Master Of None

Chapter 2737: 2737. Following Rats

The light shone on the walls allowing for some of the rune patterns to be clever to Walker. However, it also lets the faint colors that used to be there also be clearer.

As much as any race in ancient times used pigments from flowers or other sources to cover walls or create something beautiful, time would eat away at the color since it was natural in the first place and everything would return to that decay and growth cycle. So when he noticed some of the paint was still there he was curious to see what he could make out. It was different from other ruins he had seen that were only carved in to the walls or had no remnants of color left within them.

The angel race had been one powerful enough to fight against the vampires and the immortal chasing races. There were three of what he believed to be the most powerful races in the world in ancient times. The elves seemed to have been mysterious and few due to their high elf focus and internal strife. Otherwise, any other race was divided and not even close to being able to work well enough together to be a threat.

Therefore, records of what the other races believed or saw were valuable. Especially the angels since they had the floating cities, a genius design that allowed them to flee from massive monsters or fight the other races wherever they needed to. Not that they were able to maintain it after their own internal strife and the changes in the world in terms of lessening mana density.

”It looks like they used blue paint to follow any rune formations that transferred water mana. The same with red for fire, brown for earth, and a slight green grass color for wind. They tried to use the color and the images over top of the runes to enhance the effects.” That was the theory Walker was building.

”That would make sense though, right?” Su was looking at what Walker had focused on. The slight blue moving like it had once depicted a river. ʼ”If art can also channel mana to some degree, if someone combines runes and art on top of them, then wouldnʼt that make the rune more natural and flow better?” She had heard plenty of the art movement within Genesis since some paintings and sculptures could be used to teach basic styles of swordsmanship.

”You might be right about that. I feel like it was also part of keeping the runes looking like they were part of their beliefs. I would say this was a city that held true to the purity of the main elemental manas and not belief in the other manas of the world.” This was the crux of the angel raceʼs split. The belief between the main elemental manas and the belief behind the other manas like life, space, death, and time. Not to mention mixed manas being a harder argument between them.

”So they could mix different techniques to make more for them to fuel the city. It sounds like they were less advanced in some ways and more advanced in others.” Alcie had begun to see the past angel race as if they had gotten too advanced and forgotten to focus on other things.

To be fair, this train of thought was very true. The angel race in the ancient times had focused on survival and battle. They made these rune carved cities and advanced them for fleeing and attacking when necessary. However, they did not invest their time socially leading them to divides in belief rather than in fact. It caused them to split more and more until they had lost their footing.

Yes the decrease in mana due to the world being cut off from the elemental planes played a very large part in all of this. Yet, it was not the spark of all their issues. The in fighting between the angels would have kept going and could have even been worse if they had not been forced down by the lack of mana. That might have actually saved their race from an internal civil war ending them as a whole in ancient times.

”Watch out for rats.” Midnight stomped down and a small squeal came out. She showed the greasy body of a small rat a moment ago. The black fir was covered in oily grease making Walker worry about the cleanliness of the ruins if these monsters looked like this.

ʼOil fur rat

This rat is a species with dark and earth mana affinity. They prefer to gather the plants that they can find along with scraps of food that they can find within their nests. This causes a rotting build up of oil that they love to live in. It deters pests from getting near them and also makes them immensely hard to capture unless much stronger than them.

They will grow and breed rapidly causing them to become a menace to smaller prey monsters that need to gather food in their territory. This often causes other monsters to be forced out of an area and eventually causes the oil fur rats to lose their own sources of food since they mainly scavenge or gather.

Some have a horrible habit of gathering anything shiny or dense in manas , even the manas they can not use themselves. This is due to their innate desire to gather, which was one reason they were once called greedy rats…ʼ

”If we find more of those we are going to kill them. But they have a decaying dark mana based oil on their bodies so donʼt light them on fire or else we could light their entire nest on fire.” Walker was internally grateful that he had not been subject to this before when they burned up the dragon ticks. It would have caused a lot of issues if they had a ruin fire to deal with. It could have ended the entire exploration and clearing.

Then again, he could have solved it to a degree, it was the other groups he would worry about. All things aside, he was interested in finding a nest and cleaning it. What if they found something taken from control rooms or storages? These ruins were of the angel race who had once been more advanced than others of their time. Meaning they might find some ancient pieces of technology still filled with mana that could teach him a lot.

”We should get rid of whatever pests and monsters we can. Itʼs better than them getting brought back to Genesis by accident or escaping in to other villages nearby. It could become a problem for everyone and everything else.” Suʼs point was clear and Walker looked at Alice who already started humming softly. She knew that the purifying light effect of one of her songs was ideal for this.

Coincidentally the light orbs that Walker had conjured up began to enhance the effects. Alice seemed to have expected this, making Walker smile in surprise. She had understood her songs could influence his ambient magic as long as he was not keeping them in greater check with his light mana manipulation. Now she has added light mana to make her purifying light song even stronger.

With this resonance between his skill and hers, Walker understood the depth that it allowed. Changes to work in tandem with Alice since she might need the outer light mana he could provide. This wasnʼt even touching base on what could happen if he utilized natural mana to enhance the light orbs even more. He hadnʼt even used a huffing skill to improve her purifying song so he didnʼt know what level the purifying light song she could produce would lead to eventually.

It was working on the signs and residues left behind by the roaming oil fur rats. This was ensuring a healthier and safer travel for the researchers later. It also made the air easier to breathe for the four of them right now which was always a good thing.

It also made a few sounds of squealing reach the groupʼs attention. It seemed the small oil fur rats didnʼt like their nests being purified and they were beginning to rush out in panic. Right in front of Su and Midnight who had been able to pinpoint the entrances to their nests.

Swift movements ended the small monsters lives while Walker realized that their nest entrances were not broken areas of the walls. They were small cut outs for water to flow. It had been a system for water to drain out of the city through certain tunnels and passageways during rain. It was a wise building decision and might help him out later when the researchers discovered which floors were full of stagnant water due to the state of the ruins.

However, the real boon was finding several new passageways they could map out now. The small mapping orbs were becoming invaluable right now.

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