Chapter 118: Entering
The wind whistled past Mo Yan's ears as he sat in the ore car, originally used to transport minerals, and experienced a thrilling ride like being on a roller coaster. Everywhere were rugged rock walls that had been excavated, along with some natural caves containing stalactites. The winding iron tracks seemed to be about to crash into the wall at any moment, only to suddenly turn left or right, sending the ore car speeding off in a new direction.
Various strange gears, large and small, rotated ceaselessly on the iron rails. The massive steam engine installed on the ground was spewing thick smoke, providing them with powerful motive force, which in turn gave the mine carts on the iron rails momentum. This allowed Mo Yan and others sitting inside to quickly enter the underground tunnels.
Discovering the ruins wasn't a big deal for Mo Yan. After all, he wasn't particularly interested in what had happened in this world's ancient past. And since Mo Yan couldn't practice magic, the knowledge within the ruins was completely unattractive to him.
Perhaps some ancient equipment or something in the ruins would make Mo Yan slightly happy, but he didn't need to go there himself. Just dealing with the daily tasks at Thunder Cliff was already enough to keep him busy, where did he have the leisure time to care about these things? If Mo Yan wanted the treasures from the ruins, it would be fine to just assemble an expedition team and let Riesz lead them there, even if they had to give some benefits to the expedition team, but ultimately the profit was still his.
But the ruins discovered this time were not so simple. According to the dwarves, just a breath of air leaking from the ruins was enough to drive the gnomes and kobolds in the mine into a frenzy. There must be something extraordinary inside the ruins. That's why Mo Yan had to come to Tiehuo Fort himself, taking the mine cart into the dark tunnel to find out what was hidden inside the ruins.
This time, Mo Yan didn't come alone. For the kind of adventure that involves exploring ruins and uncovering secrets, Riesz is the expert who has been wandering around everywhere. Apart from Riesz, the mage who is guiding this expedition, Mo Yan also brought along Jones, the black dragon; Claud, the quick-draw swordsman; Regal, a member of the SS who can open all sorts of locks; and Aruba, a warrior with little presence.
As a wandering professional adventurer, Rize was an old hand at adventure and knew what to prepare. After Mo Yan's party arrived at the Iron Furnace Fortress, Rize spent a whole day setting up a temporary teleportation array in the house at the entrance of the mine. He also handed over four magic balls for teleportation to everyone except Mo Yan, so that they could be teleported out in time when there was danger and avoid dying inside.
In such a situation, Mo Yan had no choice but to curse the damn magic resistance. After all, this was not because Rize didn't want to save his life, but because of Mo Yan's own resistance to magic, which made the transmission magic that relied on the magical spirits in space useless to him.
After a few minutes of the mine cart, the mine cart slowed down and stopped in front of the end of the track. Mo Yan and others got out of the mine cart. Ritz tidied up his wind-blown beard and hair, straightened his robe, held his unpretentious wooden staff, and came to the broken rock wall, peering into the brick path inside.
"These ruins are the most ancient I've ever seen." Riesz crouched down to examine the brick material, saying: "Moreover, it doesn't belong to any country. These bricks contain minerals that can be used for magic, and this corridor should be part of a huge magic array."
"Is it very powerful?" Mo Yan patted the dust on his pants and asked Rietz, "It seems that as long as something is huge, it must be very powerful. And if what you said is true, these bricks can either be sold or used as your materials, right?"
A small light ball shot out from Rye's staff and flew into the corridor of the ruins, flying far away until Rye couldn't see it anymore. This situation made Rye estimate in his heart, he turned to answer Mo Yan: "As long as there are enough attached magicians here, with these materials, we can equip a dozen or so legions with magic weapons."
"That's right, but Whitebeard, enchanting doesn't just rely on a single material." Jones said from behind Mo Yan: "And to separate the ore from these bricks, it will take some time. This time we came here not for these things, the relics that can do such things must hide important things."
"Treasures in the ruins, even if the ruins are damaged, they are still worth a city." Claud smiled and said: "When I was young, my grandfather told me many stories about his adventures in the outside world when he was young. Strange mechanisms and traps, evil demons and greedy humans, but in the end, Grandfather always won."
"If he hadn't won, you wouldn't be here either." Aruba tightened the axe on his back and also got down from the ore car, saying: "Let's go in quickly, we can't explore the ruins by standing at the door. I want to find some ancient beautiful jewelry as soon as possible and bring it back to Emily as a gift."
Aruba walked into the ruins, Mo Yan agreed with Aruba's words and followed him in. Jones, who had always been cautious, naturally followed closely behind Mo Yan, protecting his master's rear at all times. Seeing that the three were completely ignoring the danger within the ruins, they carelessly entered the ruins one after another. Riesz could only follow them in, while Regal and Claud took up the rear, entering last.
As an expedition team to explore the ruins, Mo Yan's arrangement is reasonable. With his strong power, he will not be afraid of the dangers in the ruins and can take care of the safety of the entire team. Rize has rich experience in exploring ruins and as a great wizard, she has strong abilities, can identify common magical traps in the ruins, and provide professional exploration experience.
Raguel, born from the shadows, has clear ideas and perceptions on many things, and his clever mind can also handle sudden events. With Claud's quick reaction to cooperate with him in the rear, the entire team's tail can be safe, and Moyan, who is opening the way at the forefront, can also move forward with peace of mind.
Gradually, Mo Yan's figure disappeared into the distance in the corridor. The slightly sloping passageway seemed to lead to the center of the earth. Except for the green bricks around him, there was no other scenery. The entire world, except for the footsteps of six people, seemed to have no other sounds.
Time slowly passed, and the six people had already taken a short rest three times. The few who could still chat also began to have nothing to say. Apart from walking, they were still walking, and the long tunnel seemed to be driving people crazy, but there was no end in sight.
"How long have we walked?" After walking for a while longer, Aruba finally stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead, asking Mo Yan, "Why does it seem like we can't finish this entire passageway? I'm getting hungry, we must have been walking for a whole day already. Why haven't we seen anything else yet?"
"We've only been walking for half a day." Mo Yan smiled and said, "From the moment I realized that the passage went on forever, I started counting in my mind. From when we entered until now, it's only been half a day, perhaps because the environment hasn't changed at all, so you feel like time has passed very slowly."
"Is this some kind of magic?" Mo Yan also felt that continuing on like this wasn't a solution, so he turned his head to ask Rize: "Otherwise, no one would have built such a long tunnel, and the color of the bricks here is also problematic. Long-term staring at the unchanging blue will make people melancholy."
Ryder thought for a moment and said, "I don't know how to explain it either. I've already said that this tunnel is part of a huge magic array. So it's normal to have strong magical reactions here, and I'm not sure if we've fallen into some kind of trap."
"Our route shouldn't have repeated itself." Reg said after listening to Ritz's words: "Since the first rest, I've made quite a few marks on the road. If we were going in circles, then I would notice the marks I've made, but so far I haven't seen any of my marks."
"That's to say we're not walking in circles?" Mo Yan nodded and said: "Or maybe there is some kind of power that has removed the marks, so as to make us wonder whether we are walking in circles or not. The only way to find out is to go back and see if the mark you left is still there. If the mark is still there, then it means... this road is just very long."
The six people, unaware of whether they had fallen into a magical trap, could only turn back to the markers that Regal had previously set. After walking for nearly half an hour, Regal finally confirmed that all the signs he made were gone, which also meant that they had unknowingly fallen into some kind of strange magical trap.
+++++++++++++++++
Collect and recommend
How to write about ruins (this chapter feels unsatisfying)

