"I see it's an ancient city that got ruined, but…"
"You are asking why we brought you here, right?" the old merchant smiled, "come on, follow us around and you'll get to know the answer."
William didn't like such an attitude. However, being in such an ancient place made him overcome his doubts.
Any ancient ruins would be filled with treasures and lost knowledge from the past. The weird thing was that such a grand ancient site was situated just under the bustling and lively city on the ground.
William couldn't tell if this city was the origin of the one above, or if the ones who built the city up there found this place by accident. Not to mention the one who gained access here was a group of merchants.
They looked wealthy, not any lesser than any merchant group of the Big Seven back at the fort before the time of the great war. However, they weren't that wealthy or powerful enough to make the best use of this site, or even protect it.
"There are other people here…" just as William followed the group downstairs, and midway, he noticed several shadows moving at different spots down at the Lost City.
"Oh, do you think we own this place? That's not true," the old merchant bitterly smiled, "this place was discovered actually in the old times, back when our city was just small. It was at the time when it was more like a small village, without the fame and glory it has today."
"Oh, how so?" William had an idea about this Lost City. and the words of the old merchant proved it right.
"There is a big family up there called the Vancouf family. One of their ancestors stumbled across this place out of luck. He found lots of treasures, but he knew this city was too big for him or his descendants to own alone. The entire area of this place is at least three times the size of the current grand city of ours. You can imagine how huge this Lost City is. And so he shared this place with other nineteen big families, big figures, strong forces, and wealthy merchants like us."
William now realised that he mistook the words of Lara, or perhaps Lara herself didn't know everything about the old tale of this Lost City.
From her previous words, William guessed that this city was far away from here, not lying directly below the city on the ground, It seemed even after all these years, the city high circle didn't totally explore everything here. The shadows he saw before told him that exploration attempts were still ongoing.
And that was a bit weird actually.
"Then… Where are we going now? And why am I here?" William understood many things, except for why this group of merchants brought him all the way down to this place.
If they acted like this thanks to his Fox master identity, then he'd understand their reasons. But they just did that because he drew the shapes of materials he wanted to buy from them.
"You'll know in half an hour," yet that old merchant refused to tell William anything, kept walking forward once they ended the stairs.
The place was indeed old. The air itself was a bit heavy and suffocating. William could feel his feet get planted with each step taken, deeply inserted into a thick layer of ash, as if he was walking on ice. It felt weird, but this wasn't his first time to walk inside an ancient site.
The merchant group moved as if they knew where they were going. They kept taking turns right and left without any moment of hesitation. And as they didn't say a single word, William kept following them in silence.
Then they arrived at a block of smashed buildings that didn't look any different than others around. However, once they got there, the group stopped, and the old merchant gave others a silent nod.
The other two old merchants moved in unison, without the need to speak or ask anything. They each moved to a direction, took materials, and started to place them on the ground.
"Concealment arrays?" William asked in doubt.
"Shush!" but when he muttered this, the old merchant turned to him and glared in a warning, while placing one finger on his lips and shushing him.
William didn't get why they acted in such a way. But if you were in Rome, act like what Romans did.
William kept his silence, and soon enough the two old merchants finished what they were doing.
During all this, Oakland was having a wide smile on his face, one that told William how much excited this young merchant was. It seemed being here was some sort of privilege or an honour of some sort. But that also told William that this Lost City wasn't seen as a grand secret or anything.
Once the arrays got deployed, defensive and concealment ones, the old merchant motioned towards William and Okland to follow him and others inside.
"Sorry about that, but this place isn't safe…" Once they got inside, the old merchant finally broke the heavy blanket of silence. He turned towards William as he said in a stressed way.
And that told William the reasons behind why this entire city wasn't totally explored even after all these years.
"Are there monsters here?!" William was surprised by this. Ancient ruins were considered dangerous thanks only to the hidden old traps. As these traps were built mainly on lost knowledge, no one would guarantee to detect, defuse, or even guard against them. But monsters? That was the first time he heard such a thing. And he didn't believe it.
Any ancient ruin would be totally sealed, situated deep below the ground. It had a harsh environment, a place that was totally against any sort of life, just like how it was here. So, thinking about the presence of monsters was something unrealistic.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is fre(e)webnovel