Forget it, I’ll go take a look with him.

And I can use the walk to think through my next move.

This awakened talent had thrown Kanzaki Rei’s original plans into disarray.

He looked up at the sky again.

Even now, he could vaguely see layer after layer of translucent matter peeling away, as if the heavens themselves were shedding skin.

Somewhere beyond sight—

Divine authorities were clashing.

And the sky was far from bright and peaceful.

...Forget it.

I should stay away from trouble and just run.

Forget Lottie.

Forget whatever primordial forbidden magic lies here.

After all, this isn’t the only Primordial Forbidden Magic in existence.

It’s just that this one—

The forbidden magic of Time—

was something he had never heard of before.

But where there are rewards, there is inevitably danger.

And if he ran into another existence on Lottie’s level...

There was no telling whether he could survive it.

The risk of death was far too high.

Better to develop steadily and safely.

Mm.

Decision made.

To hell with Lottie.

I’m buying passage today.

Leaving this continent tonight—

Tomorrow morning at the latest.

Head straight for the Land of Moonwatch.

The struggle over Moonstar can have nothing to do with me.

I’ll see if I can reach Level 6 Mage there.

Level 6 Warrior too...

Then set sail and go directly to the World-Center Tree.

And on that road—

I won’t provoke anything unrelated to me ever again.

Rei made up his mind.

At the same time, he followed behind Ewinri toward a wooden door deep underground.

"A wooden door?"

"There are no restrictions here, Ewinri?"

Standing before it, Ewinri laughed openly.

"Mm, no special restrictions."

As he spoke, he turned several wooden knobs on the door.

With a rumbling groan—

The massive door opened.

Rei swept his perception inside.

What he found was an astonishingly intricate mechanical structure.

Though...

Was it meaningful?

With a single punch he could blast straight through the entire door.

Behind it—

Scroll after scroll of records lined the room.

"These are observations left behind by generations of mystery seekers."

"We Cryptic Scholars spend our lives exploring the hidden truths of the world..."

"Don’t let our Association’s small size fool you. We don’t have many members, but our history is quite ancient."

"Even the Mage Association wasn’t founded much earlier than we were."

Oh?

That really was ancient.

He had heard the current Mage Association was founded five thousand years ago, marking the beginning of modern history.

Before those five thousand years—

There was a small rupture in history.

Almost no one knew what had happened before that.

Most archaeologists devoted their lives to studying that lost era.

It was known as—

The Forbidden History.

And despite the efforts of archaeologists across the entire world, records concerning that age remained vanishingly scarce.

"This scroll..."

Rei’s perception swept across a nearby secret archive.

"Oh, that one records a ruin beside the Abyssfall."

"I once had a Diviner friend who explored it. After coming back, she left this record behind."

Rei asked instinctively,

"A Diviner friend?"

Ewinri nodded.

"Yeah. She’s a rather formidable Diviner."

Rei asked at once,

"What’s her name?"

"Pameriel. A Diviner like me, though she’s a Level 6 Diviner."

Rei’s gaze sharpened.

"What does she look like?"

Ewinri scratched his head.

"You know my friend or something? Why ask so specifically all of a sudden?"

Rei laughed.

"Nothing. I just have a bit of a... stereotype about Diviners."

Ewinri burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, I get it. Mysterious weirdos, right? And always messing with people. Incredibly annoying."

That really was...

So Diviners were the same everywhere in the world.

Somehow humanity had reached consensus on that.

"My Diviner friend is a green-haired elf. A stunning beauty, actually... want to see a portrait?"

At that answer, Rei seemed to let out a quiet breath internally.

"No... no need."

A figure with short purple hair flashed through his mind.

He asked again,

"When did she enter that ruin?"

Ewinri thought.

"That was... about three years ago."

Three years...

Rei casually unfolded a map and drew a circle.

"You mean here?"

Ewinri looked at the marked point and nodded.

"That’s the place."

"Quite a few people have gone to that ruin."

"Some return. Some don’t."

"They say it hides secrets concerning time, but ordinary people can’t comprehend them."

Secrets of time.

That was true enough.

Though they probably had no idea it related to Primordial Forbidden Magic.

Rei asked again,

"How did she get out?"

Ewinri replied,

"It should all be recorded in what she left behind."

"Just read it."

Unexpectedly...

This was quite a gain.

There were too many books in this world.

Too many secrets.

And in a land as vast as Hollow Valley, Rei naturally had no time to read every book in existence.

If Ewinri hadn’t brought him here—

He never would have noticed this hidden underground chamber.

It wasn’t conspicuous at all.

And the city’s underground was a tangled maze...

Nearly every building had basements, hidden rooms, secret chambers.

A tiny cellar beneath a Mystery Enthusiasts Association was easy to overlook.

"Oh, right."

He opened the scroll.

The first thing that greeted him was a sentence:

"All unwillingness has its redemption."

"The first trial here is a corridor of time."

Oh!

Now this was what he liked.

Direct explanations.

Bluntly telling him what conditions existed inside the ruin...

"I heard faint weeping in the corridor."

"I heard distant sighs."

No—

Why are you writing things unrelated to clearing the ruin?

Write something useful.

Rei continued reading.

This person had actually reached fairly deep into the ruin...

Yet the entire record rambled about callings, salvation, rescue.

Still—

From what it described, the ruin itself didn’t seem particularly dangerous.

Mostly puzzles.

And if one failed to go deep enough within a certain time, an exit would appear and force departure.

Rei looked toward Ewinri.

"Ewinri, is there more intelligence on this ruin?"

It didn’t seem to be some hidden secret.

"Oh! So you’re interested in information about that ruin?"

"It does have a long history."

"But people have always gone in and come out empty-handed."

"No results."

"Though the puzzles inside are quite interesting."

"If you want records of the ruin, I can find you more."

"Besides my friend, plenty of others have explored it too."

"Their expedition records are all in this room."

"If you want to understand it, you can start with those."