’White Ladies are weak to fire. ording to the gazillion books I consulted recently, they burn like gasoline. I don’t know what kind of rtionship these two have, but if they coordinate their attacks I’ll be in a pinch. I must even the field.’ Lith thought.


    The Mage yer ignored the White Lady’s grievances and jumped at Lith’s spell, incapable to see past the meal served in front of itself. Lith dispelled his air dome and struck with the Gatekeeper sword infused by darkness magic, the only element Mage yers couldn’t feed upon.


    The creature was unable to scream, but its eyes went wide open as the enchanted metal pierced through the orange gas, creating a gaping hole the size of a ser ball on its chest for a split second.


    ’Solus, wasn’t his heart supposed to be there?’ Lith asked. Their vengeful heart was the source of all the powers a Mage yer had and also their weak point. Only a physical weapon could destroy it, but finding it wasn’t easy.


    The undead could move it freely inside their gaseous body, even while they were fighting.


    ’Yes, it was. Now it’s in theher regions.’ She replied. Lith’s Life Vision was blinded by the magical gas that made up the Mage yer’s body, but her mana sense was keen enough to follow the heart’s movements.


    The White Lady had never stopped hurling new water. She was using it to shape a water cage to drown Lith. He was an adult, so he was bound to taste like horseshit, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.


    Lith blocked the lunge of the Mage yer, interrupting both its attack and its spell while unleashing a stream of lightning from his hand. The electricity traveled through the water and entered the White Lady’s mouth, setting her aze from the inside.


    It wouldn’t have been so easy in normal circumstances. The starvation had turned her flesh into dried meat, making it even more inmmable than a White Lady already was.


    The undead turned into a pyre while screaming in agony. It took her less than a second to be reduced to a wet pile of ashes.


    Now that Lith could focus on a single opponent, he conjured a thickyer of spirit magic around himself. It would be useless against a gaseous opponent, but the enchanted de the Mage yer was using was physical.


    Lith used spirit magic to envelope the sword more each time it shed with his Gatekeeper, making it slower as his grip over the de of the enemy became stronger. The Mage yer wasn’t able to use fusion magic and with its sword being constantly pulled in random directions, it was unable toplete a single spell


    Soon the second undead was at Lith’s mercy.


    Spirit magic kept its de locked in Lith’s left hand while the Gatekeeper in his right hand cut through its body so fast that its heart was perfectly visible, no matter where the Mage yer moved it.


    Lith cut the heart into small pieces and kept cutting it until the smoke stopped regenerating. Unfortunately, the sword disappeared as soon as the undead was vanquished.


    A Mage yer’s physical body actually consisted of two parts: the heart and the de.


    ’It’s very odd, Solus. ording to the books, the sword should be an exact replica of the de master’s weapon. Yet in the pictures we found, their enchanted weapons had nothing special. I’d remember so many runes.’ Lith thought.


    ’Yeah. It’s likely due to Huryole being very ancient. If the Mage yer was centuries old, maybe so it was the Forgemastering process they used when it was still alive. It’s too bad that conjured des have no pseudo core. We might have learned a lot.’ She sighed.


    ’Look at the bright side. If the path in front of us continues to be straightforward, those creatures would have reached the exit in no time and then we would have been forced toe here to y them.


    ’Not only did we save ourselves a trip, but also we might get deeper inside the city than anyone else ever managed to!’ Lith replied, regretting his words the moment he thought them.


    ’Way to jinx it, Lith.’ Solus chuckled, hoping that for once they would be lucky.


    Before moving on, Lith searched the room. The dormitory was a long rectangr room, and least 100 meters (330 feet) long with four-poster beds lined up against the wall. In front of each bed there was a dimensional chest, ready to be imprinted.


    ’This is even odder. ording to Professor Wanemyre, a magical item that’s not imprinted can’tst long. Then how can these dimensional chests be in perfect condition?’ Lith thought.


    ’Maybe they are also full!’ Solus said.


    ’I told you to look at the bright side, not to start daydreaming. This is barely the third room. We might as well be like the hundredth visitor or something.’ Lith still imprinted one of the chests to probe its contents.


    It contained a chamber pot, some kind of odd looking pajamas, and a set of items for personal hygiene.


    ’This ce must be very old if they expected the residents to use chamber pots. It means they had yet to discover how to use mana crystals to obtain tap water.’ Lith thought.


    Their path kept being straightforward only for a few more rooms. Lith found a training weapons warehouse, an office filled with paperwork written in an unknownnguage, and a canteen bigger than the vige of Lutia before they met a crossroads.


    At that point, Lith checked his pocket watch and started to draw a map. During his past visits, he had never managed to get very far due to his busy schedule and the abundance of monsters.


    ording to the army’s information, every time a monster was killed, it was sent back to square one, near Huryole’s core. Also, the city was built on multiple levels and all the rooms would be shuffled every time thebyrinth rearranged itself.


    Lith had no idea what floor the city core was on, nor where the good stuff could be stored. Yet the prospect of finding ancient artifacts and study the pseudo core of a being capable of resurrecting its minions without taking away their free will drove him to continue his search.


    After several more offices, pantries, and even an inner garden bigger than a football stadium, Lith was about to run out of time. He started to run and avoided searching the rooms hoping to find something useful.


    When he stumbled into a Forgemasteringb, Lith knew that it would be hisst stop. There were so many enchanted items to almost blind their magical senses. The Forge in the middle of the room was made of an unknown metal.


    One second it was white with ck veins all over it and the next second it was ck with white veins. The Forge was solid, but its surface constantly changed, as if there were two colliding forces battling for dominion over it


    Lith struck it with the hilt of the Gatekeeper, making it emit a crystal clear sound he had never heard before.


    ’Solus, this thing isn’t made of Adamant, right?’ He asked while cing his hand on the Forge and using Invigoration.


    ’Nope. I have no idea what it is, but its mana flow is magnificent.’


    Lith couldn’t agree more. Unlike his Adamant Forge, the one in front of him was able to draw in the world energy andpress it to the point it almost had a pseudo core even though it wasn’t enchanted.