The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 108 The Collapsed Tower
In a desolate area southwest of Lutia, there stands a dilapidated mage tower.

Mage towers don't just exist in cities; they can be built anywhere a mage deems suitable: in cities, forests, mountains, swamps, or even in the heart of a lake.

A mage tower is a place where mages study magical theories, research spell development, and even store magical knowledge. It is usually equipped with alchemy laboratories, libraries, and observatories. Building a mage tower requires a lot of resources.

But this doesn't mean that mages won't abandon a certain mage tower.

When a location is no longer suitable for research, or when accidents occur during experiments, such as explosions or elemental disturbances that affect the stability of the tower, the mage tower will be abandoned.

After leaving Lutia and riding for half a day, what appeared before Eric and his companions was a mage tower that had been abandoned for some reason.

To be precise, it was half a seat.

The tower has collapsed, leaving only five or six meters high. Exposed to wind and rain, the remaining parts are already mottled, and the ruins below are overgrown with weeds, clearly indicating that it has been abandoned for many years.

"Can we find anything here?" Leslie asked Eric, looking around from his horse for a moment.

“Some things I didn’t have time to take or forgot to take,” Eric said. “If I wipe the dirt off, they might still be usable.”

Leslie was pessimistic, saying, "After all these years, it's probably been picked clean long ago... although hardly anyone comes to this desolate place anyway."

“There shouldn’t be anything left on top of the abandoned tower.” Eric looked up and pointed to the ground. “But there’s a basement underneath.”

"How did Eric know?" Eileen, who was behind him, put her arm around his shoulder and peered over.

"Yela told me."

"I believe in the God of Truth."

"Even the God of Truth listens to Jehovah."

"That's something you made up to deceive people."

"Good sister, don't say that to anyone else."

"Ok."

The three dismounted. Leslie looked at Eric, awaiting his instructions. "Young Master said there might be a battle. Does that mean there are still living things in the basement?"

“Those mages probably thought they would come back one day when they left, so they left some alchemical golems in the basement to guard it,” Eric said. “But so many years have passed, it seems they won’t be coming back. In order to prevent what they left behind from rotting away and never seeing the light of day, we have no choice but to excavate it.”

"Let's do it!" Eileen felt no pressure at all; in fact, since she rarely got to go out, she was full of energy for everything she did.

However, clearing a path to the basement would mainly rely on Eric and Leslie. The two carried pieces of collapsed wall while Eileen searched through the rubble.

boom!
The two warriors looked up; Eileen held up her staff, flames raging in front of her.

“A snake,” she said.

"Sister..." Eric cried out in his mind.

"Be careful."

"Oh!"

boom! boom! boom!
She used fireballs and flame tongues to lick around the ruins, burning away not only snakes and insects, but also the wild grass and vines that grew wildly in late spring and early summer.

"Stop burning it, I'm a little hot."

"Oh."

The abandoned mage tower was broken in the middle, and the fallen top was already buried in the soil. It would take a lot of effort to dig it out, and Eric had no intention of doing so. His attention was focused on the basement.

The instance he knew was mainly the underground laboratory of this abandoned mage tower, with two floors, two bosses, and a group of mobs, all of whom were alchemical golems and moved relatively slowly. The three of them were enough to handle it.

The two continued moving the wall and cleaning for a while before finally confirming the location of the basement entrance.

Eric and Leslie worked together to move the last large section of wall that was pressing down on it, revealing a black iron door on the ground.

"What kind of material is this? It hasn't rusted or rotted after all these years." Rice stepped on it.

“It’s probably coated with some kind of alchemical preservative coating,” Eric said.

Eileen came over to take a look too. The huge iron gate seemed to be a single piece, completely embedded in the ground. "How do we open it?"

Eric stroked his chin and pondered for a moment.

“I don’t know.” “…” Eileen and Leslie both looked at him.

Eric crouched down and fumbled around for a while, but couldn't find any mechanism to open the door with a single button.

"Did we come all this way for nothing?" Eileen asked. Leslie, standing to the side, had an even more varied expression. Not only had he made a wasted trip, but he had also wasted a lot of effort clearing the rubble.

Eric was helpless.

You've never opened this door in your past life?
The system asked him if he wanted to open the dungeon "Collapsed Tower". He clicked open and it opened, and then he could enter.

“College student, take a look.” He looked at his sister and said, “See if there’s any door access code written on it.”

"What is a college student?" Eileen asked.

“A person with extensive knowledge in a certain area,” Eric said.

"Oh." Eileen squatted down and carefully studied the special symbols and patterns on the iron gate that seemed to have some kind of meaning, and she quickly came to a conclusion.

"This is not a door."

"Ok?"

“There wasn’t a door here originally,” Eileen explained to her brother and Leslie. “This is a one-time seal.”

"This underground alchemy laboratory might have been open while the mage tower was still intact," Eric thought, then asked, "How do we break this seal?"

Eileen gestured for them to step back, then took a few steps to the side herself and began chanting a spell.

boom!
A huge fireball slammed into it, but the iron plate remained completely still.

Eric was silent.

So, the way to break the seal is to unleash a barrage of firepower...?

Eileen stared at the iron plate for a moment, then straightened her staff and used her Flame Tongue instead.

Flames spewed from the tip of the staff, continuously scorching and licking every corner of the black iron plate.

At one point, Eileen suddenly stopped, raised her hands in mid-air, and then slammed them down.

A large ball of water fell from the sky, drenching or rather smashing onto the scorching hot iron plate.

呲——

A large cloud of white vapor quickly spread out, accompanied by faint cracking sounds. Eric rushed over and pulled Eileen away.

Once the moisture dissipated, the black iron gate on the ground had shattered and collapsed, revealing a road leading underground.

“You sorcerers are quite scientific,” Eric said.

"What is science?" my sister asked.

"Hmm... ways to understand this world."

"Are there so many strange words in the holy book?"

"I invented it myself."

"Awesome." Eileen gave a thumbs up. "Eric, awesome."

Leslie, who was standing nearby, walked up, looked at the passage below, and said, "I'll go down and scout ahead."

Eric drew his weapon as well. "Don't worry, there's no danger at the entrance. There aren't many alchemical golems left inside, and they're quite spread out. I'll go down with you. Eileen... Eileen, wait up here for a bit. I'll call you when everything's alright."

“Okay.” Eileen gripped her staff tightly, watching the two descend the passage and wait above.

Less than half a minute later, the two hurriedly ran up from below, followed by a series of alchemical golems, each over half a meter tall and resembling a monkey, wielding small knives that are still sharp to this day.

"Young Master, didn't you say there weren't many left?"

Eric turned around blankly, looking at the unfamiliar little monsters.

"I do not know either!"

(End of this chapter)