Fwoosh.
After four consecutive teleportations, Abel and Reina arrived in the vicinity of Cecily. However, due to the consecutive use of high-level magic, Abel"s face didn"t look too good.
"Dammit! I run out of mana way too quickly."
Beads of cold perspiration trickled down his face and neck. This was a side effect of consuming too much mana and only about a tenth of his mana remained.
Actually, for his level, Abel didn"t lack mana at all. It was just that the skills in his possession were significantly higher tiered than what mages of an equal level would normally use..
He had looked for many ways to solve this, but the most efficient way was still manual labor.
Oh, there was one other method that was insanely quick – Schrodinger"s prison. The quant.i.ty of mana he extracted from Cain"s soul was considerable. If he could gather about 100 souls, he would never have to worry about running out of mana ever again. However, the problem was that there were no black magicians located conveniently in sight.
"Haa. Let"s just put in more effort. Effort is the way to proceed!"
Right now, the only solution was hard work.
"Wow~ there"s a lot of people!"
Reina, who was admiring the scenery, exclaimed out loud.
Ruin excavation usually commenced when a tool used in ancient rituals was discovered in the area. Thus, the Kreuz Empire had designated the town of Cecily as an archaeological site and had temporarily moved anyone that lived in Cecily to another town.
There were numerous figures moving around busily, ranging from construction workers to mages and archaeologists. From the portions that protruded above the surface, this area seemed to house an enormous temple underground.
The excavation team seemed to be proceeding very slowly and taking the utmost care with their work, while approximating and demarcating the general outline of the temple.
There was a white-haired old gentleman who was giving out orders. He matched the features of Kyle"s archaeologist friend. Abel approached and greeted him first.
"h.e.l.lo, my name is Abel. I"m here to meet you as per Kyle"s introduction."
"Oh, you are that Abel. The fella researching the book of Thrandriel! Nice to meet you. I"m Hollander."
When Abel greeted him, Hollander put two and two together, extending his hand for a greeting.
Abel grabbed his hand and shook it with vigor.
Hollander was born in the Hela Empire. However, as an authority in archaeology, he was invited to the Kreuz Empire to work as the manager in charge of this excavation site.
"The weather is cold, let"s talk inside."
Hollander led Abel and Reina to a building not too far away. This was originally used as the city hall, but it currently served as the headquarters for the excavation project.
"I"m here to ask about the location of Yggdrasil."
After sipping the tea Hollander poured for them, Abel spoke up first.
"Haha, everyone else said that that book was full of falsehoods. But I knew it was real! Yggdrasil was the location of the world tree Ariana before the apocalypse. Right now, it should be somewhere within the confines of Nufer, north-west of the Kreuz Empire. However there seems to be nothing there. I"ve already searched the place, but I didn"t find so much as a single clue."
"Is that so…."
"If you really wish to go, I won"t tell you to do otherwise. But the sun has set for today, so at least stay the night here."
"Okay. But may I have a look around the excavation site?"
Abel asked for permission to look around from Hollander out of curiosity.
"Haha, why yes of course. Anyway, Kyle seemed to laugh a lot while talking about you. It"s rare to see him like that ever since she died."
"Are you referring to Ms Ariella Grace? I"m unsure about the details. Could you tell me about it?"
Abel was really curious as to what happened to Kyle and his lover. No one else had talked about it, even though they all seemed to know a thing or two about it.
"Hmm… I could tell you, but it would be for the best if you hear it from the person himself."
He failed this time as well. He might as well ask a detective agency at this rate.
Kyle became teary eyed the moment anyone mentioned anything about Ariella. He didn"t dare press any further. All he found out from him was her full name.
Ariella Grace, Kyle"s first love. She was a mysterious figure that wasn"t recorded anywhere.
After having a light dinner with Reina, Abel left the building to have a look around the excavation site. Reina took a shower in the meantime.
Even though it was dark out, the torches placed around the site were brightly lit. Hollander was pa.s.sionately bellowing out instructions to various teams in spite of the late hours.
"They are being too careful."
Everyone was practically using teaspoons to dig out the sand. At that rate, it would probably take more than a year.
"Let"s probe the s.p.a.ce around here."
Abel had recovered a certain amount of his mana after eating dinner and having some rest. He decided to use an ancient s.p.a.ce probing magic.
"…Area detection."
White mana scattered into the surroundings from Abel"s heart. He closed his eyes and focused on the movements of mana. He began visualizing the structures in his surroundings, paying attention to the mana that seeped into the ground and clung to the buried structure.
"That"s huge!"
What he ended up sensing was a gigantic building. It seemed to be a temple of sorts, and remnants of tools were scattered all around the floor. All of this had been buried underground.
"Huh?"
But just then, Abel sensed something peculiar. There was a mysterious s.p.a.ce beneath the altar.
"There"s some fragment and… a scroll?"
He was unable to tell whether it was made of tree bark, paper or whatnot, but there was a broken fragment of something and a scroll inside the s.p.a.ce sealed within the altar. It was completely isolated, and there weren"t any traces of dirt or water.
"Let"s check!"
Abel gathered his mana once more, with his eyes still closed.
"…s.p.a.ce switch!"
s.p.a.ce switch, as its name implied, literally swapped two identical sets of s.p.a.ces. If Backstab"s concept was to replace connections between s.p.a.ces via the means of a discrete portal, the concept of s.p.a.ce switch was to replace the s.p.a.ce itself. Naturally, the contents inside would be swapped out as well.
Abel set the spatial coordinates to match the s.p.a.ce inside the altar. Then, he switched the two around.
Tumble.
After s.p.a.ce changed, a metal fragment and a sheepskin scroll tumbled fell on the ground. Abel picked up the dropped items and checked.
"This seems to be a fragment of a key or something, while this…."
Abel carefully opened the scroll. As this was of ancient origin, he could hear cracks from the sheepskin as he unraveled it.
…There were illegible ancient runes everywhere.
"I should hand this to old man Holla… whoa!"
Rumble.
The ground suddenly started shaking.
"Watch out!"
At the same time, he could hear urgent voices.
Abel heard the voices as well, and rushed forward after putting the items in his pocket.
There was a huge cave-in when he arrived. This happened as the supporting earth became weak due to all the excavation. Fortunately, there were no human casualties.
"Everyone, leave the site right now! There might be another cave-in later!"
Hollander shouted urgently. Although the careful excavation process had to do with not damaging the ruins, it was more so for the safety of the workers.
"May I have a go at it? It will be much easier if I just use magic. It"s also safer for the workers as well."
Abel, who saw the situation at hand, suggested to Hollander.
"Hooo, can you do that? I"ll be thankful if you do."
There were mages in the excavation team as well. However, accredited mages were considered top-tier personnel. There weren"t many who had enough time to waste on an excavation. As such, any mages present were simply trainees of the 3rd circle. All they could do was to support the workers with simple magic like creating light.
"Everyone, get back from the ruins!"
Abel had all the workers back away from the ruins as he prepared to use magic.
He already knew the structure of the temple. As the magic he was going to use was of a big scale, he had to rely on Casio which hung around his neck.
Tap tap tap.
After the calculations were over, Abel started mobilizing all of the mana in his heart. He squeezed out every last drop.
"…s.p.a.ce switch!"
Even with the help of Casio, Abel had used 10 whole seconds to cast the spell.
Rumble.
The ground started caving in at a rapid rate as pebbles and dirt were swallowed by the ruins.
"Wh, what is that!"
"Oh my G.o.d!"
"Holy moly!"
The spectators all doubted their eyes! Until now, they only saw the roof of the temple, but one seemingly simple spell had dug out more than half of it.
"I wanted to dig out the ground as well, but there are the relics……."
It was practically impossible to account for all the relics on the floor.
"My word! You"re Kyle"s disciple, alright!"
Hollander flashed a thumbs up after seeing Abel finish months of work in a flash.
"Haha, don"t mention it! Instead, you must translate the 3rd volume of the Book of Thrandriel if I ever find it."
He had consumed all of his mana in one go. He couldn"t do this for free.
"Gladly! Looks like I"ll be returning to Hela early thanks to you."
It would have been around 6 months of work. Hollander couldn"t stop smiling.
The next day, Abel and Reina departed right after eating breakfast. Hollander saw them off.
"Here, take this. I put in some things to eat on the way. Don"t feel too down even if you don"t find anything there. Also, tell Kyle I said hi whenever you return to Northanc."
"Thank you, I"ll come back once I get my hands on the book."
Abel said as he put the package containing food into his magic pouch.
Yesterday night, Abel had run out of mana due to overuse of magic. Although he had a good night"s sleep and ate breakfast, he would definitely collapse if he teleported all the way there.
As such, Reina suggested walking to a large city nearby.
"Let"s go to Nufer using a warp center. I think we"ll reach it in about a day of walking."
"A day…."
That was too long. Abel didn"t exercise usually, and used magic to move around even for short distances. Making him walk for a full day was no different from torture.
"I think I will have recovered to full mana in about half a day. Why don"t we teleport…."
"No! What if you collapse?"
Reina interrupted Abel"s words, eyes seemingly resolute. If he insisted on using magic, he might get beaten to death.
"Okay…."
Although he could use it twice a day, he decided to walk seeing the worry in Reina"s eyes.
After around 3 hours, Abel sat on the ground and ma.s.saged his aching legs.
"Ah! Forget it! I can"t walk anymore. Let"s rest for a little…."
"There"s still a lot to go though!"
"Nope, I"d rather die than walk."
"…Fine, let"s rest for 5 minutes."
Reina sat on the rock next to Abel.
"You know what… I"m going to learn horse riding as soon as I go back."
He had got his driver"s license as soon as he finished his college exams on earth, but he had forgotten to learn to ride a horse over here. They said that a driver"s license would always come in handy, and that was d.a.m.n right.
"Fine! I"ll teach you. We would have arrived already if Cecily had any horses… what a pity."
As the people living here migrated, they brought along the horses as well. The workers seemed to have sprouted from nowhere as there were no horses around.
"Aah~ That"s much better…?"
Abel"s expression suddenly turned dark.
Sniff.
Abel took a sniff of the air around them. Eventually, his eyebrows creased together as though he had smelled something disgusting.
"Don"t you smell something rotting?"
"Something rotting?"
Sniff sniff
No matter how much she sniffed about, the only thing Reina detected was Abel"s stinky feet.
Chapter end
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