Chapter 228

Chapter 228 Strongest Sage, Prepares the Raid

『By security check, you mean in the whole Source?』

『Yeah . Everything besides the hidden rooms . We're gonna look inside hidden rooms that can be seen as well . 』

『 . . . How big is this Source again?』

『Including all the miscellaneous paths, total length should be around 100 kilometers long . One or two days won't be enough if we do this manually . 』

The Source is an enormous facility of an ancient civilization .

Most of the things here are probably non-functional, but I won't be surprised if lots of the paths still are intact .

Same reason why we haven't been found out sneaking in like this .

Were the Source not that vast, the demons would have set up detection magic tools in every corners of the paths .

If that were the case, the time needed to investigate this ruins wouldn't end at this .

『 . . . Are we going to walk all the way through?』

『We might end up having to do that depending on whether the room we're going to now could be used or not . . . Should be no problem though . 』

I circulate mana onto a nearby wall .

Then the wall disappeared . . . revealing a very small room inside .

A room of about two meter wide .

『A hidden room?』

『Yeah . It might be small but it should prove useful . 』

Since the Source is very big on top of being an important facility, there's a lot of hidden rooms inside .

If there are 『Official Hidden Rooms』 that are drawn in the blueprint, there are also 『Unofficial Hidden Rooms』 made by people involved in the creation of the Source, like me .

This hidden room is the latter . . . or rather, it's a hidden room I made in secret .

It's functioned as a 『Source Internal Monitor』 .

During the construction, I had put monitoring devices without anyone knowing in all common areas and of course, all hidden rooms inside the Source .

There were hidden rooms built without my knowledge as well, but in order to make it easier to deal if the Source got misused in criminal activities and such, I sought out and put the monitoring devices in those rooms as well .

By 'all hidden rooms', that's under the assumption that there were no hidden rooms that had managed to elude the past me with camouflage .

I put back the door and activate the magic tool inside .

If this is broken, everything will turn quite a bit more complicated . . .

『Alright, it's working fine . 』

Looks like the magic tools are working correctly .

Soon after, the hidden room's walls display seven people that are inside the Source, and their locations .

『I knew they would be there . 』

I point at medium-sized hidden room located under the warehouse where the masked man fetched the poison .

There's a facility to produce life force draining poison inside, with three demons working .

『They're really making that poison inside the Source . . . Why would they do that in such an easy to find place?』

『Nah, this place is actually difficult to locate . You can't find the hidden room without a specific spell, and even if there are people looking for the origin of the poison, it's easy to overlook the Source . . . As at a glance, it seems as if the poison get brought from outside . 』

『I thought it was weird how they carried it in a cart even though the poison was made inside the Source . . . So it was to mislead people away from the drug's origin . . . 』

『Yeah . . . The real reason might be as simple as the Source's hidden room being the optimal hideout though . 』

There is only one reason why I managed to find the demons hiding in the Source .

Which is my prior knowledge about hidden rooms in the Source .

If I hadn't had that knowledge, it would have been impossible to discover these demons .

I might have managed to correctly guess that these demons were hiding inside the Source by looking at the surrounding situation, but locating the hidden room would have been 100% impossible .

That's just how effective the knowledge to utilize the legacy of ancient ruins is .

Thus it's dangerous to make an enemy out of those who posses such knowledge .

『 . . . Then, we're going to raid this room right?』

『Yeah . That's the plan . . . but these demons, why are they here . . . ?』

I observe the figure of mana displayed on the room's walls .

What shown there are demons that should have not been here .

『Are these demons unusual? They look like ordinary demons though . . . 』

『Yeah . It's unusual . . . rather, if my guess on these demons' identity is correct, they're not supposed to be here . 』

I murmured while looking at the demon in display .

『Demons that aren't supposed to be here . 』

『Yeah . They're not particularly strong though . 』

There are various species among demons .

Some that we have fought so far, 『Mist Demon』 and 『Sub-Demons』 are ones such species .

And these demons displayed now are 『Soil Demons』 .

The species has no particular trait except that they're sturdy compared to other demons, are quick to flee, and are relatively easy to form a herd . . . But 『Soil Demons』 should have gone extinct .

Due to their sturdy and herding traits, 『Soil Demons』 amassed quite a force and turned into a huge threat in the past .

And several thousands years ago, a huge war broke out between three species of demons including 『Soil Demons』 and humans, and as a result 『Soil Demons』 completely went extinct .

We made sure of that fact with the then state-of-the-art detection technology .

I myself helped by using detection magic that could penetrate through Camouflage Facility and detect the very small remains in the whole world to confirm their extinction .

It's simply unfathomable for that conclusion to be wrong .

Yet here these 『Soil Demons』 are .

. . . Not even the past era had a magic that could revive an extinct species .

Even among magic I researched, let alone the possibility of that, there wasn't even a clue to magic that could revive the dead .

The only magic that bears any semblance of connection to revival magic is the reincarnation magic the past me used .

However, that magic only allow humans to reincarnate . It's just impossible for the one reincarnating to posses the body of a 『Soil Demon』 .

『So these demons are unusual . . . But not really strong!』

Alma said that after hearing me .

. . . Let's think about the reason for 『Soil Demon』 survival for later, and focus on defeating them for now .

『They're not strong, but they're tough and quick to flee . In order to beat all of them, we've got to shut out any potential escape path . 』

I left the monitoring room and headed to the room the enemy were hiding .

The enemy room doesn't have monitoring facility like the room we used earlier .

And as the hidden room's walls are made of materials that block out mana, they cannot infer the situation outside by detecting mana .

Therefore, our enemy likely has no clue about our movement .

Now's the time to set things up so they cannot escape .

『Now then, Iris you stand here, while Alma, you're over here . 』

I instruct their positions .

Iris is right in front of the entrance, Alma is slightly away from her .

I inform them my plan after the two have secured their positions .

『What you two have to do is simple . When I get inside to defeat these demons, there's a chance these fleet of foot demons would attempt to run away . . . So your job is to halt those demons and knock them back into the room . 』

『I see, then I should use these arrows!』

Alma picks up some arrows .

These arrows are mana jamming arrow for use against demons that Ruli made before .

The demons would stop on their track with these .

『This is enough for me!』

Iris readied her usual spear .

Well, with Iris's strength, she could easily knock those demons back into the hidden room even without a weapon .

Now's the important part .

『Ruli, you stay here, and the moment I open this door, focus on mana reaction beyond the wall here . 』

I point at the wall right next to the entrance .

This is the most important role in this strategy .

『Beyond the wall, you mean the hidden room?』

『No, I mean the wall itself . There's magic tools embedded inside this wall, however those magic tools can only be controlled on the side of walls inside the hidden room . In the meantime, I'd like you to break one magic tool among the ones inside . 』

『Break . . . Which magic tool should I break?』

『A magic tool that gives off this kind of mana reaction . 』

I augment a spell on a magic stone in my hand .

Of course, the actual magic tool inside the wall itself is very complex, and not something I could make impromptu .

I simply imitate its mana reaction .

But this is good enough as a sample for Ruli .

『I got it! . . . I don't see mana reaction like that now, but it will show up when it's opening and closing right?』

『Yeah . It will only show up for an instant, so watch closely . 』

『Yes!』

Ruli began to focus on the wall .

We'll be doing this without rehearsal, but there should be nothing to worry about considering Ruli's current skill level .

I stand before the entrance to the hidden room .

『Everybody, are you ready?』

『I am!』

『Ready when you are!』

『All's OK!』