......
Within the instant dungeon, Alice encountered a series of puzzles that needed to be solved. Most of them were simple ones, which also concerned her in-game procession, particularly about Elemental Beings.
She was able to answer most of the tricky questions and puzzles regarding them, but she encountered a few problems when it reached the middle stages of the dungeon. In this stage, she had to solve a series of puzzles written in elven runes, which varied from ancient to modern ones.
She had to solve a series of magic sequences with missing parts, where she had to find the right answer within a set amount of time. The questions started in the most basic sequences, where they focused on the regular elven runes that were familiar to most of the players.
But it later became more difficult, especially when the next magic sequences required some ancient and long-forgotten runes, which she was not familiar with.
Moreover, her little time was quite short, making it hard to complete each sequence.
At first, she thought that it was some random puzzles that she just needed to solve, but she later realized that these magic sequences were from a set of elven spells that varied from the most basic ones up to the advanced ones, then to modified ones.
She realized that these puzzles were records of a skilled elven researcher, who loved experimenting with elven magic, particularly in spirit and elemental magics.
She realized that these puzzles were not only a test to find if she could free the Earth Spirit Queen Gaia, but also meant to find a suitable successor that would inherit their legacy.
It was a test for an inheritance of a fallen elf magic researcher.
When she realized this, she slowed down her pace and took her time solving each of the magic sequences as well as studying each rune that she encountered.
It was at this moment that she also realized that she was inside a special dungeon where the time difference between here and the outside world flowed differently.
She also noticed that the timer for the spouting of the 'Flora of Death' had 'slowed' down by a great margin, so she did not have to be hasty.
With that, her mind entered a study mode, where she was constantly learning and absorbing all the knowledge and purpose of each rune and magic sequence that she encountered.
When she was done with the basic, intermediate, and advanced sequences, which also reflected the magic spells that they represented, and learned all the ancient, modern, and modified runes, she was struck by a sudden eureka.
Then knowledge from ancient times and modern ages came out of nowhere and flooded inside her head while a series of memories flashed in front of her eyes.
At the end of everything, she also gained some insights regarding spirit and elemental magic along with the more advanced set of magic circles that she had seen for the first time.
She knew that she could not cast these powerful spells with her current strength and level, but she could learn quite a lot from studying them.
A few moments later, after she successfully absorbed all the knowledge and insights that were flooding inside her head and flashing in front of her eyes, a sudden notification from the system woke her up.
*Ding*
System: Congratulations! You have learned the lost knowledge of the forgotten hero of elves, the Philosopher Andrea, the Half-Elf Half-Human Sage of the Repelling Era!
System: You have successfully inherited the Legacy left behind by the great philosopher.
System: You have learned the 'Sorcerer's Magic Runes'.
*Ding*
System: Congratulations! You have acquired the Secondary Combat Class: Sorceress of the Origin Runes!
System: You have acquired the Legacy Item: 'Grimoire of Sorcery'.
After listening to them, Gaia turned back to Alice and smiled full of care and love. "How about you, child of Elune? What is your name?"
Alice was slightly taken aback at how Gaia had addressed her. But she still introduced herself, nevertheless. "I-I'm... I'm Charlotte." – her in-game person more specifically.
Rumble!
While they were talking, intense tremors suddenly shook the entire place, disturbing them.
The Elemental Spirits stood firmly as they looked at the surroundings while fragments of rocks started falling toward the ground.
Alice, on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping her balance with the intense shaking. She decided to use a levitation spell to separate herself from the ground and floated in the air.
"It seems like that demonic seed from Hell is already on the verge of sprouting," commented Gaia as she was clear about the current situation, which was why she remained calm.
She then turned to Alice and said with an amiable smile. "Child of Elune, you already know what to do."
Alice nodded her head as she also realized that some of the runes and magic sequences were similar to the ones that were engraved on the iron chains wrapped on the arms of Gaia.
She also remembered what they were for, so she immediately understood that the legacy that she just got earlier had something to do with this seal – or at least some part of it, particularly those modified ones.
If her guess was right, then the legacy that she had gotten was some sort of research about these ancient runes or a study of them. It might be to free Gaia from these iron chains or something else.
She did not know how it ended, or what happened to Philosopher Andrea. But she knew that whatever research or study it was, it bore a positive result as she had already received the final products. One of them was the insights and knowledge about those runes while the other was the grimoire.
However, they still did not save Gaia in the end. Something might have happened in between that led to such a result or saving Gaia had never been their purpose.
Setting that thought aside, Alice quickly went to work.
***
While Alice was busy inside the instance dungeon, a literal 'war' was currently happening outside, where Shin and his Reaper's Retainers were currently fighting.
A horde of crazy monsters were charging at them as they protected the entrance of the dungeon.
These monsters were both from the ones that were corrupted by the demonic seed of the 'Flora of Death' and the mutated ones that were influenced by Gaia and lost their minds due to the aftereffects of the deaths of the four guardian monsters.
The guardian monsters were the centers of the sealing formation that was trapping Gaia. That was the main role that they had within this mountain range. But aside from that, they also served as leashes that kept all the powerful monsters residing within the region under control.
Now that the four guardian monsters were dead, these powerful monsters started running toward the dungeon gate. They could sense that the source that was granting them mutation was coming from there, so they wanted to get it for themselves.
Fortunately, these monsters were not strong enough to make Shin and his Reaper's Retainers helpless, so aside from a large number of the horde, they did not have that many problems.
On the brighter side, he was able to loot quite a lot of Mana Cores, both Elemental and Beast Cores alike, after killing a large number of high-level and high-rank monsters from the horde – most of them were even of Nature Element that he would need for the hatching and conversion of the green dragon egg in his possession.
Boom!
After quite a while, a mana storm suddenly erupted behind Shin and the others, where the dungeon entrance was located.
Shin did not need to turn his head around to know what had happened. But he was quite relieved that they did not have to hold against this monster horde any longer as he was already reaching his limit after the series of battles he went through.
"I guess it is finally time to relax a little."
...