Soma explained it as such to the girls, but they still didn’t understand the whole picture.

“Even then, wouldn’t it be a waste to use it this way? They still could have used it in construction or something like that, right?”(Alice)

“…Hmm, think about it this way. Imagine that you have many dungeons that produce all kinds of useful materials, but naturally, the quality and usefulness of those materials will be different from dungeon to dungeon. So if you have a lot of dungeons overflowing with monsters, and because of that there is bound to be a dungeon or two that produce materials that are not that useful when compared to what other dungeons produce. Moreover, you have to keep hunting in that dungeon to avoid having it overflow and explode on you, and that leaves you with a mountain of useless materials that are not worth using. And since their focus is on ruining other countries, they wouldn’t go ahead and sell those materials to other countries and earn some money from them. So other than throwing it away, their only choice is to use said materials to progress their plans, and they did have enough time to collect the materials and build those structures after digging out the necessary space inside the mountains”(Soma)

“…If you put it that way, then I understand what you mean”(Rimi)

“…That’s for sure”(Marina)

“I understood what you want to say, but in the first place, why would they hollow out the mountains? It still doesn't make sense to me!”(Alice)

“Remember, what can be found in the mines of the town of Akud?”(Soma)

“…I see, the Mithril, Orichalcum, and other Magic Ores”(Marina)

“And git rid of the whole town once they were done or found out”(Soma)

“What?! Why would they do that and how?!”(Alice)

“Think about it, what will happen if by any chance all these support structures were to be destroyed at the same time?”(Soma)

“If that happens, the mountains will collapse on top of the town, burying everything and everyone alive!!”(Rimi)

“As I said before, these support structures are made out of a monster material, so they have their own independent Mana flow, and that makes them the perfect material to be used as a medium for Magic Circles. And by applying Magic Circles on the structures the flow of Mana will keep the Magic Circles supplied waiting for the signal to activate and bring the whole thing down. Actually, I have already identified the location of the Magic Circle in this structure. For now, let’s go around checking the other structures”(Soma)

Right after Soma said that the three girls nodded their heads and followed after him to check all the other structures and the Magic Circles engraved on them. After going around through the five mountains checking the structures and the Magic Circles, they went up the spiraling staircases to investigate the structures from bottom to top to look for any additional Magic Circles or anything similar and to investigate the ceilings of the hollow spaces inside the five mountains to check the condition of the mountains from the inside, and to make sure that the mountains are not going to collapse any time soon, Soma applied Fortification Magic on all the mountains from the inside after disabling the Magic Circles, of course. That whole process took the party two weeks to finish.

“….I think today it’s finally time for us to go down that staircase”(Soma)

Soma said that as he pointed at the staircase going downwards located at the center of one of the five mountains, to be exact the mountain that has the steps where the nobles live. Actually, Soma and the girls' investigations revealed secret passageways at the top of the support structures leading to the mansions of what remains of the noble families left here in Akud.

Following Soma, the party headed down the staircase only to find that it was very long, and after going down the staircase for almost an hour a change finally occurred. That it became easier to see due to the Magic Lamps that started appearing at equal intervals along the walls of the staircase. After walking for roughly 30 minutes, Marina started to notice something…

“…I can hear voices. I can hear people talking at the bottom of the stairs, they appear to be guards”(Marina)

“So we have finally found them? Then, we will stop here for today, and we will confront them at another time after we report this to Leona and get her permission and support”(Soma)