Chapter 470 - 442: Unclaimed Treasures

Chapter 470: Chapter 442: Unclaimed Treasures

Hearing this, Roland immediately made a decision. Pointing to a specially marked symbol on the map, he said to Duraga and Mr. Bronson,

"In that case, Duraga, Mr. Bronson, there happens to be a place nearby that I want to investigate."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed toward a general direction in the gray mist.

"Let’s sail a bit further in that direction. I’ll go down to investigate alone, and you can use that time to pinpoint our next coordinates. We’ll both get things done without delay. How does that sound?"

Upon hearing this, Duraga and Bronson walked over. They gathered around the map and carefully compared the location Roland indicated with the surrounding terrain markings.

It didn’t look too far away and seemed to be located in a relatively open area, which would be ideal for the Shell Ship to moor temporarily and for them to take readings.

The two exchanged a look, and Duraga replied in his gruff voice.

"Alright, let’s do it!"

With the plan settled, the Shell Ship soon began to slowly ascend once more.

However, lacking a clear spatial anchor point, it couldn’t enter a Star Realm Rift. Instead, it had to fly slowly and laboriously at high altitude, like a cumbersome aerial fortress.

Fortunately, the destination was not far.

After about half a day of tense flight, the silhouette of a vast and dilapidated complex of buildings finally came into view. Peering through the gray mist—a mist that seemed eternal and only grew thicker at this altitude—Roland saw the ruins emerge, their outline like the skeleton of a slumbering behemoth.

It was a complex of ruins on an immense scale, built along the contours of a mountain.

Although ravaged beyond recognition by the long passage of time and some unknown cataclysm, its former grandeur and distinction were still faintly discernible.

Towering but crumbling spires pointed toward the murky gray sky like broken fingers.

Wide plazas and training grounds were riddled with cracks, with weeds and twisted vines stubbornly pushing up through the fissures.

The remains of oddly designed buildings, featuring numerous climbing structures and hidden firing ports, were scattered everywhere.

There were even a few particularly sturdy workshops, the ruins of which still housed massive furnaces and forges, silently testifying to the skill and splendor this place once possessed.

"Imperial Academy..."

Gazing at the vast ruins lying silent in the gray mist before him, Roland took a deep breath.

After carefully studying Duadeng’s map, he had marked this location long ago as a key target to explore upon arriving in Aiselon.

’Who knows how much of Galvis’s poetic exaggeration is true. But if this place was prominent during the glorious Crystal Era, then the Extraordinary Professional System humans had back then couldn’t have been as limited as in the River Domain or the Golden Valley Kingdom, where the only path is that of a Knight.’

’Besides, the paths to Extraordinary Professions vary between Races and likely have restrictions. For someone like me, eager to push the boundaries of my Power and find new Professions to pursue, this Imperial Academy, a symbol of the zenith of human wisdom and Power, was without a doubt the most promising place to find answers, and with relatively manageable risks.’

With this in mind, Roland hesitated no longer. He was the first to step off the Shell Ship, ordering the majority of the Gray Dwarves to conduct a thorough sweep of the landing area. Once he confirmed there were no immediate threats, he set up a proper watch and patrol.

Next, he spoke briefly with Duraga and Bronson, leaving Avril behind to assist them with coordinate calibration. He then took Galvis, who was passionate about history and legends, and stepped into the academic Holy Hall that had been silent for a thousand years.

They made their way between crumbling colonnades and collapsed courtyard walls, their feet treading on shattered flagstones and strange, withered vines.

The pair had a clear objective. They headed straight for the core building of the complex—the most magnificent one, whose original, imposing presence was still palpable despite its state of decay.

The Imperial College Library.

A massive, iron-bound wooden door, long since rotted, lay tilted to one side, revealing a profound darkness within.

They stepped inside, and with a wave of a hand, a ball of light dispelled the Shadow at the entrance, revealing the scene within.

This was less a library and more a graveyard of knowledge.

The scene was nothing short of shocking.

Countless tall bookshelves were knocked askew or even shattered to pieces, as if a great beast had rampaged through. They formed small hills of piled wood, metal, and paper scraps.

Scrolls and books, once vessels of wisdom, had been torn apart and strewn everywhere.

A thick layer of dust covered everything. Many pages had long ago grown brittle and moldy, some even melding with the filth on the floor to become an unrecognizable pulp.

The air was thick with the smell of rotting paper and an indescribable mustiness.

"Oh, no! By the gods! Look what they’ve done! These... these are all priceless treasures!"

Galvis let out a heart-wrenching cry. He carefully picked his way around the debris on the floor, attempting to lift a single, still-intact page from a pile of fragments.

The faint ancient script and delicate illustrations on the page made his breath catch, yet he dared not grip it tightly for fear of its fragility.

In contrast to Galvis’s excitement and sorrow, Roland wasn’t particularly surprised by the scene.

’Even the Seventh Observation Station, which was better hidden and more heavily fortified, didn’t escape destruction,’ Roland thought. ’How could this world-famous Imperial College Library possibly remain unscathed after so many years and potential Plundering?’

He therefore ignored the Minstrel’s incessant muttering and laments. Instead, he quietly spread his Perception out like a spiderweb, staying alert for any stirrings hidden within the massive ruin while beginning his own careful search for anything of value.

At first, the search yielded little; most of what he found were destroyed or completely rotted texts.

However, as he rounded an obstacle formed by a collapsed bookshelf and his gaze swept toward a corner of the library, he suddenly froze.

The scene in that corner stood in stark, almost bizarre, contrast to the surrounding chaos.

A tall bookshelf, made from some dark metal and an unknown type of wood, stood there completely undamaged.

Though covered in dust, its surface showed no signs of damage, nor did it lean. It was as if a millennium of time and turmoil had failed to affect it in the slightest.

Books were arranged neatly on its shelves. They appeared far more ancient and substantial than the fragments scattered about outside, and the words branded onto their spines even seemed to shimmer with a faint light.

Roland’s brow furrowed slightly, a flicker of suspicion and confusion rising within him.

He approached slowly and cautiously drew out a thick book. It was made of a peculiar material that felt warm to the touch.

He hadn’t even opened it yet, but the four words engraved on the cover alone made his breath catch. They were written in an ancient common tongue and seemed to pulse with a certain rhythm.

[Azure Sky Breathing Technique]

These four words struck his mind like a hammer blow.

The core knowledge of the Knight’s Extraordinary path—something he had once struggled immensely to even get a glimpse of—was now sitting right here, casually and completely unguarded on a shelf in these forgotten ruins, covered only by a thin layer of dust.

Suppressing his shock, he quickly flipped through a few pages.

It didn’t just contain simple training exercises. It detailed how to resonate with external Energy at a deeper level by drawing upon one’s life source, how to refine a purer and more powerful Fighting Spirit, and how to combine that Fighting Spirit with one’s will to unleash a terrifying power far beyond that of an ordinary Knight.

The depth of its content, the completeness of its system, and the sheer level of power it described were far beyond anything comparable to the Breathing Techniques he had encountered at the River Domain Knight Academy.

Roland took a deep breath to calm his surging emotions, his gaze quickly scanning the other books on the shelf.

What he saw shook him to the core, and he could barely contain himself.

The names branded onto the spines were, to his astonishment, the very names of Extraordinary Professions he had only ever heard of or read about in the most ancient legends.

[Elemental Messenger Meditation Rule]

[Shadow Dancer Advanced Training Manual]

[War Priest’s Prayer and Blessing]

[Rune Lord: Basic Rune Language and Assembly]

[Dragon Vein Mage: Bloodline Awakening and Control]

[Templar Code and Sacred Contract]

[Spiritual Weaver Beginner’s Guide]

[...]

It wasn’t just guides for basic Professional initiation. There were also numerous texts on higher-tier applications of power, with titles like *Fighting Spirit Transformation and Domain Exploration*, *High Tier Spell Model Construction Analysis*, *Shadow Plane Shuttling Techniques*, and *Legion-Level Battle Array and Will Resonance*.

This wasn’t a bookshelf.

It was a complete treasure trove of knowledge, gathering all the mainstream Extraordinary paths of that glorious era.

This was a legacy of power that countless people dreamed of, one that could spark wars and bloodshed in the outside world.

’But...’

Roland slowly furrowed his brow.

’Why were they preserved here so perfectly intact?’

’Why weren’t they taken or destroyed by the plunderers back then?’

Immense joy and even deeper suspicion flooded Roland’s mind at the same time.