Muherr used recording equipment to film the entire iron door, while some of the mercenaries documented it with cameras as well.
Only after everything had been recorded did Golem extend its mechanical upper arms and push against the iron door.
A powerful force erupted from Golem's body. As dust drifted down in showers, the iron door gave a creaking groan and slowly opened a crack.
The gap grew wider and wider, gradually revealing what lay beyond the iron door.
A withered giant tree.
A question surfaced in Ronin's mind.
Was the alchemical plant Brion really this enormous?
That was right.
Enormous.
Even though the plant behind the iron door was visibly withered, it was still unbelievably massive.
Its roots alone were at least several dozen meters thick. Looking upward, they could still see shriveled eggs hanging from the dried trunk.
The sight was somewhat similar to the giant tree in the manga that had been planted in the East Gorteau palace after it was occupied by the Chimera Ants.
The iron door was pushed fully open, and the dust that had accumulated for years inside the space beyond it burst outward.
Ronin extended his En beyond the iron door, but detected no danger at all.
It seemed the monsters in this underground space—the ones Ronin had previously burned to death with a great blaze—were all the creatures that this giant tree had produced back then.
The mercenary team cautiously entered the room.
After confirming that there was no danger inside the sealed chamber, several mercenaries remained at the iron door to stand guard while the others gathered beneath the giant tree.
"This thing doesn't seem very valuable to us," Ronin said. His attention was more focused on the storage areas inside the room. Unfortunately, with the passage of time, nothing in the records had survived a thousand years.
As for personally investigating whether this plant really was the alchemical plant Brion, Ronin didn't have that kind of ability.
That would require not only information about Brion, but also a massive amount of specialized knowledge. Clearly, Ronin had neither.
So finding such an enormous tree didn't hold much value for him.
"I'm curious. Does every building have one of these trees underneath it?" Muherr said as he examined some of the instruments and equipment in the room.
Unfortunately, those devices had long since stopped functioning, making it impossible to tell what they had originally been used for.
But when they circled around to the back of the tree, they saw a conveyor belt that extended all the way into the tree's interior.
It was probably used to transport something into the tree. However, the opening where the conveyor belt entered the tree was less than three meters wide.
After wiping away the dust near the conveyor belt, they could still see dried brown stains hidden beneath it—stains that easily made people think of blood.
Then one phrase appeared in everyone's mind:
Blood sacrifice.
They just didn't know whether the sacrifices had been humans or some other animals.
What came next was simple: take away anything in the room that might have value, then seal the iron door again.
Given how heavy the door was—so heavy that even Golem had to use its full strength just to slowly push it open—even if an ordinary team discovered the monsters' weakness and found the door, they wouldn't be able to break through it and enter anytime soon.
"Are we going to explore the other buildings?" Ronin asked, getting straight to the point.
Muherr nodded. The situation beneath a single building wasn't enough to determine anything. Only more data would allow them to clearly judge the true state of these ruins.
If every building really had the same iron door and ancient tree beneath it, then in the end, handing these ruins over to the Hunter Association and V5's dangerous creature management bureau would probably be the only way to uncover their greater value.
Ronin nodded as well, accepting Muherr's reasoning.
"Don't worry. Even with what we've found so far, we'll still get a good enough bonus," Mascher said, patting Ronin on the shoulder to comfort him.
He seemed to think Ronin was dissatisfied with this exploration.
But the truth was that Ronin felt exploring ancient ruins really was pretty interesting. Not only did it satisfy his desire to explore, it also gave him the sense that something novel was always waiting to be discovered.
Although this particular expedition had ultimately been somewhat disappointing, what if they really did discover the alchemical plant Brion at the end?
Adventure seemed to have more appeal than he had previously imagined.
Before taking part in this expedition, Ronin had always thought he was probably the same type of person as Chairman Netero.
He would train bit by bit, constantly challenge himself, keep fighting, and eventually become the strongest.
The peak of martial arts might be the scenery he wanted to see.
With the Sharingan—and having already mastered it to the Mangekyō level—Ronin had never once doubted the heights he could reach in the future.
But after that?
Would he, like Chairman Netero, watch himself slowly age with time and gradually fall from his peak?
Perhaps exploring the Dark Continent was also a good choice.
To see the scenery beyond this lake, and to see what kind of growth he could achieve in that unknown land.
"Ronin?"
The team had already walked some distance away. Vanessa noticed Ronin hadn't followed and stopped.
"Hm?" Ronin came back to his senses, smiled faintly, and quickly caught up with the mercenary team.
If he really wanted to go to the Dark Continent, it wasn't something he could decide on a whim.
There were still many things he needed to prepare, and quite a few matters he needed to handle.
The scattered Scarlet Eyes had to be recovered first, and the remaining Phantom Troupe members he hadn't dealt with needed to be eliminated as soon as possible.
Then there was the question of who could accompany him to the Dark Continent. Should he go with Beyond, or build a team of his own?
And if things followed the original plot, Beyond wouldn't head for the Dark Continent until after Chairman Netero died.
Even if Ronin didn't interfere, that would still be nearly three years away.
That wasn't a short time for Ronin. And if he really intended to explore the Dark Continent, he didn't want to go with Kakin's expedition.
Kakin's succession war was obviously a pit.
And the Kakin team would only be permitted by V5 to reach the fake continent. There was still quite a distance between there and the true Dark Continent.
So if Ronin really wanted to go to the Dark Continent, he would rather follow the method Chairman Netero had once used: organize an elite team, not too many people, and illegally slip into the Dark Continent without leaving an official record.
But if he wanted to do that, there was far more he needed to understand.
While his mind turned over those thoughts, his body followed the team into a new round of clearing operations.
This time, with Golem taking the lead, Ronin became support.
The monsters that Golem had struggled to kill with a Gatling gun before quickly lost their lives under the flames of a flamethrower.
Ronin's role, instead, was mainly using Water Release to cool down the underground space.
Their coordination was smooth, and the pace of exploration became several times faster than when Ronin had previously used the Head Mincing Pain method.