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Deep inside the cathedral, Mira raised her hand with the glyphs and the door opened. Walking down a long corridor she finally reached the Ancient Underground City’s fifth floor.
「This is another tricky one…」
Mira was currently in the center of a cliff in the northern edge of the fifth floor. She grimaced slightly as she looked out from there.
The fifth floor was completely different from the fourth. All Mira could see were innumerable towers, at least a thousand of them. Switching her vantage point a little, she could see some of them stretching all the way to the ceiling of the floor, as if columns supporting it. Somehow there was an ominous and heavy feeling to it all. The vast space between the floor’s ground and ceiling was the stuff of legends.
On top of that, most of the monsters that spawned there were skeletons, which increased the eerie feeling of the floor.
A long set of stairs seemed to go down endlessly from the entrance where Mira stood. Usually the floor was cleared by going down the stairs, but Mira was obviously going to do things her way.
「I’ll be counting on you again.」
Climbing on Pegasus, Mira flew into the fifth floor. She was heading to a slightly thinner tower to the northwest.
She looked down as she flew, seeing that the ground was so far away that it looked shrouded in darkness, while the ceiling was white. The countless towers also had bridges connecting one to another, looking almost like a spider’s nest, which Pegasus had to slow down around thirty percent to properly evade. While Pegasus had high maneuverability, he still had to be careful to not shake Mira off by accident.
Mira traveled like that for around half an hour. Once she was at the destination tower, she sent Pegasus away momentarily, and just like the day before, summoned two Dark Knights.
(I really wish there was an unlockable shortcut after clearing it one time…)
Mira made her dissatisfaction felt as she walked into the tower.
The Ancient Underground City’s fifth floor worked just like every floor before it; she needed to gather glyphs to open a door to the next floor. That included navigating mazes inside towers, which also made Pegasus’ speed less efficient.
There were three glyphs in total. She had to go inside towers in the northwest, northeast and south, which had all had a certain bridge leading to a separate tower which housed the crystal ball with the glyphs.
While those separate towers had multiple entrances, only one led to the room with the crystal ball. Said bridges were also tubular, meaning it was impossible to go into them from outside the towers and save time. Some people had tried to open holes into the bridges and towers, but the bridges and towers leading to crystal balls could not be damaged no matter what they tried.
In other words, Mira had no choice but to go through the intended route. She started working on that, already hoping that she would finish before it was too late at night.
There were ethereal-looking lights inside the towers, so it was not extremely dark. But there were hardly any windows, and the corridors were around three meters wide, creating a strong claustrophobic feeling. Skeletons would often ambush corners too, making it a rather annoying dungeon.
『Say, Spirit King. Why are the tower’s walls indestructible?』
『It might look like they’re built out of stone, but this material is actually an alloy lost to time. I believe it was called Argolest alloy.』
While the Dark Knights defeated all the skeletons, Mira picked up the Magic Stones and sparked up a conversation with the Spirit King to kill time.
『Oh, interesting. So that’s its name.』
Her casual question had gotten a proper reply. The more she thought about it, she realized just how incredible her current situation was, even if the Spirit King did not have the answers for everything. For instance, he did not know anything of use when it came to what the remaining Wisemen were doing.
『Do you know when this Ancient Underground City was built?』
『I don’t know exactly when, but I know that its existence was mentioned in this continent even in the age of the gods, so it is considerably old.』
『It was already built then, huh. Ancient technology must have been incredible considering it’s still standing today.』
The age of the gods referred to an extremely ancient epoch. Mira looked at the strange lights that still illuminated the corridors to this day, giving a somewhat aloof answer.
Mira continued asking questions, but some of the replies were rather vague. Either they were things the Spirit King chose to keep secret, or he did not know for sure either. Still, it was mostly just miscellaneous knowledge and fun facts. Talking about such trivial things could be rather fun though, and so time went flying and Mira found herself in the room with the crystal ball.
「Hmm, that took two hours and some minutes.」
Mira checked the current time as she received the first glyph. It was still a bit earlier than 3pm. She decided to give up on the idea of finishing by dusk as she stepped on the magic circle in a corner of the room.
Getting there had been a pain, but going back out was easy. The magic circle started glowing under her feet, and after a short moment Mira found herself back at the entrance of the initial tower.
『By the way, Spirit King. Do you know how these teleporting magic circles work?』
Mira felt like being able to use such magic would be incredibly useful. She knew that, but she also did not really expect a detailed answer. The Spirit King had never learned such specific spells and knowledge.
But the answer was actually surprising. He replied saying that the magic circle employed the special power of the god governing time and space.
『The God of Time and Space..?!』
Mira was shocked to hear a god be named, but she continued asking questions full of excitement. The Spirit King ended up dodging any questions about its specifics though. All he made clear was that even back then such power was considered taboo.
Manipulating space and time allowed for teleportation to happen, but that was a power only gods were permitted to use, not something humans could use willy-nilly. Those magic circles had been created thanks to a unique and special contract. The contract was rather limiting. It only allowed for teleporters like those in the towers, directing to a single fixed destination.
『If you ever happen to meet the God of Time and Space you may ask him for that power, though you’ll need an incredible amount of luck for that. I’ll throw in a word for you when that happens.』
He seemed to be joking, laughing a little as he said that, but the Spirit King would keep his word.
『Is that possible then… I’ll be looking forward to it!』
The chances of meeting a god were extremely slim. She had never actually thought such a thing was possible, but considering she was talking to the Spirit King, an entity very close to gods, she started to feel like it could happen eventually. Such prospects filled her heart with excitement.
(I’ll have to ask for that power then!)
Just thinking of being able to teleport one day made her smile, and she happily summoned Pegasus and headed to the next tower. Pegasus once again reflected Mira’s good mood.
Mira gathered the second and third glyphs after that, passing the time chatting with the Spirit King. It was past 9pm, so Mira went to a large open place where many skeletons spawned. Going through the fifth floor had taken her an entire day, which left her exhausted, so now she summoned the spirit mansion in the open space.
「At least I can call it a night now.」
Mira muttered to herself, feeling like she had worked hard. She summoned two Dark Knights and one Holy Knight to keep her safe, and went inside the mansion while already having high expectations for the next day.
She went from a rather crude environment to a calm house. It was like finally being back home, so she comfortably undressed herself and took a shower to wash off her exhaustion.
「Oh, they’re already going at it.」
