"Did you find something, Dear?" Reina asked. Standing close enough that her shoulder brushed his.
"Yeah." Jack said quietly. "The metal gate is made of star-iron. It's solar locked. It needs sunlight, focused through lenses. Not just any lenses, either. They need to be high-refraction crystals."
Reina glanced at the crowd. "There will be at least three groups here who will try to kill us the moment we show them how to open it. And once it's open, it'll be a bloodbath to see who gets inside first."
"Exactly." Jack said. He looked at his crew members, who was waiting for his command. "We aren't going to the door yet. There's no point in being the ones to open the fridge if the beasts are already circling the kitchen."
"What's the plan then, Captain?" Moby asked. His hand rested on his grimoire. Ready to open and use it anytime.
"We camp." Jack said bluntly.
He pointed to a high ridge about five hundred meters away from the main cluster of tents. It was a defensible position and slightly elevated. With a clear view of the gate and the surrounding basin.
"We set up the camp there." He continued. "We watch first. Besides, we need three pieces of high-refraction lenses. I'll have to craft them first."
The group moved. They didn't engage with the other adventurers. Jack ignored the curious looks and the occasional sneer from the 'professional' treasure hunters who saw his crew as just another group of doomed amateurs.
As they walked toward the ridge, Jack felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He didn't turn around. But he knew Scorpion was watching them. The pirate seemed to keep a keen eye for newcomers.
Jack also felt a cold, oily sensation wash over his senses. The Eldritch Witch, Carana Calvadier, had likely sensed the high quality of the essences in Jack's group. It seemed that to her, Jack, Reina, and the others weren't rivals. They were a gourmet meal.
They reached the ridge and began setting up camp with practiced efficiency. Bell, Ned, and Moby handled the heavy lifting of the tent construction. While Reina and Baroness Artheim began preparing a basic perimeter of warding.
...
"Captain!" Leon Drake approached Jack as the sun began its slow descent toward the horizon. "I've been scouting the perimeter. There are at least five other groups hidden in the rocks further out. I think they're waiting for someone else to open the gate so they can ambush them on the way in. Or out."
"I see." Jack nodded in reply. "Leon, stay on watch with Barnaby. Don't engage anyone. If someone approaches the camp, warn them off. If they don't stop, just kill them. Don't make a scene."
"Understood." Leon nodded and moved to a vantage point.
Jack looked at Aella, who watched the crowd in silence, and Chloe, who was sitting on a rock, petting Sparkle. The girls looked nervous. The atmosphere there was thick with tension. Like a coiled spring.
He turned to Reina. "Love! Set up a concealment illusion."
"Of course, Dear!" Reina smiled.
She raised her hands. A faint, shimmering grey fog began to roll out from her feet. To anyone looking from the outside, the ridge would soon look like a regular camp site. It was a subtle work. Designed not to draw attention rather than to be invisible or impenetrable.
Jack sat down on a crate and pulled out a spellcard. It was the [Sanctuary Field]. He immediately activated it. Covering their whole campsite with energy field. One that would repel incoming minor projectiles and significantly reduces damage from all external attacks.
Rune floated down and hovered over his shoulder. Her light turned a soft, contemplative violet.
...
Later that evening...
Jack and his crew members gathered at the campsite. Enjoying the mutton soup Don had cooked for them. Jack shared what his [Eyes of Judgement] had learned. Warning them about three dangerous characters he had detected... Duke Starlight from Night Salvation, Scorpion from the Glorious Pirates, and Carana Calvadier from the Undeath Sect. He also told them about his plan.
"I can make the high-refraction lenses." Jack said. "I have enough raw crystal in the Mirror Mansion. And my forge there can shape them. But the moment I use them to open the gate, every one of those monsters down there will jump us."
"Then, should we wait until they give up?" Chloe suggested.
Jack chewed the meat slowly. His mind was already running through the possibilities. He wasn't afraid of the three threats and the rabbles of the treasure hunters down there. The duke and the pirate would be troublesome to handle, but he was still confident enough that he and his crew could handle them.
"No." Jack said. "We'll wait for Duke Starlight to make a move. He is a master thief. He'll figure out the solar connection eventually. I even suspect he already knows and is waiting for the right moment to use his own tools."
"What about the others?" Baroness Artheim asked.
"The pirate is likely a spy." Jack replied. "He is not that strong and he won't act without being sure of the outcome. But he has a demon seed inside him. If we kill him carelessly, he'll very likely turn into demons, like the ones we've previously faced. When we have to deal with him, just incapacitate him. Don't kill."
"As for the Witch... she's the wild card. She might target you girls." Jack looked at the female members of his crew. "Don't act separately. And don't hesitate to unleash all your power at her. She's a monster in human skin."
He looked down at the flickering campfires in the basin. "Tonight, I'm going to do a little more scouting."
Reina nodded. She knew Jack's capabilities better than anyone. "Be careful. I can feel that some transcendent ones down there can see through my illusion."
"They won't see me." Jack said with a confident smile.
As night fell over Barrentree Island, the temperature plummeted. The wind howled through the rock formations. Sounding like the moans of monsters. Jack walked to the edge of the illusionary ward. Away from his crew's sight.
His body began to shift. The change was instantaneous. His human skin dissolved into a translucent, ethereal mist that quickly coalesced into a defined shape.
He had morphed into Jack Mystery. A specter wearing neat, translucent tailcoat that seemed woven from the midnight sky. A dark cape was draped over his shoulders. Its edges fraying into shadows. On his head sat a sleek top hat, and his face was concealed by a featureless white mask.
Beside him, Rune, the fairy guide, also transformed. Her energy-based fairy wings and mechanical body disappeared. Turning into a wisp that glowed in various colors.
In this form, Jack didn't walk. He glided. His feet hovered a few distance above the jagged rocks. He moved toward the star-iron gate and disappeared into nothing on the way. Activating his innate invisibility power.
The explorers... the opportunistic adventurers, the studious scholars, and the hidden predators were either huddling in their tents or keeping watch by their fires. Only a few of them completely rested well.
Many of them had their way to detect suspicious presence. But they were looking for physical movement. They were looking for heat. Jack was neither. He was a ripple of inexistence.
Jack, without any problem, reached the gate. Up close, the star-iron was formidable. It was a dense, alien metal. One that felt heavy even to his spectral senses.
The three-eyed beast carving seemed to stare out into the darkness. Its hollow pupils were waiting for concentrated sun light to shine on it.
Jack didn't wait for the sun. He leaned forward and pressed his body against the metal. Phasing through the gate.
The sensation of phasing this time was different though. It was like walking through thick, freezing oil. The star-iron resisted him. It was a material designed to withstand both physical and spiritual intrusion.
But Jack's essence and spectral nature was strong enough to ignore it. He pushed. The mask submerged into the metal. Followed by his torso.
With a final, silent lurch, he popped through to the other side.
The interior of the ruin was like a tomb. It was silent. Preserved in a vacuum of still air that hadn't moved in centuries.
Jack floated on air in the central chamber. The darkness was no obstacle for him. He could see well enough in the dark.
The room was massive. It was a cathedral of specific geometry. The Rockmen had built this place with a precision that bordered on the divine. The walls and pillars were lined with copper bracing and silver-etched runes.
In the center of the room sat a metal golem. It was nearly ten meters tall. It was shaped like a lion but jagged blades were jutting out in many parts of its body.
Its three large, crystalline eyes were currently dark and inactive. Its mane was composed of thousands of razor-sharp bronze plates. This should be the guardian of the ruin.
Jack's [Eyes of Judgement] flickered to life behind his mask as he analyzed the construct...
[Name: Ancient Guardian Rockleo]
[Race: Star-Iron Construct]
[Affiliation: Ancient Rockman Tribe]
[Status: Inactive (Standby)]
[Power Level: Extremely High]
[Power Traits: Star-Iron Body, Hyper Regeneration, Laser Breath, Super Strength]
[Note: It activates upon the opening of the Star-Iron Gate.]
[Core Logic: It annihilates all non-authorized entities within the perimeter.]
Jack circled the beast. It was a masterpiece of ancient engineering. Quite different from the current steamrune engineering. It made use of ancient runes, the more primal and elemental ones. Not the current practical runes. But, it had similar mechanical principles.
He could see the gears in its joints and the pistons in its legs. He guessed that it was powered by a central core. One that would only fire up once the concentrated sunlight hit the gate's lenses and completed the internal circuit.
If any explorer managed to open the gate and entered without any preparation, they wouldn't find treasure. They would find a devastating mechanical beast that would try to slaughter them.
Jack moved deeper into the complex. He passed through several side corridors. The architecture was utilitarian. Everything was made of stone and metal. There were no wooden doors to rot. No tapestries to mold.
He found the library first. It wasn't a library of paper books. It was a room filled with thousands of thin, hexagonal metal plates stacked in floor-to-ceiling racks. Each plate was etched with micro-runes.
Jack tried to use his [Mysterious Anomaly] to pick one. But it didn't work. The plates were held in place by a magnetic locking system. Without activating the power, the racks were fused shut.
He could see the titles through his [Eyes of Judgement]. But the data was encrypted in the Rockmen's tongue. Even if he used his [Omnilinguistic Sense] spellcard in his human forms, it would take time to decipher.
He moved on to the armory...
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