Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"Detective, that was impressive, your Silvermoon Slash just now was almost more powerful than my Sunlight Gun. Sage-Level Relic, truly extraordinary."

Having confirmed the opponent's death, Miss Beyas praised between breaths, taking a small bottle filled with holy water from her pocket and drinking from it, as she had expended a considerable amount with the Arcane Techniques she used continuously.

Shard looked down at the necklace on his neck then back at the body of the Five-Ring Sorcerer. If the opponent hadn't opted to transform into Ghost Mist, the three of them wouldn't have won so thoroughly.

"Even among Sage-Level Relics, the necklace you borrowed from some lady, detective, is quite amazing, oh~"

Miss Annette grimaced in pain, clutching her chest and moaned before sitting down on the stairs. Even in victory, the cost was not absent; she was injured.

Neither Shard nor Miss Beyas checked on Miss Annette's condition; the former quickly walked toward the stairs to listen for any footsteps outside, while the latter kept a vigilant watch over the paper-strewn underground, on guard for a possible second Circle Sorcerer.

"No problem."

It was quiet for a good bit before Shard said softly.

"All clear here too, the battle ended fairly quickly."

Miss Beyas stated, both were decisive and reliable individuals, and Shard appreciated such qualities in these ladies.

The young female sorcerer continued to scan the surroundings alertly, while Shard took a small water-filled bottle from his pocket and approached Miss Annette:

"Drink some, not too much or you'll get hiccups. If the external injury is severe, you can pour it on the wound."

The desecrated silver light glittered on the surface of the water. After Miss Annette took it, Shard conscientiously turned away, only turning back to take the empty bottle when the lady behind him whispered that she was better.

Shard had numerous healing methods; Satiety Food treated physical injuries, Cyndia's Silvermoon Blessing healed mental afflictions, and the Ever-Youth Leaf, if used as a consumable, could completely restore someone from a critical condition.

This mission, his combat power aside, just his supportive abilities were sufficient to make an impact.

"Need more healing?"

Shard asked this as well, but Miss Annette stood up, shaking her head:

"I'm alright now."

Shard also asked Miss Beyas:

"Do you need healing?"

She too shook her head:

"Not for now, detective, hurry and search the body, then we must leave immediately."

Relics are extraordinarily precious, and the recorded relics would not exceed five figures. Not every Circle Sorcerer possesses a Relic, at least not those outside of the Order or the Academy. But that did not mean the scar-faced man killed had no relics; Blood of Mercury, for that ludicrous goal, had gathered many notable items with the help of Puppeteer's Script.

Although an initial search hadn't produced any suspicious items on the body, Miss Annette simply tossed a coin and confirmed that the man must have had a relic.

"Having a Diviner along sure is convenient."

Both Shard and Miss Beyas shared this thought.

They found nothing again in a second search, but with the help from the voice of a woman in his mind, Shard, wearing gloves, managed to extract a small glass vial from inside the dissected corpse. The vial was nearly disk-shaped but only as large as a quarter of a palm, lacking a stopper and was hidden directly in the liver of the corpse.

For power, a Circle Sorcerer would pay any price, Miss Beyas didn't mind losing an eye, and this scar-faced man had the courage to stuff such a large item into his abdomen. The vial had very little mercury inside, just covering the bottom, and as Shard shook it, the remaining mercury inside swayed too, though no matter how he tilted it, the mercury refused to pour out.

"Do you know what this is?"

Shard asked his companions, and both ladies shook their heads:

"An unknown relic itself is a risk, let's hide it here for now, and we'll take it when we leave; today's most important target is the Silver-Eyed One."

Miss Annette said, and Shard temporarily hid the vial back underneath the corpse.

The basement was spacious, with stacks of cardboard boxes almost forming a maze. After searching the body, the next task was to find the entrance to the underground ruins, which was hidden.

As Miss Annette prepared to perform another divination, such specific searching required some time. Meanwhile, Shard used Echo of Blood to observe the ground, sadly finding nothing except the blood spat out by Miss Annette.

Thus, he resorted to using Echo of the Past to capture sounds in the past 36 hours. The underground storage being left alone, human voices were scarce, so Shard immediately caught on to a sound, the voice of the now-deceased scar-faced man:

"Damn you, Diak, hiding downstairs and not coming out, making me guard the door for you. One day, I will take your place, and I'm going to shove your fucking *stuff into*."

From the tone, it was a voice of complaint.

After that sentence, only the sound of pacing back and forth was heard, and so Shard ended the effect of his arcane technique and listened again.

There were no sounds, apparently, in that time period nearby, nothing had made a noise.

So, he listened a third time.

Still no sound, but Shard patiently waited for several dozen seconds. Surprisingly, he then heard the sound of the underground warehouse door being opened.

He was startled, but seeing that neither lady reacted and the door remained undisturbed, he knew this was a sound from the past.

The door must have been completely opened, followed by footsteps coming from the stairs, then the scar-faced man's voice speaking:

"Mr. Medis, good morning,"

His tone was very respectful:

"When did you arrive in Tobesk? Sorry, we didn't come to meet you."

He apparently wasn't from the Blood of Mercury.

"Just arrived, and the weather here is really awful,"

Mr. Medis, using a heavy Draleon accent, made it hard for Shard to distinguish where the accent was from.

"You must be tired,"

The man with the scar continued, and Shard could even imagine his respectful expression.

"It should be done. So, according to the plan discussed by the school and the Silver-Eyed One..."

"Hmm? The Blood Spirit School? But didn't Miss Galina say they wouldn't arrive until the weekend?"

Shard frowned.

"...it's my job to go into the ruins and confirm what you people have discovered."

Mr. Medis continued.

"No problem, please come with me. It's not easy to access the entrance to the ruins."

Shard frowned as he looked ahead, then raised a finger to his lips to shush his companions, urging them to make no sound. He then followed the sounds he heard into the deeper southern part of the underground warehouse.

The recent skirmish hadn't reached here; the storage crates in the print factory were neatly stacked together.

The sound of boxes being moved echoed, followed by a key turning in a lock and a trapdoor being laboriously opened. Two men said goodbye, one of them clearly entering beneath the trapdoor before it shut again, the lock clicked into place, and the boxes were moved back while the footsteps of the scarred man headed towards the warehouse exit.

"Come on, over here!"

It was only then that Shard spoke out, and the two ladies immediately followed him.

Shard spoke rapidly:

"There's a man, not from the Blood of Mercury, who entered the ruins this morning to meet with the Blood of Mercury. Likely from the Blood Spirit School."

"Such an ancient organization? No matter, no enemy matters. But did he come out again?"

Miss Beyas asked.

"I don't know. I can try to capture the sound again, but I'm not sure how long it might take to hear another valuable clue."

"We don't have that much time to waste. Since the Silver-Eyed One already knows about the attack here, they must also be preparing,"

Miss Annette said as she swiftly shuffled her deck of cards.

"The detective has already found the entrance,"

Miss Beyas said.

"No, not looking for the entrance. I want to try divining for our next move..."

Pulling out the top card, but not showing it to the other two before slipping it back into the deck:

"The divination shows that the Silver-Eyed One likely hasn't realized there's a problem on the surface. No reason to retreat, keep moving forward."

As she spoke, her purple eyes took turns gazing at the others. Shard, for the sake of the "God's Gift Box", would definitely not turn back, and Miss Beyas too, ever eager to comprehend and explore the source of her own powers, would not easily give up: Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

"Keep going. There's no reason to turn back."

Together, they moved the boxes away, finally revealing the trapdoor on the ground where the entrance lay.

Shard, using an unrefined Arcane Technique, conjured blades at his fingertips and crudely severed the lock. Straining, he pulled open the door below which lay a passage sloping steeply down into deeper levels of the underground.

The three stood around the opening, peering down into what seemed like a maw ready to devour their lives with its darkness.

This was a passage dug out by the Blood of Mercury, and the real entrance to the ruins was even deeper. Otherwise, the construction of this building and the layout of Tobesk City's underground pipelines would have surely revealed traces of the ruins long ago.

But the entrance to the underground ruins couldn't be too deep either. According to Miss Annette's estimation, when the ruins were being built, the Order of the Fallen Old God had declined to almost vanishing. They didn't have the financial strength or energy to dig deeply and construct large-scale underground ruins, nor was it likely for the Blood of Mercury to have dug such a deep underground passage within a year.

Entering such a narrow passage, the person at the front might directly face an attack from below. To avoid being detected by the Circle Sorcerers in the ruins, the trio immediately set off. Shard even took out a piece of the "Ever-Youth Leaf", which he had Miss Beyas hold in her mouth. This leaf allowed seriously injured people to maintain their mobility when held in the mouth.

The young lady said little, simply holding the leaf in her mouth and bending to enter the cavern. Shard followed closely behind her, his hand on her back, ready to use "False Immortality". Miss Annette walked at the rear, guarding against any attack from behind.

The man-made tunnel was difficult to navigate, but no one complained. For safety, they didn't produce any light and used a Silence Charm to nullify the sound of their footsteps. As expected, the passage wasn't very long; they moved quickly and it only took about ten minutes before Miss Beyas slowed down.

In the dark, she faintly sensed the passage coming to an end; the exit was just ahead.