Chapter 437: Clues

"Of course... not."

"..." Even Katarina and the others, who already knew about Auric’s power, were still staring at him in disbelief. Auric had just dropped another bomb.

What did it mean to be able to create ruins? That person would get access to all kinds of artifacts.

Maya had a headache. If she ever told her grandfather about this, her grandfather wouldn’t be able to stop himself. He might even kidnap Auric without hesitation.

Maya facepalmed. Just thinking about the potential problem it could create was definitely something she didn’t really want to deal with.

Auric waved his hand and said, "What I’m saying is that if they’re thinking about using this cave to create artificial ruins, then no. It will never succeed. They misunderstand the core principles of the ruins. Even right now, this energy won’t be able to become the ruins’ barriers.

"Do they think that if they use isolative materials to prevent the energy from coming out, they can actually make it stick and create a barrier?

"No, the reason a barrier is called a barrier and why barriers behave that way is simply because... Oh, wait. Has this even been explored in a research journal yet? Should I even speak about it out loud?"

Arnie’s eyebrows twitched as he felt like cursing. ’You’re already saying all that, and now you want to stop?’

Auric simply said, "In any case, the barrier is not built that way. Even if they continue doing this, it will only result in an increase in energy, not exactly turning it into something that can form a barrier for the ruins.

"That also means the energy won’t be enough to stick to the items and transform normal items into artifacts."

Arnie let out a long sigh. He really had nothing to say. He wanted to know everything, but it didn’t seem Auric planned to reveal it.

Forcing Auric to cough up that information wouldn’t be a good idea, so he chose to give up. "So...?"

"So, since the research is expected to fail, let’s focus on the other two spots. What makes them believe that this place can be turned into ruins?"

"Fine." Arnie nodded and led the way.

While walking, Katarina couldn’t help but ask in a low voice. "You really can’t make artifacts?"

"No." Auric shook his head. "Not yet."

"..." Katarina sighed. She had heard about the Genius Evolution Store plan before. The Moon Store, the Sun Store, and the Night and Day Store were enough to create it, but if Auric could actually create artificial ruins and artifacts as well as transforming artifacts into special magic weapons, she couldn’t help but wonder what he would make next.

Nevertheless, it did look like Auric was going to pioneer an era, and she, as the number one aide, would also be recognized.

"What is our next destination?" Auric asked.

"According to the map, it should be the chamber that Axel couldn’t access. The place where they stored the artifacts was in the other wing, so... it should be the last place we would visit."

"I see." Auric crossed his arms. "What’s inside of this chamber?"

"There is no information. All they told him was that this one was the core of their facility."

"Hmm..." Auric closed his eyes, contemplating. He wanted to think about the connection between the cave and this place, but he couldn’t find any.

In the end, they arrived before he could even come up with one possible reason.

"This should be the chamber." Katarina pointed to the massive gate.

"It’s not. There is another door on the opposite side." Auric shook his head immediately, staring at the energy that was sticking to the second door inside.

"This must be something like a decompression chamber or some kind of chamber for contamination." Arnie frowned. "Can we access it? If it’s just me, I do want to melt it down and enter, but..."

Auric crossed his arms, staring at the door. He was trying to figure out everything just from the flow of the energy.

He started regretting his choice in allowing Arnie to follow them here. While it was true that his help allowed them to reach this place without any mistakes, if Arnie weren’t here, Auric could use the space element to teleport.

So, the best way to do this was to simply follow the movement of the energy.

"This is..."

Auric suddenly fell silent as though he found the flow of energy familiar.

"What’s wrong?" Maya frowned.

Auric turned to Arnie and asked, "Did the two families have any connections with the terrorist organization? Maybe someone is on their payroll or maybe they’re the sponsors for the Apocalypse?"

Arnie shook his head. "Nope. I’ve checked all the lists, and there appears to be no connection between these two families and the Apocalypse."

"That’s weird. Inside this chamber is something similar to the creation of the poison."

"!!!" Arnie widened his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly. I don’t understand myself, but the energy inside is flowing as if someone is trying to coat something with it. And that is how the poison is made, right?"

"..." Arnie’s expression darkened. "So, are these two families connected to the Apocalypse? It looks like we’re gonna have a problem. Are they the ones supplying the poison or something?"

"No. This place might be the room for creating artificial artifacts. They’re trying to lace the items with the energy from the cave." Auric came closer and put on gloves before touching the door. He closed his eyes as though he was trying to concentrate.

"From the energy alone, it should be something sharp and long. Something like a spear... There is also a sword. There is a cube?"

Auric narrowed his eyes.

"In case of the poison, they coated the liquid with the energy from the barrier to turn it into poison. In this case, the cave is a kind of storage for energy. They let it flow to this chamber and try to coat the items and turn them into an artifact.

"However, the energy stuck to it is not exactly the same as the artifacts, so yeah..." Auric shook his head. "The concept itself is extremely similar. It might even be the same as the facility to create the poison, but the application is different."

"Maybe they had connections to it but have since left? I will try to pull some more information about these two families and see if I can find a match, or, more likely, someone has quit the organization and is using that knowledge to make this facility."

"Either way, it’s your job." Auric raised both hands.

He understood why Axel wasn’t allowed to enter this room. This was indeed the core of the facility since they wanted to create artifacts.

Auric thought for a moment and asked, "Are we breaking in?"

"No, not yet. If I have to do this, it’s better not to let them catch me first. Even if I can do practically anything I want, I have to approach this with caution. The most dangerous criminal is not the one who can kill without batting an eye; it’s the one who wears a uniform."

Auric sighed. "And I don’t want to have anything to do with it."

"We’ll see."

"Anyway, let’s head to the third chamber." Auric still couldn’t figure out why they would make this place and why this place was important.

In the end, Arnie continued to the other wing. The facility alone was already suspicious, and the information Auric gave muddied the waters.

Arnie thought he would be done after eliminating the organization, but it looked like the long war had begun.

After another ten minutes, they arrived at the third chamber. They ignored everything else because most of the rooms here were personal rooms or laboratories or other facilities like a canteen.

They weren’t exactly important, and they couldn’t enter easily without leaving any trace. So, it was better to just continue unless they really needed something else to figure out the clue.

The third chamber didn’t look as big as the other two chambers.

Auric could still see the room well isolated to prevent the energy from leaking out.

However, there was one thing that caught his attention.

"Hmmm?" Auric frowned. "That’s..."

"What’s wrong?"

"Artifacts? The energy is exactly the same..."

"What? Do you mean they’ve succeeded?" Maya was the first one to react. This was related to her family’s business, so she panicked.

The moment they lost the lead in this business, the Relesha family’s position would go down.

"What? Maybe they’re with the government. Maybe the terrorist organization is related to the government. It’s not surprising to see the government doing dirty things like this. Once the government doesn’t have to worry about the Relesha family’s monopoly on the artifact distribution, they can get rid of your family easily." Stella scoffed.

"..." Maya couldn’t refute it. Stella might have some bias because of what happened to her in Dermania, but she made a valid point. If this was a scheme to weaken the Relesha family, then it was definitely something she couldn’t ignore.

"Hey, hey. Let’s not jump to conclusions so easily." Arnie waved down, trying to calm Maya down.

Katarina added, "According to Axel, this place is where they store the artifacts. It does look like they’re using the artifacts from beneath the ruins... the ones that are not related to the apartment complex ruins. In other words, there is another place like this beneath the apartment complex..."

Auric narrowed his eyes. "Maybe... Maybe those artifacts are the ones from the hidden place underneath the apartment complex. After all, I can still see the failed artifacts."

Suddenly, Lindwurm pointed forward. "Auric, you should go take a closer look. This will be your biggest clue. In fact, the cave is also another clue."

"!!!"