Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 140 (Part 1)

Excluding Larry, the group of four diligently wandered around, collecting Magic Stones. Rodin used his Magic Hand to quickly pick out 5 or 6 Magic Stones at a time with ease.

“Hah, I think we’re finally done.”

“Big Brother Rodin, I’m so tired.”

“Take a break. I’ll keep investigating this place for a bit longer.”

“It’s fine.”

It took nearly an hour to finish sorting through all the Magic Stones. The number of Magic Stones they collected had long since exceeded 4,000.

“There’s really a lot of them.”

“Brother, how many are there in total?”

“4,718.”

That was the total count of Magic Stones gathered from inside the rift, outside the rift, and the cavern. Although the number was staggering, the quantity of Magic Stones that had lost their function was even greater.

If all of them had been intact, the amount would have approached nearly 100,000.

“They must have some use if we went to all the trouble to collect them, right?”

“Probably. If we read those wall inscriptions properly, we might be able to figure out their purpose.”

After finishing the sorting, Bianca retreated into the carriage. She had been concentrating so intensely that her mental fatigue had reached its limit. She was so exhausted that even the thought of lifting a finger felt unbearable.

“For now, I guess we should clean this up a bit.”

Rodin pushed the dysfunctional Magic Stones into one corner. Ideally, he would have stored them all in the subspace of his bracelet, but that would take far too long.

The subspace of the bracelet could only store items that it physically touched. To put the Magic Stones into the subspace, he would have to pick up each one by hand.

The task of storing them was several times harder than simply sorting through them.

“Hmm.”

“Young Master, can you read this?”

“I can get a general idea of what it says.”

Rodin turned to the wall inscriptions and began reading them one by one.

Fortunately, the text was written in characters he recognized. Although he couldn’t understand it perfectly, he could grasp the overall meaning.

“Brother, what does it say? I can’t make sense of a single word.”

“This is…”

At that moment, Bianca, who had been resting inside the carriage, poked her head out. She seemed curious about the contents of the inscriptions.

“These are letters used in the late ancient era. Do you know what the ancient era refers to?”

“It’s the era before the Demon King appeared, right? A thousand years ago.”

“That’s correct. These letters were used in the period right before the Demon King emerged. This space was created by a nation called the Rophelia Kingdom.”

Larry and Bianca had no idea when the Rophelia Kingdom existed. Beyond the commonly known historical facts, the two were completely ignorant about the ancient era.

“I have no clue.”

“The Rophelia Kingdom was founded about 200 years before the Demon King appeared. You could say it belongs to the late period of the ancient era. It was a golden age for the kingdom, but it was ultimately destroyed by the Demon King.”

“I thought the Demon King only appeared in the Eastern Continent and caused havoc there?”

“Among the nations that existed in what’s now the Central Continent, there was only one kingdom that was destroyed by the Demon King. That was the Rophelia Kingdom.”

Rodin gave a brief explanation about the Rophelia Kingdom.

The late ancient era.

At that time, the Rophelia Kingdom was nearly a hegemonic power in the current Central Continent. It was the strongest nation, exerting immense influence over other countries.

“Ah! Did they fight the Demon King because they were the strongest?”

“That’s how the story goes. Great powers are often seen as having certain responsibilities. That’s what I thought too.”

According to recorded history, the Rophelia Kingdom mobilized an enormous amount of resources to kill the Demon King. It was said that the kingdom staked its very survival, committing over a million people to the cause.

History portrayed the Rophelia Kingdom as fulfilling its duty as a hegemonic power to protect the continent.

“But are you saying that’s not true?”

“Based on what’s written here… Hmm, it’s possible that what we’ve been calling the Demon King wasn’t actually a Demon King at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Big Brother Rodin! You’re being too vague. Explain it properly!”

Rodin hesitated to speak. He wasn’t sure if he should share this information with his siblings.

The content written on the wall was completely different from what was known in history. It was entirely new information about the Demon King, something that could potentially cause a huge stir.

“Well, it’s up to you to decide what to think. According to what’s written here… hmm… the Demon King was actually created by the Rophelia Kingdom.”

“What?”

“They created it?”

Larry and Bianca were, as expected, utterly shocked. Rodin himself couldn’t believe the contents of the inscriptions.

“It’s hard to think of this as a lie, considering the information puts the Rophelia Kingdom at a disadvantage. There would be no reason to go out of their way to record something that paints them in such a bad light.”

“Then, the Rophelia Kingdom fought the Demon King because…”

“They had to clean up their own mess. Well, they failed in the end, though.”

Among the nations in the current Central Continent, the Rophelia Kingdom was the only one destroyed by the Demon King. Excluding Rophelia, every nation that fell at that time was located in the current Eastern Continent.

The Demon King had wreaked havoc in the Eastern Continent but then abruptly changed course and headed straight for the Rophelia Kingdom. There, it annihilated all life it encountered.

“Big Brother Rodin, was it because of the Magic Stones?”

“Yes, it was all because of the Magic Stones. That’s why, before the Rophelia Kingdom went to confront the Demon King, they gathered all the Magic Stones and sealed them here. Over time, the Magic Stones would eventually lose their function.”

As time passed, most of the Magic Stones did indeed lose their functionality.

‘Still, I doubt they expected some of the Magic Stones to remain intact even after a thousand years.’

They also couldn’t have foreseen that tectonic shifts would cause this place to open up. If they had known, they might have taken the trouble to manually destroy each stone instead.

“Couldn’t they have just destroyed them? Why did they go to such lengths?”

“If you destroy a Magic Stone, it explodes.”

“Oh!”

“Plus, they’re incredibly tough. You can’t even cut them unless you use something like an Aura Blade.”

Creating Magic Stones wasn’t particularly difficult. Although it required a long time to absorb mana, the process itself was simple—at least for Rodin.

However, disposing of them was a completely different story. To destroy them, a master-level swordsman would have to use an Aura Blade to carefully cut the core piece by piece.

“So getting rid of them is that hard.”

“Exactly. As Magic Stones absorb mana and convert it into magical energy, their exterior hardens. If you recklessly try to break one, it might explode. They’re troublesome items in many ways.”

“Then this place isn’t a storage facility—it’s a dump site.”

“Well, you could say that.”

The Rophelia Kingdom had built this place to dispose of the Magic Stones. So, as Larry said, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it a dump site.

“Are we done here now?”

“We’re done with our main task. Let’s just check out the passageway one last time.”

The rift Rodin had entered through wasn’t originally a doorway. It was a section of the storage facility’s wall that had collapsed due to tectonic shifts, creating a path to the outside.

“There’s a passageway?”

“According to the wall inscriptions, it should be this way. Hmm, how do we open this?”

The passage appeared to be a push door from the outside. From inside the storage facility, however, it needed to be pulled open. Unfortunately, there was no handle. On the surface, it just looked like a wall, making it difficult to open.

“Young Master, shall I give it a try?”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

“Wouldn’t it work if we just make a hole and pull it open?”

“Go ahead and try.”

Hyung_Otaku2

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