Chapter 457: Earth Ruin

Song Xue couldn’t believe it. Such convenient equipment would cause a massive shock in the global market.

There were a few examples she could think of. If she had these boots, she could basically fly everywhere and bombard the enemies with them.

Her lightning element wasn’t good for flying, so if she used her own power to levitate her body, the energy consumption would be high. These boots could allow her to achieve it with less energy.

In the low-altitude flight, most people couldn’t fight in the air. They had to snipe the incoming beasts from the boatplane.

With these boots, they could practically engage in a dogfight with the beasts, making it safer and not forcing people to fight using guns when they were not used to it.

People with flying abilities used to have a bigger advantage, but with these boots, those advantages would disappear.

Stella and Maya took care of the beasts quickly, not giving Song Xue a chance to even sort out her thoughts.

"Getting used to those boots?" Auric asked.

"Yeah. It’s pretty convenient." Stella nodded. "I can use my own transformation to fly, but it will drain too much energy from my body, so it’s not cost-effective. You should ask Floyd to customize these boots for me."

"Sure. I can do that."

Maya asked, "Now that I think about it, you will receive dividends from the sales of the flying equipment, right?"

"It’s more like the royalty from my research." Auric nodded.

"If that’s the case, you can probably earn billions a month from all this."

"Maybe." Auric acted as if he wasn’t concerned about the money.

Song Xue realized why Auric was never bothered with money. He was rich, not because of someone else, but because of himself. This would take down any financial motive he would have.

Besides, even though Auric was this rich, he never really spent all that money. He still lived in a modest house and didn’t buy a lot of things for himself.

Song Xue looked at Auric, finally realizing why people in Esfrata considered him the national husband.

Auric had the looks, the money, and even the influence to become a high-ranking member of the society. He might be slightly mean to her, but he treated his own people incredibly well and gently. He even had various achievements that couldn’t be ignored.

Song Xue let out a sigh before shaking the thoughts off. "By the way, what did you mean by ’something interesting’? What did you find?"

"Oh!" Auric smiled as if he was getting excited that he could finally start figuring it out. "This way. It didn’t make sense earlier, but the energy in this city was quite weird."

Auric was leading them to a certain place. They still took down all the beasts they could find, but Auric kept increasing his pace as if he couldn’t contain himself from reaching the destination faster.

After another fifteen minutes, Auric stopped.

"Ah, this..." Song Xue instantly recognized it. "Even though so many people died in this city, there was a small miracle in this city. Back then, 74 people took refuge in this building and avoided death. It didn’t stop the beasts completely, but it stopped a lot of beasts from entering.

"The military planned to liberate this region and reclaim this city so that the government could swoop in and gain access to this building."

They were standing not in front of a temple. Rather, it looked like a house. It was quite big for modern standards, but that was all there was to it.

"I don’t think you should come to this place." Song Xue shook her head. "This is still considered a heritage, so I’ll have to ask you—"

She stopped because Auric was already walking toward the building.

From the outside, it didn’t look like much, but Auric’s eyes allowed him to figure out what was actually going on.

He immediately got an answer as to why all ruins around the world weren’t activated at the same time.

In a way, this city didn’t even have the energy to actually be called a ruin. There was no merit in creating a ruin in this place.

After seeing this building, he realized he was wrong.

The energy that was supposed to be scattered across the floor was actually flowing into this building.

However, it looked like there was another layer that stopped the energy from being released. As a result, it created a reservoir of energy underneath the city.

Auric finally figured out how the ruins were created.

’Correct me if I’m wrong. If you want to make a temple, you will need to find land with high energy density. Then, you will gather all that energy into a single place.

’By using that very energy, you create a barrier that will prevent the rest of the energy from leaving this space. The temple is there to regulate this process.

’What if I crush that membrane? Will it destroy the ruins by causing elemental turbulence?’

Lindwurm said, "Elemental turbulence is caused by the collapsing ruin. In other words, the temple can’t sustain the power of the barrier anymore. You can think of it as a compressed gas.

"When the temple fails to support the barrier, the concentrated magical energy will expand and turn back to its original form and boom."

Auric fell silent for a moment before thinking, ’The energy concentrated in that membrane won’t cause an explosion. Rather, this will actually form a new ruin. What happens if the ruin forms faster? Will it become weaker?’

"That’s where you are wrong. You need to think about it from a broader perspective, not just a single temple, but a much larger one."

’A much larger one?’ Auric was confused for a moment. This temple would most likely cover the entire city. It was already a large one, but Lindwurm actually wanted him to think about a much larger one than an entire city.

’What is it? A province? A country, or...’ Auric suddenly realized what Lindwurm was saying. ’Don’t tell me, the planet we’re living on is actually one massive ruin?’

Auric swallowed hard, feeling goosebumps. Now that he thought about it, it could explain a few things if he assumed the Earth was actually a ruin. The planet produced magical energy, but it was contained like how this membrane contained the energy from forming a ruin.

When there was enough energy, it would naturally tear the membrane and escape, forming a ruin.

If he looked at it from that perspective, these temples might not be magic items. This also explained why the temples were considered magic items.

If the planet was a massive ruin, it would produce artifacts. And usually, that was where the energy was concentrated.

The temple was created by turning that ’artifact’ into a ’magic item.’ It was there to regulate the concentrated energy in that spot.

Auric suddenly figured out that the magic weapons he made might actually be a clue to how the temple was created.

When he poured the energy into his magic gloves, they would absorb the surrounding energy. If he considered his own energy to be the creator’s energy and the surrounding energy as the planet’s energy, it fit the description of a magic weapon.

If he destroyed the membrane right away, would it affect the temple? The answer was simple. It wouldn’t.

The temple was there to regulate it, not containing it. It would be the same if he created the membrane to stop the energy flow in his magic weapons.

"Just like a gun with its safety..." Auric couldn’t help but smile. He never thought the answer would be like this. "What a wonderful world."

"Wond—what?" Song Xue was startled.

"Auric..." Katarina turned pale.

Auric turned to Mathias and asked, "Sir... what would happen if I did something irreversible but not exactly hurting the other party? Instead, what if it benefited them?"

"Well, you should be thanked?" Mathias was confused. "All I can say is that it never hurts to give, unless the other party has such a huge ego."

"I see." Auric smiled at Song Xue and pointed to the building. "In that case, I’ll give my thanks in advance, Miss Song. Thank you for guiding us all this time and please continue the great work for the next few days."

"What? You are giving me this place? You don’t even own it. Besides, this place hasn’t been reclaimed yet."

"No. I’m not talking about the city." Auric shook his head.

"Hey, boss. My stomach hurts. I think I need an ambulance." Katarina raised her hand. "Can I ask for a day off?"

"What do you mean a day off? People often impress others with fireworks because they’re pretty, but... there is something prettier. This is truly a wonderful world."

Stella was completely confused. "What is going on, actually?"

Auric turned back and stomped the ground lightly, injecting his energy into the ground so that he could destroy the membrane.

"Open sesame!"

There was an eerie silence for a moment as Katarina just clutched her head, realizing that Auric would once again do something big, and she had to handle the aftermath.

All of a sudden, a huge amount of energy burst out of the ground as the building shot the energy upward.

"!!!" Song Xue widened her eyes in shock. The energy was so powerful that it overwhelmed even a Rank 5 human like her.

Maya dropped her jaw, not knowing what Auric had actually done.

The energy continued to rise for three hundred meters before it spread in all directions as if it was trying to create a dome.

None of them could see it, but they could sense it.

Mathias’s heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t help but say, "Maya... I think I’d rather deal with you massacring a few more families than having to deal with his mess..."