Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 109 - 31: Creatures in Soak_1

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The gate opened silently, beyond it asserted utter darkness. Assisted by the faint light of noctilucent moss on the creviced rock wall outside, they could vaguely make out a small area near the gate. As expected, the floor, walls, and roof inside were all made of metal as well. Different from outside, the metal inside was fashioned to a light blue shade, unlike the glaring silver-white outside, it was more conducive for living organisms to dwell within for extended periods.

"Let’s go in and take a look." Pannis turned his Crystal Energy lamp back on, securing it to his arm, and beckoned Lina. Lina nodded and followed Pannis into the gate.

Having just stepped forward a few steps, the metallic gate silently closed behind them. Simultaneously, the ceiling suddenly emanated a soft light, illuminating the space. This was a profound corridor, extending forward little by little under the illumination of the ceiling, stretching to its end at a corner several hundred meters away. The corridor was fully metallic, with not a single door on either side, a straight road leading onward.

"Huh?" Lina was startled by the sudden light and let out a short gasp, looking around wildly, "Is this thing also automatic?"

"It appears to be." Pannis could only switch off the Crystal Energy lamp again, but he did not remove it from his arm, pressing on with the lamp slung on him, "Remember when we were in the Crying Cave, how amazed Vivian was that the equipment in the research facility could still operate after six or seven hundred years. Look at the equipment here, impressive."

"Talking like this, be careful, or Vivian might cry." Lina said with a smirk, "But this place is really incredible, how can the equipment still be working normally?"

"Who knows, there’s too much about Goblin technology that life forms from the Third and Fourth Epochs can’t comprehend, that includes the few surviving Goblins." Pannis shook his head and sighed, "Let’s go, let’s see what’s inside."

Proceeding along the metallic corridor, only the echoes of their footsteps reverberated within. The light sound of footsteps, eerily monotonous in the lifeless environment. The corridor wasn’t high, only about two and a half meters. Based on Pannis’ height, he could almost touch the ceiling with an outstretched arm. This was because Goblins were much shorter than humans, averaging only one point four meters. So, humans often felt very uncomfortable when entering buildings from the Goblin Era. Some overly tall humans even had to duck their heads to enter Goblin buildings.

Of course, neither Pannis nor Lina were that tall, both were within the range of normal human stature, so their progression within the corridor was normal. Except for the somewhat oppressive feeling due to the limited space, there was no other abnormal sensation. After a few more minutes of walking, the two arrived at the end of the corridor. Just around the corner was another large metallic door. They thought opening the door would require some effort, but surprisingly, as soon as Pannis stood in front of it, the door simply opened on its own.

"Is this door automatic in both directions?" asked Lina.

"Not necessarily, you first go inside, I will close the door and then stand in front of it on your side, let’s see if it can be opened from the inside. If the door doesn’t open after half a minute, I’ll open it from outside." Pannis said, letting Lina proceed through the door before letting it close. Soon after, the door once again automatically opened, with Lina standing in front saying, "Looks like this one is two-way."

"Come take a look at this." Pannis said from outside the door.

"Huh, a button?" Looking in the direction Pannis was pointing, Lina asked, "There’s text on it too, um, but it’s Goblin Script, completely incomprehensible. Do you know what it’s for?"

"I don’t know. I know some Goblin Script, but even I can’t decipher it, it’s not common Goblin text, it’s an ancient encrypted language from the Goblin Empire era, there aren’t more than three creatures in the world that can understand it." Pannis said regretfully, "However, based on the button’s placement, I suspect it’s a manual control for locking the door, step back, let me press it and see. A button in such an obvious position definitely won’t be anything dangerous, otherwise it wouldn’t be different from murder."

After pressing the button, and standing in front of the gate again, as Pannis had guessed, the gate would no longer open. Pressing the button again restored the automatic opening functionality.

"This thing is really fun." Lina nudged Pannis to the side and played with the button several times, saying with a smile, "Why can’t this technology be used today? What a waste, it is so convenient."

"Maintaining each pressure sensor consumes a lot of energy. The larger the building and the more rooms, the more pressure sensors required. No one today can afford such massive consumption, and it’s meaningless consumption at that," Pannis explained, "But the Goblins didn’t care, it’s said that during their pinnacle, they could drive Energy Extractors directly four to five thousand meters deep into the ground, drawing energy directly from the underground crystal layer, without having to mine crystals near the ground like this era."

Hearing this, Lina looked wistful, "When can our civilization develop to that extent?"

"If the creatures of this epoch don’t do anything suicidal, maybe in another one to two thousand years?"

Pannis said nonchalantly, "It’s not something to concern ourselves with now, don’t daze off, let’s move. Oh, my God, I think I know where those magical beasts came from."

"What..." Lina turned around, her words stuck in her throat as she gaped. After a while, she continued, "... okay, I think I know too. What are all these things?"

Behind the door was an immensely large rectangular room, at least one hundred meters long, and more than ten meters both in width and height. The rectangular room wasn’t empty, on the contrary, it appeared quite crowded, primarily due to what was placed on the room’s left and right. In the middle of the room was a two-meter-wide passage that ran from front to back. On both sides of the passage, transparent crystalline tanks, each reaching five meters high, were symmetrically aligned two by two. There were around fifty or sixty of them. The bases of the crystal tanks were made of metal, and connected to the floor, so their interior structure was hidden from sight. Other than their metallic base, they were entirely constructed from transparent crystal. The four nearest crystal tanks by the door were already shattered, but the rest remained intact. Each tank was filled with a semi-transparent liquid, with a fearsome magical beast soaking in each. Clearly, the shattered tanks by the gate had previously housed the four Earth Walkers.

"Hold on." Seeing Pannis walking forward, Lina abruptly pulled him back, her forehead slick with sweat, her voice was hushed, "I just thought of something, could these dozens of magical beasts, could they all still be alive?"

"I don’t think any of these beasts could live for nearly ten thousand years." Pannis shook his head vigorously.

"But what about those four Earth Walkers, how do you explain that?" Lina swallowed, her voice hoarse, "It’s apparent that those four Earth Walkers managed to break out from here while alive. And look at the crystal shards on the ground, the broken edges are clearly fresh. I’m becoming more and more convinced that I’m right. These beasts are all alive, just in a dormant state due to the environment they’re in, and that’s how they managed to survive nearly ten thousand years."

"Perhaps." Pannis nodded, "Hmm, I understand now. That outside button is for emergency cases. But, it’s evident that the goblins believed it to be absolutely safe and usually didn’t even lock the door. This suggests that these magical beasts wouldn’t wake up by themselves." frёeωebɳovel.com

Lina quietly pointed to the debris on the ground: "There are four here that disagree with your theory."

"It’s probably only one, which then broke the jars to wake up the other three." Pannis said, "Otherwise, it wouldn’t be such a coincidence that exactly four of the same creatures would wake up simultaneously. I presume that the jar in which the creature was submerged must have malfunctioned, leading to this outcome."

"Maybe." Lina nodded in agreement with Pannis’s speculation, "But it seems very dangerous."

"Should we seal the door then and leave?" Pannis recommended.

"No!" Lina loudly interjected, then swiftly covered her mouth, holding her breath. After a long moment of silence, she continued in a low voice, "This place is too fascinating... I... I must take a look."

"Damn it, curiosity will kill us one day." Pannis said helplessly, "Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go."

Both of them advanced like soldiers facing a great enemy, inching closer to the first intact crystal jar. Close to the jar, they could clearly see the creature submerged in it. Inside the jar was a tiger-like creature that stood over one and a half meters tall even on all fours. It had bat-like wings between its front and hind legs.

"Is this... a Bat Tiger?" Lina asked hesitantly.

"Probably, an extinct creature." Pannis was also uncertain, "You’ve heard of it?"

"The benefit of extensive reading, that’s the power of knowledge, you wouldn’t understand." As Lina stared at the Bat Tiger in the jar, she felt as if it could open its eyes at any moment, "It really won’t wake up, right?"

"Thud, thud, thud," Pannis knocked on the jar a few times, shrugging under Lina’s death glare, "See, it’s not going to wake up."

"Why don’t you just go kill yourself, you scared me to death." Lina glared at Pannis for a long moment before eventually moving on to the next jar.

"Is this a Splitfang Spider?" Lina asked.

"Yes, the kind that doesn’t spin webs, but hunts with speed and stealth." Pannis nodded in confirmation.

"I hate these things." Lina grimaced, rubbing her arms with her hands, "How could it be so big, it’s like a meter tall."

"Who knows why." Pannis, clearly not fond of bugs either, responded with disgust, "If you don’t like it, let’s move on to the next one."

"This is a butterfly." This time, Lina spoke without asking.

"Hmm, usually referred to as such if they’re several dozen times smaller." Pannis pointed at the giant butterfly’s wings, "Look at those edges, with a metallic texture, that’s probably not a good sign."

"Gross, this is a cavern worm, right? I’ve never seen one before."

"And this one, a Dragonscale wolf? This has been extinct for a long time too. Where did the goblins get these extinct magical beasts from?"

"I must remind you, this building is nearly ten thousand years old."

"Oh, right. I forgot about that."

As they walked and discussed each jar, they finally reached the end of the hallway, Lina reluctantly stopped, "Fifty jars, no, including the shattered ones, fifty-four jars, seventeen kinds of creatures, quite interesting."