“Did they hide it in the rocks? They thought this out quite well.”

-You have a talent for making me anxious.

“It’s exactly as I thought. It’s designed to block any natural phenomena related to the climate, such as rain, from occurring in this entire territory.”

-Hm…

“Honestly, it’s something I would’ve never thought of.”

Perserque stroked her chin, as if she was interested in Davey’s speculation.

-So, the lack of rainfall and ground moisture are all because of the curse?

“Somewhat. When I decoded it, the one thing I discovered was the curse’s ability to preserve a certain atmospheric condition,” Dave said calmly. “It’s weird, but the curse can lead to scary and dangerous consequences if left unchecked for a long period of time.”

The drought continued thanks to the atmosphere’s general stagnation, aside from the temperature, and all the ground moisture evaporated from the lack of circulation. The person who cursed the region was probably trying to slowly dry out the Heins Territory and devastate it.

Davey wasn’t even sure if the culprit was still alive, but he wondered if he could control, rearrange, or even lift the curse. What if he could take control, and alter the atmosphere at his will? If he could, the curse would actually be more like the magic of paradise. He would be able to easily harvest unique crops by maintaining warm temperatures and appropriate precipitation. And since the carriers that controlled the surroundings allowed him to explore the underground area, he could also possibly discover a quarry.

In fact, if he could maintain a warm and breezy atmosphere even during winter time, where everyone had to bundle up to keep warm, the Heins Territory could become a potential vacation spot. He could probably change the region’s humidity however he wanted as well.

If everything went according to Davey’s plan, this could be the best springboard for success. Although this was all just theory and nothing was set in stone for now, it was natural for people to have hopes.

The arrows guided Davey to a gigantic rock several meters in height. He stopped in front of it. “Hm… Is this it?” Although it was a complete dead end, he wasn’t discouraged. He simply reached out and placed his hand on the rock. Then, he released his devil mana in a specific pattern.

Whoosh… As it ran along Davey’s hand, the devil mana began resonating with the rock wall like it had become a key. Similar to a black hole, the hard rock started tugging at Davey.

Davey would have been flustered if he didn’t know anything about this. But since he had seen such occurrences before, he found the events familiar and expected.

* * *

The interior of the rock was a vast space. Simply put, the space was…

“An ancient ruin?”

Unexpectedly, there was an astonishing place inside the large rock. There was an enormous hall at least five meters tall, with delicate symbols engraved on the walls and lending the place its sense of antiquity. In addition, the blue glowing stones attached to the ceiling softly lit up the ruins, which should have been plunged in darkness.

‘I never knew that there would be a space as huge as this inside the rock.’

-The architecture style isn’t from the times after the Great War.

Even though Perserque was only the size of Davey’s palm right now, she was originally the Demon Lord: the leader of the demons, who had gone to war with humans thousands of years ago. Since she was the living proof of history, if she didn’t recognize the architectural style, then this ancient ruin was probably from a time before record. Alchemists and mages would probably record this place while drooling over it.

-It’s surprising that a place like this hasn’t been discovered yet.

“If I didn’t use [Re-fix Curse], I wouldn’t have known how to get in here, either.”

The location aside, Davey could have taken months just to figure out how to get through the defensive illusion magic. This space was relatively well hidden, especially since Davey didn’t know what the reaction would be if he just broke in.

-It could be dangerous.

“Well, I can’t just leave it forever. Let’s go.”

In the continent, civilizations before records on paper were referred to as ancient times. This period had ended a very long time ago–ten thousand years at the very least. Unfortunately, Davey couldn’t verify the ancient civilization since there weren’t any heroes from that time period at the Hall, but the existence of the civilization was already known to the world from the very small amount of discovered remains.

There was no presence of humans anywhere, but Davey could feel the overwhelming mana in the surroundings. He thought that this place would be filled with concentrated devil mana, but most of the power in the atmosphere was definitely just mana. He commented, “This might not be the doing of the dark mages.”

-Even they might not have known about this place. However, there is value in investigating why a curse that has remained dormant for so long was suddenly activated recently.

At first, Davey had thought that it was a mine-like curse cast by dark mages to destroy the entire territory, but looking at the situation right now, this curse had actually been lying dormant not just for thousands of years, but for tens of thousands. This was a large-scale mine that had just begun to wake up.

“It’s crazy quiet in here.”

As Davey walked about without casting an illuminating magic spell, since it was already bright, Perserque mumbled in suspicion.

-An ancient ruin like this would usually have a guardian, but wh…

Creak!!! Crash!

-Oh no, out of the mouth comes evil…

Perserque trailed off, slapping her mouth with tiny hands. In seconds, the silent hall was filled with noise. Even before Davey could move, a stone wall on the ceiling deformed, and a gigantic object came down on him with precision.

Boom!!! A massive explosion rang out, as the falling object turned out to be a gigantic fist made of black-colored stone.

Skid!! Everything happened in mere seconds. Had Davey been a little less skilled or slower to react, he would’ve suffered a serious injury from the attack. He swallowed his sigh of relief, frowning and glancing at the source of the large fist.

The blue-eyed monster had a human figure. It was about four meters tall, and had large, angular black stones attached to parts of his body. There was a small blue jewel, about the size of Davey’s palm, embedded into the blue-eyed monster’s forehead like a core.

Davey only needed a glance to determine what the jewel was. It was a magic stone made from condensing hundreds of mana stones, which were worth platinum coins. He was shocked. “Ha… Is that a magic stone? That’s crazy.”

-A golem… It seems like a magic golem, for sure. And it’s using a magic stone as its core… How astonishing.

There were around ten golems in front of Davey right now, and they were all using palm-sized magic stones as their cores. Unlike normal golems, which used mana stones as their core, these guys were strange even from their material alone.

“You guys smell.” Davey couldn’t help but comment on the golems’ appearance. He automatically frowned as well.

-It’s probably incomparably stronger, faster, and sturdier than those mass-produced golems that were proudly presented at the alchemists’ conference. Not only that, but there’s also a possibility that it has hidden abilities, so you must tread lightly.

Davey heard Perserque’s advice to be careful, but he had already rushed at one of the blue-eyed golems. Buzz. Black sparks flew off his fist.

Other kinds of attacks would actually be dangerous when attacking rock monsters without a flesh body. Also, Davey didn’t know what kind of abilities the golems of magic stone would have, since these golems weren’t the ordinary ones with a mana stone.

The monster charged at Davey, whom they saw as an intruder, with incredible speed, and started attacking him. However, this wasn’t the time to back down. Davey closed the distance between them by narrowly dodging the aggressive attack. Then, as he jumped off the corners with great speed, he slammed his fist into a monster.

[Demon Thunder Strike]

Hiss!! Crash!! With an intense crash, the black sparks scattered and flew. The golem that had attacked Davey flew into the air, having endured the attack that would have shattered a regular person’s body.

Then, without hesitation, Davey charged toward the golem’s head and forcibly ripped out the magic stone. Riipp!! With a blunt sound, Davey extracted a half-broken magic stone from the golem’s head. He yelled, “You guys smell!”

-Your strength is astonishing whenever I see it. But, I don’t understand what smell you are talking about…

As Perserque tilted her head in puzzlement, Davey shouted confidently, “Smells like money! It’s an omen of success!”

This place could possibly be an ancient ruin that could alter the climate of the entire Heins Territory. On top of that, there were multiple golems that used expensive magic stones as their cores. Even one magic stone was bound to make someone rich.

This wasn’t just any hidden historic site; the Heins Territory wasn’t a dying abandoned land, but a gold mine! It wasn’t a coincidence that these golems looked like clumps of money.

* * *

Rip! With a clean sound, Davey ripped out the last hard magic stone embedded in the golem. “Phew… That was rough.”

As Davey mumbled while wiping his sweat, feeling a lot less burdened than before, Perserque's expression strangely grew cold.

-Rough? You should learn what that word means again.

“Wasn’t it somewhat rough?” Davey smiled while showing his charred and ripped sleeve, to which Perserque responded with a smile.

-Your sleeve was burned and ripped because of your own black current, so why are you trying to blame others? Sometimes, you are very thick-skinned.

Seeing Perserque not back down even a little, Davey just gave up. He said, “Anyways, I wonder how much these will make me.”

Davey placed the magic stones in his backpack for safekeeping. He had quite a lot of stones after extracting the stones from all the golems, even those that had run away upon realizing they were no match for him. As he had also made sure to take the magic stones out from the golems hiding in the wall, his bag had become quite heavy.