SAINTESS [Chapter 45: The structure]

As expected, merely possessing a fragmentary token wasn't enough qualification to openly enter Mars' royal palace.

Winnie retreated with the token, glancing back toward the direction of the inner city guards.

These palace guards defending the royal capital were undoubtedly far superior to the ordinary Mars soldiers patrolling outside the outer walls or supervising the slaves. Just from their aura alone, he could sense their battlefield-hardened lethality and overwhelming confidence.

“It seems impossible to enter the palace through normal means,” Winnie frowned slightly. “Miss Isatia, you've really given me a difficult task. Trying to tour the entire Mars royal palace right under these guards' noses, this challenge is truly too high.”

“Is there anything else inside your pendant that could help us?” Winnie continued to ask.

“Most of the items I carry are related to surveying and recording historical ruins. Of course, there are things that can assist, but... it's not yet the time to use them,” Isatia, carried by Winnie, replied.

“Ah, fine. Then, do you have any good ideas?” Winnie patted his pockets, pondering whether he had brought any secret treasures this time.

But upon second thought, what secret treasures did he even possess? If he had as many alchemical potions and magic scrolls as Aesphyra, would he still be struggling to infiltrate this buried dungeon??

Wait, didn't Aesphyra hand him several magic scrolls and alchemical potions right before he entered the buried dungeon??

Winnie suddenly remembered this.

He walked into the city, found a bench, sat down, placed Isatia on the bench, and rummaged through his coat, pulling out several vials of alchemical potions Aesphyra had given him.

He had no idea what effects these potions had. Surely she didn't just hand him healing potions, did she??

He held them up to the sunlight and noticed the liquid wasn't the usual hue of healing potions, but instead a refined shade of gray.

“This is an Invisibility Potion,” Isatia spoke just as Winnie was about to check the labels.

“Huh?? You mean an invisibility potion??”

“If nothing unexpected happened, then yes,” Isatia answered.

Winnie looked at the label and indeed found it inscribed with the words 'High-Grade Invisibility Potion'.

Hmph, Aesphyra was quite thoughtful. Even though she clearly knew the effects of these potions, she still labeled each one properly.

Winnie recalled that back at their academy, there was some utterly irresponsible alchemist who would randomly mislabel his own alchemical potions. Since he could recognize them all himself and wasn't afraid of making a mistake, he deliberately mislabeled the potions he created.

When others asked why he did this, his answer was: he didn't want someone to kill him one day, then immediately used his potions after picking them up. So he would label health-boosting potions as poison, and deadly poisons as cleaning solutions.

Although such behavior was overly paranoid, it wasn't entirely without logic. A final laugh upon death, indeed, it seemed to have some merit.

In contrast, Aesphyra truly didn't need such insane caution.

Across the entire continent, who could possibly kill a fate-blessed, destined heroine protagonist? Even if someone could, she'd most likely encounter her destined savior, get rescued, or miraculously survive due to various reasons, ultimately grow stronger through misfortune, and return for revenge.

Indeed, that silver-haired nutball's mind was as reliable and meticulous as ever. She'd sent nothing but extremely practical potions, all leaning toward life-saving types. Even gave him the extremely expensive High-Grade Invisibility Potion, one that conceals form, voice, footsteps, and can bring up to three others into invisibility with the user.

With this, the two of them can freely enter the palace. After all, Mars existed in an ancient low-magic era. Alchemy might have just begun developing back then, let alone advanced invisibility potions that require a highly developed alchemical foundation to create.

But another problem arose.

“There are only two High-Grade Invisibility Potions,” Isatia pointed out. “We can stay invisible for at least one hour.”

“Yeah, only two invisibility potions,” Winnie also worried.

Aesphyra probably gave him all the invisibility potions she had brought along. After all, no one can predict what kind of situation they'd face after entering the buried dungeon.

Would one hour be enough to traverse the entire underground royal palace of Mars?

This was clearly impossible. If the previous Sea of Sand was indeed part of the ancient Mars palace, Winnie couldn't imagine how they could possibly tour the entire palace. It might take days, and even then it might not be enough.

“What should we do?”

“One step at a time. Let's go,” Isatia's voice came from behind Winnie. “I'll make sure you return safely.”

“Alright,” Winnie pursed his lips, then disappeared from the royal guards' sight. He circled around and arrived beneath a corner of the city wall, uncapped a bottle, and drank one Invisibility Potion.

After a brief period of the potion taking effect, Winnie pulled Isatia on his back into the invisibility state.

Winnie, who hadn't drunk this kind of potion much before, was quite curious about the sensation. After drinking it, his body turned transparent, but he could still see himself, and could still see Isatia whom he was carrying.

Could others really not see them?

Winnie walked to the palace gate, took small steps forward, and waved his arms a few times in front of a guard. Seeing the guard show no reaction at all, Winnie finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Looks like the invisibility potion worked. Given Mars' level of development in soul armament and alchemy, the palace hadn't developed any means to detect invisibility potions. After all, invisibility was practically an unknown concept back then, no one could achieve it. Otherwise, the Mars king would have been assassinated millions of times.

It would be different in Camella's current royal palace. The Wrathful Dragon Knight's dragon eyes alone could detect invisible individuals.

The two smoothly entered the inner city. From here on, entering the palace became effortless.

Why? Because Winnie had already seen Mars' royal palace before, during his time in the shallow sanctuary. Although the palace he saw then was severely damaged, it was enough to familiarize himself with the terrain. Besides, Isatia, an expert in Mars studies, served as a navigator. There was no way Winnie could get lost.

So this was what Mars' royal palace looked like in its prime?

Observing the patrolling royal guards and the watchtowers spaced at regular intervals, Winnie couldn't help but wonder.

Isatia was also observing the palace scenes, the patrolling royal guards and the interior decorations.

Under the effects of the invisibility potion, these golden-armored royal guards were as blind as the blind, unable to see them. Passing right under their noses was effortless.

After openly entering the palace, the two familiar descended down a staircase and saw the two werewolf statues, one fiercely glaring at visitors approaching the gate, the other faithfully gazing toward the king inside the royal hall, as if ready to slaughter anyone who dared approach the palace.

They walked down the staircase to the bottom. The light grew brighter, and suddenly opened up.

This time, unlike the previous ruined palace hall, the interior was magnificent. Rare treasures, plundered from unknown places, were displayed in abundance throughout the spacious hall, as if Mars' king was proudly showcasing his spoils of war and conquest records to all visitors.

And indeed, that was exactly the case.

On both sides of the palace hall stood rows of straight-standing guards adorned in luxurious armor and ornaments. From them emanated a calmness born of countless battles, as if they could perfectly protect their king no matter what crisis arose within the palace.

The mural behind the throne was no longer in a ruined state, nor was it ownerless.

The mural was intact. A chocolate-skinned, burly man wearing a sheer robe made of pure gold and various gems sat high upon the throne. He wore a golden lion mask, obscuring his face. Only from the gaze beneath the mask could one faintly feel a chilling sharpness and an aura of silent authority.

When Winnie entered the palace hall, the first thing he saw was this man, and their eyes met. For a moment, he froze in place, forgetting even how to move, as if the air around him had completely stagnated.

“Winnie.”

Only when Isatia's cold voice snapped him back to reality did Winnie finally recover.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah, yes,” Winnie shook his head. “I... just now, for some reason, felt as if the Mars king sitting on the throne was looking directly at me?”

“Is that so?”

“It must've been my imagination,” Winnie thought. How could the other possibly have noticed him? The development level of Mars' civilization in soul armament wasn't that advanced.

Winnie walked straight into the palace hall, then thought for a moment and turned right.

After all, last time, it was on the right side that they encountered the sudden sandstorm.

They needed to explore the right side. Besides, Isatia had probably already seen the other areas.

Isatia had no objections. Together, they entered the right wing of the palace. Upon arrival, Winnie realized things weren't so simple, the right side had too many complex branching paths, and numerous guards patrolled the area.

So the Sea of Sand really was part of the ancient Mars palace.

Winnie's heart sank.

Just how vast was the Mars royal palace? How long would it take to reach the end??

If Winnie remembered correctly, even falling from here to the very bottom took considerable time. It was hard to imagine just how enormous this palace truly was.

Shaking his head, Winnie pressed forward. He knew he couldn't waste time, they only had one hour of invisibility, so every second counted.

Winnie carried Isatia and entered the right wing of the palace.

Suddenly, he realized something felt off. He had the vague feeling they'd forgotten something. After a moment, Winnie suddenly understood.

“Isatia, did we... not eat a single meal since entering the buried dungeon??” Winnie asked.

“This is an eternal cycle realm created by divine authority. I think it might be related to that,” Isatia answered, most of her attention focused on observing the Mars palace.

“We... won't be able to finish exploring the entire Mars royal palace.”

“I know. We'll see how much we can cover,” Isatia continued.

“Isatia, I'm not one to pry into others' secrets, but given the circumstances, I believe I have the right to know your plan,” Winnie said.

“Winnie, do you know what our Lanteville family's [Divine Blessing] is?” Isatia didn't intend to hide it.

“I don't know, but I guess it's probably related to [History],” Winnie said.

“Correct. More precisely, it's related to [Civilization].”

“Explaining it now would be complicated. Let me summarize: I need sufficient understanding of Mars' civilization, its architectural styles, administrative systems, history, customs, and the complete structure of its city-states and palace. Only then can I construct a Mars civilization within my [Divine Blessing].”

“Ah??” Well, that was indeed complicated. Even the summary sounded confused.

First, what exactly did “sufficient understanding” mean? Did it require meticulous detail, recording every single word on every ruin without exception??

Winnie recalled what Isatia had been doing throughout this journey, continuously recording Mars civilization relics, including statues, stone tablets, and the inscriptions on them. All of it needed to be documented.

If that was the case, her request to “construct a Mars civilization” within her [Divine Blessing] was terrifyingly demanding??

Was this even something a normal human could memorize??

Oh, right, he'd nearly forgotten. Isatia wasn't an ordinary person. Just her photographic memory alone made her far from average.

“There is actually a better, faster method,” Isatia said.

“What method?”

“Defeat and conquer this civilization,” Isatia said slowly. “More precisely, overthrowing the king who established Mars' slavery system. But obviously, that's impossible, because the Mars civilization has already perished. What we see now is merely a remnant shadow, a false dream created by fragmented divine authority called 'Continuance and Eternity'.”

“The real Mars disappeared from the continent of Terraria long ago. We cannot truly defeat Mars' tyrant here.”

“So, all we can do is let you gain enough knowledge of the palace's structure to increase your understanding of Mars??”

“If nothing unexpected happens, that's the only method. After all, this isn't our world, and the Mars civilization hasn't been fully constructed within my [Divine Blessing] yet,” Isatia answered.

Fully constructed??

Winnie seemed to understand.

Ah, so that's how it was.

Now he knew why Isatia understood the Mars civilization so deeply.

Apparently, the Mars civilization had already formed a 'foundation' within Isatia's [Divine Blessing]. This foundation is likely formed because Isatia had obtained a significant amount of information about Mars through certain channels, giving her preliminary understanding of the civilization.

This foundation also facilitates Isatia's deeper exploration and understanding of Mars' civilization, allowing her to completely surpass other researchers in Mars studies.

“So, how much has been constructed so far??” Winnie asked.

“More than half,” Isatia answered. “As for the rest... we'll see how much we can learn.”