Chapter 467 Descent of the Secret Realm

[Quest Number]: D-93662

[Type]: Investigation

[Reward]: 500-1000 gold / 15-30 points

[Quest Summary]:

A large number of unknown foreign-style items have recently circulated in the market. It is suspected that an ancient ruin has emerged near Twin Canyon. Adventurers with relevant processing experience are required to investigate and submit a report.

[Time Limit]: 45 days

[Additional Information]:

If special discoveries are made, the quest level and rewards may be upgraded depending on the specific circumstances.

...

...

This was the commission the Blade of Vengeance Ship had accepted at the Adventurers' Association.

The "D" prefix in the quest number represented its grade, and the reward fell squarely within the expected range for that tier.

Earning up to 1,000 gold was a highly lucrative haul for the vast majority of adventurers in Barracuda Bay.

Even veteran adventurers with a Class Level exceeding Level 5 wouldn't turn their noses up at it.

But the Blade of Vengeance Ship had a large crew. Counting only the core Class Holders—including the newly recruited Xia Nan and Alton—they had a full eight members.

Split evenly, 1,000 gold coins meant everyone would walk away with just over a hundred gold.

Not to mention, a significant chunk had to be set aside to pay the ordinary crew members and cover ship supplies and living expenses.

Factoring in the round trip, rest stops, and the time spent executing the quest, it would take the better part of a month. When all was said and done, their actual individual cuts likely wouldn't even hit triple digits.

For adventurers at Class Level 3 and above, this income fell well below the average standard.

This was especially true in a coastal port like Barracuda Bay, an adventuring hub overflowing with opportunities.

The team atmosphere on the Blade of Vengeance Ship was pleasant enough, but that rested entirely on the stable, positive relationships among the core Class Holders.

They were companions, yes, but to a certain extent, their bond was only a step above being "coworkers." They were nowhere near the level of "family" who would willingly lay down their lives for one another.

Without sufficient, stable income to support the group, their seemingly solid unity would quickly crumble. The crew would disband in a matter of days.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, Lorraine would never have accepted such a low-paying, time-consuming investigation quest.

But the current situation was different.

On one hand, while this official Association commission was nominally a D-rank quest, the "Additional Information" explicitly stated that any special discoveries could upgrade both the quest level and the actual reward.

This meant that if an ancient ruin had truly emerged near Twin Canyon, the Blade of Vengeance fleet's profits would far exceed the listed amount.

Besides, even without the Association's reward, the sheer allure of an "ancient ruin" was enough to draw Lorraine to investigate personally.

On the other hand, it also came down to Captain Lorraine's own personal motives.

As previously established, this operation was completely impromptu. It hadn't been part of their plans, and it had even interrupted the crew's shore leave.

What Lorraine was truly interested in might not be the ruins at all, but something else entirely unknown. Accepting the Association commission was likely just a convenient excuse.

Xia Nan had probed her about this earlier.

The only piece of information he gleaned was that Lorraine and Edson were siblings.

As for why both of them were suddenly so interested in this stretch of the sea, he remained completely in the dark.

Standing on the deck and recalling the quest details, Xia Nan pondered the situation.

He had never revealed the existence of his Attribute Panel or the secret that he was a visitor from another world to anyone, and he didn't plan to start now.

Therefore, even though he had discovered from the Scalpel's attribute details that it was a Secret Realm creation from another world—and knew that the suspected "ancient ruins" mentioned in the quest description were highly likely a foreign Secret Realm—Xia Nan kept it to himself.

The canyon was extremely quiet. So quiet, it felt abnormal.

Every crew member aboard the Blade of Vengeance Ship noticed this and readied themselves for battle following Lorraine's warning.

With their attention completely focused, the wooden ship sailed deeper along the unusually colored sea channel through the middle of the canyon, finally mooring at the pier nestled deep within.

The heavy, oppressive atmosphere in the air meant that even though the sailors were touching land for the first time in a while, they felt none of their usual excitement. Instead, they rapidly set up defenses under Lorraine's commands.

Something was definitely wrong with Twin Canyon.

Under normal circumstances, a canyon that housed a large population of sea-dwelling locals year-round would never be this deathly silent.

Several baskets of rotting, reeking sea fish had been spilled across the wooden boards in the corner of the pier. Next to them, a few splatters of congealed, dark red blood were faintly visible. The normally bustling docks were completely deserted, save for a few dilapidated fishing boats scattered about, clattering rhythmically against the wooden pilings with the crashing waves.

Lorraine released the ship's wheel and stepped onto the deck, her brows furrowed.

The situation in the canyon wasn't right, and their original plans were already ruined.

They needed to personally confirm what exactly had happened here before they could decide whether to continue the quest.

With the situation unknown and the possibility of an ambush by strange enemies, she naturally wouldn't send ordinary sailors down to face monsters when they had zero ability to fight back. Instead, she left all the regular crewmen aboard the Blade of Vengeance Ship.

As their crucial vessel, the safety of the Blade of Vengeance Ship was their top priority. Thus, she ordered the twin brothers, Ryan and Gordon, to stay behind and guard the ship.

She then led Xia Nan and the other Class Holders down from the ship to scout the surroundings.

"Everyone be careful. Don't let your guard down," Lorraine instructed the crew remaining on the deck with a grave expression.

Turning to the twin brothers, she added, "You two stay alert as well. If you notice anything unusual, remember to send a signal immediately. We'll rush back the moment we hear it."

Twin Canyon looked magnificent, but in reality, it was flanked by towering cliffs.

The pier where the Blade of Vengeance Ship was moored sat nestled between these rock walls. Any slight commotion would echo, ensuring that even from far away, the scouting party would hear it and return in time to provide support.

After carefully giving a few more instructions, Lorraine finally led the fully prepped Xia Nan and the others down the gangway.

Given the unique environment of Twin Canyon, the pier inside was by no means large. They could see all the way to the end at a glance.

It was completely empty.

With no useful information to be found, they could only judge from the scattered bloodstains on the ground that a battle had likely taken place.

After a brief discussion, the group decided to head further up, hoping to find a local resident or two who could explain what exactly had happened.

Finding themselves in a strange environment filled with hidden dangers, the investigating team naturally arranged themselves into a combat formation.

With the druid Hein positioned in the center, the tattooed, burly Aken—who possessed the [Barbarian] class—took the vanguard. Captain Lorraine flanked him, staying half a step behind.

The pint-sized Alton, also part of the backline, stood slightly further back than Hein. Meanwhile, Xia Nan and the tabaxi, Sasha, brought up the rear while covering the flanks.

The group of six advanced cautiously.

The human settlement in Twin Canyon clearly boasted a much better living environment than the fishing villages on Hare Island or Cliff Rock Island.

Due to the unique layout of the canyon, there were hardly any wooden structures visible on the outside. The locals lived in hollowed-out caves set directly into the steep cliffs, connecting them with a network of stone corridors.

Xia Nan remembered seeing similar lifestyles in his past life. Encountering such a familiar sight in another world amused him, even as he kept his guard up.

But just as the group followed the spiraling stone stairs carved out by the locals, ascending from the pier to the residential area...

Something bizarre appeared.

It was a gigantic glass rose window.

Pieced together from countless panes of stained glass—crimson, dark blue, emerald green, radiant gold—it was dreamlike and magnificent. The surface of the window frame was intricately carved with gorgeous, complex patterns.

Xia Nan had certainly seen things like it before.

The churches in Nym and Sheep Horn Town both featured similar stained glass windows.

Their massive size took up almost an entire wall, their dazzling colors glowing under the daylight. Combined with the solemnity of the church itself, they evoked a soul-stirring sense of the divine.

Normally, any adventurer in the group wouldn't find this type of stained glass window unfamiliar.

But the bizarre part was that this particular rose window was forcefully embedded directly into a solid wall.

Yes, behind it lay no brilliant sunlight, nor an expansive view of the azure sea.

It was backed by nothing but a bare stone wall.

With no light source, no scenery, and situated right along a stone stair corridor connecting the pier to the residential zone, what was the point of this window?

Could it really just be for decoration?

Even if the living conditions in the canyon were decent, Xia Nan didn't think the locals were wealthy enough to casually use a stained glass window of this scale as a simple wall hanging.

"These patterns don't look like styles popular in the Southern Archipelagos," Hein noted pointedly, leaning in to carefully examine the window frame.

Xia Nan had no accomplishments in art, but hearing her words, he cast his gaze over.

Looking at the neatly arranged and intricately layered oval patterns on the frame, he realized he truly hadn't seen anything like them in Barracuda Bay.

As he focused, his sharp Perception stat allowed him to notice another peculiar detail.

On the surface, the stained glass window looked like it was mounted on the wall by its frame. But looking closely, the window itself wasn't flush. Instead, it was slanted, with the top wider than the bottom, diagonally jammed into the rock face.

His heart stirring, Xia Nan took two steps forward. Under the surprised gazes of his teammates, he crouched down and reached his right hand toward the lowest edge of the window frame.

He gripped it. He pulled.

Crack!

The wood splintered, and he tore the intricately carved window frame right off.

Just as he thought!

Exactly as Xia Nan had guessed, it was like a layered cake. Once he ripped away the protruding outer frame, he didn't find the stone wall that should have been there. Instead, it was a layer of wood fibers that had embedded itself deeply straight into the sea cliff.

The window frame and the rock wall had fused together.

Staring at the bizarre sight of this connection, a sudden sense of déjà vu swept over Xia Nan.

It was as if he had seen this exact same phenomenon somewhere before.

"How is that possible?" muttered Aken, the burly bald man carrying his bizarre anchor-like greataxe, blurting it out instinctively.

"How did these fishermen fuse stone and wood together? Don't tell me a mage lives here?"

The group marveled at how the window was attached to the wall. But after a brief discussion yielded no further clues, they continued ascending the stairs toward the cliffside residential district.

As the six of them pressed deeper, the frequency of these bizarre sights only increased.

There was an inexplicable wooden door with its hinges fused directly into the stone wall. There was a flying buttress protruding diagonally out from within the cliff, serving absolutely no supportive function. There were metal railings placed horizontally inside rooms for no conceivable reason...

The most striking of all was half a stone tower sitting inside one of the largest caverns in the residential zone.

It was constructed entirely from pale gray masonry that starkly contrasted with the surrounding sea rock. Looking exceptionally sturdy, its walls were slotted with narrow arrow slits—narrow on the outside, wide on the inside—designed for firing from within. Atop it lay square, tooth-like crenellations, backed by a stone walkway for guards to patrol.

Normally, this type of watchtower only appeared in crucial border territories to monitor and defend against enemies.

But now, it had been bizarrely erected deep inside a cave, far from the entrance.

It was hard to imagine how it could possibly serve any function.

Even more bewildering was the fact that there was only half of it.

And it was sliced vertically down the middle.

Its originally complete cylindrical structure looked normal at the front, but the entire back half was perfectly embedded right into the barren rock wall.

Truthfully, building it this way would be far more difficult than constructing a normal tower.

As the group grew increasingly perplexed, something suddenly clicked in Xia Nan's mind.

Items overflowing with foreign styles, buildings completely alien to the local environment popping up out of nowhere, objects intersecting like a clipping bug in a video game...

His expression suddenly turned strange.

'Isn't this exactly the sign of a Secret Realm descending!'

Xia Nan hadn't experienced many Secret Realms. Among them were types where only items circulated, like the Sheep-Deer Figurine from Nym.

But in the others—including the Giant Snake Cave where he obtained [Azure Pine] and [Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones], and the Ember Ash Valley where he harvested [Ember Echoes] and the [Molten Ash Silver Ingot]—he had encountered massive amounts of unique architecture from the Secret Realm's world.

With the déjà vu hitting him so intensely, he raised his guard even further.

Typically, the appearance of a Secret Realm was accompanied by danger.

Outside the Giant Snake Cave, the brush had been swarming with venomous snakes, scorpions, and Petrification Lizards; inside the ruined Ash Valley, there had been formidable mummy knights.

If this canyon village had truly fused with a Secret Realm, there was no telling what might pop out. He needed to be extra careful.

While Xia Nan's mind raced, wondering what kind of foreign background this Secret Realm they had stumbled into came from...

Not far ahead of him, the halfling Alton seemed to discover something. Lowering his voice, he called out to the group.

"Hey, over here! Look at this!"