Yes, Madam Prime Minister

The next instant, a giant mushroom sprouted from the ground, steadily catching the key and displaying it to everyone.

Carl and Bruman's wife had no idea what the key was.

Dinia felt that the face looked somewhat familiar.

Ronan immediately recognized it; the key was exactly the same shape and size as the one he had obtained from the Seapiper, but the patterns on it were different.

“Madam Mayor, Mr. Carl, please take this key back to the Wrightburg construction site. I’ll be there shortly,” Ronan said.

After saying that, Ronan quickly left. It involved the Haidi people again, so he planned to call Treca, the most senior Haidi priest, to help him with the analysis.

Ronan left, and Dinia prepared to return to the Wrightburg construction site as Ronan had instructed. Just as she was about to get the keys, Karl beat her to it, saying, "I'll do it." He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wrapped the dirty, smelly keys in it, and held them in his hand. Although he had mentally prepared himself, he still couldn't help but show a disgusted expression.

He had never touched anything so dirty in his life.

“If you can’t, let me get it,” Dinia said.

“I’m fine,” Karl said quickly.

Dinia didn't bother arguing with him and left. Carl quickly followed, and politely apologized to Bruman's wife.

Chapter 133 Eating, Exploring, and Missed a Step

More than an hour later, Dinia and Karl returned to where Lightburg was located.

Another hour passed, and at seven o'clock in the evening, Ronan finally arrived, accompanied by the old priest Treca of the Seapipers.

In addition, Ronan also used his shield to float in the air as a vehicle, bringing over several large boxes and a large steamer.

The box contained seasonings and ingredients. He brought this over because he and Dinia hadn't eaten for most of the day. They hadn't eaten since they left for the construction site in the morning. Karl was a little better off; he probably had lunch nearby. But given his noble young master's character, he probably wouldn't eat more than a few bites of the food prepared for the merchants.

Ronan borrowed a large earthen stove from the construction site used for cooking large pots of food and began preparing the meal.

Ronan wasn't planning on anything complicated, just four simple dishes.

One dish was steamed ray liver. This ray liver was originally intended by the Seadiers to be given to Ronan, but he happened to come across it and took it.

The second dish is steamed chicken, with the main ingredient being Sacco chicken, a specialty of Sacco Island.

The third dish is steamed lobster.

The last dish was shrimp ball soup, which was simply steamed.

No need to consider the staple food, just a baguette.

Half an hour later, all the dishes were ready, and we started eating.

Steamed ray liver, add some minced ginger and garlic, pour over some hot oil and sizzle, then add some homemade compound soy sauce. This compound soy sauce is made by simmering soy sauce with onions, carrots, celery, dried shrimp and white sugar, resulting in a fresh, sweet and mellow flavor.

Ronan has conducted many experiments over the years to develop this soy sauce.

Karl was stunned when he took a bite. This was a culinary experience he had never had before. First of all, the fish liver was very different. As a nobleman, he had eaten chicken liver, duck liver, and goose liver, but those were rich and creamy with a fatty aroma. This fish liver was different; it was crisp, tender, and soft.

He had never tasted this sauce before.

The steamed chicken amazed him; it was so fresh that he couldn't help but ask, "What kind of sauces are on the fish liver and the chicken?"

"The fish liver is drizzled with homemade compound soy sauce, and the main umami flavor comes from oyster sauce," Ronan replied.

Oysters are also produced here, but compared to the western coast of the kingdom, the quality and size of the oysters here are far inferior, and they can't fetch a good price at all. However, they are perfect for making oyster sauce. Chicken marinated with salt, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce, and white wine, then steamed, is incredibly delicious.

Carl didn't ask any further questions about what the so-called compound soy sauce and oyster sauce were or how they were made; he figured those were definitely trade secrets.

He was right; Ronan did intend to commercialize this, especially the complex soy sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce.

Carl had tried the lobster soup, but the shrimp ball soup was just average, so he didn't bother to comment on it.

"He's quite good at cooking. The last few times I've been drinking with him, he's been the one making the snacks to go with the drinks," Dinia said casually.

The last few times he drank with him, he prepared snacks to go with the drinks. These two sentences made Carl imagine a lot of scenes, and he suddenly felt a little dizzy and numb.

"Actually, I'm also somewhat interested in alcohol," Karl said casually.

"Oh," Dinia replied perfunctorily.

"Let's not talk about that now. After we finish eating, we still need to investigate the situation thoroughly," Ronan said. He was more concerned about the anomalies at the Wrightburg construction site. He wouldn't be able to rest easy until that was dealt with.

After dinner, Ronan didn't need to clean up.

Ronan took the cleaned key and showed it to Treca. Treca immediately recognized that the key was related to the Heidi people, but he said that he had never seen such a key before and did not remember any record of it.

"It seems we can only search slowly. This key has a sensor, so let's see if there's a special door here."

Ronan said.

Treca, with the Resonating Stone in one hand and the key in the other, began walking back and forth along the construction section, while Ronan and the other two followed behind carrying oil lamps.

After a while, when Treka walked to a wall, she exclaimed, "Here it comes, the key is working!"

Ronan, Carl, and Dinia all showed varying degrees of surprise. The wall was just over a meter thick, with nothing around it inside; outside the wall was the main road.

So, underground? That doesn't quite make sense either. From the beginning, Ronan and his companions had considered the possibility of secret underground structures, since Bruman's last words were "Don't go down." So, they used magic to sense the entire surface area, but they didn't detect any underground structures like basements.

Ronan and Dinia almost simultaneously thought of the same possibility: teleportation.

There is some kind of portal here.

Treka stopped quickly and tapped a stone brick in front of him with his finger. "There's something wrong with this brick."

Ronan quickly came over and took the key and the resonance stone, and Dinia and Carl followed.

The bricks here all have decorative patterns, and the style is very similar. The patterns between the bricks are also connected. At first glance, there is nothing special about them. Only by comparing them very carefully can you find that the pattern of the brick that Treca just touched is slightly different from the pattern of the other bricks.

“This is our script, a variant script,” exclaimed Priest Treka, who came over to read it carefully and then began to decipher it.

“Use the key to follow the traces of the words, and the path to the land of slumber will open naturally.”

After Treca read the passage aloud, Ronan immediately understood.

To be honest, when Ronan was a child, he liked to run his finger along the carvings when he saw them. In elementary school, he also liked to use a pen to run along the carvings left on the old school desk.

However, Ronan did not believe that the two workers opened the passage by chance, but rather that some force was influencing them.

That force was also the root cause of Bruman's sudden death and his dying words, "Don't go down."

In less than a minute, Ronan used his key to trace the lines that others saw as patterns, but he saw as characters. The lines on that piece suddenly turned cold. They might not be clear during the day, but they were especially noticeable in the darkness. However, no door or anything like that appeared.

Taking a step back, Ronan materialized a longsword and tried to probe the brick with it. The longsword sank directly into the brick without any resistance. He tried poking it in another spot, but the result was the same. It was as if the wall had become ethereal, and the external image did not actually exist.

Ronan sheathed his longsword, reached out, and his hand slid in without any resistance. He kicked it, and then did the same with his foot.

Just then, Ronan noticed that the light on the pattern was gradually fading from right to left, as if a timer was shrinking.

"Get ready to follow me, quick, Priestess Treka stays outside."

After saying that, Ronan tossed the key to Treca, then plunged headfirst into the wall and disappeared.

Dinia followed closely behind and went inside. As soon as Karl saw Dinia go in, he followed immediately.

As soon as he entered, Ronan lost his footing. He hadn't expected there to be a hole beneath his feet, and he fell straight down.

Ronan immediately summoned a longsword at his feet and plunged it into the cave wall, stopping his fall.

Chapter 134 Landing, Decryption, and Finished with a Bang!

Ronan was saved from falling vertically by his sword. Before he could give a warning, Dinya, who was right behind him, also lost her footing. However, she reacted faster than Ronan. In an instant, she twisted small but tough mushrooms into tentacle-like things and pierced into the surrounding stone walls, while also sending some of them to suspend Ronan. At the same time, a mushroom hand grew from her back and caught Karl, who had also lost his footing.

And so, under Dinia's magic, the three of them began to descend little by little, finally reaching a dark but spacious underground area.

The vertical pipe is estimated to be 100 meters deep. If those two dead workers had come in, they would probably have been smashed to pieces upon landing.

But they both died mysteriously outside, which means the two workers probably didn't come here.

The only person who successfully made it here is the magician Bruman, who left behind a strange suicide note.

"You don't need to activate your heightened senses. If there are any unexpected situations, I should be able to guarantee your safety."

Dinia said.

The surroundings were pitch black, and it was almost certain that some terrifying entity existed here; otherwise, Bruman wouldn't have written the dying words, "Don't go down." Naturally, it was necessary to keep his heightened senses active to guard against any potential threats, but heightened senses consumed mana.

This little bit of magic is nothing to Dinia, but it does matter to Ronan and Carl.

Ronan is used to clinging to powerful figures, so it doesn't bother him. He has a "quantum stomach"—he can digest hard rice and enjoy soft rice as well.

But Carl seemed a little embarrassed, "I..."

"What do you mean, 'I'? Shut up!" Dinia snapped coldly. If they were still in the mage guild, she would have silenced him with her fists long ago if he tried to express his opinion.

Karl said nothing more and silently held up the oil lamp for illumination.

This obviously man-made underground space is quite large, with a height of over six meters and a width of over twenty meters. As for how far it extends, it is impossible to judge. Karl, who had never been to such a place before, couldn't help but feel a little shocked. Who could have built such an underground space?

Ronan and Dinia were used to it; compared to the place where Gardener Tyr was, this underground space was nothing.

The only thing that struck Ronan as odd was that there were no devices or items placed here; in fact, there was absolutely nothing. If this place was simply a passageway, there was no need to build it so wide.

They walked forward for about two hundred meters before finally arriving at a huge stone gate.

Illuminated by a lamp, a line of Heidi script appeared, which no one could understand. Strangely enough, there was also a line of Old Empire script below it. Ronan only recognized the numbers four, two, and three; he didn't recognize any of the other words.

“Four minus two multiplied by three, the balance of the four elements, ha, just an ancient elemental magic sealing problem.” Karl’s voice came from the side.

"Can it be solved?" Ronan asked.

“If people a thousand years from now can’t even solve the problems left by people a thousand years ago, then this world is really unfortunate,” Karl said with a smile. He was an academic elemental mage, and his school’s motto was “The wisdom of the present must surpass the strength of the past, and with a finite body, explore the infinite truth.”

Karl handed the oil lamp to Ronan and placed his hands on the heavy stone door.

"Alright." With a light, casual voice from Karl, the door began to slowly open.

As the three entered the door, Ronan became even more vigilant. This place was related to the Haidi people, yet the door bore the writings of the Old Empire. It was hard not to think of the very brief account of the Haidi people defeating the Old Empire's army long ago.

The history of the Haidi people claims that they defeated the army of the old empire, but Ronan later consulted relevant historical records, which did not mention the Haidi people at all. They only stated that the old empire dominated the Mediterranean, and the area where the Haidi people lived was one of their territories. In other words, according to the empire, they brought the territory of the Haidi people under their rule.

This makes sense, since all the countries on the continent believe they are the legitimate imperial powers. If the Seapi people really had a record of defeating the old, powerful empire, they wouldn't be seen as backward natives who only know how to dive and fish.

After walking for a while, finally, there was light – the kind of disc lamps that had appeared in the passageways of the Heidi Man ruins.

“They’re here, lots of them,” Dinia said.

Ronan and Carl immediately became alert.

Just seconds after Dinia's warning, Ronan felt the ground beneath his feet tremble. In the distance, rhythmic, orderly sounds came from afar, as if the oppressive feeling of an approaching army was becoming clearer and closer. Each rumble and tremor increased the rate of his heartbeat.

Half a minute later, the thing that had caused the tremor finally came into view.

The mecha weapons resembled a symphony of illusions, but were much smaller, only about two meters tall. However, their numbers were astonishing, stretching as far as the eye could see, and they continued to approach.

When the people in the front row got closer to within five meters of the three of them, Ronan had a clear sense of their presence.

This mecha weapon, shaped like a symphony of illusions, is unmanned; there is no one inside.

Dinia and Carl also sensed this.

“That’s easy, just fight your way through.” Dinia revealed a somewhat ferocious and excited smile. “Step back.”

Dinia transforms into a five-meter-tall red giant composed of countless tiny, tough mushrooms. These tiny, tough mushrooms resemble red enoki mushrooms in shape, but their texture is more like metal wire. The giant is covered in full-body red plate armor, also composed of dense mushrooms, and his head is adorned with a full-coverage lion-face helmet.

The red giant wields a massive meteor hammer.

The giant meteor hammer swung, unleashing countless small illusory symphonies like a tidal wave. It was as if a frail peasant soldier had encountered a giant, and a single blow swept away an entire area.

This small, unmanned Phantom Symphony has weak magic resistance and even weaker physical resistance. It also doesn't have the ability to shoot white light. In the blink of an eye, the first few dozen units in the front row were smashed to pieces.

They advanced relentlessly, occasionally catching a few who slipped through their net, which Ronan and Carl then dealt with.

Only when he truly faced this thing did Ronan realize the gap between himself and Dinia. Dinia, transformed into the Red Giant, swept away more than a dozen people with a single blow, while it took Ronan half a minute to deal with just one.

Karl is much stronger than Ronan. He is an elemental mage, so he doesn't need to progress. Moreover, he is a dual elemental mage of water and wind. The "wind" in Ronan's name is just a translation; it could also be translated as "air."

His signature move is a combination of water flow and lightning strikes. The range and power are not very large, so it is not very effective against a lone mage in an open area. However, in this kind of confined space, against a semi-mechanical, semi-magical robot, his move is extremely lethal. As long as the lightning strikes, it can paralyze a robot in a few seconds.

Karl's physical abilities were still lacking, while Phantom Melody was extremely agile. Even before being paralyzed by the attack, it was able to launch a swift attack and pounce on Karl. If Ronan hadn't used the shield to block for him, he would have already been hit. "Thanks."

"No need, we're teammates now."

Chapter 135 The battle ends, the magic-suppressing domain, and two more people...

After an unknown amount of time, the battle finally ended. Behind the three, the entire path they had come from was now littered with piles of broken and wrecked debris, stretching for hundreds of meters.

Dinia returned to her normal human form and stood there as if nothing had happened. Ronan was behind her, bent over with his head hunched, his hands gripping his thighs as he gasped for breath. His ribs swelled and shrank like a blower.

Carl stood still, not panting heavily, his hair was just a little messy, but he was actually just putting on a brave face; his condition was actually worse than Ronan's.

Along the way, the two of them, one at a distance and the other at close range, worked together to take down nearly a hundred small, unmanned Phantom Melodies.

Ronan had about 30% of his magic power left, but more than half of his stamina was used up. Karl, on the other hand, had more than half of his magic power used up, and his stamina was almost gone. In fact, Karl, who was using ranged attacks, used much less stamina than Ronan. However, Ronan's physical attributes were stronger than the average person. He had taken enhancement potions and was practically a mushroom man. His stamina was better than that of some fourth-tier mages, let alone Karl.