Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 353 Rift Clan Magic Array

A winged servant presented a steaming ceramic cup, which Su Ming accepted without ceremony. The cup contained some pale red leaves, and its taste was slightly astringent.

“Chloe, we’re a bit pressed for time,” Violet said bluntly. “Please tell us, what exactly did we find here?”

Chloe didn't stand on ceremony; she gestured for them to proceed and led them deeper into the cave.

"I have already reported Yin Fei's betrayal to His Majesty Ge Lie through the communication array," Lan Mo said in a low voice as he followed with heavy steps. "His Majesty is...very shocked by this."

"The Bell of Calamity has actually infiltrated to such an extent," said the younger winged creature beside Chloe. In the firelight illuminating the cave walls, he had bluish-green hair and handsome features.

“The scale and nature of this cult are probably far beyond what we previously imagined,” Su Ming also said.

"Hello, Bone King, I am a student of Teacher Graytail." The young winged creature turned to Su Ming and introduced himself, "My name is Azure Feather."

"Hello, Qingling." Su Ming nodded. "Just call me Su Ming."

****
After drifting through an area filled with collapsed boulders, the group entered a new cave space that had been revealed by the battle of the previous days.

At this moment, a large number of lighting crystals have been installed here, and the soft and stable halo clearly illuminates every corner.

"What a huge magic array!" Su Ming's gaze was immediately drawn to the massive magic array on the ground, composed of various primitive runes. The runes on it were ancient and rugged, completely different from the magic runes commonly seen today.

"Strange!" As a necromancer, Violet immediately sensed the anomaly. "There are far too many skeletons here!"

If it were a cluster of human tribes, the accumulation of dense human skeletons would be understandable. However, the skeletons scattered here clearly belong to various animals.

What's even more puzzling is that the skeletal morphology and characteristics of many of these animals clearly do not belong to the types that should exist at this latitude or in a cold environment.

“I have analyzed it and determined that this is an ancient teleportation array.” Chloe began to introduce the results of her research over the past period, and her first sentence shocked everyone.

"Teleportation?" Violet's eyes widened. In order to study this technology, the traveling raven Galio had suffered a lot.

It now appears that early humans made considerable progress 10,000 years ago.

“According to the mural, when the old humans activated this magic circle, animals would be teleported from unknown places,” Chloe explained. “Unfortunately, this magic circle is one-way; animals just come randomly, and there is no way to control it in any other way, let alone teleport them in the opposite direction.”

"That's amazing!" Su Ming exclaimed in surprise. "And could it be that the old human tribes here survived in North Iceland using this method?"

“You guessed right.” Chloe nodded. “According to my statistics and analysis, this magic circle provides them with nearly half of their food source.”

"It's truly... a terrible waste." Su Ming sighed as he looked at the massive magic array.

The base material of the magic array felt somewhat familiar to Su Ming. He squatted down, picked up a small pinch, and found it to be a fine, grayish-white powder.

“I haven’t found the corresponding material yet,” Chloe said. “Logically speaking, the Rift Clan—oh, that’s the name I gave to this old human race—shouldn’t go too far to collect magic array materials.”

Su Ming carefully examined the powder, finally remembering where he had seen it before—back in the North, during a flashover accident while analyzing samples of otherworldly materials using Raman scattering equipment. This was the form of powder left on the stage during the subsequent cleanup.

“It looks like rock core,” Su Ming said.

"Rock core?" Chloe was very puzzled. "Rock cores don't look like this."

Zijin also squatted down to examine it carefully, confirming Su Ming's judgment, "That's right, it's the rock core. It will turn into this powder after its energy is exhausted."

"Does the rock core... also have energy?" Chloe was even more puzzled.

“We discovered it by chance during our experiments; my eyes were even burned by that energy,” Violet explained. “It seems that the Rift Clan is using the energy contained within the rock core to drive this massive magic array.”

Core rock is abundant in North Iceland. The Rift Clan used this mineral, which contains special energy, to power the teleportation array.

Chloe led the group to the central area of ​​the magic circle. "This magic circle has been expanded many times in the hundreds of years since its invention, and the types and numbers of animals captured have also increased. The Rift Clan even doubled their population size using this magic circle!"

“However, as the scale of the magic circle expanded,” Chloe pointed to the massive dragon skeleton gleaming like crystal in the distance, “they eventually attracted this behemoth. An extremely fierce battle ensued; the creature was already severely injured during the teleportation. Even so, it still caused devastating destruction. The Rift Clan lost most of their able-bodied men in this accident, and most importantly, the teleportation magic circle was completely destroyed.” “It’s truly… a somewhat poignant story,” Stacy said with a touch of melancholy.

"In short," Chloe concluded, "I know that Ainz Ooal Gown and Chestnut Owl are researching teleportation-related technologies, so I felt that you absolutely had to see these discoveries for yourselves. Although the Rift Clan's technology is primitive, the ideas it contains will definitely provide you with a lot of inspiration!"

"Thank you so much!" Su Ming sincerely expressed his gratitude to Chloe.

The value of this trip far exceeded expectations.

****
Stacy spread her magical wings and flew over, landing lightly above the massive dragon skeleton as she carefully examined the awe-inspiring remains. Soon, a look of utter shock appeared on her face.

"This dragon... it doesn't belong to the Teya dimension at all!"

Chloe was somewhat surprised by this conclusion. "Are you sure? I'm still comparing it with local biographies to see if it's some kind of extinct ancient group or something."

“Absolutely impossible!” Stacy stated firmly. She raised her hand, pointing to the strangely shaped, cluster-like crystal structures on the spine of the skeleton. “These crystalline magic storage structures have appeared on small creatures in some special regions. But such a large scale could only form in high-magic areas where the magic concentration far exceeds that of the Teya plane!”

Upon hearing this, Chloe put down the notebook she had been taking notes in and stared blankly around at the space occupied by the giant dragon bone. "Could it be... that this is actually an interdimensional teleportation array that connects to other planes!" Her voice was filled with disbelief and shock.

Su Ming also gasped in astonishment, "These Rift Clan... they're too powerful!"

Even though it was a one-way, and passive, reception array, the old humans were still able to achieve this level of technology under such harsh conditions.

Zijin picked up a piece of weathered animal bone from the ground, and a flash of light appeared in her hand.

Reverse motion!

As the spell took effect, the once gray and withered skeleton instantly became lustrous and warm, as if time had reversed, restoring it to its original appearance ten thousand years ago when it had just died. Su Ming knew nothing about biological morphology, but the other three—Stacy, Chloe, and Qingling—could all clearly see the clues from this restored form.

The spell ended, and the phantom vanished. The bone fragment shattered completely into sand, falling softly from between Violet's fingers.

“Stacy’s conclusion can be confirmed.” She patted the ashes in her hand, her tone resolute. “The retrospective analysis shows that many of the small animals here have morphological characteristics that have never appeared in any known creatures in the Taiya plane.”

Chloe nodded, her tone filled with deep regret, "The Rift Clan...it's truly such a pity."

It is truly lamentable that such a technology was lost for various reasons.

****
“Using your rewind spell, we should be able to try to recreate the original complete structure and runes of the magic circle,” Chloe said to Violet. “Perhaps, we can then analyze how it works!”

Although some remnants of the original runes can still be seen on the ground, tens of thousands of years of erosion have long since blurred and altered everything.

"That's exactly what I was thinking!" said Zijin.

The two quickly began their work, carefully casting spells and exploring the intermittent, varying depths of the engravings on the ground.

“To cast the ‘Reverse Object Reversal’ spell, you must directly touch the target object.” Violet taught Chloe the spell while demonstrating it. “Moreover, energy manipulation must be extremely precise, maintaining an absolutely stable output, otherwise the target object can easily disintegrate prematurely.”

The magic circle covered a vast area, and the extent of its erosion was extremely complex. Violet and Chloe studied how to treat the engravings made of different materials and with varying degrees of weathering, constantly adjusting the energy intensity and output of the spells, and modifying the casting details.

They worked tirelessly until the next morning before finally finding a method to relatively clearly reconstruct the original form of the ancient magic circle and draw and record it for subsequent analysis.

Violet finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The group found a relatively clean spot to rest, drink water to replenish their energy, and discuss their current situation.

“The entire magic circle is just too big,” Chloe estimated. “If we process it piece by piece, it will probably take about two months to complete all the analysis work.”

It's clear that Zijin and Su Ming can't stay here for such a long time.

Fortunately, Chloe had already mastered the "Reverse Object Reversal" spell. She could continue her analysis and in-depth research with her students, while Zijin and Su Ming headed to Dragon Valley as planned.

(End of this chapter)