The Black Dragon of Extreme Annihilation (mini size) wiped out 12 Orihalcon Golems in the blink of an eye.
　The experience went into me and I was at level 57.

　After the battle was over, a mechanical voice echoed inside my head.


　...... Its content was something that made me want to tilt my head in the air, to say the least.


''Orichalcon Golem, 0 remaining.
　Exclusion failed.
　Error, no response has been set for failure to eliminate.
　I'll end the process, thank you for your help.''


　What the hell.
　The person who made these ruins may have been the Great Sage Mobius, but apparently he hadn't anticipated the case of the Orihalcon Golem's defeat at all.
　The ruins are quieted down once again.

　...... Anyway, let's go inside for now.

　I deactivate the Necroearth.
　The black dragon's body returns to just dirt, and its soul returns to me once again.

　Beside me, Lily gasped with a huff.

''Ko-san is a top-notch sorcerer as well, isn't he ......
What's the matter with you all of a sudden?
The souls we use on Necro-Earth are usually never recovered again. I was taught that in the academy: ......
Well, I seem to be off the hook for a lot of things: ......

　The reason I was able to collect the black dragon's soul is probably because of [Soul Absorption].
　It's really full of cheats, me.
　Thank goodness for that.

　Anyway, let's go into the ruins.
　Behind the door was a narrow cave, and I proceeded deeper while bending down.
　When I reach a dead end, I hear the usual voice in my brain.

''The conditions for obtaining the sub-skill within the [Otherworldly] skill have been met. 【Master Code】 will be released.''

Master Code] seems to be a skill that deprives the ruins of ancient civilizations of their administrative authority.
　I'll try it out right away.

''Activate 【Master Code】, we will forcibly take away the master rights of these ruins.
　...... Ends the process. The master of this ruin has been changed from Mobius Megistris to Kou Kou Koussaka.''

　With this, the ruins of Mobius were mine.
I checked it out with [Ruins Grasp], but it seems that this is a small ruin with only a laboratory and a warehouse.

　I used 【Spatial Leap】 and headed to the laboratory.
　Of course, Lily is also with me.

''Well, Ko-san, where is this place, ......?''
It's Mobius's lab. ...... Well, we've taken ownership of it.
'I'm kind of so amazed I'm starting to feel fuzzy in my head. Coe, you can do anything: ......
'It's the skills. I'm just an old man.
I don't think 29 is an old man: ......

　I think we had a similar exchange earlier, but aside from that, Mobius' laboratory was like an old library.
　It was lined with many bookshelves, and a number of ancient documents were housed in it.
　The fact that a book from five thousand years ago still hasn't faded away is probably due to ancient technology or something.

　Lily picked up one of the books and flipped through the pages.
　Eventually she looked at me as if in trouble.

'I can't read ......,'
Well, it's a long time ago.

　I walked up to Lily and peered at the book from the side.

'Um, "Even if the body perishes, it is possible to live on in the soul alone if you feed on the souls of others." ......?
"Ko-san, you can read ancient language, or ......?
You look like you can read.

　Come to think of it, I had a skill called 【Language Acquisition】.
　It seems to be activated, and I can read ancient languages with ease even though I've never seen them before.

'But it's a pain in the ass to read it from one side to the other: ......

　I blurted out in a whisper and a voice echoed in my brain at the same time.

''The conditions for obtaining the sub-skill within the [Item Box] skill have been met. 【Book Information Processing】 will be released.''

　Apparently, a new sub-skill is now available.
It seems that the Book Information Processing sub-skill allows you to automatically search for books by placing them in the item box.
　The definition of "book" here needs to be verified, but there are many other useful functions included.

　There's no way we can't take advantage of this.
　I activated the 【Range Collection】 skill.
　Since the lab was cramped, I was able to store all the books without moving a step.

　As the books in the lab suddenly disappeared, Lily said, "Hiya! He let out a small scream.

'Ko-san!　The book, the book is ......!
'It's okay, I just put it in the item box. No problem.

　I activated the 【Book Information Processing】 while answering that.
　Apparently, unlike the computer's search function, the system is flexible in many ways.

　For example, when I reminded myself, "Tell me what the Great Sage Mobius is up to," there was a pause of about a second, and then the appropriate part of each book was displayed, and then poof!　I can see it in my brain.
　On the contrary, it even automatically creates a sentence that summarizes the relevant part of the text in an easy to understand manner.
　It's a terrific kindness function.

　I look through the summary text while thanking 【Book Information Processing】.
　It's a strange sensation to read the text displayed in my head at .......
　But it seems that people get used to it, and eventually I was able to read it smoothly.

　...... I see.

　I'm sure you'll find the journal of the Great Sage Mobius among the books stored in the item box, and it makes a lot of sense, including the in-depth content.

　I'll explain to Lily what I understood, as well as share information.

'Five thousand years ago, it seems that the people of this continent were desperate to resist the 'Black Dragon of Extinction'
Of course, of course, you know ....... If left unchecked, thousands, tens of thousands of people would die, and ......
'But Great Sage Mobius had given up from the beginning, saying, 'There's no way we can win. ' Only one of us had something else in mind.

　Mobius had left these words in his journal.

　-- "In the battle against the black dragon, many will die.
　--If we gather and capture those souls, won't we get eternal life?
　--no, in fact, it should be possible to become the equivalent of a god!

　In short, it's a firebrand on a rather large scale.
　While humanity and the black dragon are fighting each other, they are seizing the souls of the dead.

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get away with it. ...... so in the battle 5,000 years ago, Mobius apparently dragged humanity's legs all over the place.

　As a result, humanity was defeated by the Black Dragon and ancient civilizations were devastated.
　The details of what happened to Mobius, the great war criminal, are unknown, but it seems that he became a soul-only being through the dark secret arts.

'The Black Dragon appears every thousand years. Each time, Mobius must have intercepted the souls of his victims.''
But the black dragon was defeated by Ko-san, right?
Yeah.

　I nodded at Lily's words.

'But the case isn't over yet. Mobius isn't gone, and the organization called 'Breath of the Ancient Wise Men' is still around.

　If possible, we should work with the guards and lords to deal with the situation.
　Fortunately, I am in close contact with the lords of this area ...... Count Mayard.
The "Breath of the Ancient Wise Men" is a clear anti-social force, so they should be able to help you eradicate it.