Ben walked down the stairs that led to the underground room and the door closed behind him. It was really dark so Ben wanted to create a light orb. Before he could do that, some lacrima lamps on the wall lit up.
It worked to his advantage as he didn't have to use any magic power now, even though the light orb only took a little magic power. Before he continued walking down the stairs, Ben inspected the lamps. He was interested by the automatic mechanism of these lamps.
"Wow, this is high-tech. The lamps can turn on automatically when they detect something passing by. I didn't know there was a mechanism like this because I never came across it." Ben said as he scanned a lamp with A.I Chip.
A.I Chip found out the secret was inside the lacrima crystal. It had some runes installed in it and they're rather complicated. But it was easy for A.I Chip to scan the runes thanks to Ben's magic sense.
After scanning a lamp and figuring out how it works, Ben resumed walking down the stairs. He went down rather deep and found a lot of drawings on the wall. Ben looked at them and scanned them all with A.I Chip.
He kept walking until he came across a large stone gate with a door that had two sides. The gate also had drawings on it, which are 2 scary red and blue demons. There's also a small plate in the center of the 2 sides.
The plate was comprised of 10 circles that have random pictures. Ben knew that it was a puzzle and he needed to solve it in order to open the gate. But a puzzle like this will have a punishment that will fall on him if he failed.
Ben wasn't concerned though because he had A.I Chip who can simulate the puzzle before he worked on the real thing. A.I Chip only needed half a minute to solve the puzzle. Ben moved the circles with A.I Chip's guidance.
Unsurprisingly, the gate opened after he solved the puzzle. A trick like this was useless for someone who had the best computer, A.I Chip. If A.I Chip failed to solve this puzzle, then no one could solve it.
He passed through the open gate and found a big, dark room. This room was mostly empty except for 5 pillars. These pillars were connected by a pentagram drawn on the floor.
Ben knew these weren't normal pillars and that wasn't a normal pentagram. They must be triggers for something in this room. The problem is, it might be a good thing or bad thing.
So like usual, Ben asked A.I Chip to scan the pentagram and pillars. He needed to be very careful in a place like this because it can cost him his life. No one can help him here, so he can only depend on himself.
Ben's caution is not baseless though. A.I Chip found hidden runes on the pillars and the pentagram was made out of runes too. But A.I Chip wasn't able to find out the runes function.
"Hmm, this is very tricky." He said as he thought about what he needed to do.
Ben looked around for any clue that might help him solve this problem. He knew that having his Devil Slayer Magic flow into the ground wouldn't be enough. They won't use the same trick twice.
After looking around the room for a half hour, Ben finally knew what he needed to do. Well, he guessed what he needed to do. He needed to activate the pillars in the correct order to activate the pentagram.
Ben knew that after looking at each pillar closely. They look very similar, but there were some difference that clued him in. Each pillars has patterns and drawings that look similar, but A.I Chip spotted the differences.
"Hmm, after looking at the patterns on these pillars, the order should be pillar 4-2-1-5-3. I hope it's not the opposite or even another order." Ben said.
[Don't worry. I think you can handle the problem that will emerge if you are wrong.]
"That's not the problem. I won't get anything if I fail to activate it correctly." Ben said.
He then went to the center of the platform and suddenly 5 small pillars came out of the floor. On top are small transparent crystal balls. They're positioned in line with the real pillars.
"My magic power needs to flow into these crystal balls, huh?" Ben asked out loud.
Ben took a breath and prepared himself before his magic power flowed into the crystal balls following the order that he made. The pentagram and pillar glow yellow every time Ben's magic power flowed into the crystal balls.
Then after his magic power flowed into all 5 pillars, the patterns on the wall, floor and ceiling also glow. Ben didn't know what just happened and could only prepare himself if something bad happened.
But there was nothing to worry about because the light dimmed and nothing bad happened. Then, an altar suddenly appeared in the back of the room. There was a small shelf on the altar that had some books on it.
Ben approached it and picked a book up after confirming it was safe. The books were written in an old language. Fortunately, Ben had learned some of it from Roubaul. He read one of the books and was surprised by it's content.
"Curses." A surprised Ben said.
He checked the other books and they are all about curses. This is what he had been looking for the last few years since he learned about Curses. It wasn't the same thing as magic, so naturally Ben was curious.
Ben was very excited after coming across these books about Curses. Furthermore, he came across them after obtaining Devil Slayer Magic. He was very lucky today.
Ben then thoroughly inspected the altar to uncover any more secrets. But he found nothing except runes to preserve the books so they wouldn't be destroyed by something. So Ben picked the books up and placed them inside his backpack.
He left the underground room because there was nothing else there. The altar also returned to it's initial position and the room became dim again. Ben went out the same path and the same stone door.
"He he, what a big harvest." Ben said said as he left the ruins.
Ben went to where he parked his car and drove away from the area. He didn't want to stay too long because he wanted to try his new magic and learn about Curses. Ben canceled his previous plans to test his magic here because it wasn't safe.
The Dark Valley had been visited by a lot of people before Ben. So there might be more people that come here. It would be bad if they found out Ben took Midas' corpse and gained Sun Devil Slayer Magic.
It's not like he was afraid of them, but it could lead to bigger problems. People who want the magic might attack his guild. Furthermore, the Magic Council might try and do something after finding out he has 2 different types of Slayer Magic. And now, he has the books about Curses which are only known by demons.
The Magic Council is the biggest pain in the ass. Me having Dragon Slayer Magic attracted their attention. If they knew I had Devil Slayer Magic too, then they would want me to join them through any means necessary. If they weren't the source of the money from my jobs, then I won't follow them at all." Ben said as he drove.
With that, Ben's personal mission was complete. But is it the end of the problem?