The lighting equipment came on. Screams rang out overhead, but Golem had already moved to the front of the team.
He kicked open the room's rotten door, and as it collapsed, a large cloud of dust burst up from the floor.
Ronin silently took out a gas mask and put it on.
There was no unnecessary discussion. Golem stepped out of the room and into the corridor, while the mercenaries followed behind him with their guns raised.
Their tactical flashlights pierced through the dust, exposing everything in the hallway to everyone's eyes.
They found nothing unusual, so Golem took the lead and headed toward the stairs.
But he had only taken a few steps when hissing and footsteps came from downstairs, as if something had been awakened by the sound of Ronin and the others arriving.
"Prepare for battle."
Two pistols appeared in Muherr's hands as he gave the order.
Vanessa moved, and her figure vanished from where she stood. This time, however, Ronin saw it clearly.
Vanessa's entire body had sunk into Mascher's shadow, while Mascher moved to the rear of the team.
Ronin stayed beside Muherr. Within the En he had released, he detected living creatures entering its range and rushing toward them at high speed.
Judging from their shapes, they looked somewhat like the xenomorphs from films Ronin had seen before crossing over.
But when gunfire rang out and the first monster burst through the stairwell door, he confirmed that there wasn't much wrong with his perception.
It really was a vicious, streamlined monster similar to a xenomorph. But rather than a xenomorph, it looked more like a velociraptor.
Golem raised one arm. A Gatling gun rapidly materialized, and as its barrels spun, torrents of bullets poured out like a waterfall.
One monster after another rushed out of the stairwell, but before they could even pounce at the group, they were torn to pieces by the flood of bullets.
Three minutes later, no more monsters charged out from the stairs.
At the same time, the wall near the staircase had been completely shredded by the torrent of bullets, revealing the darkness outside the building and the faint outlines of other structures in the distance.
Howling wind poured into the corridor.
The person on Golem's left arm took the initiative to stand up and jump down from him, while another gun-wielding Nen user climbed onto Golem.
The one who had jumped down took a submachine gun and joined the rest of the team.
Ronin noticed that the other three people under Golem formed a protective formation around the person who had been swapped out, while the protected person quickly took food from their backpack and began replenishing themselves.
The food was rather special. Ronin could even see life energy on it.
It was probably a product of a Nen ability used to accelerate recovery, likely the work of an Emitter.
The person on Golem conjured a warhammer. The towering mech-like warrior replaced his right hand with the hammer, while his left hand took a giant shield from his back.
With creaking sounds, Golem stepped over the beasts' corpses and started walking down the stairs.
Ronin and the others quickly followed.
The screams outside the building had vanished. Looking out through the broken wall into the air beyond, they could see that many white cocoons had appeared on the stone ceiling of the cavern.
Some of them were definitely explorers who had entered this place.
Without the slightest intention of rescuing anyone, Ronin withdrew his gaze and continued following Golem's steps.
The gas mask blocked out the chaotic mixture of smells. His En detected nothing unusual, but the floor beneath them had quite a few cracked and broken sections.
A few minutes later, the team stopped.
It was the same footsteps and roars as before, only this time, Golem didn't use the Gatling gun. Instead, he coordinated with the team members and attacked the monsters rushing out at them.
Ronin and Muherr didn't continue watching from the side either. They joined the fight.
After dealing with several waves of monsters in a row, the team finally reached the bottom floor of the building.
When they walked out, what they saw was a ruined street, along with the remains of derailed and overturned trains lying across it.
"What is this?" Ever since entering this area, Ronin had been filled with questions.
After all, according to the information they had, the Mahawi Ruins had existed for more than two thousand years. Had this world already advanced enough two thousand years ago to build skyscrapers and rail trains?
"Surprised?" There was a hint of amusement in Muherr's voice. "When I first entered the ruins and saw this, I was shocked too.
"But if we're going to talk about the root cause behind something like this, then it involves a mysterious place—and a fact that ordinary people will never encounter in their entire lives."
As Muherr spoke, Ronin already had a guess in his mind.
"This world is much larger than you imagine. The place we live in now is only an island in a lake. Beyond it lies a far broader continent, and that place is now called the Dark Continent.
"And that Dark Continent is where our ancestors originally lived!" Muherr stopped and looked at Ronin seriously. "That said, not all ruins expose conditions from a thousand years ago the way the Mahawi Ruins do.
"Especially after V5 was established, ruins were categorized. Ruins like Mahawi, which could potentially expose the existence of the Dark Continent, have already been classified entirely as forbidden zones."
Ronin nodded in agreement.
But he also sensed something off.
At least for now, the Mahawi Ruins still shouldn't have any direct connection to the Dark Continent.
Yet Muherr had forcibly linked the two together and told him about it. If there weren't some other motive behind that, even Ronin himself wouldn't believe it.
"If exploring ruins allows people to discover this kind of ancient technology, then why hasn't the technological progress of modern society advanced as quickly as one would expect?" Ronin asked the key question instead.
Muherr gave him an approving look.
"Because every high-tech ruin discovered so far lacks the key element that made that advanced technology possible in the first place: energy."
Ronin looked puzzled.
The team rested on the first floor of the building. Next, they would leave the building and explore the outside area.
And if just one building contained so many monsters, then there was no telling what kind of scene awaited them outside.
It was precisely this rest period that gave Muherr a chance to speak with Ronin.
"All technology from a thousand years ago has one fundamental difference from the technology we possess now: the energy they used all came from special existences found on the Dark Continent."
Muherr pointed to the rail train outside.
"Take that train, for example. It doesn't have a battery, nor does it use fuel. Instead, it uses a strange kind of stone."
As Muherr spoke, Ronin instantly thought of a special stone produced on the Dark Continent—
the Unmanned Stone.
It was a mineral that could generate electricity when submerged in water. A bead-sized piece of Unmanned Stone could release roughly twenty thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity in a single day.
And twenty thousand kilowatt-hours was almost enough electricity to power an ordinary household for ten years.