Chapter 11: Infiltrating to Encountering

It wasn’t hard for Loren to crawl through the crack.

It wasn’t that high, so he had to crawl flat on the ground and the great sword on his back was slightly in the way, but those weren’t big problems to him.

Getting Lapis, who still couldn’t move much, was the tricky part.

In a situation where the goblins might catch up to them if they took too much time, Loren was wondering what he should do. The next thing he knew, he saw Lapis start inching toward the crack, bending and wriggling her body like a worm.

As soon as she got close enough, Loren reached out, grabbed her body, and pulled her the rest of the way.

“Well, we’re on the lucky side.”

They were able to make it to the other side without any of their pursuers catching up, so that’s how Loren evaluated the situation.

He was also relieved that the place they ended up in wasn’t within the goblin’s nest.

And although they crawled on the floor to get through the crack, the only thing covering their clothes was dust and rubble.

Lapis’ clothes seemed to have it worse because of the color, but if this was still within the goblin’s nest, her clothes would have been covered with stains and smells from things much worse than dirt.

“Thank you, Loren. You helped me so much.”

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, what do you make of this place? I want your opinion.”

Staying in a sitting position on the ground, Lapis looked at the scene in front of her.

It wasn’t blinding, but there was enough light that they could make out their surroundings clearly, unlike inside the tunnel.

A large space with a high ceiling.

They could see everything because the walls and floor were emitting light, and it definitely did not look like the inside of a cave at all.

Lapis, who still couldn’t walk, pulled herself across the floor to a wall and put her face up so close that she almost touched the wall. After observing it for a moment, she pulled away and said in an impressed voice.

“I’m surprised. This is mana material.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a building material seen in places such as ruins of the ancient kingdom. The technique is unknown, but it’s quite exceptional, because it takes mana from the atmosphere and converts it into light.”

The Ancient Kingdom was something even Loren knew about.

It referred to a kingdom that thrived in the distant past.

It was an outstanding magic civilization and it was said that they had half of the world under their rule. Their citizens included humans, demi-humans, beast kin, as well as demon kind.

Since magic was so intertwined into their culture, there was no doubt that it was magicians that held great power and high status.

It meant that most of the ruins excavated in the present once belonged to magicians, and it was said that during the kingdom’s peak of development, cities floated in the sky.

However, although it was said to have been very technologically advanced, it suddenly disappeared and scattered all the different races, eventually forming the lands that existed today.

“Speaking of ruins of the Ancient Kingdom…wouldn’t finding one be worth a fortune?”

Loren knew that it wasn’t something that you can find every day.

Some relics that were excavated were worth way more that Loren could ever imagine.

“I think the best you can do is try not to get completely ravaged by the adventurer’s guild and robbers.”

“That’s…quite the dream right there.”

“Rather than that, Loren, can you scrape off a part of this wall? It’s not that strong, but it’s a reliable source of light, and it’s also valuable research material.”

Loren had already broke part of the wall of the cave of the goblins’ nest, so it wasn’t difficult for him to break another one. He nodded at the crack they came through and said to Lapis, who was looking at him with eyes sparkling with expectation.

“There’s a lot of them over there.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

Loren picked up Lapis, who was trying to drag herself regardless of her clothes getting dirty, like how a cat would pick up her kit, and carried her to the crack in the wall.

Lapis thanked him for the act, as it kept her clothes from getting dirtier, and started to choose parts of the building material and stuffing them in her pockets.

“You can keep doing what you’re doing. But if this is ruins of the Ancient Kingdom, aren’t we in a pretty bad situation?”

Traps and guardians, as well as countless other methods of chasing away intruders, were part of the ruins most of the time.

It was more dangerous for the important ruins, and if what Loren had heard about them were true, they were in in an unimaginable amount of danger.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Lapis seemed to have finished stuffing her pockets and continued.

“Although you say ruins of the Ancient Kingdom, it goes from the best to the worst.”

“What do you mean?”

Loren asked Lapis as he reached under her arms and helped her onto her feet.

She managed to stand up, but as soon as Loren relaxed his arms, she started staggering and almost fell. Loren sighed as he saw that her limbs still remained unmoving.

“The dangerous ruins that Loren is thinking about do have its dangers, but there are also ruins that no one really cares about.”

Loren, thinking it was dangerous to stay in one place too long, put Lapis on his back again.

Lapis, who quietly let Loren do his thing, continued while clinging onto his back.

“Out of all the ruins that have been found, the dullest one that I know of is an ancient restroom.”

“Huh…?”

“Perfect air conditioning and lighting system with private stalls. Complete with a sewer system and great ventilation. Of course, there are no traps or guardians. It would be weird if they did.”

Loren thought that only someone who was crazy would place traps or guardians in a restroom.

He also thought that there wouldn’t even be much to protect, but a thought that crossed his mind unknowingly made it to his lips.

‘Well, there could be at least one to protect whoever’s using it.”

“That’s an idea that I’ve never thought of before…”

“Men are most distracted when they are using the toilet or sleeping with women you know?”

“That’s quite a mercenary’s way of thinking, but I don’t think that the magicians of the Ancient Kingdom lived so close to danger.”

The two scenarios that Loren presented usually resulted in getting stabbed in the back or getting sniped by arrows or magic, and was taught among mercenaries that those were the most dangerous times, but it seemed that Lapis didn’t really understand.

“That is why not all ruins are dangerous. In fact, there are less dangerous ones than there are safer ones.”

Now that he thought about it, the ruins that they were in were buildings used by civilians, so it did make sense that there wouldn’t be any traps or guardians.

If they were research facilities or held treasures, it would be a whole different story, but it also made sense that compared to the whole kingdom, there would only be a handful of them.

“Then first we have to find out what kind of ruin this is.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“I hope it’s not a dangerous one.”

After checking if Lapis was firmly settled on his back, Loren started walking slowly.

It wasn’t like he had any place in mind.

Although the area they came out to was large and had a high ceiling, Loren thought they were in some kind of room, but after observing his surroundings, he found out that they were in a middle of some sort of corridor.

He thought that if he followed it, they would be bound to end up somewhere.

It meant walking around carelessly in a ruin with possible dangers, but Loren thought it would be better than going back into a cave full of goblins.

“I’ll put my guard up. Can I count on you to keep watch as well?”

“I’ll try my best to detect traps or anything with magic, so I’ll be counting on you if enemies pop up.”

She gave the grasp of the great sword on Loren’s back a light tap.

In the hands of Loren, it was a weapon of great force because of its ridiculous weight, but at the same time it was a sword made of ordinary iron.

It was effective for cutting and smashing things, but was useless against spiritual or magical things.

It was more than enough in battle, but in a ruin of the Ancient Kingdom, it seemed quite lackluster.

“If it comes down to the worst, we may have to think about going through the goblins’ nest.”

“That’s something I’d like to avoid.”

Although Loren had slain the goblin mage, there was no way to know if that was the only one.

Plus, Lapis had seen a few goblins with larger bodies among the ones that flanked them.

She guessed that they were hobgoblins, another type of high ranked goblin. If one asked her if Loren could fight through them on his own, lapis would have to tilt her head.

Also with herself not being able to move at all, she understood that she was completely dead weight to Loren.

“The best thing would be getting out of here without running into anything.”

“Based on my daily deeds, I don’t think things will go too smooth for me.”

“Same here. I don’t really believe in gods, so it wouldn’t be right to pray to one either.”

Loren let out a troubled laugh as he thought that it was probably way worse for him than Lapis when it came to daily deeds.

He suddenly stopped and reached over his right shoulder to his great sword.

It was a movement that signaled he was about to draw his weapon, so Lapis tensed, bracing for when Loren would shake her off.

Loren didn’t go as far to draw his sword yet, and instead lowered his waist, readying himself to be able to move anytime.

“Loren?”

“Quiet. Something’s coming.”

The corridor in front of them turned into a corner.

Although Lapis was clueless about it, Loren sensed something coming towards them and stopped.

If it were a street corner in a city it wouldn’t be dangerous at all, but in an ancient ruin there was very low chance of it not being dangerous.

“Shouldn’t we run…?”

“We’ll be lucky if it lets us.”

There was the choice of running back the way they came immediately.

But Loren wanted to gather as much information as he could about the ruins.

If he could see what was coming, he was bound to get some sort of information, so he decided he would choose to stay or run after he saw what was coming.

Lapis, who was on his back, understood what he was trying to do.

“I can still use enough magic to keep it busy for a bit. Just tell me when.”

As Lapis whispered into Loren’s ear and he nodded back to her, whatever that was coming towards them was right around the corner.

What came around the corner saw Loren, who had tensed his legs and was ready to make a move, and spoke up.

“There’s a scary looking brother here with a sister on his back.” *

“What!? Why the heck is something like that in these ruins? Is it an illusion or something?”

“It’s not my fault they’re there! If it was an illusion wouldn’t it be showing us something better?”

“They’re humans, I think. They have heat, at least.”

“Kinds of a harsh place to be lost in.”

What came from across the corner was a group of armed individuals, most likely a group of adventurers.

On their chests were silver identification tags.

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