Frostfire Legacy

Chapter 137: Mysterious Door

Aster's team gradually headed deeper. The cave was just that: a simple limestone cave with an uneven floor, walls, and ceiling. Furthermore, it was just one path curving now and then, meaning, they at least wouldn't get lost.

Gradually, the floor started to change.

Your journey continues on m v|l--NovelFire

Broken pieces of cement slabs started to appear buried on the cave's floor, and the gaps between each slab decreased the further they ventured in.

"This is..."

Soon enough, they reached the end of the road. The floor and walls turned from the limestone cave into a well-shaped rectangular passage made of cement slabs. It was, without a doubt, manmade, and not something that naturally came to be!

The walls were clean, with not even a single scratch on them, but the floor had signs of wear and tear, indicating that it had been used regularly in the past.

"What a big door!" Cassy commented, seeing what was blocking their path forward.

The path ahead was blocked by large, double doors that were about ten meters tall and three meters wide. On its surface were some indecipherable symbols and characters, adding a hint of mystery to it.

"Hnnnngh!" Liz tried to push it open but quickly gave up. "It won't budge. It's locked tight!"

"I can try to destroy the doors, but..." Aster muttered, before shaking his head. "I'm getting a weird sense of dread after thinking that, so let's just figure out how to enter properly."

He pulled out his Holo tablet and took pictures of the door. He captured all corners of it, from all angles, before trying to reverse search its images from the large amount of data he borrowed from the Archives. It still hadn't expired yet, after all.

However, he was soon disappointed with the result. "Hmm? Weird, there's no match."

"We have another idiot here," Kali exclaimed while planting a hand in her face. "Didn't you realize how we got here? You think someone else would be brave enough to rappel the face of a deadly cliff to find such an entrance?"

"I know, but I was thinking maybe there's a similar door somewhere or something that was already discovered," Aster replied with a faint smile.

"There's none." She countered back. "Even to me, this sort of cipher is new. I can say with 100% reliability that there's nothing like it on any of the higher floors of this dungeon."

Liz, feeling that the atmosphere between the two was getting a little prickly, interjected. "Then, what should we do now? Should we try everything we can to open the door?"

"Judging from the floor's wear and tear, it must have been a common passage long ago. That means the method to open it should be simple, like a password or something." Kali commented while pondering. "But without figuring out what language or dialect was used, if it was one word or more, then we'd be stuck here guessing for all eternity."

"I see... that's no good, huh?" Liz shrugged with a sigh.

Aster pocketed his Holo Tab right after confirming all the images he took, and commanded.

"Let's head back for now. I think if we can have someone decipher what's written on the door, then we can find a clue as to what's the password."

With that as their signal, everyone began backtracking their steps and returning to the surface. After that, they cleared the ropes they used to not leave any clues for anyone else. It was fortunate that the edge they were on was hidden from view by the thick forest and shrubbery around, so nobody should've noticed them when they went down the cliff.

After packing was done, they started running toward the entrance.

But as expected, they weren't able to reach the portal in one go. Monsters blocked their path, requiring them to take a few hours on the way back. By the time they got out, it was already way past 6 p.m.!

"I guess cashing in the loots should be delayed for tomorrow." Aster declared as they split ways.

Their first task right now, with priority right below grinding levels, was figuring out the meaning of the symbols drawn on the door. As such, Aster sent all the girls a copy of it and told them to try and decode it as much as they could. Of course, since they weren't professionals, he wasn't expecting much from it.

Aster himself was also busy in his room, trying to decipher the meaning of the symbols. He was cross-referencing old books of languages like hieroglyphs just to get a head start on understanding them.

*BEEP!* *BEEP!*

"Huh?"

But just as he was in the middle of jotting down notes, his tablet started to vibrate, showing that there was an incoming call from someone—a video call, even.

Checking the recipient's name, he was a bit surprised. "Doctor Vanessa!"

Recalling how she was studying about his disease, he quickly got his hopes up as he received the call.

{Good evening, Aster.}

As soon as the call was accepted, a video feed started to show on the screen.

On it was the figure of Vanessa Ross, covered in a lab coat... wearing the very same attire she wore after the attack by the Anti-Human Movement. In short, she was still wearing nothing but her panties, and barely covering the important parts!

Aster, however, didn't even flinch at her appearance. He simply greeted her back with a smile. "Good evening to you too, Doctor Vanessa. Did you perhaps not sleep? You have bags under your eyes."

{Haha, don't worry about me. Pulling all-nighters is the one thing I enjoy the most, especially when I have an interesting subject at hand.}

"I see. But please don't push yourself too much. If your health failed, then it'd be a disaster." He continued. "And? What's the reason for this call?"

{Oh, right, right.}

While muttering gibberish to herself, she pulled out several holograms in the air before her, showing complex symbols.

{I've been working on your disease, thinking it was something like a virus or a bacteria that hasn't been discovered yet, but I realized that my angle was wrong.}

"..."

Aster agreed with that. During his parents' time, that was also the first thing they researched about his disease. After all, most unknown diseases come from those two sources.

{But then, I discovered something curious.}

She took a deep breath while emphasizing one of the diagrams, which looked like a complicated magic circle.

{Listen closely and don't be surprised, Aster.} She explained. {Your disease isn't really a disease, but rather a blessing.}