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Jeffrey was one of the Awoken who participated in the excavation team.

He was trapped in the ruins by the invading monsters and was able to join the base camp here with the defenders' rescue team.

He seemingly had his life saved by the Defenders, but neither he nor his teammates rescued together never thought so.

Because they all thought they were saved by Hajin Kang, the Master of the Guardians, not the Defenders.

Indeed it was. If Ha-jin Kang hadn't arrived at the ruins at that time, he would have all died.

So, all the way up to here, I maintained a certain line with the Defenders.

Stephen, the leader of the Defenders, continued to try to talk, but it wasn't just Jeffrey that all the other Awakeneds responded in a similar way.

Rather, ordinary people who were not Awoken were more friendly with the Defenders. Of course, they didn't cross a certain line either.

In the end, Steven didn't get any results until he reached the base camp at the foot of the mountain range.

All the Awakeneds who participated in this relic excavation team were excellent.

It was only natural to have gathered only such Awoken.

So maybe Steven was very greedy. If we can take them all at once to the Defenders, our power will skyrocket.

And eventually, when they arrived at base camp, they all joined the Guardians.

I was very impressed with Steven's expression of disappointment. But he couldn't help it. At least his heart should be at ease.

To be honest, after Ha-jin Kang saved them, for some reason, he gained confidence that he could safely descend down the mountain range whenever he wanted to.

So, the gratitude for The Defenders may have been diluted.

Jeffrey warmed up by running a few laps around the training ground outside the barracks.

In fact, it wasn't the Defenders or the Guardians that continued to bother Jeffrey these days.

It was something that I experienced, no, I did while coming here.

He wanted to scream out of nowhere, so he kept holding back, and eventually screamed out loud, as if he had made a promise, and he was surprised to hear that his co-workers shouted at the same time.

He was frankly a little embarrassed and surprised by his outrageous behavior. But after that, he had no time to be any more ashamed as his body was overflowing with strength.

It kept getting in my mind, so I seldom get the job these days.

In fact, I have to slowly leave this place and live an Awakened life again, and that's partly why I'm not doing it.

And it wasn't just him, but all of his colleagues at the time.

Geoffrey, who relaxed at the training ground, took a deep breath.

And he screamed out loud.

“Wow!”

It was a call with all his might. But nothing changed.

I didn't have any strength, nor the confidence that I could do anything.

I just had a little sore throat.

From afar, the Guardians' Awakenings glanced at this side. It wasn't my first time, so I didn't pay much attention to it.

It was just like that again and again.

It must have been the seventh time Jeffrey had done this, and it wasn't just Jeffrey that all of his colleagues had done the same thing.

So, shouldn't everyone be quiet?

Because it wasn't anything special.

Jeffrey went back to the barracks, shaking his head with a frustrated heart.

* * *

Hajin Kang quietly returned to the Guardian's base camp at the bottom of the Rocky Mountains.

He originally came back without anyone knowing that he was trying to leave Canada.

But as soon as he arrived at base camp he saw a bizarre sight.

“Wow!”

Ha-jin Kang was startled by a sudden noise as he entered the Guardian's barracks.

Someone was using evil at the training ground.

‘What the hell is that thing doing?’

Kang Ha-jin quickly found out that he wasn't the Guardian's Awakening, but the Awakened One in the ruins.

It was inevitable because as soon as he saw him, he knew immediately that he was registered as one of his combat soldiers.

‘A battlefield cry?’

In Kang Ha-jin's mind, a while ago, as a test, he used [Battlefield Cry] on combat soldiers.

At that time, he had confirmed with [Eye of the Sky] that all the combat soldiers were shouting at once.

He received a buff that raised all his abilities and morale, so how much strength and courage must have boiled over.

Perhaps the experience was very impressive.

Jeffrey's shout caught Ha-jin Kang, who was about to leave immediately.

* * *

"Five! You have arrived safely! I was waiting. Hahaha!"

As soon as Renat saw Ha-jin Kang, he warmly welcomed him with his hands wide open.

If Ha-jin Kang approached him, he was ready to hug him tightly.

Of course, Kang Ha-jin didn't want that, so he kept a little distance.

“I didn’t know you were still waiting.”

"Hahaha. You should see Eun-in's face. It was quite interesting to watch them.”

Renat glanced at the Awoken who were looking at him with excitement from a distance and said,

“What happened?”

"I do not know. It's kind of hard to explain. It’s a bit vague to say what’s going on.”

Lenat looked at Hajin Kang with her strange eyes.

“Let’s go inside.”

After entering the barracks, the two exchanged a few ceremonial greetings and started a full-fledged conversation.

“Did you find any other ruins?”

Hajin Kang nodded his head indifferent to Renat's question.

“We have found four more ruins.”

"Also!"

Renat patted his knee in admiration.

Kang Ha-jin saw this and her eyes lit up.

“Did you expect it?”

Renat put the tablet down on the table and opened the screen.

“I organized the patterns inside the ruins. Most of the things I couldn’t understand the meaning of, but there were some things that were suspicious for some reason.”

As his words continued, Hajin Kang's eyes grew bigger and bigger.

“The traces of the remains found this time seem very unfamiliar, but in fact, it is not necessarily so. There are quite a few relics that bear some similar traces. Look at this.”

A few pictures popped into my tablet.

“It’s Amazon.”

An aerial photo was also included, so I knew it was Amazon right away.

“The ruins we found in this jungle.”

I flipped the screen to show the photos, but some photos were taken out separately without flipping through them.

It was a picture of a pattern.

“These ruins also had a lot of patterns that were difficult to understand. But it wasn't necessarily like that. Do you see these patterns?”

There were things that overlapped with the patterns in the ruins of the mountain range.

“If you look at this, you can see that these glyphs are letters.”

Renat looked at Kang Ha-jin and grinned.

“It’s been 30 years of research alone. Have you ever heard of my nickname?”

Hajin Kang shook her head as her eyes lit up.

Then Renat continued with a smile.

“It’s called a relic hunter. Actually, they don't hunt, they just satisfy their intellectual curiosity, but they gave it a strange nickname. Well, thanks to this, I was able to join the excavation team, so I'm just accepting it. It helps in many ways.”

Lenat, who had spoken up to that point, raised one of his fingers, evoked the atmosphere, and continued explaining.

“So, if you look at this letter, it means a number. It means 1.”

In that part, Hajin Kang admired. Isn't Fortress No. 1 where they were at that time?

“And this number means five.”

Renat looked at Kang Ha-jin and grinned.

“So it means first out of five. How is it? It seems pretty plausible, isn't it?"

It's not plausible, it's horribly accurate. How the hell did you know that a letter was a number?

“But I was really impressed that you came to see all the other four ruins. How about those ruins? The structure was probably the same..."

With that said, it was as if a brilliance was emanating from Renat's eyes, who glanced at Kang Ha-jin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“As you might have guessed. It’s the same relic.”

“Isn’t the location of the ruins supposed to be like this?”

Renat popped a map on his tablet and tapped it with his finger.

It wasn't a perfect location, but it was roughly the same point. The important thing was that he knew exactly that the five fortresses were forming a circle.

“It is similar.”

Renat looked at Ha-jin Kang with earnest eyes and asked.

“Have you ever been to the center of these ruins, or this point?”

Hajin Kang looked at Renat. He was a little surprised on the inside, but outwardly he didn't show any signs.

“There is definitely something in the middle of this. I should have come to check it out, but I still regret it. I think I should have followed Kang Ha-jin even alone.”

“I went.”

“Oooh! Oh, how was it! What was there! Couldn't there have been any traces of the king?"

Hajin Kang looked at Renat with strange eyes.

What the hell does this person know?

Renat, who saw Ha-jin Kang's eyes, realized that he was too excited, and turned into a shy expression.

“Hmm, hmm. I'm so excited. This is disappointing. But I am so curious that I have to be patient.”

Ha-jin Kang was worried about how far he could tell this person.(Read more @ hotmtlnovel.xyz)

Seeing the hesitation, Renat scratched the back of his head.

“This is too unilaterally pouring out my request. It seems like the story is going to be a bit long. Time, are you okay?”

Hajin Kang was already curious about Renat, so she happily nodded her head.

“First, I think I should talk about why I am so interested in the ruins.”

Renat paused for a while, then looked at Ha-jin Kang and asked.

“Hajin Kang, what do you think about the system?”

"I do not know. I don't know what to say when you suddenly ask such a question."

Renat's eyes flashed sharply. He was a figure he had never shown before.

“There are some very unusual kinds of ruins.”

This time, it was Kang Ha-jin's turn to brighten her eyes. I guessed that what Renat said now is a remnant of the past.

“If you study the artifacts consistently, you can figure out what’s going on in your own way. It is the continuity of history.”

Renat started talking like that.

“But sometimes, some really crazy guy pops out. That was the part I was interested in.”

Renat paused for a moment before continuing.

“I call it a vestige of the system.”

“A trace of the system?”

Lenat explained step by step what he had been studying.

He logically unraveled the relationship between the remains and the system he was interested in.

In the process, he was able to decipher to some extent the characters written on the remains.

And as I got to know the characters little by little, my research deepened even more.

Of course, it wasn't perfect yet. Actually he didn't find any evidence that it had anything to do with the system.

However, if only the evidence is found, Renat's research will go downhill.

“The Rocky Mountain ruins were like that.”

“What exactly did you find out there?”

“The ruins were a fortress protecting the king. Perhaps… a tribe with some unusual ability was the enemy.”

The tribe with that unique ability was the heterogeneous race.

“If you check the rest of the fortresses and what they protect, it seems like something more meaningful might come out...”

After saying that, Renat looked at Ha-jin Kang with twinkling eyes.

His eyes were eagerly seeking something.

Ha-jin Kang was convinced that now was the moment to embrace Renat.

“Would you like to visit?”

Renat's mouth was wide open.

Read more @ hotmtlnovel.xyz. Chinese MTL Fan-Fiction/Second Element novel can be read @ HotMTLNovel for free.