Chapter 96: Within the Ruins

Thanks to the warm meal and footbath last night, the group managed to rest well and gathered for breakfast.

“It’s hard to believe we camped out last night. Everyone seems to be in good spirits.”

 Felix said, swirling his soup while stretching his neck and shoulders.

“Eating well and improving blood circulation can enhance sleep quality, or so they said in the old world. Though the ground is hard, so my back and hips are a bit sore…How about you, Annemarie? Is this your first time camping out?” 

Felix asked, turning to Annemarie, who was sipping soup with cheese in it.

As befitting a noblewoman, Annemarie had already neatly prepared herself when she emerged from the tent.

“I actually slept quite well. I feel bad for falling asleep while Felix and the others took turns keeping watch.” 

“No problem at all. It’s our duty to protect you, milady, and Isamu-dono. I’m just glad to hear you could rest peacefully.” 

One of the knights replied.

Last night, thanks to two pairs of knights taking shifts on guard duty, not only Annemarie but also Isamu, Eto, and Willem were able to sleep soundly.

Seemingly concerned about the knights, Orihime initially slept with Isamu, but somehow ended up curled up next to one of the guarding knights.

“Thank you, Felix-san, and everyone else. Next time, I’ll try to come up with a magic device that alerts us if monsters approach.” 

“That sounds like a great idea for a magic device. If it’s Isamu, he might actually make it someday, so I’ll be looking forward to it.” 

Felix replied.

After finishing breakfast and cleaning up, they began their exploration of the second day.

The second underground floor was similar to the first, with few notable differences except for slightly smaller rooms in some areas and a significant decrease in monster attacks.

“Willem-san, do the number of monsters decrease as we go deeper?” 

“Hmm, it’s hard to say. The strength of the monsters tends to increase the deeper you go, but the numbers vary.” 

“What do you think they eat? There doesn’t seem to be anything resembling food here.” 

“Yeah, that’s true. It’s still unclear what the monsters in the ruins eat. There are theories about cannibalism or them being powered solely by magic, but it’s all speculation.” 

Isamu wondered and asked, but it seems that it can increase or decrease. Furthermore, its eating habits are unknown. They’re completely mysterious creatures.

As they discussed, they reached the staircase leading to the third floor. Since the number of monsters was low, it was still around midday.

They took a break at the landing to have a light snack before starting their exploration of the third floor in the afternoon.

However, there were even fewer monsters, and apart from the decrease in room sizes and numbers, there were no new discoveries. So, they decided to end the second day’s exploration.

After dinner, they began sharing their impressions.

“There’s not much we can do if there’s nothing here. We’re in the liberated zone, after all, so it’s understandable.” 

Felix commented.

“Yeah, that’s true… The atmosphere is different, and there are different types and numbers of monsters.” 

“There weren’t any security devices at the entrances to the rooms. We didn’t see any traps or mechanisms like in the Kalenberg ruins.” 

“Also, while the Kalenberg ruins expanded the deeper we went, here it’s the opposite.” 

Annemarie observed.

“Uh… Yeah…” 

The others murmured in agreement, struggling to find common ground.

“Come to think of it, Wami Nashara-san’s diary mentioned the discovery of ‘thunderballs’ here.” 

Karina recalled, breaking the silence.

She enjoyed reading books, and after Isamu and the others quickly checked it, she read the diary as well.

“Thunderballs? Why would they be here away from the river…” 

Deep in thought, Isamu was stumped by the lack of an answer.

“Well, let’s just go as far as we can. Wasn’t it said that there are doors up to the fifth floor?” 

Isamu changed the subject.

“Yes, there’s supposed to be a door-like thing on the fifth floor, but no one could open it or break it down.” 

Karina shared what was written in the diary.

“The only thing that seems to have security… If we can open it smoothly like last time, that would be great.” 

“Well, you have to try. If you can’t open it, it might as well be sealed shut.” 

Eto chuckled. The others laughed and nodded in agreement.

Ultimately, that statement became the conclusion, as Isamu and the others ended their second day of exploration.

On the third day of exploration, they encountered monsters only once and reached the fifth floor without any other incidents.

On the fifth floor, they arrived at a dead end with a door that refused to open, and no monsters were encountered along the way.

“This floor feels a bit different from the others.” 

“Yes, it’s even more bleak and dark than before.” 

As Felix had said in response to Isamu’s question, the ceiling was low and the walls and floor were dark. The texture also feels somewhat metallic and cold.

This floor was different from the previous ones, and in less than 10 minutes of walking down the stairs, they had arrived at this dead end.

“I see…this certainly looks like a door.”

Isamu muttered as he looked at it in front of him.

“I see. At least it’s a better door than Kalenberg’s.”

Eto, who was watching next to him, seemed to agree.

The wall was slightly concave, with two boards of the same size seemingly fitted into it. In essence, it appeared that the boards could slide from the middle to both sides to open.

However, there were no handles, and no control panels like in the Kalenberg ruins could be found.

While there were traces of attempts to physically open it, there were only minor scratches and dents, and the door remained unyielding, reminiscent of the Kalenberg ruins.

“This is definitely meant to open left and right, but I can’t find any control panels… Let’s examine the walls and floor for now.” 

They searched the walls and floor for clues but found nothing significant.

“The ceiling might hold some clues.” 

Eto suggested.

“The ceiling??” 

Isamu was surprised.

“Yes, there should be power and magic circles somewhere to open the door. In the old world, there were cases where machines or magic devices were buried above the door, and there were inspection hatches in the ceiling.” 

“I never thought about the ceiling…” 

Willem murmured.

The ceiling of this ruin, like others, was unremarkable and high, making it difficult for light to reach.

They looked for anything hanging or different in color, but if there was nothing, they didn’t bother to climb a ladder to check each inch, as they didn’t want to waste time.

The ceiling in front of the door also seemed no different at first glance.

It was about three meters high, so Isamu asked Mizeroi to lift him up, and he tapped the ceiling with his sheathed sword.

Then, he found something unexpected. There were two transparent lines running through the ceiling.

Given the circumstances, Isamu assumed they were some form of lighting. However, upon closer inspection of the left line, he noticed small screws attached at intervals.

Made of the same material and color as the ceiling, it was impossible to spot them with just light from below.

“Could this be it?” 

The screws had shallow grooves, so Isamu used his knife to twist them.

The moment he turned the second screw, the ceiling opened from the opposite side of the screw.

*Bam*

“Ouch!!”

Due to the sudden opening of the ceiling from top to bottom, the edge hit Isamu’s head directly.

“Are you okay??” 

Annemarie’s worried voice came from below.

“Yeah, that startled me. I’m fine! There seems to be a way in from here, so I’ll take a look!” 

With Mizeroi lifting him up again, Isamu slipped into the inspection hatch, which was about 50 centimeters square.

The ceiling space had hardly accumulated any dust, but it was indeed low.

And not even a meter away, he discovered the magic device body accompanied by a magic circle.

(Bingo! Well, the problem is whether we can move it…)

While illuminating with a small magic lantern, he started deciphering the magic circle.

(The basic configuration is the same as Kalenberg’s. But still, I can’t read the functional circle… But I can read the activation ciircle. Huh? Activation magic power 5FF (approximately 1,500 in decimal)!? Hmm… Is this less than the usual or was the previous one abnormal…?)

After confirming everything, Isamu, who found that there seemed to be no problem with the magic power, skillfully changed direction and stuck his head out of the inspection hatch.

“Eto-san! Willem-san! We can probably activate this one too! Can you make a magic circle for charging magic power at 5FF?”

Isamu shouted from the inspection hatch.

“Oh, can we move it!?”

“5FF?? That’s quite low. Alright, wait a moment, we’ll make it right away!”

Saying that, the two of them promptly began creating a magic circle to charge magic power with magic variables. They were already accustomed to this.

Nuber and Tiramisu, who saw this process for the first time, were amazed and stunned, which was understandable.

Whether it was Eto or Willem, they could draw original magic circles from scratch, so they had already surpassed the realm of magic circle craftsmen in this world of Ethersia…

In less than five minutes, when they finished the magic circle, Willem, who was being carried by Mizeroi, handed it over.

“Thank you very much! I’ll try activating it now!”

“Yeah! Be careful!”

After receiving the magic circle, Isamu changed direction again and returned to the magic device. He connected it directly to the magic power supply part and touched the activation magic stone.

There was a moment of pause to charge magic power, and then he heard the familiar startup sound, “Fon,” which he had also heard in Kalenberg.

Light surged from the activation circle, running through the functional circle, and the ceiling space dimly lit up.

As they were captivated by the fantastical sight, they heard Willem shouting from below.

“Wow! Th-the wall, it’s showing text!!! Hey, Isamu-san!!!”

Hearing his voice, Isamu hurriedly changed direction again and returned to the inspection hatch.

“W-what’s wrong!?”

As he looked down and peeked, everyone was staring at the wall on the left side of the door.

“Suddenly, this place lit up, and lots of text started appearing! I can’t read most of it, but sometimes there are words I can understand, so maybe it’s similar to the words used in the activation circle??”

“Really!!?? Mizeroi-san, sorry, but could you put me down~!”

After being lowered by Mizeroi, Isamu hurriedly looked at the wall.

“Amazing… To think they embedded a transparent display… And the way this text flows… Is it like the initialization during reboot?”

Whether the text itself was just information or not, it didn’t register any meaning in Isamu’s ability skill, but as Willem said, there were familiar words.

And the way the white text flowed on the dark wall was reminiscent of the boot screen of a nostalgic text-based OS.

After about 10 seconds of text scrolling, the display suddenly changed. There was some message, and below it were six horizontal lines. And further below, there were three horizontally and four vertically, totaling 12 squares with one character written in each square.

“This is… a numeric keypad!?”

The 12 squares resembled the numeric keypad attached to a computer keyboard that Isamu was familiar with.

As evidence, the characters on the keypad were the numbers 0-9.

It was curious that it used decimal numbers instead of hexadecimal numbers used in magic circles, but perhaps decimal numbers were more common for people who didn’t make magic circles even in the old civilization.

By the way, the numeric keypad on a computer has arithmetic symbols such as + and -, so it has 20 buttons, 4 horizontally 4 and 5 vertically, so it may be more similar to a cell phone keypad.

“Umm, initial value… input…? No good, I can only read these two!!”

Willem gave up staring at the message, but being able to read two was quite something.

While Isamu could understand the meaning directly for magic circles, he hardly remembered the words used in the magic circles.

On the other hand, Willem, who had no automatic translation, remembered the meanings and words by associating them with the meanings and words that Isamu taught him.

The words “initial value” and “input” were words used in the activation circle, so he remembered them.

“It’s amazing that you can read them, Willem-san!! And considering those two keywords and the behavior until now, I think it means to input the initial password because it restarted.”

“Init…ial pass…word??”

Willem tilted his head at the unfamiliar word.

“Yes. A password refers to a specific string of characters, like the one used to open the door before. When a magic device that requires a password like this one completely stops and then restarts, the password content should all return to its initial state. So, after the person who made it sets the password, they need to enter the initial password once, and then they can register a new password. The password set by the person who made it is called the initial password.”

“I see… If that’s the case, then this means the door will open, right?”

“That’s right. But…”

“Does this mean we have to input a 6-digit number? Last time, if I remember correctly, it was game over after three wrong attempts. Is it the same for this one too?”

“I’m not sure how many attempts are allowed, but it’s reasonable to assume there’s a limit…”

With a wry smile, Isamu replied.

“It’s quite challenging to guess a 6-digit number with a limited number of attempts…”

Willem laughed, raising his hands in surrender.

“…We’ll just have to rely on luck again.”

“Luck? I remember you saying something like that when there were four of the same number last time.”

“Yes. In the case of 4 digits, it’s common to arrange the same numbers, but there’s a similar tendency even with 6 digits. However, in the case of 6 digits, there’s another combination that’s more commonly used than six of the same number, so let’s start with that.”

While saying that, Isamu entered numbers on the touch panel displayed on the wall.

Unlike last time, there were no noticeable stains in specific positions, so it was completely trial and error.

Isamu entered numbers from 1 to 6, sequentially. That’s 1-2-3-4-5-6.

And after taking a breath, he pressed the key that seemed to be the “Done” key in the bottom right corner, shouting a line from an animated movie he had seen before in his mind.

(Please work!!)

The input screen disappeared, and text rapidly appeared and disappeared on the console.

Then, a few seconds later, the same screen as before appeared again.

“Ahh… I guess it’s still no good…”

Isamu sighed in disappointment. “123456” is the most commonly used password on Earth, but it seems it didn’t work out here.

As Isamu pondered what to do next, Willem raised his voice.

“Isamu-san, this is similar to earlier, but the wording is a bit different… It’s not ‘initial value,’ it’s ‘setting’… and ‘input.'”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, I can only read up to ‘setting,’ but it’s definitely different from earlier.”

“…Could it be?”

After thinking for a moment, Isamu slowly entered the numbers.

Then, the input screen disappeared again, and text flowed, but this time a different screen appeared in an instant.

A very short message was displayed in blue text. And…

*Pshh*

With a sound like air leaking, the front door opened to the left and right almost silently.

“……….”

Everyone stood there dumbfounded, speechless. After a while, the door closed again, also without a sound.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!”

Everyone except Isamu screamed in despair.

“I-I-I-I-I-I-Isa-Sa-Sa-Samu-san!! Even though it finally opened, it closed again…”

Anne-Marie despaired in a panic.

“Ah, it should be fine.”

In contrast to the others, Isamu, relaxed, approached where the text had appeared earlier.

Then, a numeric keypad for input appeared on the wall again.

“Yeah, just as I thought. The password setting was completed with the previous one. Now, let me enter the password…”

With a small nod, Isamu entered the numbers “163150” just like before.

Again, a message appeared in blue, and the door opened.

“See? I told you.”

Isamu smiled and turned around.

“Oooooohhh!!!”

After a moment of cheering, they finally calmed down after opening and closing the door several times.

“Now, just to be safe, we’ll go first…”

Felix, who had regained his tension, along with Liddell, peeked inside with lanterns to make sure there were no monsters.

The room illuminated by the light seemed to be of a decent size. They could see large shelves lining the left and right sides.

Although they had already opened and closed it several times, just to be sure, the two stepped inside first to check for any monsters.

With the lantern swinging and no problems found, Isamu followed them into the room.

While illuminating the shelves with the lantern, they found only sparse items.

The most numerous were cylindrical containers the size of 500ml PET bottles, followed by metallic spheres catching their eyes.

And when they searched further back, about ten familiar items were lined up.

“Hmm? Are these… swords!? And this is armor?? …Could this be a weapons depot?!”

Isamu murmured involuntarily. After disabling the security, what awaited them was a room resembling a weapons depot.

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