Gathering Wives with a System

Chapter 685: Undiscovered Treasure

"I’ll return to the Soul Space now. Master said the training won’t resume until tomorrow," the former East Sea Dragon King said.

He was about to leave when a strange sensation suddenly passed through everyone in the room, causing them to stop and look around.

Their attention quickly shifted toward the closed windows. Since they had been traveling through the spatial domain, the windows had remained blocked.

Charlotta’s summon had only come out of the spatial domain several times since the previous night so everyone could rest during the journey.

However, this was not one of those times. Something had interfered with their journey, and whatever it was had happened without warning, immediately putting everyone on alert.

"I’ll check," Oz said as he stood up. Catherine also reacted at the same time and sent several camouflaged clones outside to investigate the surroundings. Althea moved toward the window and opened it, with the others following behind her.

Outside, there was only ordinary wilderness. Trees covered the surrounding land, while monsters could be seen moving through the distance, but there was nothing immediately obvious that explained why their travel had stopped.

Isaac frowned and tried to activate his teleportation ability. The skill responded, but activating it was noticeably more difficult than usual, as though something in the surrounding region was interfering with spatial abilities.

"Could it be a monster or some awakeners?" Alice asked as she looked around. Her eyes were shining with interest, because anything capable of stopping an Overlord-rank summon from traveling through the spatial domain was clearly powerful enough to attract her attention.

"I’m checking," Charlotta said.

Althea’s bodyguard had already taken out some kind of device and was using it to examine the surrounding area. She moved it slowly while checking the readings, but before she could provide any useful information, Catherine suddenly spoke.

"I’ve found the source. Look at the sky," Catherine said.

Everyone raised their heads and looked upward. A gigantic mass of clouds had appeared above them, blocking the sun and covering a large portion of the sky, but Isaac quickly realized that something about it was wrong.

He focused his eyes and his expression changed. That was not a cloud.

It was a city.

More precisely, it was a Sky City.

Isaac had learned about Sky Cities from Catherine’s classes. When a civilization developed to an extremely high level, it was possible for an entire city to become capable of flight, and although no kingdom in the present era had reached such a level, several civilizations in the distant past had possessed cities like this.

Most of those civilizations had eventually been destroyed during the previous Thousand Year Stampedes. The remains of the Sky Cities that had survived were scattered throughout the Sector, and because so much time had passed, finding one was extremely difficult.

Sky Cities had several major advantages, with mobility being the most obvious one. An entire city could move away from disasters or enemy attacks, while its enormous structure also allowed it to function as a moving fortress.

Another important feature was that Sky Cities generally flew above the Red Rain. The Red Rain could still rise high enough to attack a Sky City, but under normal circumstances, its clouds remained at their usual altitude, allowing the inhabitants of the city to see the natural sun instead of the false sun created by the Sky Dome.

Because Sky Cities had once belonged to some of the strongest civilizations in their respective regions, they naturally contained enormous amounts of valuable things. Ancient treasures, precious mana arts, information, technologies, and countless other resources could potentially be found inside one.

Whenever a Sky City was discovered, people generally treated it like a Great Dungeon. The possibilities were simply too great, since even a partially explored city could contain resources that had been completely lost in the present era.

Of course, there was always the possibility that this particular Sky City had already been discovered and thoroughly searched. However, Isaac quickly dismissed that thought because the city was still floating in the sky, which was a very important clue.

In many cases, people who discovered an ancient Sky City would not stop after taking the treasures inside. They would even dismantle the propulsion framework that kept the entire city suspended in the air, since the system itself contained extremely valuable technology.

If this city was still floating after so many years, there was a good chance that nobody had discovered it before. Isaac looked to the side and noticed that Alice was not the only person with shining eyes, as most of the group had already understood what this discovery could mean.

"What is that?" Oz asked, clearly confused by everyone’s sudden excitement.

Catherine explained what a Sky City was and why discovering one was considered such an extraordinary opportunity. Oz listened quietly until she finished, then puckered his lips slightly while looking at the ancient city above them.

"I see," Oz muttered.

He was obviously displeased by the idea of everyone becoming excited at the thought of searching through the remains of another civilization. It probably reminded him of what would’ve happened to his own people after their civilization was destroyed.

Isaac noticed his reaction but did not give him a lengthy explanation. "The people who built it have already been dead for a very long time, Oz. If they left something behind that can help us, then naturally we should make use of it."

Oz remained silent for a moment before nodding. He was not a child who needed to be convinced with some elaborate argument, and as someone who had once ruled an entire race, he understood perfectly well why they could not simply ignore such an opportunity.

After all, it was entirely possible that they could discover something that would greatly improve their city’s defenses or increase their personal combat strength. In a way, this was not fundamentally different from hunting monsters, where they killed a monster, gained experience, and collected its loot, except this time their target was a destroyed relic of the past.

"Let’s start preparing. First, we need to stop the city from moving, and after that, we need to hide it with an illusion. If we leave it exposed, someone else might discover it before we finish searching," Isaac said.

The group quickly began making preparations. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and none of them had any idea what they might find inside, with even an Imperial-rank treasure being entirely possible.

Stopping the Sky City, however, could only be done after they reached it. If they had known beforehand that they would find a Sky City here, they could have prepared specialized equipment to stop it without first climbing onto the city, but there had been no way for them to know.

Hiding it would not be easy either. Fortunately, the city was damaged and incomplete, which meant its remaining structure was not nearly as large as a complete Sky City would have been. Even so, concealing something of this size beneath an illusion normally required extensive equipment, and they did not have that kind of equipment with them.

Fortunately, they currently had another method that could solve the problem. It was—