This town was more or less a dead end but that was actually a good thing. It meant that Aleus's master had found the ruin otherwise there would be sightings of her in some other place or traces of her next destination at least.

  "The ruin must be within five to six kilometers radius of this town. It's only a matter of whether we qualified to find it."

  Assessed Aleus after they left tarven and arriving at the town square.

  "If that's the case wouldn't flying over the place yield more results than moving on the ground, they are ruins how hard can they be to notice. Or is it that they hidden by illusions."

  Wondered Hiro seeing as everyone else was silently agreeing with Aleus, but he thought differently, likely due to the difference in common knowledge he credited.

  "Ah. We left in hurry so I didn't mention this but you've misunderstood what ruins are. To put it simply they are isolated spaces and can't be accessed through normal means you'd need a portal at least to get inside. Not ancient hidden structures or anything along those lines you were probably thinking. But they are extremely hidden in way, since no one knows exactly where they are."

  Hearing this some other things became clear to Hiro, the Secluded Rune Era, from what he had gathered it was an era when rune grandmasters walked the earth. At times there would even be three of them sharing the same time period. But unlike in recent eras in which rune practitioners had become wide spread and the norm, at the time the knowledge of runes only had one source, grandmasters, with them teaching everyone else.

  To maintain their power they would share their knowledge with a few, close and trustworthy individuals. Knowledge of the most versatile runes was closely kept to certain groups as such when time progressed some were forgotten and buried by time.

  But there's one thing to note, rune grandmasters can create ruins, secluded spaces. These subspaces were used as learning areas, libraries and to also ensure near absolute secrecy of the respective grandmaster's personal runes. Time passes and new replaces old, these individuals, their disciples, disciple's disciple, how long could they withstand the trials of time. Eventually their legacies were left with no direct inheritors and thanks to them being in subspaces unless someone intentionally destroys what's within, everything becomes well preserved throughout the ages, with natural decay being the only obstacle.

  The people on the continent knew of the existence of such places the only thing that held them back from claiming them, their concealed nature. But throughout the ages there's never been a shortage of individuals who would rather die trying to find ruins than do something else. A treasure trove of knowledge lost to time this spurred plenty of certain individuals to lose sleep and leave their comfortable homes just to get a glimpse of one.

  (Now I fully understand, ruins thanks to their nature and origin are hidden and hard to find. That is if someone doesn't have what I have.)

  Thought Hiro as he finally said after a deep sigh.

  "I should have asked earlier we wouldn't have wasted our time, it just so happens that I have something that will definitely make our search smooth sailing."

  "No worries, it couldn't be helped. How long have we known each other, it's natural to not know what the other knows or is capable of. It is actually our fortune you realised this early on."

  Consoled Aleus while intrigue flashed in his eyes, out everyone in the group he was most informed on who Hiro was, having witnessed Hiro's feats that most would dismiss as false without having witnessed the actual events for themselves. And with the recent holy sword Spiriton he suspected what he had seen so far was just the tip of the iceberg.

  All gazes were on Hiro as he calmly took a breath while thinking.

  (Not postponing familiarising myself with Spiriton to inspect my own improvements wasn't wrong after all.)

  After the thought Spiriton was summoned and Hiro borrowed its senses. The effect was immediate he gained additional senses, one to detect evil entities, something all holy swords could grant. And the second, the sense of space, through it he could sense abnormalities in space like portals, space tears, subspaces, distortion and twists in space as long as they were within a certain range. This came as no surprise to Hiro during his assessment of Spiriton, Epsilon could do the same granting one additional sense beyond the common sensory of evil entities. And this additional sense had relation to the unique nature of the holy sword, and Spiriton could be said to be a holy sword of space.

  (Too think there are this many abnormalities within range, luckily with Spiriton's subspace as a reference identifying other subspaces is possible. There is three subspaces but I don't have to consider the other two they are too far from here which leaves only one. And there's something alive near it, a coincidence?)

  Hiro concluded his findings then willed Spiriton back to its subspaces. Ignoring the silent gasps of surprise from the group he revealed this new information.

  "... Of course I can't guarantee this is the one."

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  "There's no need for one, my trust in my master is guarantee enough. And you said it yourself besides this one the other two are outside my proposed range."

  Aleus spoke with confidence leading everyone back to the sky ship hidden within the illusion region. And with such a clear destination and being short on time they left immediately after boarding. Though the flight was far from being long it was enough for Hiro to feel a change in the atmosphere and be clear of constant gazes upon him.

  Aside from Aleus all the others knew was that he was a prince of a fallen kingdom and had a kind of power allowing him to defeat Jura before the world's revitalisation. Most of their impressions came from this and how Hiro carried himself. But now things had changed, their gazes upon Hiro were honest mostly curiosity and awe that Hiro didn't even have to ask to know their thoughts.

  (Not just a prince but an expert of his craft. Who is this person really, how come he has an artifact that can locate ruins something that even centuries pass without a new one being discovered. If he made this public knowledge the whole continent would be shaken... the palace valuing him higher than envoys may not be so simple after all.)

  Something along those lines at least, and even though they did not verbally express their curiosity or gain new information about Hiro, their perception of him had changed along with their attitudes, not that it was bad in fact it was already great. But now he had become someone who they had to commit to memory even if he disappeared the next day.

  With this being the only notable change their flight came to an end, having reached their destination. This place was an abandoned town that had been moderately buried by sand. Presently only two storey buildings and higher protruded from the ground and still reached above their heads, beyond this nothing else could be said of the scenery.

  "We've passed our first obstacles now only the second remains, finding an entrance into the ruin."

  Said Nubel as he moved the sky ship anchoring it to one building while it remained floating for the most part. Then everyone started getting off.

  "I noticed something on the way here I'm curious about, I'll investigate it while you find us a way in."

  Said Hiro before he ran to one end of the sky ship and leaped onto the nearest high building.

  "We don't have a way to forcefully enter the ruin but considering his Highness's master got in there has to be an intact key device nearby. We just have to find it so we'll split up and search the area."

  Suggested Leandro taking the lead after everyone had gathered below the sky ship with Hiro being the only one absent. And his suggestion was sound they were actually familiar with a ruin, the one made by Akarn's founder, as such they were more knowledgeable about them than an average rune practitioner. They quickly agreed and began their search of a key.

  While Hiro who was a dozen buildings over finally neared his target, a tall building ahead and judging by the distance between them just a street across. Hiro ran across the sand with ease then jumped onto the building then used the buildings protrusions to continue his ascendance onto the the roof. There was a thud as he stuck his landing on the roof.

  "So this is it."

  He exclaimed looking at an unassuming desert lizard, if it wasn't for the desolate of life standard aside from rune ecosystems and human settlements he wouldn't think it strange to see it nor would it draw his attention. The first thought that popped into his head was an escapee of a rune ecosystem and judging by its liveliness it was likely to be nearby.

  "As appealing as the conclusion is I suggest you look at it much more closely."

  Suddenly said B One having read Hiro's thoughts. Hiro wanted to ask what was wrong with conclusion but seeing as how simply catching the thing would give him answers, he did the latter. He moved fast and boldly not even fearing startling the creature, it was simply too slow in comparison.

  "This is..."

  Hiro's face flashed with shock as he inspected the desert lizard on his hand, it felt rock hard unlike flesh and not just on one part but its whole body, even the underbelly.

  "This couldn't be a golem, right?"

  He said looking at B One, the latter had a look that seemed to suggest he relished Hiro's turmoil but that was just his usual perhaps unchanging expression, soon the shock on Hiro was gone replaced with disbelief and denial. He held the lizard on one hand with its back flipped and belly facing up, all the evidence was there. Numerous runes numbering over a thousand were engraved on the belly and despite the numbers they were extremely small even when squeezed together they would be barely the size of grain of sand.

  "Such fluid movement and flawless animalistic behavior, and yet this is a golem."

  Hiro was still processing this, after seeing those in the training quarters he didn't even imagine there was such types not to mention the vast difference in quality. The lizard in his hand was wriggling trying to break free from his grasp, he could not see any flaw that would make him believe this was just a precious mineral animated with rune craft. A breath later Hiro Hiro had calmed down as he arrived at a new conclusion, the correct conclusion.

  "I did not think I could still be this surprised at this point but this... Forget it, I should let the others know this is probably the key they mentioned. And we owe it you for finding it so soon."

  Evidently even though Hiro had left before the key was discussed he heard them despite the distance, even now they were all still within Hiro's range of hearing. Granted everyone wasn't that far Hiro only needed to shout normally so they could hear him before rushing to his location.

  "Impressive to think you were the one to find it, not to mention so soon."

  Praised Aleus as he received the desert lizard golem appraising the runes on its underbelly for several moments before smiling as he said.

  "Done."

  Following his words a streak of light shot up from the golem's mouth, ascending several feet above ground before expanding into a translucent gold light dome covering most of the area with everyone being at the center, it was barely visible due to the light of day. Soon after the dome stopped expanding and right next to the desert lizard golem a door materialized.

  "We've found our way in, let's go"

  "Prince Aleus what about the key and ship, shouldn't someone guard them?"

  Asked the an attendant pointing the golem as it was released, they couldn't enter with it and outside others could find it after being drawn over by their sky ship thus gaining access to the ruin as well.

  "You are afraid of someone else claiming it, that is natural but how easy can it be to find a ruin, that thought is a product of paranoia. I'm confident we weren't tailed nor is there anything suggesting someone else searching for this ruin, the bulk of rune practitioners should be on their way to our capital. Come let us not waste time."

  Replied Aleus before entering followed by Hiro then the rest. The door closed and disappeared along with the golden light dome while the golem lizard scurried off into the cracks of a building hiding away.