The Wizard's Secret Journey

Chapter 259 Rune Workshop (4k)

In the darkness, Lynn floated silently and cast a light spell.

A sphere of blazing white light slowly rose from his palm, floating in front of him, dispelling the thick darkness and illuminating the space where Lynn was.

Lynn was suspended in a basement that wasn't particularly spacious.

The light from the spell was somehow interfered with here. The light seemed to be quietly swallowed up by an invisible force, illuminating only a limited area. The deeper parts were still swallowed by heavy shadows. The air here was filled with a kind of stale smell, like a mixture of rotten wood, dust and some indescribable metallic rust. It was exceptionally quiet all around. You could only hear your own breathing and the steady, powerful beating of your heart in your chest.

Lynn landed slowly, his boots lightly touching the dusty ground, stirring up a small cloud of dust.

He stared blankly at his surroundings.

This place was clearly once a meticulously arranged research site, or rather, a workshop.

As for what to study, if Lynn's judgment at this moment is correct—it's the Black Moon Rune.

This is a workshop that specializes in researching and creating Black Moon runes.

'It's a pity...' Lynn sighed. The workshop in front of him was now unrecognizable, and it was almost impossible to find a single intact facility.

He looked down at the floor beneath his feet, which was made of some kind of dark stone. It was cold and hard to the touch and was still relatively intact, but upon closer inspection, he could see that some key corners had been torn open, as if they had been ripped open by the claws of a giant beast, revealing the damaged structure underneath. The broken pipes were like dead snakes and worms, curled up among the rubble.

Looking up, the workshop walls were also covered with a thick layer of ash, like a dirty velvet blanket. Some intricate patterns were engraved on them, but most of the patterns had been violently destroyed and blurred. Lynn could only carefully brush away the dust from some scattered corners and deduce that they were related to the Black Moon Runes.

However, the most eye-catching feature of the entire workshop is the huge circular base made of an unidentified dark metal in the center of the room.

It appears to be the base of some kind of core device, but now the device on it has vanished, and the remaining base is severely deformed. Some parts even show signs of melting and solidification, exhibiting bizarre, folded and nodular protrusions resembling cooled lava. Several broken and twisted metal supports, like the broken ribs of a giant beast, point towards the dim ceiling.

Lynn glanced at it a few more times, took a few steps closer, and bent down to observe.

He saw that some broken crystal fragments remained on the support, some scattered around the base, reflecting a faint light under the white light of the sphere, like scattered specks of light after a star has shattered.

'This doesn't seem to be a natural crystal; it's a crystal material I've never seen before...' Lynn carefully picked up a few pieces with his fingertips, collecting some crystal fragments. These fragments felt cool to the touch and carried a strange lingering energy.

Lynn stood up and turned to look at the corner of the room, where he could vaguely see the remains of some low platforms, which were also covered with a thick layer of dust.

The dust was so thick that it almost completely obscured the original shape of the platform.

Scattered on the platform were more unidentifiable fragments—some similar to the crystal fragments in his hand, some remnants of materials that Lynn could identify, but most were new materials that Lynn had never seen before, in various shapes, some sharp and some blunt, half-hidden in the dust.

'What a pity...' Lynn looked around, his gaze sweeping over the devastation, and sighed again in his heart.

Thick dust covered everything, like the sigh of time, stripping these creations of their flesh and blood, leaving only withered bones and eternal silence.

'The Black Moon Rune text inherently possesses the property of resisting the passage of time. If this place hadn't been damaged by human intervention, it should still be functioning normally, just like the stone gate at the entrance.'

Although the Black Moon Runes are not completely unaffected by the passage of time, their resistance to time is much stronger than that of most other runes. The Black Moon Rune effects extracted from the Black Moon relics in Lynn's possession are at most only 5% different from the effects of the Black Moon Runes he created.

This, however, is the only damage that ten thousand years can inflict on the Black Moon Rune.

Lynn's gaze slowly swept over the ruins again, from the broken supports to the blurred runes, and then to the piled-up dust. The disappointment in his heart not only did not dissipate, but grew even stronger, making him sigh inwardly once more.

Lynn took a deep breath, letting the dusty air fill his lungs. He raised his neck slightly, forcibly shifting his attention from the workshop in front of him to the sky above.

The dimly lit ceiling showed no signs of disturbance, not even the slightest tremor, but Lynn dared not let his guard down. His muscles tensed instinctively, and he was on high alert.

In fact, even though he had been mostly focused on the Black Moon Rune Workshop, Lynn would still glance at the ceiling from time to time.

After all, judging from the characteristics of that gray wind, it was like an extremely sharp dagger. Although it looked like wind, it couldn't even move a piece of white paper.

It cannot "shake" anything because it is too sharp.

It will pierce through the target without any smoke or fire, and completely annihilate it.

Therefore, it's normal that the ceiling is silent, because the dust wind doesn't usually make any noise. Lynn could only keep observing with his eyes at all times.

His pale gray pupils gleamed like jewels in the dim light, his brows furrowed, as if he were always ready to flee.

'Based on the speed at which the gray wind descended, it should have officially made contact with the ground by now.' Lynn silently estimated in his mind, staring intently at the stone wall he had entered through, his gaze seemingly trying to pierce through the thick rock.

Several minutes passed, each second feeling exceptionally long. Lynn finally relaxed for the time being, his tense body slightly loosening.

'Since the stone wall above us is still intact, either the gray wind has stopped descending, or the outer wall of the workshop is blocking the annihilating gray wind.'

The workshop that researches and creates Black Moon Runes is located underground, with a stone ceiling overhead. The ceiling seems to be made of the same material as the rune stone wall embedded in it, and it looks quite defensive, which is probably how it withstood the erosion of the gray wind.

Lynn thought with relief, then withdrew his gaze from the ceiling and gradually stopped thinking about the gray wind, temporarily suppressing his vigilance against the unknown danger.

He looked at the workshop again, regret still lingering in his heart, but mixed with a trace of indescribable excitement. This excitement came not only from surviving the disaster, but also from the destroyed workshop in front of him.

Although there are no ready-made intact finds here, the ruins themselves, the remaining rune traces, and the destroyed facility structures are all extremely valuable research samples!
Lynn's fingertips unconsciously caressed the collected crystal fragments, her heartbeat gradually quickening.

Lynn stepped forward, his boots making a soft rustling sound on the dusty, debris-strewn ground, a sound that stood out sharply in the deathly silence. He continued to the corner against the wall, bending down to examine the blurred patterns on the damaged platforms.

"What... happened here?" Lynn muttered to himself, his voice unusually clear in the empty, deathly silent chamber.

The dark, decaying monster behind him, like the most loyal guardian, followed him relentlessly, moving silently with only the occasional, extremely faint, viscous sound like slowly flowing liquid. Its massive body cast a deep shadow in the limited light, silently protecting the Black Moon Saint.

Lynn reached out and ran his hand across the platform's cold, rough surface, lingering for a moment regretfully over several damaged spots.

He guessed that if the workshop's interior facilities were still intact, it would greet him with the same respect as the black, decaying monster behind him and the runic stone tablet above his head.

But now the workshop was deathly silent, with only dust falling softly under his fingers.

Lynn continued walking, carefully examining the entire workshop from left to right and top to bottom. Each step was slow and focused, his gaze sweeping over every inch of the ground, walls, and ruins like a searchlight.

'The only exit is the stone slab overhead... but why is this only exit still intact, while everything inside is destroyed?'

Lynn was puzzled and frowned, muttering to himself, 'Besides having only one exit, there are no signs of damage to the walls around the workshop. So there's only one explanation for this situation: whoever destroyed the workshop possesses some kind of ability that allows them to ignore the stone barrier and enter directly inside.'

The most likely scenario is that the person who destroyed the workshop originally had permission to enter it!
In other words, it is very likely that the Black Moon Wizard of the workshop destroyed the Rune Workshop himself.
'That's not impossible. Judging from the damage to the ground, the existence of this destruction workshop suggests they are quite familiar with the entire workshop's structure, which perfectly matches the hypothesis.'

But this deduction still made Lynn frown, silently wondering to himself, 'Why would they deliberately destroy the items in the workshop?'

Under what circumstances would someone choose to destroy their own possessions?
'It was out of personal grudges—there was an oppressive relationship in this workshop, and the oppressed wizard destroyed everything to vent his anger?'
'No, if it was done by someone inside the workshop, it's more like they encountered an insurmountable enemy and chose to completely destroy the workshop before sacrificing everything to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.'

'Even the black, rotten monster outside might have been deliberately left outside by the workshop's wizard to guard this place. The reason for not destroying the stone walls for entering and exiting is to cause more trouble for the enemies that come later.'

'However, judging from the current situation, the workshop should not have been broken into...'

Lynn understood some things, but his furrowed brows didn't relax; instead, they furrowed even more.

He suddenly remembered what the Gray Forest Ruins looked like, and he suddenly remembered the Black Moon Fortress from back then.

A sudden, inexplicable fear gripped Lynn's throat, making it hard for him to breathe.

What kind of enemy did Black Moon Academy encounter back then that caused it to collapse overnight?
What kind of enemy could drive the wizard in this workshop to utter despair and destroy his own workshop?

'Furthermore, what kind of enemy, after defeating Black Moon Academy, would not even deign to come down and loot any items?'

There were no signs of forced entry into the workshop. It couldn't be that the enemies who destroyed Black Moon Academy couldn't break in; it could only mean that they simply didn't break in.

In the darkness, Lynn stood silently, like a frozen statue.

The Light spell was affected by him, and its light gradually weakened until it could only illuminate a range of two or three meters around it, as if it were about to be swallowed up by endless darkness.

After a long while, Lynn exhaled, expelling all the chaotic thoughts from his mind and the heaviness in his heart.

'Thinking too much will prevent me from moving forward. I should focus on the present; those other things are still too far away.'

Lynn took a step, his steps becoming firm again. He raised his hand and controlled the light spell to float in the center of the ceiling, unleashing his full magical power.

In an instant, pure white light shone down, illuminating the entire workshop.

Lynn meticulously examined every inch of the place, carefully collecting anything he found that might have research value.

Regardless of the external circumstances, and regardless of the truth behind the destruction of Black Moon Academy ten thousand years ago, all he needs to do now, and all he can do, is improve himself.

He was currently in a workshop researching and creating Black Moon Runes, which was a perfect opportunity to improve himself, and he couldn't afford to waste a single moment!

After an unknown amount of time, Lynn stopped, staring at the stone slab he was holding, his eyes gleaming.

The stone slab is a regular oval shape, grayish-white in color, and looks quite ordinary.

However, through the Black Moon Spirit's careful perception, one could see starlight-like points of light emanating from the surface of the stone slab.

It was one of the few items Lynn found in the workshop that was still intact, and it was the only one whose purpose Lynn did not yet understand. The rest of the items were common tools such as lamps or carving knives.

Lynn found this stone slab under the platform against the wall. It was buried in thick dust. If it weren't for the Black Moon Spirit's perception, or if the starlight fluctuations emanating from the stone slab had been weaker, Lynn probably would have just regarded it as a broken piece of flooring and ignored it.

Lynn examined it for a while, but found nothing.

He pondered for a moment, then, with a hint of anticipation, tried to infuse it with magic.

The stone slab was found under the operating platform against the wall, so it's very likely one of the commonly used items placed on the platform... In other words, this stone slab is very likely related to the creation of the Black Moon Rune!

After a moment, the long-sealed stone slab gradually began to shine, and the dust remaining on its surface fell away.

Those tiny points of starlight that could only be seen through the Black Moon Spirit Body's perception slowly and realistically appeared on the surface of the stone slab.

Lynn stared at the starlight, slightly taken aback:
'These starlight points... dot them look somewhat like... the runes of the Black Moon rune?'

(End of this chapter)