A Tomb?

Matthew's reason whispered in protest.

Would a wizard—or at least someone who had come into contact with wizard creations—specifically use a precious container capable of blocking Spirit probing just to hold a meaningless scrap of paper?

It was like using the finest enchanted safe to store a pile of garbage; it made absolutely no logical sense.

The wizarding world might have many eccentricities that ordinary people found difficult to understand, but their appreciation for “resources” and “utility” was practically engraved in their bones.

Such an obvious waste of a container's precious properties was itself incredibly bizarre.

The wooden box was by no means ordinary.

Perhaps it would not be considered a top-tier treasure in the true wizarding world, but in this Kingdom of Cher where magic elements were sparse, any item associated with mana was an anomaly. It could never be some common object “found anywhere on the roadside.”

So how could the slip of paper protected so securely inside it be just “anything”?

It had to have something special about it; he just had not discovered it yet.

A bold guess suddenly flashed through his mind like a spark struck in the dark.

Since looking at it with his eyes and deducing with common sense did not work... could it be that it was not meant to be looked at at all?

Did it need to be “perceived” rather than “read”?

Once this thought arose, it quickly took root and spread. Indeed, why use a box that blocked Spirit to contain it?

Was it not precisely to prevent it from being detected by casual Spirit scans?

This in itself suggested that the information on the paper likely required some kind of “key” beyond sight to unlock.

And the most direct “key”—the one that best fit the logic of the wizarding world—was it not... Spirit itself?

His heart could not help but beat a little faster.

Matthew took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He spread the paper flat on the table, his fingertips gently brushing over the chaotic lines. It felt rough and ordinary. He closed his eyes, eliminating any visual interference and preconceived disappointment.

Within his sea of consciousness, his Spirit—which had become as solid as steel and as sharp as silk after breaking through to a Second-Grade Apprentice—began to slowly flow and gather.

He did not rashly unleash its full power. Instead, like an experienced prospector, he first released an extremely fine and gentle strand of Spirit, cautiously and tentatively reaching out to “touch” the surface of the seemingly ordinary paper.

At the very instant that invisible strand of Spirit made contact with the yellowed paper—

A sudden change occurred!

Without any warning, a surge of information suddenly flooded his mind!

“Ugh!”

Matthew let out a muffled groan and leaned back slightly, instinctively trying to sever the mental connection. But the influx of information was so swift and direct that the transmission was completed in an instant.

It did not violently tear at his consciousness. Instead, in a peculiar, almost instilling manner, it branded the complete “meaning” into the core of his perception.

What flooded his mind was not the common script of the Kingdom of Cher that he was familiar with, nor was it any writing system he had ever seen.

It was a strange script with a peculiar structure, its strokes carrying bizarre curves and angles. Each symbol seemed to contain its own independent meaning and energy. They were like living spirits, spinning, combining, and flashing in Matthew's spiritual vision.

Yet, something even stranger happened.

Although Matthew did not recognize a single character, the moment these words flooded in, their “meanings” naturally and with absolute clarity presented themselves to his mind, fully understood.

It was not a word-for-word translation, but an intuitive understanding that went straight to the essence.

It was as if the characters themselves were vessels created specifically for spiritual communication.

The core content of the information quickly condensed and took shape in his consciousness.

It was a map.

Matthew carefully deciphered the spiritual map directly branded in his mind.

Initially, it seemed like an ordinary guide of paths and locations. However, as he delved deeper into the tiny annotations beside the markers for mountains and rivers, a clear outline gradually emerged—

This was no naturally formed hidden cave, but a man-made tomb.

The map clearly marked the location of the entrance, which was the opening of a corridor hidden behind specific mountain vegetation.

The internal structure was not complex, and could even be described as quite simple:

A main corridor connected to several small side chambers, leading to the main burial chamber at the very end.

The map's level of detail far exceeded the norm. It not only depicted every turn and the size of each space, but also used spiritual marks to annotate prominent warning symbols next to several key nodes.

Matthew understood instantly that those were the locations of traps and instructions on their trigger mechanisms.

And slightly east of the center of the main burial chamber, another special symbol was heavily marked—that was the central storage area for burial goods or treasures.

This detailed “walkthrough” raised a hint of doubt in Matthew's heart. Such annotations of traps and mechanisms obviously could not be a “visitor's guide” left by the tomb owner for themselves.

Then, who was the drawer? A grave robber who had successfully scouted this place and retreated in one piece?

“Are there professional grave robbers in the wizarding world too?” The thought felt a bit absurd, yet entirely reasonable.

The knowledge, magic items, and resources left behind by fallen wizards or apprentices would inevitably be coveted by adventurers or those with ulterior motives.

Only, to be able to convert the exploration results so precisely into a spiritual map, this “grave robber's” methods were certainly out of the ordinary.

Furthermore, if this were the case, it would explain why Nathan only had those few scattered magic stones.

After all, if Nathan had discovered an ore vein, how could there have been only a mere handful of stones?

Unable to figure out the exact reason, Matthew temporarily set his doubts aside.

However, another, stronger intuition faintly surfaced—the geographical description of the “place where the Fifth-Grade Apprentice fell” that Sutton had invited him to explore seemed to overlap with the area pointed to by this map.

Was there a connection between the two?

This association sent a chill through his heart.

...