Chapter 41: The Treasury

Hidden deep within the mountains lay an ancient treasury, long forgotten and overgrown with vines. The ruins were scarred with countless marks etched into the massive stone and metal walls—each one a character written by the passage of time. To humans, these marks spoke only of age and desolation.

The history of this ancient ruin stretched back to the distant days of the Gondor Empire. Its heavy, imposing style was utterly unfamiliar to the people of Ansu today. In Gawain’s memory, when the northern expedition first discovered this place, it was already a ruin—and even then, it didn’t look much younger than it does now.

Gawain, Rebecca, Amber, and Knight Byron passed through the largest archway into the mountain. The flickering torchlight cast shifting shadows along the corridors, like the legendary “Soul Passage” leading to the realm of the dead. Amber grumbled in dissatisfaction, “I should’ve sent your Aunt Hetty instead. What good are you if you can’t even cast a simple Light spell? You’re supposed to be a mage, aren’t you?”

Rebecca’s cheeks flushed red. “Fireball… fireball can be used for light too…”

But her weak protest was hardly convincing.

Knight Byron walked just behind Gawain, his eyes tracing the ancient stone walls and the worn indentations whose original purpose was long lost. He couldn’t help but recall his days as a mercenary years ago. “How old do you think this ruin is?”

“No one knows,” Gawain shook his head. “When we first found it, it was already a ruin. Someone knowledgeable in the group said it was a relic from the ‘Age of Starfire’—a period in the late Gondor Empire when magical technology flourished. That was when the Great Mana Well, the ‘Deep Blue Well,’ was successfully activated. The empire surged with expansion, building fortresses and research facilities along the borders, hoping to find other massive mana sources like Deep Blue. But eventually, all those facilities were abandoned one by one.”

Rebecca looked incredulous. “You mean they never found another mana source?”

“No, they just couldn’t find one like Deep Blue,” Gawain recalled the history stored in his mind. “The power of the Deep Blue Well is beyond your imagination. It was a colossal mana source at the continent’s center, producing enough energy daily to power all the mage towers in Ansu for a whole month. Some scholars believe the explosion of Deep Blue in Gondor’s year 1739 actually triggered the magical cataclysm. Though the blast didn’t destroy the empire outright, it tore a rift in the elemental plane. The imbalance of elemental forces built up and caused the cataclysm the following year. But this is just a theory—no one can confirm it now, since Deep Blue and its mana focus were completely obliterated.”

“Wow…” Rebecca, as a mage, could appreciate just how incredible that ancient mana well must have been. She was even more amazed that humans once wielded such power. “The Gondor Empire was incredible back then…”

“In any case,” Gawain continued, “to the Gondorians of that era, the mana foci scattered across the continent were insignificant. After barely discovering a few medium-sized ones, they stopped exploring further. Many fortresses and research facilities were abandoned. This place is probably one of those, likely a multi-purpose complex.”

Amber suddenly tensed. “D-Do you think there might be some out-of-control ancient magical monsters or traps here?!”

Gawain glanced at the half-elf, whose face was tight with worry. “You’re the kind of person who’d dig up someone’s ancestral grave without hesitation, and you’re scared of a thousand-year-old abandoned facility?”

“That’s different! Even if a corpse in a grave reanimated, it’s still just a person. But who knows what could jump out of an ancient facility like this! I’ve heard some of these places seal away synthetic beasts and magical colossi created by mad wizards…”

Gawain’s forehead twitched. “I’m just a ‘person’ when I come back to life, so I guess I’m disappointing you. By the way, those rumors about the Dark Mountains and ancient facility monsters—where do you get all these wrong ideas?”

Amber thought for a moment, then whispered mysteriously, “I’m telling you, I really am the chosen of the Night Goddess. Sometimes when I pray deeply, she gives me visions. She teaches me everything…”

Rebecca casually conjured a tiny fireball, no bigger than her thumb, and flicked it at Amber’s face. Caught off guard, Amber was smudged with black soot and shrieked, “Hey! That’s dangerous, you crazy girl!”

Rebecca shrugged. “…Looks like she’s not really chosen.”

Gawain was too tired to deal with their bickering.

Because right then, the ancient door appeared before them.

At the corridor’s end stood a massive gate forged from dark purple-black metal. It bore the unmistakable style of Gondor’s “Age of Starfire”: heavy, solid, and decorated with abstract reliefs depicting soldiers and fortress walls.

Amber wiped the soot from her face and stared at the gate, eyes shining. “This thing… could it be a single block of purple steel?!”

“Exactly. But if you chip off even a scrap, I’ll make Rebecca calculate how many fireballs to throw at you,” Gawain said, tapping Amber’s head with the hilt of the Pioneer’s Sword. “So keep your wild ideas to yourself and wait patiently for your pay—that’s the smart way.”

Amber turned her head, muttering softly, “…Such a miser…”

Gawain heard her but ignored it. Instead, he stepped back and pulled from his pocket the crucial artifact: the Platinum Disc.

A relic from seven centuries ago.

Rebecca looked worried. “After all these years, will it still work?”

Gawain smiled faintly. “This is Gondor technology. As long as the main structure hasn’t collapsed, the main gate will never fail.”

As if to prove his words, intricate patterns on the Platinum Disc began to glow one by one. The reliefs on the heavy metal door shimmered with faint light.

When the glow filled the entire gate, a creaking mechanical sound echoed from the door and the surrounding rock walls. The ground beneath them trembled slightly. Slowly, the gate began to open.

Gawain and Rebecca were ready. As the door swung wide, they covered their mouths and noses, stepping aside. Gawain activated one of the knight’s basic skills—“Breath Protection.” A faint, almost invisible barrier enveloped everyone present. Similar to a mage’s “Breeze Shield,” it offered minimal defense but maintained a clean air environment, protecting them from any toxic gases that might linger in a sealed ancient ruin.

There were no poisonous traps here, but after seven hundred years sealed tight, who knew what gases might have accumulated? Better safe than sorry.

Several minutes later, Gawain deactivated the shield and nodded to the others. He stepped inside first, with Knight Byron close behind.

Amber hesitated but gave up on her plan to chip off a piece of the gate—purple steel was just too hard for her dagger.

Inside the gate was a vast rectangular hall. Doors sealed off all four directions, and ancient treasures were piled throughout the chamber.

The sealed environment and runes scattered around slowed oxidation and decay to a crawl. Even now, many of the items remained remarkably well preserved.

Heaps of metal ingots, crystals of various colors, swords, armor, and in the center, several large chests nearly as tall as a person.

Gawain approached and wedged the Pioneer’s Sword into a chest’s seam, levering it open with effort.

One chest revealed gleaming gold and silver coins. The others contained neatly stacked pale purple crystals—military-grade crystals carved and charged with magic.

The coins weren’t the most valuable items here; the crystals were.

The ancient Gondor Empire had dominated the continent with advanced magical technology. Fueled by the Deep Blue Well’s mana, their mages had nearly limitless energy to expend. Even mediocre mages could produce results under such conditions. Gondor achieved something almost unimaginable to the four kingdoms of today:

Mass production of “supernatural armaments.”

Ordinary swords and armor were unenchanted—no matter how sturdy or sharp, they were mundane gear. Only enchanted equipment imbued with supernatural power qualified as “supernatural armaments.” In modern Ansu, such enchanted weapons are issued only to officers—and not always. But in Gondor’s time, every soldier was standard-issue an enchanted longsword with Sharpness and a uniform crystal.

These thumb-sized crystals contained pre-set spell models for basic shields and explosives, running automatically with friend-or-foe recognition. Even a foot soldier with no casting ability could use them. When attacked, the shield activated; when depleted, it glowed and warned the wearer, who could then hurl it away. Once at a safe distance from the wearer and allies, it would explode. To Gawain, this was unbelievably advanced weaponry.

If circumstances hadn’t forced them to leave these behind, the pioneers would never have abandoned such valuable items. They took everything portable and precious, but these crystals were too bulky to carry.

Gawain picked up a crystal, gently rubbing it in his palm.

This might have been a way to let ordinary people access magic, but it was a dead end.

Only with the Deep Blue Well active could such crystals be produced without limit. Now that Deep Blue was destroyed, these ancient crystals would only dwindle.

But for now, these crystals would form the foundation for securing their territory.

(End of chapter)