### 11~Safe and Sound
### The Upper Rift
The gap overhead had been tightly sealed off. Gazing upward, Dillin couldn’t tell how far the ceiling was. To get out, it seemed like they needed to find another route.
Looking around, Dillin could barely make out the arrangement of the surroundings due to the dim light. Grasping the fire pistol in his hand, he activated its illumination function, holding it aloft like a torch.
The light illuminated the perfectly square-cut walls. Clearly, these were not naturally formed but man-made. Dillin activated the Divine Analysis Technique and immediately noticed the prominent signs of artificial carving on the walls.
“This isn’t a naturally formed ruin. Including the basement, all of this should be man-made,” Dillin proclaimed. “If it’s man-made, there’s bound to be an exit.”
“Let’s move forward; we should find an exit,” he said. Glancing around, there was only one direction they could go—they had no choice.
“What about Aistride and Wenfu?”
“Don’t worry about them. They didn’t fall down here. They’re likely still above.” Dillin picked up a pebble and tossed it ahead. The pebble smoothly passed through a tunnel-like elliptical cave in front of them.
“Who would’ve thought the foundation up there was so fragile that one crack caused the whole section to collapse? Fortunately, it stopped before things got even worse.”
“Should I thank Mr. Dillin for intentionally falling down here to keep me company?” Princess Filisia said teasingly.
“You’re welcome. I’m also grateful that Miss Filisia softened my landing after falling,” Dillin responded.
“Oh, how soft was it, Mr. Dillin? Could you elaborate?” Princess Filisia grinned.
“Let’s focus on finding an exit,” Dillin said, turning away as he realized the princess’s teasing was getting to him.
The two entered the man-made tunnel. Filisia took the lead to ensure his safety while Dillin used the Divine Analysis Technique behind her, firmly gripping his pistol.
The only sounds in the quiet tunnel were their footsteps.
“Come to think of it, we’ve always been on group missions.”
“Hmm?” Dillin was puzzled by Filisia’s sudden comment.
“Isn’t this technically the first time Mr. Dillin and I are on a ‘two-person world’?” Filisia’s voice carried a hint of seduction, and she gave Dillin a flirtatious glance as she turned around.
“Uh…uh….”
“Ah, the light beam above originates from somewhere around here. There must be a source down here.” Dillin quickly changed the subject.
“Any leads, Mr. Dillin?” Filisia’s tone turned more serious.
She was deliberately teasing him to help him overcome the anxiety brought on by their confinement, but it seemed her efforts may have been excessive.
Filia glanced at Dillin, the relatively unremarkable god-child of their team. Most god-children were scholars, the team’s priority to protect.
Taking scholars on adventures was usually inconvenient. First, they were physically frail. Second, they lacked the mental resilience of a warrior and were easily affected by negative emotions. It was like carefully tending to a delicate artifact.
But Dillin was an unusual god-child. In times of crisis, he remained calm rather than succumbing to fear, even after surviving a terrifying fall. His physical constitution was surprisingly strong, which indicated good resilience.
Although, even if he was a fragile scholar, Filisia would still have ensured his safe return.
“Nothing, I’ve never encountered such an eerie force field. Its effects are unclear, but it’s definitely related to mind control,” said Dillin, deep in thought.
Why had only Wenfu reacted to this while they remained unaffected?
What kind of person could create a force field undetectable even by Epic Divine Analysis Technique? What was their purpose?
What was the original purpose of this ruin? Why was it built in Ruglien?
With Filisia’s protection, Dillin moved forward. As the brains of the team, he kept the Divine Analysis Technique active, but his temples throbbed with discomfort—his mental stamina was draining.
Still, he had to persevere, especially now that they were down to two members. He was the team’s “eyes.”
Ahead, Filisia seemed similarly deep in thought.
Neither knew how far this path led or whether they’d find an exit, yet instinctively, neither expressed their doubts. They knew such remarks would only discourage their teammate.
After some time, a flicker of light caught their attention. They reached a sharp corner.
“How long has this oil lamp been burning?” Dillin quipped, noticing the oil lamp hanging at the corner.
The ruin looked like it had been abandoned for over a hundred years. It couldn’t be nuclear-powered oil, could it?
“The enchantment on the fuel of this oil lamp must be extremely efficient,” Filisia said as she picked up the lamp with surprise. “Whoever enchanted these fuel must have been a master of enchantments.”
“How much fuel is left in this oil lamp?”
“About half burned.”
“Do you have mages in the palace who can create these kinds of enchanted oil lamps?”
“No, such lamps tailored for durability are unnecessary in the palace. Moreover, these lamps aren’t in the style of either the Kingdom or the Empire,” Filisia shook her head.
Ah, Dillin was even more curious about who built this ruin.
“Which way should we go?” Filisia asked, holding the lamp toward the fork in the road.
“Let’s try the right,” Dillin threw a pebble down the right path to make sure there were no traps or mechanisms, before cautiously proceeding.
However, the right path was a dead end, leading to a room without a door at the end of the corridor.
Filia heightened her alertness and entered the room first.
Inside were only some moldy beds and burned cabinets. Once inside, Dillin noticed these cabinets and walked closer. The cabinets contained some burnt paper and books. He pulled out a pair of gloves from somewhere and began examining the charred remains.
They were severely carbonized, leaving no clues to decipher.
Dillin frowned and activated his Divine Analysis Technique, using it to attempt to discern the blackened and illegible writing.
Surprisingly, it worked.
A white line appeared across the pages, showing fragmented lines of text.
Even with Epic Divine Analysis, most were indecipherable. Only a few partial sentences and words remained: “demi-human,” “experimental subject,” “negative emotions.”
These words appeared both at the beginning and end of the sentences, with meanings unclear without sufficient context.
“What’s wrong?” Filisia asked, noticing Dillin’s prolonged observation of the burnt papers.
“Using Divine Analysis Technique, I can barely make out a few words on these pages,” Dillin replied.
“Eh?” Filisia leaned in to check, but the text completely obscured by carbonization. If Dillin hadn’t said so, she wouldn’t have noticed there was any writing at all.
Is Divine Analysis Technique so useful?
“What does it say?”
“Most of them are indecipherable, with only a few scattered words remaining. I’m not certain whether these words carry any ambiguity.”
“Would you write them down and show them to me?” Filisia suggested.
Dillin nodded, taking out a piece of blank paper and accepting the ink pen Filisia offered, copying down the words exactly.
“Mr. Dillin, your handwriting is odd,” Filisia, after examining the slip of paper for a short while, remarked sincerely.
“Uh… uh… it’s a bit messy,” Dillin said, somewhat embarrassed; given Filisia’s great literary background, his writing might be hard on the eyes.
“No, I’m not talking about the messiness. The cursive style—whose hand did you learn this from?”
“Wait… cursive? I copied exactly what was here. Perhaps it’s hard to replicate the style, but the original journal’s writing is exactly like this.”
“Excluding the possibility that you copied incorrectly, the person who wrote these lines most likely isn’t part of the population that speaks the common tongue as their first language.” Filisia stated confidently.
“Why?”
“I’ve never seen anyone write the common tongue with such a strange style. It seems the writer habitually writes another language, and is not entirely familiar with the common tongue, so they subconsciously applied their native writing habits to the common tongue.”
“Is that so?” Dillin looked at the words once again, and upon Filisia’s explanation, he saw it too—there was indeed something strange.
“Yeah, it’s exactly like that.”
This cursive style seemed somewhat familiar to Dillin but couldn’t recall where he had seen it before.
Even with just these snippets of information, there wasn’t much useful insight to be had. Finding a way out was the priority.
They exited the room and headed down the left fork. Filisia continued to walk ahead with the oil lamp in hand, protecting Dillin.
Dillin glanced at Filisia’s shoulder and started thinking.
Perhaps it was his imagination, but as they ventured deeper, he increasingly felt the cold atmosphere of the cave intensifying, as if something unspeakable lay at the depths of this artificial underground cave. The feeling of venturing into unknown territory made the hairs on his arms stand on end.
The lamp had initially been enough to light the surrounding dark spots, but as time passed, the illuminated radius seemed to be shrinking. Was the lamp running out of oil? That shouldn’t be the case.
Suddenly, Filisia froze.
“Is there no way forward?” Dillin asked, noticing Filisia’s abrupt halt. Glancing over her shoulder, he immediately paled.
In the dim light of the lamp, ahead of them was a wall giving off a strange odor. On this wall, there were a pair of white eyes just visible.
Dillin felt his hair rising. He immediately raised his fire pistol and aimed it at the wall.
An eerie silence enveloped the area.
Dillin glanced at Filisia and pulled a flash potion from his waist, tossing it behind them.
“Bang!” The area was momentarily illuminated by a blinding white light, revealing the truth behind the pair of white eyes on the wall.
On the dry wall was a layer of bl**d black, oddly shaped like a human form. More bizarrely, at the place of the eyes, there were two small white dots resembling eyes. Additionally, in the brain and organ areas, there were plenty of white substances.
It looked like…
As if someone were alive and pressed into the wall.
Were these peculiar designs a morbidly whimsical choice by the creators of this underground cave?
Furthermore, Dillin noticed that next to the wall was an iron gate, with the switch attached to it.
“Miss Filisia?”
“Yes? What is it?”
“There’s a door ahead, let’s go forward.”
“Alright,” Filisia slowly nodded and walked towards the iron gate.
Seeing this, Dillin heaved a sigh.
“Miss Filisia, you don’t have to force yourself so much.”
“What force?”
“You actually aren’t good at dealing with these overly dark places, right?”
“Huh? What is Mr. Dillin saying?”
“Your shoulders were shaking earlier.”
“Eh? When did my shoulders shake? Mr. Dillin must be mistaken,” Filisia smiled as usual.
“Your smile right now is also forced.”
“Everyone has things they’re not good at. In fact, these people might be more human. So, there’s no need for you to always avoid your weaknesses and pretend to be strong. Just face them.”
Dillin had noticed earlier but hadn’t said anything. Now it was confirmed that Filisia was indeed afraid of the dark, and possibly even ghosts.
In stark contrast to her usually commanding knightly image, this was quite a surprise.
Still, even with her fear, she stayed in front of him, protecting his safety, despite trembling with fear herself.
After hearing this, Filisia said nothing but silently stepped forward and placed her hand on the gate lever. “I will surely bring you out of this ruin unharmed. Just trust me,” she declared with resolve.
