Chương 573: Limitless Path Chapter Five Hundred Ninety-Five

"Five planets," Sera reported, using the tactical station to scan the system.

"Three rocky planets and two gas giants. Each of the gas giants as at least five moons, with one of the moons large enough it would be a planet on its own if it were in its own orbit. Asteroid belt between planets three and four, and a bit of debris in the outer system but nothing like what a full solar system would have."

"Place is formed like a mimic of a solar system but not exactly the same," Val corroborated, also at a console and analyzing the results.

"Looks like there aren't any, or very many, comets or other bodies that would drift through the inner system on long orbits. Likely the planets and moons also aren't exactly how they would be normally; might be lacking in minerals, ores, and biodiversity compared to most full solar systems."

"Why don't we start from the inside and work out? Blood, take us close to the first planet and we'll do a detailed scan of it and its one small moon," Beth said.

"Got it," Blood growled, steering the ship for the innermost planet. The space was pretty vast, but the ship was able to move quite fast, even triggering the FTL drive, as they didn't need to worry about messing with anything inhabited or other ships. Given that, they reached where the innermost planet was orbiting in just three hours, Blood bringing them into orbit smoothly before they started scanning both the planet and its small moon.

The planet was also rather small, probably about half the mass of Earth, if Beth's estimates were right, and the moon was more like a big asteroid than anything else. The place was also tough to fully scan from orbit, as there was a thick, cloud-heavy atmosphere present that did a real number on the cruiser's scanning equipment. The moon was much easier, as it lacked an atmosphere entirely and was just a large piece of rock.

They were careful to make sure there wasn't anything precious on or in the moon, but detailed scans revealed nothing. That just left the planet, and the cruiser was more than capable of handling the harsh atmosphere, Blood taking them down below the cloud level after they figured the moon didn't have anything worth stopping.

The clouds were dark and had a kind of brownish red tinge, and the atmosphere below wasn't a whole lot better, with dust storms blowing across large parts of the planet and very little light making it through, despite the proximity to the local star. Mana did make flying in an atmosphere just a bit different, as air and wind mana and other kinds of mana or elements could affect flight properties, but it was much more a concern for airplanes or very small, weak ships.

The cruiser, while not some absolute behemoth like the dreadnought they had disassembled, was far too strong to be bothered by such things on most worlds. Only extremely mana rich worlds or worlds with very special properties could really pose any kind of challenge, and even there, the cruiser had dampener systems meant to deal with hits taken during battle; some thick mana thrown into some thick air wasn't going to make the ride uncomfortable.

Blood put them into a flight pattern that would let them fly a couple miles above the surface of the planet at an appreciable speed, putting them just high enough to get a broad range from their scanners while still being low enough to pick up even fine details. The scanners were also powerful enough that, at this distance, the ship could move very, very fast and still get quite high quality scans, meaning a planet of this size would take no time at all to fully map.

Of course, they weren't going to get much from underground, but if the planets didn't have much of value above ground, only then would they do a little underground scouting. If there was tons of wealth on the planets, then no need for them to spend a lot of objective time spelunking for what might be little gain.

The whole pocket space was a bit disappointing to Beth so far; sure, it was neat, and she had gotten a tiny dose of inspiration looking at how it was formed and how it functioned, but it was basically just a solar system in a little pocket. Unless they found something super crazy valuable, and she was hoping they might hit a jackpot with a huge lode of easily accessible ore of high value, something like a few tons of mithril that they could grab, the whole thing was a bit of a letdown.

The scanning so far, as she reviewed the scans they had taken on entry and while flying to the innermost planet, didn't show anything crazy. There were no beasts or monsters flying around in space, though even with how powerful their scanners were, it would be very easy to miss even a large pack that was drifting around and not using much mana.

There were also no asteroids, planetoids, planets, or other objects that had immediately stood out as having a big score on them or being a big score, so the combing through everything was going to take time. Hopefully, one of the planets would produce something that was crazy high value and they could nab it; Zane and Fallon didn't care about keeping a resource, though they would buy anything very valuable that the team found at a high price.

That meant that they were just gathering data for the two Manumitted and could bag anything rare for themselves, which is why Beth had her fingers and toes crossed for the mother lode of all mother lodes in terms of ore. Unfortunately for her, what they found, at least on the innermost planet, was something entirely different. Fortunately for her, and the team as a whole, that thing turned out to be way more interesting, and possibly valuable, than a pile of rocks, even very shiny rocks.

They had been scanning the planet, making loops as Blood steered them through a pattern that would see the whole world explored, or its surface mapped, in just two days, when they encountered a strange tower. It was such an odd thing to suddenly see that the whole group went on alert immediately, as things that just suddenly popped up, and stuck out like sore thumbs, weren't to be trusted.

It didn't take them long, however, to stand down, realizing that the tower didn't pose any threat, or not any immediate threat, as it was just a strange structure that was on the top of a small mountain. The tower itself was only maybe twenty stories tall, or thereabouts, and was made of some kind of black rock, perhaps basalt or something, Beth wasn't exactly sure.

The structure was about a hundred feet wide and had a roughly hexagonal shape, though it looked like what Beth was guessing were the 'front' and 'back' sides were longer than the other four sides, and the whole surface was blank, other than the lines where the stone blocks connected and a single door at the base on said 'front' side.

Blood set the cruiser down about five hundred feet from the tower, close enough that any of them could have hopped from the cruiser to the tower or vice-versa with ease but far enough away, hopefully, that anything coming from the tower or triggered by the tower wouldn't just immediately reach and damage the starship. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The group geared up, all of them heading out, making their way to the strange structure's door.

Everyone had some kind of piece of gear, accessory, piece of armor, or something that would keep a shell of breathable air around them, though it wasn't really necessary for such a short trip. Then again, they might not find anything breathable in the tower, and if the inside was spatially expanded, it could take them a while to work through.

That much time without oxygen, especially if it included even a small amount of combat, would be extremely not fun, and Beth also just didn't like holding her breath for a long period of time, a feeling mirrored by the rest. The gear to give them air pockets also could help regulate things like temperature; again, not something that was injurious, or injurious for a very long time, it was an issue with comfort factor.

"That's mithril," Sera said when they were at the door, speaking just a little loud to be heard over the wind that was a constant on the hot world.

"Pure mithril?" asked Val. Sera, Bjorn, and Beth had far more experience with metals as smiths, as well as they had done far more research into metals and various alloys as they improved their craft, so they were always the first to recognize anything made of metal for what it was.

"Hundred percent," Bjorn confirmed, taking off a glove to set a massive hand against the door. Nothing happened, thankfully, but he did give a sharp nod after a moments, signaling that his assurance really was accurate.

"Hot damn. Even if that door's an eighth of an inch thick, that's gotta be a thousand pounds of the stuff, given its width and height," Beth said, looking at the door with dangerous glint in her eye.

"Before we start tearing the neighborhood apart, we should really investigate more first," Val said in a warning tone.

"Sure, sure. Just keep it in mind; maybe we can find a good chunk of metal we can hammer into a door in its place," Beth said with a grin.

"We have plenty of metal on us right now," Kris said quietly.

"Yeah, but if we use some random piece of scrap to take the place of something valuable and it hold up, we don't have to waste even a less expensive metal," Beth replied while tapping her temple, still grinning as she looked at the door.

"Good point," Kris said quietly.

"Again, can we please investigate, just a little, just the tiniest bit, before we start ripping the planet to shreds?" asked Val in a sarcastic tone, holding up two of her very long, many-jointed fingers very close together as she spoke while give Beth a stink eye.

"Yes, yes, I get it," Beth said, holding her hands up. She turned to Bjorn and said, "You see any way to open it? Doesn't look like there's a latch or even an external plate."

"Rune on the threshold," Bjorn said, jerking his chin down at his feet. There was, indeed, a rune carved into the section of stone in front of the door, one that Beth recognized as functioning as absorbing mana to feed it into something else.

"Well, start it up," Beth said to Bjorn, who then tapped a foot against the rune and shot some mana into it. The door to the tower slid open right after Bjorn inject the mana, the process entirely silent. Well, Beth thought it might have made a very small amount of noise, but there was no way they were going to pick out such a quiet sound over the roaring of the wind, the crackling of their air barriers, and a very faint sort of buzzing that she thought was coming from the system's star.

Bjorn led the way in after the door was open, though they didn't get far, as they were in a well-sealed room with another door facing them, looking like it was intended as an airlock or mantrap or both. There was enough room for the whole group to pile in, after which they didn't take very long to figure out the runes to close the outer door and then open the inner door.

Beth could also hear the hiss of air before the inner door opened, proving her assumption about the room acting as an airlock to be correct, though none of them stowed their air barrier equipment yet. The tower was rather impressive inside, as the whole thing was open, other than two pillars spaced equidistant from the center and the walls that likely held up the floors above.

There was also, directly in between those pillars, a spiral staircase that disappeared into a hole in the ceiling, the stairway made of some kind of bronze or bronze-colored metal. There were no windows on the inside, which matched with the outside, but the place could have had screens or holograms or magic panels that showed the outside even without any cuts in the walls, but none of that was present.

The walls were also the same black stone with the same precise cuts and even fitting, showing that there wasn't a second layer or set of walls built inside the outer wall of the tower. The floor was a tile of some kind of white stone or metal, glowing faintly in the light of a few dozen mana lamps spaced around the walls and ceiling.

The rest of the first floor was a bit more disappointing, as there were several desks with the accompanying chairs, two groups of couches, an area that looked like a kitchen, and a small storage area with a few shelves that didn't quite reach all the way to the ceiling.

That was one of the things Beth, and many on her team, both loved and hated about exploring; there was always the anticipation that a massive jackpot could be behind a door, and their experiences backed up that dreamy possibility, but the reality was often far more mundane. This looked like some kind of office space, maybe something she would expect to find as part of a building being used by a storage or processing company, but there was little to give away what the original purpose had ever been.

Still, there were a couple things on the desks and the shelves, and likely in the desks, and they would do a thorough search before moving on.

"Watch the stairs," Val warned.

"Don't want to be surprised by something nasty running down while we're distracted sniffing around."

"Sera, keep an eye on it. Bjorn, make sure, just on the crazy off chance, that nothing else comes in behind us. Everybody else, fan out and catalog everything. Take pictures before touching anything as we don't know how old anything is. Also, keep in mind traps," Beth said, recalling all those years ago when opening a drawer had gotten her sprayed with some mild poison.

"Right," the rest of the team answered, or simply grunting, fanning out to follow her orders. Sera and Bjorn watched the only two visible entrances/exits, though the whole both had enough stats and enough experience to track everything around them. Still, better that something bursting in ran face-first into all nine armored feet of Bjorn than that it had free rein to sprint around the room, attacking and damaging as it pleased.

The group followed Beth's instruction to photograph everything, with Andrea and Adam checking the kitchen area while Kris and Neph looked through the shelves. Beth, Blood, and Val all looked through the desks, carefully documenting what was on them before opening any drawers, though the caution wasn't really needed.

Nothing displayed the fragility of age, and nothing was trapped, either, as they were able to go through everything, reading the couple documents they found, before circling back up by Sera by the stairs.