Shota's Isekai NTR Adventure Chapter 2163: Can we fix it? (3)

I was compelled to leap back to evade the acidic liquid that formed from my divine energy.

It would have been disastrous if any of that substance had landed on me.

After all, a hole was already being corroded into the ground where it had splashed down.

Strangely, despite its corrosive effect on the ground, the door remained untouched, as if it possessed a resistance to the very acid that my divine energy produced.

It became apparent that my efforts to affect the door directly were futile.

"What could this thing possibly be made of?" I pondered aloud.

However, after a brief period of contemplation, a realization dawned upon me...

"Why am I fixated on the door itself when the frame surrounding it is still present? Even if the door is impervious, the frame must be vulnerable..."

Upon this discovery, a flush of embarrassment crept over me.

With this new understanding, I redirected the corrosive liquid towards the wall encircling the door.

The wall exhibited some resilience, yet it was undeniably less resistant than the door itself.

Using the acid, I managed to etch marks onto the wall and gradually dissolve it.

By persevering with this method, I was confident that I could create an opening through the door.

Still, the process was arduous, as dissolving the wall proved to be a slow endeavor.

"It has endured this long, after all. It's only logical that it would possess some form of resistance to prevent its decay amidst everything else here," I reasoned.

Since progress was being made, I remained steadfast, continuing to dissolve the wall bit by painstaking bit.

After a considerable duration, a resounding noise echoed through the chamber.

"Clunk."

It was the sound of the door impacting the ground, having been freed from its frame. With the wall no longer supporting it, a mere nudge was sufficient to bring the door down.

Although, I hadn't even reached the point of pushing it; it suddenly began to topple towards me as I was engrossed in dissolving the wall with acid. Had I not reacted swiftly, I might have been crushed beneath its weight.

"This door is remarkably heavy," I observed.

Gazing at the indentation left in the ground by the fallen door, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief that I had moved out of the way just in time. If I hadn't... well, it's not as if it would have actually crushed me, considering my current strength might have allowed me to support its weight.

Nevertheless, being trapped beneath this door as it collapsed would undoubtedly have been an unpleasant predicament.

Once the door had fallen, the interior of the room was revealed.

It seemed rather dim, lacking any illumination, which made discerning the contents of the room somewhat challenging.

Were it not for its modest size, it would have been difficult to perceive the entire space with only the faint ambient light. However, this was hardly an insurmountable obstacle.

With a simple snap of my fingers, flames bloomed into existence, illuminating the entire room.

As the flames cast their light, I could finally discern the object within the room.

"Is that a ring? No, it's far too large to be a mere ring. It bears the resemblance of some sort of portal."

Dominating the center of the room was a massive stone ring resting on the floor, with nothing else accompanying it.

Well, there were some scattered rubble beneath the ring, suggesting that something had previously supported it.

However, the ring's central placement made it evident that it was the sole focal point of significance within this chamber.

One might even infer that the room itself had been constructed specifically to house this ring.

"A door of such formidable strength, and a frame like this ring, resistant to decay... what exactly is this artifact?"

The more I examined the ring, the more I sensed its extraordinary nature.

Yet, I struggled to pinpoint precisely what made it so special until a sudden thought occurred to me.

"Could this possibly be some form of portal?"

Once this notion entered my mind, it refused to leave.

The more I considered it, the more plausible it seemed.

After all, I had implored Solista to guide us towards a means of escaping this place, and the trail of light had indeed led us here. Thus, it was only logical that this ring would provide the means of our departure.

However, given that this ring was simply situated in the middle of the city, its existence would be nonsensical unless it served as a teleportation device.

It was just that I had never encountered any mention of such an object before.

Teleportation magic arrays did exist, but they were exceedingly rare and far beyond the capabilities of current magical standards.

"Well, this certainly speaks to an ancient civilization," I murmured to myself, observing the ring.

Given that they belonged to an ancient civilization, demonstrably more advanced than the current continent, it was reasonable to assume they possessed such portals.

"Does it still function?"

That was the paramount question now.

After observing the ring for a moment, I declared, "No, it absolutely doesn't function."

While the lights in this area still received electrical power, it was evident that the source supplying energy to this ring had been severed.