A slender stone tower about five meters tall.
Runes were densely carved all over it.
Evan placed his palm on the stone tower.
There was one thing common to all ruins.
A sealing device made up of runes.
The ruins with murals depicting the sun falling from the sky mostly used tower structures as sealing devices.
Though the reason was unknown, certain ruins always had these left behind.
Evan breathed mana into it, instantly activating the runes.
The runes floated in the air.
“If I can decode this…!”
Having done this several times in the previous world, it was simple for him.
As Evan decoded the runes, they began to glow.
Creak!
The stone tower started rotating once, and a wave of mana spread out.
[The ancient seal is beginning to be lifted.]
Along with the message, a translucent door appeared before Evan’s eyes.
“Have they been hiding something like this?”
Evan reached out to grab the handle of the translucent door.
But his hand passed straight through it.
It was as if the door had no physical form; it couldn’t be touched.
Seeing this, he immediately understood.
“So this is the knowledge archive that doesn’t exist in this world? I think I’m starting to get it.”
Evan quickly opened his inventory and pulled out the Archive Key.
Clack!
When he used the key, the door really began to open.
Thud, thud!
With a heavy sound, the door swung wide open.
[You have entered an archive that does not exist in this world.]
“Ugh!”
Evan’s body stretched like a rubber band and was instantly sucked inside.
In the blink of an eye, he arrived somewhere else.
Evan looked around.
“Where am I?”
Before him stretched an endless corridor.
Though it felt dark, light emanated from the densely carved murals on the walls, ceiling—actually, everywhere—illuminating the corridor clearly.
Evan glanced at the murals as he started walking forward.
Looking at the grotesque murals, Evan began to speculate about this place.
A ruin constructed since ancient times.
Beled had used the knowledge from here.
And the archive was described as something that did not exist in this world.
“Judging by these alone, the ones who made this place were no ordinary people.”
As he walked down the corridor, Evan suddenly stopped.
He had found a mural that caught his eye.
It showed people who completed a tower so high it pierced the sky.
They began pulling the sun above the sky down with ropes from the tower’s peak.
Step by step, Evan moved forward and examined the next picture.
In the next scene, the sun finally crashed to the ground and was absorbed by humans.
Then, a crown appeared over the head of the human figure.
He didn’t know what it meant.
But it was clear they were thinking dangerously.
“…What on earth were the ancients thinking?”
Just as Evan pondered this question, [The guardians of the archive express suspicion toward a new visitor.]
The message window popped up before his eyes, and something appeared in front of Evan.
“Strange visitor, prove your qualifications.”
A man appeared, clad entirely in plate armor. His skin was burnt brown, and his eyes shone golden.
A lion emblem was engraved on the chest plate of his armor, which had a distinct design.
It was surprising that there was a person here, but Evan soon realized he wasn’t alive.
His skin was covered with glowing runes.
“Is this the power of the runes?”
The first trial has begun.
***
The armored knight blocking Evan’s path collapsed to the floor.
His armor was tattered, and his entire body bore mortal wounds.
Flare!
The runes glowed again, and the knight vanished without a trace.
“These runes perfectly summon people who lived.”
Evan had faced such entities multiple times in ruined dungeons.
A miracle that could ignore all rules and make ideals reality.
Runes remained a mystery.
He didn’t know how they could unleash such miraculous power so casually.
But Evan soon snapped out of his thoughts.
[The second trial has begun.]
Something else immediately started.
Suddenly, the walls around him were covered densely with runes.
Flare!
Flames erupted throughout the corridor.
[Effect of the Ring of Flames has been activated.]
[Fire resistance increased by 50%.]
“This illusion ceremony is really intense.”
Evan raised his aura and wrapped it around his body.
In that state, he dashed forward.
The special fire formed by runes.
The heat seemed to pierce his very bones.
It was different from just being burned by fire.
It felt as if the flames passed directly through his body.
“Something’s off.”
Using his mana sensitivity, Evan began to sense the flames.
To his surprise, two familiar energies radiated from the flames.
“Mana and Soul Power?”
It was an incredible discovery.
Information that couldn’t be found even in the previous world.
That made sense, as one would never notice it without understanding Soul Power.
And a new change appeared in Evan’s body.
[Path of Mana level increased.]
[Experienced the Primal Flame.]
[Fire affinity has been generated.]
[Fire affinity has increased.]
“Primal Flame?”
The painful heat that had engulfed his entire body gradually faded.
Rather, the flames began to feel familiar.
“Not sure what the Primal Flame is, but… is this fire affinity the reason?”
Thanks to the Ring of Flames’ resistance effect and affinity, Evan no longer took damage.
He began to leisurely pass through the corridor.
***
Jena was currently flustered.
She wondered how to assess this situation.
“He suddenly disappeared.”
She had followed after the vanished Evan.
Then, sensing a strong wave of mana, she hurried forward.
But when she arrived, there was nothing.
She started searching every inch around that area for Evan.
But to this day, she couldn’t find a single trace.
“What should I do? Was there an ambush?”
Jena bit her lower lip tightly as she scanned the surroundings.
From afar, Alan, Reynold, and Celia were approaching.
It seemed they were coming to join them after some time.
“We couldn’t find anything!”
Reynold shouted loudly, waving his hand.
As they drew near, Alan scratched his head and asked, “Like I thought, there’s nothing to find in ruins like this. We should tell the young master it’s best to retreat.”
Celia crossed her arms and muttered in dissatisfaction, “We wasted our time coming here for nothing.”
Jena sighed involuntarily as she looked at those who knew nothing.
“That’s not important right now! The young master disappeared!”
“What? What do you mean?”
“The young master disappeared?”
Just as Jena was about to explain the situation slowly, Piiiiiing!
A sharp piercing sound rang out.
Something was flying rapidly toward them.
Alan reacted instantly and slashed the incoming projectile with his sword.
Ting!
With the sound of metal, the projectile was deflected and stuck into the ground.
“An arrow?”
Alan looked down to see an arrow embedded in the earth, containing dark mana.
Jena shouted urgently, “Everyone, behind me!”
Saying that, she raised her staff high into the air.
Fwaaah!
Light burst from the staff as a holy protective barrier formed.
Thunk! Thunk!!
Dozens of arrows imbued with dark mana struck the barrier.
Alan, panicked, asked Jena about the situation.
“What on earth is this? Who are those guys?”
“They must be from the Nervan Cult! Only they use such evil powers.”
It seemed they either followed them secretly or this ruin was their base.
Either way, the danger was undeniable.
“Let’s at least find a building to block the arrows!”
Jena said urgently, and Celia pointed in a direction.
“Over there first!”
The place Celia indicated was a roofless, collapsed building.
At least the walls remained and could block the arrows.
They hurried toward the building.
Once inside, they caught their breath and composed themselves.
“This is bad! It looks like we’re surrounded.”
Reynold said, and Alan nodded.
“They must have started the encirclement before we even arrived. Damn it.”
“If only…”
Celia fought the throbbing pain in her head.
“This isn’t why we came here!”
Jena spoke firmly.
“There’s no time for small talk! I’ll do my best to maintain the barrier—make your plans inside it!”
Outside, the sound of arrows hitting increased.
Arrows scattered nearby, but a dark aura spread all around.
Without the holy barrier, the dark mana would have already affected them.
They were facing a total crisis.
“Damn it! Where is he at a time like this?”
Had Evan been kidnapped?
She gripped her sword tightly and gritted her teeth.
[The third trial has begun.]
[The fourth trial has begun.]
Evan strolled leisurely down the corridor.
All sorts of traps activated, but none affected him.
Most were traps he had already encountered, so he easily overcame them.
No, the level of this place was lower than he expected.
If he were to pick the worst ruins, it would be the Temple of Haumea, where the Great Demon was sealed.
“There was true hell there. This place can’t compare.”
Thinking back to that experience, this was nothing.
Evan smirked and walked forward.
***
After a while, he saw the end of the corridor.
There stood a massive stone door easily ten meters tall.
Each side of the door bore unique patterns.
One resembled a magic circle shaped like a star.
The other showed a human wearing a crown—the same crown he had seen earlier.
Below them were runes densely inscribed.
“So many runes…”
Evan couldn’t help but marvel.
He had encountered countless runes in ancient ruined dungeons before.
But this was the first time he’d seen such a long, complex rune arrangement.
“This might be hard even for me to decode.”
Evan placed his hand on the door and started pondering.
He recalled a comrade from the previous world who taught him runes.
A hunter with the ability to interpret everything.
Without being able to decode runes, ruins-related dungeons were impossible to conquer, so he had received help.
He had learned how to decode runes from that person.
But even with that method, these runes seemed difficult to interpret.
“Probably this door won’t just open easily either.”
He tried to open the door, but as soon as he applied force, a warning window appeared.
[Warning! This seal is currently locked by powerful forces.]
[The seal on the door can be lifted by other means.]
There was no other way to break the door’s seal.
The only option was to decode the runes carved on the door.
“Looking at the characters composing the runes… Are these from the Third Era?”
Just as civilizations had cultural and developmental stages,
each era left distinct marks on runes.
From the oldest First Era to the Fifth Era.
Naturally, the older the rune, the greater its power.
He had thought such power might bring calamity to the world.
“This means those ancient people possessed powers far beyond imagination.”
It felt like a power that shouldn’t remain in the world.
Considering human duality, it was obvious such power would be abused for destruction.
Maybe for that reason, runes weakened over time.
“I don’t know what events happened each era, but probably self-destruction caused this power to decline.”
The boundary of runes was clearly defined by the collapse.
The only thing he couldn’t understand was that “this history was completely unrelated to the world I originally lived in.”
In the previous world, the concept of Awakened Ones didn’t exist until the Great Catastrophe.
So runes remained a mystery there.
But here, it seemed the clues were emerging.
“Ruins like these existed from the beginning in this world. Like a history of this world.”
Then maybe in this world, he could uncover the secrets of runes.
Evan activated the runes to decode them.
As he focused mana into his palm, [Path of Mana has been activated.]
The Path of Mana activated during the rune activation process.
“…This can’t be.”
Evan instantly gained the ability to decode the runes.