chapter 17
At this time, if another country had invaded or carried out another operation, they would have been defeated without even using their hands. However, the war clouds that started with the quarrel between Lionia and Silimaron were spreading throughout the continent.
Rather, it was fortunate that Venus ended the war early and entered into internal stability.
The three southern countries of the western continent were also at war for a long time, and there were rumors that war clouds were looming over the coalition of small countries concentrated in the southeast.
With nothing to catch spies from other countries and nothing to do next to Ether, who was busy with administrative work, I set out on a journey again.
The first place he wanted to go to was the Magic Tower of Silimaron. Silimaron’s Mage Tower was considerably weakened as most of the high-ranking wizards died in this war, but it was still a Mage Tower of a magical powerhouse.
When I spent several months there and learned the theories and techniques unique to the Mage Tower in Silimaron, a rumor circulated in the Mage Tower. It was about the location of the dungeon of the former great wizard.
It’s kind of like an urban legend, but it’s about the dungeon of the great wizard Inclonius about 300 years ago. Rumors like this had already circulated several times, and numerous adventurers and wizards who were aiming for the dungeon of the previous generation of great wizards searched for a specific location, but no one found anything.
If Inclonius’s dungeon had no value, no one would find it, but Inclonius was a wizard who showed outstanding achievements at the time, and above all, it was about magic that he focused on researching.
Inclonius was especially a master of space magic. Even now, artifacts related to subspace are very rare and expensive. Incluneus, however, was a wizard who created dozens of subspace artifacts.
Surely there will be several such artifacts in the dungeon he created, and the best ones will remain.
The reason I know well about the wizards of this foreign country 300 years ago is that Inclonius was a very famous wizard who went down in the history of wizards, but Venus also has two subspace artifacts created by Inclonius. .
One was in the treasure house of the palace, and the king himself had one. The one in the treasure house was in the form of a bag, and the one the king had was a subspace artifact in the form of a ring.
However, among the subspace artifacts made by Inclonius, the subspace ring worn by the king was only a low-grade item in terms of capacity, but it was said that the purchase price was 1 million gold at the time.
Before the territory was expanded, the annual revenue of the Venus royal family was about 3 million gold, so that was a lot of money. Low-end items are about the same price, and no one can guess how much Inclonius, who sold dozens of them, was worth. It was a dungeon that such an inclonius had made by suddenly disappearing with everything he had, so it was only natural that he would be able to obtain great wealth and honor if he found it.
But who am I? If you search for treasure, you have already found the national treasure of the Venus Kingdom. I was suddenly intrigued by this.
First, we gathered information. So far, there are five areas in all that have been suspected of having Inclonius dungeons. It’s a very small number compared to what many treasure hunters have been tracking in the past 300 years. It also means that there are few clues to follow his actions.
I don’t have the ability to find and investigate the whereabouts that no one else has found. So, I decided to go from the beginning. The area that was first suspected was the birthplace of Inclonius.
Now, of course, the mansion he had lived in had long since disappeared, and several other nobles had already built new mansions on the land and lived and moved out repeatedly.
I found the place and did what only I could do. One of the strengths of the soul is that it can pass through walls and the ground without any obstruction.
It is said that the site where Inclonius’s birthplace was located had already been investigated by the nobleman who first purchased it by digging the ground to a very deep depth. Then I just have to go deeper than I usually think and investigate.
Above all, Inclonius was a great wizard specializing in space magic. This means that subspace magic is well used, but space movement magic is also well used. It is that there is a skill to create dungeons that no one will ever find.
That’s how I searched for places that only I could find where Inclonius might think.
I searched the depths of the basement of the birthplace of Inclonius, but nothing came of it. So I searched through the surrounding mountains all the way to the center and underground.
That’s how I started with the first area and went to the third area and arrived at the fourth area. This was the northernmost beach of the old Kingdom of Silimaron.
There is no trace left here, but there was a villa of Inclonius, and it was in this villa that Inclonius sent his wife away. The reason why his wife died is not known exactly, and it was assumed that it was a soldier, but there is a record that the funeral was very splendid.
As we have done so far, we started from the basement of the villa site and investigated the surrounding mountains. Just as he was about to finish his investigation, he saw the sea.
In fact, it is the first time I have been to the sea. Suddenly, I was curious about the depths of the sea, and while I was looking for it, I thought of looking for the seabed and small islands in the vicinity.
Entering the sea for the first time opened up another world. Numerous unknown creatures, water plants, and items sunk at the bottom of the sea, which were unknown when, were enough to satisfy my curiosity.
I forgot the original purpose and was so absorbed in exploring the surrounding sea that I unexpectedly found it in the basement of an island quite far away.
At first, I didn’t even think it was an Inclonius dungeon. I just thought it was a cavity under an island in the distant sea.
However, there were numerous passages connected to the huge cavity, and following the passages one by one revealed rooms with different purposes.
In the first room, there was a large amount of books, equivalent to a decent library. Even at a glance, it was quite an old book, and most of them were books about magic. There were many books that I couldn’t buy even if I had money now.
Entering the second room, I felt sorry for myself.
[Is this the black magician’s laboratory?]
It was a magic laboratory, not a normal wizard’s laboratory. Although the traces look very old, traces of black magic remained. Still, it was a trace left a long time ago, so I continued my search, thinking that it might be a dungeon where the black magician had left.
The third room was filled with truly incredible treasures. Only then did I begin to think that this might be the dungeon of Inclonius.
Even the gold coins piled up right in front of his eyes seemed far beyond several million gold. A wizard who had this much money would have no choice but to suspect Inclonius.
And when I went to the next room, it was full of all kinds of junk, but there was one unusual item among them.
It was like a small, ordinary-looking metal water bottle in the corner of the clutter, but the soul was in it.
[Can black magicians do this?]
Although I had studied to some extent, it was a very unfamiliar item to me, who did not have much knowledge about warlocks. However, the soul contained was not an ordinary soul.
Although it was a darkly poisoned soul, it was a large and luminous soul that was almost similar to Fortega, who was an unfortunate genius.
I thought it might be the soul of Inclonius, who was sanctioned by the warlock. So I absorbed it without thinking.
When absorbing a superior soul, a unique uplifting feeling swept through my soul. But at that moment, a terrible, unbelievably human scream was heard from far away.
“Who are you! Who dared to destroy my soul! aaa!”
And it was quiet again. I waited for a long time, but I heard no more sounds. Due to the nature of the cave, the sound echoed, so I couldn’t tell exactly where it was, but it didn’t mean much to me. It’s not difficult to find if you make up your mind and go through the wall.
The identity of the voice so found was a skeleton wearing a very old-looking robe lying on a stone bed engraved with many runes. The demonic energy was rapidly dispersing from the skull.
Only then did I realize what this was.
[Is this the rich I’ve only heard about? What I absorbed is the Life Vessel?]
Life Vessel is usually known as a bead shape, but it can be changed as much as you like according to the taste of the lich.
This lich must be Inclonius. And I didn’t mindlessly destroy the Life Vessel, I just absorbed the soul itself.
Without thinking, I killed a lich that sometimes appears in history books, and I fell into thought for a while looking at the skeleton presumed to be an Inclonius.
Even if you calculate your age during your lifetime, you have only lived about 40 years. However, this Inclonius would have lived 300 years underground on an island far from the mainland. That too, as a rich body similar to mine that can neither eat nor sleep.
Indeed, what did Inclonius need 300 years of time for? And was it fun for that long time?
Maybe I will live as a soul for more than 300 years. What goal should I live with?
In an instant, too many thoughts rushed through me. I have been immersed in self-reflection for such a long time. Perhaps this was the influence of the Inclonius that he had just absorbed.
When I came to my senses, I couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but I could tell that quite a long time had passed. The ashes of Inclonius, who had been blowing demonic energy in a fairly vivid appearance, were powdered, and the demonic energy was not felt at all.
This was the oblivion of time that I had been wary of for quite some time. At some point, if I fell into thought, I fell into thought for a few hours at the shortest time and more than a week at the longest.
Anyway, it was late, but I started exploring the dungeon. As expected, this was the dungeon of Inclonius. Inclonius left quite a few records. There were some about the magic he was studying, and some about his personal history.
Inclonius had already perfected subspace magic and space movement magic before he was alive. And what he researched as a lich was magic that transcended the concept of space and crossed dimensions. According to his research journal, it was possible that there could be another dimension that shares the same time zone as he studied the concept of time and space.
Inclonius named it Parallel Dimension, and it seems he wanted to cross over to that dimension to save his lost wife and unborn child there. Anyway, in conclusion, Inclonius studied dimension shift magic for over 250 years, but failed. And it seemed that he had been dejected and had virtually done nothing for more than 50 years.
After finding out the background of Inclonius and the dungeon here, I began to learn the magic that Inclonius perfected. Also, due to the influence of absorbing the soul of Inclonius, learning subspace magic and space movement magic was as easy as learning basic magic. The question was whether I could use this with my feeble mana.
In conclusion, it could be used. However, the space movement magic was virtually meaningless. Even so, while absorbing the soul of Inclonius, his mana increased considerably, but his limit was only to move about 10 meters.
However, subspace magic could be used. Of course, the size of the usable subspace wasn’t that large, but it seemed like I could use it as much as I could if I used the subspace artifacts of Inclonius scattered here.
That’s how I took care of almost all the items that Inclonius left behind meticulously. It took quite a long time to pack things because it used a small amount of mana. And I finally left the dungeon.
Unlike the dungeons of other wizards, this dungeon had no defenses or traps at all. who will find this place? In fact, many people have found it, but no one has been able to find it for 300 years.
I thought it would be okay to use this place as a secret storage if something happened later.