After moving his sight away from the sloppy tunnel, Ben notices a few irregularities on the wall. To check it, he gets closer and begins to touch it. There, he sees an indentation that seems to have something inside.

Looking at the shape of the irregularity, Ben predicts it should be a sword glued to the wall.

‘Is should be a rapier…’ Ben guesses looking at the proportions.

Using his energy, he forces the object out. The layer covering it crumbles down, and from it appears a white thin sword.

‘Was this place used for enchanting?’

Ben moves the rapier around and tests it, using it to cut the air.

[swoosh]

The dense air reacts to it as water would do to some hydrophilic surface.

‘It doesn’t seem to be made of some heavens defying material, but because it stayed here for so long, the materials have broken through their limits. I should look for something else tho. I can’t take this since I don’t I use a rapier and its too eye-catching for me to sell it. Unfortunately, my space is also limited, so I can only hope no one finds this place.’

Ben puts the thin sword back in its indentation and begins to look around the wall. From closer, he notices that shapes of all kinds are all over the walls, but most of them are empty.

‘Too few, but not surprising, would they have left anything valuable here? They should have used everything against their enemy. If the Empire Royal Family saved something, it should be more secretive than here, and somewhere their survivors can access too.’

Walking adjacent to the wall, when he’s halfway from one tunnel to the other, Ben notices a small body of liquid on the floor. Hunching closer and focusing the light on it, he sees that it is quite deep, and filled with spherical pastel-colored marbles.

‘Is this synthetic spirit stones?’ he takes one of the marbles without touching the liquid, fearing it may hurt him.

From the marble, Ben can sense an intense aura, the same kind present all over this room. In the spherical surface, he sees a drawing similar to two merging galaxies, one made with a blueish and the other a reddish pastel color.

‘Solidification… Ha! Too lucky!’

Analyzing the little reservoir, Ben notices the array first seems to liquefy the air, and then it solidifies the liquid in small portable batteries. However, since the room isn’t full after so many years, he can only assume the array will only create little spheres while space is available. That would explain why he found only so many marbles.

‘It’s automatic, right? I wouldn’t bet that it is some storage since while weapons can be enchanted, doing so to those marble doesn’t seem as logical. I only have a vague feeling of how this work, unfortunately, it would take too much time to test it, so I will keep in the back of my mind for next time when and if I come here again.’

Those little marbles were the exact thing Ben was looking for, food for his nodes! The Empire built such a complex system, so there should be some alternative way for people to cultivate the dual-energy elsewhere. Or everyone who embarked on this path chained themselves to this place if they wanted to avoid stagnation.

Ben worries that while the two nodes he built are exceptional, replenishing the energy will be problematic.

To begin with, finding some low-quality elemental source is difficult, but even if he finds and uses it, the nodes will then grow unstable.

Sure he absorbed quite a lot here, but it’ll eventually run dry. By then, would he need to come here every time? What if someone or another monster find this place? In the end, chaining yourself can only invite disaster and limit your options. Having the choice to come and go, having that freedom is the best way he can be sure that he will survive even if danger pops up.

‘I’ll take half of those first, and if I don’t find anything else useful, I can then take a few more. Even if this is a consumable item, this doesn’t feel like wasting too much space, since it’ll allow me to replenish my nodes outside.’

The tattoo in his chest appears again, and Ben begins to move the marble inside the black circle at the center, using some spatial manipulation again.

He takes half the marbles present before moving on. By then, the level of the liquid lowered close to the half waypoint.

[cracking sounds] and the light becomes a bit dimmer again.

‘If it is automatic like I predicted, then it should build up quite fast since the hole is so small, or else it would be too few available. Hopefully, I can get more if the chance comes.’

Moving around again, looking at the wall, Ben finds a few weapons. One bow and a few quivers with arrows, one ax, and a couple of swords. While some places have shapes like shields, he found none present.

Before choosing, he goes to look at the other wall. There he sees the same setup, indentations all over its surface, but it is almost empty. In the whole wall, he only found a pair of daggers.

‘This is it! I ain’t no swordsman anyway, so something light and small that can cut is best.’

Taking them off using the same method used prior, he notices the daggers’ style is very simple, but the pair is emitting the same resonance the other weapons did. The long-time they stayed in the wall made their material gain a new property, making their resonance with the dual vein that much stronger.

*‘Such specific origin makes those weapons seem a lot better than they are. Those are things that shouldn’t exist. Not because they are too good, but because no one would leave something made of only above-average materials to dust in such concentrated energy for such a long ass time. No one would bother! Those daggers were born out of a mistake, and because someone encountered too much trouble. Ah, so poetic, I quite like it. I shall name it .’*

It doesn’t take long for Ben to get attached to the daggers. Its simplicity and mutation is the main reason why he likes them so much, as he hopes that he could be like those weapons that with enough time evolved despite their limitations.

On this side of the room, the only thing left now is a little reservoir filled with marble, the same size similar place as the first one Ben saw.

Despite looking around once more, he doesn’t find anything else. Now, Ben confronts the choice of taking more of the spheres or another weapon.

[cracking sounds] the light stone energy is running out.

‘This thing is running out faster here, this place forgives nothing!’ Ben grumpily complains while looking at the stone in one of his hands.

Back at the first pool, Ben begins to consider his options while looking at both the spheres and the weapons available.

‘Taking something that will only be used once, while neglecting the long-lasting weapons, leaves a bad taste on my mouth. Agh! However, the artifacts individually have no use if my nodes are dry. Later, even if I want to sell them, who knows if a chance will ever appear.’

Coming to terms with the choice he needs to make, Ben goes into inserting more marble inside the black circle in his chest. He keeps going until only about one fifth is left in the pool.

‘I’m quite full, such delightful looting! Top three lucky moments of this puny life of mine.’

[cracking sounds] the light emitted from his lantern is by now only slightly better than the dim light emitted from the runes in this array.

Having finished looking around, Ben grabs his shirt and wear it again.

Before he notices, he is back to the magnificent statue. A feeling of sadness grows in his heart, while the belief that time consumes everything becomes even more concrete in his mind.

< ‘Proudly one crumbles, while their rumble echoes and dazzles even the blind. Yet, their achievements are like a castle built out of sand. And time is like water, unforgiving.’ >

[cracking sounds] the stone breaks into powder.

The whole room is back at its former dim-lit state. The passing breath of intense light seems to have been an illusion only.

As the silence comes back full force, Ben stays for a moment looking at the statue with an empty mind.

Next, without considering anything else, Ben turns around and goes back.

Ben finally moves on.

—

The way back was much better. While the air is still as dense as it as back then, Ben changed, he is now like a fish in the water.

When he finally arrives at the tunnel that was supposedly made by the monkeys, he encounters a surprise.

The whole thing fell. The path obstructed since the entire tunnel has been destroyed.

‘Did they destroy the whole thing to hide it? Was this what the pressure I felt back then meant? Those monkeys are quite the decisive kind!’

[sigh]

‘No wonder, I was not interrupted!’