Mentally, I had aimed for a spot on the other side of the gate. The fact that I could see through the bards of the gate made it easier to visualise where I was trying to end up and a split second later, my vision returned to me as I reformed on the other side.

As I had expected, the creator of that gate had foreseen such an eventuality, because before I could even catch my bearings, nearly a dozen sickly green bolts flashed into existence and raced at me. My gut lurched as I saw the bolts of mana fly right at me and held my breath as they reached me. Thankfully, they harmlessly passed right through my body, since I hadn’t yet lost my intangibility. By the time my body started to reform, only one bolt hadn’t made impact yet, so I stuck my arm out to block in a moment of desperation.

The green bolt dissipated, leaving a mark on the affected arm, which I quickly cut off at the elbow before the curse could take hold of my entire body. For the second time, my arm fell to the floor and crumbled to dust moments later. This time, I hadn’t needed to cut my sleeve off with it to do so. For a moment, I became scared that more bolts would follow the first dozen, but nothing seemed to be happening. I could only hope that no targeting systems had been set up for intruders already inside and that I wouldn’t suddenly be cursed when I had my back turned.

To that end, I didn’t hesitate and headed further down the corridor and went down another set of stairs at its end. The green bolts that had harmlessly passed through me hadn’t left a mark on the brick wall behind me at the time, further consolidating the hypothesis that I was dealing with a curse-based attack.

I didn’t have time to consider that thought further, though, because when I turned a corner and went down yet another set of stairs, a green glow illuminated the end of the corridor. I stilled, carefully inspecting the glow from a distance, but couldn’t make anything out. I wondered whether that glow was indicative of more defensive systems, or something else… I had already come this far, so couldn’t back out now.

With no other choice, I stealthily snuck down the remainder of the stairs, until I reached the end, where I saw something spectacular. The corridor finally ended and opened up into a gigantic cavern that had formed under the rock. As large as a mountain valley, tower-sized stalactites and stalagmites rose up and hung down everywhere. Curiously, green crystals were attached to each one, jutting out of their rocky surface and illuminating the cavern with a bright green glow, which had been the origin of the light I had been wary of earlier.

At the bottom of the cavern, a small town lay nestled between the rock rising up on either side. Small, cubic houses had been dug into and out of the rock, with openings dotting the rock formations at periodic heights and widths. It almost resembled the termite nest from the Caltian scorch, if it wasn’t so obviously of human making.

The stairs ended here, at the edge of the cavern. Instead, a cobblestone path led to the village down below. With my guard still up, I followed the path downward. No foliage of any kind was visible, but the same sickly green crystals stood erect on either side of the path and they had been shaped into trees somehow. These trees weren’t very detailed, though. They only had the rough shape of what I recognised as the savannah’s trees, lacking leaves and small branches.

My curiosity was only piqued further when I snuck over to the entrance of the village, finding it completely deserted. No guards stood outside its stone gate and no monsters roamed inside, as far as I could see. Instead, stone statues were spread throughout the town. Unlike the statues that had attacked me in the ruins above, these ones were detailed and lifelike, each in the middle of some kind of activity that any village person might do throughout their day. I went over to one and prodded it, trying to elicit a reaction. Alas, these statues seemed to be more than dead, because even when I tested out a few more, none reacted beyond standing there. Unable to contain my curiosity further, I decided to explore the village more thoroughly.

For the next half hour, I took my time to sneak from house to house, on the lookout for danger and investigating anything interesting as best as I could.

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First of all, all of the village’s furniture was made of stone, which made sense, since wood would be a precious commodity down here. The previous villagers had harvested the crystals that adorned their cavern and hung them from their rooves like lanterns and torches to illuminate their living spaces. Despite much of the town being made of stone, much of it had obviously wasted away over time. Stone cupboards and chests were filled with nothing but ash and scraps, for example. Whoever had lived here, if anything ever had, had died a long, long time ago.

A few metal objects remained somewhat recognizable, though. A rusted helmet with another crystal on top, for example, along with what looked like a spear of some kind, though strange hooks broke away from the blade at separate points. So far, I hadn’t found anything of value to me, though.

Eventually, I concluded that I had explored most of the village itself. A few suspicious things stuck out to me. Unlike most ordinary villages, where every building played a different role, here each building looked like an ordinary living accommodation, apart from a few exceptions. No small shops, no bakers or butchers, and not even a smithy, despite the presence of metal tools that had obviously been made in the area.

Instead, a large quarry and mine had been set up at the edge of the village, which I imagined lay at the origin of this place. It wasn’t uncommon for mining villages to pop up in random spots where valuables were found. Hells, that was something that still happened to this day.

But why hide it from the outside world? Why set up such a deadly defence mechanism? Why was the city so secretive about its excavation of this place? There could only be one reason. Money.

If my hunch was correct, these green crystals held value that I couldn’t rightly place. After that stint with the curses, though, I was somewhat apprehensive at breaking some pieces off myself. Maybe I could do that before I left.

Apart from the mine and quarry, two other buildings stood out to me and I hadn’t explored them yet. One was a warehouse in the middle of the village, while the other was a large stalagmite at its edge, that had been dug out. A large stone gate rested at its bottom, adorned with a hexagonal pattern made of those familiar crystals.

To start with, I checked out the warehouse. Well, the building looked like a warehouse to store stuff in, anyway. I pushed open its heavy door and found myself in the dark. My passive let me see regardless, though, so I wasn’t bothered. With my sword still drawn just in case, I slowly advanced inside, where I found myself in one large, open space. Different parts of the place were sectioned off by stone walls that came up to my shoulders, but a few were empty. A few others had dozen of stone chests, which had remained closed. I noticed that one of them had cracked. Its lid had a large crack down the middle, which hadn’t broken all the way through. A dull green light shone through the crack, making me curious. Carefully, I dislodged the chest’s lid, pushing the broken stone tablet off of the chest to the ground below. Instantly, a green glow came out of the chest, illuminating the warehouse a bit. Before I could inspect the chest, though, I had to analyse my surroundings, in case my actions had woken anything up. Only when I felt that I was safe again, did I take a look at what I had found. The chest was filled with green crystals similar to the one outside, though these were bejewelled ones. They had many facets on each side, though remained mostly circular. They rested on a small ring of gold below, which in turn rested on a small carving made on the stone itself.

The green gems glowed with the same lustre as the huge ones outside, but there was a small difference. These ones made noise, as well. It took me a while to notice, but they made a low, quiet humming sound. In unison, I might add. I took a moment to inspect the gems more closely, though I was careful not to touch them, just in case. From this close, I could make out a small pattern made on each facet of the gem, though each facet had a different pattern than the next. The stones themselves had the same series of patterns carved onto them.

I almost considered grabbing the crystals then and there, but thought better of it. I could always gather them the moment I left, after all.

I opened up the rest of the chests, but found nothing as valuable as the first. Most only had dust inside, while the rest had more tools and armour that had long since rusted away. Apart from a few pickaxes, nothing of interest turned up. Just in case, I put an intact lid on the chest filled with valuables to hide the gems, but I was sure nobody would get past those gates in the ruins anytime soon. If the city itself hadn’t found the required key, these other explorers surely wouldn’t discover it within the coming weeks either.

Or so I had thought, perhaps foolishly, because when I left the warehouse, I noticed a group of humanoid figures walking down the cobblestone path to the village. I couldn’t make out who I was dealing with, but I knew this would be trouble. I quickly went back into the warehouse and slowly shut the gate, hoping they hadn’t seen my movement. I would need to come up with a plan for this situation…