Lian stood in front of it and looked at the large door, unfortunately, passing through this door was not easy either.
Abyss Veil could hide his presence from the Guards.
But the locking mechanisms of the gate were not living things, they did not care how hidden his presence was, and to pass through, he first had to be able to open the door.
And opening the door required him to be recognized by the locking mechanism.
"Looks like I have no choice." Lian placed his palm on one of the seals.
He activated Cataclysm Pulse.
But not like in battle. This time, he only sent a very thin wave of destruction into the structure.
The wave moved through the door.
He controlled the pressure, if he used too much power, the entire gate would explode and the Alarm would activate.
That was why, instead of breaking it, he only disrupted one of the internal connections of the locking mechanism, and the golden light shook for a moment and then went out.
The main lock became loose.
Lian opened the door only enough for himself to pass through the gap, then closed it again.
When he entered the First Archive, he stopped for a moment.
The space was huge, much larger than he had expected from outside, hundreds of pillars stood in the main hall.
Between them, shelves rose several meters high.
But the Archive did not only contain books, there were thousands of stone tablets and Crystal Memories with weak white and blue lights moving inside them.
Pieces of tree bark with ancient writings carved into them.
Maps so old that even the shapes of the three forests were different on them.
Broken Artifacts, rusty swords, and seals belonging to Kingdoms that no longer existed.
But his surprise only lasted for a few minutes and Lian quickly started searching.
First, Forgotten Tree.
He found a lot of information, its estimated age, its role in the Water Cycle of the three forests, and its connection to the world’s Mana Channels.
Its connection to Giant’s Graveyard, but there was nothing about the Cocoon.
Then Black Silence.
The results became fewer, many documents only mentioned it indirectly.
"Corruption."
"The Final Plague."
"Silence."
"The Enemy Without Form."
But there was no complete explanation, especially about the Vessel and the fetus, there was nothing.
Lian went after Cindar Vael and found more information.
First Founder.
Last Survivor.
Builder of Rootcrown.
Bearer of the First Root.
But details about the Final Battle? Almost nothing, the records were either incomplete or parts of them had been intentionally erased, as if someone did not want any trace of the final battle between the leaders of the ancient civilizations of this world and the Corrupted Titan to remain.
Hours passed.
Lian left the main hall behind and entered the second section, but still found nothing.
Then the personal Archive of the old Rootwardens.
War maps, reports about Forgotten Tree, records of Expedition deaths, but the more he searched, the clearer the problem became.
Everything that actually came close to answering his questions suddenly stopped.
It was as if someone had recorded history up to a certain point and then drawn a blade across all the important lines.
There was not even a direct mention of the Black Silence Fetus.
Even the real reason for Forgotten Tree drying up was not recorded, as if no one really knew the reason for it, so it had never been recorded.
Finally, Lian put the last book back in its place and stood there alone for a few seconds, then sighed.
"Nothing." He felt that he might have really reached a dead end.
Why was Selina there?
Why was Forgotten Tree keeping her inside the Cocoon?
How had Black Silence entered her body?
Was the Titan still the main Vessel? Was the Calamity being transferred?
Was the death of the tree caused by this transfer or was it related to something else?
And even if he understood all of them, how was he supposed to Devour The Black Silence?
The Quest appeared in his mind like a bad joke.
[Devour The Black Silence.]
Lian pressed his lips together, having an abnormal class that had never existed before also came with problems like this.
He basically did not know what he was facing or what he should do, he was completely in the dark and had no guidance, he had to discover and learn everything by himself.
For a moment, he looked at the huge shelves of the Archive, the information of hundreds of years of civilization was here.
But exactly what he needed did not exist, or worse, had been intentionally removed.
Lian decided not to waste any more time, if the First Archive had no answer, he had to return to Forgotten Tree.
Maybe the Cocoon itself would reveal more information as the Gestation progressed.
"If there is no other choice, I will have to agree to destroying the Cocoon." He thought to himself, if no one stopped him, they might face something they had no ability to resist.
As he was turning to leave, Predator’s Instincts suddenly reacted.
"This?" Lian went silent.
Three presences were approaching.
This time, the Skill was not giving him a simple warning of danger.
After Predator’s Instincts evolved, Lian could also sense the biological patterns of living creatures within a limited range.
He focused, three blood flows could be seen behind the western wall.
Not really with his eyes, but as an instinctive image in his mind.
Three Cindari, two were normal and one was stronger, but none of them were strong enough to be considered a serious threat to him.
They seemed to be here to patrol and nothing more.
He did not care much, he could move to the side of the hall and let them pass, there was no need to kill them.
But at that exact moment, he sensed something else.
Lian became completely still, Predator’s Instincts was still active, three blood flows were approaching the Archive from the hallway, after reaching a certain point and checking the surroundings, they turned around and left the area again.
Just as he had guessed, they were only a security patrol.
"But what is this?" But something else caught his attention, there was another flow.
Not in front of him or behind the wall, but below, much deeper below.
Lian slowly looked at the floor of the Archive, for a few seconds he thought he had sensed it wrong and focused again.
The flow existed.
But it was weak, very weak, something like blood was moving under the ground.
The problem was that no specific living creature could be sensed.
There was no beating heart, no breathing, only a weak flow, like veins that were still working inside a dead body.
Lian opened the World Memory Map, the map spread out in front of him.
Lord’s Root Palace.
According to the map, the lowest floor should be the Archive itself, there should be nothing deeper than this.
According to the map, the First Archive was the lowest built space in this area.
"Then what is down there?" Lian looked at the floor again.
Predator’s Instincts was not wrong, the flow existed.
Unless—
"A hidden floor." His eyes narrowed slightly.
Lian followed the underground flow, the image of blood in his mind passed under the floor and moved toward the northern part of the hall.
He slowly moved between the shelves, the flow finally became concentrated under one of the Statues.
He stood in front of it, the Statue was larger than all the other statues in the Archive.
Cindar Vael.
The Founder stood with one hand on his sword and the other around a golden root.
Lian examined the base of the Statue, there was no handle, no gap, or anything like that.
"I don’t have time for these games."
He placed his palm on the stone.
[Cataclysm Pulse.]
But this time, he did not release the wave outward, he sent it underground.
The wave passed through the layers of stone, the reflection came back and most of the floor was completely solid, but there was an empty space under the Statue!
"Found you." A short smile appeared on Lian’s lips.
He pushed his fingers into the very thin gap between the base of the Statue and the floor, the stone would not even move for a normal human.
Lian applied force, his Power increased, the muscles in his arms and shoulders tightened, and suddenly a very quiet sound came from under the stone.
Then the huge stone panel rose several centimeters.
At that exact moment, the hidden mechanisms around it lit up and golden lines spread across the floor.
The Alarm was activating.
Lian frowned, he gathered Thunder Calamity on two fingers at the lowest intensity possible.
A thin lightning bolt entered it, only one precise current, the first connection burned, the second shut down.
The third resisted for a moment, he applied more pressure, the lightning passed through it and it burned as well, in short, the Alarm never fully activated.
Lian lifted the stone panel higher, darkness could be seen underneath.
A staircase!
A narrow staircase that went straight down, deeper than anything that existed on the World Memory Map.
He entered without hesitation and lowered the panel as much as possible behind him.
Abyss Veil was still active.
Although Lian did not know that the three Cindari who had been patrolling had noticed those strange vibrations and were quickly coming to check.
At the same time, Lian was going down the stairs, after a few meters, the structure of the area changed.
The walls were made of black stone, dry white roots came out from the cracks.
There were very old writings on the walls and their language was different even from the writings in the city.
It was clear that they had been written in a much more ancient language, a language that was probably no longer used.
There was no longer any smell of the Archive, this place was not a library, it had an old smell and a slight smell of death and dead bodies.
Predator’s Instincts continued to follow the underground flow.
The deeper he went, the clearer the image became, but it also became stranger.
There was still no heart.
But something like blood was moving through the walls.
As if this entire place was the body of a dead creature whose circulation system had simply forgotten to stop.
Lian felt uncomfortable.
The hallway opened after the last step, he entered a hall that did not make sense with anything under the Palace in terms of size.
The ceiling was dozens of meters high, black pillars rose on both sides of the hall and carvings were made on every pillar.
He slowly moved forward, the first image showed a huge city that looked nothing like Cindari architecture.
The second pillar showed creatures descending from the sky.
The third, Forgotten Tree.
But the tree in that image was completely alive, its branches were full of light.
In the fourth carving, several leaders from different races and civilizations stood in front of a giant figure.
The Corrupted Titan, chains were wrapped around its body.
Something white could be seen in the center of the hall.
Lian stopped and looked more carefully, then realized that it was a coffin!
Larger than a normal coffin, made of white and black stone.
Seven golden chains were wrapped around it, each chain came from one of the seven directions of the hall and was connected to the coffin.
From under the coffin, there were also strands that looked like dried veins going into the ground.
Predator’s Instincts reacted, the blood flow he had sensed belonged to the corpse inside this coffin.
Lian slowly moved closer, each of his steps disappeared into the cold and empty hall, there was writing on the floor in front of the coffin.
Very old.
The System began translating.
[Ancient Script Detected.]
[Translation in Progress...]
Several seconds passed and then the text appeared in front of his eyes.
[Here Lies Cindar Vael.]
[The Last Survivor of the Final Battle.]
[The First Root of the Cindari.]
He stood there, his eyes first remained on the writing.
"So this is a tomb? The tomb of the Founder of the Cindari civilization?"