Chapter 420: Investigation (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
Angele sat by the table and tried to figure out a valid plan after the two wizards left. He checked the files explaining the procedure of the investigation that piled up on his table.
The files were full of vivid images that looked like they were taken with a camera. It was a special spell that was used to help the reader understand the information.
Angele's brow furrowed after reading the files for a while.
One of the images, he noticed that there were three white runes on a wall of the tomb, which formed a triangular rune circle.
A rune circle that looked familiar to Angele.
"It's not the Chaos Realm…" Angele closed the files. "I need to head to the tomb."
He started thinking and comparing the data with the information that was stored in the biochip.
Seconds later, Angele pressed on the top right corner of the table.
"Wendy, bring the log of the big events that happened around the city in the last 100 years. There's something I want to check."
"Sure, department head," Wendy's voice came from the corner of the table.
Minutes later, the event log was delivered to Angele. There were more than 100 books in that pile, but it was only part of the complete log.
Angele had some food at the table and spent the whole day checking the log.
Angele finished reading the information by night and the department head finally came back from the meeting.
Angele contacted the department head and said that he wanted to join the second investigation.
The department head agreed with Angele's decision right away.
The new department head had a weak background, his power level was high and he was lucky during the election. The man did not communicate with Angele a lot, but he thought it should be fine if Angele joined the investigation team.
Angele stayed in the dorm behind the city hall for two days and the investigation team finally started moving.
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In a forest that was about ten kilometers away from the Mermaid's Song.
A white team was moving slowly among the vibrant green trees early in the morning.
The leader was a middle-aged female wizard with a short blonde hair. There was a solemn expression on her face, it seemed like she was taking the mission seriously.
There were about seven to eight people following after the female wizard.
Angele was also wearing a long white robe. There were three old wizards from the academic tower in front of him—they were masters of investigation—and four battle wizards that were selected by the city hall around them. They were all wearing white masks. It seemed like two of them were male and the rest was female judging by the look of their eyes.
"Finally, that's the place." The middle-aged female wizard stopped and turned her head around. She sent the orders to the four battle wizards using energy particles.
The battle wizards nodded their heads after hearing her.
"Masters, the investigation will be reported back by the representative of the organization, so…" The female wizard talked to the three masters in a low voice.
"We'll try our best." A bald old man nodded and responded in a deep tone, "That's all we can say, master Masha."
Masha nodded and her sight fell upon Angele. "Vice Department Head Angele, you don't have to join the investigation, it'll be fine if you return to the city and wait for the result. There are several rank 2 and rank 3 wizards in the team that went missing."
"And some of them worked for me. I'm interested in the ancient ruins and I won't give up this chance," Angele responded politely.
"Fine, let's move on." Masha nodded and increased her speed.
In the forest ahead, Angele could see the entrance to the tomb built in a white stone wall. There were two warriors wearing black glowing armor standing in front of the entrance.
Masha approached the two guards and acquired the access to the tomb.
The team entered the tunnel without saying a word.
Behind the entrance was an arched tunnel that was quite narrow. The visibility here was low as the glowing crystals on the walls were no longer working.
*CHI*
Masha raised her head and a white light ball appeared over the team, releasing some gentle white light.
Suddenly, the tunnel was brightened up.
By the end of the narrow tunnel was a black stone gate with a strange rune engraved on it. The rune looked like a life-size man with a rectangular object over his head.
There were words engraved inside the rectangular object in some mysterious language.
Masha was about to push the gate open.
"Wait," one of the old men suddenly spoke. He walked to Masha and observed the text on the gate. "The language seems familiar…" He rubbed the text lightly as white light flashed over the tip of his fingers.
"This language doesn't exist in the wizard world if I'm not mistaken," the old man said with confidence.
Angele recognized the language of runes right away as he saw the gate. He had seen similar characters in the underground tomb he'd found when exploring the Nightmare Realm. It was the most common language beside the universal ancient language. He thought the characters were just runes, but it seemed like they were characters of a certain language.
"Wizard Poll, there are a lot of similar characters inside." Masha nodded and pressed on the gate.
*BAM*
The gate slowly moved to the left, revealing the dark stone stairs leading to the tomb.
Masha raised her left hand and her ruby ring flashed.
Suddenly, the tunnel to the tomb was brightened up and there was dim yellow light coming from both walls.
"The last investigation team set up light magic circles here, we can use that," Masha explained.
Angele checked the interior of the tomb carefully.
The yellow light illuminated the tunnel and it felt like he was walking on a path to an underground palace, but the place was deadly silent.
"Let's save some time and head to the place where they were last seen. I've checked the data, this place is enormous and we don't have time to explore the whole thing," an old woman said.
The rest of the team agreed.
Masha led the team down the tunnel; they entered a golden hall after walking for about ten minutes. There were two more tunnels on both sides of the hall and a casket was sitting quietly in the center of the hall. Images of monsters killing each other were engraved on the walls.
Most of the monsters had the head of dogs or pigs, but their bodies looked identical to human beings.
They entered the tunnel on the left, walked down a long staircase, and passed through more than ten rooms. Masha finally stopped in front of a small stone chamber after a while.
"They disappeared after entering this stone chamber. Alright, do what you need to do."
The three experts nodded and entered the chamber. They took out enchanted items and magic materials to prepare. The battle wizards were checking the surroundings constantly.
Angele was looking at the strange pictures on the walls alone.
He rubbed the surface of the wall. It was smooth, clean, and cold.
Blue light flashed in front of Angele's eyes—he was scanning the pictures. It only took the biochip several minutes to scan all the pictures in the chamber.
Angele had no idea when he walked to the tunnel that would lead him to another stone chamber.
"Master Angele, please stay in my sight. It's a dangerous ruin and I don't want to face Elder Vivian's wrath." Masha suddenly turned her head around and spoke to Angele in a serious tone.
A gentle smile appeared on Angele's face.
"Sorry, master Masha, my bad."
The others thought that Angele was still a rank 2 wizard that was practicing the fourth stage of the Molten Core River. Although Angele advanced to rank 3 recently, the others would not be able to find out unless he decided to tell them himself. However, it did not matter if Angele was a rank 2 or rank 3 wizard, Masha was one of the strongest rank 4 wizards in the organization, and she cared about Angele because of Vivian.
Also, the difference between rank 3 and rank 4 was huge.
Angele returned to the original stone chamber and made it look like he was just glancing at the corners of the chamber.
Time passed. Several hours later.
*BOOM*
Suddenly, the tomb vibrated slightly, and dust from the ceiling dropped on the wizards' heads.
"Someone casted an Earth category spell above." Masha scrunched her brow, it seemed like she remembered something. "The defensive force field of the tomb was broken a long time ago and nothing is left now. If the tomb is impacted by a strong energy pulse, it'll collapse.
"Safety is important. Should we head to the entrance and take a look?" Masha looked at the three experts.
The three experts nodded their heads. "We can't get any results in such a short period of time. For now, let's go take a look," the bald man responded.
"Sure. Let's head up." Masha started heading to the entrance.
The others followed after her and Angele was the last one that moved. He tapped on the wall slightly before leaving and no one noticed his sneaky action.
The team returned to the entrance of the tomb using the same route as before.
One of the guards had already left—he went to check the source of the energy movement.
Masha looked at the other guard.
The guard lowered his head and explained, "Master, I think there are wizards fighting in a town around the area and the energy movement came from their spells."
"A town?" Masha knitted her eyebrow.
"Yeah, the town was built beside a Half Moon Stone mine about half a year ago. Many organizations created their branches in the town, including large organizations like the Wizard Guild and the Potion Master Guild."
"Half Moon Stone? I didn't know there was a Half Moon Stone mine here. Let's go check it out." Masha's expression changed, she turned around and headed toward the source of the energy movement.
Angele knew that the situation just changed. The Wizard Guild and the Potion Master's Guild were two of the strongest organizations, and the Half Moon Stone was a rare material that could be combined with high-quality magic stones to craft magic devices.
Masha was the strongest wizard in the team and she was assigned here by the organization as the head of the guards in the Mermaid's Song—she definitely had the authority to deal with something like this.
The three experts stayed by the entrance of the tomb to check the landscape of the area; there were three battle wizards protecting them. The last battle wizard followed after Angele and Masha to the town as a guard.