Yuri moved around a few locations, seemingly checking for something. She used the empty ruin’s land that Lakis led her to yesterday as the base and measured a certain distance from it then checked those places.
There were some places noted down in the ancient words recorded in the document, so she decided to check a few places after seeing that.
And as a result, Yuri successfully discovered another ruin.
“Just one step further from there and we’ll be in the South.”
Lakis, who was quietly following Yuri, said after looking ahead of her.
Yuri seemed to not hear Lakis as she crossed an unseen boundary and stood before a steep cliff.
Beneath the cliff lay a pitch-black swamp.
The place Yuri stood was where the borders of the East, West, and South overlapped, and it was narrowly part of the South’s territory.
So although Lakis was telling the truth, he wasn’t really worried about the South’s reaction, so like before, he just let Yuri do what she wanted.
“Mr. Lakis, look over there.”
Lakis’ gaze followed Yuri’s finger to where she was pointing at. But from where Lakis stood, he couldn’t see what Yuri was trying to show him.
Lakis drew closer till he was behind her. And in doing so, he also stepped out of the West’s land. After taking a few steps, he reached the cliff’s edge where Yuri stood.
He had been here before, but he had never crossed the border because there was only a swamp ahead.
“…!”
But the moment he stood at the edge of the cliff like Yuri did, a familiar sensation ran down Lakis’ neck. It was undoubtedly the same energy as the fragments from the ruins.
The place Yuri was pointing to, was at the bottom of the cliff where they stood.
“Pillars? Don’t tell me that’s…”
Lakis’ brows furrowed.
The thing below the land they were standing on was not a simple rock wall. On a closer look, it seemed to be a cave-like entrance supported by pillars. And the inside of the cave seemed to lead west.
“Let’s go take a look.”
Yuri jumped down before Lakis could even say anything.
The black swamp at the bottom seemed dangerous at first glance but it was easy for them to climb down the rock wall.
Lakis also came down while checking their surroundings. Then he found a small path in the middle of the rock wall that looked man-made. It wasn’t obvious because it retained its natural structure but there were definitely traces of people using it.
Lakis’ eyes narrowed.
* * *
Yuri stepped inside a ruin for the first time. The inside was dark. But there was a device on the wall and when she touched it, a dim light came on.
A few places were damaged but the thing giving off a faint light from the ceiling was obviously an alchemy device.
The view inside the ruin was a little different from the description Lakis gave her and the description in the document. This place was actually similar to the research lab she was originally in.
But the ambiances weren’t exactly the same and when she checked around, she realized that no experiments seemed to have been done here directly.
“Wait.”
Lakis grabbed Yuri’s arms just as they arrived at one of the many paths that appeared a while later.
Yuri followed Lakis and stopped walking too. She could feel an intense and ominous energy permeating the area.
She could also see big and small crystals with a black luster filling up the walls and ceiling. Below were several gems similar to the ones she saw at the Alchemist Tower.
“The ruin’s fragments, huh.”
At Yuri’s words, Lakis’ forehead creased.
“It might be dangerous, don’t touch it for now.”
Yuri agreed with Lakis on that.
“Let’s go to another room. I don’t really want to go in here.”
The two turned away from the area that was creepily filled with ruin fragments and went into a different path.
“The documents must be kept in here.”
The inside of the room smelled like old papers.
Yuri picked up a document from the shelf. It was a journal similar to the one she saw at the Carnot Castle.
While Yuri was looking at it, Lakis glanced back at the door.
“…I’ll go look around the other places for a bit, stay here.”
When Yuri nodded in agreement, Lakis walked out the door.
Yuri flipped through the contents of the journal. It looked like the person in charge of this place in the past had recorded the happening at the time, like it was a diary. There were a few things that stood out in the document.
[Precaution: Do not forget to wear the assigned equipment when collecting the fragments. It is also important to check the condition of the equipment carefully. One of the workers deployed in Area 9 yesterday touched the fragment with their bare skin due to torn equipment and melted immediately with no trace of them left.]
[Any living thing touched by a fragment will lose its original properties, whether they be human, animal, insect, or plant. Over time, the melted mass turned into a solid gem. Sometimes the moths and fireflies flying in the ruin hit a fragment and are turned into gemstones.]
[The gemstones can be used as a new resource. This is an amazing discovery that will be recorded in history.]
[When a gemstone is implanted in a human body, there were some cases where their ability improved, and in some rare cases, they obtained mysterious powers.
In addition, the gemstone can completely transform an item’s utility, so I believe it is comparable to ancient alchemy.]
[Outside, the gemstones obtained from the transformation of living organisms are called the ruin’s fragments but strictly speaking, these two are very separate things and…]
Tak.
Yuri finally finished reading the document and closed it. The floor was littered with papers that Yuri read and discarded.
There was a slight frown on her face.
If the things written here were true, then the ‘ruin’s fragment’ that Yuri knew about might not be the true ruin’s fragment.
So living beings are turned into gemstones when they touch the ruin’s fragment? And when you implant that transformed gemstone into a person, they gain a mysterious ability? Then this meant that the thing absorbed by all mutants, Yuri included, was not the true ruin’s fragment but a gemstone whose biological form was altered by a ruin’s fragment?
Frankly, some parts were difficult to understand with these old documents alone but when her thoughts reached that point, she felt uncomfortable.
Maybe this was something she didn’t know.
Some of the gems absorbed into Yuri’s body may have consisted of humans as well as animals and plants. Maybe that was why her appearance changed after absorbing a gem.
For some reason, the name Selena Crawford suddenly flashed through Yuri’s mind at that moment.
There was clear evidence that Dominic Crawford was, in both great and small ways, connected to the ruin’s fragments. So if Selena Crawford was not unrelated as well…
She was supposedly attacked and killed by heretics but who knew what actually happened.
It might not be a coincidence that Yuri and Selena Crawford were so similar in appearance when they were not related by blood in any way.
Yuri recalled how she looked before she was sold to the research lab. Her appearance had definitely changed a lot.
‘It might be worth looking into this.’
Yuri thought she should pay a visit to the East once she had a chance.
“Ms. Yuri, I don’t think there’s anything else to see, let’s go.”
Lakis returned just then and held out his hand to Yuri.
Yuri threw the document in her hand to the floor and took Lakis’ hand.
“Is there anything you want to take with you?”
“Not really.”
All the information she got was stored in her head, so she didn’t need to take it with her.
“You’re going to destroy this place, aren’t you?”
Yuri felt like she knew what Lakis was thinking so she asked casually and at that question, a faint smile appeared on Lakis’ face.
The two of them walked out of the ruins and climbed back up.
At that moment, Yuri wasn’t sure if it was an imagination, but she felt like she could slightly sense someone’s presence below. But as soon as she turned to look, a thunderous roar rang in her ears.
Boom!
The ruins exploded amazingly, probably thanks to Lakis setting up certain things while he was away.
The traces of old civilization crumbled along with the rock wall and slowly sank into the swap.
Lakis looked relieved at this sight.
And meanwhile:
A certain set of people almost sank into the swamp with the ruins.
“Oh my god, that was close.”
“What the hell! It was fine just now, why did it collapse?”
Genos and Damon were able to protect themselves from the falling rocks thanks to the alchemized protection shields they brought.
“Dammit, I crawled all this way, doing all this hard work for nothing!”
“Maybe it’s designed to explode when outsiders come in?”
The both of them felt suspicious.
They came here at Kalian’s request after Kalian got some clues about the experiments Dominic was doing.
But before they could even find anything useful, the cave suddenly collapsed. So eventually, the two of them had to return to the East without anything to show for it.
However, there were some papers that flew out after the explosion so they decided to recover those as soon as they could reach them.
Yuri didn’t notice them because the intense energy remaining in the ruins was blocking some of her senses. But Lakis, who had already gotten used to it in the past, sensed them and confirmed that it was those two annoying brats from the East that were in the ruins.
So he decided to use this chance and bury them together with the ruins inside the swamp. Sure enough, he deserved to be called the vicious king of villains.
‘They should be dead with this.’
Normally, he would have verified himself, but Yuri was next to him right now. Well, even if they got lucky and survived, he could just deal with them later.
Lakis smiled, feeling very refreshed, and pulled Yuri’s hand.
“Let’s go, Ms. Yuri.”
Yuri stared at the ruins which were buried in the black swamp from afar then she turned around.
There were other things she had to do after this but for now, it was time to go home.
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