Once joined up with the rest, he followed through the passage which led into a grand library. It went without saying, but most of the beasts ran through the shelves to see what sorts of things resided here.

All searched for one of a few specific things. However, he didn’t have to look much to tell this wasn’t a valuable library, especially not if it was this large.

Similar to around half the books in his memories, this library stored masses of information about the world as a whole. Of course, he found that all the books on the lower floor decayed so much over time, that even the arrays designed to maintain the ruins failed to keep them in check.

However, as books on the higher floors contained mana, he believed these were either valuable bits of information, or what all the running beasts searched for.

The library’s structure wasn’t anything quizzical. It was a large circular hall with a spiral staircase in its centre to walk up and down between levels at will. And on varying floors, books were presented in different ways.

On his bottom floor and the one above, not only were the outer perimeters filled with books, but small circular bookshelves with hundreds more books were littered all about. Likely to display all the thousands of books on those two floors alone.

But the third floor that changed into simply rows of bookshelves as well as the outer perimeter. Only that outer layer on the fourth… And then for the fifth. He actually failed to sense that room, not due to distance, but merely since something actually impeded his mana sense.

He didn’t even have to test and guessed that something did its best to stop all spying methods for that top secret information. Obviously, the steel tiers weren’t stupid either, and already began trying to enter that room, but as a strange barrier blocked one from breaking through the floor, or simply walking up to it, they eventually found entry impossible.

One beast who tried to attack the barrier didn’t receive any rewards for the daft idea.

Although, he wasn’t killed by the barrier for the action, so he deserved some respect there. Unfortunately, it became blindingly obvious that the books here only contained some information of low importance at the bounds available to the beasts, but this alone wasn’t worth dismissing.

Several books which introduced the concepts of alchemy or included Beginner true spells existed here. Whilst not insanely valuable, they could learn spellcasting from this.

But to these beasts it mattered too little, and after some time, the rattlesnake finally gathered them all together to simply delve deeper into the ruins. At this point, he still didn’t understand the structure of this place very well, it didn’t make much sense as a base.

“I scouted up ahead, and there shouldn’t be any danger. But it seems to be the treasure room, the ruin is likely an inheritance site for the future generations of whoever owned the mountain long ago. However, only the dragon is to touch the core treasure so it may kill any guardian that may have survived. Any complaints?” He was surprised to see the rattlesnake knew of his lantern, but when thinking back to how he questioned Kav and Mor before arriving…

“Fine, but are you willing to hand it over in that case?”

Most of the other beasts stopped in place, and even the rattlesnake eyed him up. Its rattle began to entrance him once more, and without many options, he descended to his Mind palace to protect himself from the effects. Of course, the effect of his tiny palace was negligible to steel tiers’ of their power.

The rattlesnake’s nostrils flared heavily, but he finally turned around and hissed for a few seconds before saying, “You will have to forfeit a lot of the rest. Are you really willing to accept that?” In any inheritance ruin, it is no surprise that the core treasure’s value exceeded the others severalfold.

But he knew that too little of the things here could possibly interest him. After so many years, even the preserved items couldn’t be in great shape, therefore, only the best of the best should remain intact.

And why would these steel tiers ever give him that stuff?

He cockily replied, “I’m fine with that. Should I take the lead or will you?”

He refused to turn back to face the dragon, and spoke whilst peering into the room ahead. But finally said, “Only step where I’ve moved over.” The rest formed a tight line behind the rattlesnake and followed its path through the room.

Not a single one raised complaints about excessive cautiousness, although even he would have shot them down due to the abundance of mana pulsing through the floor at all times.

Whatever this array was, it didn’t at all lose out to the eye in the entrance, likely some sort of protection to those undeserving of the items here. Although, if it didn’t activate the instant they appeared, what exactly was its effect?

If it didn’t activate after the rattlesnake’s testing, it barely mattered when compared to the array instantly killing them or not.

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While he concerned himself with the pulses of mana, the rest focused expectant gazes on the room around them. It glowed as though the bricks were coated in a layer of gold, with beautiful, ornate lamps attached to the wall all around. As well as the gold and gemstone embedded decorations, he noted that the internals were of a metal at least comparable to steel tiers in mana. With lovely golden flames giving the room life, everyone’s eyes shone with greed at the mountains of treasures all about.

Gold, silver, platinum, and mithril simply sat around the entire place in a variety of coins, all of them minted with the patterns of kingdoms long since gone, but he recognised a few specific ones. Some of the mithril and a sort of black metal coins contained the symbol of the Ancient Empire of man; he opted to grab a few of these if they were still valid tender.

Humans often said money ran the world, and not having any might as well be a sin in their society.

Besides the mountain of ordinary treasures though, it was the magical items which drew eyes. Myriad blades designed for psychic control, a large cauldron for alchemy, entire shelves with individual crystal jars holding rare ingredients. Piles of special ores used to create equipment for those at gold tier, and lastly…

An altar in the middle which held a rose of ice.

A rose whose mana exceeded the eye he saw at the start.

A rose which had to exceed mithril tier…

A real master tier plant.

“Stop! From this side, it is a clear path up to the altar. The dragon is to come here and step up, once he grabs the rose, everyone prepare to attack whatever awakens.”

He was too focused on the rose to really complain, but one of the beasts suddenly piped up with a question. “Why are you so sure that something like that exists?” And it left everyone staring at it, a small donkey with thick hair of ice, combined with dark blue hooves which shone like metal.

However, the only response was an increasingly resonating rattle, and most of the beasts began to sweat as the powerful force swept through their minds and came close to entrancing them… They may have received a method to strengthen their minds from their lords, but such a thing was recent. One month of such improvements meant nothing to a steel tier attack, normally at least.

“I can sense any who resist… And something in the room is impenetrable. As though a living mountain simply shrugged off my mediocre attempts.” The humility in his words was unmistakable, and it easily convinced him.

Sensing those who resist psychic attacks isn’t common at their level, but with the rattlesnake nearing gold, he chose to believe it.

“Let me up then.” He shuffled through the single-file line of beasts to avoid stepping beyond the places they’d touched, and once by the rattlesnake, turned to the altar and easily hopped up to it. The metre high gap would’ve been a problem without the spirit or Jump seals.

But once on top, he plunged his mind into the belt and withdrew his lantern with a meagre light… If this thing’s soul could resist the attack, they’d likely all die, and he lifted his head to grab the rose in his teeth as the mana of all the beasts below stirred.

It was now or never. But as he reached up to grab it, he noticed a giant icicle whiz past his head and impact the soul lantern, sending it flying out of his mouth.

Clattering against the golden stone floors, he looked in the direction of its source and saw a few beasts smiling. This was all a trap… But why?

“You set all this up for the lantern? You think the lords won’t know what you’ve done?”

“Of course! Who do you think told us these ruins’ functions? Don’t worry, we’ll ensure you’re not a threat to any of them!” Several of them laughed in his face, mocking him for the mistaken trust it expected. But his eyes only focused on Kav and Mor, the two who should’ve been on his side as his death impacted the wyvern worst. “Don’t look at them, your lord sent them specially so you’d come. Supposedly some plan to scare you off failed as well.”

His mind flashed back to the weak steel tiers who never drastically injured him, but also made things rather annoying a week ago. He’d assumed it was the anaconda leading them but really it was…

“You can all die with me too then!” His head suddenly reached up and grabbed the rose in a single motion.

All of their steps staggered as the room quaked, the altar crumbled slightly at the corners and some of the beasts grew fearful… So is what it’d said about something protecting the rose true?

However, the shaking soon stopped, and the array below began to shine with mana at an unprecedented level. It almost burned to look at in his mana sight, but before he could react in the slightest, a golden barrier encapsulated the altar and left the other beasts unable to touch him…

But then, why was the rattlesnake and its allies still grinning?

One of the beasts grabbed the lantern casually, and they all simply walked out with the rattlesnake at the back. Still grinning, it spoke one last line to the dragon, “May your final moments cherish that treasure.” Some snorts which sounded oddly like chuckles accompanied the leaving group.

He didn’t think too much of the situation, at least noticing his safety in the short term as he tried to think up a solution to this barrier. The terror eel bodies in his belt would act as food for the following week or so, and after than he had an innate ability that allowed him to produce ice-cream at will as long as he had mana, making starvation a moot point.

Not to mention, as he wasn’t in a growth phase, the amount of food he actually needed was miniscule! He could survive indefinitely with his current situation! Besides, even if he didn’t have that ability, the Pure mana bloodline greatly—

Gravity multiplied in an instant, flattening his body across the ground without so much a second of warning and growing stronger by the second. Wafer scales cracked as the force they endured simply went too far, and he saw the Nexus inform him of the growing damage by the second.

From just 1% to 2%... It slowly rose as the gravity increased without end. His Mind palace released instantly, as did the Auric spirit, the Sage’s statue, and even a release of his mana to oppose the drastic changes.

But it wasn’t enough…

The weakened gravity continued growing and in just a minute completely overpowered all those items with ease, in fact, he even saw the walls of his draconic building shaking, a powerful force threatened to destroy it as he retrieved it quickly.

“No way… No way this is how I die.”

Then it all stopped. The endless gravity abruptly vanished and he stood in the barrier, confused. He was alive for a reason… But what was it?