The altar was fine, and there were no cracks or leaks anywhere.
[It is a facility for spatial transfer to another star. It would not break so easily.]
“I was worried because you slept for so long.”
[That was the aftermath of forcing myself to move. If you did not so recklessly stir up trouble, such things would not happen.]
It struck too close to the bone for me to refute.
Nor could I promise that I would not do it again.
In truth, things had gone according to plan this time.
It would have been perfect if not for the very end.
Even so, I could not say that to Soph.
‘If I say that, I’ll just get cursed at even more.’
At any rate, thanks to Soph’s assurance, I was able to bring the others over with an easy mind.
The technicians who crossed over to the underground ruins immediately clung to the altar and examined whether there was anything wrong with the device.
And the others headed toward the passage with me.
“It’s sturdier than I expected. I thought at least some water would leak in… The lake wasn’t small, after all.”
At Magreta’s words, David frowned.
David’s expression had been changing constantly for a while now.
He seemed to be trying to keep his face under control, but it did not look easy.
Even when we arrived in front of the collapsed passage, his expression was the same.
The others were relieved to see that the passage was all right, but he wore a complicated look.
On the way back to the ruins, he said,
“I thought there would be at least somewhere water was flowing in… The problem is how to secure water.”
He had been worrying about the same thing as us.
At those words, Magreta pointed at me.
“Hyeon thought that might happen, so he filled boxes with lake water and brought them.”
Even after hearing that, his expression did not brighten.
“I’m grateful for that. But the problem is what comes next. Captain Hyeon can’t keep hauling water forever, can he?”
He was right.
As the expedition leader, I could not stay here carrying water.
Nor could I hand the box over to someone else.
I did not know if there was a way to undo its binding, but even if there were, no one else could increase the box’s capacity as much as I could.
In the end, the box had to be used by me.
“That is a problem.”
“Food will be a problem at this rate, too… And since that monster is dead, we need to get the hunting teams running again. But every time they go outside, they’ll have to rely on Captain Hyeon because of the sandstorm. That doesn’t make sense either.”
At David’s words, Magreta looked at me.
“Hyeon, you have a way, right?”
It was not easy to lie to Magreta when she asked with a smile.
I told her the truth.
“I can stop the sandstorm for a certain amount of time.”
“So that was it. Since when were you able to… Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
David sighed again.
It seemed he had now given up trying to measure me any further.
“Then sending the hunting teams outside should somehow work out… The problem is water.”
“We have drinking water for now, so let’s go back and think it over slowly.”
At Magreta’s words, David nodded.
“Well, it can’t be helped. For now, settling in comes first.”
Hearing that, I asked,
“Are we moving the base?”
“We have no choice. The ruins connected to this place connected to Earth are the only ones we have.”
It seemed we would have to find more ruins with spatial transfer devices.
Until now, I had thought of the Terraforming Ruins as my personal ruins. But now, they had become a shared base for Earthlings.
It seemed I would have to find a new home.
“I’m sorry for deciding without telling you in advance. There was no other choice. I will make sure to report this matter, and the fact that you allowed us to use the Terraforming Ruins, properly.”
David said that while watching my reaction, but now the compensation no longer felt as valuable as before.
When we returned to the ruins, the inspection of the altar was finished.
“The energy is being replenished properly, and there should be no issue transferring to Earth.”
I already knew that, but the others let out sighs of relief when they heard the technicians’ words.
David gave the next order.
“Then the technicians will stay, and the rest will return.”
At David’s words, the technicians were startled.
“We’re staying?”
“Someone has to guard the ruins. You people have been managing the ruins all this time, haven’t you?”
At David’s indifferent words, the technicians broke into a cold sweat and tried to object.
“That was because it was connected to the surface…”
“This is the same. It is connected by a spatial transfer device, so there is no need to worry. It seems transfers will be possible about twice a day.”
But it was no use.
David cut off the technicians and asked me.
Instead of answering the question, I looked at Hannah.
Transferring from these ruins to the Terraforming Ruins was something Hannah could do as well.
Hannah nodded.
“That much won’t be a problem.”
“Good.”
“But if the expedition goes out exploring…”
The technicians tried to raise objections until the very end, but it was pointless.
“We’ll prepare enough for you to hold out for a few days, so don’t worry.”
Until now, the technicians had, so to speak, been living the easy life down here. But now, their position had been reversed.
It was unfortunate, but no one seemed to feel sorry for them.
We left the technicians behind in the underground ruins and performed the spatial transfer.
Flash!
With a bright burst of light, we arrived in the underground plaza, and an empty greenhouse came into view.
When I had first seen the greenhouse, it had been so abundant…
The empty greenhouse looked somehow desolate.
At that moment, one of the researchers who had returned with us looked at the greenhouse and said,
“You said there were plants inside, right? Even aside from that, it looks like that place would be good for growing plants.”
I had thought the same thing.
Unlike other ruins, this underground plaza was extremely bright.
The air was clean, and the temperature was warm.
If only there had been water, I would have been the first to suggest it.
But there was no water here.
Then Soph spoke.
[Shall I look for it?]
[Pardon?]
When I looked puzzled, Soph spoke again as if I were pathetic.
[Do you not remember what magic I recalled yesterday?]
I searched my memory.
The new magic Soph had used yesterday was magic that let me breathe underwater, and magic that moved water to drag me out of the cave.
Thinking back on it, that magic had been powerful enough to pull up the scout monster along with me.
[Water-related magic… Is that right?]
[Indeed. Naturally, water magic would include magic for finding water, would it not?]
At Soph’s words, I had no choice but to nod.
[I suppose so.]
[Then stand the staff on the altar. Your dark energy is not bad, but using this facility’s power will allow me to cast much stronger magic.]
As Soph said, I stood the spear on the altar.
The people watched me with shining eyes.
This time, no one stopped me, and no one asked me anything.
Because people were watching, I did not take my hand off the spear.
[I shall begin.]
With those words, the magic was cast.
This time, no magic circle formed in the air.
Light that only I could see spread out from the staff, and through the altar, energy seeped into the spear.
“This feels strange.”
“Is something happening?”
Some people sensed something though they could not see it, while others felt nothing at all.
Among them, Hannah was staring fixedly at the spear without a word.
As everyone looked at the spear with various expressions, Soph spoke.
[I found it. Fortunately, there is an underground waterway within range that can be drawn here.]
It was good news.
At this rate, it seemed we would not have to worry about water.
[Then I shall begin. I have to open a water path, so the ground will shake a little.]
With those words, the light of the staff grew stronger.
Hannah’s eyes shone even brighter, and Magreta tilted her head as well.
Rrrrrumble.
Just as Soph had said, the ground shook.
The startled people looked at me, and I told them what I had heard from Soph.
“We are drawing in groundwater using the power of these ruins. It may shake a little.”
At my words, everyone looked at me in surprise.
It was slightly different from the truth, but it was not a lie.
Since Soph did not say anything either, it seemed it did not violate the wizard’s restriction against lying.
However, the shaking did not last long.
The shaking stopped, but no water came out, nor could I hear any such sound.
Instead, I heard Soph click his tongue.
[I drew it close, but the rest is the problem. Since this is a desert region, even if I pull the water upward, it will likely spread into the sand. And I cannot carelessly bore through these ruins either.]
I had nothing to say to Soph’s muttering.
If I had known this would happen, I should have listened to more about magic.
Soph had not been hoping for my advice either.
The one who helped him was someone else.
Wooooong.
A translucent form appeared above the altar.
It was a hologram.
The hologram showed the upper body of a woman.
She was Tenika, the administrator of the ruins.
“A ghost?”
“My goodness, it’s a three-dimensional image made with a hologram.”
I was not the only one who could see it.
While everyone stared at her in a daze, the administrator raised the corners of her mouth.
She was looking precisely at the staff.
Kuuung.
Then, the floor at the center of the greenhouse began to split open.
As if a small silo were opening, a vertical passage appeared in the center of the greenhouse.
Soph, who had been silent, spoke again.
[…A place for it to rise has appeared. I shall draw the water up.]
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
With his words, the ground shook again.
Water rose into the hole at the center of the greenhouse.
A short while later, the shaking ground quieted down, and the rising water stopped before it overflowed onto the floor.
Splash.
A pond had appeared at the center of the empty greenhouse.
While everyone stared at the pond in shock, the image of Administrator Tenika slowly disappeared.
It was incomprehensible, but at the moment she vanished, she waved her hand at me.
[It is hard to believe, but the black stone on the staff has also been filled with energy.]
As Soph said, the black stone at the end of the staff standing on the altar had returned to normal.
It was certainly not yet time for its energy to be filled.
It was a strange thing.
The people went into an uproar over the pond that had suddenly appeared.
They launched into heated debates over how to cultivate crops and how to distribute the water, and some even said access should be restricted in order to protect the water source.
I did not take part in that conversation.
Instead, I simply took out the seeds I had brought from Earth.
They were grain samples for testing.
But now, they were no longer for testing; they had become items for actual cultivation.
After hearing that water had appeared and cultivation was possible, the dissatisfaction seemed to have subsided.
But everyone knew that was only how it appeared on the surface.
Like a wasteland planted with bombs, the base regained its calm.
Two days passed after that.
The Terraforming Ruins had changed from before.
The people used these ruins as their new base and once again built various facilities.
The blacksmith also altered the interior of the building so that people could live there, and began making equipment and weapons again.
The people tried to grow attached to this place.
They decorated bedrooms, installed furniture, and once again turned it into a space with signs of life.
The researchers and many others sweated to turn the greenhouse into farmland.
And the hunting teams and we were about to leave the ruins again.
The sun was rising with the morning glow. The desert at dawn, without the sandstorm blowing, was incredibly mysterious.
For now, there were two times a day when the sandstorm did not blow.
We left the base together with the hunting teams.
After we left the desert, the sandstorm would begin blowing again.
The hunting teams would return in the evening, when the sandstorm stopped.
They had to enter the base while the sandstorm had ceased.
Hunting teams that failed to make the timing would have to wait outside the desert until dawn the next day.
For safety’s sake, it could not be helped.
We did not know where the scouts were, or how many more of them remained.
In order to hide the Terraforming Ruins, we had to minimize the amount of time the sandstorm was stopped.
In truth, even this was not safe.
That was why we had left the ruins.
I had personally proposed this reconnaissance.
This time, our destination was the western mountain range.
It was where the control object was located.
Of course, we still had no way to deal with the control object.
But that did not mean we could pretend not to see it.
At the very least, we had to confirm where it was and what it was doing.
This expedition was reconnaissance for that purpose.
And there was one more thing we had to explore.
In truth, to me, this side was the more important reason.
[There was once a large city near that place. And in that city, there was a spatial transfer facility leading to another star.]
The ruined ancient city and the new spatial transfer facility I had heard about from Soph.
At last, it was time for a proper exploration of the ruins.