Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 427: Eternal Night Ruins (Part )

The expedition team, which had luckily escaped from a large number of strange enemies, did not dare to land on the ground to rest at night. Relying on the little remaining gas fuel in the airship, they flew north all the way to the edge of the ice sea in the permafrost zone.

The Eye of Illusion handed a can of food heated on a portable stove to the last surviving refugee guide and asked in a deep voice, "To prevent those strange enemies from being lured to the vicinity of the snowy mountain camp... We may not return by the same route, but we won't abandon you. After completing our exploration mission, will you return with us to Spark City at the foot of the Divine Ridge Mountains?"

The young guide accepted the food in silence, nodded, and muttered, "If even powerful wizards like you can't easily defeat those monsters, and our settlement is completely defenseless, I... I'm willing to follow you back to your city. Those magical weapons that can kill the skinned monsters... will also allow me to avenge my people and brothers!"

Among the four refugees sent by Elder Uli to serve as guides for the exploration team, one of them who died in battle was his blood brother.

Duncan leaned against the observation window of the pod, pointed at the open area that suddenly appeared in the north, and asked in surprise, "Is that the icy sea in the permafrost zone?"

Everyone looked into the distance and realized that the airship was about to sail out of the endless wasteland and dense forest without realizing it, and not far ahead was a barren land with almost no grass, like a vast white desert.

The guide nodded and said, "Yes, the ice sea is ahead. Although it looks like a vast expanse of snow, it's actually an underground sea covered by a layer of ice more than ten meters thick. When we fly deeper... we can also see the sea vent. The seawater will break through the ice and gush out of the ground, forming a huge ice cave hundreds of meters in diameter."

The astrologer, who had recovered considerably, frowned and warned, "Teacher, the airship's fuel is running low. If we can't find the remains of the Kingdom of Eternal Night, we must find a suitable temporary base and set up a magic network teleportation array to request supplies from Spark City."

Michelle and Blake, who were more seriously injured, also needed more magic potions to ensure that their injuries would not worsen on the way back. As long as they insisted on returning to Spark City, they would naturally recover quickly under the joint treatment of the medical alchemy beasts and the Academy of Magical Sciences.

"Three days... another three days of flying deep into the icy sea. We still have enough fuel left to support five days of continuous flight. We don't need to land on the ground to rest at night to save fuel."

Although the ice sea is vast and boundless, the advantage is that the view is unobstructed without any ground obstruction. Those skinned monsters who have been following them all the way cannot hide in the dark and attack them again.

……

There are no reference landmarks when flying over the icy sea, so the exploration team must always arrange people to take turns controlling the flight direction and repeatedly check the north direction indicated by the compass.

It was not until the afternoon of the third day that White, who was in charge of observation and guard duty, vaguely saw a strange terrain bulge protruding from the ice in the distance ahead.

"Mr. Duncan! Look!" White pointed at a pile of white rocks protruding from the ice several miles away. "Could that be a sea swell? We can choose a flat area with higher ground there and set up a temporary base for the teleportation array!"

When everyone patiently controlled the airship to fly closer, they found that what was in front of them and below was not a sea vent at all... but a huge sinkhole that was several times larger than the sea vent, like a huge sinkhole left after a volcanic eruption.

The sea water at the bottom of the pit was surging, constantly hitting the circular walls around it. The sea water was almost dark black and you couldn't see the bottom at all. It felt extremely creepy to look down from high above.

The airship carefully adjusted its course and slowly landed on flat ground. Duncan and the expedition team exited the gondola and approached the edge of the sinkhole for a closer inspection. "This... this is definitely not a vent," the young guide explained, shaking his head like a rattle. "The presence of a vent indicates the presence of a hydrothermal spring beneath the glacial sea in this area. The high temperature of the erupting water is sufficient to melt the thick ice..."

However, the huge pit in front of them, with a diameter of several miles, obviously could not have been formed simply by the melting of seabed hot springs. It was more like a natural landslide caused by a strong and terrifying earthquake disaster.

Duncan gazed at the deep, surging waters beneath his feet. After a moment's hesitation, he decisively said, "Let's set up a teleportation array here... After all, the terrain around the pit is higher, making it easier for us to observe and warn of any nearby enemies."

Under his command, everyone quickly took out the teleportation array devices from the airship pod one by one, set up the temporary camp tent, and then began to complete the construction of the magic network teleportation array in the largest wide-top tent.

They were busy until near dusk, when suddenly a regular sound of the sea tide came from the giant pit. Everyone hurried to the edge of the pit to check - and found that the sea water in the pit had stopped churning and was slowly showing signs of receding tide.

"It's really strange that this underground ice sea actually has normal tidal phenomena, and the entire sea level is dropping so strangely." The Eye of Illusion couldn't help but marvel at it as it looked down.

Only in this remote and sparsely populated wilderness, far away from the southern border, could they see strange sights that they would never see in their lifetime, which made the arduous and dangerous journey worthwhile.

But gradually, everyone found that something was wrong at the bottom of the pit - as the tide receded faster and faster, a large area of rugged reefs slowly emerged from the originally dark and deep bottom of the cave. The shape of the reefs was unexpectedly regular, like stone pillars polished by craftsmen.

"That's not a reef!" Duncan looked down intently. "The stone pillars exposed at the bottom of the pit are clearly man-made... It looks like... it looks like the base of a tall tower!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Eye of Illusion and the Astrologer trembled in unbelievable amazement, saying, "Could it be... could this be the ruins of the legendary City of Eternal Night?"

But... weren't these ruins destroyed by the demon invasion? How did they end up sinking into the frozen sea?

Wait! Mr. Asdalen had mentioned that the City of Eternal Night first experienced an insurmountable natural disaster, then was taken advantage of by the demons and invaded massively, ultimately being completely destroyed.

But Mr. Asdalen, as a half-blood of "low status", had always lived on the edge of the City of Eternal Night. When the disaster occurred, he strangely received the news in advance and fled the area in advance under the arrangement of his relatives.

This very likely means that this disaster was not natural at all... but man-made!

This so-called natural disaster... is the entire city sinking into the sea overnight?

(End of this chapter)