Buried Secret II

From the shape of the bandages that the weapon was wrapped in, it looked like a sword of some kind. But upon taking them off, the weapon uncovered turned out to be a rod instead. "What is this?" Kies turned the weapon around in his hands, looking at it from different angles.

"It is a formation rod. It is used by sorcerers who use array magic. Since they take a while to draw, it is difficult to create one in the midst of a fast-paced battle. Formation rods were created to address that issue," Arc explained. "But I do not know why there is just a singular rod here. The smallest arrays require at least three of them."

Kies shook his head. This wasn't something he would use either. He rewrapped the rod and put it back against the wall. "There's nothing here that I want," Kies tells Arc as he looks around the room one more time. After confirming that there is nothing else of interest, Kies continued up the stairs to the next floor.

The next floor had the same layout as the previous one but the difference was that instead of blacksmithing items and weapons, it was alchemy. And the next floor after that was a training room. The next floor looked like a living quarter. Everything in the room including the beds was made out of Aeronite which probably made them all incredibly uncomfortable to use. But that probably wasn't a problem for an Aeos.

"Interesting. Not a single room in this building matches with what I have in the database," Arc noted.

The last and final floor up was a long climb, and Kies was pretty sure the reason why was because it led directly to the surface. After making it all the way to the top of the stairs, there was a small platform and a trapdoor above it. Kies tried opening it but found himself unable to open it. But rather than it being locked, it felt more as if the trapdoor was being blocked. There was something heavy on top of the trapdoor that was preventing it from being opened.

Kies bent his elbow upward and slammed the trapdoor with it. After doing it a couple of times, the trapdoor loosened. This led Kies to believe that it was dirt that was weighing down on it. Kies continued hitting the trapdoor for another few minutes before it burst open. Luckily, the trapdoor had not been buried by a deep layer of dirt.

Kies jumped and lifted himself up from the hole. After getting out, the bracelet glows again as Arc once again takes a scan of their surroundings. "I have taken a picture of this place so that we could find it again later," Arc told Kies after finishing his scan, and before Kies could ask about where to go, Arc said, "I sense a strong presence to your South. I believe that is what you are looking for. I will take my leave for now as I have my work cut out for me, especially after seeing this strange building. Is there anything you wish to ask me before I depart once more?"

Anything he wanted to ask about? Now that Arc mentioned it, Kies had a lot of things that he wanted to ask Arc but now was not the best time to do so. He should've asked Arc his huge lists of questions while they were still inside the building. He had plenty of time to do so but he forgot to, and it was too late now. Though he never had the best memory, why was he so forgetful about things now? It was as if he was turning into an old man and was suffering from memory loss.

"No, nothing right now," Kies told Arc.

"Okay. Take care then." The bracelet turned off as Kies started to run towards the direction that Arc had said there was a magic presence.

***

"Hoot, dodge!" Haro shouted at Ammine.

Ammine looked up and saw a tree falling down on her. Without a second thought, she quickly grabbed Bloodmane off her shoulders and used all the force she could muster to throw him away from the collapsing tree and jumped away herself as well. The tree crashed onto the place where they were just standing not a second later.

"Ugh..." Ammine pushed herself off the ground and quickly dusted off the coarse dirt on her legs and arms. Lisler rushed to her side, looking to see if she was alright. "I'm fine," she told the undead swordsman. She ran over to the still unconscious werewolf and picked him back up and swung him over her back again. D*mn, was he heavy.

Ammine could still hear that monster in the distance, whistling its terrible tune and causing the ground to break apart. Haro had somehow managed to get them out of that dangerous situation and told them to retreat. Apparently, Kies was missing after having fallen into one of the cracks created by the Bone Whistler, and the rest of the werewolves were also missing. Haro advised against searching for them and said that they needed to get to safety first. After finding someplace where they could regroup, Haro will telepathically call out to Kies and the werewolves to make sure they were okay too.

"How much farther?" Ammine looked at the owl. She didn't know where he was taking them and how long they would have to run for.

"We're almost there."

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