What truly bothered Erik wasn't the fact that he had hit a wall in the development of runic circles. After all, in his past life, he had experienced this countless times, even having to abandon projects that he had thought were incredible but turned out to be unfeasible in reality. He had even experienced failure on several occasions.
The problem was that this wasn’t what was happening now. Erik was fully capable of developing the runic circles on his own. What truly frustrated him was his inability to develop a consistent theory to make it accessible to others.
It was almost like when you forget a specific word but remember its definition perfectly. You could even recite it from memory, but the word itself escapes you. At the same time, you feel as if you're on the verge of remembering it, almost like it's on the tip of your tongue, about to come out, but no matter how hard you try, nothing comes. It was an incredibly exasperating feeling, and Erik felt it multiplied by a thousand every time he tried to develop his theory.
Moreover, Erik had always been a man of applied sciences. He loved to develop and build things, to the point where he couldn't care less how the universe started or whether a god existed or not. The only thing that interested him was taking the knowledge discovered by those great thinkers, who cared about those things, and using it to create things in the real world that were useful or at least fun.
Thus, doing something so far out of his comfort zone, like coming up with a theory to explain something he could instinctively do, only added an extra layer of discomfort to the already exasperating situation he found himself in, which only worsened his mood.
“I get it, it’s just so frustrating not being able to explain how something that comes naturally to me works…” Erik commented with a slight sigh at the end, while the scent of Sigrún’s body soothed him.
“Hehehe, look at you, dealing with those genius problems.” Sigrún said with a beautiful smile on her face as she gently massaged Erik’s temples, trying to calm and relax her beloved disciple. Then she added with a touch of mischief in her tone.
“Although, you’d get into a lot of trouble on the street if you said that outside.”
“...”
Once again, Erik chose to remain silent and opted to relax under the loving care of his masters, wrapping his arms around Sigrún’s slender waist as she bent down to give her beloved disciple a tender kiss on the head.
“But you know, there’s something that could take your mind off things and give you new experiences that might spark the inspiration you need.”
As she gently and skillfully massaged one of Erik’s feet, Eleonora commented with a mysterious smile on her face, causing the star-haired boy to slightly move his head, which was buried in Sigrún’s abdomen, to look at her. He asked with some curiosity.
“Is there really something like that?”
“Fufufu, yes. Not long ago, an ancient ruin was discovered, and preliminary research determined that it is only accessible to a very select group of mana users. More specifically, you can only enter if you’re a mana user under 300 years old.”
Knowing she had successfully piqued her disciple’s curiosity, Eleonora responded with a cheerful smile on her face, never ceasing her massage on Erik, who asked with some interest and obvious surprise.
“Really?”
“Yes, at the recent meeting, the topic was discussed, and several possible courses of action were considered. In the end, it was decided that a special tournament would be held to determine the participants in the exploration group. The participants would include the direct disciples of the Order and the top students from the university. From what we know so far, only a limited number of people can enter, and the other factions are already negotiating how the spots will be divided.”
Sigrún explained with a slight smile, fully awakening Erik’s curiosity. He turned to lie on his back on his master’s lap and asked, somewhat confused by what he had heard.
“The other factions know about it too?”
“Yes, actually, the ruin was discovered by some miners who were looking for a good asteroid to extract resources from. They sold the information to the highest bidder, so all the important factions are aware of it, although nothing has been announced to the public yet.” Eleonora responded cheerfully, as she began massaging her beloved disciple’s other foot.
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“I see… Those miners were quite brave…” Erik commented, a bit surprised by the miners' courage, but Sigrún chuckled softly at his remark and said.
“Hahaha, not at all. The information about a ruin is far too valuable to monopolize, and by the time anyone found out, the other factions would hunt down the weakest link in the chain, turning the miners’ lives into a nightmare—if they survived at all. So selling it to whoever could pay was a pretty wise move on their part.”
“That’s true as well…” Erik nodded in understanding, then added, half confused and half curious.
“But there’s something I don’t understand. Why are ruins so important? What makes them special aside from being archaeological sites?”
“Fufufu, that’s because, many times, they contain lost knowledge that hasn’t been recovered or hold knowledge, technology, and resources that are unknown and extremely valuable. That’s why they’re generally treated as a ‘strategic resource’ by the factions.” Eleonora responded with a playful laugh, greatly surprising Erik, who quickly asked in a tone filled with disbelief.
“Unknown knowledge and technology? How is that possible?”
“That’s common knowledge in the galaxy. The only one who doesn’t know is you because you’re always reading the same things and not interested in anything else, hahahaha.” Sigrún said in a singsong voice, ending in a cheerful laugh, which made Eleonora smile mischievously before adding with a light giggle.
“Fufufu, look who’s talking.”
“Hmph.”
Hearing her sworn sister’s teasing comment, Sigrún snorted in annoyance and shot Eleonora a venomous look, who responded with a mischievous expression while sticking her tongue out at her. This caused the youngest master in history to sigh before adding.
“The point is, there are special ruins in the galaxy, and these ruins contain incredible treasures, such as very advanced spells or pieces of technology never seen before. For example, the current artificial warp tunnel technology came from a ruin discovered a long time ago.”
“But how is it possible for ancient ruins to have something like that? Shouldn’t current technology be far superior after all the time we’ve had to develop it?” Erik asked, a bit concerned, to which Eleonora responded in a serious tone, trying to sound like a qualified teacher.
“Well, the truth is, we don’t know why those ruins contain such things. We don’t know anything about them except that they exist. We don’t even know who they belonged to or when they were built. Everything about them has remained a mystery to humanity as a whole.
“This is mainly due to the fact that we’ve lost much of our knowledge about our past and the origin of our civilization because of the constant wars that took place in the past, which left a huge gap in what we know and understand about our own civilization.
“Although over time, several theories have been proposed to try to explain it, only two are the most accepted. The first one suggests that our civilization is the resurgence of a more powerful and advanced ancient human civilization that met a tragic fate.
“As for the second, it is said that these ruins were left behind by a much more powerful civilization that passed through our galaxy a long time ago or that there is simply a civilization that has a similar custom to ours of building hidden mausoleums, and they hid them here by chance.”
“Hidden mausoleums? What’s that?” Erik asked, his face full of questions, which brought a pleasant smile to his masters' faces.
“Hehehe, you really need to read more history, Erik.” Sigrún affectionately pinched Erik’s nose as she spoke, then began to explain as she looked at her beloved disciple’s face, who stared at her with a blank expression.
“Hidden mausoleums are essentially an ancient custom in the galaxy, where mana users who have achieved advancements they consider significant enough to be remembered in the future build special places near their death that contain much of their legacy for future generations, and they hide them as best as they can.
“These places are created with the main goal of passing down knowledge to future generations or, more precisely, selecting a ‘posthumous heir.’ For this reason, they are generally filled with all kinds of tests and restrictions designed to select a worthy heir to carry their legacy.”
“But why bother doing something like that? And why hide them?”
As Sigrún lovingly massaged his face, Erik asked with his eyes closed in a tone full of curiosity. Eleonora answered with a cheerful tone while playing with her beloved disciple’s fingers.
“Well, that’s because humans have an instinctive fear of disappearing, and a relatively effective way to avoid that is to be immortalized in history. But the problem is that achieving that is very difficult, and very few manage to do so. It was even worse in ancient times, when knowledge was highly valuable, and secrecy was fiercely maintained regarding any type of valuable knowledge.
“Because of this, the custom of building hidden mausoleums was born, as it was a way to leave a faint hope or a backup plan to rise again in the future, with the help of a suitable heir who could not only receive the knowledge and make a name for themselves but perhaps even take it further, ensuring the name of the mausoleum's creator and posthumous master would live on in history forever.”
Sigrún nodded in agreement with Eleonora’s words and continued with the explanation as she smoothed back Erik’s starry hair, leaving his entire face free.
“For the same reason, the tests in those mausoleums tend to be quite challenging, as they always seek to test one or several characteristics of those who enter the place. The goal is for the person who claims the ‘prize’ to be the most suitable, in the eyes of the mausoleum's creator, to become their successor.”
Similarly, Eleonora rolled up Erik’s pants, revealing his legs, and began applying a cream with a fruity scent that appeared in her hand from her storage ring. She started massaging her beloved disciple’s legs while continuing with the explanation.
“And the reason they are hidden is because, since knowledge was so valuable in ancient times, no one wanted their enemies to benefit from the mausoleum they left behind. So they hid them as best as they could to ensure that no one could find them until much later in the future, specifically long enough for all their enemies to be dead.”