After clearing every corner of the nest and converting the surplus resources into essence, Ashe suddenly asked, "Don't you get the feeling this place isn't just the Feral Wolf Dragon's lair?"
Sonya raised an eyebrow. "What do you an?"
"I've been suspicious of the Resource Point machines since last night. Their strange, ancient construction could drive any engineer or sorcerer mad. But there's no way Knowledge Creatures built them, right?"
He leaned casually against the hood of the sports car, unconcerned that the chanisms beneath might fling blades or nick his feet. "Even the most delicate Knowledge Creatures don't have claws sensitive enough to match an ogre's pinky for picking its nose."
Dia's imagination ran wild. "Are you suggesting they could secretly play the piano, write calligraphy, or craft things with their claws, but as soon as we show up, they hide all the tools so we wouldn't discover their civilization?"
Ashe went on, "Think about it. What do Knowledge Creatures do when we sorcerers aren't around?"
"There's no entertainnt here, and they don't need to hunt. The only thing they could be doing is... hide-and-seek," Sonya said.
"Or maybe so kind of social—"
Before Ashe could finish, Sonya smacked his shoulder and interrupted, "Hey! The Witch hasn't had much experience with others. Don't spout dirty jokes in front of her!"
"Am I allowed to say them to you, then? And I wasn't talking about that! I said social exchange. It's your mind that's dirty, thinking the worst of !"
"What's a dirty joke?" Dia asked, genuinely curious.
Ashe looked at her. "Don't White Queen and Black Butler know either?"
"They don't," Dia said, adjusting her glasses. "We're just different personalities. What I don't know, they don't know. White Queen has a rough idea, but she'll explain it when we return to the real world."
"I can give an example. Take Swordswoman. Stop. No need to waste Ti Class spirits. Your finances probably aren't that abundant, right?"
Sonya snorted and stopped activating One Day of Swordcraft. "Watcher, are you saying the production machines at the Resource Points, and the broken walls in the Feral Wolf Dragon's lair, were all built by another civilization?"
"That's the only explanation. Could sorcerers have once established civilizations on the Continent of Ti? Judging from the abstract design of these machines, maybe ogres are actually pure-blooded descendants of sorcerers, and the rest of us are just mud-blooded thieves of mana."
The theory was intriguing, but Sonya shook her head. "Ti on the Continent of Ti flows along the River of Flowing Gold. In a few hours, this place will turn into a Static Zone, where only Knowledge Creatures can survive. Any sorcerers here would be frozen in history. How could anyone have built a civilization in such conditions?"
Dia spoke up, "Could Knowledge Creatures have beco sorcerers too? In the fairy-tale New World, humans once considered lowly by elven sorcerers suddenly gained sorcerers among them. They rose, destroyed the elven kingdom, and built a new civilization. Maybe Knowledge Creatures once ruled, but other sorcerer races rose and destroyed their civilization."
"Could such a story really end up in a fairy tale?" Sonya said, incredulous. "I think it's more likely that ancient sorcerers invented a Miracle to survive in the Static Zone, creating a sorcerer empire on the Continent of Ti."
They all turned to Ashe. "Watcher, what do you think?"
"Hmm," Ashe said, stroking his chin. "Dia's imagination is impressive, and Swordswoman's reasoning is solid. Both have their rits. But you're thinking too small. Since we're speculating, why not think about the world as a whole?"
He looked up at the sky veiled by the Ascending Golden Rain and toward the distant colossal feet of the White Ox. "Perhaps in the past, there were no Celestial Ox or River of Flowing Gold. The Continent of Ti might once have been an ordinary, habitable land where a thriving civilization existed."
Sonya instinctively wanted to object, but Ashe waved his hand. "I know what you're thinking. Maybe a thousand years, two thousand, or even ten thousand years ago, the Celestial Ox already existed. But how about thirty thousand, a hundred thousand years ago? Over long enough ti, even monuntal changes beco ordinary truths of nature."
"Maybe soday in the future, the Celestial Ox will tire and stop moving. The active regions of the Continent of Ti will beco permanently fixed, and future sorcerers won't even believe that past sorcerers once had to follow the White Bull across the land."
The Scarlet Swordswoman had to admit the possibility. "But what practical purpose is there in speculating about sothing unverifiable?"
Ashe glanced at Sonya. "Just a bit of idle chatter after work. Besides, isn't it a little romantic? We're uncovering the mysteries of the Virtual World together, exploring the history of the past like heroes in an adventure story. With all your dayti training and nightti expeditions, I worry you might be too tense. A little conversation like this is just to help you relax."
Sonya protested, "I'm not that fragile!"
Ashe teased, "Then who just activated the One Day of Swordcraft, ready to attack a teammate?"
At that mont, he caught Dia wearing a thoughtful expression and asked, "Do you have any ideas?"
Dia replied, "No. I was just thinking... in fairy tales, adventure teams tend to have two boys and a girl. The romantic entanglents vary, but it almost always ends with the second male sacrificing himself, while the first male and the female lead live happily ever after. But we're two girls and one boy, so it doesn't quite fit."
Ashe couldn't help thinking that Dia might have been reading too many different kinds of fairy tales.
He continued, "Also, if civilizations really existed here, then besides Resource Points, there should be ruins left behind sowhere on the Continent of Ti, right?"
Sonya and Dia's eyes lit up simultaneously. Ruins!
There was a classic, tiless the in both fairy tales and fantasy dramas. It followed a lucky few who stumbled upon the heritage of past sorcerers or the ruins of ancient organizations and set out to beco legendary sorcerers themselves. In that context, there was no way Dia and Sonya could resist discovering sothing like that.
Sorcerer civilizations advanced generation by generation. Each new generation of sorcerers would always be stronger than the last. Sorcerers' resources, however, were universally useful. For instance, spirits, gold, and silver from ten thousand years ago were still usable today. Even old sorcery classes could be revived, while only outdated ideologies withered away.
Additionally, since the Virtual World itself contained the inheritance of sorcerers, it wouldn't be surprising if sorcerer ruins existed not only on the Continent of Ti but even deep in the Sea of Knowledge.
Ashe looked at Sonya, but she shook her head. "I haven't found any related information. I could ask the professor tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up."
"Why? Have you finally earned the professor's envy for being too reckless?" Ashe said.
Sonya glared at him. "You're half right. But I haven't been reckless. The main problem is that I have to hide the fact that I've entered the Continent of Ti. I can only ask the professor under the pretense of preparing for class.
"And even then, I think the professor might not know all the secrets of the Continent of Ti."
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