Chapter Thirty-Three: Grasping the Genesis Stone

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In the pitch-black cave, the moment the stone tablet was taken out, a faint glow began to shine from it.

Before the two of them, a dim light also appeared across the wall, revealing the frame of the ruins’ gate.

By that faint radiance, Kana could finally see that the cave was a full four or five meters high. Half of the space below was occupied by a pool of water, while the other half consisted of a stone floor leading to the gate frame.

The glowing gate was roughly four meters high and three meters wide. The seam between its two halves was clearly visible, as was a circular hollow at the center.

The design on the gate was an upright triangle surrounded by various openwork carvings. However, after such a long passage of time, most of the carvings had become indistinct.

Kana stepped forward and fitted the stone tablet he carried into the hollow at the center. It fit perfectly.

He did not push both halves of the tablet in at once.

Instead, he took up the right half—the very piece that had once been held by the merfolk prophet.

He placed it gently into position and pressed down firmly.

It fit without the slightest gap.

Then he gave it another hard shove, and the right half of the gate swung open. Only then did they see that it was connected to a corridor.

At the center of the doorway stood something like a wall, preventing the two sides from joining together.

After a moment’s thought, Kana placed the other half of the tablet into position as well.

He pushed the gate open in the same manner.

The scene on the other side was identical.

From the entrance onward, the passage had been divided into two sections. In other words, the stone tablet had been split into two halves from the very beginning.

“Your Highness, which side should we explore first?”

“The right.”

After all, the right side had already been explored by players in the game, so Kana had a better understanding of what lay within.

Aliris nodded, drew her sword, and led the way.

The moment they stepped into the passage on the right, clusters of flames sprang to life along the walls, illuminating their path.

As they proceeded, Kana rapped on the wall dividing the passage. From either side, it appeared to be only a thin partition, yet when he knocked on it from here, he could feel its extraordinary solidity.

There was no way to tell whether the other side was hollow.

The corridor was not very long, perhaps six or seven meters.

Aside from the natural flames, there were no murals or carvings on either wall.

The two of them crossed the corridor cautiously. At the end, they found themselves facing a great hall.

The hall was triangular in shape. At its center stood a humanoid statue roughly three meters tall.

Perhaps because the space had remained sealed, the statue was exceptionally well preserved. Its gray surface clearly depicted a balding, middle-aged man.

He gazed straight ahead. His left hand was clasped behind his back, while his right hand held a cube in its palm.

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At the base of the statue stood a pedestal, whose front was fitted with a shield. The shield was covered in dust and had nearly blended into the statue’s gray coloring.

Directly in front of the statue stood another small sculpture resembling a chalice, approximately one and a half meters tall.

This chalice was, in fact, a container.

Several objects had been placed inside it.

Only after looking closely did they realize that it was filled with round coins and all kinds of stones. A thick layer of dust covered everything, making it impossible to determine what the coins were made of. The stones, however, appeared to be gemstones.

Aside from these, the triangular chamber contained nothing else.

Aliris wore a puzzled expression. She truly could not understand the purpose of constructing such a place. Was it meant to glorify the statue’s subject?

Yet judging from the statue, the man himself had hardly been handsome.

Kana walked to the front of the statue. On the circular stone platform beneath it, he could see rows upon rows of densely packed writing.

Examining the inscriptions carefully, he found that the script closely resembled the writing used by the Kingdom of Saffro.

By combining guesses with fragments of interpretation, he was able to determine that the inscriptions described the life of the person depicted by the statue.

He had been an alchemist from the Ancient Alchemy Empire.

Modern alchemy had inherited the techniques and knowledge of the Ancient Alchemy Empire almost perfectly. Its fundamental branches had never suffered a break in transmission.

As for the statue’s subject, the most remarkable achievement of his life had been a single alchemical creation.

“So what was this ruin used for?” Aliris asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

Kana removed the shield from the front of the circular platform. It was a small round shield, its thick coating of dust completely concealing its original appearance.

“This is a tomb. In the Ancient Alchemy Empire, alchemists liked to construct their tombs in this manner.”

“A tomb?” Aliris was astonished. There was nothing here that resembled a graveyard. No coffin, no place to store a corpse—only a statue and a sculpture of a chalice.

It was far too plain.

As she looked at the statue, realization suddenly struck her. She pointed toward it.

“Could it be…”

“That’s right. After their deaths, some alchemists of the Ancient Alchemy Empire would immediately burn their bodies and reduce them to ash.

“A statue would be erected inside the tomb they had built, carved in the likeness of its occupant. A space would be left inside the statue in advance to hold the ashes.

“Finally, friends or family members would complete the statue by filling that space.”

As he spoke, Kana shook the small, dust-covered shield in his hand.

“The circular platform below would record some important events from the person’s life, along with his most representative alchemical creation.”

Clearly, the small round shield in Kana’s possession was the most representative alchemical creation of the man depicted by the statue—the owner of this tomb.

As for the chalice in front of the statue, it held no particularly significant meaning. It mainly represented the outward image of alchemy in that era.

Depending on the period, the sculpture in front of the statue might take the form of a chalice, a crucible, a great tree, a triangular solid, or something similar.

Kana was not especially familiar with the finer details of that particular system.

He might not have understood every aspect of the design, but he understood the value of what they had found. Whenever a chalice or crucible appeared, the rewards were bound to be exceptional.

That was because sculptures of this kind usually contained valuable objects.

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After hearing Kana’s explanation, Aliris nodded in understanding.

“Your Highness, you truly are incredibly knowledgeable.”

Every day she spent with His Highness brought her some new piece of knowledge.

Besides, she had grown accustomed to it by now. Whenever she did not understand something, she simply followed His Highness’s instructions. He was never wrong.

Once they had finished discussing the matter, the two of them turned their attention to the chalice sculpture.

The sculpture was not small, and the space inside it was equally substantial. Yet it was filled to the brim with coins and gemstones.

The sheer extravagance was overwhelming.

The objects inside the chalice were already extraordinarily valuable. Moreover, if nothing unexpected had happened, every one of them was likely an ingredient used in alchemy.

Aliris glanced at Kana, then reached out and took a gemstone.

Only after confirming that there was no danger did she nod at him.

Kana, however, was staring fixedly at one particular gemstone inside the chalice.

He slowly reached out and picked it up. After wiping away the dust, he revealed its pale blue surface.

There was nothing especially unusual about it compared with the other gemstones. In fact, its exterior was even rougher, completely unpolished. It looked more like a fragment chipped from some larger gemstone.

It was tiny, only about one-third the size of his palm.

This was no ordinary gemstone. It was the principal reason Kana had come to these ruins.

[Fragment of the Genesis Stone (Small)]

Kana did not even need to use magic to convert it into data. Its name appeared directly before his eyes.

But only its name.

Aliris glanced at the gemstone in Kana’s hand. It looked no different from the others—if anything, it was even uglier.

She shifted her attention back to the chalice and picked up several coins, wiping them clean.

Most of them turned out to be silver coins, with only a portion being gold. Aliris could not help feeling disappointed.

If they had all been gold, they would have struck it rich.

Even so, the discovery was still an immensely substantial haul.

As Kana held the fragment of the Genesis Stone, he could almost confirm that his golden finger had been created by fragments of it.

He knew the lore surrounding the Genesis Stone very well.

Its concealed nature meant that only those who truly recognized it could perceive its essence.

And the people most likely to discover a Genesis Stone were those who had already encountered and used one. Anyone who had used a Genesis Stone was naturally connected to it in some way.

Of course, that connection could only be sensed from sufficiently close by.

In the real world, holding the Genesis Stone for the first time filled Kana with a rush of excitement.

His emotions began to affect the Genesis Stone. Sensing this, Kana immediately placed the gemstone back into the chalice and calmed himself.