Chapter 112: 37. Blade of the Ancients
The next day, the floating gardens east of Taraxlan City still had the same old faces, but among the members were the giant lizard Kami and an ancient triceratops. As for the Engine of the Gods, it was dismantled by the lizard breeders sent by Tito Iko one night.
The confused monitor lizard Kami stood confusedly among the group of monitor lizards. Having lost his organization and ties, he didn't understand why he was standing here, but he just stood there.
With Taito Ikao's farewell, Dakuus nodded to Akadan, and the next second, his team returned to Spikazuma.
The days that followed were simple. Those who cleaned up the manure continued to clean up the manure, those who dug the engines of the sun and the gods continued to dig the engines, Ryan led the team to continue turning over the pyramids one by one, and Chupakoko directed the spirit lizards and giant lizards to continue digging the road leading to the end of the mountain.
Every night at dinner, everyone had to meet with Dacus to report the day's discoveries and progress.
The incubation pool, lens and useful gadgets have not been found yet, but a pile of scattered engine materials have been found, and boxes of gold products and gems have filled the temporary storage warehouse for supplies.
Yakadan and Chupakoko spent their evenings assembling engine parts under Mazdamuddi's remote guidance.
Daxus took Genevieve all over the city. He wanted to figure out the mechanism of the lens system, just in case it might be useful someday.
As the excavation and search deepened, strange things began to appear. One day, Ryan presented Daquus with a strange weapon like a treasure.
Daxus looked at the laser pistol in his hand with a puzzled look on his face. His mind was full of confusion. The laser pistol in his hand was full of a weird sense of technology. The style was like the hidden ancient sanctuary of Pahkos, which was incompatible with this world.
The laser pistol's material was also unusually sturdy. It wasn't plastic, but rather a single-piece cast of some rare alloy. The trigger, sights, gun body, and grip were all one piece, intricately carved with patterns. Of course, there were no copper bullets in the magazine, nor was there an ejection chamber.
It was a strange storage area. Daxus judged that it was a place to store energy blocks or crystals.
During dinner that night, Akadan excitedly said that he had seen something similar when he was walking in the area where the Amazons, the half-sisters of the Lizardmen, lived near the Kara Temple. The Amazons called this strange thing the "Blade of the Ancients."
However, the one Akadan had seen was longer and required two hands to hold. This strange thing could spew out an extremely strange hot energy that could melt metal instantly.
Dacus shook his head after hearing this.
"The style of the painting suddenly became sci-fi."
In the following days, Daxus stopped studying the lens and began searching the warehouse for energy blocks. Sure enough, he found a few compatible rubies. He couldn't wait to test them a few times. They were powerful, with a range of about twenty meters and no recoil. However, the rubies didn't consume energy; after about four shots, they turned to powder.
On the other side, thanks to the unremitting efforts of the monitor lizards and giant beasts, the passage was finally dug through.
After ventilation, only the team consisting of Duruchi and the spirit lizards drilled through the passage, and the entrance at the end of the road still needed to be widened.
"It's a truly remarkable feat of architecture, a marriage of magic and engineering on a grand scale."
Daxus took a step into the tunnel, raising the glowing crystal to survey the dome-shaped passages within the mountain. These passages were almost perfectly circular, their domes high, as if dug by a tunnel boring machine. The domes were high enough to accommodate even Lustrian behemoths, stretching for kilometers into the mountain.
The Black Ark pirates of the Cold Eyes family once again led the way. The passageway echoed with the rustle of boots scraping against the ground and the distant sound of dripping water. There were no traps or traps, not to mention any fallen, rotting corpses. Only endless murals, many covered in a gelatinous mucus, through which one could vaguely see the murals depicting the great deeds of various ancient saints.
The air in the passage was filled with mold and dampness. As he went deeper into the passage, Dacus could always faintly hear the sound of waves.
"Did you hear any sound? Like a rising tide?" Watt asked in confusion as he walked in the team holding a glowing crystal.
"Is this an illusion? Why is there the sound of the tide here?" Ryan said uncertainly, also holding up the glowing crystal.
The Drukhi all heard a similar sound of waves crashing on the shore, a sound they were all too familiar with having been born and lived in Clarkalond.
"Could it be the underground sea?" The Black Ark pirate captain whispered uncertainly.
"This is really possible!"
As the team continued forward, symmetrical recessed rooms appeared at intervals on either side of the passage. These weren't rooms so much as gaps where rolling stones could find shelter. Illuminated by the glowing crystals, Darkius could see lizard-like crates, tables, and the remains of metalwork stacked in the rooms. It was baffling to him, and he never understood the purpose of these symmetrical rooms. Could they truly be rolling stones?
The group finally reached the first large chamber, its dome so high that the glowing crystals couldn't even illuminate its top. As Daquus followed the light, he could see the floor tiles strewn with garbage almost ankle-deep. He even spotted bones, old clothes, rusted tools, broken glass, leather goods, fragments of what might have been withered limbs, and many more difficult-to-identify items.
The team began to move deeper into the cave, carefully making their way through the mountains of garbage. Suddenly, Daquus heard a slight rustling sound. With the tide, it was almost inaudible unless one listened carefully. The rustling sound was almost like the sound of many tiny feet walking simultaneously, and there was an eerie quality to the sound that he couldn't place.
"Don't move, listen! Something is coming! There is something here!" Dacus raised his hand and said in a low voice.
Druki and the Skinks paused, observing, trying to pick out the slightest movement in the darkness. A faint rustling sound returned, and somewhere further up the passage came the sound of rapid footsteps, followed by the sound of broken pottery and loose stones being knocked over.
Suddenly, the same rustling sound was heard from the back of the team.
More than one! What the hell? How many are there?
"alert!"
Duruchi and the Skinks drew their weapons and began to move calmly and cautiously, and soon they surrounded Daquus.
"Throw out a few glowing crystals!" Daquus ordered urgently.
Genevieve moved slightly closer to Darkius, her serrated sword at the ready.
