Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 47 - 47 37 Detection Zone_1

?47: Chapter 37 Detection Zone_1 47: Chapter 37 Detection Zone_1 (The second release is out, friends passing by, please collect and recommend it.

It’s the last few days on the new book list, please give me a grand send-off.)

“Squeak.” The metal gate, not locked from the inside, slowly swung open under the combined strength of Catherine and Pannis.

The rusty hinges let out a teeth-grating sound.

Countless metal shards fell off with the movement of the gate, and the yellow-brown fragments soon covered the ground behind the door in no time.

Upon entering the gate, the walls were devoid of a single particle of rock, entirely made of dark-greenish metal.

Despite several hundred years of age, the walls were not tarnished like the gate but rather looked as fresh as new.

“The dehumidification here is done quite well,” Vivian leaned in for a closer observation of the metallic wall, “There is no trace of rust.

Rare indeed.”

“Indeed, it is unusually dry.” Lina took off her damp helmet, removed the leather cap wrapped around her hair and let the silver hair flow down her back again, “You can feel the surrounding is parchingly devoid of moisture.

Staying too long in such an environment can be quite uncomfortable.”

“Can’t be helped, most research sites are like this,” Vivian replied absent-mindedly, assessing the surroundings, “To prevent the experiment equipment from being disrupted or damaged by moisture, comfort is sacrificed.

Many an mage place a small spray bottle at the entrance of the lab, spraying water on their faces every time they step out to alleviate skin dryness.

Let’s move on.”

“Wait Vivian,” Catherine held Vivian back, “Pannis has successfully led us here.

We’re counting on you now for the remaining part.

Got everything under control?”

“Ha, are you asking me if I could be at fault?” feigned surprise, Vivian’s eyes wide-opened, “Did you forget who I am, sis?

This here is my world, how could there possibly be a problem?”

“Oh, forget about it,” Catherine shook her head helplessly, realizing Vivian was in some sort of excited state, “Just be careful.”

“No worries, sis,” Vivian took the lead, still mumbling under her breath, “This is a research lab, a closed one at that.

The mages living here aren’t going to set bunches of dangerous traps in their own home unless they have a death wish.”

The group of six proceeded along the metallic corridor, took two turns and pushed open a half-open metallic door to find themselves in a large “building” complex.

To call it a building complex may not be very accurate, as they couldn’t see the whole inside, just many corridors and metal doors.

“This research lab seems huge.” Lina looked around, “I hardly think a Mage Tower has this much space.”

“Mage Towers are also huge,” Vivian shot back, not taking well to Lina’s doubting remark.

“It’s just that the Mage Tower has many layers stacking up, making it seem to occupy less space on the ground.

The space here essentially unfolds the stacked up layers onto the same plane.”

“Oh,” It was not Lina’s intent to question Vivian’s judgement, she was simply voicing her doubts, “Do you know where we are right now?”

“Certainly,” Vivian turned her back to the entrance direction and pointed towards an open door on the right, “This should be the passage to the next area, let’s not mind it for now.

The area we’re in now is a detection zone.

See the front door?

That should be the guard room.

When the research lab was functioning normally, there’d be guards on duty, ready to confront anyone intruding from the entrance.

I’ve not seen the corridor on the left, it must be unique to this lab.

Given that it’s hard for anyone to enter through the front door, and everyone would need to teleport in, I suspect the passage on the right leads to the teleportation room.

Let’s go and check it out.”

“As you wish.” For an unfamiliar venue, everyone in the group was curious.

Catherine did not object to Vivian’s curious interest in detailed exploration and followed Vivian to the gate at the end of the left corridor.

The metallic gate opened to a room over fifty square meters, empty save for the circular Magic Array etched onto the middle of the ground.”

“As expected, this Teleportation Array should be the door to the outside world.

” Vivian walked to the Magic Array, felt it with her hand, “Hm, I can’t sense the matching Magic Array on the other side.

It looks like, as Indulgence said before, the Array on the other side is completely destroyed.”

Seeing nothing of interest in the room, Vivian exited the teleportation room and headed for the door of the next room.

She pushed the door open to see two rows of chest-high metallic cabinets, with more than ten cabinet doors in each row, and keys to the cabinets hanging on the handles.

“I get it,” Vivian clapped her hands in realization, “This must be where visitors or inspecting officials deposit personal items.

Personal belongings must have been prohibited inside.

Hmm, shall we open and take a look?

There might be something interesting inside.”

“Yes, yes, sister!

Let’s open and take a look!” Lina, eager and curious, urged Catherine.

After a brief thought, Catherine decided that there was no rush in finding the quest’s item now as they have found the lab, and was intrigued.

But she looked at Pannis for safety, “Pannis, would you please check it out first, to see if there are any traps?”

“None.” Pannis answered without looking, “I checked when we first came in, there are no ordinary traps.

As for magic traps, Vivian should check for herself.”

“Alright then,” Catherine agreed, “But you two should not overdo it.”

“This is work, how can it be considered play?” Vivian retorted, though she could hardly hide the curiosity flashing across her face.

She eagerly opened a cabinet door.

There was nothing interesting inside, just a long coat made of white fabric and a pair of black soft-soled boots at the bottom.

With hundreds of years having passed, both the leather and the fabric had become brittle, a slight touch creating a large hole.

“Huh?” Both the front-faced Lina and Vivian looked very serious.

They each opened another cabinet respectively.

Indeed, the same style of long coats and boots were inside.

“Sister, Pannis, you’d better come and see this,” Lina’s voice was gloomy.

“What’s wrong?” Not only Catherine and Pannis, but also Rachel and Gaston, who had been trying to curry favor with her, sensed something was off, also gathered round.

“Look.” Lina pointed at the clothes in the cabinet: “Does it look familiar?”

“Thi-thi-this…” Catherine stuttered in disbelief at the clothes in the cabinet, saying, “This is the same outfit that the attacker was wearing!”

“Rachel, take a closer look too.

Isn’t it the same kind of clothing worn by the dwarf who attacked you?” Pannis was equally surprised, somewhat incredulous as he wanted to confirm it again.

At the same time Pannis spoke, Rachel and Gaston had already noticed the clothes in the cabinet.

Upon seeing them, Rachel clenched her fists and nodded affirmatively with gritted teeth, while Gaston started shivering dramatically; he averted his gaze after taking a quick glance.

“Well, this is interesting.” Pannis crossed his arms and rubbed his chin, saying, “It seems that the person escaped from this research institute, otherwise, he wouldn’t have the habit of wandering around in this suit.”

“It’s not very likely though.

We carefully checked the ice surface in Frozen Hell earlier and didn’t see any recent cracks.

Plus, the entrance door was so rusty when we came in, if someone had come in or out before us, we certainly would’ve noticed,” Catherine frowned, her face full of bafflement: “Moreover, this place is hundreds of years old, it’s impossible that the person could still be alive.

Oh, and also the Demonized Energy here.

Although it’s not as thick as outside, but after staying here for a couple of months, he would be contaminated by this energy and become a magical creature with only basic intellectual capabilities and beastly desires left.

Let alone staying for hundreds of years.”

“Let’s just drop this and keep moving.

No matter how he has lived for so many years, seeing the situation outside, he certainly didn’t get in here before we did.

So, we don’t need to worry too much.” After pondering for a while, Catherine added: “We should be fine.”

The mood of Vivian, patently dispirited by this development, deflated, heaving a sigh of frustration: “It seems this place isn’t as safe as we assumed.

Sigh, let’s go.”

Exiting the ever perplexing storage room, Vivian lost interest in explaining each room individually, instead giving brief introductions as they passed by: “This is the inspection room where visitors would undergo checks after storing their personal belongings.

The one up front is the observation room.

Inside should be several mirrors corresponding to the Eye of the Mage located somewhere outside.

It seems that the guards here were just ordinary Lower Rank professionals.

They were unable to view the Eye of the Mage directly, so they used mirrors as a medium to gather all the information in the Mage’s Eye view for the guards’ surveillance.”

“So, the rest is the guard room, right?” Pannis asked.

“Right.” Vivian casually opened the door to the guard room, took a quick glance inside, quickly stepped back out and closed the door again.

“What’s the matter?” Pannis felt something was off about Vivian’s actions, so he also opened the door to the guard room.

However, after just one glance, he immediately closed it, “Alright, I understand why.”

Lina grew more curious and kept on asking: “Vivian, what exactly did you two see?

To make both of you behave so oddly.”

“Nothing major, just magic puppets.” Vivian thought for a moment before adding, “Around a hundred or so.”

Lina swallowed hard, opened her mouth to speak, but she ended up saying nothing.

“Are they all still operational?” Catherine asked the key question.

“Theoretically they should still be able to be activated,” Vivian nodded: “But they need someone to do the activation, they can’t move on their own.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” Catherine breathed a sigh of relief, “Let’s not bother with these puppets and move on to the next place as quickly as possible.

Which area is next?”

Vivian seemed to regain her spirits at this, and pointed to the corridor on the right: “The reception area is next, specifically prepared for visitors.