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Chapter 12: Wizard's Legacy
Chapter 12: Wizard's Legacy
The heavy iron door was adorned with intricate, intertwining patterns that hinted at a deeper, mystical significance.
Kuei and the others were bewildered by the designs, but Su Nan recognized them immediately.
Enchanted runes!
The structure of the runes was not particularly complex, suggesting that they were likely a simple magic trap. If anyone touched the iron door, the runes would activate, issuing a warning and attacking the intruder.
However, the runes were now dim and lifeless, clearly long since deactivated, a result of the ravages of time.
No matter how intricate the enchanted runes, they could not withstand the relentless passage of time.
"Is that iron door the entrance to where the Iron Devourers are created?"
Kuei looked at Su Nan, who nodded and added a cautionary note.
"Be careful. The Iron Devourers won't let us enter without a fight."
As if to confirm Su Nan's words, the moment he finished speaking, Iron Devourers suddenly burst from the rocky walls on either side of the iron door, charging at the group with a fierce wind in their wake.
The group was prepared, and they met the creatures head-on without hesitation. Only Brad took a few steps back, holding his heavy shield in front of Su Nan.
After witnessing Su Nan's abilities, everyone knew he was the key to dealing with the Iron Devourers and naturally prioritized his safety.
Su Nan murmured a series of strange syllables. This time, he didn't use Acid Splash but instead opted for Mage Hand.
From over ten meters away, an Iron Devourer that was leaping toward Kuei suddenly halted mid-air, its body defying gravity as it flailed helplessly, unable to land.
Kuei's eyes lit up, and he seized the opportunity to dart forward, delivering several swift sword strikes to the same spot on the Iron Devourer's neck, severing its head.
The headless Iron Devourer soon fell to the ground, motionless and silent.
Compared to Acid Splash, which could only attack once, Mage Hand had a longer duration, making it perfect for assisting Kuei in killing the Iron Devourers.
"Fortunately, these low-level constructs lack the intelligence to target the more vulnerable spellcasters first. Otherwise, if they all attacked at once, Brad alone wouldn't be able to hold them off," Su Nan thought to himself.
Of course, if the Iron Devourers weren't constructs, he wouldn't be limited to using Acid Splash and Mage Hand. A single Flash of Light would render these creatures, which were highly sensitive to light after living in the dark depths for so long, blind and helpless.
With the group working in perfect harmony, one Iron Devourer after another fell to the ground.
As Su Nan had suspected, the Iron Devourers' task was to guard the iron door. Despite the heavy casualties, they showed no signs of retreating.
After about ten minutes, with a final, sharp crack, the last Iron Devourer was cut in half and fell to the ground.
In total, over twenty Iron Devourers had been eliminated.
Kuei's face was a mix of barely contained excitement and joy as he looked at the scattered black stone iron fragments on the ground.
Before coming here, he never would have imagined that the greatest threat in the black stone mine could be overcome so easily!
And it was all thanks to Su Nan.
Looking at Su Nan's back, Kuei couldn't help but feel a deep sense of admiration.
When Su Nan first said he wanted to become a wizard, Kuei had thought he was just being foolish, that he had been driven mad by his books and was foolishly believing what he read.
But now, not only had Su Nan succeeded, but he had also become incredibly powerful, with a myriad of strange and potent abilities that left everyone in awe.
Kuei found himself intrigued.
Once they returned to the inner keep, should he try to become a wizard as well?
Su Nan didn't notice Kuei's thoughts and quickly approached the iron door to examine it closely.
As expected, the magical traps on the door had long since failed.
Su Nan called over two knights, and together they pushed the heavy iron door open.
Rumble! The iron door slowly creaked open, causing a shower of dust and debris to fall from the ceiling, sending clouds of dust into the air.
Once the dust settled, the scene behind the iron door gradually became clear.
Inside was a vast hall, roughly four to five hundred square meters in size.
The entire hall was constructed of grayish-blue square stone bricks, with a thick layer of dust covering the floor. There were scattered footprints and marks where creatures had lain down, indicating that this was where the Iron Devourers usually resided.
At the far end of the hall, there were three open stone doors, their interiors dark and indiscernible.
The knights held their torches and entered the three stone doors one by one, checking for any dangers. Once they confirmed it was safe, Su Nan and Kuei followed them inside.
The first stone door led to what appeared to be a storage room, which was quite large and filled with stacks of black stone iron ingots.
These were not freshly mined black stone iron ores but refined black stone iron ingots.
Seeing the countless, neatly stacked ingots, everyone's expressions turned slack-jawed.
"We've hit the jackpot," Jorden muttered, his eyes fixed on the ingots as he swallowed hard.
No one laughed at his reaction; they all wore similar expressions.
Even Kuei's eyes were wide with shock, a mix of astonishment, joy, and disbelief twisting his face.
Black stone iron was as hard as refined iron but much lighter, making it more valuable by weight. The ingots before them, while not worth a fortune, were certainly worth six to seven thousand gold coins.
That was nearly a decade's worth of tax revenue for Blackstone City!
Such a windfall was enough to make anyone ecstatic.
Su Nan, however, didn't have much attachment to gold. Though he was surprised, he quickly regained his composure and moved on to the next room.
The second room was slightly smaller and filled with various tools, including a forge, molds, and a bellows.
The most eye-catching feature was a massive stone table in the center, over three meters long and nearly two meters wide, covered in messy cutting marks.
Su Nan glanced at the pile of black stone iron in the corner and immediately understood.
This must have been the laboratory where the wizard's apprentice crafted the Iron Devourers.
He had already ruled out the possibility that the owner was a full-fledged wizard.
The level of the Iron Devourers and the craftsmanship of the magical traps on the iron door indicated that the owner was at most a wizard's apprentice, far from the level of a true wizard.
If it were a real wizard, their group would have been unable to breach the outer defenses and enter this place.
With this in mind, Su Nan quickly searched the entire room.
To his disappointment, he found nothing of value besides the tools and ingots.
Su Nan shook his head and left the room, entering the third one.
Compared to the previous two rooms, the third was smaller but more intricately decorated and comfortable. It contained a small bed, a desk, and a bookshelf, clearly indicating it was a study.
Su Nan's eyes lit up as they fell on the bookshelf filled with books.
(End of Chapter)
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