As guided by Liv, on the opposite side of the iron bars stood a door so large that Luke had to tilt his head back to look up at it.
Beyond the door, searching for a secret passage and descending the stairs, there was yet another door.
It was a situation that could rightly become tiresome.
However, fortunately, the nature of this door was rather clear.
‘Elevator’
Unlike before, the technology associated with this door was built on a structure of modern magical circuits, so the magic sight was reading it very accurately.
If the information read by the magic sight was correct, it was likely an elevator connected to the outside.
At that realization, Luke let out a hollow laugh.
“Haha, how anticlimactic.”
After all, in such a vast facility, it would be unreasonable to have only one entrance through a secret passage.
This was only logical.
To manage a large facility, considerable manpower is required, and significant manpower means that many people need to be able to enter and exit easily.
“This is the largest elevator I’ve seen so far. Could it be for freight? The magic is cut off as well. It won’t operate in this state.”
Luke recalled the empty iron cages he had passed.
Something that had been inside those cages was already gone, so there was no need to use the elevator.
“Could this be all there is to the unique aspect you mentioned?”
“……”
Liv nodded towards Luke.
At Liv’s nod, Luke let out another deep sigh.
‘I seem to have found no significant clues. They must have organized a lot in just one day.’
It was too late.
After healing Gordon, he hadn’t felt well, and delaying had been the cause.
He should have sought the situation out even if it meant straining himself.
“……”
Well, it is questionable whether ‘in that state’ he would have thought to rush to what Yerna said.
“Well, it can’t be helped. Let’s head back. At least we don’t have to go back up the stairs.”
This time, Luke decided to give in and infused magic into the elevator.
-Vrrrrr-.
As Luke infused magic, the light on the button to open the elevator began to shine.
Indeed, it seemed they had only cut off the magic, as the elevator started working normally afterward.
When Luke flicked his finger at it, the large door slowly opened with a familiar ‘ding’ notification sound.
“Let’s get on, Liv.”
“……”
Liv nodded.
——-
-Vrrrr-.
Thus, Luke waited, feeling the elevator ascend.
Perhaps because it was specially made for transporting large cargo, it seemed to be much slower than a typical elevator in terms of speed.
Luke traced his hand along the elevator walls, muttering.
“By the way, this is indeed a sturdy and spacious elevator. If it’s this wide, even a young dragon could fit in.”
The various modern protective magic circles that hadn’t worked when the magic was cut off, while not as powerful as what he had seen with the iron cages, still offered considerable protection.
Thus, the elevator felt somewhat like a mobile shelter.
Soon, Luke stroked his chin and thought.
The existence of such a large and sturdy mobile platform indicated that considerable preparation was needed to transport whatever had been inside that cage.
‘I wonder what they were cultivating down in the basement? An ogre? A cyclops? Or perhaps…’
Could they really have been raising a dragon?
If that were the case, it would be quite frightening, but Luke shook his head.
If he were unaware of the dragon’s extinction, he might have considered it, but that wasn’t the case.
There had been no dragon symbols on the World Tree’s door.
Dragons had definitely gone extinct.
At least, as ‘normal creatures.’
‘Well, given that it’s related to dark mages, there might be a possibility of an actual dragon…’
However, it didn’t seem likely.
There was no way he wouldn’t have sensed the necromantic smell that an actual dragon would emit.
Then what on earth was the ‘main cargo’ of this facility, necessitating such strong barriers?
While contemplating this, something came into Luke’s view.
“Hmm?”
At first glance, he thought it was just a small piece of trash carelessly discarded in the corner.
But upon closer inspection, it was too peculiar to be dismissed as mere trash.
A small cylindrical object that looked to be about the length and thickness of a finger.
He couldn’t tell what it had come from, but it was sure to be a significant clue.
Luke immediately picked it up and began to examine it closely.
As he fiddled with it and carefully checked its structure, he noticed precision grooves along the edges and a design that seemed to operate by fitting something into it, suggesting it was likely used in conjunction with some object.
‘Was what was inside some kind of medication? But I can’t decipher the ingredient label…’
“……Ugh!”
As he inspected the object from various angles, Luke suddenly frowned at the unpleasant feeling he began to perceive.
On the back of the object, there was something black and slimy that felt gooey.
“Ugh, something dirty got on my hands.”
Luke did not hide his discomfort as he moved his hand away from his eyes.
He had promised Yerna not to get his hands dirty, but this felt like a breach of that vow.
Of course, it was understood between them that it wasn’t a serious promise in that sense, so the situation wasn’t too grave.
It was just that something dirty was on his hands, which was unpleasant.
However, feeling something was off, he brought his finger back to his eyes.
“This isn’t some kind of blood or saliva from a creature… Is it slime?”
No, it was similar, but it wasn’t slime.
He had seen countless magical patterns associated with slime’s body.
Thus, through the information read by magic sight, he could confidently assert that it wasn’t slime.
However, beyond just the texture, there was something decidedly unpleasant about it.
It was as if he had felt this somewhere before…
In that moment, a memory that matched that feeling precisely suddenly surfaced in Luke’s mind.
A dark mage, a lich.
The sensation of its corpse melting away felt exactly like this, didn’t it?
Even though he had obtained the lich’s corpse and was actively researching it, he still hadn’t discovered what material made up most of its body.
By then, it had already begun to decay significantly due to exposure to divine power, and the dark magic enveloping that substance had been too thick to discern.
However, this material was a bit different.
It had a more biological composition than dark magic.
Thus, Luke was finally able to identify its nature.
Upon realizing this, Luke immediately felt the clues he had seen rearranging themselves in his mind.
‘The lich that looked so much like a living person, the horned cat resembling this body, the hidden storage, the pairs of materials like twins, the obsessive sealed facility, and finally, the traces and scale inside that iron cage… So that’s what it was!’
With the addition of just one premise he hadn’t previously considered, all the individual incidents began to connect as one.
Yes, if that’s the case, it could explain all of this.
Moreover, perhaps even their underlying purpose!
The moment Luke realized that…
-Clank.
Suddenly, the elevator halted.
Had the magic been cut off again?
No, the magic was still being supplied, so that was unlikely.
It seemed that some object was blocking the elevator itself.
A moment later.
-Pffffff-!
From the ceiling, an unidentified gas began to spew forth.
“Hmm?”
In an instant, surrounded by that dense mist, Luke momentarily expressed doubt.
Could it be a trap?
‘This is gas infused with potent anesthetic ingredients.’
Realizing the composition by its faint scent, Luke immediately held his breath.
’Tsk, was this the design from the beginning?’
He hadn’t sensed anything strange solely using magic sight, so it seemed it was designed this way from the outset.
Maybe he had become overly complacent just because it was spacious?
The contents of that cartridge he’d seen earlier could very well be this gas.
‘There’s a possibility.’
Luke nodded.
In truth, since he was an immortal, most poisons would have no lethal effect on him, but that didn’t mean he was exempt from the physiological effects they produced.
To be ‘unaffected by death’ was not equivalent to being entirely free from the mechanisms of all substances.
Thus, he would feel pain if he were poisoned, and would fall asleep if he ingested a soporific.
Otherwise, he would not benefit from any beneficial potions or elixirs, nor would he be influenced by the various processes produced naturally by the human body, rendering physical activity itself impossible.
And losing consciousness in a place like this would undoubtedly lead to extremely severe consequences, which was not hard to deduce.
However, Luke had no intention of falling into such a predicament.
‘It seems the magic is being obstructed by this gas, I need to defend against it.’
Luke frowned.
Indeed, did such things exist in this age? How bothersome.
The fog felt akin to that of the demon realm.
“It’s been a while since I felt this way.”
And that sensation deepened Luke’s conviction.
Well, in fact, Luke remembered using magic in the demon realm, so while he could still use magic even if affected by this, unlike that time, he was not confident in controlling the strength.
The circumstances he faced in the demon realm and his current situation had too great of a disparity in ability and circle.
Moreover, did he not already have a method to remain entirely unaffected by the gas?
“Liv.”
“……?”
Luke looked straight ahead and continued speaking.
“Please, assist me in dispersing this smoke.”
“…….”
Liv complied with Luke’s command.
