As the ground shook, everyone in the expedition lowered their stance.
“What is it all of a sudden? Is it an earthquake?”
“Is this a phenomenon caused by placing a stone box on the altar?”
Woo goo goo-
The shaking of the ground did not stop.
Soon after, another strange phenomenon occurred.
Shii Ik-
A whirlpool began to form in the lake.
Someone saw it and shouted.
“It’s the devil’s funnel!”
Huge whirlpools often occur in Lake Baikal, but the current one was incomparably larger than usual.
Shii Ik-
A whirlpool engulfed the entire island.
Trapped in a huge whirlwind, the island seemed isolated.
The expedition was fascinated by the surreal situation happening near them.
But that wasn’t the end.
An even more amazing thing happened.
Woo goo goo-
The entire circular structure on which the expedition stood, including the stone altar, began to move downward.
It started to descend underground like a lift descending.
“Go down!”
“What the hell is going on!”
Is it because of an earthquake and the whole land sinks?
Or is the structure moving underground with the power of a huge mechanical device made in ancient times?
Or is it a magical power that cannot be explained by science?
No one was able to grasp the situation properly.
hiss-
The speed of descent of the structure gradually increased.
Suzuki took out an altimeter from his pocket and checked it.
It was a ＜hybrid altimeter＞ equipped with both a GPS receiver and a barometer, so it could know both absolute and relative altitudes.
“It’s not just subsidence! I came down 300m from my original position!”
hiss-
The descent speed increased.
Then Hayashi shouted.
“How far down do you want to go? Isn’t it going to the center of the earth like this? hahahaha!”
Hayashi’s lips went up.
It is a strange experience that surprises and delights at the same time.
The structure continues to descend downward.
The deeper we went underground, the darker and darker the surroundings became.
Everyone on the expedition lit up their lights.
“How could this happen…”
Even though they were experiencing it themselves, they all forgot to even blink at the unbelievable situation.
hiss-
The structure continued to descend at breakneck speed.
About a minute after starting the descent, Suzuki checked the altimeter.
“I came down 3,000m!”
The maximum depth of Lake Baikal was about 1,600 m.
It is already far below the bottom of the lake.
A tense expression was evident on the faces of the expedition members.
I felt like I was crossing a river that I could never return to once I crossed it.
Hayashi’s expression, which was excited about going down to the center of the earth, also hardened.
It was then.
pat-
Suddenly, the surroundings became dazzlingly bright.
Everyone squinted.
The scenery around them slowly came into their eyes.
“oh my god!”
It was a vast, open space.
It entered an unimaginably huge underground space.
At that moment, everyone on the expedition thought of the same thing.
‘Earth co?’
Long ago, humans believed the Earth was flat.
Then, at some point, I realized that the Earth is spherical.
One of the many theories that appeared at that time was the hollow earth theory.
It was theorized that the spherical earth was not full inside, but had a huge cavity in the center, in which living creatures lived.
“Was the hollow earth theory true!?”
Everyone shook their heads at someone’s cry.
“It can’t be! I only came down a few thousand meters.”
The Earth’s radius was about 6,400 km.
If the Earth is an apple, they are now not even passing through the skin.
So, this place was not a hollow at the center of the earth.
It was just a huge underground space.
hiss-
The structure carrying the expedition team continued to descend.
At some point, Suzuki’s altimeter stopped working properly.
Some of the expedition members mustered up the courage to move to the outskirts of the structure.
Then, cautiously, he stuck his head out and looked down.
“oh my god!”
Only then did they realize that the structure they were riding on was completely different from a normal elevator.
The structure was not suspended somewhere like a normal elevator.
It wasn’t even supported by anything.
It was just falling from top to bottom.
“You are falling!”
However, it was not in free fall due to the acceleration of gravity.
The structure was descending at a constant velocity.
Shii Ik-
At some point, the descent of the structure began to slow down.
thud-
finally stopped completely.
It reached the bottom of the underground space.
jump-
Suzuki jumped off the structure first.
And I checked the floor of the underground space.
It was a dirt floor, nothing special.
There was nothing around.
I could breathe and there was bright light, but no trees or grass were growing.
pat-
A ray of light radiated straight from the stone box placed on the altar.
It seemed to indicate a direction.
“Are you going that way? Isn’t it like a trap? I have a bad feeling.”
Yamaguchi executive officer Kaneda recited with a frightened expression.
Suzuki asked him.
“What are you going to do? Will you stay here?”
“hmm···. I’ve come this far, but I can’t stand guard. I will go too!”
All 80 members of the expedition started walking in the direction indicated by the light.
.
.
.
After traveling for over an hour, a stone structure appeared in front of them.
From noble mtl dot com
It was a huge arch over 10m in height and width.
Hayashi looked at Arch and opened his mouth.
“What is that? Wouldn’t it teleport you to another place if you pass under it?”
Scared to finish the words,
cool-
cool-
The space under the arch began to stir like a wave.
All of the expedition team were shocked to see the phenomenon.
Hayashi in particular was the most surprised.
Because it seems that his joke is true.
pat-
With a short flash, a shimmering white curtain of light appeared under the arch.
Suzuki saw it and shouted.
“Entrance! It must be the ‘gate’ to Khan’s tomb!”
Suzuki called out to his assistant.
“Bring that!”
The assistant took something out of his backpack and handed it to Suzuki.
It was an RC car with a camera installed.
Suzuki put the car down in front of a curtain of light.
Then, by controlling the car with a radio controller, it passed through the curtain.
The controller had a liquid crystal display that allowed real-time viewing of the video captured by the car’s camera.
But nothing was visible.
“It seems that radio waves can’t pass through.”
hmm-
Suzuki, lost in thought for a moment, stood right in front of the curtain of light.
Then he stretched out his hand with a nervous expression.
When I touched the surface of the screen with my finger, light shimmered like waves spreading across the surface of the water.
Suzuki carefully put her hand inside the curtain.
I could feel the warmth on the other side.
Mugwort-
Suzuki went completely inside the gate.
“teacher!”
the assistant exclaimed in surprise.
All the members of the expedition looked nervously at the gate.
Silence passed for several seconds.
Ssuk-
Suzuki came out of the gate again.
he was fine
Whoop-
Then some let out a sigh of relief.
Hayashi asked Suzuki.
“What’s inside? Is it really a teleportation gate?”
“I don’t know about teleportation, and it’s safe, so let’s all go in together!”
The expedition team followed Suzuki and started entering the gate one by one.
***
omg-
I was startled as I had been hiding and watching the situation quietly.
I never thought that such high-level magic would appear.
‘You really teleported!’
Using ＜Eyes and Ears＞, Suzuki can find out where it was.
After passing through the gate, Suzuki’s current location was Mongolia, not Russia.
To be precise, it was deep underground in the grasslands east of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
So, that gate is a ＜transportation gate＞ that connects the underground of Lake Baikal and the underground of the Mongolian steppe.
The entrance to Genghis Khan’s tomb is under Lake Baikal, but the actual tomb was underground in Mongolia.
‘This is completely mutt training.’
I organized everything in my head so far.
The beginning was the desert of Mongolia.
There, he put the elixir in a stone box and brought it to Lake Baikal.
And when the stone box was placed on the altar on the island of Lake Baikal, the entire structure descended underground.
A huge whirlpool also formed around the island.
The whirlpool is presumably to prevent other outsiders from setting foot on the island while the structure is lowered underground.
and,
There was a teleportation gate in the underground space.
If you pass through the gate, you will be moved to the tomb in Mongolia’s underground.
I don’t know who invented all this, but it was designed really meticulously to protect Genghis Khan’s tomb.
I felt the need to tweak the plan a bit.
Originally, when the Suzuki guys found the entrance to the tomb, they quickly went inside and tried to wipe out the treasure.
However, I couldn’t act hastily in a situation where even such high-level magic appeared.
You may be caught in a powerful magic trap that protects the tomb and put your life at risk.
So I’ll let the Suzuki guys step into the grave first and then follow along and watch the situation.
‘Safety first!’
＜Eren’s Emergency Card＞ is protecting me, so I won’t die instantly even in the worst situation.
However, using an emergency card will shorten its lifespan.
No matter how good the gold is, it is not more important than life.
by the way,
There was something I didn’t understand about what was going on here.
The phenomenon itself was not unusual.
The part I didn’t understand was the ‘consumption’ of the elixir.
Huge whirlwinds, constant velocity falls of massive structures, and even teleportation gates.
It was unbelievable that such tremendous magic could be performed with a small amount of elixir in a stone box.
To unleash powerful magic, you must consume a correspondingly large amount of mana.
That is the ＜Law of Equivalent Exchange＞, which is the most basic of alchemy.
The only thing on Earth that could be used as a source of magical power was an elixir.
So, there must be enough elixir somewhere to unleash great magic.
‘It’s probably in the tomb.’
It was clear that Genghis Khan’s tomb contained not only gold but also a large amount of elixir.
It is probably an unimaginable amount.
If you get all of them, you won’t have to worry about elixirs when using magic for a while.
‘nice!’
As I thought about this and that, before I knew it, Suzuki and the others all entered the gate.
‘Should I go in too?’
pounding-
Teleportation was the first.
I slowly stepped into the gate.
hiss-
After passing through the gate, a long passage came into view.
The width and height of the passage were comparable to the size of the gate.
This is enough for a large truck to pass through with ease.
The Suzuki guys were moving inward.
While maintaining ＜invisibility＞, I caught up with their procession.
trudging-
I moved through the aisle for over 30 minutes.
And finally, we reached a huge underground space.
It was as huge as the underground space beneath Lake Baikal.
Oh oh!
The Suzuki guys saw something and all exclaimed together.
‘What are you so surprised to see?’
humming-
I rose into the air and looked down.
omg-
I know why they are surprised.
There was an enormous number of horses that were hard to count in the underground space.
It just wasn’t normal.
It was a golden horse weighing over 50 tons per head.