In the evening, a few dragonflies flew low across the sky, so landing on the tips of the grass, others resting on the straw of the carriage. The red and erald dragonflies bent their bodies, rested for a while, then took off again, disappearing into the dim foliage.
The carriage ca to a halt, and in this quietness, Hexia finally slowly opened her eyes from sleep.
"Have we arrived?" Her voice was slightly languid, with a hint of girlish charm.
Because on this planet, unlike within the Federation, where she often had to deal with various official dia and personnel, she behaved more like what a girl should be—relaxed and natural.
"We've arrived, Miss Hexia." Seeing her awake and sitting on the haystack rubbing her eyes, a few people accompanying the carriage responded with a smile.
The two carriages stopped, and then they unhitched the horses to let them eat while the people on-site started setting up tents.
"The ruins are in the valley ahead, where there's a gap covered by thick underbrush. Digging down along the crevices, you can enter the crack and find traces of artificial work inside." Flan said, flipping through a notebook.
"The last ti I ca was late sumr. I went in for hundreds of ters, but the way down was blocked, requiring manual excavation to clear the covered parts."
"In the middle, I saw so traces of artificial excavation; soone must have been here before. Thinking it might have been dug by others, I abandoned continuing the dig."
"How did you confirm this is a ruin then?" Sura asked, curious.
"Because I brought a tal detector, which is pretty good for that. There were plenty of tal signals below, and according to the band signals, they should be alloys refined by humans, not natural tal ores." Flan explained.
"But this tal detector has a downside; when in operation, it easily attracts nearby War Machines. That's how I got stranded on the barren hillside."
"Let's rest well today, and tomorrow we'll go down to check it out." Guy suggested.
So everyone decided and spent the night on the high ground above the valley.
The next day, Hexia sat in the tent, looking at the two pairs of shoes in front of her, hesitating about which to wear. The little leather shoes on the left were custom-made by craftsn within the Mountain Castle and matched her dress well. The right pair was laced boots with a hard heel suitable for harsh environnts, though not as light and flexible as the left pair of leather shoes.
Better wear the boots; this ti, going down, who knows what situation we will face.
The girl put on the boots, tightened the leather laces, inserted a light dagger, adjusted a bit, then tidied up her hunting attire and stepped out of the tent.
After the five of them finished breakfast, they descended along the mountain wall, gradually reaching the bottom of the valley. Flan then followed his mory to the base of the cliff obscured by vegetation and used a shovel to enlarge the opening so everyone could see clearly.
"Going in from here, these are the ruins. There should be several collapsed blocked areas in the middle, which we need to dig out manually to enter."
Tilan listened and placed her hand on the stone wall, perceiving down along the mountain wall. The environnt below ground vividly unfolded in her mind. Within seconds, she began to grasp information far clearer than Flan's underground intelligence and started searching for key useful rooms in this vast Underground Palace.
She saw it—the room still emanating a dim green light appeared in her mind.
Originally without much hope, she now felt a slight anticipation, but for the mont, she had to guide everyone in that direction.
"I think, if we head down that way, we should be able to find a path..."
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