Chapter 35 - Going Alone into the Ruins

Louise complained as she didn’t want to leave the lake, but in the end, she did. They were there on a mission, and she was already enjoying her free time there a lot.

Arthur had to return to the city as fast as possible for the shop’s inauguration. Ray must be quite worried that they didn’t return with the ores and magical herbs yet.

"So the first thing I checked was the mine where we would get our ores," Louise explained as they walked through the forest, "but it looked fine. Nothing weird inside that place."

"However, I felt a weird energy coming from the depths of the forest, as if it was calling to me. And that’s when I found an ancient ruin."

"Ancient ruin? Here?"

Despite not knowing about this mountain, Arthur had read about the Aldora Kingdom before, so he knew the areas where it was possible to find ancient ruins.

The kingdom was famous precisely because of its mysteries. There were too many things in the kingdom that the players had no idea about.

But he didn’t read about a ruin in that area before. If there was something there, then players would have found it.

’Is it because I’m coming too soon?’ Arthur wondered.

It made sense. The reason he visited the village before anyone else was because of Louise and her father, Ray. They wanted him to visit the location after giving him a quest to go there.

Other players didn’t have Louise or Ray to give them quests. They were struggling to complete the basic quests with their low reputation. Arthur was skipping that boring stuff.

Anyway, they kept walking through the forest, and no monster came to attack them. Again. That was the weird part that they wanted to uncover.

Eventually, they spotted it. An ancient ruin almost falling apart, nestled deep into the forest.

It took them 30 minutes of walking to get there, so it wasn’t that close to the village.

"No villager saw this before?" Arthur asked.

"I spoke with them, and no. I mean, it makes sense. They never ventured this far into the forest. Most of them aren’t powerful enough to fight the monsters."

The only ones who could try to explore deeper into the forest were the kingdom’s soldiers who were living in the village to protect it. But they couldn’t just leave the village. That would leave it unprotected, and the lives of those villagers mattered.

No kingdom wanted a tragedy to happen. That would reduce the citizens’ trust in the current rulers.

"Did you go inside?"

Louise shook her head.

"No, I didn’t. I was waiting for you. And honestly, this might sound harsh, but I want you to go alone..."

"Alone?" Arthur frowned.

"Someone needs to get the ores and the herbs for the potions, right? And, let’s be real here, this place could be fucking dangerous, and between me and you, you’re the only one who can come back from the dead..."

Louise had a good point. That was the reason players became such weapons for the NPCs in the game. They could do things and explore places that people were often scared to.

They would lose some EXP, but it was way better than dying forever. Respawning made a huge difference.

Arthur, though, didn’t want to lose his precious EXP, but he also wanted to take the risk and explore the ancient ruin...

A ruin that he never read a thing about? The curiosity was killing him.

It didn’t make much of a difference if Arthur was the one collecting the ores or the herbs. In the end, these items wouldn’t go to his inventory, they would be given to the shop crafters to use.

However, he still had to collect them and put them in his inventory. That was the reason he was there.

"I’ll get a wooden cart from the village and put the ores and the herbs there for the time being. When you return, you can use your special power to store them."

"Understood."

At least this way, Arthur could potentially complete 2 quests at the same time and get both rewards. If he wanted to level up faster and reach the other players, then he would have to take the risks.

So, Louise returned to the village to get the cart and start doing what she had to while Arthur slowly stepped into the ancient ruin.

Before she left, Louise gave him a torch lit up by her magic.

"This will last a long time," she said, "but not forever. Don’t get lost in this place, please."

Without the torch, seeing things would be quite hard. Anyway, Arthur entered the ruins, and the first thing he saw was a massive staircase leading down.

The building outside was just there to mark the place. The actual ruins were underground.

It was dead silent, and completely dark too. The walls and the steps going down weren’t in the best shape. Some steps were completely destroyed, making it hard for Arthur to go down.

But the place in general was just massive. The ceiling was high up, not giving that claustrophobic vibe at all.

Arthur kept going down, and with each step, his heart beat faster. He was nervous. What could be waiting for him down there?

At one point, the staircase ended. Arthur saw a massive wall with a stone door.

There were symbols on the wall. Arthur tried to push it open, but it didn’t work.

"A puzzle?" he muttered.

It had to be that. No matter how much force he put, the door didn’t move. He tried to attack it using his sword and some of his skills, but it just didn’t do shit.

So, with the torch in hand, Arthur put it closer to the wall and the door. There were paintings on it.

A normal player would never understand what the paintings meant. Some were drawings, but some were carved words.

Arthur, though, knew exactly what those were, and he was in a deep state of shock.

He knew that language. The system gave him the knowledge about it when he reached the Dragon City...

"The Dragon Tongue! What the hell?"

The language spoken by the dragons. Why was something like that there?

There were not many dragon sightings across the kingdoms at all. The dragons lived in their floating kingdom, far away from everyone else.

It was fucking far to get there. Arthur knew it very well.

This ancient ruin, which had some of Arthur’s attention before, now turned into something completely different.

A rare place with dragon-related stuff outside of the floating dragon kingdom. This was just incredible.

Arthur wanted to find out how to enter that place. It could hold some incredible rewards for him!

So, he read everything that was written on the wall, and after finishing it, Arthur frowned.

The writings stated that only someone in a specific state of mind could enter.

To enter, one had to truly want something that they couldn’t get, and reflect about it.

’Should I meditate or some shit? What the hell?’

No player would ever find out how to enter without knowing how to read what was written on the walls.

Arthur sat cross-legged in front of the door, closing his eyes and controlling his breath.

His mind instantly thought about his mother and stepsister. He truly wanted to help them.

It was time for some inner reflection.