439 Solar Eclipse (1/2)

They were finally close enough to the ruins after a day. Zero decided to go ahead first with Truen while Bob and Jermine waited at a distance away from the ruin because there was something off about it.

”There's an ill magic surrounding the ruins,” Zero said and Bob agreed.

”Don't go too far, master. If something goes wrong, summon for me. I will get everyone out of there at once.”

Truen readied Sureshot and told Jermine to prepare a camp with Bob from a safe distance. Even though the mole girl couldn't use magic, she was able to see the mana flow surrounding the ruins like a balloon. The mana glow was stronger than anything Jermine had ever witnessed and she felt nervous for the elven brothers.

”P-Please be very careful!” she begged as they climbed onto their sand walkers.

Bob and Jermine got to work immediately, setting up camp for them. It was only midday but for some reason, it felt like dusk. The air was cold so they worked quickly to make a shelter. Could it be that another sandstorm was approaching? With nothing better to do, Bob asked Mii to give them some monster corpses to dismantle while waiting for Zero and Truen to be back.

”Do you sense that?” Truen asked as they got closer to the buried ruins. Zero had to pull up his cloak's hood so that the wind wouldn't throw sand into his eyes.

”It's a very ancient magic, I need time to break the seal. This could very well be the gnome city we were searching for!”

Truen agreed and fired a few magic arrows in the air to test where the barrier was. The area was larger than they thought it would be, it wasn't just a simple ruin. From the top, it looked small and from a distance, it looked like a single building or a small town. However, up close, Zero shared with the archer exactly how big the underground architecture spanned. This wasn't just a town, it was a city. Zero could be right about them finding a gnome city but Truen was more worried about finding the truth. If this was truly the city of gnomes and nobody had heard from them for years, they could very well be an extinct species.

The magic arrows flew and landed on the top of the ruins before shattering with a fizzle. ”There's an anti-magic barrier here. Let me go first,” Truen said but Zero refused.

”Do you have any other skill apart from magic and combat?” the doctor asked and Truen remained silent. It was true, he didn't have many skills at his disposal if the city was completely anti-magic.

”Let me go,” Zero reasoned. ”If something goes wrong, I'll teleport out using the void or summon Bob. You should have noticed by now that these ruins are not on the same level of magic that we normally use.”

After hesitating for a while, Truen nodded. ”Don't cut off contact with me,” he warned Zero who grinned and promised that he would update them after he found a way to get inside and disable the ancient magic.

The top of the ruins buried by sand wasn't too difficult to get to but Zero had to dismount the sand walker halfway because it was too steep. He sent the good steed back to camp and focussed on his task.