Chapter 147 (1/2)

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Heaven's Messenger

Hikaru switched his job cla.s.s to Wide Area Detection G.o.d: Grand Sonar. He set his Mana Detection to scan his surroundings every second, like a sonar from a submarine. This shouldn't put too much stress on his brain.

Jointly using both Mana and Life Detection every second would give him more information. But compared to the former which searched in a one-kilometer radius, Life Detection only had a range of a hundred meters.

He could see Katy and Selica on top of the tower with his Mana Detection. No other living beings caught his attention. But he detected a mana reaction up ahead, not from a living thing, but from some sort of a spell. Hikaru braced himself in case of traps.

「Let's go.」

Hikaru took the lead, while Lavia and Paula followed. The place was wide enough for three of them to walk abreast, but with the poor footing, he had to be in front to check if it was safe. It was damp inside, and water dripped from the cave's ceiling.

Hikaru lit up the magic lamp hanging by his waist as it started to get dark ten meters in.

「Th-The aren't any monsters in here, right?」Paula asked.

「No. I don't sense anything.」

Paula heaved a sigh of relief. To be more accurate, his Detection didn't sense any monster. If there was something in here with stealth abilities that overpowered his detection skills, they were done for. Then again, no living creature would lay in wait in a cave like this devoid of life.

It might be a good idea to upgrade my Detection some more. My mind tells me there's nothing lurking around, but I can't help but feel anxious. I'd feel much safer if I maxed out either Life or Mana Detection.

Mana Detection maxed out at five points and he already had three on it. Hikaru had two points available for use.

But I don't know about using my skill points up…

He'd rather have points available for use in case of an emergency.

In the end, it all boils down to raising my Soul Rank. Right now, I'm at 42. Selica is over 100, so I can definitely go for three digits.

Hikaru hadn't seen anyone else with a Rank over a hundred. So far he'd only met a few people over rank 40—Unken, Lawrence, and Selyse.

「It's a door.」

Hikaru gestured the girls to stop. They had gone quite deep where light couldn't reach. But the lamp he was carrying showed a metal door ten meters ahead. He drew closer, but couldn't detect any mana reaction.

Hikaru was silent.

「What's wrong, Hikaru? Is something bothering you?」

「No… There's no lock or traps. It's just an ordinary door. And that bothers me.」

Around the door was a wall, corroded in places, and appeared to be made of mortar just like the buildings in Catford. The wall extended to the breadth of the cave. It even looked as though it sunk into the earth.

Hikaru directed his eyes above. They were most likely directly under the rod they saw earlier.

What's going on here? he thought. It looks like the cave formed around the door and wall. Wait, what if that rod meant there's some sort of a paG.o.da buried here?

That was his a.s.sumption at first. But it didn't make sense to dig a hole, build a paG.o.da, then bury it after.

Whatever. Let's just check out what's inside first.

He opened the door.「What the…?」

What happened next, he didn't expect.

「So bright!」

「Are these magic lamps?!」

The interior of the building turned bright all of a sudden. The light looked similar to the one in the Poelnxinia castle. Was this light produced by holy mana?

「Let's go inside.」

「Yeah.」

「O-Okay!」

The inside was shaped like a hexagon about five meters wide. Window frames, a shelf, and table, all made of wood, were painted scarlet, but the coat itself had peeled off in places, and scattered like dust.

Scrolls were neatly placed on the shelf. The table was empty. The room felt like a temple's library. Hikaru's nose caught the scent of dead gra.s.s.

「That's strange. From the outside, it looked like this place might collapse any second, but the inside looks orderly.」

「But it also looks weathered.」

Lavia stooped down and touched a bit of scarlet-colored dust on the bare pavement. It looked to be a speck of paint that had come off.

「It's dry here.」Hikaru said.「Maybe there's some sort of spell that sucks the moisture out, slowing down the place's deterioration.」

「That could be the case. There are magic items that can do that. Though they're mostly used for storage houses.」

Hikaru sensed mana from a corner of the room. It could be the aforementioned magic item. The mana flowing through it was weak. If it ran out now, there was nothing they could do.

「Hikaru-sama, Lavisan! I can't read this scroll at all!」

It wasn't a scroll written in j.a.panese.

「It looks like an ancient version of this continent's common language.」Lavia said.

「Can you read it?」Hikaru asked.

「I can't. But there should be someone studying the language.」

「So if we take it with us, there might be someone out there who could read it.」

Hikaru turned his attention to a corner. There was a set of stairs that went up to the second floor.

「Let's choose what to take later. I want to check out all the floors first.」

The wooden stairs were steep. Cold sweat trickled down Hikaru's face as the steps creaked. With one person going up one at a time, though, no problem occurred.

The second floor was furnished with a table and a chair. A thin carpet covered the wooden floor. Vases lined the display shelf. Needless to say, the flowers had long withered away.

「It feels like a living room…」

「That looks like a kitchen.」

A sink was installed right by the wall. Beside it was what appeared to be a cupboard, closed.

「Looks like there's still a floor upstairs. Let's check all the floors first. There's not really anything here on this floor anyway.」