As Zatiel was assessing the defense of the laboratory and their subunits, he came across a problem. His eye of life and creation allowed him to see the energies that go through these 'houses', but knowing how something is powered up does not mean that you know how to safely deactivate it.
Besides the defenses were reinforced with runes so the difficulty was even higher.
Runes can be used for a myriad of things and inscribing them for a safety formation for a laboratory is pretty basic, but the ones in this place were fairly high leveled so to deactivate them will be very difficult.
Lucky for him the place has been abandoned for hundreds of years and the energy that once filled these runes barely was enough to make them work.
Zatiel stood a long time seeing the energy channels of the formations and looking for a way to deactivate them.
'Haa, everything was so simple back then,' Zatiel could not help but sigh when he remembered his past life when he was weak.
He was too busy keeping himself alive and slaughtering his path to power and when he became strong enough, he just used his immense power to break any obstacle in his way and rarely did this sort of work.
So although he is an incredible runemaster, his abilities for this type of thing were regular at best, but still, he had something that could help him and that is his knowledge.
'My energy and consciousness should be more than enough to withstand the next level of memories, I will prefer to do it in a safe place but I guess this place is as good as any. A. I Chip, upload my memories.'
[Bip... The host meets the condition for the safe upload of memories.
Beginning upload]
Zatiel was prepared and he had advanced tremendously since the first upload, so he was able to withstand it without a problem. But due to the massive amount of information, he was severely disoriented and he could not focus on anything.
Ezequiel and Sophia saw the odd behavior of Zatiel and were going to cheek on him. But just as they got closer, golden flames blasted out covering his body and creating a sort of cocoon around him.
Both of them retreated immediately. They were able to feel that unlike when they were in the dome, the flames now considered them enemies and the power in it was enough to harm them severely.
Zatiel was able to realize that something was happening but the upload was in progress and he could not do much so he just waited.
It was not until the memories upload was completed that he was able to see what was occurring.
Sophia and Ezequiel were 10 meters away looking at him with concerned expressions and the golden flames were covering him and burning with such a power that the ground on his feet was melting.
'This flames keep bringing surprises,' Zatiel could feel complete control over the flames and can use them however he wants. But when he was defenseless, they acted on their own.
He was able to feel something from the small sun in his heart, it was too basic to be called a concrete thought, but if he had to describe it, it was like a small child that wants to protect his father.
'It has some level of sentience, this could be troublesome,' Zatiel eyes turn cold and he starts to concentrate all the power of his Primal Chaotic Consciousness inside the sun in his heart ready to release all the power in it and destroy any type of consciousness.
Allowing someone else to inhabit inside him was not a pleasing feeling but in the end, he did not act. Obliterating the consciousness inside the sun could affect the abilities of the flame. Besides, it was obvious that it acted thinking that it was protecting him. Of course, he will put safety measures in case of anything.
Being cautious was always a good idea.
Zatiel deactivated the flames and saw how Sophia and Ezequiel were looking in his direction but didn't come to him. It didn't take him long to figure out what was happening to them and when he did, he shook his head and smiled.
"Come on, don't look at me like that, they act it on their own. It was not like I think you two would hurt me."
"Really?"
Sophia's expression relaxed greatly and a beautiful smile appeared on her face.
As for Ezequiel although he didn't show it, he also calmed down.
"If I didn't trust you two, you would have been dead the moment you find out about any of my secrets. Now sit down and stop disturbing me. I have to break these defenses and get you bloodlines."
Zatiel did not bother with them anymore and went to the house with the most damaged defensive protocol.
Although Zatiel's words were harsh, it didn't upset any of the two.
With the time they have been with him, they know that although he shows genuine concern and affection to the two, he is a ruthless person for whom the rest of the world are just pawns and pieces in a chessboard that can be used and unless you show your worth, that is the only way he would ever see you.
There are several ways to break magical defenses. Zatiel had the chip, his third eye, and his mastery in runes so he chose to sever the links that were more weakened in the energy paths and alter the runes that serve as the core of the defensive formation.
It didn't take long for the formation to be broken. Zatiel went through the door and used his consciousness to explore it inside. The place was full of shelves with crystal and books of different sizes.
This place was the library of the ancient Magus, any other person would have been excited by the possibility that this represented, but to Zatiel, the knowledge that this person could have accumulated was not truly tempting.
Still, he would not undervalue the work of any Magus, even if they were weaker than him in his previous life.
After all, Magi has a reputation of always searching for diverse and obscure knowledge and although the amount of information he was able to collect with his power and the chip was immense, he was not so narcissistic to think that he knows more than everyone weaker than him.
Due to the passage of time, only a few of the crystals still had information on them and most of the books were damaged with only some pieces remaining.
Before, he would have to go from one on one to recompile the information, but now he only used his consciousness and all the information in those books and crystals was at his disposal. After commanding the chip to save everything, he went for the next house.
The process was the same and before long the defensive formation was broken and he was able to see the inside.
This one was used to save the ingredient for experimentation, there were plants and liquids of different colors and shapes. Most of them were in a very bad state and would not be useful. But when Zatiel's consciousness arrives at a corner of the house, his expression changes.
Zatiel flashed and arrived in front of a box with 4 gems the size of a chicken egg that looked like they had a nebula inside.
'Awesome! These are mirage crystals and are in perfect condition. With this, my time in this world will become much more simple.'
Zatiel was smiling and his excitement was obvious.
Mirage crystal is a type of gem that has space properties and is formed when the world is in its initial stage so the only way to get them for Magi was to take them from other worlds.
They are incredibly precious and they are used as the main material from things as simple as a space sack to plane portals needed to connect different worlds to transport troops and materials. It was not wrong to say that there wasn't anyone in the Magi World that wouldn't want to have them.
The ones he found here were too small to be of much use in the fabrication of equipment and much less in a portal, but to Zatiel they were more than enough because, in the second level of memories, the perfect way of using it was mentioned.
Zatiel was excited and after checking the house again and making sure that he didn't miss anything he went to the next one. Although he knew that obtaining something so precious again was difficult, he still was hopeful.
But the next ones were a disappointment; he found broken energy pools, a meditation facility, and some other miscellaneous buildings that would not be of use to him.
Finally, there were only three houses left. They were the central chamber and the ones at the right and left of it.
Zatiel went for the left one and when he entered it, it turned out to be the place where the magical equipment was stored. But the place was almost empty, if it was not for some pieces being left, he wouldn't know what the purpose of this place was.
'So the broken equipment that was at the gates came from here.'
He didn't take long to figure out that someone was able to access this place and tried to escape with the equipment only to die. As for how it happened, to Zatiel it didn't make a difference.
What worried him was that since this place was almost empty, the fate of the room where the bloodlines were stored could be similar.
Zatiel headed to the house on the right, and as he assessed it, he realized that this one was different. The level of security was way higher, but still, he was able to pass it, although it took a lot more time.
This was the place where the bloodlines were kept and it was a mess, but luckily, his worst concern didn't happen. The place was divided into two sections. The front one was almost empty with only some broken vials left, but in the rear, there were containers covered in inscriptions and he was able to feel a high amount of energy inside them.
Zatiel went to them and started to open every single one.
The defensive formation of the containers was similar to the ones this house had but smaller, so it didn't take long for him to break them open.
Inside every single one of them was a vial with a great amount of blood, due to the long-time they have been stored, the blood should have been degraded but the containers can gather the energy in their surroundings to keep the bloodlines in prime condition, enhancing their purity.
Finding the race to the one it belongs was very difficult by just seeing their blood with naked eyes, but Zatiel knowledge about bloodline was very deep and with the help of the chip, it didn't take long for him to identify them.
After assessing them, he put all but two of the vials in his ring.
'These are excellent for them, Titan and Styx, truly powerful bloodlines,' Zatiel smiled with satisfaction as he saw those vials.
