Chapter 153: Mysterious Water
Chapter 153: Mysterious Water
Dozens of hours passed by since Draven started to dismantle the poisoned arrows inside the hall. The poisoned arrow trap has a complex mechanism and is hidden quite well inside the wall. However, this also makes Draven’s job easy.
Since it has a complicated mechanism, all Draven needs to do is damage some part of it before it malfunctions. Still, there are thousands of the poisoned arrow traps across the wall.
While waiting for Draven to dismantle the poisoned arrow, Angus teaches Jayna to become one with nature through some meditation. As for Angus himself begins to study the few parts of the poisoned arrow trap that Draven brought.
The force and speed of the poisoned arrow are unbelievable and comparable to the sniper in his previous life. After scrutinizing them, Angus found that they are made of a combination of rune and mechanical parts.
Since the trap was using a rune, Angus couldn’t decode them unless he got more similar symbols. Unfortunately, all the traps used the same rune symbol and were useless for Angus to decipher.
He needs more symbols and variables to translate the whole rune language completely. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t reverse engineer the mechanical part and use his own rune language to test it. After another few hours, Draven finally disassembles all the arrow traps.
“Haa… Finally, done. I don’t want to dismantle any of this arrow trap for the time being.” said Draven inside Angus’s mind.
“Alright, good work. Here’s the grade two monster meat.” said Angus while taking out a few slices of monster meat to pacify the grumble Mundus.
“Ahhh… Meat!!” said Draven while immediately biting the monster meat.
“Jayna, let’s continue our treasure hunt.” as Angus wakes up, Jayna from her meditation.
Meditation to become one with nature could easily make the practitioner lose their perception of the surroundings and time itself. Angus still remembers when he was training this technique, he often passed a few days in the blink of an eye.
Waking up to Jayna, Angus shoots a few [Firebolt] and throws a few pebbles to test the surroundings. Making sure there is no other trap, they decide to continue their journey and pass the bridge carefully.
After looking carefully at the bridge, Angus wonders at the firepower of the poisoned arrow trap. The bridge itself is made with the same material as the tunnel. However, it could easily be damaged by the poisoned arrow.
Angus already inspected the arrow before and found it was only made of some strong metal which means the trap mechanism is the one that increases its firepower.
This also made Angus wonder what kind of things were sealed in this location that needed to employ such sophisticated and advanced traps.
After crossing the bridge, they found a tunnel with stairs leading downward. Some part of the stair is already submerged with blue-colored water. Despite the lack of light in the area, the water shone brightly from the magical lamp they brought.
They could see a tunnel below underwater. Besides that, they didn’t find any other way. Looking at the strange blue-colored yet clear water, Angus threw another pebble to test it. But the stone only submerged like regular water.
Angus could see a mana presence in the water using [Mana Eye], but he didn’t know what it would do. Left with no choice, Angus made a small wound and dipped some blood to test it.
The moment the blood touches the water, it becomes dissolved into nothing. Looking at this, both Angus and Jayna have dreadful feelings. If they enter the water didn’t, they will be dissolved into nothing.
Angus speculated that it might dissolve any living being to nothing. Didn’t want to give up yet, Angus took a grade one monster meat and threw it into the water.
On the contrary to his expectation, the meat was still intact even after entering the water. The thing that looks gone is only the blood. Taking out the meat inside the water, Angus could see the only one that was gone from the meat is only the leftover blood inside the meat.
After thinking for a while, “Hmm… What weird water? Does it only react to liquid things?” said Angus.
“Hmm.. Maybe it is only to disinfect things. Since the monster meat itself didn’t smell like before.” said Jayna.
Hearing this, Angus thought for a while before dipping his hand inside the water. Looking at the brazen act of Angus, “Angus!!” shout Jayna while taking out his hand.
However, Angus’s hand is completely fine and not even getting wet. Unlike ordinary water, the water residue in his hand becomes small water droplets and does not wet his hand at all. It is like Angus’s hand is impermeable towards the water itself.
Looking at Angus’s fine hand, “Why did you do that? Your hand could have been hurt.” said Jayna worriedly.
“Well, I thought that since it is only disinfecting something, It is quite safe. Besides, it is faster this way.” said Angus.
“B-But.. What if your hand gets hurt?” said Jayna while starting to tear up a little bit.
Looking at Jayna’s worried face, “Don’t worry, Jayna. I am quite strong.” said Angus while hugging Jayna to calm down.
While both hugging each other, “Haa.. What a lovebird. Get a room.” remark Draven telepathically.
But, Angus didn’t reply and enjoyed hugging his girlfriend. After a while, they found that the water was relatively safe. Although they didn’t see all the water properties, they know that it is safe for them to pass by.
Now, the only hurdle is not the water but the oxygen. They didn’t know how long they needed to be submerged underwater. Fortunately, Angus and Jayna found a water breathing device among the tools given by their parents.
It seems King Leon and Angus’s father already prepared any kind of tools for different situations. After testing the device to work normally inside the blue water, they begin to submerge and swim underwater.
The tunnel is quite long and dark if not for their magical lamp lightened up the path. The water is also quite cold. If Angus and Jayna didn’t have one another along with a magical lamp, both of them might get a panic attack swimming through this long dark tunnel.
Angus doesn’t know how far they swim, but he suspects it is at least a dozen kilometers away with their speed. After another few hours of swimming, they finally found the end of the tunnel that seemed endless.
They found a hole to go up from the end of the tunnel. Looking at the end of the water surface in the hole, they immediately go up and resurface from the water. *Splash*
“Fiuhh.. I thought the tunnel would never end.” said Jayna.
As for Angus, he is looking around to find information about their current location. Both of them could see in a sort of room with many pictures on the wall. At the end of the room, there is some kind of weird door with many mechanical parts.
“Urrg.. another weird door.” groaned Jayna, who is already quite exhausted after all the swimming.
Despite having large mana, Jayna didn’t have the physical strength like Angus. So, she needs to buff herself with mana to swim all the way here. She also didn’t have Angus endurance and was quite tired.
As for Angus himself, he was also tired, a little bit not too exhausted like Jayna. So, both of them decide to rest for a little bit. At the same time, Angus is looking for some information from the picture on the wall.
Unlike before, the picture on the wall seems very old. As a blacksmith, Angus could also discern the age of some things. Although it is not too accurate without the proper tools, he knows that this picture is older than the tunnel they passed through before.
While Jayna was resting and recovering herself, Angus inspected the drawing that seems to tell a story.
From the drawing, he concluded that there are three large birds like a phoenix. All of them are very powerful and hailed by the beast. However, there seems to be a conflict between the three phoenixes.
One of the phoenixes seems to attack the other beast in the picture and begins to fight with the other two phoenixes. Then, another drawing shows the phoenix standing on top of the other two and reign over the two phoenixes while holding a crown on its head.
The next drawing shows that the crowned phoenix somehow gets trapped by the others. In the end, it is chained and jailed. Below the jailed phoenix picture, there is a sort of symbol or language. But the character is scratched, and impossible to read.
‘Don’t tell me. This is the jail of that crowned phoenix. Well, let’s think about that later.’ thought Angus before going to Jayna’s side to rest.
Before hours of resting, “Master, wake up. Your mate is acting strange.” said Draven.
Hearing this, Angus immediately wakes up and sees Jayna looking at the strange door.
“Jayna!!” as Angus called her.
But Jayna ignores Angus while muttering, “Burn.. Burn.. Burn…”
Before Angus could approach Jayna, she suddenly launched and concentrated [Fire Punch] towards the door. *BAM*