Chapter 4396: Unnecessary

The warehouse below the airplane wasn’t too deep, lying just a little over ten meters beneath the surface. Even so, the airplane’s disguise array only extended twenty meters from the hull. That left very little room for mistakes, so Rean decided to improve it before anyone attempted to enter the warehouse.

There wasn’t much he could do, however. At the end of the day, the disguise relied on the Godly Pressure supplied by the main guardian core, and that amount wasn’t infinite. After several calculations, he estimated that the maximum range could probably be increased to around thirty meters, perhaps a little more if everything worked perfectly. Even so, for what they intended to do, that would already be more than enough.

Since the modifications would take some time, everyone remained where they were for the rest of the day. Not once did another silver box leave the warehouse below.

It wasn’t particularly surprising. Even with Rean and Fohui deliberately damaging runes one after another, it had still taken an entire day and a half before the worker cores exhausted their repair materials. That meant every worker core carried a considerable stock inside its own spatial compartment. At that rate, it wouldn’t be strange if these silver boxes were only called into action once every few years.

The following day, Rean finally finished adjusting the disguise array. He checked the readings one last time before letting out a helpless sigh. "...Twenty-seven meters."

He scratched the back of his head. "I was hoping for thirty. Looks like I’m the one running out of materials now. Oh well, twenty-seven meters is still enough. The disguise should reach much deeper into the warehouse than before."

"Alright..." Harksha looked at him expectantly. "So what’s the plan now?"

"What else?" Rean pointed toward the square-shaped entrance that the silver box had used before. "One of us is going down there to reach the warehouse."

Then he smiled. "And by ’one of us,’ I obviously mean Fohui."

Fohui almost lost control of his floating body. "WHAT?!"

Rean looked at him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Just look at the size of that entrance. Do you seriously think any of us could squeeze through there? You’re a spirit. Other than your core, your body is mostly energy. You can easily fit inside. The rest of us can’t."

"That’s way too risky!" Fohui immediately protested.

Rean simply shrugged. "Has anything we’ve done since entering these ruins not been risky? Why start worrying now? Besides, I’ve been working pretty hard to keep everyone alive. You can sacrifice a little for the team too."

"Won’t I be discovered?" Fohui insisted.

Rean pointed toward one of the screens inside the airplane. "That’s the new range of the disguise array. It covers the upper section of the warehouse now. As long as you stay inside that range, the ruins should continue identifying you as a guardian core."

Fohui still wasn’t convinced. "Why don’t we just dig our way down from here?"

Roan glanced at him before answering. "This warehouse stores the materials used to maintain the light pillar. Do you really think its outer shell doesn’t have defensive measures? Trying to tunnel through would probably be the most dangerous option available."

"As you just said, it’s heavily protected," Fohui argued. "Wouldn’t that mean the entrance you want me to use is protected too?"

"Of course it is," Rean admitted without hesitation. "The difference is that you’ll be entering while disguised as one of the guardian cores. If everything we’ve figured out so far is correct, the security system shouldn’t see any problem with that."

He looked directly at Fohui. "So... are you in?"

Harksha and the others remained silent.

Fohui belonged to their original exploration team, and none of them wanted to pressure him into making the decision. At the same time, they all understood that unless he agreed, they would probably reach a dead end here.

"It’s your choice," Harksha finally said.

Fohui remained quiet for a long moment before letting out what sounded like a defeated sigh. "...Alright. I’ll try it. But if I sense even the slightest hint that something is wrong, I’m turning around immediately."

"I wouldn’t ask for anything else," Rean replied with a satisfied smile.

Truthfully, he was relieved.

If Fohui refused, their only remaining option would likely be trying to force their way into the warehouse, and Rean had very little confidence that such an attempt would end well.

A few moments later, Fohui floated out of the airplane as Rean carefully lifted it off the ground. The airplane remained only a few centimeters above the surface, moving slowly together with Fohui.

There was still a noticeable distance between the end of the entrance shaft and the warehouse itself, so Rean intended to follow him little by little, making sure the disguise array never stopped covering him.

Fohui stopped in front of the small square-shaped entrance.

He stared at it for a few seconds before finally gathering his courage and floating inside.

The passage was even narrower than it had looked from outside. His spirit body slipped through without much difficulty, but his core almost scraped against the walls several times before he managed to squeeze past. A few meters later, the passage suddenly bent downward, disappearing from everyone’s direct line of sight.

Everything Fohui saw was immediately transmitted back through his RC, allowing everyone inside the airplane to follow his progress in real time. Even if the communicator signal weakened deeper underground, Rean could still guide him using his Godly Sense as long as he remained within range.

Eventually, Fohui arrived in front of a closed metallic door.

He was just about to ask Rean what to do when—

*Pliplipliplipli...*

Several thin red laser beams swept across his body from top to bottom.

*Zup!*

The door immediately slid open.

Fohui blinked in surprise before cautiously floating through.

-See?- Rean’s amused voice came through the Ring Communicator. -If the ruins considered you an intruder, that door would’ve never opened. Right now, the system still recognizes you as the guardian core inside my airplane.-

’You can celebrate after we leave this place alive,’ Fohui grumbled while steadying himself and continuing deeper into the warehouse.

-Alright. Head toward the area where the silver boxes are stored. Take it slow so I can keep the airplane close enough for the disguise to cover you.-

Fohui nodded and continued floating forward.

Not long afterward, another sealed door blocked his path.

Just like before, several scanning lights quickly passed over him.

*Zup!*

The second door opened without any resistance.

The moment Fohui floated through it, everyone inside the airplane found themselves staring at an enormous underground warehouse.

Rean and Roan’s Godly Sense could only reach around twenty meters into the interior, nowhere near enough to observe the entire place.

-That’s... a ridiculous number of boxes...- Rean couldn’t help commenting through the communicator. -Just how many materials are available here?-

Roan immediately poured a bucket of cold water over everyone’s excitement.

-Don’t get carried away yet. This place has been operating for countless years. For all we know, most of those containers have already been emptied while maintaining the light pillar all this time.-

Harksha and the others nodded.

It really was too early to jump to conclusions.

-Fohui,- Rean continued a moment later. -Move toward one of the boxes. I’ll guide you through disabling the inscriptions that let it fly. We’ll take one sample of each type we can find, then I’ll study them afterward. If we’re lucky, one of them might eventually lead us inside the light pillar itself.-

Fohui couldn’t help reminding him,

’You do remember I’m not an actual Array Master, right?’

-It’s fine. You won’t be crafting anything. You’ll just make a few small adjustments where I tell you.-

Rean paused for a second before adding far too casually,

-Although... I’ve never worked on ancient runes like these before. So there’s a chance the entire thing explodes and kills you the moment you touch it. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.-

Fohui felt like bursting into tears. Too bad he was a spirit and didn’t have any. ’The last part was completely unnecessary!’

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.