As another daylight fell, Alka and the others packed up and prepared to head for the ruins of the Observation Hall Museum.
"Is the Golden Trout leaving?" Sofia stood on the deck, watching the sails of the massive ship outside the harbor fall.
He turned to look.
The massive sailboat boasted three impressive masts, with jibs at the bow and stern.
As the sails rose, the ship began to slowly move, then picked up speed as it sailed away from the island.
The cargo that had been piled up at the harbor had also vanished.
"Looks like they've left," Alka said, flipping through the small card in his hand.
This card had been given to him by Balazs, serving as a business card. If they were to travel to Southern Cross Island later, they could use the address on it to find their base on the island.
"Alright, everyone, it's time to get down to business," Alka said, looking at everyone's clothing.
Having learned from the previous two times, Alka had already told them that this time, they would also dig a pit, excavating the ruins that had once been buried deep underground.
So everyone was dressed in well-fitting leather clothing, which was both dirt-resistant and inexpensive.
I wouldn't mind getting it dirty or torn.
After all, digging would get them all covered in mud, so the girls wore hats to protect their hair from the dirt, which was difficult to clean.
They simply skipped the town and headed towards their destination.
With the map guiding them along the way, they encountered no danger.
They arrived at the ruins quite smoothly, but they didn't rush in.
Because the area around the ruins was the territory of several small monsters, which they had seen before.
Looking at the two ferocious, bull-like monsters, Alka turned to Julia.
As companions, they generally considered Julia's feelings regarding this meaningless, proactive killing.
After all, the two bull-like monsters had no intention of attacking them; they were merely trying to drive them away.
"I'll go drive them away," Julia said, walking over.
Her legs transformed into a fishtail as the current flowed, the spiraling current enveloping her tail, lifting her as she headed toward the two beasts.
A soft humming could be heard.
The two monsters stared at her intently, their eyes red, but as the song reached them, they remained silent, paddling their hooves restlessly.
"It's all right, it's all right." Julia carefully extended her hands and, amidst the monsters' nervous expressions, stroked their heads.
After all, these two magical beasts weren't marine creatures, so a certain level of communication was necessary.
First, she had to gain their favor and lower their guard, much like taming an animal.
If they were marine creatures, Julia would have found communication much easier.
She could even easily make them understand her meaning.
With just a simple touch from Julia, the two buffalo-like magical beasts calmed down.
Their slightly red eyes gradually cleared, and their emotions stabilized.
Then, Julia turned and nodded to Juanlu.
Juanlu immediately pulled two massive tree roots, each as thick as his arms, from his pocket ring and tossed them over.
These were the ones Julia had asked Juanlu to prepare earlier.
After feeding the two massive roots to the two beasts, they became even quieter. Holding the two roots in their mouths, they came over to the side and began to chew silently, completely ignoring everyone's presence.
It turned out they were vegetarians, which suited their appearance quite well.
"Alright, you can come in now. They won't attack you again."
Everyone nodded and walked over.
The brave Er even ran in front of them, squatting beside the bison and watching it.
Seeing that the two bison-like beasts showed no intention of attacking, he even climbed onto their horns.
Thankfully, the two beasts seemed to have calmed down after having the food, and they completely ignored Er who had climbed onto them.
Sofia, who had been a little worried, couldn't help but hold his forehead and sigh.
Watching this scene... Lucilia, perched on Alka's shoulders, suddenly said, "It's a good thing I wasn't naughty when I was little."
Otherwise, she couldn't imagine what her puppet army would look like.
Hearing this, Sofia felt strangely embarrassed. She scratched her cheek with her index finger and quickly said, "I'll explore first and divide the area."
With that, she went to work.
The others also began to work together.
"This ruin..."
"What's wrong?" Alka asked from the side, hearing Sofia's slightly surprised voice.
"This ruin covers a large area, and a large part is still well preserved. Wait, hold off for a moment while I explore more carefully."
She stopped the others who were about to start, then began to explore more carefully. Even the halo of light on her forehead appeared, enhancing the accuracy of her silver light detection.
The men watched as Sofia probed further and further, nearly covering the entire area, nearly a kilometer long.
"Huh? So big?" Jason was shocked.
The two previous temples, though buried deep and built high, only covered a maximum of three or four hundred meters.
Furthermore, the primary excavation area was the approximately 100 meters closest to the ruins. The rest was simply excavated to reduce pressure and prevent collapse.
Judging from Sofia's exploration, the area covered by this place was a bit exaggerated.
How long would it take to dig deeper?
Jason already had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Sofia began marking the entire area.
Although most of the markings were within a radius of four or five hundred meters, it was still large enough, given that they were digging deeper. As the markings were drawn, everyone's expressions grew increasingly distressed.
They also realized that such a massive project wouldn't be completed in a day or two.
How exhausting it must be! A bleak future seemed to loom before their very eyes.
Only after the painting was completely finished did Sofia wipe the sweat from her forehead and turn to look at the crowd.
Looking at their expressions, she couldn't help but smile. "Haha, no need to look so gloomy. It's not as serious as you think."
"The area below is relatively well-preserved, so we don't need to dig very deep. The deepest point is only about ten meters.
We'll just need to dig a little deeper in the rest of the area to ensure it doesn't collapse.
Also, I've found a gap leading to the intact area; we just need to open it up."
The main goal was to reduce the weight and re-stabilize some areas to make their journey down safer and better preserve the ruins. After all, further excavation would likely cause a larger landslide, destroying more ruins, which would be more trouble than good.
After all, these ruins were the best-preserved they had encountered in recent days, and there would definitely be plenty to gain.
After hearing Sofia's explanation, everyone's expressions finally returned to normal, and they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
If the excavation were this large, it would take four or five days to complete if they continued digging like before.
"Alright, now that we're ready, let's get started."
Everyone began digging. Soon, Simon deployed his four still-intact Sentinel patrol aircraft, circling the area to prevent any unwary beasts from disturbing them.
Due to the large excavation area, the accumulation of various types of soil became a problem.
"Bull, pull!" Several puppet girls, riding two magical bulls, began using the two ox carts Simon had just crafted to pull the dirt further away.
They were also helping everyone in their own way.
"Jason, get out of here! Why did you bring your egg out again?" Pororo felt a tingling sensation in his body and couldn't help but say to Jason beside him.
Hearing this, Jason shrugged helplessly: "I can't help it. It insisted on staying with me today."
As he spoke, he touched the egg in his hood through his hood.
Although the egg was no longer as tightly attached to Jason as before, it still stayed with him at least two-thirds of the day.
The digging over the past few days had reduced the amount of time it spent attached to him. It seemed as if it didn't want to be too far away from him these days.
After nearly ten hours of joint digging, everyone finally reached the deepest part.
They also reinforced other areas.
"Go down from here, and you'll find the area below that's buried but not completely destroyed," Sofia said, jumping down.
Alka looked up and said, "Lucilia and Julia, come with us."
With that, the three of them jumped down, while the others stood guard outside. It was obviously impossible for everyone to get in under these circumstances.
As soon as they landed, they saw one orb after another of light, controlled by Sofia, illuminating the area.
They seemed to be near a passage, but the passage on either side was narrowed by various dirt and collapsed debris. "Go this way. entrance should be behind this passage," Sofia pointed ahead.
Behind them, a structure resembling a gate could indeed be seen, though it was also warped and had long since merged with the surrounding soil.
As the orb of light illuminated the area, everyone headed inside.
As they walked further in, the surrounding ruins diminished, and the interior became more intact.
They then came upon two intact statues.
Standing before the statues, everyone looked up.
The statues resembled human figures, approximately 2.4 meters tall, slightly slender, but not frail.
Although the carvings had become somewhat cracked with age, their former refinement was still evident.
The carvings were incredibly detailed, with the skin texture and even the facial expressions perfectly rendered.
It felt a bit like they were sculpted from real people.
The pair of statues could be seen as a man and a woman.
Although humanoid, they possess two pairs of ears: one large, with a pointed tip. The other pair is smaller, also pointed.
Their smiles reveal their teeth, which are incredibly sharp, like neatly arranged shark fangs.
However, like humans, they only have two rows.
Their arms are also proportionally longer than those of a normal person. While they still have five fingers, the fingers are more slender and elongated.
Overall, while different from humans, they still lean more towards humans, with only minor differences in details.
The female statue, wearing an unknown ornament, holds a book in one hand and something resembling a quill in the other.
The male statue wears a warrior-like open-faced helmet and light armor. He carries three javelins on his back, a long sword in his hand, and an axe in his other hand.
"Is this the Vastva?" Shadaiti asked, observing the statue.
Placing a humanoid statue here clearly represented the local race.
After all, this was a place showcasing their city-state culture.
Lucelia nodded, brushing away the dust from the inscriptions on the bases beneath the two statues.
"The female is known as the First Eye of Mystic Magic, and the male as the First Hand of Conquest."
"I know the Eye of Mystic Magic, but what is the Hand of Conquest?" Julia asked curiously.
None of them had heard of the term before, except for Alka.
Before Lucelia could respond, Alka said, "Think of it as a military position on par with the Eye of Mystic Magic."
With that, everyone understood.
"Let's go in and take a look."
With that, Sofia controlled the sphere to float inside, and the others followed.
Upon entering, they discovered a vast hall, unusually empty, their voices echoing.
But they could also see that a small portion of the hall had collapsed, and there were also signs of collapse all around.
As the light reached full brightness, Alka looked up.
Above, a massive semicircular dome loomed. If it were still standing, it would have been magnificent.
Below, a second floor could be seen, with a corridor running around it. However, the second floor had almost completely collapsed, and even the stairs leading to it had completely broken apart.
In the center of the hall, another statue stood.
This statue was quite peculiar. It wasn't a humanoid figure.
Instead, it was a combination of four spheres of different shapes, each at a different height and orientation. Below the sphere was what looked like an island.
Lucille ran over, carefully cleaning the stone slab in front of the statue.
Several others followed suit.
Lucille looked at the stone slab and translated, "This statue represents the Four-Part God and Vastva."
Upon hearing this, everyone looked toward the spherical statue. This meant that, in the Vastva's eyes, the Four-Part God was four connected spheres.
Each of the four spheres was distinct, each possessing a unique appearance, yet they appeared to be a single entity, fully demonstrating the skill of the sculptor.
"But this island is clearly wrong," Sofia said, turning his attention to the island statue below.
Several others also looked down.
The entire island took the shape of a teardrop, except that the tip of the drop was sharper and elongated. Regardless, it was completely different from the long, narrow shapes they were familiar with.
Everyone looked closely at the island statue.
The statue was meticulously carved, completely outlining some of the island's important landmarks.
Because the island was drop-shaped, a circle could be drawn on it, with four identical temples located in each of the four directions.
These four temples were the tallest.
These must be the four great temples the golden light had mentioned.
At the tail of the drop, a low temple, though not very tall, occupied a large area and appeared quite important.
Sofia gestured at the statue and said, "Look, if we cut from here, wouldn't it look like where we are now?"
The shape of this island."
The spot where her hand traced was exactly where the tail had dug a deep indentation toward the water droplet.
This indentation precisely cut out one of the large temples, and also included the lower temple at the tail's end.
Seeing this, he reached out to cover the tip of the tail at the top of the map.
"Doesn't this look like where we landed, the semicircle that Shiraishi mentioned being blown away?"
Everyone nodded in agreement as they watched. It looked very similar.
No, it was even identical.
"This means that this island is actually part of a broken fragment. With that in mind, it seems reasonable to call it Broken Island." "Julia concluded.
This island of statues has essentially confirmed that the place they are in is only part of the original city-state.
Let's take a look around.
Everyone turned their attention to other parts of the hall.
This hall was also surrounded by various statues, but these statues had become humanoid, just like the ones at the entrance.
The only difference was their attire and appearance, even their heights were different.
However, several of the statues had collapsed and were damaged.
Alka also saw several objects with white light around them.
A quick look revealed that they were all jewelry and ornaments made of various precious metals, diamonds, and gemstones.
However, none of the others, except Lucilia, could understand the text, so they simply looked at the exterior. shape.
Waiting for Lucelia to finish reading the inscribed text above, they would translate it for them.
Although this place covered a considerable area, most of it was empty, with statues and a few items placed only at the edges.
Not to mention that many of the items had become scrap, and the stone slabs that had been used to describe them were already blurry and indistinct.
The others could only occasionally hear Lucelia's exclamations.
She seemed deeply surprised by some of her discoveries.
Her exclamations also made Alka and the others waiting nearby eager. After all, who wouldn't be curious about such ancient secrets?
However, they didn't have to wait long. Lucelia reviewed all the information she could find.
She then ran over with a look of surprise on her face.
"You know what? I've seen something incredible."