Jonn looked at the Aether Tears that filled the floor of the crypt, and then turned his eyes to the open coffin.
Inside the urn was a yellowish skeleton, covered in high-quality cloth that seemed to keep its natural quality even after many years.
In one corner of the stone urn was a small hole where a dark stain made its way to the outside, from where Jonn saw the largest of the crystals there.
This... Did his blood create those red crystals?
Jonn looked at them through his magnifying glass and saw the differences between the red crystals and the green ones he had in his village.
The green crystals seemed to be simpler. They had less mana than the red ones and were more ‘friendly’. The red ones had at least five times more mana and an inherent ‘anger’ that was hard to ignore.
Even their shape is more menacing. The village crystals grow like blocks. They have almost no edges. But these... they’re as sharp as razors!
[Projection]!
Jonn focused his mana on creating a replica of the red crystal and a tomato plant to see how the two essences would interact.
His face paled as he watched the green leaves of the tomato plant turn gray, while the red fruit withered and turned purple with a poisonous aura.
He had used up almost all of his mana after this brief simulation, but he was glad to have got this {Skill} before analyzing the mysterious cave.
When he ran out of mana to use the Celestial Magnifying Glass, he paused for a moment to think about what to do.
I can deduce that it’s not safe to let the animals in the village consume the red mana crystals. But there must be a way for me to use it.
He looked at the steps that led him to this crypt.
The traps in this place need mana to work... Maybe I could use it as a mana source for them. That would avoid wasting it.
I have to be careful with this essence. If some greedy mage got here and absorbed them, I’m afraid we’d be in serious trouble.
Jonn imagined more messages like the one from earlier, which would cause him to lose more progress points on his mission to save the village.
“Sigh! That’s why I lost the progress point. It alone could wipe out the village once and for all,” he muttered softly and took a deep breath.
He looked at the skeleton of the presumed mage behind this place, Count Francus Riverash.
“I still don’t know if you will be a point of positive change for the village or the end of us. However, I will look after your inheritance with care.”
Jonn carefully closed the open urn, which he imagined hadn’t been closed because its owner had entered it himself when he realized he would die alone in this place.
The war must have been dreadful. This was probably this man’s hideout or outpost. But he came here one last time to die after being severely injured.
Identifying the cause of Count Francus Riverash’s death was easy for Jonn. The end of the mage came from a cut across the man’s back, which had destroyed part of his spine and ribs.
There must be other places like this in the Barren Hills of Deepshadow. But perhaps others have found them before me.
Jonn wasn’t surprised when he arrived and found the place unexplored. Without mana in their body to protect them from the toxic mana of this cave, one wouldn’t even be able to get close to this place. Not only that, like this cave, there were 200 other areas in the region that required a closer scrutiny for assets or dangers. It didn’t seem absurd that after the tragic end of the war, there were still some unexplored places.
The Third Magic War had not ended with a victor. The war ended bitterly for those involved, as their mages died one after another, whether from battle wounds, old age, or poisoning.
It must have been quite challenging to engage in battles against special beings. Grandfather Hewet often shared stories with me about the encounters he had with specialists he had the privilege of conversing with.
The battlefield was chaotic. The fighters had no organized confrontations. It was chaos. One moment you’d get a kill, and then someone would sneak up and hurt you badly.
Many warriors certainly killed their opponents, but because of injuries sustained in such fights or later movement, they could only move enough to choose their graves before dying.
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Count Francus Riverash himself must have spent his last moments in such a way.
Jonn covered Francus’ urn and sighed. “I will leave these crystals here for now. It would be more dangerous to take them back to the village than to leave them here.
Time to return. I’m close to my limit.”
He went back the way he had come and picked up the books available from the library room of this magical cave, using the bedsheet in the area to make a bag to carry the books.
Before leaving the cave, he made a small trap with the ropes he had with him.
I’ll check the caves traps in this place tomorrow. This will do for now.
He sighed as he finished.
I’ll warn the others in the village to avoid this place because of the mana concentration. I’m pretty sure that the danger of the [Magic Cave] is that someone from the village, an animal, or even a traveler can enter this place.
I’ll be careful in the future.
This time his thoughts and plans didn’t help him and he soon arrived at his house, where he would store the new books he had gotten without problems.
Jonn also brought some gold he had found with the mage’s skeleton. 10 gold wasn’t much, but it would help more than it would hinder!
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Meanwhile, near the East Lake...
The day was slowly ending on this mild day, and the lake waters remained as calm as ever. However, as Beri finished his fishing, a sense of urgency started to creep over him.
A chill wind swept past him and his daughter as they sat in the small wooden boat, around 300 meters away from the shore.
“Is something wrong, father?” the girl asked when she saw that Beri looked scared.
“Alise, I believe it’s time to head back. I can sense an approaching storm,” he remarked, his gaze directed towards the north where the winds were picking up during the late afternoon.
As expected, gray clouds covered the sky in the distance.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning appeared in the sky, causing both father and daughter to almost jump with fright. Their little wooden boat shook, and Alise couldn’t help but agree with her father’s haste.
“Let’s go. We have ample food to sustain the village for the next two days,” she exclaimed, her urgency clear as she swiftly pulled the fishing net out of the water.
As she did so, Alise secretly looked around, feeling like she was being watched.
‘That feeling...’ She remembered the day she had almost lost her father and felt rather uncomfortable.
The sound of horses approaching caught their attention as Wy and Eliot came into view, already nearing the shore.
“Hurry up! Problems are approaching the village!” Wy said loudly, his face contorted in an unusual way.
“Problems?” Beri remembered the wolves of months ago and the fake mage.
“There is a group of travelers nearby, not far from here. Eliot will accompany you and head towards Petyr’s cave. I will return and alert our companions in the village.”
The two finally reached the shore of the lake, while Wy was already hurrying his horse away.
“Are they enemies?” Beri asked Eliot, uncomfortable with the unusual situation.
In the last 6 years, the village had seen groups of travelers in only 2 situations, except for the traders’ passage to the north, near the Royal Road, where Jonn, Eliot and Elia had met Acelin’s group.
“I’m not sure. But it could be. They’re traveling in four carriages and a wagon. There are at least 20 people in this group, some of them visibly armed,” the young archer said as he looked in the direction where he and Wy had seen the unwelcome visitors to their region.
“Travelers?” Alise remembered what she had already heard from Eliot and Jonn. “They’re probably passing through on their way to Lost Treasures,” she said to her father.
Beri imagined that this was the case. The Eternal Village was not a known place. As far as they knew, it wasn’t even on the maps of the region, and even Acelin would have a hard time finding it. Besides, Lost Treasure was experiencing a special moment that they couldn’t ignore.
“Let’s hide and hope they don’t come near the village,” Beri said as he gathered the fish into a box and loaded them into his small wheelbarrow with the help of his daughter.
The two youngsters agreed, and soon they were on their way to the more mountainous area around East Lake.
Even the simple Eliot knew they would be in trouble if foreigners found out about the village’s plantations!
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As Wy rode back to the village, the group of unwanted travelers stopped just a few kilometers from the village’s Limonite mine.
But with the night and the extremely dark terrain of the Barren Hills of Deepshadow, the group of travelers didn’t realize how close they were to the Eternal Village. Their wagons stopped in a formation, and the free men quickly started to set up tents and fires.
A group of men, dressed in animal fur, stood watchful with weapons in hand, fully aware that this war-torn region was far from peaceful.
With a greater understanding of Valorian’s treacherous roads than the people from the Eternal Village, these men were well aware of the dangers that lurked. They refused to rely on the deceptive silence of the areas once plagued by ancient mage battlefield.
With the men in the group working swiftly, they set up a temporary camp for the night. Before long, women, including some elderly individuals, and even children, began emerging from their vehicles to enjoy a meal in the open air.
“How many more nights until the Lost Treasures?” asked a woman with a solid build, muscles as strong as some men from the Eternal Village.
Looking at the warrior beside him, Dickon estimated, “Nights? I’d say we’re still a few weeks away from entering the Lost Treasures. This won’t be a quick trip.”
“All that? I thought we were three weeks away over a month ago!” said the woman named Sarre.
“Horses move more slowly in mana-rich areas. The Barren Hills of Deepshadow are not easy, Sarre. We could die at any moment traveling through this area,” Dickon said in a harsher tone, though he didn’t blame his sister.
“Our food will be gone in a week. I gathered as much food as I could, given the initial estimate you gave us. How will you solve such a problem, Dickon?” she stepped closer to him, speaking in a low voice so as not to draw the attention of the group.
“I’ll... manage,” he struggled to say. “We’ll just have to reduce our portions. However, once we reach the Lost Treasures, things will get better. The region I traveled through on my previous journey had vast green farmlands, even bigger than the area we’re currently in.”
“I truly hope you’re correct,” she stated, casting a stern gaze towards Dickon. “We are putting our families’ lives at stake for this territory. But if I discover these lands are nothing more than mines, I fear I will end your life, Dickon.”
The man remained silent as he watched his sister walk away and join the rest of the group.
Like almost all the survivors of the three Valorian wars, this group faced the food problem that threatened the Eternal Village!
‘Gold mines and plantation fields are essentially the same, Sarre. You’ll understand when you see how Sylvestria’s food reaches us through the gold I’m acquiring!’