Chapter 243: Creating Ruins?
"So, where are we going?" Vera asked.
"Does everyone have a goal?" Auric asked.
"I don’t," Eva casually answered.
"You know my goal. It will be the ruins with a unique element east of the Alps." Ellia nodded.
"I personally intend to train here, so I don’t particularly have any goals. I just want to cut down more beasts." Eric shook his head. "I want to experience the power of a juvenile-form avatar."
Vera raised one finger. "In that case, I would like to go to the Wind Temple in the north."
"I want to fight higher-level beasts. If I can find an artifact, that’s good, but I’m not exactly concerned about artifacts. Personally, I would like to get the top rank, if possible," added Katarina.
"I understand." Auric thought for a moment. "In that case, should we pick this place?"
He showed a spot on the screen. "It should be a place where there are quite a lot of beasts. This will give us some experience in fighting as a team. We’ll familiarize ourselves with each other for a day first.
"Then we will head to the Wind Temple. After that, we will make a simple adjustment to fit everyone’s goals."
"Now that I think about it, do you have a goal, Auric?" Katarina asked.
Ellia thought that Auric came here to lie low. There were a lot of forces coming to invite him or kill him, so it was best to hide in a place like this. He would also gain some experience.
Auric smiled, giving a somewhat unexpected answer. "Me? I’m just going to hoard the artifacts from all the ruins, including the ruins around this place."
His smile was so innocent, as though he didn’t have any big scheme. This goal was far-fetched, but it served well as a general goal.
However, only Ellia knew that Auric wasn’t joking or saying it lightly.
Auric definitely had the ability to search for all those artifacts.
"Well, let’s go with your plan then." Katarina nodded. "We have one month, but since we have an evolution master here, it should be fine, right?"
Auric nodded. "I haven’t checked other ruins, but if we’re talking about the ruins in front of us, then yes. I should have no problem."
"Great. We will spend time mostly in the Alps, so if you say no problem, then we can stay as long as possible."
"In that case..." Auric picked the spot. The spot was scheduled to depart in ten minutes, so it was perfect because they could go right away. "Let’s board."
They nodded and followed Auric to find the chopper. One transport could easily fit four to five groups, and it looked like they were the last ones to arrive.
Since the others were their competitors, there was no greeting. They all looked at them with contempt. After all, every single person in their group was good-looking.
They couldn’t help but whisper, "Heh. It’s just a pretty group."
"Are they trying to stream their hunts or something?"
"Entertainers. They will probably die for that money."
Auric just ignored them. Instead, he focused on the sight outside.
Once the time was up, the chopper started to rise into the air, but not too high. In fact, this chopper wasn’t the only one. There were four other choppers.
They headed toward the barrier, making Auric wonder if they were going to pass it.
After all, the military base was outside. Auric could see another facility on the ground, most likely the one handling the gate.
However, they could only pass through that gate on foot.
Now that he had gotten closer, he could finally see the gate of the ruins.
The gate was not small. It was a huge gate that reached thirty meters high.
The choppers started queuing up in front of the barrier before two men flew into the sky, using their power to open a passage in the sky.
Auric looked quite surprised.
The ruins contained two elements. They were water and wind. That was why two people were required to open the portal.
But if Auric wanted, he could open it himself.
The choppers flew into the ruins one by one, heading to their respective destinations.
Auric couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, "Are there no flying beasts here?"
Katarina answered, "Flying beasts are the most annoying, so they are priority targets. There should be some flying beasts, but most of them should have been hunted before this."
"I see." Auric narrowed his eyes.
Now that he was in the air, he could see the barrier even more clearly.
’Hmm. The barrier is extremely weak. Somehow it looks different from the barrier in the previous ruins. This barrier looks like...’
Auric suddenly squinted his eyes as if he noticed something else.
"What’s wrong?" Lindwurm asked.
’I’m looking at the barrier right now, but... now that it’s extremely weak, I can see it a bit more clearly. Doesn’t it look like my Edict?’
"Your Edict?" Lindwurm was confused. He didn’t know what Auric was talking about.
’What I mean is the energy for my Edict. In other words, the fusion of elements. However, this is actually much more similar to your advice. It’s combining multiple elements from the same category.’
"I don’t understand."
’Let’s use my fire elements as an example. If I combine multiple fire elements at once, such as Violet Fire, Dusk Fire, Blue Fire, and Absolute Fire, it will turn into one fire element that has the supreme authority of an absolute fire but the flexibility of blue fire, right?’
"Right."
’But what about the rating of this combined element?’
"Because it uses your energy, it will follow your Absolute Fire, so it’s 5.0."
’On the other hand, from the barrier, I think that this is a combination of multiple elements. However, these elements don’t have a name. They don’t possess a characteristic. They only have ratings. In other words, instead of their characteristics, their ratings are combined.’
"What?" Lindwurm widened his eyes in shock. Even he didn’t know such a thing.
’Because it’s so weak that I could figure this out. If it’s a strong barrier, the number of elements mixed in it must have been extremely high. In the end, I can only perceive the result of that combination.
’However, with a barrier this weak, I can see at least three elements in this barrier, specifically within the water-element portion. One is very strong, most likely an ice element. Another is also quite strong but weaker than the ice element. My guess is a snow element. Lastly, a normal water element.’
Lindwurm fell into deep thought.
’Then again, this is the Alps. When we were at that mall, there were all elements because that place was exposed to all elements. It had the heat, the cold, the darkness, the light, and so on.
’There is also research that states that the barriers come from the abundance of elements from one region, right? These elements represent the environment itself.
’In that case, doesn’t that mean we could somehow create a barrier like this ourselves?’
Lindwurm looked dumbfounded. "What? I feel like you’re skipping a few steps in your explanation."
Auric sighed inwardly and continued with his explanation, ’I’m talking about the passive energy. The passive energy doesn’t have the characteristics of an element. If I add my active energy by using my ’Edict,’ the rating of that element will belong to the active energy infused in it, right?
’But if I don’t use anything like that, won’t that barrier become something similar to the barrier of the ruins?’
"But you won’t be able to activate your power without the active energy."
’Well, I will just have to think of something for now. For now, we know that the passive energy is the one making the barrier. Why does a barrier have a higher density? That’s because they’re stacked from multiple elements.’
Lindwurm fell silent. Auric wasn’t exactly wrong. At the very least, he understood the logic behind it. He shouldn’t question how Auric knew about it, but if what he claimed was true, the barrier could be understood.
"Now that I think about it, when you use your power to attack the barrier, nothing will happen."
’From the looks of it, when you attack the barrier, a portion of that barrier turns into active energy. However, because the ruins continue to generate energy, that portion of the energy doesn’t matter.
’Right now, I’m wondering if we continue to apply active energy into the barrier, will there be a limit to how much energy the ruins can produce? For example, why would this place have a weaker barrier? Is it because of the size?
’If that’s the case, won’t it mean that there is a limit to how much energy the ruins can produce? In other words, we might be able to destroy the ruins completely.’
Lindwurm looked surprised. He had never considered this theory before.
Since Lindwurm was contemplating, Auric turned to Katarina and whispered, "By the way, is there a case where the ruins weakened or vanished entirely?"
"Hmm?" Katarina thought for a moment. "Do you mean older ruins?"
"Older ruins?"
"Yeah. After a certain amount of time, the ruins usually disappear."
"Did they get weakened at first? Maybe the barrier?"
Katarina nodded. "Yes. I believe there’s research about that. People speculate that excavating artifacts from the ruins will eventually make them disappear. So, the ruins are like a treasure trove that can be depleted. There’s a limit to how much treasure can be extracted."
Auric’s expression turned solemn. It looked like his theory was correct.
"Why do you ask?" Katarina looked suspicious. Auric asked random things from time to time because he thought about random things. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of random things he had in mind this time.
"Nothing." Auric shook his head. "By the way, when did this place appear?"
"This place?" Katarina raised her head, recalling the information. "It should have been 23 years ago."
"What about those ruins that had disappeared? How long did they last?"
Katarina raised one finger, asking him to give her a minute. She searched for the information on the internet and showed it to him. "There was one that lasted for 38 years. Another one lasted for 54 years. The shortest one seemed to be only 14 years."
"Doesn’t that mean this place is going to disappear soon?" Auric asked.
"I don’t know. People wish for it to last as long as possible."
"I see." Auric thought for a moment. ’If my speculation is correct, there is also a way to make the ruins last longer. If I knew how the ruins were made, I might be able to replicate them and strengthen them. No one knew that the ruins were made of several elements of the same type after all. But with this knowledge, could I create ruins in my backyard in the future?’
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