With a loud hissing of an airlock being open, the door moved forward and then split into two parts that slid to the sides. One by one, starting from the farthest, the lights inside a long bare grey corridor started turning on. When the last lamp activated, it revealed an ancient human skeleton laying in the doorway.

"I wasn't expecting anything but..." muttered Orisa.

"But that's not what I was expecting," Kanai finished instead of her.

Toatre moved first, closing the distance to the skeleton. She squatted by its side and carefully inspected the bones.

"Expiro!"

"Mhm, how very fascinating it is, indeed," she mused after processing the data she got from the spell.

"Toatre, what are you doing exactly?" asked Iten. The rest of the group still stood outside the corridor, fearing that it might suddenly close.

"Sating my curiosity, of course. What else would I be doing with the age-detecting spell, Iten? Mhm, I suppose I shouldn't expect much from a frontal row fighter in the end. Okay, I will explain so that even-."

"No, thank you," Iten interrupted Toatre with a twitching eye.

"How old are these remains, Toatre?" carefully inquired Tiana.

"Close to ten centuries, dear Tiana, but I'm sadly unable to determine a more precise date."

"Holy crap..." mumbled Kanai.

"It's starting to look like a proper ancient shelter now, guys. My spider senses are tingling," Orisa said and stepped into the corridor, moving past a still squatting Toatre.

"W-w-what senses?!" exclaimed Tiana in surprise.

"Ignore this filthy nerd, please," quickly answered Kanai and followed Orisa.

"Do you think it's safe to go inside? What if it's a trap to entomb us all here?" asked Iten.

"I understand your concerns, Iten, but highly doubt it. There were better ways of eliminating us in case someone was targeting our group. I won't suggest this place is completely safe, of course, but I don't think there is an immediate danger here."

"How did you know what to do with the wall?" Kanai quietly asked Orisa.

"I'm sure you already know, but I didn't. The feeling I got from the wall hinted at it, and when I tried to pour more Mana there, I felt it settle somewhere deep within the emptiness. You know, as if it was a giant empty barrel or something. Plus, the fact that there is no electricity in this world, as well as that some mechanisms are powered with Mana even now. These things made me want to try and, I don't know, charge the wall with my Mana, I guess?"

"So another wild guess that could have killed you... I should have thought twice before starting this suicidal relationship," grumbled Kanai and brushed past a chuckling Orisa.

After picking up their backpacks, they carefully walked into the corridor made of the same material as the exterior, leaving the skeleton behind. The path was completely bare, with no decorations, furnishing, or anything noteworthy, only the same walls and lamps in the ceiling.

Curiously, there was almost no dust or dirt inside. Orisa expected the place to be more run-down, considering it stood abandoned for a thousand years. That led to one of the three possibilities.

The first was that Toatre might have been wrong in gauging the skeleton's age. It might have died fifty years ago or even closer to the current time. An unlikely idea but still worth considering.

The second explanation could be that there were other dwellers of the shelter that, for some twisted reason, decided to keep the place clean but leave the skeleton intact. An autonomous lifeform or technology could also be included in this even less believable theory.

The last speculation led to the idea that the shelter was completely sealed off for the entire duration, isolated from the rest of the world. It left unanswered the question of the air circulation while the owner of the place was still alive, but the theory itself was more realistic.

Regardless of the reason behind the current state, Orisa was hoping to find the facility full of ancient technologies and useful artifacts since nobody had stepped raided it yet.

The group walked through a thirty meters long corridor that made a sharp turn to the right. There they found a rather spacious hall with two doors. One of them looked suspiciously similar to an elevator door, with several buttons and black squares placed right on its surface. The other one was a simple door with a handle.

Everything around the hall was made of the same grey material, but the door was different. After a close inspection, Orisa and Toatre concluded that it was made of an unknown metal alloy. The quality of said alloy wasn't what Orisa was expecting from an ancient civilization - the hinges and the handle were completely rusted and turned brownish-red. The door itself wasn't in much better condition.

"Force Armor!"

Orisa wanted to get a basic level of protection before opening the door, but her armor got immediately sucked into the floor. After observing her struggle, Iten shrugged and knocked the door off the hinges with one mighty kick.

“Very unlike you, man,” Kanai wondered.

"The gates are open. We could end up trapped here if somebody were to show. Be that Beasts or other enemies, we better hurry and leave this place," he said and stepped through the now empty doorframe.

At the other end of a small platform was a spiral staircase that went down. Iten made sure that the rest of the group was following him and began to descend. It took them three whole minutes to get to the bottom of the path, where they found two similarly rusted doors. One led further down with another spiral stairs, while the other opened into a wide grey room identical to the one they left above. Besides the closed elevator, the room led into a bigger hall with a high ceiling and several more doors and passageways leading in various directions.

"Smells like rotten wood," muttered Kanai. He stepped into the opening and immediately stopped in front of a strange pile of brownish dust. Toatre joined him, took a pinch of the dust and smelled it, grinding it with her fingers:

"A wood it is, indeed. How nice of you to see that even without a close inspection, Kanai." She swiftly moved through the hall from one pile to another, sniffing some of them and lightly kicking the rest. After stopping in the middle of the space, Toatre turned to the group and said: "My educated guess is that some centuries ago these things were furniture like sofas, stools, wardrobes and such."

"Hm, are you sure?" Orisa asked in doubt.

"But of course, my dear friend. See?" Toatre pulled a piece of dirty glass from the closest heap of dust. "A cup, I assume, or something really close. There were springs, screws, and bolts in the other one, mhm. As I see it, most furnishings were made of wood or metal, and the passage of time didn't spare them."

"So... This isn't a treasure vault but someone's residence? What use does it have for us, then?" Orisa furrowed her brows in doubt. If this was true, how was she supposed to gain knowledge and learn ancient secrets?

"I don't think you quite understand this finding, Orisa, which is strange, mhm. From our perspective, everything here is priceless, an invaluable source of wisdom, mhm. Let's take a look."

The residence was big and spacious, neatly illuminated with pleasant lamplight, and only the lack of windows could remind that it was an underground facility. The group found ten rooms of various sizes but with an equally high ceiling, and they were all made of the same grey Mana-absorbing material. Most of the rooms' contents had turned to dust in the past centuries, but they still found remnants of the past: pieces of tableware, fragments of decorations, shattered glass that looked more like a decoration, and so on.

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However, there were several still functional and intact items among piles of dust and decomposed wood. They, of course, consisted of the same grey substance. The first thing that Tina found was a refrigerator that had turned on automatically after the complex was powered up. From the outside, it looked like a sealed door to a pantry, but when Tiana opened it, a wave of cold air made her sneeze and shiver. Inside the freezer, they found remnants of various containers, sealed bottles of unknown red liquids without labels on them, and more dust.

The next functional piece of equipment was a stove. Kanai accidentally activated it after a carefree brush over a black surface that immediately turned red-hot. Led by a panic attack, he slapped and smashed the space around it, turning on two more cooktops, an extractor, and red highlights before finally shutting it down.

"We are like clueless monkeys rummaging through an appliance store," Iten said, more fascinated than disappointed.

In such a manner, the inspection had continued for an hour before the group decided to meet in the first hall.

"Is it just me, or the light became dimmer?" Kanai wondered.

"Now that you have said that, it is quite possible," Tiana nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think the residence is about to run out of Mana?"

Three pairs of eyes stared at Orisa with a silent question. She shrugged casually, took out an unevolved core and, went to the far side of the hall.

"Assault Seal!" - "Support Seal!" - "Utility Seal!" - "Rotary Seal!" - "Attack Seal!"

"Asura Strike!"

The attack raised the dust all over the room, causing everyone a coughing fit. When the dirt settled down again, Orisa saw three people with various degrees of disapproval on their faces.

"On the bright side, the room became brighter," she grinned. "By the way, where is our precious friendly alien Toatre?"

"Haven't seen her for a while," Iten shrugged.

"I hope this is not one of those episodes where the other characters start to disappear one by one in a haunted house until only the protagonist remains to deal with the demon," Kanai said in a spooky voice.

"Protagonist? W-w-who is that?" Tiana asked. Kanai and Iten turned their heads at Orisa in unison, then looked at each other.

"There can be only one!" Orisa exclaimed theatrically.

"Who are you now, a highlander!?" protested Kanai.

'You know, it actually feels quite satisfying to understand your jokes for a change. I might even come to enjoy it," Iten reflected.

"That's great and all, but seriously, where is Toatre, guys?"

"I think she w-w-went downstairs," Tiana pointed at the open door with another spiral staircase leading into the depth of the complex.

"Yikes, it is really starting to feel like a stupid teen movie with dumb-ass kids marching to their demise," shivered Kanai and earned a pinch from Orisa.

Another long descend led them to another floor where they found similar elevator doors and another hall. The first level of the facility was, without a doubt, made for living. This floor, however, gave off an entirely different vibe. The path to the hall had been blocked by a thick metal door that was now broken.

After walking into the hall, the group witnessed a laboratory of sorts: the ground was littered with broken glass and rusted metal tools. Some of the items were mostly intact, and Orisa managed to make out test tubes, vials, measuring cups, and even syringes.

"Now, this is what I call a proper vault," she said with a dreamy smile.

"First, let's find our lost kid," grumbled Iten and walked into the hall.

The glass was crunching under their shoes with each step, announcing their arrival. In the otherwise silent floor, this sound made everyone even more nervous.

There were several doors and open passages leading to other rooms, but Kanai halted them and muttered uncomfortably:

"I know that it would sound lame after joking so much, but maybe we shouldn't split up?"

"I ag-g-gree, let's stay close."

"Really? Are you guys scared of an ancient ghost?" Orisa snorted but still went along with their request.

In such a manner, the group of four began to scout another floor. There were considerably more devices made of the same Mana-absorbing material, but their purpose wasn't clear, so Orisa decided to leave them be for now.

Once the search party stepped into the room, they understood that they had reached their destination. Aside from now-familiar ceiling lamps, the area was illuminated by a wall-to-wall glowing picture that looked like an image from a projector. In the middle of the room on the floor, like a little kid playing in a sandbox, sat Toatre with her backpack open. Various devices were spread around her, with a few of them being wired to a strange glowing tablet hanging in the air twenty centimeters above the ground. Her gaze was constantly moving from the tablet to the screen on the wall, where words and schemes were quickly running downward.

"Toatre, dear, are you okay?" Orisa asked carefully.

"Mhm."

"You are busy, and we shouldn't distract you?"

"Mhm."

Orisa cautiously moved closer to Toatre and began to observe the girl in action. What she saw with her eyes told her little, but there was another way that proved more beneficial - Orisa closed her eyes and focused on her Mana sense. She felt numerous tiny Mana streams and flashes run back and forth between the screen and the tablet. From time to time, rougher spikes of Mana went from Toatre or her devices towards the tablet.

"This device is controlled by Mana?" Orisa asked quietly.

"Mhm. Although I am yet to understand what to do."

"Do you need help?"

"Mmm, can you help?" asked Toatre bluntly.

"Well... Perhaps? I can sense Mana quite well..."

"Mhm, same here. Anything else?"

"I understand. Sorry for distracting you. Please, call us when you have an update."

"Mhm."

Orisa walked back in awkward silence, met by three pairs of pitying gazes.

"At least you tried," Kanai chuckled and walked out of the room.

"W-w-what do you think this image means?" Tiana asked after they had left Toatre alone.

"My guess is as good as yours, but it looks a Mana-powered primitive computer," Orisa answered idly, pondering what she had seen a moment ago.

"Computer?"

"An advanced version of your world's mail-transmitting device, I guess," she said after thinking on the explanation.

"I have never seen anything like that before," Tiana answered meekly, ashamed of not knowing something.

"Either the technology had been lost, or someone carefully hid it for their own benefit," guessed Kanai, earning an approving nod from Orisa.

"Is there even any value in a computer in this world?" asked Iten in doubt.

"We know nothing of its capabilities, so no point in guessing. I assume it will take Toatre quite some time to get results. We shouldn't waste such a moment, guys, let's get up and cook dinner."

Two hours later, they had to remove Toatre from the tablet by force to make her eat and take a break. During the wait, the lights began to dim again, and Orisa went to charge the facility with Mana. Another five hours had passed before the girl came to them and said:

"There is so much there, mhm. I think I was able to open one-tenth of its functions, if not less. I had to limit myself, of course, to relevant options only, but-."

"Can you close the main entrance?" interrupted her Iten. Toatre looked at him with a dubious expression, then smacked her own forehead:

"Iten, an extremely pleasant surprise, I must say. So even you can be of use outside of combat. It makes me glad and also adds more admiration towards Orisa and her member-selecting skills. I'll be right back."

"Is she doing it on purpose?" Iten asked his smiling comrades but got no reply.

Toatre turned and rushed down the stairs, but the rest of the team decided to follow her, leaving their belongings at the kitchen. They found the girl focused on the giant screen where numerous symbols were changing places and spinning. Some of them had words written above or below them, but they moved too fast for Orisa to read them.

"The door is closed. Now, dear friends, Kanai, Tiana, and Iten, take a seat," Toatre gestured on the floor by her side.

"Don't you think our pure little Toatre has drastically changed since the training camp?" Orisa asked Kanai, but he only rolled his eyes quietly and sat on the floor.

"There were quite a few noteworthy elements, but we'll start with the most interesting one. Do note that I had gone through its contents, albeit briefly, and will now present you the document's relevant part, mhm."

The symbols on the screen disappeared, replaced by a wall of poorly formatted text. The rest of the group exchanged gazed while Toatre had been scrolling it down.

"Dear, what is this document about?" Orisa asked her friend.

"Oh, I thought it was rather obvious. It's a journal of the owner of this place, of course. His name is Markes Todo."

Orisa raised her eyes to the wall, and all her attention immediately focused on the text it was displaying:

'Since everything had gone to shit and I have nothing better to do, I'll at least record and recollect this. I just hope I'll be able to read it one day and laugh my ass out, thinking how scared of nothing I was.

It has been six days already. Six days, huh. I'm had been sitting here for six days already, damn. I wonder how are Varisa and the kids doing. Okay, screw it, I'm sure they are fine.

Anyhow, six days ago those... those bastards, those brainless fuckers had apparently gone and launched the Spire.'

---

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Since nobody is reading ANs, I'll post it here.

tl;dr_1 - please, take a poll if you have some free time, there are 2 pics in the pre-chapter AN. Which one is better?

tl;dr_2 - I'll take a break for several weeks after the next chapter.

First of all, the previous artist stopped responding, and I'd been looking for another one ever since. In the pre-chapter AN there are 2 pictures, please, take a look and tell which one is better. It's a chapter where everyone had a picnic before living the training camp to serve in the Hounds. Those are Orisa and Kanai.

Second. I will be taking a break after the next chapter. How long will it last, I don't know. A week or two? A month? I don't know. I burned out. I had burned out several months ago and had stopped enjoying it even before that. But kept writing. I began to treat is Work. And the Work must be done. That's why I kept pushing myself, forcing to write day after day even though I didn't want to. Because the project must be finished. I can't go on like that, sorry. Another milestone of my work is here, and I'm already far behind. A lot of other IRL stuff is happening or will happen in the near future.

I already see how low the quality has dropped. I'm using the same words, the same phrases, squeezing boring dialogues. I remind myself of a 99% empty toothpaste pack. It's empty. Almost. But each time you manage to squeeze a bit more out of it, barely enough to clean your teeth. That's me. Barely enough to finish the chapter. I know I'm treating this as a learning experience, but even then I don't want to write complete crap. You don't deserve it, too.

I'll be back when I have at least 5-6 chaps stored, preferably more.

To people who kept pushing me, kept commenting, and kept reading - thank you, I made it this far only because of you. I hope it's not a farewell (since I had kept my promises before >_<