Chapter 43 : The Awakening of the Ancient City

Jonan and the knights of the Count’s family entered the underground to resolve the cause of this incident.

I was watching the scene from among the hazy clouds.

‘Why is a corner of my heart uneasy?’

I couldn’t know the reason. All I could guess was that there was a cause for that anxiety in the underground.

And that uneasy feeling soon took the form of clouds covering the barony.

In the end, I sent the water swords that had helped them from outside the mountain along with them.

At the same time, I decided to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.

The sun hid its presence among the hazy weather. It felt as if it was trying to hide in the clouds to avoid something.

It was as if a huge city was hidden under the mountain.

I knew that it was a space with an unusual size, but no one could have imagined that there would be such a relic.

The ancient ruins that unfolded before the eyes of the investigation team could not be specified as just one or two buildings.

An underground city. Literally, a city was hidden under the mountain as a whole.

“······This is an unbelievable scale.”

A city with a more complex structure than the city of the barony, even at a glance. Thanks to the location of the cave that was drilled high, the investigation team could observe such a city at their feet.

It was natural for all the investigators to be astonished, but among them, Count Arnus’s shock was indescribable.

‘A city of this size was not discovered in the last 500 years of the kingdom, let alone before that···.’

If someone had known this in advance, the world would have been in an uproar.

In particular, the Magic Tower and the Ancient Society, which are crazy about these archaeological relics, would have turned their eyes and come to the Count’s family.

‘Did I miss it? No, but······.’

The Count has read the records of the family dozens of times so far. Among them, he looked through the records that would benefit the family and the territory several times, to the point where the paper on which it was recorded had to be restored.

If he had known that there was such a relic, it was obvious that he would have created numerous businesses in connection with it and made huge profits.

In other words, this became an ancient civilization that was asleep, undiscovered by anyone for the past few hundred years.

“First, we will check the route from here to that huge building in the middle.”

The shock shook the investigation team, but that could not stop their steps.

The investigation team began to observe the city, killing sounds and movements so as not to be caught by the red demons roaming the underground city.

“······It seems that we cannot avoid a battle.”

A knight who was observing the city for a while reported the results of the observation.

And that report was not good news for the investigation team.

“We don’t know how many demons are in the city. And we can’t ignore the existence of magic stones.”

Even if one knight can deal with several red demons, their stamina is not infinite.

And even if you can cure petrification by removing the cause of the magic stone, you can’t ignore the side effects of petrification.

“Sir Failer.”

Then, Jonan, who was quietly looking down, called Failer.

“What is it?”

“Do you see that building towering high on the lower right?”

The building with a round roof, which looked like a tower, was particularly long among the buildings nearby. Failer nodded and looked at Jonan.

“There is something shining a little below it··· Is it water?”

“Water?”

At Jonan’s words, Failer moved his gaze back to the building. But the difference from a little while ago was that he looked at the part that touched the ground, not the roof of the building.

There was something shining red where Jonan’s finger was stretched. It was revealing its presence by reflecting the light of the nearby magic stone on its body.

Judging from the fact that the light was shaking little by little due to the wind blowing in the huge underground space, it was highly likely that it was water, as Jonan said.

Failer nodded in affirmation, and Jonan continued in a confident tone.

“Then, wouldn’t there be something like a road that passes through the city?”

Arnus Count reacted to those words.

“Are you talking about a waterway?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right. If this huge relic was a city and a space where people actually lived, I thought there might be such a facility.”

Jonan’s words made sense. Arnus Count looked directly at where the water was.

The current of water that Failer had identified was entering the city, and it did not overflow to the surroundings.

In addition, judging from the fact that there was a building at the intersection where the water passed, it seemed to be connected underground.

“If we go in there, we’ll be less noticed.”

After confirming the entrance, the investigation team made additional plans and then went down to the city one by one.

“Are, are we really jumping···?”

“Jonan, you’re too scared. I’ll definitely catch you below, so don’t worry and jump.”

Of course, there was no separate downhill road connecting from the cave to the city. In the end, Jonan screamed silently and fell into the arms of the knight waiting below.

“Gasp······ gasp······ I don’t want to experience this again···.”

“The first knight is also the first in fear.”

Seeing the knights laughing quietly, Jonan couldn’t hide his embarrassment. He was an ordinary person who had not even awakened a single Aura.

Still, thanks to that, the atmosphere of the investigation team, which had been stiff with tension, was relieved a little.

“Let’s start.”

So the investigation team entered the city.

Swish.

The underground water that reached the calves made waves according to the footsteps of the investigation team.

As Arnus Count and Jonan expected, the waterway of this ancient city was connected underground.

Thanks to that, the investigation team was able to quietly deal with the red demons on the way to the waterway and escape their attention.

However, there were parts that were exposed to the outside, escaping the underground from time to time, so they couldn’t easily let their guard down.

“I can’t get a sense of how old this relic is···.”

“I agree. And yet the city and waterways are maintaining their shape.”

“Besides, what are these rough marks above and below the waterway?”

The investigation team approached as carefully as possible in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

As a result, the ancient city naturally came into view.

“Speaking of which, Tray, didn’t you like this? Didn’t you talk about something related to this in the old days?”

Then one knight mentioned another knight. It was a brown-haired knight who was usually interested in ancient civilizations, relics, treasures, and so on.

The knight named Tray nodded, but his words were ambiguous.

“I know some.”

“Have you ever seen this kind of civilization?”

“······No. If I had, I would have already been excited and chattering. None of what I heard from outside merchants or storytellers matches this city.”

Tray was famous for talking a lot in the Count’s family, so the other knights nodded naturally.

As the colleagues agreed, Tray was about to continue talking, but he had to shut his mouth at the sound of footsteps coming from afar.

“They’re coming.”

“They’re not finding us and coming.”

“I’ll finish quickly.”

The knights quickly took a position, and the first to step forward was Failer. His favorite sword was wrapped in a navy blue Aura similar to his hair color.

His sword, tilted to the lower left, was swung diagonally when a dog-like demon entered the attack range.

In an instant, the body of the red demon was split in half and the red energy that wrapped the demon scattered into the air.

And the sword that had risen into the air went down again, and then moved sideways.

So three demons disappeared and six corpses sank into the water.

“Let’s move.”

Failer, who won the battle, did not enjoy the joy and immediately moved on.

It’s a feeling, but the interval between the demons appearing from the waterway was gradually shortening.

“How about the temple?”

“It seems like we’ll arrive in about 10 more minutes.”

“I see. Everyone, a little faster···.”

The knight who stuck his face in the exposed part said so. Arnus Count turned his head to the knights to speed up a little more.

It was in a state where the investigation team had turned their backs on the way they had traveled.

Suddenly, rough water splashes from the direction the investigation team had come from, and something rushed in with a loud noise.

It was a huge snake-shaped demon that filled the waterway. It was several times faster and bigger than the demons I had met until a little while ago.

“Count!”

Jonan shouted for a moment and reached out, but the Count’s sword was faster than that.

The pure white light that filled the waterway wrapped around Arnus Count’s body, and in an instant, it was shot in the form of a blade towards the snake.

-!!!

And the snake, which was hit directly by the blade that penetrated the center of the waterway, was split vertically.

The demon, divided into two parts, died as it was, and Arnus Count, who saw it, casually put the sword away.

“This is······.”

“It’s a 2nd-class expert.”

The one who answered Jonan’s mutter, who was staring blankly at the scene, was Failer.

Arnus Count passed by the investigation team who was looking at him and took the lead first.

“Hurry up. It seems that they instinctively know that we have come.”

And as the Count said, the demons that attacked the investigation team back and forth as they moved along the waterway began to increase.

Every time, the Count and the knights dealt with the demons back and forth and advanced little by little.

When the battle, which I don’t know how many times it continued, ended, Failer said.

“Count. Something is strange.”

“···Did you feel it too?”

“Yes. The movements of the demons are very different from when it was the red moon. It’s like······.”

“It felt like they were being controlled.”

Others also affirmed those words. From a little while ago, the movements of the demons were strange.

If the knights were dealing with the demons coming from the front, they would be attacked from behind half a beat later. And while dealing with the demons from the back, the demons would attack from the front again, constantly making them fight.

It was not an action that demons without reason would do.

“······How about the temple?”

“It’s a little ahead!”

And as if to affirm the knight’s report, this time, demons rushed in from the front and back at the same time.

Demons of different shapes disturbed the knights’ minds with different attacks.

If you kill the right one, two will rush in from the left, and if you kill those two, three will rush in from the front.

And while dealing with those three, four each rushed in from the left and right, so even expert swordsmen were bound to be gradually pushed back.

Arnus Count began to put white Aura into his sword again in order to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

He was going to break through the front and reach the temple.

Then, Jonan, who had been indirectly supporting him from the middle of the formation, took out a sword with a blue wave embroidered on it.

“Jonan? What are you doing······.”

And he closed his eyes slightly, and began to mutter something with the sword in his hand.

“Dragon God.”

Swish.

When the first knight called Him, the sword made by Him reacted.

Two streams of water flowing from the sword began to embroider a picture in the air.

“Your servant is praying, please lend me your strength.”

Then, the water in the waterway, which was shaking violently due to the fierce battle between the knights and the demons, stopped moving and became still.

Dozens of feet pierced the water, but there were no waves caused by it.

The underground water that penetrated the city began to concentrate in one place as if possessed by something.

And Jonan faintly felt it.

And the investigation team also sensed a strange energy.

“What.”

“Jonan?!”

“I feel His power in this water! What should I do with this······!”

Jonan sensed the energy of the Dragon God in the water of the ancient city. The water that was used to measure the underground space was the same groundwater that Jonan was standing on.

Jonan said so and stuck Haeilgum in the middle of the waterway. And he gave strength to make the blade enter the water completely.

Then the two streams of water that were embroidering in the air melted into the groundwater along the sword.

Haeilgum, submerged in the waterway, began to emit a blue light.

Boom.

“Something’s coming!”

With Tray’s words, a loud noise began to be heard from afar. But even so, the red demons did not stop their offensive.

In the end, Arnus Count shot Aura again and broke through the road to the front.

And he found something in the gap created by the Aura. It was the cause of the vibration that shook the waterway a little while ago.

At the same time, the knights also found it on the opposite side.

“Everyone hold your breath!!”

A wave reaching the ceiling of the waterway was coming towards them.

A little later, the waves that came from both sides hit the investigation team.