Chapter 70 - Just Curious!

Kairen kept on turning the pages one by one. He couldn't understand anything from the words or the paintings, but he just continued to look at them. 

'Ah man, I want to know what are these about.'

He became more curious the more he looked at the pages. 

Kairen wasn't really interested in finding the intention and goal of Philomns, this place wasn't his world so why would it matter to him? But these kinds of mysterious things always tickled his curiosity no matter where it was. The unknown language and the long-haired man, he wanted to know about them. 

Kairen placed the notebook on the ground after reaching the last page and held his hand towards Reyan.

"Give me the camera."

"Huh? Ah!"

Reyan took out the camera that he had received from Asa and gave it to Kairen. 

Kairen opened the first page of the notebook and took a picture from it. Aside from his own curiosity, he had a hunch that they may be useful later. There wasn't much time so he could only take pictures from the pages that seemed more important.

After taking a few pictures, he grabbed the notebook and stood up. He walked to where the team leader was standing and asked a question.

"Sir, will there be a problem if I take it out?"

He wasn't sure if it was okay to take out the notebook. They tried not to leave behind any traces from themselves, so he thought taking this notebook might cause problems. That was why he took those pictures in case he wasn't allowed to take the notebook.

"Can you understand what is written inside?"

"No."

"I don't think there is a need to take it out. The pictures you have taken are enough."

"...."

Seeing him not react, team leader Dains turned to leave the room, but he stopped moving after hearing the boy's hesitant voice from behind.

"Is there... really a need to be so cautious?"

Team leader Dains raised one of his eyebrows and turned to look at Kairen again.

"What do you mean?"

'AWPDPOA Don't look at me like that!'

Kairen suddenly felt regret, the team leader's gaze was scary. But he couldn't take back what he had said. He avoided the team leader's gaze, took a deep breath, and started to quickly say all the things that came to his mind. 

"I-I mean, there is no guarantee that Philomns have visited this place before or will visit in the future. If we are the first ones to come here, they won't know about the existence of this notebook or any other things here so it won't matter if we take them with us. I-I think it is better to take anything that seems useful instead. They are our enemies so isn't it better to make sure that they won't find anything useful even if they visit this place later? And- and, if they've already visited this place, it must have been a long time ago. There would be marks left on the dust or other things if people had come here recently. Considering that there were no traces of someone coming here for a long time, then they must have visited here long ago. They must have picked up everything they needed from this place or examined the things here and made a copy of them without us even noticing. Again, if they already have a copy of whatever is in these books or notebooks, we have to know about them too, right? So what if they know that we were here? The two sides are fighting openly so why be so cautious? And...Um...Um..."

Kairen couldn't continue his words. It was because he sensed the room go extremely silent. 

He slightly turned his head and looked at the team leader's face.

'Gasp!'

He gasped silently and looked away almost instantly. Team leader Dains was staring at him with a piercing gaze that was really scary. It wasn't just him, everyone in the room was looking at him. 

'Did I say something wrong? Maybe I shouldn't have protested... Should I apologize?'

While Kairen was having such thoughts, team leader Dains turned around and waved his hand in the air.

"Do whatever you want."

"...Y-yes."

Kairen thanked awkwardly and walked back quickly. Others were still looking at him, but he tried to act as naturally as possible. 

He had decided to not mind people's gazes too much. Kairen didn't know why, but he was getting so many gazes these days, he would be drained of energy if he wanted to react to all of them.

'Why did I even go on and say those things? Ah, I'm so ashamed...'

He had those thoughts since entering this place, but never planned to share them with anyone. He didn't intend to insist so much on taking out this notebook in the first place. 

"Sigh."

Kairen walked back to Reyan and stood beside him. Even Reyan was looking at him weirdly but he didn't say anything.

The notebook was a little bit bigger than the backpack and didn't fit in so Kairen had to carry it in his hands. 

They exited the room and continued to walk forward. They encountered a few rooms on the way again. They were smaller in size compared to the first two and were all empty. 

"Hmm? Is this the end?"

"A dead-end?"

They saw a dead-end in front of themselves after walking for about ten minutes. 

Darren walked a little bit closer and looked at what was blocking their way.

"Doesn't this look more like a door than a dead-end?"

Darren pointed at the edges of the thing that was blocking their way with the flashlight in his hand. The edges weren't connected to the block except for only one side of it, just like a door. 

"A stone door?"

Carlson mumbled that under his lips. Darren moved his flashlight again and pointed at the surface of the door.

"What are these?"

There, in the place where he was pointing, they could see some engraved lines on the door. They looked almost like symbols. There were some lines mixed with some geometrical shapes. Some words were also written here and there. 

Kairen looked between the words written on the door and the ones written on the notebook. They weren't similar at all.

'Another language again?'

That seemed to be the case.

'How many more languages am I going to see today?'

Kairen suddenly thought that the door was much more interesting than the notebook. The notebook only had a few drawings and words, but the symbols on the door were much more complicated.

'Nah, stop sticking your nose into unrelated business, Kairen! I should search for a way out of this world, not be curious about this place's weird stuff.'

Kairen shook his head and brushed off those thoughts. He had been swayed here and there too much these days that he sometimes forgot what his own goal was. 

When Kairen was busy organizing his thoughts, team leader Dains walked closer to the door and lightly touched its surface.

"How does it open?"

He moved his hand over the door and touched the symbols. Nothing happened no matter where he pressed. 

"What if there is a spell on it?"

"Hmm..."

The team leader turned to Kairen after contemplating for a bit.

"Try casting a spell on it."

"Yes."

Kairen started to cast a spell as soon as he heard the order. He used a specific spell that was used to break seals or cancel other spells. He still had enough mana to cast a few spells like this. 

He finished his spell, aimed at the stone door, and sent his magic towards it.

OOONG

"!!!"

The moment that the magic spell engulfed the door, the stone door started to shake. 

Dust rose to the air and some small debris fell from the ceiling to the ground. 

OOONG

As the door continued to shake, the symbols on it started to shine. Different symbols shone in different colors. The colorful, intense light that was brightening the area made their eyes sore and blocked their sight.

"Wha-"

The whole group took one step back and covered their eyes, except one person.

"Ah?"

Kairen didn't move from his place.

'It is absorbing my mana?'

He couldn't move at all. He felt his mana get sucked into the door each second. It was as if the door was a magnet, absorbing  the mana from his soul.

Cold sweat formed on his forehead and he started to feel a headache.

'Stop it.'

It was disgusting. The feeling of your mana being sucked was really disgusting. It was different from when he used his mana himself, it felt eerie and sickening. 

'Cancel... cancel...'

Kairen wanted to get rid of this feeling immediately. 

He didn't think too much. He wanted to cancel the spell. He wasn't sure if it would stop his mana from leaking, but he did that. His action was instinctively more than a thought one.. He just moved as quickly as he could and canceled his spell at once.