Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 430 Archaeological Operation
Harvey and Asdalen stood side by side on the edge of the huge sinkhole, watching the engineering team busy completing the final debugging work of the power elevator.

"Now I can be absolutely certain that this is indeed the ruins of the City of Eternal Night..." Asdalen sighed and said, "These huge stone pillars and broken foundations sunk into the sea are clearly built of frost rock, which is only found in the permafrost sea. I absolutely cannot be mistaken."

Harvey was also quite impressed, but couldn't help but wonder, "How did your ancestors do it? They weren't like me, using tricky ice to build their cities. They used real, quarried stone."

And there are no large numbers of alchemy beasts to assist in construction, which is incredible to think about.

Asdalen gave a wry smile. "Sir, the wizard family I come from had a mortal servant base comparable to an army. Furthermore, it was the end of the Dragon War, and many wizard organizations had large numbers of enslaved people. A new city could be built purely with human resources."

Harvey curled his lips and stopped talking about this topic. He has always been disdainful of this decadent, outdated and backward production method.

Duncan hurried over with two students in tow. He saluted Harvey with his hand on his chest and said, "Your Excellency, the elevator has been debugged. This evening at low tide... On behalf of the exploration team, I'm applying for permission for our first ruins exploration!"

Harvey was stunned for a moment. "Didn't I tell you? Let the small wolf spider beast go down and explore the way first. Make sure there are no problems before considering sending anyone else..."

"My lord, wolf spider beasts moving in groups can easily inadvertently destroy the structural stability inside the ruins. It will be troublesome if a landslide occurs." Asdalen rarely objected to Harvey's caution.

In fact, it is because the ruins have been submerged in the sea and eroded by sea water for too long. Under the erosion of sea tides over the years, even the most solid load-bearing stone pillars and building bases have been riddled with holes and rotted like rotten wood.

Harvey pondered for a moment, then helplessly spread his hands and said, "Alright, I approve this exploration mission, but I have one request..."

"Your Excellency, the City Lord, please feel free to ask. We have our own share of exploration responsibilities."

Harvey chuckled and pointed at himself, "The request is... take me with you."

……

The elevator wobbled and slowly descended, and after a slight tremor, it landed steadily at the bottom of the pit.

Harvey controlled his puppet and walked out of the elevator first, stepping onto the rocky ground at the bottom of the pit, which was still wet and slippery after the tide had receded.

"The tide only rises and falls for less than two hours, so we can't be too aggressive in our exploration plan. There are definitely many areas in the ruins that are still flooded. If we really can't get through, there's no need to force it..."

The Eye of Illusion was about to tease Harvey about his excessive caution, but suddenly his gaze fixed on the deep water not far away, "What is that?"

Everyone looked in the direction of his finger, and saw several fluorescent green shadows suddenly appear in the bottomless sea at the edge of the reef - they were extremely fast in the water, almost flashing by, leaving only phantom-like light traces, and then shrank into the countless reef holes under the island.

But soon several fluorescent green shadows swam by, and it seemed that there were more of them than before. This time everyone could finally see their appearance clearly. They were actually sea fish with fluorescent green bodies and glowing light.

Astaron suddenly realized, "If my memory hasn't been tampered with, this should be the fluorescent fish unique to the Ice Sea." He pointed at the school of fluorescent fish swimming rapidly in the water, his tone carrying a hint of the joy of regaining a long-lost memory. "This kind of fish moves with the ebb and flow of the Earth Sea tide. When the tide is high, they float close to the ice surface to feed, and when the tide goes out, they retreat back to hide in the crevices of the reef."

According to Asdalun's recollection, during the annual breeding season, thousands of fireflies gathered together, emitting a huge light that could even penetrate the thick ice, allowing fishermen on the ice to see them clearly from miles away.

"It seems these glowing little fish have taken the sunken ruins of Eternal Night... as a reef to rest and take refuge in."

While chatting, everyone walked to the remains of a building that was closest to the edge of the ruins and appeared to be the most intact.

It looks like several extremely large diamond-shaped stone pillars that were directly cut and pieced together. Although the surface is covered with barnacles, corals and seaweed, it is still very smooth, which shows the superb skills of the craftsmen who built it hundreds of years ago.

"This is the oil storage room!" After carefully identifying it, Asdalen said with certainty, "There are no trees or coal for lighting and heating on the ice sea, but the ice sea whales perfectly make up for these shortcomings..."

This extremely large population of whales, which is spread throughout the entire underground ice sea, not only provides the City of Eternal Night with a large amount of whale oil that can burn for a long time, but even the huge dried bones can be used as auxiliary fuel. They are erected in the city like giant torches to illuminate the surroundings.

Everyone carefully entered through the broken stone door one by one, walked down a few steps where the sea water was still flowing, and the magic stones of light held high in their hands immediately illuminated the scene inside the oil storage room.

The empty interior seemed very spacious. It seemed that only the top of the building and a corner were affected by the ground collapse. Several broken stone pillars fell to one side, and half of the stone roof collapsed, letting in the dusk light.

"Oil storage room? It doesn't look like there's any oil stored there." The Eye of Illusion rubbed the ground, which had turned green from the seawater, with his foot. "There are indeed many protective magic patterns carved into the ground... but it seems that they can't withstand this terrifying natural disaster."

Asdalen nodded and said, "The oil storage room needs to be absolutely isolated from fire sources. It's not surprising that a protective magic circle is set up here."

Harvey felt something was wrong. He lowered his head and looked at the magic circle pattern under his feet, thinking for a long time. He raised his head and looked around, but found that none of the spellcasters present had the same research experience in formation drawing as he did.

"Activate a few more Illuminating Magic Stones so I can clearly see the entire structure of the magic circle!"

Harvey slowly circled along the complex patterns of the formation, and suddenly stopped at a position near the center of the oil storage room. Asdalen followed his gaze and found that he was staring at an area covered with seaweed and moss under his feet, frowning and thinking hard.

The most impatient Eye of Illusion was about to ask when Harvey suddenly bent down and stretched out his hand, tearing off the seaweed under his feet, revealing a dull gem hidden underneath. The gem was round and as big as a fist, firmly embedded in the stone floor of the hall.

"The energy-gathering magic stone of the protective magic circle?" The astrologer couldn't help but step forward to take a closer look, but he had no idea what it was. "I've never seen this kind of magic stone before, but it looks like the magic power stored within has been exhausted..."

Harvey shook his head and suddenly raised his foot and stepped directly on the round gem. Suddenly, there was a crackling sound from the ground, as if some mechanism was triggered. The vibration quickly spread to the entire oil storage room, and it seemed that the entire hall was filled with violent friction sounds.

Then... the ground in the center of the hall cracked to form a square doorway, and a huge stone staircase slowly rose from below, revealing a dark corridor inside without a trace of light, as if leading to the depths of the earth.

(End of this chapter)