Chapter 286 - Wall Before the Castle

'I shouldn't overthink this.'

Rynold was being an idiot. He didn't jump to using the Remnant Item right away. Rynold hesitated, more so than he needed to. Because he didn't like wearing necklaces or bracelets, this was something Rynold had to think through first. It was an incredibly dumb thought process. It was like Rynold's brain cells jumped ship.

Eventually, though, Rynold ultimately decided to wear the bone necklace for now. He sported it over his neck, with the string tied behind his neck. Part of him thought that the bony appearance it had was a bit much. But, upon wearing it, Rynold didn't seem to mind.

He touched the bones with his fingers, combing up and down its rough texture. While Rynold would rather have something more subtle, he couldn't change the necklace's appearance.

Nonetheless, Rynold moved on. He contemplated activating the skill on the Remnant Item but decided not to. After all, his destination wasn't too far from where he was. Rynold just had to walk further inland. Besides, it wasn't like the ground was actively shifting.

With calm and unrushed steps, Rynold moved on. He had already picked up the fangs, fur, hide, and claws scattered all around. Rynold didn't have any more reason to stay after this battle had officially drawn to a close.

Moving deeper into the forest, Rynold soon realized the forest was becoming denser as he went on. While his nerves remained calm and level-headed, Rynold couldn't help but think why it was so. If Rynold hadn't known any better, he would say that somebody was hiding something. Either way, Rynold was sure the forest's purpose was to keep people out.

Unfortunately, Rynold wasn't one to stop in the face of adversity.

Rynold kept going, not stopping for any reason. He knew what he needed to do. So, others would have to pardon him for causing any inconvenience.

As he went on, Rynold soon stopped at a wall made of trees. From where he was standing, it was as though somebody had planted the trees deliberately. They were virtually impassable, each tree unnaturally intertwined with another. Rynold didn't know how or why somebody did something like that, but it was clear that they were keeping people out.

'No wonder I could barely make out where it was.'

Studying the wall, Rynold realized that it was because of this wall that made it difficult for Rynold to find the castle. Granted, climbing the tree at the time was far from the ideal vantage point. But, at the very least, he spotted the subtle silhouette out in the distance. Rynold wondered that, if it weren't for this tree wall, he might've seen the castle in all its glory much sooner.

Shaking his head, Rynold thought to focus. He studied the wall, ignoring what could've been. Rynold approached it cautiously and placed his hand against a trunk. But, as soon as he did, Rynold flew back a few dozen feet from where he was standing, violently landing on the ground.

'Ow.'

That was what Rynold thought as he laid on his back, looking at the leaves above. He blankly stared, baffled by what just happened. He could start screaming, angrily swearing. However, as comforting as that was, Rynold didn't really have the luxury.

Pushing himself off the ground, Rynold sat up. His eyes landed on the wall before him, realizing that something was there, invisible to the naked eye. Otherwise, the trees wouldn't have reacted like that. Well, they were trees, after all.

Letting out a sigh, Rynold closed his eyes and calmed himself. He concentrated as he lifted the lid on his Mana Core, Mana circulating in his body. Rynold soon willed the Mana to enter his eyes, Augmenting his vision. Now was a good a time as any to use his newly-learned technique.

"There we go," Rynold muttered underneath his breath as he looked at the wall. And, at that point, the phrase 'looks can be deceiving' captured what he saw accurately.

The wall wasn't like anything Rynold had ever seen before. Although there was some resemblance to the Mana lines on the buildings in the Mech God's island, the wall Rynold was looking at was much more profound. The writing was complex, more than anything Rynold could understand. The runes on it were even more incomprehensible. Rynold could only slack his jaw in awe.

'What exactly am I looking at here?'

Eventually, Rynold managed to recover his senses. While he remained amazed and impressed, Rynold focused on his mission. Although, with the current state of things, Rynold wasn't sure he could overcome the wall. Or how he would even approach it.

Rynold calmly studied the runes and Mana lines on the wall from where he was. While he couldn't identify everything there, Rynold picked up a few pieces here and there, albeit, if put together, didn't really make much sense.

'One thing's for sure here... There are a lot of overlapping protection runes. Brute forcing my way through isn't an option. Heck, I'm not even sure if the Mech God could break through the enchantments without having to extend the effort. Good god, this is just the simple runes too. I don't even know what the complex ones are.'

Carefully weighing each option, Rynold knew that his approaches got more and more limited the more he looked into the thing. There were no chinks in its defenses, no loophole to exploit. Rynold could only think of either punching through this thing or hacking the protective layer one by one. Either option would take too much of his time. Rynold didn't want to spend years untangling this web.

'This is impossible.'

That was the thought that popped into Rynold's head because he couldn't think of any other way around it. For all those defenses, though, Rynold knew that there was something worth protecting inside. But, what was the point if he couldn't get through this thing first?

'Wait a minute,' Rynold thought as he pushed himself off the ground and stood up, 'If what's behind this is really the castle, then there should be a way in and out... Right?'

Rynold approached the wall before starting to walk around it. While his eyes brimmed with Mana, he made sure he didn't make contact with the wall. In other words, he stood close but not close enough to kill him. He remained wary as he continued to walk along the wall's perimeter.

'Does this thing really go all around? Heh. Talk about elaborate.'

As Rynold kept going, he studied the wall. The whole thing more or less had the same thing. Defenses so elaborate that it probably would've made the Mech God impressed with the handiwork. It really was impressive, and Rynold wasn't one to shy away from admitting that.

'Wait a minute,' Rynold stopped as he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. It was a rune different from the rest. That rune had no other duplicates. And, as far as Rynold could tell, it wasn't a defensive rune or any indication of it whatsoever. From the way it looked, it was a door.

At first, Rynold doubted what he saw. He squinted his eyes, double-checked, and made sure that what he saw was indeed a doorway rune. He had read up on it before. The rune was notable because of its uses in secret passageways and whatnot. He's never seen one before, though, seeing as how it wasn't that common. Hell, the rune was for secret entrances for a reason.

Whyever it was there, Rynold had no idea. Its position alone seemed like people used it for a backdoor. The rune was close to the ground, having Rynold bellycrawl to get into it. So for all intents and purposes, Rynold had no reason to believe this entrance was intended to be there.

'Huh.'

Looking at this thing, Rynold remained skeptical. He contemplated whether to use the secret entrance or find another way in. But then again, it was a bit hard to ignore what was right in front of him. Especially since the latter option had yet to be fruitful, getting through the secret entrance would be the smarter thing to do.

Soon making up his mind, Rynold sighed. The breath he exhaled was deep and had his built-up frustrations in it. As much as he'd like to find a much bigger entrance, this was as good as any.

Putting Mana onto his right hand, Rynold crouched to the ground. He placed his right hand on the rune, somewhat worried that he would be blasted with some sort of recoil. Fortunately, that wasn't the case and Rynold's hand landed on the rune. Pressing gently, the rune split in half as it opened the small doorway.

'Damn, it's a lot smaller than it looked.'

Rynold laid on his belly as he started to army crawl his way through the tunnel. It was a lot less comfortable than Rynold wished it had been. But it was a way in, nonetheless.