The Essence of the Endless Spring.

Growth acceleration through spirits.

The blade of grass, the gate to the ruins, did not take long to regain its vitality.

Krrrrrumble!

A roar that seemed to shake the earth was heard, but only the scenery before our eyes vibrated. It was quite a strange experience to witness the empty air trembling violently without any aftereffects like an earthquake.

Soon, the scenery began to change.

“Waaah.”

It was far from a scene where something that wasn’t there appeared, or something that had been sunken rose up. The ruins simply came into view naturally, without any sense of incongruity, as if they had been there all along.

Pasusu!

A weathered piece of stone rolled to my feet.

A wall stretched out so wide that its end was not visible.

Right in front of us was a huge, arched entrance.

“This is the ruin…”

「The World Tree marvels at the magnificence.」

The two children seemed to have finally resolved their pent-up anticipation.

“Don’t get too excited. It’s dangerous inside.”

Colin warned Sage, who had inadvertently taken a step forward.

I agreed.

“Take these.”

I handed her the stake and sword I had been carrying.

“What are these?”

“They’re artifacts I took from the leader of the Thorson Expedition. They should be able to protect you in an emergency.”

I explained the functions of the artifacts to Sage.

As for how to use them, Sage figured it out at a glance before I could even say anything. She said she could understand the structure by examining the flow of mana.

It was an outstanding talent.

“That’s great. You might even be able to combine these two artifacts well.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it when we get back after exploring the ruins.”

It was another way to utilize artifacts, like implanting them into the body. The necessary equipment would be available at the Mage Tower, and experts would be stationed there as well. If processed into the form of a staff, it might turn out to be quite a useful item.

「The World Tree feels a strong pull.」

Unlike Sage, who was restrained by the adults, the World Tree moved as it pleased without anyone’s interference. It was as if it had entered its own home.

“This is…”

The ceiling of the long, arched entrance.

A painting with a familiar composition was drawn there.

“It’s a painting that’s been here since this place was first discovered. We gave up on interpreting it because so much of it was lost.”

Overall, every part of it was faded by the passage of time.

However, it was not difficult for me to recognize the composition the painting was trying to express.

‘It resembles the illustration I saw in the Tower Master’s room.’

The image of a giant tree taking root at the end of the continent and growing like a castle wall.

If the illustration I saw in the Tower Master’s room had one half torn off, the difference here was that the other half was also drawn, but the contents were so smudged they were almost unrecognizable.

‘Did the history book in the Tower Master’s room reference this? If not…’

What meaning did this painting hold?

A riddle I had forgotten came back to me.

I had a gut feeling that I shouldn’t miss it.

“When is the Tower Master scheduled to arrive?”

“He will not be coming.”

The Tower Master isn’t here.

“Didn’t the Mage Tower accept my proposal to quickly wrap up the Tower Master’s stagnant research?”

“That’s not wrong, but my master is originally a busy person. If he had focused only on his personal research and not fulfilled his responsibilities as the Mage Tower Master, he would have had to step down early. Besides, the position of Mage Tower Master has many hidden duties beyond what is known. It’s different from a school master, who is allowed a certain amount of absence. This case will be the same.”

“Hidden duties, you say? What are they?”

“Even if you’re curious, there’s nothing I can tell you. I don’t know either.”

Colin shrugged.

It didn’t sound like a lie.

“He said I’d find out whether I liked it or not when I became the Mage Tower Master, so I quickly dropped my curiosity. It seemed like a hassle.”

I, too, had been a member of the Mage Tower in the game.

I had even aimed for the position of Mage Tower Master, coveting the Mage Tower’s capabilities.

However, in that process, I had never heard that the Mage Tower Master had hidden duties.

Of course, there was no rule that the game contained all the information of this world.

Even considering that, it was strange.

‘I am curious, though.’

There was no way to find out what he didn’t know.

“Anyway, my master is not here. After I delivered the news of what happened at the Mage Tower, he seemed to have lost interest and even handed over the full authority for the ruin exploration. Isn’t that good news for you?”

“That’s true.”

If the Tower Master had been involved, I would have had to go through all sorts of negotiations and arguments during the distribution of the artifacts.

Since he had handed over full authority to Colin, it saved me some trouble.

“But why are you looking for my master?”

“I found a book when I entered the Tower Master’s room before.”

“A book? Ah, if you’re feeling guilty about secretly peeking, you don’t have to worry. All the important magic books are magically protected anyway, so it’s not a crime to read the ones that aren’t.”

Colin chuckled and patted my shoulder, asking if I had been worrying about something that had happened quite a while ago.

He passed it off as a joke, but it would probably be a crime if I were actually caught. The strict and conservative elders would put a price on the knowledge and make me pay.

However, receiving Colin’s consideration was not important in the current topic.

“It’s not a magic book.”

“Then?”

“It was a history book. The strange thing is, there was an illustration in it.”

“……Don’t tell me?”

“It resembled the mural drawn on the ceiling over there. It was a picture of a giant tree drawn at the extreme end that the cities had not pioneered.”

“I see, so that’s how this composition should be interpreted.”

Colin nodded, seeming to find it persuasive.

“You said you suspected this was a druid’s ruin. They say that in the era before the cities were built, the forests flourished, so perhaps this mural is a depiction of that era?”

“It was enormous. It surrounded the continent like a fence.”

“……”

“This is the half of the illustration I confirmed.”

“What about the other half?”

“It had crumbled, perhaps due to age.”

“Hmm.”

Colin now seemed to understand why I had brought up the question.

“If it’s a history book from the Tower Master’s room, it wouldn’t have written down something that doesn’t exist.”

The bookshelf in the Tower Master’s room is a repository of knowledge accumulated by successive Tower Masters. If there were any absurd content, it would have been cross-verified and discarded long ago.

“If it’s a history book passed down to the Tower Masters, it would also contain content not passed down to the public. That unidentified tree you confirmed must be one of those things.”

“I have a guess as to the identity of the tree. It’s probably the World Tree.”

“The World Tree, you mean that legendary tree.”

“You know of it?”

“It’s a legend that stands on par with dragons, so any scholar would have at least heard the name. However, unlike dragons, whose existence is considered somewhat possible, the World Tree is rather absurd.”

Colin stroked his chin and gave a strange smile.

It was an atmosphere like reminiscing after hearing a child’s fantasy.

“The very idea of a tree that reaches the sky is preposterous. Right now, among the plants that exist in the world, it’s hard to even find one larger than a building.”

“I’m saying that its existence was discovered in a history book in the Tower Master’s room.”

“That is surprising.”

Doesn’t it mean that one of the past Tower Masters, contrary to public opinion, recorded the existence of the World Tree?

“Are records about the World Tree passed down among the Tower Masters?”

“Well… I am the Tower Master’s disciple, not the Tower Master. The information I know is limited.”

Right now, he didn’t even know where the Tower Master had gone or for what purpose.

“Anyway, thanks to you, I now know why my master researched this ruin for so long. It was a bit much to be just a simple desire for knowledge or a competitive spirit for a difficult problem.”

He was a busy Tower Master.

The study of magic alone was a task that required a lifetime of investment, so the fact that he had personally spent several years on a single ruin was significant.

“Regarding that, let’s talk about it in detail after we break through this ruin. We can argue back and forth, but there might be a clue to solve the mystery at the end of the ruin.”

It was not impossible that the Tower Master also didn’t know what this painting meant. The reason he had put so much effort into the ruin might have been to solve that mystery.

“If it really comes to it, I’ll remember it and ask my master later.”

“Thank you.”

As the conversation came to a close, Sage, who had been quiet, tugged at my collar.

“Aren’t we going?”

“……Right, let’s go.”

The unexpected riddle had made the conversation drag on.

Colin and I entered the interior of the ruin with wry smiles.

***

“Ugh.”

The moment we passed the entrance, Sage staggered and grabbed my collar tightly.

Her staggering form looked quite unstable, as if she might fall.

While the mage class in general tends to be lacking in motor skills, it’s not to the extent of living with anemia.

The reason for Sage’s strange reaction was not a problem with her body, but the scene before her eyes.

“It looks like a fog zone.”

“Close, but you’re wrong. It seems you don’t get everything right either.”

The characteristic halo of mana welled up in Colin’s eyes.

However, that gleam failed to pierce through anything and faded away.

“It’s a phenomenon caused by the high concentration of mana. To the eye, it looks like a thick fog has settled, but in reality, the dense mana is seeping into every object, blurring their forms.”

There was no need to deeply analyze Colin’s professional explanation.

It was enough to know that the surroundings were blurry.

I was doubtful whether I was standing on the ground or floating in the sky.

I hadn’t known that one of the frequent mana phenomena in ruins, perception interference, would be implemented like this in reality.

After a moment, Sage, having composed herself, carefully surveyed the surroundings and muttered with a frown.

“This is… a ruin.”

“Because it’s a ruin. The traces left behind by some civilization.”

No one knew whether it was a civilization of a previous era or a civilization from another dimension, another world.

This was because the people involved in ruin exploration were blinded by the profits they could earn from the ruins, making it difficult to conduct investigations for academic purposes.

The investigation into the truth of the ruins had made no academic progress due to the circumstances of those high-and-mighty people.

‘They haven’t even gotten any meaningful results from interpreting the gates of the ruins.’

Unlike the analysis of the identity of the ruins, which was merely an achievement in the humanities, this field had endless applications if the interpretation was successful.

Nevertheless, there was no progress here either.

The only achievement was that it was a technology of a different kind from barriers belonging to magic or sorcery.

‘The users’ speculation was that it should be approached as a dimensional concept rather than a spatial one.’

In any case, the identity of the ruins was a complete mystery.

“It’s huge. It must have been a very prosperous civilization.”

For a mage, the spirit of inquiry is second nature.

Sage, who had come along for life experience, showed her curiosity with sparkling eyes, as if she found it fascinating.

Watching her innocent appearance, I suppressed a strange feeling that kept making me want to lift my head high. The image of her future self, worn down by the hardships of the world, kept flickering in my mind.

‘It was a different ruin, but back then she was bored and kept nagging me to quickly retrieve the artifacts and leave.’

It struck me anew, how much a person could change.

“……Did I do something wrong, mister?”

Sage, misinterpreting my sour expression, fidgeted with her fingers.

Ruin exploration is a dangerous job.

Establishing discipline by telling a newcomer not to get excited was not a bad custom, but a long-standing tradition.

She seemed to have heard something along those lines, so to clear up her misunderstanding, I said.

“No.”

“Then?”

“From here to there.”

I stretched out my finger and swept it all the way from the left to the right.

Sage’s gaze followed my finger, expanding beyond the horizon.

In ruin exploration, the lurking traps or the existence of guardians are generally threatening.

But if I had to pick the most troublesome part, it would be one thing.

“It means we have to check everything.”

Exploration, the act of searching by feeling around. As the word implied, we had to dig through this vast space piece by piece.

“……!”

Sage’s face, which had been full of curiosity, turned deathly pale.

(End of Chapter)