As the group of girls and Alec went down the tunnel, glass beads embedded in the wall gradually lit up, illuminating the smooth stone walls.

'Surprisingly barren for a supposed Hall of Achievements.' Alec looked around, curious about the ruins of an ancient civilization. But compared to the ruins he had seen images of back home, they weren't all that impressive.

"The path will split up ahead. Is there anything any of you want to see on the way to the target?" Victoria suddenly spoke from the front.

"I will follow your lead, My Lady," Nia said with a slight bow of her head.

"Me too," Ticka added almost as if to show that she was no different from Nia.

Madelynn didn't answer. She stayed silent by Victoria's side like a shadow. But it seemed Victoria already knew her answer since she instead turned to glance at Alec and Maura, who were walking next to each other behind the other four.

"I'm fine with whatever," Maura answered, uncomfortable about being put on the spot so suddenly.

"What are the differences between the paths, if I may ask?"

"Nothing really. Back in the day, each section housed different types of treasures. But now, the only thing that remains is the architecture."

"Then, do you know where the Poem of Neverlasting Wisdom is located?" Alec asked.

Victoria's eyes widened slightly.

"I am surprised you know about it. Yes I do. Does anyone have any objections?" She asked her three attendants.

Ticka glared at Alec but didn't say anything. Madelynn was looking forward since no one else was, and Nia let her silence express her stance as she looked at Alec with more curiosity than anything else.

Since no one objected, Victoria continued. And when the boring stone tunnel split into five entrances, each with a distinct style, she didn't hesitate and chose the one in the middle.

"Monsters will start appearing from now on," She said, mostly for Alec's and Maura's sake.

Once again, glass beads started lighting up in the walls and ceiling after they entered a large hallway filled with empty spots.

The tall ceiling looked like it had once been the home to a mural that had been removed. And the walls had lighter sections where paintings had once hung. On the floor, there were pedestals that had once been home to treasures.

But at least, unlike the entrance tunnel, the stone itself was pretty. It looked like marble, but dark grey instead of white. The walls had tiny floral engravings, which would have likely connected to the mural, but now only fizzled out into nothingness.

The roots on the floor were interwoven, but at the same time unconnected and unique.

Alec froze as he glanced at the floor.

He had already looked at the walls when looking at the signs of the old treasures.

Among the flowers and on the pedestals, there were labels.

'A Master's Joy.' 'The Long Nights are Cold.' 'Ring of Despair.' 'Mongrave's Pride.' 'Rulzer's Collection of Flowers.'

Thanks to [Reader], Alec understood the signs. That was why he knew that while the walls didn't hold any information, the floor was a completely different story.

It was an engraved spell formation, carved into the floor itself and made to look like the roots of the flowers, trees, and vines climbing toward the ceiling.

Just looking at it was enough to give him a headache, which fortunately made him unfreeze before long. He looked up to see that the others were staring at him.

"Is something wrong?" Victoria asked.

"N-no, not at all. I was just wondering what the theme of this section was. It seems pretty dark."

"From what I know, all the treasures in this room were given life at the cost of their creators' deaths. But that is just a theory."

"I see. Thank you for answering my question, Lady Fosra."

"Victoria is fine."

"Understood. Lady Victoria." Alec bowed slightly, in part to avoid the glare from Ticka that Victoria's words earned him.

"Kyaaah!"

'What?' Alec was forced to look up at the sudden, shrill cry with his mana already at his fingertips.

'That's pretty rude.' What he saw was Ticka pointing at him while hiding behind Nia, her long blond curls sticking out from the sides of Nia's chestnut hair. They were more similar than he thought.

After a second, he realized that Ticka wasn't pointing at him. She was pointing at something behind him. The others were staring at it with wide eyes as well.

He quickly whipped around to see a spider the size of a dog hiding in the corner above the entrance that they had walked through not long ago.

The spider's size reminded him of something he had read in the library and that Reina had mentioned in one of her lessons about monsters.

In some places and types of animals, monsterification often produced similar mutations. Sheep, goats, and other horned animals often acquired mutations related to their horns, for example. Birds often got more wings.

Insects often gained size-related mutations.

Alec hadn't thought much of it back then, but now that he was face to face with a spider bigger than the average house pet, he couldn't help but think about how scary a spider was.

The eight long legs keeping such a massive body in the air couldn't be weak. The thick, bristly hairs on its body. The network of eyes, glimmering in the glassy light.

It was a nightmare.

"Stop pulling on my hair, already. It's dead. There's no need to shout like a little girl," Nia chastised Ticka with an angry frown.

Ticka froze for a second before clearing her throat and composing herself as she stepped away from Nia.

"I was just making sure you weren't holding Lady Victoria back, Lowfielder."

Nia rolled her eyes and turned to Victoria.

They were about to continued when they noticed Alec walking up to the spider.

"Is something wrong?" Victoria asked for the second time since they entered the hall.

Alec didn't answer immediately as he inspected the spider's corpse with an intense gaze.

After a few moments, a spell formation appeared in front of him.

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