As they entered the air raid shelter, a stale odor mixed with rust, machine oil, and the dust of time spread through the air. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel✶fire.net

What unfolded before Yvette and Ice Rain was a vast vaulted space, its rough concrete walls marked with mottled water stains and peeling paint. Dozens of magically animated dolls of various shapes were scattered throughout, their metal joints creaking as they moved.

Perhaps due to their highly anthropomorphic appearance, their arrival caused quite a stir; many dolls mistook them for heavenly benefactors sent by the Church and clumsily bowed in greeting, voices of welcome ringing out. Consequently, Ice Rain had to spend a considerable amount of time clearing up the misunderstanding.

Once the atmosphere settled, Yvette turned to Copper Skin and asked, “Mr. Copper Skin, do you have more information about Kux? I’m quite curious about this city.”

“Yes, Miss Yvette, please follow me,” Copper Skin replied, guiding Yvette down a dimly lit corridor on the side of the hall.

Yvette caught a glimpse of Ice Rain out of the corner of her eye. At that moment, Ice Rain was surrounded by several child-sized dolls, animatedly gesturing and apparently sharing travel stories with her new audience. Yvette averted her gaze and followed Copper Skin into the corridor alone.

This corridor was the only route within the air raid shelter, with flickering yellow bulbs above that seemed ready to extinguish at any moment. One side was a stone wall, while the other featured stone rooms with iron doors, reminiscent of dormitories or apartments, with no doubt that all the magical dolls in the kingdom resided here.

After pushing open the iron door of one of the stone rooms, Yvette stepped into a small chamber filled with stagnant air; numerous shelves lined with books resembled a small library or archive, and the ceiling was adorned with a solitary small white light.

“This is the kingdom’s information room. All the books obtained by citizens on their explorations are here, including records of adventures concerning Kux. You can freely browse, just be careful not to damage anything,” Copper Skin explained.

“Thank you.”

“By the way, Miss Yvette, you and Miss Ice Rain have come a long way; you won’t just be stocking up and leaving, right? Would you like us to arrange for you to stay? We have plenty of rooms here, and you can feel free to rest.”

“Well, that would be troublesome for you.”

“Not at all,” Copper Skin’s voice sounded cheerful. “Finally, I can have something to do.”

After Copper Skin left, Yvette used wind magic to ventilate the archive room until the air became fresh, then her gaze fell upon the array of books and paper documents beside her.

Clearly, the paper here was also unearthed from the ruins; since commercial paper had long decayed, the paper was specially treated, featuring a protective coating that gave it a plastic-like texture. After centuries, apart from its yellowing, it remained perfectly readable.

She skimmed through various cultural and entertainment books from human civilization, and quickly focused on the magical doll kingdom’s exploration records. The handwriting on these sheets was scraggly, and Yvette could barely discern the outlines of the Black Tide language, making it somewhat difficult for her to read.

After a brief perusal, Yvette noted that most of the records detailed mundane life from the kingdom’s early days, filled with trivialities, resembling a running ledger.

But just as she felt a tinge of disappointment, a specially preserved document caught her attention. She picked it up and was surprised to find it was an investigative report from a heavenly benefactor.

“I am ‘Colbert Ironblade,’ a junior investigator from the Black Tide continent’s Church headquarters. This is my record of the process concerning the city of Kux.”

“March 3rd, clear weather. I arrived at the magical doll kingdom’s ‘Kux family’ with my battle partner ‘Thunder Wolf’ and met Mr. Copper Skin, who briefed me on the situation.”

“According to Mr. Copper Skin, Kux has recently been plagued by a terrifying aberration known as the ‘Mountain Whale,’ with the source located in the city center, and its numbers are rapidly increasing.”

“Since Kux is not coastal, there should theoretically be no contact with whales. I suspect there may be some mysterious whale-like aberration nest master within Kux, using itself as a template and possibly causing similar effects through its mother nest’s nurturing abilities. There are precedents for this in Church records.”

“Given that the actions of this nest master severely threaten the local kingdom’s survival, I have decided to investigate Kux further with Thunder Wolf and eliminate the source of danger.”

“However, I soon realized that the mystery and peculiarity of Kux exceeded my expectations.”

“During my entry into the city, I flew in with Thunder Wolf, and at no point did we encounter any attacks from aberrant entities, which was unusual based on past experiences. The lower-tier aberrants in Kux seemed to be remarkably scarce, yet I was in a hurry to reach the city center and did not feel anything unusual at the time, only attributing it to the cold weather.”

“When I was about 30 kilometers away from the city center, I encountered the first aberrant’s attack. It was a stage-one humanoid aberrant with noticeable characteristics, which shouldn’t have required my documentation alone.”

“However, the curious thing was that this humanoid aberrant exhibited extraordinary combat abilities and could use magical attacks. Its combat power was comparable to that of any stage-three aberrant, making it difficult for me to classify its true stage.”

“Once I quickly dealt with this aberrant, I heightened my alertness and continued deeper with Thunder Wolf, encountering several lower-tier aberrants with similarly abnormal combat power. In a typical city zone, this would equate to multiple nest masters.”

“Then, continuing further in, about 10 kilometers from the city center, I encountered a mysterious woman.”

“That woman was undoubtedly a humanoid aberrant, resembling a fusion of a young human girl and a spider, with six red eyes and eight spider legs sprouting from her back. Oddly, she wore human clothing, and her mannerisms and behaviors were completely different from conventional aberrant creatures. If it weren’t for her eight conspicuous spider legs, at first glance I might have thought she was a resurrected creator.”

“Even more incredibly, this spider woman possessed astonishing combat power. In a single encounter, she shattered Thunder Wolf’s defensive barrier with a black energy attack, propelling both of us underground. Based on this, she must be at least a stage-five aberrant, worthy of separate documentation.”

“Due to the significant disparity in our combat strengths, after crashing underground into the ruins of the city, Thunder Wolf chose to catapult me out while he remained behind to hold the line. I did not reject his proposal because someone needed to bring back information about this aberrant. Furthermore, both Thunder Wolf and I suspected that this spider woman was not the nest master of Kux, and there might be even more terrifying secrets hidden within the city.”

“After that, I recuperated in the local kingdom for a while and conducted several outer explorations. However, I found no traces of Thunder Wolf. He was likely truly dead.”

……

After finishing the handwritten document of this task report, Yvette narrowed her eyes slightly.

She held a considerable wariness toward heavenly benefactors, especially the magically guided soldiers paired with them. For one, using her black eye abilities against them would be a total loss; for another, they undoubtedly wielded military-grade combat equipment, and she wasn’t sure if she could win using only her mage abilities.

Now it turned out that there existed a super aberrant within Kux capable of easily dispatching a heavenly benefactor and their partner? And it was expected to be above stage five?

She hadn’t even seen a stage-four aberrant yet, and now she had to face a stage-five so soon?

Given the exaggerated description of the opponent’s capability to instantly eliminate heavenly benefactors and magically guided soldiers, even using her black eye abilities, it didn’t seem like a guaranteed victory for her…

Putting down the document, Yvette fell into hesitation. Her travel purposes, apart from seeking her apprentice, included devouring aberrants to gather more aberrant magical power. However, the strange circumstances in Kux gave her a sense of “if you do not seek death, you will not die.” Instead of delving into the city to discover its secrets, skipping over this place to the next city seemed more aligned with her safe and steady upgrade strategy.

After all, she wasn’t going to die; she had a long life to endure. Why not be a bit cautious and avoid risks?

But…

Thinking of her student, who had become the strongest human being and had gone missing in the land of endings, she felt that making a bit more effort wouldn’t hurt. If her student were in danger, what could she, as the teacher, do to help if she were too complacent?

Then, she decided to stay here for a while, ensuring safety while slowly conducting her investigation. Perhaps she could uncover the root of why Kux’s aberrants were so out of the ordinary… She silently made her resolution.