Found

Cutting both of their heads in one motion, I move towards the gate, and because of lack of time and mana, I didn't use essence extraction on them.

Standing in front of a four-meter-long door on which different types of sculptures of creatures--maybe snakes or something else--are emerging out of it like living existences, I try to push that door but it is not bulge for a bit.

however, I don't disappoint by this, because I discover a more interesting thing about this door and that is that upon touching it, I find that the material used to make it is something I have never seen before; it looks and feels like wood but has the nature of metal.

[What do you think, Gnosis?]

< Affirmative: A peak second-rank magic formation has been discovered above this gate. Would the master want to break the formation to open this gate?>

[I know very well I didn't ask that question, you idiot.]

< The master's first question cannot be answered because there is not enough information at this time. Would the Master wish to use the 'Archive of the will of the Universe' restricted skill to find out the answer to his question? >

[ Do you really think that I will use my last bait just to satisfy my curiosity? If you think so, then you are absolutely right.]

< The time left to reuse the master's restricted skill is not yet over; the master will have to wait ninety-eight days to receive the answer.>

With a deep sigh, I said no to both the queries of the Gnosis.

 Without wasting any time, I took out a white ball-shaped crystal from my pocket and placed it over into the socket hole where the eyes of a snake-like creature should be, which looks like it is ascending outside of the gate frame.

With a sound similar to the noise produced when the cogs of the machine started working again, both the valve of the door opened from the middle and I stepped into the dark space. as I thought the orb acts like a key.

< Master, this magic formation could be opened by the 'Spirit of Gnosis' ability without any difficulty.>

[ Do your show-off later; you know that I am roaming around with the title of 'Being with Unanticipated Faith' on my forehead (metaphorically). Just stick close to the traditional way; because I didn't want to create too much entropy in the end.]

 The space around me is completely dark, which makes it impossible to see with normal eyesight, along with the fact that the temperature inside is much colder than outside, but I am not facing any problem walking in this place; for me, the weird thing is the aroma of the sweeping water and wet soil that I can smell now.

Noticing the paucity of time, I quickly started exploring the ruins; however, because I was multitasking in my head while exploring the ruins, my thoughts drifted away towards the incidents that had happened to me just before.

It's already bugged me since before that I just by fluke found a rank beast roaming around so close to the magic boundary of the cold forest as if he were not a beast but a stray dog. As far as I know, there is one regularity that always follows in this forest, and that is that the more powerful the inhabitants of this forest become, the harder it gets for them to make distance from the centre of the forest.

That's why, after killing the giant Lakadabagghe, when I found this orb lying near its mana stone, I got the feeling that this rank beast was somehow connected to these ruins in some way. And by opening that gate with that crystal, I am now completely certain about it. Probably that beast is some kind of gatekeeper for these ruins.

Light explores many ruins, dungeons, and towers inside the novel, mainly because of the mission given by his system, but there is no mention in the novel of him exploring the ruins of the Cold Forest. Moreover, there is no such scene in Elizabeth's POV as to how she gained her ability.

The information I know about how these ruins work is from the books of braindead (I think) researchers that I found in the library. What they learn is that the ruins are covered by a high-ranking illusionary magic formation, and you can only enter the ruins when the formation disappears after a fixed amount of time.

There is also a high possibility that these ruins were just discovered by Baron not long ago, but he left them only after making maps to explore them later.

Oh! fuck, I had already looted the Baron's secret vault, but now I have also charged at these highly resourceful ruins. He already doesn't consider Eren as his son, and after figuring out what I have done, I really don't know what he is going to do to me, with time, this family problem is becoming a pain in the neck; I will have to do something about it soon. Right now, in my opinion, the best option is to leave Baroni.

Stopping my multitasking forcibly because of my thoughts, which are now drifting towards Eren's f****** family problems, I put all of my senses into exploring the ruins.

Even after searching every nook and cranny of these damn ruins, I still haven't found anything for which I have risked my life. The only thing I can find some compelling to me was the nonsense tales revealed by the portraits raised on these walls' made of hard stones.

" Guess I'll have to do it."

I say this standing in front of the debris of a broken wall. With my ability 'sensible nose' I can detect from the smell coming from this place that there is a basement-like structure under this debris.

After clearing the debris for about half an hour, I finally found a staircase that might lead me to the sanctum sanctorum of the structure.

After going down with the help of those stairs, I found myself in a long and wide hall; the hall also has more colder temperatures than places above. In the very middle of this hall, an altar has been built, and on reaching near it, I found that many lines stretched from the altar to the walls, and at the very centre of that altar, there is enough space left to put one mana stone.

I intuitively find out what should I have to put here; it is probably the mana stone acquired from that giant Lakadabagghe, but the problem is I already swallowed it.

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