Reincarnated Dragon Goes to the Academy!

Chapter 126 : Valima's Heart (3)

'What? It's probably somewhere?'

It was absurd. The last words on the note were just 'It's probably somewhere'?

Lucas crumpled the note and threw it on the floor, then looked at the heart-shaped jewelry box in his hand.

'Is this just a jewelry box?'

When he opened the lid to examine the box, the strange music box sound played again.

"Oh, for crying out loud."

Lucas irritably closed the lid and tossed it into his subspace pocket.

'I need to find the clue again.'

Lucas examined the dagger again.

The dagger was so well-honed that the passage of time seemed to have had no effect on it, and the large diamond embedded in the hilt shone without losing its light.

And on the blade was written, 'For Alita.'

'Alita's dagger... Alita... Alita...'

It was a name he felt he had heard somewhere before.

"Ali... ta? Alita?! Alita!"

As if he had finally remembered, Lucas snapped his fingers and instantly teleported away.

"Ha, why didn't I recognize it as soon as I saw it."

It was the name of a saintess that had been passed down for a very long time.

The name, which was passed down like a legend even in the time Lucas had lived, was known to have existed since the beginning of time.

'Though she was more of a divine angel than a saintess.'

The angel Alita, sent down when the main god created this place in the beginning. In a word, she was an angel sent down by the main god as a manager.

But the newly born humans had no way of knowing that. Therefore, humans and other races all revered and worshipped her as a god or something similar.

Thanks to Alita's management, all the races were said to have achieved brilliant development.

For thousands of years, or perhaps tens of thousands, Alita remained on the surface and took care of them.

There were many artifacts made for her. The dagger of Alita, now in Lucas's hand, was one of them.

'This is the place.'

The place Lucas had come to was known as Alita's sanctuary.

Now, its meaning had been diluted and faded, and many thought of it as just a forgotten temple, but Lucas knew.

That this was one of Alita's sanctuaries.

"I found a lot of good things here in the old days."

In fact, this was not the first time he had looked for an artifact related to Alita, so Lucas decided to try the same method he had used before.

'The beginning of Alita's artifacts is right here.'

This place, which was now old and shabby with only the remnants of a few pillars and what looked like an altar, was in fact no different from Alita's tomb.

Of course, Alita had not died, but this was the place where Alita had left her last message and had returned to the celestial realm.

Therefore, humans believed that although she had returned to the celestial realm, she would one day come down again, and they had created sanctuaries like this and had stored all the items related to her here.

'There won't be any items left, but there will be plenty of clues.'

It had been the same when Alita's item had appeared as a hint before. Clues to solve the problem would appear as he went around the sanctuary.

"Hmm... a diamond..."

The large diamond embedded in the hilt of the dagger.

But there was one thing that was different from other common decorations.

"They made a hole and put a diamond in it..."

It was truly a tremendous amount of effort.

It took a lot of work just to set a single gem, but this had a hole drilled in the middle of the sword hilt, and a diamond was fitted perfectly into it.

Moreover, it was a diamond, which was notoriously difficult to cut.

As a result, the shape of the outside was faintly visible through the transparent diamond.

"It must be related to light."

Lucas, holding the dagger, began to search every corner of the sanctuary.

If there was a place with something, he would reflect the sunlight on the diamond and shine it on that place, he would poke places where the sword might fit, and he would bring the diamond to each and every letter engraved on the altar.

"Hmm..."

Solving problems was on the fun side, but sometimes when it was this frustrating, he wanted to smash everything.

'I've done that before.'

But that method, aside from being crude, had a high probability of yielding nothing.

Moreover, unlike traps, detection magic was useless for these kinds of problems.

'So I have to solve it myself.'

Lucas looked around once more.

"Oh?"

The half-broken pillar behind the platform. The small characters engraved on it.

When he went closer and looked carefully, the things engraved on the pillar were not characters but pictures.

He couldn't tell what was on top because the pillar was broken, but the pictures engraved below were still quite clear in shape.

'Is this... a book?'

As he examined the pictures, Lucas began to discover simple rules.

'The wings mean Alita. And is this to show who gave it?'

It seemed to be indicating who had given what gift to Alita, like a gift list.

"Hmm..."

But it was difficult to accurately interpret these pictures, which might have been made tens of thousands of years ago.

Lucas began to examine the pictures more closely.

Then another rule that had not been visible began to appear.

'Is this what's here and what's not?'

A small arrow, as if marking the artifacts he had found before, was engraved next to the picture. It was marked so ambiguously that you wouldn't even know it was an arrow if you didn't look closely.

It seemed to be indicating the location of those relics.

"Is this the sword."

The dagger picture engraved at the very bottom looked like the same sword he was holding, even at a glance.

"The arrow... this one doesn't have it."

But unfortunately, the dagger had no arrow picture.

It was when Lucas, who had smacked his lips as if disappointed that he couldn't find a hint, was about to get up from his seat.

"A gap?"

A very small gap at the base of the pillar. It was somehow subtly different from the other parts where the pillar and the floor met.

'Well. It's not like I have anything to lose.'

Lucas took out the dagger and gently poked it in there.

-Swoosh.

Then the dagger was sucked in and dug into the gap with a swoosh.

"Hoh?"

But there was no change in the pillar and its surroundings.

-Click.

Then a very small sound was heard from behind.

'It sounds like something is opening.'

But when he looked around, there was no place that could be opened.

Lucas, who had pulled the dagger out of the gap, pushed the dagger into it once more.

-Swoosh.

The dagger was sucked in as before, but no matter how much he held his breath and listened, he could not hear the sound of something opening this time.

"Tsk."

Lucas, who had gotten up from his seat, began to search the surroundings again.

If there was a gap that could be opened, he opened it all and knocked.

It was when he had been searching the sanctuary like that for a long time.

-Slide.

The top of the altar moved.

"Found it."

The heavy top slid smoothly, as if there were rails underneath.

Below the top, a space much smaller than the pillar that supported the altar appeared.

A single sheet of old parchment was placed there.

'Hmm... I don't remember well because it's been a long time, but I can roughly understand what it means.'

Ambiguous characters, neither pictures nor letters, were chaotically arranged on the parchment, but Lucas nodded his head as if he roughly knew what it was.

'It seems to be indicating the source and origin of the sword... but it's not easy to find the changed place names...'

As he was about to turn around, he saw another small gap where the parchment had been.

'Hmm?'

He thought it was unlikely, but Lucas took out the dagger again and poked it in there.

-Swoosh.

'Hoh.'

-Click.

This time, the sound of a lock being released was heard very close by.

When he bent down and looked under the altar, he saw that a small gap had opened there.

When he gently pushed it with his hand, a small space appeared with a clatter.

'Just in case.'

Lucas put a protective magic on his hand in preparation for an unforeseen situation and put his hand into the space.

'There's something.'

A cold sensation was felt in his hand. Lucas grabbed it and took it out.

'It's a necklace.'

This time, it was a necklace with a bright red ruby embedded in the middle.

A satisfied smile appeared on Lucas's lips as he slowly felt the energy from the necklace.

'It's a decent item. It seems to have ancient magic on it...'

Lucas injected mana into the necklace.

-Vwoom...

Then the necklace began to vibrate.

-Flash!

Lucas disappeared.

***

'Was it a movement spell?'

He had been moved to another space in an instant, but Lucas was not surprised.

The place the necklace had brought him to was a small cavern.

The cavern was lined with large and small pillars all around the wall.

On a total of twelve pillars were engraved the emblems of artifacts, including the dagger and necklace that Lucas had.

'There are many familiar shapes.'

Among Alita's relics, there were also many that Lucas had collected.

Lucas placed the dagger and necklace he was holding in their respective positions.

-Vwoom! Rumble!

Then the pillars immediately disappeared into the floor along with the artifacts.

"...?"

He waited for something to happen next, but when there was no reaction, Lucas looked up at the ceiling as if dejected.

"Alita..."

On the ceiling was engraved the image of a woman who appeared to be Alita.

"Damn it."

He had thought that the artifacts might disappear, but he hadn't expected them to really disappear like this.

'If I collect those and come back, there will be something else.'

There were only two artifacts that Lucas did not know.

The rest were scattered among Aman and the other dragons, so he would have to go and collect them.

'...That's a map.'

A mark was left where the pillar had disappeared. When he looked closely, it looked like a treasure map.

'There's no need to delay.'

Lucas carved the mark on the cavern and then teleported away.

***

One of the two map locations was a place Lucas definitely knew.

'A cave and a turtle-shaped rock. That's only here.'

It was near his lair from his past life.

'The rock must be the hint.'

Lucas walked straight to the side of the rock.

Lucas was already annoyed from having gone around in circles several times.

-Crash!

Lucas, who had taken out his frustration on the rock, created a large wind to blow away all the dust, as if he didn't even want to wait for it to settle.

"That's right."

One shining thing among the shattered rock.

Lucas, who had swept away the remaining stone fragments with his hand, carefully picked it up.

"This was it."

A faint but clear divine power was felt from the well-cut red gem.

"Then it should be okay to break the next one too."

Lucas, who had wiped the gem clean and had put it in his subspace pocket, grinned.

The unknown shapes on the cavern wall seemed to have been for this.

"If this goes well, I might get something better than Valima's Heart."

Lucas's expectations, having solved the problem, began to rise.

"Shall we go."

-Flash!

Lucas teleported to the next location.

[End of Chapter]