Death… And Me

Chapter 4451: Other Ruins

He brought the tablet over to the array, carefully comparing its shape to the various sections carved into the ancient runes. ”I’m sure I’ve seen something around... here!”

It didn’t take long before he found a recessed slot near one edge of the array. After placing the tablet next to it and comparing the dimensions, he was certain it fit perfectly.

”Are you actually going to test it?” Celis asked.

Rean studied the array once more before shaking his head. ”I still can’t understand these runes, but I know a Teleport Array when I see one. The problem is that I have no idea how to activate it, where it leads, or even if the destination still exists.”

”Then give up,” Roan said, already losing interest in the array. ”We’re not taking that kind of risk for no reason. We came here to hunt Godly Predators for cultivation, not gamble our lives on an unknown teleport.”

Celis nodded in agreement. ”Open the other golden box instead. If it contains another twenty or so Godly Pearls, we’ll have collected all the Godly Predator Crystal equivalents we need.”

Lukay sided with them as well. ”They have a point. Even if this array is still functional, there’s no telling what condition the destination is in. I don’t know much about arrays, but I do know that if either side of a Teleport Array is damaged during the transfer, it can kill everyone using it... or scatter them somewhere completely random in the Celestial Plane.”

”True...” Rean nodded in resignation before storing the tablet back into his Spatial Ring. ”I’ll keep it for now. Once we return, I’ll hand it over to the Godly Subjugation Guild and let them decide what to do with it.”

With that settled, Rean moved to the second golden spatial storage box. The locking mechanism was almost identical to the first one, so after repeating the same careful process of corroding and bypassing the ancient circuitry, the box opened without incident.

Their expectations proved to be correct. This Spatial Storage also contained Godly Pearls, although not nearly as many as the first one.

”There are eleven,” Rean counted after a quick inspection.

Celis let out a disappointed sigh. ”So close, but not enough. We’ll still need to hunt a few more Godly Predators.”

Lukay, on the other hand, looked perfectly satisfied. ”I’m already amazed there were any at all. The reports I’ve read almost never mentioned discoveries anywhere near this valuable.”

Roan wasn’t nearly as surprised.

”You already explained why,” he replied. ”No one has ever explored the uncharted regions this deeply. Any ruins we discover here are almost guaranteed to be untouched. If this fortress still preserved resources like these, there’s a good chance other ruins around here do as well.”

He looked toward the distant entrance of the vault.

”Since this was a fortress, there might have been settlements or even another city nearby. We can search for them while looking for the remaining Godly Predators.”

”That’s true,” Lukay agreed. ”The civilizations that built places like these rarely had only a single structure.”

Having finished their search of the hidden vault, the group left the fortress. Before departing, they carefully covered the entrance leading to the Teleport Array once more. There was no guarantee someone else would ever find it, but there was no reason to leave such a discovery exposed either.

After dealing with two more Godly Spawns that had wandered into the fortress after sensing their presence, Rean took out the airplane. Everyone boarded, and the aircraft soon rose into the sky.

Once they were airborne, Rean inserted another Godly Beast Crystal into the airplane’s energy slot, activating the Godly Pressure Disguise Array.

He didn’t truly need to use it yet. However, after remaining in one place for so long and fighting several Godly Creatures, their presence had become increasingly noticeable throughout the surrounding territory. Activating the disguise again would help erase their trail before they continued exploring.

A full day passed in the blink of an eye without a single Godly Predator appearing on the radar. Nor did they find any traces of another settlement, despite charting a large area surrounding the ancient fortress.

The search continued for another two days. Just as everyone was beginning to think this region contained nothing else of interest, Kentucky suddenly leaned forward in his seat.

”Hey! I think we found it!”

The airplane continued flying toward the horizon, and before long, everyone could make out the remains of an enormous city wall in the distance.

Time had not been kind to it.

Large sections had collapsed long ago, while thick vines and towering trees had claimed what remained. In several places, enormous breaches could still be seen, making it obvious that the wall hadn’t simply decayed with time. It had been violently destroyed during some ancient battle.

Flying beyond the broken defenses, the true scale of the ruins finally revealed itself.

The remains of countless buildings stretched as far as the eye could see.

This had undoubtedly once been a massive city.

”It looks quite different from the ruins we explored with Harksha,” Rean commented as he observed the landscape below.

”That’s only natural,” Lukay explained. ”Those ruins were in southern Besgol, while these are deep in the northwest. The distance between them is enormous. Besides, the ruins you found back then were still partially active. Discoveries like that are incredibly rare. Ruins like this...” He gestured toward the abandoned city below. ”...completely dead and reclaimed by nature, are what we usually expect to find.”

Roan turned to him.

”Anywhere in particular we should start?”

Lukay thought for a moment, recalling his previous expeditions.

”Not really. The center of the city is usually the best place to begin. If anything valuable survived, that’s where we’re most likely to find it. We just need to be patient. Exploring ruins of this size could easily take several days... perhaps even longer if this city was especially important in the past.”

Rean nodded and guided the airplane toward what they believed to be the city’s central district.

The estimate regarding the city’s size proved to be no exaggeration.

Even flying at the airplane’s considerable speed, it still took nearly fifteen minutes before they finally reached the central area. The sheer distance alone was enough to show how enormous this civilization must have been.

Compared to the outer districts, the buildings here were significantly larger. Towering facilities, enormous complexes, and what appeared to have once been important public structures filled the landscape. Every single one had long since fallen into ruin, their walls broken apart and their interiors consumed by vegetation.

Fortunately, unlike many of the structures inside the fortress, very few buildings here were constructed from materials that blocked detection methods.

That allowed Rean to fully utilize the airplane’s three-dimensional monitoring system as they searched for anything unusual hidden beneath the debris.

Then, the airplane suddenly stopped.

It wasn’t because they had found a hidden vault.

A new Godly Pressure Reading had appeared on the radar.

”Wait...” Rean narrowed his eyes while studying the display. ”There are two readings.”

”Two?” Lukay immediately frowned.

That had never happened before.

Every Godly Predator they had encountered so far had acted alone, each serving as the lead of its own territory. Although territories occasionally bordered one another, Godly Predators of different races normally avoided cooperating.

Yet the two readings displayed on the radar were moving side by side.

And they were heading directly toward the airplane.

”No reason to take unnecessary risks,” Rean said without hesitation.

He inserted another Godly Beast Crystal into the airplane’s slot, refreshing the Godly Pressure Disguise Array before immediately turning the aircraft away from the approaching creatures.

”That’s the right decision,” Lukay agreed. He certainly wanted to continue searching the ruins, but no treasure was worth challenging two Godly Predators at once.

”Hm?”

Even after changing direction, the two Godly Pressure Readings continued pursuing them.

Then another signal appeared.

It was approaching from the opposite direction.

”Three of them?”

Rean immediately altered the airplane’s course again, avoiding what looked like an attempt to trap them between both groups.

Yet before the maneuver was even complete, another Godly Pressure Reading suddenly appeared directly along their new escape route.

”This...”

Rean’s expression darkened.

At this point, anyone could understand what was happening.

They hadn’t stumbled across these Godly Predators by chance.

They had walked straight into an ambush.

Things didn’t end there. Before they even sighted those Godly Predators coming in their direction, another reading appeared... and it was right where they were!

How did they not see this one? The Godly Pressure of that reading was several times more concentrated, so it made no sense for it to appear so late.

But then, Rean understood. ”Shit! Underground!”