I made up magic and taught a world-destroying witch?

Chapter 116 Strange Things, Starting from Smooth Sailing

The fisherman led the way, guiding them down a muddy slope to the other side of the reef. From there, the Ocean Eye Lighthouse was mostly obscured by the protruding rocks, with only the upper half of the tower visible.

"The tide has just receded," the fisherman said, pointing ahead. "Just follow where I've stepped. Don't just step where it's flat."

Joseph looked down and saw that everything looked pretty much the same: black mud mixed with broken shells and seaweed, with occasional puddles reflecting the sky. It was impossible to tell which area was walkable or which was hollow underneath.

The fisherman walked with practiced ease, and the group followed his footprints. There were several places along the way that looked much smoother, but the man deliberately avoided them.

A little curious, Allen took off his sword sheath and gently poked it into the mud. The surface layer of mud immediately broke through, revealing bottomless black silt underneath. The entire mud surface began to sway gently as soon as the sword sheath was halfway in.

"I knew it," the fisherman turned around, his face showing an expression that said he had known this would happen. "Last year, someone stepped in, but they couldn't find the body anywhere."

Allen pulled the sword back from its sheath, glanced at the black mud clinging to it, and laughed loudly, "Hahaha! Luckily, I only stuck one sword in."

Joseph:

He watched as the mud slowly closed up again. Fortunately, Knight Allen hadn't stuck his leg in; otherwise, the survey team's knights would have been carried away by the magical mud before they even entered the ruins of the Old Gods.

The group continued around several rocks to the back of the lighthouse. The man bent down, parted a drooping vine, and moved a few small stones piled together, revealing a crack less than a person's width wide. The entrance was hidden between the base of the lighthouse and the rocks, with a huge boulder pressing down on it. If someone hadn't known its location beforehand, from a distance it would have looked like an ordinary crevice in the rocks.

"This is it," the man said, patting the mud off his hands. "People from the Chamber of Commerce used to occasionally go in from here to repair the drainage ditch below. Later, the warehouse was no longer in use, and nobody maintained this road anymore."

Brewster took the ordinary oil lamp from his waist, lit it, and handed it to Allen.

"Hahaha! I'll go first and clear the way!" Allen said, taking the oil lamp.

The dim yellow light of the fire shone into the crack, revealing a narrow stone path leading upwards. The path was flanked by rough, wet stone walls, and water dripped from overhead.

Allen went in first, carrying an oil lamp, followed closely by Brewster. Joseph and Evelyn walked in the middle, while the fisherman, carrying an empty fish basket, brought up the rear, muttering to himself, "I knew we could get in here."

Joseph turned and glanced at him after hearing this, so this person had never actually been inside before?

The fisherman noticed his gaze and quickly explained, "I've known about the entrance for a long time, but it wasn't safe for me to go in alone before. Really, I'm not lying to you."

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Joseph:

How could someone who has never even been inside so naturally present himself as a guide to the ruins?

But at least he did lead them to the entrance. On the bright side, even though this kind of guide isn't responsible for the inside of the ruins, at least he didn't lead them into the mud from the outside.

The narrow stone path didn't extend very far before leading to a more spacious area, where it was clear that it had been used as a warehouse in the past.

Just as Allen raised the oil lamp a little higher, Evelyn suddenly stopped and said, "Someone has been here recently."

Following her gaze, everyone saw that behind a collapsed wooden frame lay several fish bones that hadn't completely rotted. Next to them was a fire surrounded by stones.

Brewster crouched down and gently brushed aside the ashes with his short cane, revealing a small piece of wood that hadn't been completely burned.

"It won't be long," Brewster said, "a few days at most."

Allen placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and turned to look at the dark passageway around him.

"It seems someone got here before us."

The fisherman looked at the pile of fish bones and said with a touch of heartache, "This fish is way too dry."

Joseph:

"Is this the time to worry about whether the fish tastes good?"

However, the fish bones and the campfire at least prove that the people who come here are normal people, not some strange creatures that crawled out of the ruins of the old gods and usually only eat magic and living people.

This is barely good news.

The group continued along the passage at the back of the warehouse. Everyone had assumed that since they had discovered that someone had come in ahead of time, they would soon encounter an ambush or at least see something more obvious.

Nothing happened, and they walked to the top of the lighthouse without incident.

The top floor is a circular stone chamber with narrow windows on all four walls. Sea breezes constantly flow in through the broken window frames, and the crystal that Wade mentioned is installed in the very center of the chamber.

It was a pale blue crystal nearly half a person's height, its surface having lost most of its luster, and many tiny cracks visible inside. Below the crystal was a stone base, from which dozens of metal pipes of varying thicknesses and magical runes extended, eventually penetrating the walls surrounding the lighthouse.

Allen walked around the crystal once: "Is this it?"

“That should be right,” Evelyn said. “The sea-eye crystals in the church records are also similar in shape.”

Brewster squatted down next to the stone platform and examined it carefully for a while before saying, "This crystal is connected to the original magic circuit of the entire lighthouse. Removing the crystal may not cause anything, or the old magic circuit inside the entire lighthouse may go out of control."

Joseph felt that hearing "I don't know if everything will go out of control" in the ruins of the Old Gods was basically a sign that he shouldn't have tried it.

After hearing this, Allen hung the oil lamp beside him and exclaimed, "Hahaha! Well, today went quite smoothly! I originally thought that as soon as I came in, a bunch of tentacled things would rush out from behind the wall!"

What's wrong with things going smoothly? Joseph glanced at him.

According to a normal person's approach, the most important thing to do right now is to quickly write down what you see before anything happens, and then turn around and leave.

As for how to dismantle the crystal and who left that pile of fish bones, we can go back and find more people and information before coming back again.

"Let's go back and consult with the association and the church before deciding how to handle this," Joseph said.

Evelyn glanced at Joseph.

The professor didn't even try to cut off the circuit by his own power, since it would have been easy for him.

But she quickly realized that it might just be something someone deliberately left for them to see, and the smoother things seemed, the less she should rush to continue.

Professor Grantham had probably been on guard against this ever since he entered the lighthouse.

Although Allen was a little disappointed that he didn't see any monsters immediately, he still picked up the oil lamp and walked to the side to begin examining the area around the stone chamber.

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed the investigation could end here for today.

However, now that the channeling spell has appeared, while we still have plenty of magic power, it shouldn't be a problem to try it out a little, right?

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