Chapter 238 – The Ruins of Netheril

Even when trapped in the most desperate situations, calmness and rationality are indispensable. Punk had always firmly believed this.

Five minutes had passed since Punk entered this mysterious room. With magical items rendered unusable, he had to abandon the idea of using the spatial channel function of the “Anywhere Door” to penetrate the wall barriers.

After careful observation, Punk could confirm that, at the very least, this room contained no hidden doors or exits he could detect and utilize, and certainly no material supplies whatsoever.

As for the room’s sturdiness… it was downright insane.

Punk had conducted numerous experiments. Even when continuously attacking a single spot on the alchemical wall with full-force “Kinetic Cone” + “Mana Compression” combinations, it was utterly impossible to leave even the slightest mark on the wall!

This proved that attempting to destroy a Legendary-level alchemical wall with a formal-tier spell like “Kinetic Cone” was as laughable as a child trying to extinguish the sun with a water gun.

Faced with such Legendary-level defenses, Punk was truly at his wit’s end. The walls simply stood there, completely unfazed, allowing his full-powered assaults without sustaining the slightest damage.

“As expected, brute force isn’t an option. Though I already anticipated this…!”

Punk muttered to himself while approaching one wall. From a distance, all four alchemical walls appeared as seamless wholes, their materials emitting a dark golden luster. The smooth, flat surfaces showed neither cracks nor openings.

But at close range, using “Microscopic Vision,” Punk could faintly perceive densely packed energy runes engraved on the wall at a molecular scale. Delicate energy streams, fine as molecular chains, flowed slowly within, their pale blue glow radiating an ethereal beauty that pierced straight to the soul!

These unanalyzable, unalterable energies moved uniformly along the runes at identical speeds. Not a single wisp of energy leaked out; there wasn’t even any detectable energy fluctuation Punk could perceive.

“Energy? Flow?”

Punk found the energy circulation somewhat peculiar. In fact, he was deeply perplexed by the room itself. Generally, when someone constructed such a room, there had to be a purpose—yet Punk couldn’t discern any immediate use for this one.

“Imprisoning captives? Doesn’t seem like it! Storing items? Too small!”

Punk eventually gave up pondering the room’s function. Among Legendary Casters, there was never any shortage of madmen and lunatics. They might build a chamber without any particular purpose. Of course, it was more likely that the magic applied in this room operated at too high a level for Punk to even begin speculating.

Having exhausted all ideas, Punk could only grit his teeth and cautiously touch one wall with his fingertip.

According to the System’s analysis, the runes inscribed on the walls didn’t resemble defensive enchantments. When the alchemical walls were attacked, there were no signs of energy convergence—their defense relied almost entirely on the mysterious materials composing the walls. Naturally, such defensive capability was more than sufficient.In Punk’s view, most of these intricate and complex runes resembled highly secure ciphers. To reach the core of these deep-seated codes, Punk had no choice but to connect his own mana into them.

Driven by this speculation, Punk could only extend his mana into the runes on the alchemical wall with a last-ditch effort mentality. Though this action was extremely dangerous, it was the only option available to him at this moment.

After all, Punk couldn’t accept sitting idle in this small room waiting for death—otherwise, he’d become a level 14 spellcaster starved to death in a sealed chamber… Even with Trelinka’s corpse, it would only prolong the starvation process by several dozen times!

With full concentration, Punk carefully extended threads of mana from his pale fingertips, slowly and cautiously connecting them to the alchemical wall.

The moment the mana filaments touched the alchemical surface, all four walls along with the alchemical ceiling above and floor beneath instantly lit up. Multicolored points of light faintly emerged across the walls—Punk recognized these as activated nodes of enchanted runes.

The energy flow within the alchemical walls remained methodical and unhurried, but Punk could perceive that beneath the massive complexity of runes, the true “core” hidden within was gradually awakening.

Finally, accompanied by a pulse of magical energy, everything in the small room returned to stillness. All energy nodes vanished through Annihilation one by one, and Punk’s mana connection to the alchemical wall severed without a sound.

The mysterious room regained its silence and plain appearance, at least superficially.

But the gloom had vanished from Punk’s face, for he had obtained the result he desired—now floating silently before him was a pale blue humanoid silhouette.

This luminous form was merely a Projection. Its lengthy Mage Robe bore a peculiar emblem on the chest, with hands casually tucked into the robe’s pockets, while the face beneath the hood remained indistinct and flickering.

Though Punk’s current capabilities couldn’t trace its energy source or operational principles, he could clearly distinguish this as an intangible optical phenomenon.

This didn’t make Punk lower his guard in the slightest. All indications suggested this Projection before him was far from simple—or rather, nothing appearing in this mysterious Room could be ordinary.

Punk watched quietly as the semi-transparent azure figure displayed no ethereal quality, instead possessing a peculiar substantiality that felt like confronting a physical entity.

Before Punk could speak, the Projection began emitting sound.

This wasn’t sound transmitted through vibration, but rather a “language” delivered directly to the soul. Punk’s mind interpreted it as speech due to habit, though careful observation revealed this “language” manifested almost out of thin air in the soul.

The Projection’s voice was utterly cold and monotone, devoid of tonal variation or emotional nuance, sounding completely mechanical.

Fortunately, the language was perfectly standard Common Tongue!”Hello, fortunate or unfortunate inheritor. Welcome to Netherese Legacy Site 57864128748. I am the administrator of this legacy site, as well as the virtual consciousness responsible for processing the information within.”

“Legacy site? Netherese Civilization?”

Punk keenly latched onto the two most crucial words in the Projection’s speech. A legacy of the Netherese Civilization! It certainly sounded like an incredible opportunity, but Punk didn’t let it cloud his judgment.

He knew that the other party’s presence here meant this legacy wouldn’t simply be sitting quietly for any random creature who entered to take and leave. Most likely, there would be some tests to ensure the inheritor wasn’t just some fool who would recklessly disclose precious legacies to the gods.

(End of Chapter)