Chapter 439: Chapter 439

"Yes, and we suspect there's another way in, because the trail of the man codenamed Mr. Dagger also went cold in that same area. But this all needs further investigation. Exploring ancient ruins requires extreme caution."

Jenkins had assumed the matter wouldn't be resolved before he left Bel Diran, since he was scheduled to take the train back the following morning. But that afternoon, as he was strolling through the garden with Chocolate, Mr. Gilbert came hurrying over, waving from across the flowerbeds:

"Mr. Williams, we've discovered how to enter the treasury and have already conducted an initial safety evaluation. Would you like to join the operation? We're about to depart."

He nodded without the slightest hesitation. The chance to participate in a large-scale Enchanter operation was an incredibly rare experience.

Dozens of carriages departed from the diocesan headquarters, taking a route along the city's outskirts before arriving at their destination. It was an unremarkable little valley, one that revealed no anomalies even to abilities like the 'Treasure Sense' spell.

It was all thanks to the group from the mansion; otherwise, the Church never would have found this place.

The downward entrance had already been cleared. An opening, reinforced with stone bricks, was set into the valley wall. A staircase descended endlessly, its sides lit by candles and oil lamps.

After a vertical descent of at least three kilometers, the rough-hewn walls suddenly gave way to a section of far more ancient brickwork.

Every five stairs, a lamp of solid gold was set into the wall. According to Mr. Gilbert, the fuel inside was precious mermaid oil, capable of burning for three hundred years without going out.

Jenkins whispered, but his voice still echoed through the hollow passage:

"It's not actually rendered from the fat of sentient creatures, is it?"

"No, no. You misunderstand. The name simply means the fuel is unique to the mermaid race, not the cruel and disgusting substance from village folklore."

This corridor bore no human footprints or signs of a struggle, which meant the party from the mansion and the Scribes had not entered this way.

Jenkins, still part of the support personnel, followed at the rear of the column. Along the way, he could see the exposed mechanisms of traps that had already been disarmed.

Aside from specially numbered artifacts, no ritual or item retains its supernatural power indefinitely. This meant that in ruins from past eras, the greatest challenges were often the physical traps and contraptions built by ancient artisans.

While these might have been a serious problem for ordinary people, for a large team of Enchanters, they were merely a time-consuming inconvenience.

When his pocket watch read nearly three in the afternoon, the long passage finally came to an end.

The passage opened into a vast subterranean chamber, perfectly circular in shape. Eighteen great bronze doors were set at even intervals into the hall's walls. The door from which Jenkins and the others had emerged bore a carving of a soaring phoenix.

The team that had arrived just ahead of them had already discovered traces left by the missing Scribes, even finding a few faint bloodstains on the floor.

To prevent a repeat of the incident at the mansion, this operation utilized the Extraordinary item B-01-05-8382, the Whispering Conch, to maintain constant contact with the surface.

After a brief report on the situation, the Church immediately organized a team to search its archives. Jenkins could almost picture it: hundreds of venerable, white-haired scholars rummaging through texts together under the dome of a vast library.

Chocolate had shown no interest in the long passage, but upon entering the great hall, the cat grew visibly excited.

The floor of the hall was paved with the same square stone slabs, but the walls were hewn from solid white marble. He could only imagine what it must have cost to build such a place.

"Perhaps a ruin already existed here," he thought, "and the bandit Kremen had simply discovered and occupied it."

With that thought in mind, and seeing he had no immediate duties, he scooped Chocolate up. Man and cat surveyed their surroundings together.

The ceiling sloped down from a central point, a painted stone canvas depicting a great serpent devouring its own tail. It was an Ouroboros, a fairly common symbol in the occult.

Yet there was something strange about the painting. The great serpent was merely outlined, with no color, scales, or even eyes. This stood in stark contrast to the exquisite detail of the rest of the mural, making it strikingly odd.

The surrounding walls were carved with simple ancient text, but upon closer inspection, the strokes forming the letters looked disturbingly like individual bones. Once he realized this, an inexplicable sliver of fear crept into Jenkins's heart.

The eighteen bronze doors arranged around the circular hall each bore a different symbol. In addition to the phoenix on their own door, there was a bleeding dagger, a resurrection cross, a faceless man, a shining crown, and other figures rich with occult symbolism.

He tried using his Eye of Reality to see what lay behind the other doors, but saw nothing. It most likely meant that a long passage lay beyond each one.

He also completely failed to notice that Chocolate's gaze was different. The cat was staring intently at one of the doors Jenkins had just observed. It glanced up at him, wearing the exact same expression it got when it snuck into the kitchen to pilfer the desserts Jenkins had drawn into existence. Get full chapters from NoveI~Fire.net

Deciphering the text on the walls in a short amount of time was impossible, and rashly choosing a door to enter was out of the question.

The missing Scribes had left behind a few signs, pointing to three possible doors, but no one dared to gamble on one-in-three odds.

Just as everyone was quietly waiting for word from the surface, the door bearing the image of a fire-breathing dragon silently swung open a crack.

A man, charred black from head to toe, tumbled out from the doorway, followed by a torrent of crimson flames that erupted from the gap.

Golden, book-shaped shields materialized one after another to block the doorway, but some flames still licked through, forcing the group to retreat toward the far side of the circular hall.

"There's an ancient dragon in there! A true, pureblood dragon!"

The man thrashed and wailed on the ground until three people managed to restrain him, finally giving Jenkins a chance to administer treatment.