Alien Spaceship?

Thud—

Rudolf's corpse collapsed limply to the ground.

The blood flowing from the massive hole in his chest quickly stained the yellow sand beneath him red.

Under the sunlight, the grains of sand shimmered with a crimson sheen.

“Splat!”

Exerting force in her hand, Irene crushed the still-slowly-beating heart.

She cast a spell called Mage's Eye on her eyes.

Her eyes, glowing with a faint white light, swept back and forth across the old mage's corpse twice.

After confirming that he was truly dead and had no contingency plans for resurrection, like a lich's phylactery, Irene murmured softly:

“What a pity. If I were still human, perhaps I would have let your companion go.”

Saying this, she stood up and shook off the remnants of flesh and blood from her claws.

Then she cast a cleaning spell to completely clean her claws.

Ordinary teleportation magic always had distance limits.

With every bit of distance crossed, the mana consumption increased exponentially.

To teleport over long distances, one could only use two interconnected magic circles, or an interplanar teleportation spell with an extremely long casting time.

As for the teleportation magic the old mage had used in his haste just now...

Irene did not believe that the little fish who had been sent away at the cost of a life could escape the dragnet she had set up.

Unsurprisingly, after waiting for dozens of seconds, a magical message entered her mind.

‘Did the fish get caught so quickly?’

‘Hmm... even faster than I expected.’

Having no more worries, Irene ignored it. Her gaze turned to a massive pit in the center of the camp.

This camp could be said to have been built entirely around this pit.

The object inside was their target this time.

Walking to the edge of the pit, Irene narrowed her eyes and looked down.

What was exposed in the cracked soil appeared to be only a small part of this behemoth.

Most of it was buried deep underground.

Although she couldn't see the full picture of this metallic creation, just judging by what looked like propulsion engines...

This thing definitely did not belong to this fantasy world with its severely lagging technology!

How could a world whose highest level of technology was the steam engine have an engine that looked so incredibly complex?

“Could this thing... really be an alien spaceship?”

Thinking this, Irene's figure flashed, and she vanished from the spot.

When she reappeared, she was already standing on the creation suspected to be an alien spaceship.

“Clang, clang, clang.”

She squatted down and tapped it lightly. The metal beneath her produced a crisp clinking sound.

“It's incredibly hard,” Irene murmured softly, trying to cast a few simple spells on the surface.

As a result, not a single scratch was left behind.

“Its magic resistance is also quite impressive.”

Raising her head, she looked not far away.

On the surface of the creation, there was a large hole that had clearly been forced open.

It was about wide enough for three people to walk abreast.

Judging from the cross-section, the outermost steel plating of this suspected alien spaceship was half a meter thick.

The humans had likely spent a great deal of time just cutting through this opening.

With a sigh of admiration, Irene walked over and stepped inside.

After passing through the forced opening, she entered a dim corridor.

The interior looked extremely dilapidated.

Thick layers of dust had accumulated on the walls.

Many exposed wires hung from the ceiling.

However, Irene was no archaeologist.

She had no interest in researching how this suspected alien spaceship had ended up here.

Or what kind of historical story lay behind it.

As she walked deeper, the light from outside could no longer reach the interior.

Darkness enveloped everything.

But dragons naturally possessed darkvision, so this was no obstacle.

However, the corridors inside were incredibly labyrinthine.

To prevent herself from getting lost, Irene decisively used magic to leave markers along the way.

On her way, Irene also saw some very fresh traces.

They were likely left behind by the humans during their previous exploration.

After walking through the maze of corridors for about ten minutes, the space suddenly opened up.

This seemed to be some sort of laboratory.

It was filled with an apocalyptic sci-fi vibe.

However, the laboratory was currently rather empty.

Only some objects resembling metal dissection tables and metal brackets remained bolted to the floor.

Everything else had likely been hauled away by the humans beforehand.

She continued deeper inside.

Some areas had already sustained damage.

Silt and sand from outside had poured in through the breaches, forcing Irene to blast her way through.

Only then could she continue forward.

The further in she went, the more stagnant the air became.

It even contained a certain amount of toxins.

Musty, stale odors lingered at the tip of her nose.

If an ordinary person came here, they would probably die of poisoning before long.

But Irene was a black dragon; her innate poison resistance was completely maxed out.

She was entirely immune to toxins of this level.

However, just to be safe, Irene still cast several buffing spells on herself, such as:

【Danger Sense】

【Iron Skin】

【Agility Boost】

and other similar enhancement magic.

She also heightened her vigilance.

Cautiously, she continued her exploration deeper into the interior.

After passing several empty rooms, Irene stopped at a corner.

Before her stood a humanoid iron creation.

It was the so-called Imperial V-Type Power Armor.

At this moment, it sat quietly on the cold floor, leaning against the wall.

In its hands, it held something resembling a firearm.

Perhaps because too much time had passed, a thick layer of dust had accumulated on both the armor and the firearm.

Irene cautiously took half a step back and cast a detection spell on the armor.

Only to find it was resisted.

“Magic immune?”

The little dragon girl narrowed her eyes, quietly making her assessment.

She didn't detect any magical aura. It was likely forged from a metal that naturally possessed magic-immune properties.

After waiting for a few seconds to make sure this armor wouldn't suddenly spring up and shoot her, Irene condensed a water ball in her hand and threw it over...

“Splat!”

The water ball burst against the power armor's helmet.

Countless specks of dust washed down with the water, revealing the deep blue underneath.

Seeing no reaction, Irene carefully took a step forward.

Her entire body's muscles tensed.

Seeing that the power armor still made no move, she finally felt safe enough to approach.

There was a reason for her extreme caution.

In the Draconic Inheritance, ancient ruins were often guarded by golems.

Those were creations powered by magic, somewhat resembling robots.

Whenever an intruder broke in, these golems would take up the duty of guarding the ruins.

However, this power armor did not seem to play the role of a golem.

Irene walked up to the power armor and reached out to tap it twice.

Confirming there was no response.

Her gaze focused on the heavy helmet.

“Could there be a legendary alien inside?”

Driven by curiosity, Irene grabbed the helmet and tried to pull it off.

“Screech.”

Amidst a sharp metallic grinding sound, the helmet remained completely still.

“Hmm?”

Irene was slightly surprised and tried twisting it left and right.

Perhaps she had triggered some mechanism, because with a clicking sound, the helmet was lifted off by her.

But when she saw the face revealed beneath the power armor, Irene froze.

For a moment, even her slit-like, snake-like vertical pupils dilated into round ones from sheer shock.