Chapter 113 Adventure (Part 2)
First and foremost, the thing I need to do is ensure the safety of our personnel.
Judging from my senses as I occasionally scanned the area, it was indeed as Miyuki had described to me: there were many traps and mechanisms of varying states in this vicinity.
Shooting arrows, throwing stones, or squeezing walls and changing passageways are just the basics. Fire and water are commonplace. I even glimpsed several containers filled with highly corrosive liquids and poisonous gases hidden in the gaps. With just a slight trigger, it would be easy to end up with nothing left behind.
However, this is not the most outrageous thing.
Looking into the distance, behind a moonstone used for illumination, there was a combination of spell traps that could break the connection between the spirit and the body, and then dissolve and dissolve the spirit. The trigger condition was to step into the light.
Wait, who was originally living here? Why are the traps they set up getting more and more insane? Are they trying to kill everyone who wants to get in? Do they have some rare treasure to protect? Don't let yourself get distracted one day and run into seven or eight traps, ending up on a slippery slope and sending yourself to your doom!
unlucky!
While cursing the former resident who set the trap in my mind, I carefully stuffed the container I had taken out of the trap into the crevice.
The materials are more valuable. Anyway, they're unclaimed now that they're in the trap, so why not take them? Who knows, they might come in handy someday.
“Mr. Yumi, your behavior right now seems somewhat unethical.”
Hikari, standing below, looked up at them, seemingly eager to help: "Do you need my help?"
"...What's the point of talking about morality with something that's probably already dead?"
Releasing my fingers, which I had used magic to gather earth and rocks to wedge into the rock crevice, I jumped down from the three-meter-high ceiling. My legs were slightly numb, but I quickly adjusted. I touched her head with my clean hands: "Based on the residual magic on these traps, they were set at least a hundred years ago. Excluding the possibility of someone who is old and has already embarked on the path to eternity, the owner of this cave is probably long dead."
"So, everything that remains here now is indeed ownerless, right?"
Miyuki's tone gradually rose, and she tightened her grip on the hilt of the knife.
I don't understand what she's so excited about. Maybe she's found a place to cultivate that's not easily discovered or disturbed? Or maybe she enjoys stories where it's like a ruthless hero ransacking villagers' homes?
Well, my current task is simply to dismantle most of the traps I can see along the way. It's a bit troublesome and the journey is a bit slower, but it's safer. Hikari and Miyuki aren't the type to disobey orders and run around aimlessly.
After confirming once again that the remaining traps were clearly visible in my perception, I nodded in response to her words and led the way forward: "Considering that the academic community had previously conducted a cleanup operation inside the mountain, these places may have been discovered before, or they may not have been discovered due to the snow accumulation."
"However, since you say that the defensive formations here are not very resistant, and with these untreated traps and mechanisms, I am more inclined to believe that this place has not yet been discovered."
"There must be many precious things here, right?"
Hikari's cheerful voice rang out behind her, accompanied by tapping footsteps: "It feels like an adventure in a story, Mr. Yumi! I wonder if there's any treasure!"
I chuckled softly and stepped closer to the next trap: "Maybe."
At least for me, the materials I salvaged from these traps alone were a considerable gain.
It felt like a massive shopping spree where you didn't even have to pay an entrance fee; you can't usually get so many rare and precious items like that.
Steel scissors, enchanted gems, the horn of a mythical beast, and scattered miscellaneous items, along with a few remaining fragments of magic stone... But these are not the most important things. The most precious thing I can obtain from these traps scattered throughout the area is actually the traps themselves.
"It is reasonable to suspect that the predecessor who opened this cave was an old mage who had studied arrays and traps extensively, and who also had a deep understanding of combining and using free magical elements."
I showed the two people behind me the traces left after removing the trap. The unusually neat patterns remained in the empty spaces. Even though the core that provided power was missing, it still retained a kind of beauty that seemed to have been forged through countless trials.
"The main purpose of this trap is to spray high-temperature flames when intruders pass through, thereby eliminating or forcing them back. The core component is a feather that I haven't been able to confirm yet. If the trap fails to trigger, then regardless of whether the intruder chooses to move forward or backward, it will attract a new wave of attacks, such as ice seals and wind blades."
"But Mr. Yumi, you didn't seem to take out anything that could create those two attacks just now?" Hikari asked, looking very closely.
But this is not the place to be wary of: "I just checked, and the locations where those two types of traps were placed are all empty. The core of the ice seal melted due to the failure of insulation, and the wind blade was caused by the crystal that had been storing the spells weakening over a long period of time, eventually breaking due to the constant pressure from inside and causing a leak."
I pointed to a wall across the way that was carved in a tattered and broken manner, as if it had been repeatedly and mercilessly slashed by a sword saint: "You should all have noticed this stone wall, right? This is the trace left behind when the crystal storing the spell broke and leaked out instantly."
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