Chapter 975 (2/2)

Yet it wasn’t the mound that was the source of that feeling, it was the monolith. Rather solemnly, Randidly walked closer to the monolith and dragged his fingers across the stone that had been worn smooth by wind and rain. There were slight indentations at the base that might have once been carvings, but now they were just differences in texture that even Randidly’s extremely sensitive fingers were barely able to detect.

All these Dungeons were once worlds. Randidly thought with a sigh. It’s easy to forget that. That if we fail to triumph over the System, Earth will just be recycled and used as fertilizer for other possible images. Will humans become the denizens of a Dungeon someday in the eighth cohort….?

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Not if I can help it. That’s why I’m here.

As a sign of respect for those that had been conquered and devoured by the System, Randidly kissed his knuckles and pressed his palm against the stone monument. Just as he was about to remove his hand, his gaze sharpened.

It was faint, but Randidly was immediately shocked he hadn’t noticed it before. This whole area was suffused with an ancient image; that was why plants weren’t growing in the surrounding area. The passage of time had eroded the image to the point it was just an air of solemnity, but it continued even though the meticulously carved statue had been worn smooth. Randidly’s gaze drifted upward to the stone in front of him.

It was now but a tall pillar. The hints of facial features were so slight that they would only be noticed by the peripheral of your vision. Yet the feel of it felt cool and refreshing to Randidly. The flow of water out of a spring, it pooled in this small area.

It was a valuable image, Randidly abruptly realized. The World Tree, especially, would benefit from exposure to this image that seemed so timeless. Yet the reality of the situation twisted Randidly’s face into a horrible grimace as he proceeded past the monolith and began to clear out the interior of the mound.

This image was so strong that it has persisted within the time accelerated world of the Dungeon. During its heyday… could I have stood against an image like this?

And yet… this world became Dungeon fodder. Which means it was only able to defeat the first Calamity. Ultimately, it was consumed by its own darkness.

In the face of that grim reminder of the very real danger that faced Earth, Randidly began to work in silence. The mound itself was about ten meters tall and about twenty meters in diameter. As Randidly dug deeper into the structure, it was swiftly apparent that this wasn’t a natural phenomenon.

The mound was essentially dozens of incrementally larger domes stacked on top of one another. Seeing the way that the copper ore had managed to corrode and emerge from within the inner portion of the domes, Randidly had been operating under the impression that there were valuables stored within the dome that transformed the surrounding materials into copper. So he dug deeper, hoping to find the source of the strange ore.

Despite his hopes, the domes revealed no reward for digging through them aside from a significant amount of the copper ore. Instead, what Randidly found at the center was somewhat more disturbing: a disc of stone that was heavily reinforced with runic engravings.

Scratching his head, Randidly released a sigh. I really wanted simply build a base here. Yet suddenly this has become quite complicated. If this area around this monolith is covered with engravings, it would be safer to move elsewhere.

Yet he didn’t yet pack up and leave for another mound, one without this strange monolith. Because from what Randidly could see, the runic engravings he could sense were just there to maintain the integrity of a drawing that was carved into the stone disc. Perhaps a worthy pursuit in most cases, but what he found on the non-engraved portion of the stone disc made Randidly frown.

Rather clearly, the drawing left there was an arrow.

Based on its direction, it pointed East, toward a thick stretch of jungle and beyond that, to the plateau. Randidly cautiously moved closer to the disc, examining it carefully. Although the engraving on the stone disc was rather clumsy to Randidly’s eyes, the maker had clearly wanted to keep the stone in place at all costs. As the runes clearly still had power, it seemed likely that it still pointed unerringly toward its objective.

Even after frequent scans, Randidly could discover nothing strange about the stone disc. It was exactly what it claimed to be. Cautiously, Randidly approached.

With infinite care, Randidly rapped the knuckles of his metal arm against the stone disc. Nothing happened. Frowning, Randidly proceeded to dig down a meter into the ground beneath the disc. Very soon he discovered that the stone was attached to a metal pillar. Although Randidly dug around it and cleared the surrounding ground, it still stood firm.

For several seconds, Randidly regarded the strange arrow atop the metal poll, still determinedly pointing to the East. Then Randidly shook his head and began to sort out the rest of his new base. As he had cleared out the ground and found no addition engravings, it was likely that this area was safe for him to use. In addition, he still believed that the image hanging around the stone monolith would be extremely useful to him if he submerged himself in it for a time.

Although he was confused by the presence of the strange arrow, Randidly thoroughly scanned it and couldn’t find any trace of runes that would make it more than a peculiar compass. So he instead focused his attention on the structure around him.

The fact that this mound was a series of domes was somewhat awkward for Randidly because he had broken through each of the layers to get here. Therefore, the overall structural stability was somewhat diminished. In addition, Randidly would need to clear out the inner domes to make room to work on forging and his images. His space requirements were rather high

In an ideal world, Randidly would only need to maintain a single dome over his base. But time had been quite cruel to the outer domes. They had slowly been broken down by the elements. It was only after you went a few domes inward that the entire dome would be mostly intact So Randidly carefully cleared out domes from the inside out, looking for the first signs of instability.

Ultimately, that instability came too quickly. Although the domes were quite thin, the instability started showing up when Randidly had only opened up about eight meters of space for Randidly to work with. His mouth twisted. Randidly’s entrance had been altogether too rough.

Therefore, he had no choice but to dig downward. And since he was clearing out a large space anyway…

Randidly figured he might as well take some time to add some of the trappings of modern civilization to his year-long home.