CH 354

We started to search the underground space to find the research facility of the ancient civilization. It’s hard to search for something without a clue, but fortunately, Feri knows the coordinates and we searched for the path that leads to the place.

There were countless holes of various sizes stretching out in all directions, making the search difficult.

“It’s like a maze. I’m not very good at this kind of thing…….”

“Nagisa is better at using her body than her brain.”

“You can’t speak for others either, Yuta! You’ve gotten red marks on a test once or twice, haven’t you?”

“Fool, it just so happens that the mountain is off…….”

“If you study properly on a regular basis, you wouldn’t be in that situation! In the first place, Yuta is………”

Nagisa’s small talk began. Damn…..it, I dug a grave. This is going to take a long time…….

What ended Nagisa’s petulance were Feri’s calculation results.

“It’s funny……no matter how we go, we’ll never reach the coordinates we’re looking for.”

“Is that so, Feri?”

“Yes. I’ve analyzed all the routes we’ve taken on the map, but none of them match.”

“So we can’t go through this cave.”

“No, the cave extends around the coordinates, so it is unlikely that there is another entrance. The path to the laboratory may have been blocked by tectonic movement, or there may be a hidden passage.”

“That would be tricky…….”

“I’ll go over the route again and see if I can find anything suspicious.”

When Feri said that, she started to calculate something. It’s up to Feri now, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I hoped that she would somehow find a way out of this.

“Maybe the research facility has been moved.”

“Moved? How is that possible?”

“Wait a minute, so you’re saying you don’t know where the research facility is?”

“No, it’s predictable. There are signs that the research facility was heavily attacked from the ground. They may have moved deeper into the earth to escape it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’ve been looking for a path to the coordinates, but I think there may be a route down there that leads to the facility.”

“I see…….Can you deduce that, Feri?”

“Yes. I’ve narrowed it down to a few candidates.”

She is indeed a brilliant scholar.

Among the routes that Feri had predicted, there was a path that led to the very bottom. We decided that it was the most suspicious, so we just kept going down that path.

I reached a place so deep underground that I was sure it was the right route. It was a large wall of man-made structure, and I could clearly imagine that there was something there.

“Looks like you’re right.”

“Yes, but I don’t see any entrance, just a wall.”

As Kiyone had said, there was only a large wall standing in the way, and nothing that looked like an entrance.

“It looks like a seal has been applied. I’ll see if I can break it.”

With that, Feri walked out of Mirai in her pseudo-body. She then moved to the protruding part of the cylinder that was buried in the wall.

“It’s okay, the seal is a simple one. It should be easy enough to remove.”

After about five minutes of fiddling, Feri had unsealed the research facility. A streak of light appeared in the center of the large wall. As the light spread to the left and right, the wall cracked open, revealing a path leading ahead.

“I think the research facility is just up ahead but be careful. There may be a Guardian installed there.”

There were Guardians in the ruins of the giant beast’s nest. That thing is more powerful than a simple magicraft, and we should certainly be wary of it.