versed in this.

"My lord, there doesn't seem to be anything on this floor," said a veteran nearby, "and all the useful things have been emptied." ”

"Valuable things tend to be in deeper places," Byron replied, pointing to a place on the map, "according to the previous rule, this should be the big staircase leading to the next level, and then go this way." ”

"Yes."

Byron turned his attention back to the map, and glanced at the oil lamp that had just been turned on, the bright flame still burning and trembling lightly with the breeze.

Wait a minute...... Wind?

Where does the wind come from in the completely cordoned off mountain ruins? The ventilation ducts don't create such a large airflow, right?

The alertness cultivated during his time as a mercenary made Byron not let go of this detail, and he immediately closed the map, moistened his fingers with saliva and sensed it carefully - it was indeed windy.

"There's air currents here," he immediately reminded, "light a few more lamps and split up to look for it, there should be more than one entrance to this room." ”

The soldiers sprang into action and began to search for secret doors and mechanisms in the room, and soon they discovered anomalies.

At the end of the room, a wall has a distinct rectangular depression that resembles a door, and next to the recess is a pile of decaying debris—millennia weathered wooden shelves and scrap of steel.

The room had been dimly lit, and the ruins themselves were littered with similar wall dents and piles of debris—mostly traces from dismantling equipment—so the soldiers didn't pay any attention to them.

But in this place, there is a flow of air blowing, and it is clearly connected to the outside world.

Byron ordered his soldiers to remove the pile-up of debris, revealing a half-buried piece of metal in the wall, a cylinder less than half a meter in diameter, perpendicular to the ground, half buried in the wall, and the exposed part covered in intricate patterns, the upper part of which was a downward sloping plane: apparently not a countertop for storing objects.

"What is this?" A soldier looked at the metal pillar curiously, with a nervous look on his face, "Could it be a trap......?"

"No," Byron shook his head, recalling some of the common sense Gawain had given him, "according to Lord Duke, this is how items of this appearance are usually used......"

As he spoke, he placed his hand on the inclined plane at the top of the metal object, but the latter did not respond.

Byron had no embarrassment on his face: "Of course, most of the things in here can't be used, after all, they will break after a long time, this is common sense." ”

One of the soldiers grinned, "My lord, have you taken off your gloves?" ”

Byron's old face was not red at all, and he also glared at the big-headed soldier: "Then you can try!" ”

On the other side, it was a soldier brought out by Byron, who was not polite at all, took off his gloves and put his hand on the slope like Byron just now.

In the next second, the intricate patterns on the surface of the metal object brightened slightly, and at the same time, a slight vibration came from nowhere, and while the soldier's face showed a look of consternation, Byron heard a somewhat distorted and unusually dull voice from the metal object: "Detection...... Sample tester...... Stable period...... Permission to pass. Isolation door opening ......"

Then, with the sound of an ancient mechanism creaking, the hollow in the wall actually shrank inward, revealing a passage that had been hidden before!

Everyone looked at each other dumbfounded.

"I ...... I didn't do anything," the soldier quickly withdrew his hand, looking nervous and confused, "You're all watching." ”

Byron glanced at the dark passage behind the gate, and suddenly took off his gloves and put his hand on the metal slope.

The metal device also lit up, and soon a distorted voice came from within: "Detection...... Sample tester...... Stable period...... Permission is allowed and the door is open. ”

"Can I do it too?" Byron was dumbfounded, then frowned, and casually ordered a soldier, "You can try it!" ”

The soldier did the same, and what happened was exactly the same: the metal device lit up, and a voice came from within it announcing that it was allowed to pass.

Dare to be emotional, but anyone who puts his hand on it can pass the test.

"It's probably broken...... Byron breathed a sigh of relief after testing two more soldiers in a row, "It's such an old thing after all." ”

One of the soldiers cautiously asked, "My lord, we still have ...... in there."

"Go in and have a look," Byron's face was still cautious, but his heart was already slightly excited, as a former mercenary who had wandered all over the large and small ruins of the southern realm and never overturned, he seemed to have smelled good things, "After looking for so long, I finally found something!" ”

……

As Byron and his party delved deeper into the ruins of the mountains, a new guest also set foot on the new territory of the Cecil family.

It was a young woman of graceful figure, dressed in a light gauze dress not like the Ansu, with her long hair draped behind her back, and a lilac veil covering her countenance, leaving only a pair of bright and bright eyes exposed, and she entered Cecil's territory with great grace, through the soldiers' posts, through the gates of the camp, which was now a small town, and through the neat wooden houses.

Cecil's people were busy coming and going right next to her, but everyone was oblivious to her.

The veiled woman walked generously and with curiosity at the town, which was theoretically only a few months old. The well-ordered wooden houses could have been considered good town buildings elsewhere - after all, in most parts of the era, the living conditions of the common people were not even comparable to such houses, but in fact they were still clearly "transitional buildings", because on both sides of the town avenue you can still see houses undergoing demolition and reconstruction, which have been built with solid foundations and bricks, and are clearly the next generation of houses in the town.

A strange noise came from not far away, and the veiled woman followed the sound, and found that the direction of the sound was a factory with smoke and dust, and she walked over curiously, and pushed open the door openly, stunned by the sight inside.

It used to be the place where the bricks were fired, but in the canopy in the middle of the courtyard were two strange-looking machines, one of which had a distinct magical reaction, it was driven by some kind of magic mechanism, and it used a powerful hinge to drive the other machine connected to it, and the machine was constantly pressing the mixture of sediment as raw materials into regular porcelain bricks, and the two machines were not only amazingly efficient, And apparently there was no need for complicated control: only two civilians in coarse cloth trousers watched from the machine, while many more people were busy loading the rapidly forming bricks onto the carts and pushing them into the rows of furnaces on the other side of the yard, which were neatly arranged and several times larger than ordinary brick kilns.

Those two large magic devices...... What is it?

Magical organs? But what about the mages who control them? Who's pumping them with magic? Who regulates their magical flow? Who controls their speed and start-stop?

Could it be those two ordinary people who don't have any magic reactions on their bodies?!

Speaking of which...... It's strange that this place seems to be sensing magic reactions everywhere, could it be that the whole territory is built on a single magical focus?

The veiled woman frowned, she really wanted to take the two machines apart, but to make such an outrageous move, I was afraid that no matter how clever stealth or psychological suggestion techniques were, she could only shake her head regretfully, exit the courtyard and close the door.

And at this moment, a familiar and energetic voice suddenly came from behind her: "Ah! Which one are you?! ”

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