The Holy Man of Another Century Gospel

Chapter 33 Harvest from the Basement
With a dull thud, Yanzuo fell to the ground in the basement and could not go down any further.

What appeared before Eric's eyes was a circular underground library.

There were bookshelves and glowing minerals hanging on the wall at the end. Although the light was dim, it was enough for him to see the approximate size of this underground space.

"There's actually a basement hidden here..."

Eric was genuinely surprised. In his previous life, he had never heard of anyone discovering this place. Could it be that this was some kind of hidden quest that could only be found?
"Mr. Eric?"

Alena poked her head out from above. Sophie and several guards from the City Lord's Mansion also gathered at the cave entrance. "This place is..."

"I don't know either." Eric shook his head at them, "But it shouldn't be dangerous. I'll check it out first and then find a way to get up."

He stood up and left the rock seat, looking around. The air in the library was heavy and had a strange smell, as if it had not been flowing for a long time. However, this was probably the reason why these books had been preserved for so long.

Eric walked to one of the bookshelves and picked up a book at random. Before he could open it, the pages inside fell out like dry powder, and were shredded into pieces as if they had been shredded by a shredder several times.

Well, it wasn't saved either.

All that was left in his hand was a slightly harder and thicker book cover, and the words on it were already blurred.

"Breeze Plains...Pearl...Tia...Lutia?"

This was probably a book introducing the customs and culture of the imperial capital, Lutia. The full name was probably "Lutia, the Pearl of the Breeze Plains". This was a little beyond Eric's expectations. He thought that the books hidden here were all academic books related to magic.

He flipped through a few more books, and they all fell to pieces as soon as he picked them up. Judging from the vague titles, they had nothing to do with magic.

So these are some of Flanders' personal collection of books?
Did he think from the beginning that he would be inseparable from this place for the rest of his life? Or did he intend to use this place as a hiding place?

Everyone was dead, and Eric couldn't figure out what was going on. He didn't bother to dwell on it anymore and continued to wander around the library to see if he could find anything remotely useful.

The basement was circular, and the bookshelves were arranged in a cross shape. Eric counted them and found there were sixteen bookshelves in four directions. The closer to the middle, the fuller the bookshelves were. The books on them were also classified, which saved him the trouble of checking each book one by one.

"This is... 'The Duke of Cassel'? A biography, right?"

After discovering the biography of the Duke of Cassel, who was also one of the Twelve Founding Knights, Eric searched for it and indeed found the biography of his ancestor, but the pages inside had also turned to ashes.

"it's a pity."

Eric walked and stopped, turned around one bookshelf after another, but did not find any valuable books, not even a complete book. He had no hope anymore.

The people above were almost done with the looting, smashing, moving and burning. Leslie squatted at the entrance of the cave again and asked if they needed him to come down to help.

"Come down? No need to come down. You might as well find a rope or something. I don't know if the mechanism here can get me up..."

Walking to another bookshelf, Eric picked up a book at random and answered the captain of the guards while looking at the title.

[Skill Book: Fire Bird]

Fire Bird: Condenses a large amount of fire elemental energy, forming a flaming bird that flies towards the target, ignoring 50% of their magic defense. Prerequisite: Fire Controller (Apprentice) or above. Attribute requirement: Spirit 300.

Eric's hand shook and he almost dropped it.

"Damn...skill book!"

Here comes something really valuable!

Professional mentors in this world are not as easy to find as in games, and learning skills is not an easy thing.

A skill book is like a mentor who guarantees to teach you until you master it, as long as your profession and attributes meet the requirements.

He had to keep it for Irene.

Eric looked at the bookshelf where he took the skill book again and felt disappointed. Unlike the crowded bookshelves in front of him, there were only a dozen or so books here, and not even a row was full.

He picked up another book, which was the Lightning Chain for the Thunder Mage.

"'Slow Waves'... 'Swamp Magic'... 'Dark Curtain'... 'Wall of Strong Wind'..."

There were more than a dozen skill books, all of which were magic skills without exception, but the professions were different. Obviously, they were not left by Flanders for his own use. Eric guessed that these were collected during his time studying magic at Xingyuan Academy.

"Xingyuan Academy..."

If we only talk about the diversity of development in magic research, Eric actually wants to send Irene to study there.

The magic academy based in the land of chaos has a wide variety of schools of thought, even accommodating necromancers. There are no taboos in the study of magic, so it has developed more vigorously. Today, those well-known magicians have more or less some learning experience in Xingyuan Academy.

But at the same time, the lack of taboos also made it more dangerous. Magic was inherently difficult for ordinary people to control, especially with Irene still in a state of confusion. Eric didn't want his sister to study in such a chaotic place, even if he came along. Irene was not lacking in talent; all she needed was the right guidance to help her enter the world of magic. The Lutia School of Magic on the outskirts of the imperial capital couldn't be more right—almost all of its professors were former court mages, and after graduation, the main destinations for students were the palace, noble residences, or the imperial army. It was the official training base for magic talents in the Delan Empire.

"At least they have some serious teachers over there. Let's send Irene to the imperial capital to study for a few years first."

Eric silently planned the future for his sister. The brother and sister were very close, and he believed that Irene would follow his arrangements.

After collecting all the dozen or so magic skill books on the bookshelf, Eric quickened his pace and continued to browse the remaining bookshelves.

There was very little content on the bookshelf in the back row, but it was more related to magic. Eric quickly found a few intact notebooks and flipped through the contents. They were either experiences in learning magic or records of magic experiments. He felt that they should be of some value, so he accepted them all.

"Um... parchment?"

Coming to the last bookshelf, there were only two parchment scrolls on it, one rolled up and placed on top, and the other spread out and placed underneath.

It’s more attractive to hide it.

Eric put down the skill book and notes he had been carrying all the way, took out the parchment, unfolded it and took a look.

The main body of the painting was a sketch of a huge rock that Eric recognized immediately.

"The giant meteorite beneath Xingyuan Academy?"

Next to it were some handwritten annotations, saying that there were magical fluctuations within the meteorite and that it would absorb magic, etc. These were all things Eric had already learned in the game.

There must be some secret in that meteorite, but it was not revealed in the game until he came to this world. As for things related to magic, Eric estimated that he would not have much chance to explore them. He quickly lost interest and turned his attention to another parchment.

When he saw this, cold sweat broke out on his face.

Leslie and the others waited for a while, and suddenly heard a rumbling sound, similar to the sound when Eric sat down on the stone seat just now. When they got closer to take a look, they saw that he was indeed sitting on the stone seat again and slowly rising up.

The noise continued for a while, and the stone seat returned to the same height as the hall floor. Leslie moved closer and said, "Master..."

"Don't come over here." Eric called him quickly, "Don't touch anything."

"Ah?" The captain of the guards was confused, but stopped immediately.

"Take this." Eric handed him the magic books he brought with him, asked everyone to retreat outside the hall, then turned to face the stone seat and began to feel around.

"Hmm... I found it. It's here."

After groping for three depressions in the corners of the stone seat, Eric inserted his fingers into them and slowly turned them.

click-

With a slight sound, he took a deep breath, clasped his fingers tighter, and exerted force on his wrists at the same time, slowly lifting the entire chair seat.

And below the plane are dozens of densely packed green bottles.

According to what was written on the parchment, it contained the highly concentrated plague toxin that Flanders had spent decades extracting from the undead.

"What kind of antisocial personality is this..."

While cursing, Eric carefully took out the small bottle placed in the middle. There was explosive in it. Once triggered by the mechanism on the stone base, the poison would spread to the entire hall in an instant.

Fortunately, this was not the mechanism he touched before.

Throwing the vial into the already smashed lab with a loud explosion, Eric asked Leslie to find him a container that could hold the remaining vials.

The captain of the guards searched for a long time and brought over a piece of string and a large piece of rag. "Master, what is this?"

"This is the high concentration of plague toxin the old man mentioned. We can't leave it here. Be careful. If the bottle breaks, we'll both be half dead."

"..."

Leslie was immediately horrified.

"Plague... Didn't the young master say that a way to resist and cure it has been found?"

Eric secured the small bottle with a thin rope and then carefully wrapped it with rags. He glanced at the corpse of the necromancer not far away, then looked at him.

"It's just a lie. Do you believe it?"

(End of this chapter)