Lord of Caldera - Chapter 349

Chapter 349: Chapter 349 The Elves
Toby clicked his tongue. It made sense now why this forest remained untouched despite being close to nearby villages. With no practical use for the trees, no one had bothered to cut them down—or replant anything else in their place.

“Troublesome. If these were familiar trees, we could look for specific features. As it is, we’ll just have to search blindly.”

“Don’t worry too much, my lord,” the guide reassured him. “This is a small forest. We can search every corner in about a week.”

“Well, that’s some consolation.”

Fortunately, Sylas’s orders were simple: look for anything out of the ordinary. They didn’t need to dig or cut trees. All they had to do was thoroughly inspect the area.

On the fourth day of searching, an unexpected cry broke the monotony.

“Thunk!”

“Ah!”

“What’s going on?” Toby barked, alarmed.

“It’s a monster-free forest! Could something have made a nest here without anyone knowing?”

Tense soldiers readied their weapons, but the shouting soldier waved them off, clutching his head.

“I-I hit a wall!”

“A wall?”

“You mean a tree, right? Don’t scare us like that,” someone muttered.

“No! I hit an actual wall! Come and feel it for yourselves!”

“What are you talking about…?”

The veteran soldiers approached the recruit, their expressions skeptical. But as they reached out to feel the air, their eyes widened in shock.

“It’s real! There’s an invisible wall here!”

“This is insane! It’s transparent, but you can feel it!”

The soldiers rushed off to fetch Toby. When Toby arrived, he too ran his hands over the unseen wall and stared in astonishment. Something was there—something solid—but it was completely invisible.

Recalling a trick from old tales about capturing fairies, Toby shouted,

“Someone fetch some thick dye and buckets of water from the village! Bring as much as you can!”

Toby directed the soldiers to mix the dye with water and splash it onto the invisible wall. As the liquid hit, the contours of the wall became visible.

“Keep pouring! Let’s see the full outline!”

“Yes, sir!”

With a sense of wonder, the soldiers continued pouring the dye until the entire wall’s shape was revealed.

“A door? It looks like a door!”

“It really is! A door built into the middle of a wall!”

“Wait, why is this wall so thin?”

The structure was bizarre—a wall barely thicker than a human head, standing alone in the forest with a single door in its center. No buildings or hidden spaces were connected to it.

“Who could’ve built something like this?”

“A prank by the fairies, maybe?”

“Out of the way,” Toby ordered, pushing past the murmuring soldiers to approach the door. The lock on the door was complex, with multiple mechanisms, but it wasn’t difficult to open now that the door was visible.

“This lock… It’s simple enough to unlock if you can see it. But without visibility, you’d have to fumble around blindly. Practically impossible.”

The design suggested that only someone who solved its mystery could open it. But if that was the case, why was there no building attached? Why leave just a door and a wall standing alone?

Toby puzzled over this as he unlocked the door. The moment he swung it open, he froze.

“What the…! There’s a space inside!”

“It’s magic!”

The soldiers gasped and stumbled back in fear. Though the door had opened, the other side of the wall remained closed. Instead, a hidden interior space was revealed.

“Stay here,” Toby ordered.

“You’re not planning to go in, are you, sir?”

“It’s dangerous! We don’t even know what’s inside!”

“Would you like to come with me?” Toby asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

The soldiers fell silent, and Toby stepped inside.

To his surprise, the space was immaculate—no dust, no odor, and illuminated by an unknown light source. The only thing in the room was books.

“Books? Are these all books?”

Toby gazed around in amazement. There were at least a thousand books stacked neatly within the space. No other objects were present.

What stood out was the lack of any markings on the books’ covers.

“What kind of book has no title or markings? At least label it…”

As he picked up a book and brushed it off, glowing blue text suddenly appeared, floating above its surface. Startled, Toby dropped the book, and the glow disappeared.

It didn’t take long for Toby to realize what these were.

“Spellbooks!”

He had stumbled upon a hidden trove of ancient spellbooks.

The collection of spellbooks was quickly transported to Sylas’s estate. Word of the discovery spread like wildfire, and it wasn’t long before the imperial court heard the news.

“What? Count Sylas found an ancient library?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. He unearthed nearly a thousand spellbooks,” the courtier confirmed.

“Hahaha! The count has found himself quite a treasure!”

The emperor laughed and slapped his knee. On the surface, his words sounded congratulatory, but his tone was laced with mockery.

After all, spellbooks were essentially useless in this day and age.

“Spellbooks? More like pretty rocks. They’ll make fine decorations, at least.”

Some people mistakenly believed that owning spellbooks allowed one to learn magic, but this was far from reality. Spellbooks were written for trained mages; without even the most basic knowledge of magic, they were incomprehensible.

For example, a spellbook for a fireball might begin with instructions like:

“To cast this spell, first gather magical energy in your hands…”

Most people would be stumped by the first sentence alone, as the ability to sense magical energy had been lost to time. In modern terms, spellbooks were little more than “pretty trash.”

“Even if no one can use them anymore, they might hold some historical value. I wonder who wrote them.”

The emperor’s insincere musings drew laughter from the gathered nobles. They could already imagine Sylas’s disappointment when he realized how useless the books were.

But not everyone was laughing.

“Y-Your Majesty,” one courtier stammered.

“Hm? What is it?” the emperor asked.

“I’ve heard that the elves still possess knowledge of magic…”

“And what of it? They’re holed up in their forests, cut off from—ugh!”

The emperor’s jovial response was interrupted as his eyes widened in realization. For a moment, he had forgotten about the elves.