With so much mana, it was no doubt that the beasts here figured out how dangerous this place was, but a clear difference arose between him and the rest of them. As the mana within each brick appeared locked in place, it could not be sensed normally. And these beasts lacked innate spells capable of the sense, which meant they likely only noticed the mana of some leaking bricks from deep within.

If that truly was the case, then whatever laid within might be greater than merely a gold tier, and charging the lantern some more was a far better choice. He raised the complaint immediately, “You all, I’m almost certain this place is above gold tier. There’s little guarantee I can do anything if things get bad.” He didn’t expect the whole pack of silver tiers to all turn at once and run their eyes over the wafer-covered dragon, but eventually the rattlesnake spoke first.

“We sent a scout in earlier. The place is dangerous to even us, but not completely fatal. It may have been that level in the past, but after so much time we can explore with relative safety. And, there is no time to wait.” All the others nodded, likely concerned that their leaders would find out about this place and monopolise it.

He agreed with the rattlesnake for the most part, and if the scout was just a slightly quick bronze tier then the danger was ignorable. With that said, there were no further complaints, although an overwhelming requirement for caution grew within.

This place likely held some incredible bloodlines, as most places of inheritance did!

A stone staircase led the group far underground, one beast creating balls of light for the group to see as they slowly descended. While some found it a breeze to walk down such steps, some others, like the short-legged dragon, had a far less pleasant time.

At the bottom of the staircase, it turned back on itself and continued downward for another long flight. Out of boredom he counted them, the figure came to 127 per staircase for a total of 254 at the end of the second.

Finally, the climbing ended as they entered a large hall with a massive ball at the top. The ball stood out immensely, being a dark, leathery orb which clashed with the browner bricks down here. But more than that, he even sensed the mana within which exceeded a gold tier entirely. It was complete bullshit that this place was safe now. Meanwhile, the walls and floor were made of the same bricks as the stairway but due to depth retained their original colour instead of growing microscopic pockets of lichen and moss. While a pathway existed on the other side of the room, none recognised the thing up above. Luckily, the rattlesnake knew some of its functions from ‘tests’.

“That thing is a sort of detection spell. I don’t know how it precisely detects a creature, but I found that anything with little enough mana can get past if they move slowly. In our case, you need to restrict all the mana within you and slowly move over.”

“What should we do if it detects us?” A cat-like beast asked a question as it knew its mana control to be among the weaker of the group’s. Some beasts looked at the dragon for a moment thinking about how it stood no chance crossing.

And he recognised that, so simply said, “I have an innate ability which increases my control. Don’t worry about me.” Which was… half true at most. His mana control was simply an effect of his bloodline, nothing which he had to activate like innate abilities.

Most of the other beasts just nodded and the group began walking past the orb above one at a time. Of course, the rattlesnake went first to prove it told the truth.

As it moved underneath the large orb, he noted that not even the smallest wisp of mana within the snake left its body, and therefore did not react to certain types of detection spells. He knew the sort mentioned, where they tracked a ‘mana signature’ so to speak which was unique to a creature. No doubt the spell above used precisely that method, probably to stop those unrelated to the ruins’ owners from entering.

But as the snake safely made it across, other beasts followed suit. However, the situation turned out poorly for that cat who raised a question earlier…

Unlike every other beast who completely restrained their mana, he saw how the cat’s mana still moved about inside, chaotic and clearly uncontrolled. It was no surprise when a tiny bit escaped halfway through the room and then…

The orb above revealed its true form. The black leather separated, revealing a single eyeball which gazed down on the cat with a blood-red gaze. The cat froze in place, using every ounce of willpower to hold back its mana. But the attempt was for naught.

The eye blinked once and a wave of mana passed through the air, the group watched as the cat, alive moments ago, crumbled into a pile of powder, not even razed to ash.

“What the hell is that magic? How did it…”

“It’s a reproduction of some master true spell, weaker than the original thing,” to skip the useless back and forths, he simply answered the question everyone was quietly asking to themselves in advance. He didn’t understand what it reproduced, but the fact that it left a powder instead of completely demolishing the cat was proof of that.

A spell which used a great language would never leave intact parts larger than the fine dust which filled the air. Well… Maybe a Divinus spell would, but only if offence was the spell’s secondary purpose.

None of the beasts knew what to say in response to that, only a few even knew what a great language was in the first place. But to hear it was a mere reproduction of such a thing made the level of powers above them became more and more unfathomable.

“The rest of you, hurry up or we’ll leave you behind!” The snake hissed towards them, reminding them of their situation.

While one more unfortunate beast lost control of their mana halfway through, he fortunately stayed still enough that the awoken eye could not ‘see’ where the owner of that mana was. The complete flaw in such a detection could not have been clearer, but that just made this room's purpose even clearer. Every beast from then on made it through effortlessly, he as well walking across as every bit of mana within him was under strict command.

If he wanted to, he could even just hold the mana around him in place! But that revealed too much of his hidden abilities.

And all of that was merely a room which stopped wild beasts from entering the base.

Things warmed up from here though, as he realised this was no inheritance site but rather just a base of operations… And also some sort of historical recording? The passageway contained a few slabs of yellow stone engraved with the same image, although it lacked any words to explain the situation. He vaguely made out the fact that a large snake-like creature wrapped around the mountain and looked down on the beasts who lived there.

Almost instantly, he saw the fins on this massive creature and recognised its species, a wyrm…

Perhaps the Glacier king? Both murals described this same scene, and it meant very little to the others compared to him, but as they continued forward, the room opened up to a massive hall with several even larger murals decorating it. From the numbers beneath each one, he could tell there were eight in total, with the first four on the left.

It told a simple tale with words in Beasten as well! The written form of this language was strange in weaker places, and it meant this ruin originated from long before even the Kandir giants came! Like the time of that wyrm king and possibly how he died!

Did that mean he’d have a rough location for its corpse now? An excitement passed through him as he carefully read each of the murals, clearly odd amongst the group as they all stared at the images in passing.

The wyrm king was effectively a tyrant over the mountain range, taking ownership of the highest peak, as is customary for a king, but then using his power to completely lord over the whole range. Even the slightest disobedience was met with execution, and incompetence begot punishment. As the years passed by, the mithril tiers of the mountain grew distraught by the king.

They were suppressed within the mountain, and trying to move beyond risked a massive number of beasts ganging up against their excursions. Over the years, some beasts had success leaving for more peaceful parts of the world, but for these lords it was by far rare.

And so, after many years, they all secretly acquired the lord title, having killed the unintelligent lord beasts for the lord slayer title, and then transforming that into the bespoke name from the Nexus. The importance of such a thing was incredible, and he actually learnt something from these murals, although, no doubt such information resided in one of his many books.

That being how, if he killed a lord with the title equipped, he too would be a lord. However, what limitations this imposed was a big question, perhaps the Nexus gravely weakened a lord for leaving their territory? He’d have to check his inherited memories to find out.

By becoming lords recognised by the Nexus, the king’s natural pressure no longer affected them, and a majestic battle took place in which the wyrm nearing master tier fought against 12 weaker, but still mithril tier, beasts. Even then, a few of the lords died due to the wyrm’s bloodline simply possessing overwhelming natural abilities. Akin to how a dragon at birth has strength on par with bronze tier beasts!

Well, most that is.

Nonetheless, the lords slayed their tyrant king, cutting it into nine pieces which were promptly scattered around the mountain range. However, the head was special. It was placed underground, in the place the wyrm king loved to look down on its subjects with disgusting eyes.

They placed it underneath the king’s mountain.

And in his head, the young dragon could only think of how unlucky and lucky he had been. It was pure dumb luck that some small critter was able to get through the small cracks in the mountain to find that skeleton’s hiding place, then eaten a few shards before unfortunately being eaten in turn!

And then he actually found those shards, although it was more likely something killed the wassat before it absorbed the wyrm bloodline itself.

The last two murals went over how the mountain range was instead separated into eight territories, each marked with a piece of the snake’s body as proof of the respective lords’ work.

Without any notice on those body parts, he imagined that they’d been eaten long ago, bone and all. Which likely meant the wyrm’s skull contained its inheritance for some reason. Although, as shown by the reindeer long ago, it was not uncommon for the head to naturally turn into such a mystical thing.

Magic left to its own devices often did strange things, which had some logic, but mostly seemed defined by its own set of rules. It was for this reason that spellcasting even became popular, since magic is naturally so unwieldy unless formed in specific ways.

“You lot stop staring at the past and get over here!” The rattlesnake broke him, and a few other steel tiers, from their daydreaming gazes. All of them saw another passageway at the end of this room, and quickly caught up with the leading group. It was no surprise that a bit of ancient history meant nothing to them in the end.