It was exactly as they said. It appeared that KuroUsagi’s group, after entering the pocket dimension ten days ago, had been trapped here all this time. But once he heard the full story, Victor could understand the reasoning behind the story.

  “Well, I suppose they brought this on themselves by ignoring the warnings.” Victor chuckled, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head. But to think that their reckless exploration had led them straight into a hidden section of the pocket dimension, one that harbored the buried inheritance of a fallen Magus. What incredible luck.

  Garry’s voice cut through his thoughts. “What should we do with them?”

  Gabrielle’s expression turned cold as she suggested, “Punish them by…” and traced her thumb ominously across her neck.

  “Don’t,” Victor quickly interjected, raising a hand to stop them from delivering his players to a lengthy resurrection period. “Some of them have already died, anyway; it’s better to let the rest live as a warning to future pla— acolytes so they don’t make the same stupid mistake. Besides, they’re still my acolytes. I can’t let them die uselessly when they’ll be useful later on.”

  The only reason he went so far as to rescue them wasn’t simply due to the potential loss of their meditation progress and equipment, but because of the fallen Magus’ inheritance. This was no ordinary find; it was the kind of opportunity that could change the players’ perception of this “game.” Furthermore, if he could claim it as well, it might help him a lot.

  “Oh, how wise.”

  “Indeed.”

  Victor narrowed his eyes slightly, sensing something off. For some reason, it felt like they were testing him with these words — probably to see how he would handle the situation. After all, even though they were now his underlings, it was a fact that his players went against the rules. It would only make sense for him to make a just action.

  “First, let’s get them out of there and kick them out of the pocket dimension.” Victor decided it was about time for them to return to the academy.

  “As you wish,” Garry obeyed with a nod before adding, “Oh, I forgot to mention one more thing. There’s one of your acolytes who actually managed to sneak into the tower almost unnoticed. We even had the pleasure of conversing with him a bit.”

  Victor perked up, intrigued. “Who?” Except for Butterfly and Prominence who were both second-stage Initiate Attunement acolytes who were trapped, everyone else was still in the first stage. He didn’t believe any of them could sneak in so easily.

  “He called himself ‘DigitalMagicianPatrick’ or something like that,” Gabrielle replied nonchalantly.

  Him? Victor raised an eyebrow. KuroUsagi’s party was among the group of players that he paid the most attention to, and Patrick had always been a bit of an enigma. As far as he remembered, Patrick was a magician in real life, and his fighting style was distinctly different from the others. He favored wearing Victorian-era magician attire. To be honest, out of all the Earthlings, Patrick was perhaps the closest to embodying the imagination of a Magus in both appearance and demeanor. But still…

  “Patrick, huh?” Victor mused aloud. These players are more resourceful in exploration than I gave them credit for — always thinking outside the box even when the situation is dire. Or at the very least, they’re “entertaining.”

  Gabrielle tilted her head slightly at his silence. “Should we kick him out like the others, Master? Or would you prefer we take a more…” she made the same gesture of slitting her neck with her thumb and said, “…direct intervention?”

  Again, why is she so obsessed with killing? Victor thought in his heart. This pair of homunculi siblings certainly had eccentric personalities. Whoever made them must be pretty eccentric as well, which reminded him of the former headmaster; it was no wonder that they were acquainted with each other.

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Victor replied, “Just send him out like the others, but make it seem as natural as possible.”

  “Understood,” Garry and Gabrielle responded in unison.

  “Speaking of which,” Victor inquired, “this place must be packed full of all kinds of treasures, right?” A smile of greed was plastered on his face. With this citadel being the remnant of an ancient Magus force, the Steelrose Order, that could flatten the Arcane Radiance College like flattening a bug, it must be filled with treasures.

  Having seemed to have anticipated the question, Garry smiled. “Naturally. Follow us.”

  They then traversed the citadel’s labyrinthine corridors. With every turn passed, Victor’s anticipation doubled at the thought of untold riches waiting just around the corner. Magic artifacts, high-rank meditation techniques, and all sorts of rare magic items and resources — they all danced in his mind.

  Eventually, they arrived at a massive vault door, adorned with powerful runes and protected by ancient magic seals. Garry gestured at the door with an unreadable expression. “Before you get too excited, there’s something you need to know.”

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  Victor’s brow furrowed as he listened intently. Every time this guy tried to say something, it would always be bad news for him.

  “The reason we’re out of voidstone and stuck in this place for so long,” Garry began, his tone turning serious, “is due to the war that marked the end of the Magus Dynasty Era — the Armageddon War.”

  Victor gasped. He had read countless books back at his old academy pertaining to this knowledge. Legends had it that hundreds of thousands of years ago, when magic civilization was at its peak, there was a cataclysmic war that caused most of the powerful Magi of the time to perish in the process, thereby cutting the inheritance of ancient Magi. Unfortunately, those books didn’t detail the reason and the cause of the war itself, nor did they mention in detail who was fighting in that war.

  Still, Armageddon War… Why does the Armageddon Cult that Graviel was a part of have the same name?

  Putting it aside, Victor questioned, “Is the Steelrose Order fighting another equally powerful ancient Magus force?” The only logical explanation for the downfall of such a formidable citadel of war was that it must have encountered an equally powerful adversary.

  “Huh, it seems that you’re not aware of the true story behind the war.” Garry tensed up a bit, his expression growing serious as he straightened his posture. “No, it wasn’t a war between two Magus forces or even several Magus forces. Nor was it a conflict between worlds or star clusters.”

  “It is a war of annihilation,” Gabrielle stated, enunciating each syllable.

  “A war of annihilation?” he repeated, feeling a mix of confusion and dread.

  What could it mean?

  Had the Ancient Era ended in a way entirely different from what the history books claimed? Did something so terrifyingly powerful push all the ancient Magus forces to the brink of extinction? Just what kind of being were they? Cold chills crawled over Victor’s skin as the gravity of the truth began to sink in.

  But that can’t be… There were those who once wielded unimaginable power… What could have brought such ruin to them? No, more importantly, could this same force still pose a threat? Victor’s thoughts spiraled into chaos. If even beings as mighty as the ancient Magi couldn’t survive the calamity, then what hope did he have with his puny power?

  Garry’s voice pulled him back to the present. “The citadel was heavily damaged in that war. We lost most of our resources, including a significant portion of our treasure. What remains are lower-grade magic tools and alchemical weapons — useful, but not the vast wealth you might have hoped for.”

  Figures. Victor was a bit disappointed, but after hearing the story, he wasn’t expecting too much. It appeared that this citadel functioned purely as a war machine, relying on mechanical golems, always ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. No one in their right mind would have left their most prized possessions in such a volatile place.

  Magi, by their very nature, were possessive of their treasures, holding them close rather than storing them in random locations. The ones who once controlled this fortress likely either died with their treasures or hid them elsewhere, far from any prying eyes. Mostly, since there was “that” exception.

  Still, how unfortunate.

  True enough, when Victor entered the vault, it was quite empty. Not empty in the sense that nothing was left, but compared to the sheer size of the room, the remaining items felt minuscule in comparison—

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Victor interrupted, his frustration bubbling. “You’re hiding the elephant in the room here. Please, tell me more about this ‘enemy’ that annihilated the Magus Dynasty Era!”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Garry, the male overseer, shook his head grimly. “Don’t misunderstand; it’s not that we don’t want to tell you, but our former master placed a powerful spell on us, forbidding us from revealing more than we already have. And truthfully, we don’t know much more ourselves. All we can say is that the same calamity shouldn’t happen any time soon. Perhaps not even in your lifetime, so you can rest assured.”

  Rest assured, your head! After being told this story, there’s no way I can stay calm. Victor cursed in his heart. Yet, he quickly realized that dwelling on it wouldn’t get him anywhere. Whatever this mysterious force was, it was far beyond his current understanding or ability to confront. It was better to focus on the task at hand and cross that bridge when — and if — it came.

  With a deep breath, Victor decided to push the unsettling thoughts aside and turned his attention to the treasure. There was still much to be done, and worrying about an ancient threat wouldn’t help him in restoring the citadel or creating the greatest academy in the universe.

  “Hang on a sec, are those piles of intermediate- and advanced-grade mana crystals?!” Victor’s eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. Scattered across the floor were dozens of mana crystal piles, their brilliance illuminating the already-lit vault. A rough estimate placed their total number in the hundreds of thousands, with intermediate-grade mana crystals making up the vast majority. Perhaps 95 percent of them. If those weren’t incredible enough, there were also millions of novice-grade mana crystals piled up into mountains at the side.

  Jackpot!

  Victor had been lacking higher-grade mana crystals recently. Ever since his ascension to Elemental Adept Magus, novice-grade mana crystals were no longer effective, and they were used up way too fast. Only intermediate-grade and above mana crystals could enhance his meditation progress meaningfully. While rare magic artifacts or other ancient treasures would have been impressive, these mana crystals were immediately practical and helpful to him.

  And then there were the magic tools. Though these were low- to mid-grade by Magus standards, for the players, they were treasures worth dying for. He was already thinking of holding a monthly auction to sell these magic tools to the players. Not only would they benefit by having strong magic weapons and equipment, but Victor would also benefit by having an army of even stronger players.

  To top it all off, there were also alchemical weapons that ordinary mortals could use. Coming back to this place was worth it!

  Maybe I should introduce a gacha feature to the players in the future… Victor smirked in thought.

  “The items here could prove invaluable to you, Master. The academy you’re building is going to need plenty of resources,” Garry explained.

  “Big Brother, did we mention that there is a large library in this citadel?” Gabrielle chimed in, casting a glance at her brother.

  “That too,” Garry confirmed with a nod.

  Mana crystals, magic tools, and now a library full of knowledge? Victor could feel his mouth stretching wide into a sinister smile that split his face in half, scary enough to cause Lumen beside him to growl at him.