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Chapter 273  Truth Seeker (Part Two)

\'It really won\'t be that easy.\' Merlin sighed as he steeled his determination and cast several light orbs deeper into the depths. \'How long does this go on?\'

Several minutes later, the darkness swallowed the light from above as solid ground came into view. As Merlin touched the earth, his eyes lingered on the gold-veined stone bricks that formed an archway in the northern wall of the pit. His brows furrowed as he cast several spells to identify the material and any secrets it held. However, the results he received appeared fractured. Like they had only performed a portion of what they were supposed to. This led Merlin to believe that the material was either naturally or magically created to specifically resist magic at the very least.

\'This could be tricky.\' Merlin clicked his tongue in annoyance as he prepared several offensive and defensive spells. \'It\'ll be impossible to scan for illusory walls or hidden doors. If they went to these lengths to protect this place, there\'d likely be powerful magical traps.\'

With a keen gaze, Merlin swiftly discovered the arcane symbols carved into the side of the archway that faced the walls of his current room. He nodded in approval at this, as most people would expect to find them on the face of the archway or inside it as it led into the tunnel.

"Let\'s see here," Merlin grumbled as he illuminated the markings. "Here within lies Andrewn, Seeker of Truth in the Valley of..."

Merlin grumbled as the final word had been carved out of existence. \'Someone defaced this.\' He tortured his chin with his free hand as he attempted to glean the meaning behind the act. \'If they had an issue with Andrewn, they would\'ve carved out his name. Instead, they left it along with with his title. So they had no problems with either of those.\' Merlin\'s eyes narrowed as he reached the natural conclusion of his train of thought. \'No, it\'s this place they had an issue with.\'

\'They want this place to be forgotten but not the person.\' Merlin stood still for a few minutes as he thought things through further. \'So, something is hidden here. Some artefact or secret that isn\'t linked to Andrewn. There would have to be writings out there that linked the name of this place to its secret. That\'s the only thing that makes sense.\'

His thoughts piqued his curiosity about Andrewn. Who had buried him here? Why choose this place? These were secrets and mysteries all of their own. \'Hm, I\'ll find out for myself. It\'s an exciting find, but not what I\'m looking for. It\'s likely the secret they\'ve tried to mask is exactly what I\'m looking for.\' Merlin shrugged as he controlled the globes of light to fly ahead into the tunnel.

The air felt dry in Merlin\'s throat as he studied the bricks that made up the passageway. He silently wondered if there was a way to retrieve them for him to study later. Maybe he would ask his followers to come to this place and gather what he wanted.

Merlin soon felt that the journey was taking too long. There was no sign of the passage coming to an end or any branches he could explore. There had been no traps, nothing affecting his mind, and no more symbols. He found it hard to believe that a tomb and place of a hidden secret would have no defences whatsoever. \'This isn\'t right.\' Merlin frowned as his footsteps echoed off the walls. He stood still for several seconds but failed to notice anything unusual. However, an itch at the back of his mind kept telling him that something was wrong with the tunnel. Several spells later, he confirmed that nothing had slipped past his protections. Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn

Paranoia began to set in as he wondered if he could trust his own spells. Were their results being manipulated by an outside factor? Years of playing Mayhem and other games had taught Merlin to trust his instincts if something felt off. It was usually something subtle that his subconscious had picked up on.

\'Am I unprepared for this?\' Merlin silently wondered. \'No, I\'m a God in this game. This should not be impossible for me. Besides, I\'m not feeling a sense of threat.\'

Merlin frowned as he spun to face back the way he had come. Arcane symbols danced from his fingertips as a ball of fire took form and shot down the tunnel. Suddenly, after travelling around fifty feet, the fireball illuminated the room at the bottom of the pit, which caused Merlin to reveal a grim expression.

\'I should be far away from that room by now! What the hell is going on here?\' Merlin\'s face flushed red as his body trembled. He stormed off in the opposite direction for several minutes as he focused on his senses to understand what had happened.

When he stopped and cast another fireball, the entrance was still at the same distance as before. However, Merlin had not sensed anything messing with his perception. Nor had his spells picked up on any magic interfering with his mind. \'Hm, there\'s only one thing for it.\' Merlin activated a strand of his divinity. \'Follow the Thread!\'

Golden tendrils stretched out from his body, grasping at the ambient mana of the world. The world fought back, attempting to hide its secrets while targeting the divine magic that was not powerful enough yet to entirely interfere with the mortal realm.

Merlin strained as the ambient mana attempted to slip away from the grasp of his spell. Insights into what was going on entered his mind as his divine magic seeped inside the world mana. \'I see. This is... complicated. There are rules here that must be followed if you can\'t break the enchantment here.\'

\'Calling it a warp is wrong. Every ten feet, the path behind me replaces the path forward. Like an invisible doorway that lets me step onto the path I\'ve already travelled.\' Merlin furrowed his brows as he tried to understand the mechanism and if there was a way he could brute force his way through.

Eventually, he let out a sigh as his spell gained another insight. \'This is a divine enchantment. A relic of the old gods.\' Most people would despair at this revelation. However, Merlin was not like most people. He became excited and even more determined than ever to uncover the mysteries of this place. \'If a God has directly interfered here, then there is likely a legacy of some kind.\' Merlin smirked as he continued to read the mana. \'The answer is in here somewhere. I just need to find it.\'

As the minutes turned to hours and Merlin activated his spell for the tenth time, his tendrils finally understood there was a cloud of mana being protected by the rest. Merlin focused on the cloud so it would not escape his notice again.

Several tendrils moved to cut off its path of retreat while three more cuts through the other mana to target it. It took a fair amount of fine control on Merlin\'s side to avoid the useless mana that moved to get itself captured so he would fail in grasping the principle behind the tunnel\'s defence.

The cloud he was after was as slippery as an eel, but Merlin slowly closed the net around it until it had nowhere to run. \'I\'ve got you now!\' Merlin chuckled as he successfully ensnared his prey. His divine power seeped inside and immediately sent information directly to Merlin.

\'This... damn!\' Merlin cursed as his body suddenly became rigid, and his sight faded. When he blinked, he found himself standing in a vast library. The books flew from one shelf to another as quills autonomously wrote on blank parchment before they flew away to become a new page in one of the endless amount of books.

\'What is this place?\' Merlin wondered as he studied the living library with no end in sight. He quickly attempted to analyse his situation with his best spells, but they failed to activate!

Merlin immediately raised his guard, fearing he had fallen for an ancient trap. As far as he could tell, he must\'ve been teleported or warped away by a spell hidden in the mana he had attempted to crack open.

However, only the scratching of quills on parchment and the stale air of the library reached his senses. Merlin carefully took a step forward, and nothing happened. He took several more steps while scanning his surroundings. Yet nothing attacked him.

He relaxed slightly while keeping a firm grasp on his staff. It had become the only thing he could rely on here if something went wrong. His eyes quickly scanned the titles on the spines of the nearby books. However, the majority of them were in languages he could not read. Several times he spotted books on higher shelves in familiar languages, but he had no way to reach them. \'5th Era: The Fall, 3rd Era: The Trials of King Forisst, 5th Era: The Trials of Allevia, 4th Era: Andrewn and the One Truth.\' Merlin gaped at the final title he could read for a few moments. However, it quickly dawned on him that something was wrong with the titles.

"Hm, it\'s not a mistake." An ancient voice chuckled in Merlin\'s ear, causing the latter to jump...