After Hohenheim told his discovery, Arthur fell into a long silence.
So much so that Hohenheim couldn't help but ask, "Master Arthur, what are you thinking about?"
Arthur raised his head, looked at Hohenheim, and said seriously: "I'm thinking about whether to move..."
Judging from the scale of the ruins, a powerful civilization once stood here long ago, but this powerful civilization was instantly destroyed by something.
Deep within the ruins, there remains a magical reaction comparable to that of the [tomb of Albion], which may be the culprit for the destruction of this civilization.
Who knows what is hidden here? When everything is unknown, developing here is like sleeping next to a timed bomb with no visible timer, it may explode now or the next year who knows.
Hohenheim smiled. "Don't worry about that. That source of magic power is very stable. For example, it's like a diamond in the mundane world, where its molecules are tightly locked together and difficult to break."
"Actually, there were some errors in what I said earlier. Rather than saying that the ruins were caused by that massive source of magical energy, it's more accurate to say that this civilization would rather see the city reduced to ruins than that massive source of magical energy getting damaged."
"Honestly, from the perspective of a magus, I am very interested in what lies deep within the ruins."
Hohenheim is very interested in the ruins because of the source of magical energy that exists deep within them.
Similarly, Arthur is also interested in this ruin. This interest comes from both personal curiosity and consideration for the development of the entire town.
In this alien world, his civilization is not alone. But even after learning this, they still know nothing about the world beyond this endless forest.
If you want to know the specific situation of this world, this ruin should be able to provide the answer.
"Before continuing to explore the ruins, let's deal with the monster near the town first."
Arthur brought the conversation back to the original topic.
"Of course." Hohenheim nodded.
After Hohenheim left to find Porucus to ready the army Arthur heard the sound of a system notification.
[New quest generated]
[Side Quest: Lay Your [Heart] Bare, O Fallen City]
Deep within the heart of the ruins, a powerful magical reaction stirs.
Once, this magnificent city guarded its core with blood and steel, choosing destruction over surrender.
Now, as our settlement grows in its shadow, the question falls upon our leader:
What course of action shall we take?
1- Let the secret remain buried.
Relocate the town away from the ruins.
Rewards: [Broken Town Plastic Model]
2- Balance growth and investigation.
Continue developing the settlement while cautiously prying at the mystery.
Rewards: [1 Random Skill Level Increase + 1 Random Event]
(40% Negative | 20% Positive | 40% Chaotic)
3- Unearth the hidden core.
Concentrate all efforts on uncovering the secret.
Rewards: [Broken Historical Tablet + 1 Relic + 1 B-Level Skill]
'A new quest, huh? Well, let's look at the pros and cons of each choice. The first is pretty much the system telling me that relocating and ignoring the problem will only lead to the town's destruction. The second is also a no-go; maybe I would have tried it if it was a game, but now, with those event chances? Nope. And the rewards aren't even that good. The third is probably the correct choice and the safest for the town, even if it seems dangerous.'
..........................................
Hohenheim moved quickly. After finishing his conversation with Arthur, he followed Porucus to the depths of the ruins, near the monster's habitat.
It is worth mentioning that Arthur is also in the team.
The strength of human order is directly linked to the strength of the Heroic Spirits.
"As human order grows stronger, so too does the power of the Heroic Spirits, Hohenheim's strength, however, is diminished compared to his original self in the Throne of Heroes. This means that as the town develops, Hohenheim will also grow stronger."
The loss of strength is only at the level of basic attributes, skills and knowledge are not affected at all. For a Caster, who believes that "knowledge is power", the impact is far less than that of other combat-type Servants who rely on their attributes.
The Heroic Spirits and his faction are directly linked, and the same goes for Arthur.
His attributes have been enhanced by human order, and he has been given several inherent skills at the start.
After the town upgrade, Arthur also benefited from it. His attributes improved and were higher than that of Porucus.
The most important thing is the gift he got after trying to learn magicraft from Hohenheim the new skill [Magic Affinity].
The effect of this skill is still simple and crude, giving Arthur the qualifications to learn and use magicraft.
The magical energy is the foundation of the Type-Moon world lies in magic circuits.
Magic Circuits are the foundation of a magus, They determine the amount of magic power the body can draw upon.
Magic Circuits are divided into quality and quantity.
The more magic circuits there are, the more magic power can be absorbed and stored.
As for the quality of the magic circuit, it represents how much and what level of magic power each circuit can hold.
Quality and quantity are combined. It doesn't mean that a magus with more magic circuits can crush a magus with fewer magic circuits.
Manaka Sajyou only has one magic circuit, but this circuit goes straight to the root, do you think any of those "noble" magi can defeat her ?
Arthur's magic circuits are of good quality and quantity, and he can be considered a genius in the Mage's Association.
As for the magic crest, Arthur doesn't have it, but it's not a big problem.
According to Hohenheim, Magic Seals were a great invention after the Age of Gods, used to preserve the mysteries of the family as much as possible during the AD era when mysteries were declining.
The environment of this world is unique. Although it is not as overflowing with ether as the Type-Moon age of gods, the fluidity and activity of the Great Source Magic Power are terrifyingly high. At the same time, the "mystery" is also quite high.
Although the crest can increase the performance of family spells, it also fixes the direction.
Arthur was planning to learn magicraft from Hohenheim, who was a good teacher.
However, he has been very busy recently and didn't have much free time.
Arthur came here this time to see with his own eyes how the heroic spirits fought and how magicraft was used.
Leaving the town and entering the ruins, the party encountered wild beasts wandering through the ruins before reaching the location of the monster.
The beasts outside the ruins were cleared out, but it was difficult to kill the beasts deeper in the ruins, resulting in a considerable number of ferocious beasts still lurking there.
The lurking beasts were dealt with by Hohenheim before they could even make a move.
Flames ignited from the beast's body out of thin air, and in the blink of an eye, the beast became a charred corpse.
Or the solid earth suddenly becomes as soft as a swamp, swallowing up the beast.
Another hard rock spike directly pierced the beast's head.
A ball of clear water wrapped the beast, and then the high pressure crushed it.
The way to the monster was smooth and uninterrupted.
Arthur looked at the four-colored light spots surrounding Hohenheim.
That was Hohenheim's masterpiece and also the highest achievement of alchemy - artificial elemental spirits.
"the Magic energy made the creatures here more powerful than their normal counterparts."
Stopping to rest for a while, Hohenheim collected the flesh and blood of a beast, and then spoke.
Arthur nodded.
The beasts in the ruins are indeed generally stronger than those in the forest.
After walking forward for nearly ten minutes, Porucus saw the mark left when he explored this place last time.
"The place where the monster was last discovered is just ahead, lord Arthur, Master Hohenheim."
After checking the marks, Porucus stood up and spoke respectfully to the two.
"Yeah, I heard..."
Hohenheim nodded slightly.
"The wind spirit brought me a message. There's a big guy ahead."
The crowd continued to move forward, and after passing a broken pillar, a huge monster covered in black appeared in the open space in front of them.
In the original world, Arthur has seen many monsters through various films, games and other media. Companies used cgi and put them on TV, making them look lifelike.
However, those monsters always lack a sense of reality. This lack of reality comes from the fact that the monsters exist in the world behind the screen, rather than being seen in reality.
Now, the sense of reality of the monster is complete at this moment.
A hundred meters away, the behemoth lying on the ground brought a sense of oppression just by looking at it. The remains of various beasts piled around it declared its dominance over this territory.
Hohenheim's calm face also showed a bit more caution.
The environment of this ruin is very special. The magic power spread by the huge source of magic power deep inside radiates here.
The influence and the erosion of many years have given rise to some extremely powerful creatures here, such as the one in front of them.
Due to the influence of the high magic power in the environment here, the monsters have developed magical organs and are extremely resistant to magic. Simple magical attacks may cause minimal damage to them.
"Master Arthur, please wait here."
"Centurion Porucus, please guard here."
Hohenheim was ready to attack the monster, but he didn't need anyone else's help.
It is extremely difficult for ordinary people to intervene in the battles between Heroic spirits, even professional soldiers... unless there is an extremely large quantity.
Arthur's purpose was to inspect the monsters and observe the servants' fighting styles. In other words, he wants to get a direct impression of Hohenheim's strength.
Hohenheim's figure gradually became illusory. This was not a manifestation of the Heroic Spirit turning into spirit form... Their state of being an incarnation could not be transformed into a spirit, and their form of existence was a real flesh and blood body.
By manipulating the wind element, one can alter the atmosphere's refractive index, rendering the body visually invisible. At the same time, the wind suppresses air currents, preventing the user's scent from spreading.
As for sound, since the whole body is in a vacuum, sound will not propagate.
In this way, Hohenheim slowly approached the earth dragon.
The activity pattern of the earth dragon is very monotonous.
It spends most of its time in slumber, resting anywhere from a week to half a month. Upon waking, it forages relentlessly, consuming vast quantities of food. Judging by the scattered debris nearby, this ground dragon has been dormant for nearly half a month.
The Earth Dragon slowly opened its bronze, slit pupiled eyes. In that instant, magic flames of searing heat erupted, igniting the black armor covering its massive body and staining its entire form in a burning crimson glow.
The Earth Dragon stood up, turned its heavy body, and faced Hohenheim who appeared more than ten meters away from it.
The extremely high temperature flames did not seem to cause any damage to the earth dragon. The monster's thick scales protected the flesh underneath.
The flames instead angered the Earth Dragon, and it roared like thunder.
Its sturdy limbs moved, charging towards Hohenheim's position. The kinetic energy of its heavy body could easily shatter steel, let alone flesh and blood.
Looking at the charging Earth Dragon, Hohenheim's expression remained unchanged.
Among the four-colored light spots wrapped around him, the artificial elemental spirit representing the earth element moved.
The magic power spread to the ground, and in an instant the ground under the earth dragon's feet became extremely soft, a piece of the ground turned into quicksand, and its body involuntarily sank into it.
The earth Dragon struggled incessantly within the quicksand. It opened its mouth, and golden-red magma gushed out. The magma merged with the sand, eventually forming a magma pool. Within this magma pool, the earth Dragon moved freely.
The idea of restricting the movement of the Earth Dragon failed, and Hohenheim continued to change his tactics.
Water droplets seeped into the air, large masses of clear water condensed in mid-air, and then scattered downwards.
The water and magma reacted violently, and dark, solid obsidian formed around the earth dragon.
The water was sprinkled on the body of the earth dragon, and collided with the extremely high temperature of its surface, bringing a large amount of water vapor.
The steam was caught by Hohenheim the next moment, and all the heat was extracted, turning it into frost that covered the surface of the earth dragon.
Thermal expansion and contraction are common physical phenomena. Under the huge temperature difference, the hard scales of the earth dragon began to crack, revealing the dense muscle fibers underneath.
The cyan wind spirit began to move, drawing air into a vortex above the Earth Dragon's body, this vacuum destroyed the cracked scales.
This scene is like peeling off the hard shell of a lobster, revealing the soft, tender meat inside, blood gushed from the earth dragon's body.
Water is the source of life, and blood contains a large amount of water. This is also true for the monster in front of him.
The blood was forcibly drained from the wound, causing the Earth Dragon to suffer severe secondary trauma.
Under such circumstances, the ferocious monster's life quickly faded away, and it eventually became completely silent, and its bronze pupils dimmed.
Seeing that the situation was settled, Arthur and the accompanying soldiers left the safe area and came to Hohenheim.
"Well done, Hohenheim. Your skills are really impressive, the fight ended in no time"
Arthur looked at the huge monster in front of him, the corpse of the monster, and admired it from the bottom of his heart.
The battles between Servants were described in the original work as the "realization of mythology." Now it seems that this is indeed the case.
The monster that looked quite powerful was like a toy in front of Hohenheim, judging from the battle alone, the situation was basically a one-sided beating, what's more, Hohenheim didn't even use his noble phantasm.
"Thank you for the compliment…"
Hohenheim nodded and accepted Arthur's praise.
"That's simply because this monster isn't very strong. If it were a monster that was a well-known in mythology, I probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it."
In fact, this monster is very difficult to deal with for magi who use other kinds of magicraft besides elemental magicraft.
Magic resistance can greatly reduce the power of magic attacks. A large part of the reason why it can be dealt with so easily is that elemental magic has the effect of a physical attack.
Those who are truly suitable for hunting monsters are the heroic spirits with legend about their skills in hunting or experts in using weapons and killing monsters in the Age of Gods like Scathach or Atalanta or Siegfried for dragons.
"The body of this monster is a good magic material. You can carry it back to the camp so I can make some mystic codes."
"Blood and flesh, with a little processing, can be made into potions."
"Porucus, send someone to bring the monster's body back to the town intact later." Arthur gave orders to Porucus beside him.
If the purpose was just to clear out the monster near the camp, this operation would have ended perfectly already.
But it was obvious that neither Arthur nor Hohenheim had any intention of returning home.
"Hohenheim, it seems we have the same idea." Arthur said to Hohenheim.