Those like Estor who had been already chosen as heirs had access to their respective bloodline legacy, giving them an edge over their peers. They arranged themselves into a series of concentric circles and combined their Spirit Magic to form an array that encompassed all the members of the expedition.
The tier two Spirit Array Hive Mind allowed them not only to freely share their thoughts and discoveries about the energy core without the risk of mana poisoning, but also to keep examining the relic from a distance.
It formed a telepathic structure akin to Soluspedia so that everyone could browse each other's knowledge without the foreign mana flooding their brains.
'Solus, are you recording all this?' Lith asked after making sure that none of his thoughts might be overheard.
'Yes. Being in my Eyes form helps and Phloria sharing our burden is doing wonders. Now shut up, I want to listen to what the others think of our discovery.' She replied.
'As you can see, the materials are crude and the runes are outdated, but the energy core is still a marvel of magic.' Trevan the Nightwalker said.
'Its pseudo cores can interact with each other, making it the next best thing to a power core. Only by working together could a group of gifted individuals craft something this powerful despite their primitive mastery of magic.
'There's a lot that we might learn from their workings, but only if we work together like they did. I think we should compensate Lith properly and share the discovery with the entire Council.'
'Except that they ended up killing each other. That's not an example that I'd like to follow.' Emya said. 'I agree on the energy core being a powerful weapon that we don't want to fall into the hands of the non-Awakened, but it's still crap.
'I'm not going to give away modern artifacts in exchange for outdated junk.'
The envoy planted the seed of greed and conceit, leaving up to the rest of the expedition if growing or weeding it.
Soon the group split into two factions, just like the Council had planned. One wanted to organize the expedition into a proper group and share whatever they found so as to have a better understanding of Urgamakka's value.
The other, instead, considered the discovery of the energy core one more good reason to move on their own and keep the relics for themselves.
'Only powerful violet-cored individuals could craft something like this. I don't care about the relics, but if I manage to find the records of the Urgamakkans breathing technique, becoming an elder of the Council will no longer be just a dream.' They all thought.
Many young Awakened had been stuck at bright blue for over a century and they had yet to find a clue to break through to the next level.
'Before we dispel the array, there's something I would like to point out.' Estor the Treant said. 'There's something off with this city. The buildings are arranged in a way that makes them hard to defend in the case of attack and the waterways make no sense.
'Awakened who can fly and Warp have no need for such huge canals. They have no artistic value nor practical purpose. Worst case scenario, they could flood the city and drown the people in their sleep.'
'Agreed.' Aalejah said. 'On top of that, I recognized the design of the Golems. They belonged to Gestra the Maker, an ancient Awakened who dedicated his life to find a way to give constructs sentience.'
'Okay, what about it?' Athung asked, not having any idea of what relevance such information could have.
'Gestra spent his existence inside his lab like a Lich, never coming out until one of his apprentices found him dead. He never left the Verendi continent so how can his creations be here?' Aalejah said.
'Maybe one of his apprentices moved to Urgamakka after his death.' Athung replied.
'That's impossible because Gestra died when Urgamakka was already on the decline. To adapt his technology to this energy core it would have taken too much time, let alone to perfect it to such a degree. The timelines just don't match.'
"Oops!" Inxialot said while Emya and the other envoys shared with him the anachronism that the expedition found and did their best to find a sort of plausible explanation for it.
"What do you mean, oops? You said you had extensive books on the civilizations of 3,000 years ago." The other Council representatives said in unison.
"I do and I made a good job making up an entire city from scratch." The King of Liches said while showing them his notes with pride.
It was a jumbled mess of pages from different books glued to each other in a random order that formed Urgamakka's blueprint. Each piece dated back to 3,000 years back as Inxialot had promised, but the problem was that some blueprints came from Verendi, others from Garlen, and some even from Jiera.
Unfortunately for the Council, details like architectural styles and which piece of furniture belonged to which culture wasn't just beyond the Lich but also beyond them.
Mages didn't care for small stuff like that, making Inxialot's jigsaw city look like a good idea back when he had shown it to the Council.
"It's not my fault if you plant folks are so anal retentive that you have your apprentices learn useless stuff. Aside from those two, no one doubted my creation!" Inxialot pointed at Aalejah and Estor, who were getting shunned by their peers for that very reason.
'Seriously, are we going to spend all day discussing architecture and landscaping, or are we going to do our real job?' A handsome youth said in the Hive Mind. 'I mean, Urgamakka was a melting pot of Awakened from all continents.
'Probably they reached some sort of cultural compromise that looked beautiful to them but that now looks like crap to us. It happens to any Awakened that lives too long.
'My master decorates his house with stuff that he collected during his life, thinking that they look good together whereas more than one of our guests asked me why how can he suffer from color blindness despite being Awakened.'
At those words, the master of the youth who was among the elders of the Council blushed in embarrassment. Not only did no one of his friends refute such claims, but they also avoided his gaze while trying not to laugh.
"Instead of worrying about the small wrinkles of my master plan that can be easily ironed out later, let's look at its many bright sides." Inxialot said while reverting to his living form.
He now looked like a handsome man in his fifties, about 1.78 meters (5'10") tall, with greying brown hair streaked blue, red, and black all over. The many holes in his tunic showed more of his physique than most would have liked, especially Raagu, to whom he kept staring.
"No one died during the Gargoyle attack, which means that despite your many faults, you have at least taught your useless surrogate children to defend themselves." A plus sign appeared near the hologram of each apprentice in Urgamakka, serving as their score.
"Also, fighting my creations gave them priceless experience about fighting an immortal enemy. They will need when facing Thrud's army."
