Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 46 - 46 36 - The Entrance to the Research Institute_1

?46: Chapter 36 – The Entrance to the Research Institute_1 46: Chapter 36 – The Entrance to the Research Institute_1 (Without warning, I’m going to do a double update.

Friends passing by, please add to your collections and recommend this.

It’s the last few days for this novel on the new book chart, please give me a lovely send-off.)

“There are two bundles tied to your back.” Pannis pointed to Gaston’s back and said, “One of them is Rachel’s, that you took when you left, isn’t it?”

“It is Rachel’s, but I picked it up when I went to find her later.” Gaston said with a smile, “I thought it might still be useful, so I carried it.”

“Good.” Pannis didn’t delve any further, “Let’s put on the waterproof coats, double check if the Fire-attribute Crystals have all been replaced with new ones and make sure the ropes around our waists are tied securely.

I don’t want to disperse under the water and then go find everyone one by one later.

Also, Lina, don’t struggle or open your eyes after going under water.

We will drag you along, just breathe normally after drinking the Underwater Breathing Potion.

Oh, and, you don’t need to close your eyes right now.

Vivian, are you sure you have enough materials for making more Underwater Breathing Potions?

Can you make some more when we go down?”

“I just made six more potions.” Vivian took out a blue potion bottle and shook it, “Don’t worry, and don’t nag like my sister.”

“Alright.” Pannis nodded, “If all is good, let’s get ready to jump in.”

“Wait.” Catherine hesitated at the entrance of the ice cave, “If we all go in and it freezes again, what do we do?”

“No problem.

When we come back, I’ll be the first to get there and cut it open.

We’ll stay in there for three days tops.

If we can’t find it in three days, we’ll have to return and replenish our supplies.

Three days’ time won’t freeze it too firmly, I can open it again with some effort, don’t worry.” Pannis had the situation in mind and explained.

“Okay, good.” Catherine indicated she had no more issues.

“Alright then, as we discussed earlier, I’ll go first and Catherine, you are at the end.

Right, let’s go.” Pannis issued the command to set off, he jumped into the ice cave first, splashing water around.

The water under the ice layer was as dark as ever.

Due to the water obstruction, the already dim light on their heads blurred even more, making it difficult to see beyond one meter.

In such an environment, only those with upper-rank exploration skills could move with ease, others, despite their strengths, had a hard time playing any role.

Without any doubt, Pannis, the only one who could play a role at the moment, was swimming at the front leading the way.

The dark environment did not affect him at all, he was directly swimming towards the entrance in his memory.

Lina obediently kept her eyes closed without moving, letting the rope tied to her waist pull her along.

Right in the third position was Vivian who seemed to have no idea about swimming either.

But the good thing was she did not fear water.

After drinking the Underwater Breathing Potion she didn’t have to worry about respiration, copying others’ swimming movements, she looked like she knew what she was doing.

Rachel was trailing closely behind Vivian, avoiding Gaston at the back by keeping a large distance, her eyes frequently darted towards the back with a touch of unease.

Gaston at the back, attempted several times to speed up and get closer to Rachel, but got pulled back by Catherine, who had the second-best water skills after Pannis, with a yank of the rope.

The six of them in a long string were following the lead of Pannis, slowly approaching the entrance to the research facility.

“Glug, glug.” Lina, who was stealthily opening eyes in the quiet, saw the pitch-black entrance to the research facility for the first time.

Just as she was about to say something, she got a few sips of the icy lake water.

In panic, she completely forgot Pannis’s warning, reflexively closed her eyes, held her breath and flailed about.

During the frenzy, she felt someone grabbing her flailing arm from the side and then a body clamping down on hers, pulling her forward.

Soon, Lina, who had calmed down, realized that Pannis had sensed something was wrong and came back to rescue her, so she patted Pannis’s body indicating she had recovered and asked him to let go.

Just like this, they slowly swam a distance of more than two thousand meters, going through the long underwater tunnel, they could distinctly felt the water getting shallower as the slope rose, until in the end, standing at the bottom, their heads could break above water.

“Whew.” Pannis, who had set foot on solid ground, stood in chest-deep water.

He casually pulled Lina, who was still floating rigidly in the water, to stand up, waited for the rest of them to gather.

Seeing Pannis standing still, the rest also followed suit, and stood in the water.

Except for Vivian, who jumped out of the water shouting, “Let’s go forward.” After which, she fell back into the water, her head completely submerged again.

Pannis shook his head with a chuckle, led them forward for another a hundred meters, and stopped once the water had reached his waist.

It was then that Vivian finally succeeded in getting her head out of the water, wiping her face while complaining in displeasure, “This is too much, ignoring me like this, so annoying.”

Catherine caught up with them, patted Vivian’s head in consolation, looking around at the clearly man-made stone built tunnel walls, “Is this the outer part of the research facility?”

“Not sure, I didn’t get a chance to go up there just now.” Pannis replied, “But it should be here unless someone else with a sick mind built this structure in such a godforsaken place.”

“Finally found it.” Catherine sighed with relief, then giggled, “A hundred thousand gold coins, here I come!”

Pannis ignored Catherine’s antics and said to the others, “Up ahead is a ten-meter-deep vertical well.

I’ll climb up first to secure the ladder, then you guys follow and climb up one by one.”

“Use my ladder,” Vivian offered, handing over a half-meter-long extending ladder.

“It has a maximum height of fifteen meters.”

“Ok,” Pannis took the ladder.

After walking more than one hundred meters, he completely left the water, stood on the dry ground, untied the rope around his waist, took off the waterproof suit, and finally came to the bottom of the vertical shaft.

He unfurled the ladder and began cranking its winch.

As he turned the winch, the ladder started to ascend gradually.

While Pannis was setting up the ladder, Gaston approached Rachel with a sycophantic smile, intending to say something.

However, she looked at him coldly and turned her head away.

Gaston intended to follow her, but he heard Catherine coughing heavily, he had no choice but to give up his harassment reluctantly.

“Ok, you can come over now,” Pannis called from the front, which eased the awkwardness.

Rachel rushed to his side as if escaping, looking up into the shaft.

“Eh, there’s light,” Rachel who was looking up at Pannis climbing noticed the light from outside the well, and exclaimed with surprise, “How is that possible?

How can a research station from hundreds of years ago still be lit?”

“That’s the thing about Magitech,” Vivian, walking alongside Lina, explained, “Unlike Crystal Energy technology which entirely depends on Crystals, as long as the energy supply of Magitech is maintained and mana channels aren’t damaged, lamps will never extinguish.

So, this place is probably just a restructured Mage Tower.”

“Never extinguishing?

Does that mean they can last for thousands of years?” Rachel, who has not had much contact with Magitech, was curious.

“Impossible,” Vivian chuckled, providing a detailed explanation, “Judging by the situation here, they should be using a Leyline Absorption Array to absorb the energy from the ice and convert it into attribute-less magical energy to activate various arrays.

Let’s not forget, even the artificial mana transmission pipelines decay over time, and the Leyline Absorption Array, even if it is carved into a Mithril Array Plate, will lose its effectiveness after a few hundred years.

I would say it’s impressive it has sustained for six to seven hundred years.”

“Let’s continue chatting after we climb up,” Pannis, who had already climbed out of the well, instructed.

Only his head was visible from outside, “It’s very safe up here, and also, quite warm.”

“Let’s go,” Catherine, who had just arrived, said with a smile to Rachel having heard him, “You go up first.”

“Thank you.” Rachel glanced at Gaston uneasily before climbing onto the extending ladder.

It was like stepping into a different world outside the well when compared to the caves below.

Just outside the well was a long corridor.

In any other place, such a pathway would be dark, with irregular rocks on all sides.

But here in the corridor, the walls were impeccably lined with stones.

At the top of the corridor, every ten meters, a small array was engraved, powered by the hidden mana channels behind the rocks, ensuring ample energy for all the arrays.

Floating about twenty centimeters below each small array was a white sphere emitting light, illuminating the entire corridor in a bright, yet non-glaring glow.

“Indeed, this place is a transformed Mage Tower,” Vivian observed the lights above as she walked, “These are the most commonly used lighting arrays in any Mage Tower.

There should also be Constant-temperature Arrays hidden around here, and that’s why it’s warm.”

“You mages are really a bunch of pampered sloths,” Lina voiced some envy, “You pay a good deal of attention to your living conditions.”

“Only a Mage Tower with access to a point of leyline overflow, and the power to maintain control over it can have all these functions.

Otherwise, only a simpler version is feasible.

The scattered mana collected daily wouldn’t even be enough for the minimum operation, leaving no surplus energy for heating or lighting,” Vivian explained.

“It seems we’ve found the right place,” Pannis looked back and said, “This should be the underground research facility.”

“Without a doubt,” Vivian confirmed, “There’s no better place than a Mage Tower to study magic potions, and therefore, devices can be used without consideration for energy consumption…

Ah, look, that must be the main entrance.”

Upon hearing this, Pannis looked forward.

At the end of the corridor, there was a metal gate over four meters wide standing erect.

After hundreds of years, the paint on the gate had completely peeled off, and the rusty mottled surface was all that was left.

“Will this rusted gate still function?” Pannis asked uncertainly.

“Not sure, but let’s give it a try,” Knowing that from this point on, the primary responsibility fell to her, Vivian stepped forward and examined the gate carefully.

After a while, she couldn’t help but smile wryly, “I got it.

This is just a regular metal door.

Besides the defunct Detection Array on the door, there’s nothing special about it.

Of course, there might be a Detection Array inside the door, but we wouldn’t be able to see it from here.

So, please proceed and open the door in the usual manner.”