"What incredible news?"
Alka asked impatiently.
"Follow me," Lucilia said, leading them to a somewhat damaged mural.
Despite the damage, the imagery remained relatively clear, clearly depicting a male figure.
Judging from the composition, he appeared to be a normal human.
The long mural depicted a story centered around this male figure.
The first mural depicted him kneeling, looking up at the sky in prayer, while a beam of light descended from the sky.
This scene was imbued with the allure of ancient mythology.
There was also a textual interpretation below, but they couldn't understand it.
Lucelia pointed to the text beneath the first painting and explained: "Vastva, founder of the city-state, prays for the blessing of the Four-Divided God."
The text, combined with the mural, made the intended meaning easily understood.
So the city-state was named after its founder.
"But this Vastva, right?" Julia asked, pointing to the humanoid figure on the mural.
The mural was from the side, clearly depicting the male figure's ears. They had already learned from the statues that Vastva had two pairs of pointed ears.
Lucelia smiled and said, "So don't be shocked! This is a truly remarkable discovery. You'll find out later."
Hearing Lucelia's deliberate suspense, the others continued to look to the side.
The next image showed Vastva glowing, presumably blessed by the gods. He held a sword in one hand, flinging a spear with the other. Before him stood a highly abstracted monster.
The monster had a single, large eye, no mouth, and no neck. Mist-like tentacles extended from its periphery. Conspicuously, it had two very sharp ears, remarkably similar to those of the Vastva people.
Arka narrowed his eyes slightly at this, a few guesses forming in his mind.
Several spears were pierced through the monster's body, and blood-like sprays of paint were gushing forth.
Lucelia continued to decipher the text beneath the mural: "Vastva, blessed by the gods, slew the monster that destroyed his homeland and his people, achieving his revenge."
In the third image, the monster had been split in half, a spherical, glowing object emerging from its body.
Vastva knelt, hands outstretched, and beams of light descended from the sky.
This image likely depicts the monster, with something inside its body. It's unclear whether it was offered to the gods or purified by them.
"Vastva dissected his enemy's body and removed his heart. Seeing his valor, the gods blessed the heart and gave it to Vastva."
As Lucelia interpreted the image, the image's meaning became clear.
The fourth image completely changed.
Vastva's figure is noticeably taller than in the previous drawings, a deliberate design. He sits on a throne, wearing a crown and four pointed ears.
He has completely transformed into a Vastva.
He holds the heart that was just blessed.
Next to the throne, a figure clearly female appears, wearing a smaller crown. It's unclear whether this represents his daughter or his wife.
Beneath the throne were figures like him, seemingly representing his subjects who had submitted to him.
"The heart made the king wiser, stronger, and granted him great divine power. His subjects also underwent the same transformation."
Could the heart actually directly alter a person's appearance?
Does this mean the Vastva people were actually transformed by the power of the heart?
Alka pondered, observing the paintings and listening to Lucelia's interpretation.
He looked at the fifth painting.
Vastva held the heart aloft, and before him was a cracked gate. His subjects, like him, entered, carrying their luggage and tools.
A blazing fire blazed along the edge of the mural.
This painting was easier to understand. Was he using the heart to carry his subjects away? "Vastva used his heart to open the door to space and found a new home for his people."
There should be more behind the sixth and final painting, but it's obliterated by the falling rubble and is no longer clearly visible.
Even the sixth painting is the most severely damaged of all.
Only half is visible.
The painting shows half a city, emitting a faint glow.
If the painting were complete, it would depict the entire city. Judging from the city's most prominent tower on the side, it should be Vastva, where they are standing.
"The writing below the last painting is also unclear, and only a portion is visible.
But based on speculation and interpretation, it seems to indicate that they established a new city within a safe space."
"Combined with the information I've seen from other murals, tools, and antique stone tablets, the place where they finally established their city truly exists in another dimension."
After this brief account, Lucelia fell silent. Alka gazed at the mural and listened to Lucelia's interpretation, trying to piece it all together.
"What's the important information you're referring to?" Sofia asked.
"This island was once in another dimension. They built a city on the land of that dimension. How incredible!
And from the interpretations of the tools and antiques, it seems they were highly skilled at using space to create overlapping spaces, even expanding them."
Lucelia grew excited as she spoke, and ran to a statue not far away.
The statue was clearly of a woman, holding a massive scepter, its top atop a lightning-like stone carving.
Lucelia pointed to the statue's description and said, "The Eye of Mysticism—Salvalina, the Space Explorer, the Divine Blesser.
She discovered the secrets of space and created the technologies of superimposed space, space expansion, and space cutting and separation."
"According to the description, the alternate dimension explored in the two temples, which required secret codes to reach, was invented by her."
"Besides her, many others have invented various space-related technologies, including teleportation technology that can transport people to great distances in an instant.
It was the technology that transported us to the underground caves in the temple we first encountered on the island."
After listening to Lucelia's words, the others had a general understanding of her meaning.
"You mean, among the ruins on this island, there might be items or information related to these technologies?" Alka said after a moment of thought.
Hearing this, Lucelia nodded vigorously. "Yes, that's it."
From the descriptions of these technologies, even the most common space expansion technology is incredibly powerful.
According to some simple descriptions, this technology simply expands space.
For example, a space of only 10 square meters can be expanded to 20, 30, or even more square meters.
It simply increases the size of the space for no apparent reason.
Lucelia's first thought was to use this technology to expand the interior of the Voice of Dawn, making it absurdly large.
Of course, this was just a fantasy.
But regardless, besides the most eye-catching technology, space expansion...
From the information around here, it can be seen that this island is very committed to invention and technological research.
The entire island has a strong academic atmosphere, and even some of the conquerors have achieved considerable research results.
Of course, most of these research findings are related to military power.
From this, we can conclude that within these ruins, there must be a variety of powerful technologies, and even tools invented based on these technologies.
For example, the magic gathering stone they previously obtained could increase their meditation speed several times.
Increasing a person's magic meditation speed several times is already outrageous.
Even with such technology, it only allows a researcher to advance to the level of an Eye of Arcana.
Look at the statues here. There are seven or eight statues of the Eye of Arcana, and these are still intact. Only statues that have made great contributions could be placed here.
Julia pondered something, then said, "But where we are now is only a quarter of the island.
The destruction of the island must have shattered it into many pieces. Who can guarantee that the other fragments still exist?
Besides, it's been so long. In 30,000 years, everything will be gone."
The implication was that the space expansion technology might not exist or even be preserved.
Don't hold on to too high hopes, lest you suffer great disappointment when they are dashed.
After all, one crucial point is that everything useful they have now comes from the superposition space.
Everything stored outside has essentially become garbage, completely unpreserved. Even within the superposition space, ordinary items are difficult to preserve.
30,000 years... is too long.
After hearing this, Lucilia finally calmed down and thought carefully, nodding with some regret. "Let's not talk about that for now. I'm actually more concerned about this thing," Alka suddenly said, then pointed to the glowing heart on the mural.
Others might not know what this thing represents, but Alka had already equated it with something specific.
That was the treasure with the orange glow.
What did the description above say?
[Treasure Information: City-State of Vastva, an ancient city, worships the Four Divisions, the ancient god of mystery, also known as the City of Change.
The Temple of Parstva, the core of the city-state.
Here lies the heart of the city, its eternal beating heart.]
The heart of the city, its eternal beating heart.
It's hard not to equate it with the heart above.
Alka felt that this thing was the truly extraordinary information.
"What's wrong with this thing?" Sofia asked, somewhat curiously. The other two were equally puzzled. A myth like this about a city-state's founder was bound to be embellished.
"Aren't you curious about what this heart is?"
Arka asked, somewhat curiously.
Shadaiti shook his head and explained, "This object was clearly blessed by the Four Gods. This Vastva must have eventually become a saint, a divine agent. This heart might have become something like a sacred artifact.
Many myths contain such stories; there's nothing surprising about them."
Simply put, the three of them had seen it all before, in a world where the existence of gods was already established.
All three of them had strong ties to the gods' churches, so even if such a myth were true, it wouldn't be surprising.
The main reason was that they had seen it so often in the teachings of various churches, growing up.
Not to mention that among the Four Gods, there were dozens or even dozens of such agents and saints.
After reading this kind of story so many times, it's no longer surprising.
Alka listened to them, thought about it, and began to understand.
After all, the Four-Fourth God was once a god.
I just don't know what happened to him now. Did he fall in the war of gods? Or did he abandon the remains of this world and leave?
But he was different from them. He knew clearly that this thing was very likely right under their feet.
It must be a treasure above the Holy Grail level.
None of them had ever seen a treasure above the Holy Grail level. Even the names of these treasures were known only from stories.
For them, treasures above the Holy Grail were something they had never even thought of.
Now that he understood, Alka nodded and said nothing more. Instead, he pointed to the corresponding painting and spoke.
"What I'm concerned about is why this heart can change their appearances."
He knew full well that the heart was a treasure. Could a treasure be so powerful that it could change a person's appearance?
If so.
Then...
At this point, he couldn't help but look at Julia, his mind racing to thoughts of Pororo, Matresa, and the others.
"I don't know. Maybe it was a divine intervention. After all, that thing was a divine gift, wasn't it?" Lucilia said nonchalantly.
That's how gods are.
Mermares, murlocs, naga, and even himself all have differences from humans and different responsibilities to the gods.
No, very wrong.
Arka looked at the heart, then at the four pointed ears of the Vastva, then at the four pointed ears of the monster.
Connecting all this...
No rush, no rush. He calmed himself and collected his thoughts.
Now wasn't the time to dwell on this.
No, his mind was completely out of control. He was really preoccupied.
He had truly discovered something extraordinary.
He couldn't help but turn to Julia again and ask, "Julia, do you know the history of your clan?"
Listening to Alka's question, she pondered what he had just said.
Julia roughly understood what he meant.
She couldn't help but smile and said, "Although it's not entirely clear, a clear history can still be traced back very far. Moreover, we are born believers in Life, born descendants of it, so we, too, were created by God."
Hearing this, Alka nodded.
He had heard this before.
Pororo had also described the origins of their mermaid clan in the same way. Created by the sea god.
What about Lucelia, with her pointed ears and long lifespan? She always claimed her race was human.
Julia, the mermaid who lived in harmony with her race, said the same thing, but she considered Lucelia and her race a branch of humanity.
Just like how even though everyone is human, different places have different skin colors.
The same is true of the Broken Islanders, those with grayish-white skin and flaming eyes.
This was a question he had briefly asked Balazs earlier, and it was also a question he had asked in his dreams.
These islanders also considered themselves human.
His thoughts were drifting further and further away, and to bring his thoughts back, Alka said to Lucelia, "No If you mind, could you please translate the text on these introductions for me?"
"Of course, we'll look at them one by one. "
Lucelia then began to lead the group, introducing each antique item, tool, and calligraphy, including the descriptions beneath the statues.
Through these introductions, the group gained a deeper understanding of the city-state of Vastva.
This castle was indeed built in an alien dimension. It was peaceful and tranquil, and coupled with the ministry of the Four Gods, the entire city had a highly academic atmosphere.
They were also very happy to put their knowledge into practice, creating and improving better tools and composing more practical spell arrays.
They combined the magic power of spells with tools to create even more powerful constructs.
The translator did indeed mention constructs, and also mentioned that they were at the forefront of construct manufacturing technology.
This meant that before the War of the Gods shattered the world, this world had already been developing construct technology.
The construct technology and other items they currently used were actually leftovers from their predecessors.
And judging from the introductions, many of them were already accustomed to it, having been using it for a long time. From the descriptions of some constructs, it's clear that even the technologies used in everyday life are beyond their reach.
For example, the spatial partitioning technology used by almost everyone, the pocket rings.
They themselves knew that their pocket rings were made possible solely by the special gemstones they contained.
They were naturally given minerals, combined with the corresponding spells to create a portable space.
However, the spatial partitioning within the city-states involved literally carving out a space and cramming it into a small object.
Equipping every resident with one of these spaces was a matter of great pride, so much so that it was recorded in the museum.
However, they had excavated several temples and found no specimens.
This artifact was clearly not easy to preserve.
Furthermore, this civilization dates back over 30,000 years.
This was a conservative estimate, as there was no strong evidence.
The more he learned, the more intrigued Alka became about the ruins.
He already had many ideas.