The amount of collage work I've been getting is insane and I managed to catch a cold. So It has been hard to find time to write.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've only know Grigori for a relatively short time and tend not to get incredibly attached to them for this reason.

People around you either die leave or stab you in the back for one reason or another.

Perhaps not the last one in his case, but that yet another person I'm glad I kept an emotional barrier around.

This however isn't as true for the rest of his squadron, not that I can blame them since they've been together for years.

Most of the squadron look to be seething with anger with the exception of those who appear mournful rather than vengeful, with Torben amongst this group. That soft fool.

Since it's not like we have the means or time to preform a burial, we can only continue moving onwards.

I'm worried about how many we just lost against a few witches on the verge of mana exhaustion, especially since we had the element of surprise in the first place.

Lets just hope there are no more of the mana arrow shields, otherwise we'll be losing more lives deeper into the ruin.

We begin moving to the other end of the giant room at a noticeably faster, yet almost equally quiet and organised manner. It's nice to see these people can still keep their head in this situation where some undisciplined idiot runs of looking for revenge for a fallen comrade.

Nearing the end of the room and exiting the labyrinth of ancient games revels two doors.

One is a big set of double doors which likely leads deeper into the ruins, and the other is a much smaller door with a runic sign on the door.

Argus decides for our squadron to clear out the side room whilst the rest scout what's through the big doors, allowing me to move to the door and translate it.

‘Maintenance staff only'

Creeping through the door revealed yet more of these devices, but in various states of disassembly.

One corner has clearly been sectioned into an area for damaged parts, perhaps for repair or scrap.

The rest however appears to be scattered around haphazardly, however I don't believe this to be the case.

The far most interesting corner of the room contains all the parts with a rune or multiple engraved onto it. The parts of the devices I am most curious to study, but I couldn't do that without disassembling the object to reveal the runic sections.

If it was possible to drag all of these parts back to Fort Torbek I'd give it my best try.

Unfortunately I can't, nor can I even copy the ruins onto something to examine when I get back, since those damn witch hunters are going to search everyone upon getting back.

Moving closer to the aforementioned corner just behind Argus, we all freeze as he raises his hand in a halt sign before indicating there is someone ahead.

Upon his order we shuffle around the object obscuring our view, allowing us to see the mentioned witch sat at a desk facing away from us.

Both me and Argus slowly move forwards in case Petri's upcoming arrow fails to kill her.

Once within two metres of her, Argus moves his hands once again to signal to Petri. A second later an arrows fly's straight through her chest and clatters of the stone wall.

As she lets of a shocked shriek, Argus pulls her backwards from her chair as my dagger embeds itself in her heart. Fixating her expression, a subtle mix between shock and horror.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

After ensuring there are no others around, I move to the witch's desk.

In the centre is the book she was writing in before her death, splattered with minimal amounts of blood. Around the table are a few small runic pieces, with the latest page detailing one of the them.

I also notice that the book used by her are similar to others I found in the previous ruin, so she must have found a blank book in good condition for her to write in.

Even though I can't take this with me without risk, I should be fine reading this passage and remembering any important details.

This witch's writing is neither in the common script or the archaic one found in this ruin, however it translates through magic all the same.

‘This is one of multiple identical runes found under device #15022, though most of those salvaged from this table are very damaged.

The primary and only function of this rune is levitation at a fixed height from the rune, which in the device serves to hold a metal disc slightly above the tables surface.

The latent magic absorption of this rune supplies enough mana to allow it to levitate very light objects without any external mana input, like the lightweight metal disc.

Upon testing, the manual input of external mana does not change the height of levitation, but just the weight of what the ruin can suspend.

Results from preliminary testing has shown that a relatively small amount of mana continuously supplied by a magic user can levitate some of the heavier arcade devices with ease.

However the only issue is that a large object won't stay balanced on small area of levitation, requiring multiple of these runes to create a wider area to suspend the object.

Additionally, since contact is required to supply mana to these types of runes, it will be necessary for all of them to be fixed to a flat material that can properly conduct a magical current to all of the runes at once.

Thankfully the civilisation who made these devices are very advance with mana based metallurgy, and so it shouldn't be too difficult to acquire.'

Damn this stuff is enticing.

So many possible uses for this treasure trove of lost magical knowledge around me, and yet I'm forbidden from utilising the discoveries that turned these lost civilisations into something great.

How much longer must we prevent progress because of fear of magic.

I'll stop our world from continuing to stagnate.

Even if I have to force feed progress down their throat.

I will build a kingdom that puts knowledge above all else, and these manaphobic fools will die of one by one, or will finally accept that the Human race needs to tower above the dead kingdoms of old.

Rather than cover in its shadow.

Prepare yourself world!

I'm bringing back the past, and in turn, the future of our species.

There isn't a damn person who I'll let get in my way.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please rate the fiction, but most importantly, give any suggestions you think I could do to improve the fiction. Either in the comments or a review.

Thanks for reading.  :)