Supreme Magus - Chapter 654

Chapter 654: 654
"How do you feel?" Xenagrosh asked, her hands casually placed on her Dragontooth blade hung on her hip .





"I'm not hungry . " It was the only thing Bytra could think about .

"First, you need some clothes . Second, I'll fetch you your hammer . We have a lot of work to do . "

***

Expedition site of Kulah, the following morning .

Everyone was back in top shape, but the morale was dangerously low . The Assistants now looked at the military compound as if it was their personal gallows, while the Professors were doubting their own skills for the first time in years .

'A simple graduate who is not even a Warden unlocked the arrays sealing the doors and if not for the army, we'd be already dead . Have I underestimated this mission, were the Odi too cunning, or have I just got too old for this job?'

Was what every one of them was thinking .

Lith was the more nervous of them all, but he was good at hiding it . His instincts were telling him that something was off .

'After the Teks attacked, I was expecting that whoever is pulling their strings would raise the ante, yet nothing happened . Then we opened the door and that fungus came out . Two more days have passed and once again, nothing .





'Are we really facing just automated defenses or is our enemy adjusting their strategy the more we reveal our cards?' He thought .

Despite all the evidence pointing at him being wrong, Lith was unable to relax . There was something akin to a tingling in a corner of his head that bugged him to no end . On the bright side, the Professors were now wearing their best equipment .

'By my maker, that's a blinding appearance . ' Solus said once she attempted to look at the group with her mana sense . Every one of their items was imbued with multiple powerful enchantments .

The only problem for her was that there were so many that she had no idea which one to study first .

"It's good to see that you have geared up . We need all the help we can get . " Phloria said . "We'll split into three groups . Professor Yondra, Professor Ellkas, Ranger Verhen, and I will explore the first building on the left, right after the city door .

Professor Gaakhu, Professor Neshal, Ranger Eari, and two of my soldiers will explore the second building on the left . This way, if anything happens, we can provide backup to each other with minimal notice thanks to dimensional magic .

"Plus, if the necessity arises, we can retreat behind the protection of our arrays with the same ease . The rest of my soldiers will protect the Assistants during our absence . Your task will be to make sure the camp's barriers are at full strength and prevent anyone from attacking us from the back . "

"Yes!" All the Assistants said but one .

"This is unfair! I'm not a fighter, but I can help . Just like I did with the door . " Quylla objected .

"And you will, if we find something we can't decipher, we'll return to the camp and work on it together . Until then, stay in the camp . " Phloria's tone didn't leave space for arguing, so Quylla slouched her back and dragged her feet until she was among her peers .






"She can Blink away and has my armor . I don't see why Quylla can't come with us . " Lith whispered in her ear .

"If push comes to the shove, I can order the Professors to scram and they will obey . Then you can go all out without worries . Quylla, instead, would never leave your side, she loves you like a brother . Why do you think I organized the groups the way I did? To have as little prying eyes as possible . "

Lith had to admit that her reasoning was excellent . He gave Phloria thumbs up and after finalizing the details, the two groups entered Kulah again . Lith took point, using Life Vision and mana sense to make sure that nothing had changed .

After a thorough analysis of the area, he moved to the nearest building . All structures inside the military compound looked the same, resembling huge rectangular warehouses with a flat roof like those Lith had seen more than once on Earth's docks .

Each of them had a single entrance, comprised of a double door so big that a truck could easily fit with space to spare and a sealing array visible to the naked eye .

It was shaped like three concentric circles, each one inscribed with unknown runes and fueled by both purple crystals and the mana geyser underlying Kulah . A thin cable made of mana crystals connected the arrays with the ground, fueling them .

"Oh gods, I've never seen something so complex on a single door!" Professor Neshal, the only Master Warden of the group said . "It will take us days only to understand how to deactivate one of them . "

"Can everyone see that thin, blue line, camouflaged along the door frame?" Lith asked .

"Yes, why?" Professor Yondra couldn't see the relevance such a visual detail could have .





At least until Lith used a small knife to cut it and two out of three arrays were suddenly powered off, leaving only the one fueled by the purple crystal active .

"Or not . " Professor Neshal was flabbergasted . "Is this how you freed the fungus creature? I swear, if we make it back to the surface, the title of my report will be: Odi, the dumbest geniuses ever . "

"Well, there is still the last array to defuse . " Lith said .

Neshal just shook her head, pulling the purple crystals out of the wall with her bare hands and giving them to Lith .

"You would be right if the arrays you just deactivated weren't also the ones protecting the energy cores . I'm starting to believe that the real reason the Odi empire was wiped out in less than a generation is that once the weak points of their workings were revealed by the Odi rebels, their defenses amounted to nothing . "

Seeing such a poor design, Lith's lip curled in disgust . He wasn't a Master Warden, but even his creations required more than pulling a plug to be deactivated .

'Those morons abused the "Keep it simple" rule . They basically left on/off switches on all the arrays we met so far . ' He thought .

'Maybe back then reading and magic were an exclusive of the elites . ' Solus suggested . 'For ignorant folks and laymen, magic is a godlike power . It seems dumb to us because we are all cultured people . '

After giving her a mind nod, yet not stopping from considering the Odi a bunch of idiots, Lith asked:

"Why did you hand me these crystals?"

"Consider them a present . They're nothing special, so the Kingdom will surely give them to us as a reward . They will deduct them from my share instead of yours . You just saved me days of work and weeks of frustration .

"Just the thought of wasting a single brain cell to solve such a moronic device might have given me a stroke . " Neshal replied .

Professor Gaakhu opened the second door under Lith's supervision, cutting the power cable before asking:

"How did you understand how they work?"

"I have an excellent mana perception . These arrays have not enough crystals to support them and the cable emits a powerful aura . "

"I noticed that too, but only because I could take my time and focus on the door . Doing it under that creature's siege must have required more than cold blood . It takes talent and guts to bet everything on an intuition .

"Would you be interested in becoming a Professor for the Crystal Griffon?"

"I called dibs already . " Yondra snorted .