The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 663  Capital History

The Overlords nodded to their comrades, then took seats, with Ahmad settling in next to Dana to whisper in her ear. Karl gave him a suspicious look, but the Overlord sent him a system message.

{Magical theory developments. The Battlemage will gain from them.} That was good enough for Karl, but the fluffy cat ears of the Overlord Rank Mage were entirely too tempting, making the mage a natural ladies' man.

Tabitha turned to the Librarian. "Am I right about that location being somewhere directly over the Cathedral that was built on the ruins of an ancient tower?"

The blue dragon nodded her head. "That is right. My theory is that the object was a prize for winners of the tower. We don't know what was supposed to be in it, or if it was claimed and that was why the tower's magic faded. But the location matches, though the tower must have been thousands of metres tall.

What isn't common knowledge is that the foundation of the tower was never dismantled. The Cathedral wasn't built there simply because there was a lot of stone, there is an active trial in the catacombs under the temple. There are fifteen levels below ground, through the actual base of the defunct tower. The magic of the World Dragon is strong there, and that is why the Cathedral was actually placed on the site. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The basement trial is only good for one group of people, though.

Nobody can enter it except Bishops and Avatars of their Gods. That is the Overlords and Totems aligned with the Church. It is similar to the trial instance in the grounds, but at a much higher level.

That trial temple on the Cathedral grounds used to rely on the power of the underground temple, but after the incident the other day, it is generating its own power, and the usage is no longer so limited."

The last was said while the Librarian stared at Karl, who had made the new core for the trial next to the Cathedral. But in Karl's opinion, that wasn't really his fault. It wasn't going to let him out until he provided a new core, so one way or another, it was bound to happen.

Karl smiled at Tessa and Lotus. "So, you've got an extra fancy trial waiting for you in the future. What do you think? Two more years should do it? Or do you think it will take three to reach Overlord?"

The other Overlords laughed, while the dragon rolled her eyes.

"You say that so casually, as if everyone else in this room didn't use a massive number of resources or enjoy a string of exceptional luck for over a decade to reach their current status."

Karl shrugged. "Well, we've got both of those on our side. Plus, the System is awakening. Once it's fully active for everyone, steady progress will be much more common. As far as I know, the only real challenge to their growth will be bypassing the bottlenecks."

Tabitha took out a map and refolded it so that the area around the Cathedral was on top. "So, there is a trial here, and here. Then there are Holy Relics here, here, and here? It looks like there is a whole village buried under the Capital."

The Librarian nodded. "That's right. As far as we can tell, there is an entire city under the city, buried by more than a hundred thousand years of time, and thirty metres of sandstone, formed in the years after the time when this area was on the edge of the desert."

Ahmad finished explaining his idea to Dana, and joined the conversation.

"You know, one of the groups of Giants that we fought said that they were going to take the System Relic that was in the city and crush the church. Do you think that they mean the System Stones, or one of the other Relics?" He asked.

The Librarian winced. "Well, technically, they could mean any of countless items. We have been stockpiling System Relics in the catacombs for centuries. The hope was that the resonance would help activate other System Relics."

"Did it work?" Karl asked.

"That is debatable. But if nothing else, it seriously slowed the decay of the stockpiled items, to the point that some of them were still active during the last annual inspection, thought in a very precarious state.

They couldn't be moved, or used for their intended purpose, but when we tested them with holy magic, they still showed signs of the system, even after all that time. It's part of the reason that the Church was so confident that they would be able to get the Divine Injection to work once they found the ruined System Stones. They were designed to liquify holy power with the system integrated, and the study of them allowed the development of the serum.

But I'm rambling, we didn't want to talk about that, we were talking about the treasure over the city that might have once been in the tower that was here, and whether that was the item that the Giants were after.

Well, if that new leader of theirs knew something in advance, perhaps having been informed by the time traveller that Bishop Misty sent away, it is possible that they know much more than we do.

In fact, it's possible that we still haven't discovered what they came here to find, and that might be why they're so desperate to force us all out of the city.

I get that they hold a grudge against the World Dragon, but they seem much more determined than in the past to stamp out the church."

Everyone let her ramble, thinking of the possibilities, as well as the likelihood that the Giants would be coming back for whatever they had failed to obtain with this attack.

Or, in the case of General Drath, what his troops were going to have to do to actually win the next confrontation, if they did come back and try to force their way into the city.

If they made even a small breach, the destruction that the Giants could cause to the civilian population with a single Overlord was immense. A few minutes loose behind the walls would cost tens of thousands of lives.