All-Master Player Of The Academy [EN]: Chapter 62

62. Prove It – 2

Anyway, if he’s not on the first or second floor, he must be on the third.

Of course, I can’t confirm whether he’s alive or not.

Regardless, since we have to go, Ian headed to the Curtid Ruins with Grajin.

After a simple identity check and having a portrait drawn for entry, permission to enter the ruins was immediately granted.

As they stepped inside, Grajin pointed to the wall.

“The Curtid Ruins are the remains of a small country called Botar that existed in this area before the Scarlet Kingdom. It was a country that worshipped snakes….”

“Ah, I know that. I saw it in the library before.”

It was a country that adopted a cult worshipping a snake god, seeking eternal life through shedding its skin as its state religion.

It was later destroyed by the Scarlet Kingdom, but it left behind many mysterious ruins, making it a favorite spot for scholars.

Ian explored the ruins, discussing them with Grajin.

The exploration of the first floor wasn’t very difficult.

Even if monsters appeared, they were just slimes or naturally occurring insect monsters.

Of course, Ian was a bit taken aback when a giant cockroach appeared.

But catching it wasn’t difficult, so they were able to pass through the first floor without much trouble.

“Now, the second floor.”

As they descended the stairs, they saw some adventurers.

As they passed, Grajin nudged Ian’s back.

“I trust your observation skills. Haven’t you noticed anything strange so far?”

‘I felt it too.’

As Kirke said, there was something strange from the moment they came down the stairs.

“Those stairs. The texture of the fifth step from the bottom is different.”

“Huh? Which part?”

Grajin didn’t seem to notice.

But it was definitely different.

Unlike ordinary stone, it felt slightly hollow, as if there was some kind of device inside.

Grajin focused on the stairs, but there was nothing particularly noticeable.

“Let’s see.”

“Myaaa….”

Myae on Ian’s shoulder stirred.

She jumped down and tapped a part of the stairs with her front paw.

“Why is Myae doing that?”

“It looks like there’s something here.”

While Grajin held Myae, Ian maximized the sensitivity in his fingertips and ran them over the surface of the stairs.

He began to feel the rough texture of the stone on his fingertips.

He checked the texture of the stone, moving his fingers until he stopped.

-Click.

He felt a slightly different sensation from the other stones.

When he pressed it, it sank in very smoothly.

“And here.”

-Click.

Another spot went in.

And another spot.

And another.

There were a total of four hidden devices.

When he activated all the hidden devices, one side of the stairs popped out.

“Wow… there’s a device like this here. Has anyone ever discovered this?”

“Who knows? If there was someone with senses as keen as mine, they might have found it. Let’s check it out. See if there’s anything there.”

There was a picture on the surface.

One of them was a crescent moon.

“A crescent moon. Karl took the Crescent Moon necklace.”

“Hmm.”

“And a snake. The snake is swallowing the moon… and a shed skin? But the tied end symbolizes a seal….”

Grajin muttered quickly.

Meanwhile, Ian looked around.

“I hear footsteps.”

Ian’s sensitive senses noticed approaching movement.

He reactivated the device, and the surface of the stairs returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

As the adventurers and scholars who had come down passed by, Ian asked Grajin.

“Did you figure anything out?”

“Yeah. Let’s talk as we go.”

Walking through the ruins, Grajin opened his bag.

Arriving in a large room, he took out the bread he had bought near the ruins and chewed on it, pointing to the ceiling.

“That wasn’t a circle. There were many similar decorations on the first floor, so I was mistaken.”

There were circles on the ceiling of the room.

Until now, everyone thought they were just simple decorations.

But after seeing the records on that device earlier, it couldn’t be seen as a simple circle anymore.

“That’s….”

“It’s the moon.”

As Kirke said, a full moon.

The moon, maintaining its circular shape, was engraved there.

“Oh… you figured it out? That’s right. The snake god in Botar’s mythology is said to be a snake that swallowed the moon. You know?”

“Yeah. I heard that the snake god strengthened his power by swallowing the moon.”

He had looked it up when he was investigating various things to get the energy of the sun and moon more easily.

Ian recalled the passage he had read back then.

“The moon is strongest when it’s full. But weakest when it’s a crescent moon.”

“That’s right. It seems like this ruin is a place where something is sealed using the power of snakes and the moon.”

“Is the reason Karl or whatever took the Crescent Moon necklace to break that seal?”

“Probably. It seems like he was trying to weaken the snake god’s ruins, which are related to the moon, by using a sacred object symbolizing the crescent moon.”

Now there’s a problem.

Where and how do we find it?

“I have to ask you again this time. Isn’t there anything strange, Ian? With your observation skills….”

“There is something strange. The room we passed earlier.”

“Huh? Why there?”

“The floor was a bit strange.”

“…Couldn’t you have told me that sooner?”

Grajin returned to that room with Ian.

But no matter how much he looked, he couldn’t find anything strange.

“Hmm… Ah. This will be good.”

Ian took out a pouch from his bag.

Grajin was taken aback when he saw it.

“Hey! That’s!”

Ian generously scattered the seasoning that all the B-class students coveted on the floor.

Then Grajin could see it too.

“…Crescent moon.”

He could tell because the powder had been sprinkled.

There was a very subtle trace on the floor.

And that trace was in the shape of a crescent moon.

“Is the reason Karl took the Crescent Moon necklace because of this? What should we do?”

“I don’t know. What would happen if there was something related to the crescent moon? Turn off the light.”

Grajin put in the crystal ball, and the light disappeared.

As complete darkness settled around them, Ian swung his sword.

Celestial Demon Art, Moon Chapter.

Moonlight Slash.

A moon rose in the darkness.

A chillingly cold and very subtle crescent moon was illuminating the darkness.

It resonated with the room, and the magic circles hidden in the moon patterns, which they thought were circles, were revealed.

“It seems like something’s happening?”

-Whooong….

With a low vibration, stairs appeared in the corner of the room, leading downwards.

They had finally discovered the path to the third basement level of the Curtid Ruins, which no one had found for the past two years.

Seeing that, Grajin said with a serious expression.

“Let’s go.”

With that, the door that had opened closed as they went down.

Grajin, holding up the crystal ball and activating the light magic, asked as he went down the stairs.

“By the way, what was that earlier?”

“It’s called Moonlight Slash. It’s an attack using the power of the moon.”

“Amazing… Where did you learn that? You’re really full of surprises.”

There were many people within the academy who were curious about Ian.

In particular, the thing they were most curious about was what he couldn’t do.

He was flawless not only in academy classes but also in all aspects of life, so they couldn’t figure out where his limits were.

As a result, the students’ worries increased.

Ian was a talent they wanted to bring in.

But he was so outstanding that they were worried about what conditions they would have to offer to satisfy him.

Grajin smiled bitterly, recalling what the students had been talking about before, and Ian stopped walking.

“We’re here.”

As he said, there was a passage at the bottom of the stairs.

In front of it was a carefully crafted stone tablet.

The stone tablet was densely covered with letters.

Grajin stared intently at the letters, which were different from the common language used on the continent.

“Hmm… Let’s see.”

‘He’s going to do it, right?’

As Ian said, he pushed up his crystal glasses and quickly interpreted the letters on the stone tablet.

“There was a tiger here. The tiger used strange powers to control the dead, manipulate, and devour the living.”

“Hmm….”

“The tiger with snow-white fur was very cunning and clever. Even snakes had a hard time dealing with it.”

“Is it a local belief?”

“Maybe? In the old days, there were cases where monsters or wild beasts were worshipped as gods. Perhaps it was a belief that existed before the Botar Kingdom was established.”

Grajin answered briefly and continued to read the letters on the wall.

“To save the people, the snake attacked the tiger. But the tiger was too strong to be caught by the snake’s power.”

That’s why the snake swallowed the moon.

And gained power to eliminate the tiger.

But the snake, which had already imprisoned the seeker of knowledge, could not eliminate the tiger.

If the tiger is eliminated, the seeker of knowledge will leave.

If the seeker of knowledge is eliminated, the tiger will escape.

“In the end, the snake decided to imprison the tiger and the seeker of knowledge here for life… This is a story I’m seeing for the first time?”

Even Grajin, who had studied history, ruins, and archeology quite a bit, was hearing this story for the first time.

He quickly wrote down the phrases on the stone tablet in his notebook.

Meanwhile, Ian looked inside.

Confirming the strange energy he felt from the inside, Ian tapped the entrance of the passage.

“Aren’t you going?”

“Just writing this down. Hey. If this is true, the academic society will be in an uproar. In fact, the snake god is known as an evil god who harms people. But he tried to save people….”

Grajin, who had copied all the pictures and letters on the wall, entered inside with Ian.

It was a large room.

There were iron bars on both sides, and people who appeared to be corpses were inside each cell.

-Thump!!

The moment they entered, the door slammed shut.

And something in the darkness moved.

It was a monster with a huge body.

With the wings of an eagle and two tails made of snakes.

And a human face.

The Shin-dae Kingdom Olympus, the world Ian had stayed in in the past.

The powerful monster Sphinx, who had devoured countless heroes there, was standing there.

‘Or just beat him up. That’s easier.’

If you answer correctly, the Sphinx’s power is halved.

Of course, you can overwhelm him with overwhelming power without answering, as Ian said.

While the two were talking about how to deal with him, the Sphinx moved his huge feet and approached.

“Humans. Prove it.”

Grajin, who was blankly staring at it, was horrified and stepped back.

“What, what is it?! Aren’t talking monsters only in the Tower of the Forgotten City?!”

Ignoring his shock, the Sphinx continued to speak.

“Answer my question and prove your worth.”

“What… what do you want us to prove?”

To Grajin, who was asking in confusion, the Sphinx confidently asked.

“When n is an integer greater than or equal to 3, prove that positive integers x, y, z that satisfy xⁿ＋yⁿ＝zⁿ do not exist.”

As if to ask, ‘Do you even know?’

Ian, scoffing at the confident Sphinx, swung his sword.

“You prove whether you can survive my hands.”