So Anthony joined in on the excavation work as well.

With three skilled Casters working together, clearing away the rubble was naturally a breeze, and their speed increased dramatically.

Only a few minutes later.

Ronald, who had the clearest sense of the location, lifted a slab of shattered masonry and finally saw the familiar color of a Nine Commandments secret-society Caster's robe.

"The guy's corpse is over here!" Ronald said excitedly.

Costate and Anthony, hearing his voice, immediately shifted their attention over.

After the three of them moved a bit more debris, they successfully cleared out the spot where the Nine Commandments Caster had died.

But once they saw the scene buried underground— 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

All three of them fell silent at the same time.

...

It was brutal.

This Caster had already had his body cleaved in two by Ronald.

Once he lost the life that the Spells had been maintaining, his body almost instantly lost all vitality.

And being underground, subjected to the pressure from all around, his corpse—originally in two pieces—had now been crushed into a pulpy mess; through the holes in his robe, they could even see broken bones poking out.

The elderly Anthony couldn't help sighing at the sight:

"Mr. Ronald, just looking at the end this enemy came to is enough to make one feel a bit uncomfortable."

Ronald had no intention of taking the blame for this gruesome scene.

He shrugged on the spot and explained to Anthony:

"Honestly, this isn't my doing."

"Things turned out like this entirely because they wanted to get rid of me, a troublesome enemy, and set up such a horrifying trap. In fact, if my strength had been even a little weaker, I'm afraid this wouldn't be the only tragedy buried here."

Ronald's words were just a simple explanation, but they immediately triggered a strong reaction from Costate beside him:

"Sir, that would never happen!"

"As long as Costate is here, if something like that happens, I will do everything in my power to save you!"

"..."

"Costate, if you really run into a situation like that, I want you to put your own safety first."

Ronald hadn't expected Costate's reaction to be so intense.

So as soon as the maid spoke, he immediately gave her a new order.

After hearing it, Costate naturally wanted to argue.

However, Ronald waved his hand and cut her off, his attitude leaving no room for refusal.

Then he stepped forward and, forcing down his nausea, peeled back the robe on the corpse.

—Essence Theory.

The Original Text belonging to this Caster was lying there quietly.

In the state this Original Text holder had ended up in, there was no way he could have done anything more to the book; after his death, all he could do was let the Original Text naturally separate from his corpse.

Ronald quickly reached out and scooped up the Original Text. Anthony, beside him, looked over with curious eyes.

Normally, this old man would never so casually stare at someone else's Original Text. But throughout this journey, Anthony had more or less come to understand Ronald's easygoing, unpretentious nature, so he dared to come closer at this moment:

"So this is the Nine Commandments Caster's Original Text…"

Anthony's voice carried a hint of emotion.

Thinking that this was the Original Text belonging to the enemy who had seized control of his land, many feelings naturally welled up in his heart.

Ronald followed up:

"That's right. I learned a bit about it during the fight; its name is Essence Theory."

When he spoke the name of the Original Text, Ronald's tone carried a trace of respect.

This wasn't just respect for a great work.

It was also respect for the Casters of this world who had once held this Original Text.

However, for various reasons—

Ronald had no intention of exposing his ability to easily crack Original Texts in front of Anthony.

So he only gave this Original Text a preliminary inspection.

Then he put it away using entirely ordinary means.

Seeing this, Costate understood that matters here were more or less settled and immediately asked:

"Sir, are we leaving this island now?"

But Ronald shook his head and turned his gaze toward Anthony beside them:

"Mr. Anthony, earlier during the battle Costate and I had our reconnaissance abilities sealed, so we couldn't gauge anything too far away."

"You were on the shore at the time—you must have seen that guy whose avatar escaped, right?"

This question from Ronald was actually a small probe.

It was true that during the battle, his reconnaissance abilities had been repeatedly blocked by Essence Theory's Spells, but in the gaps when he could still cast, he had sensed what Anthony was up to.

In fact, outside the island—

The position of this elderly Caster, and the delay in his subsequent return to the island, should all have been connected to that Original Text holder who could create clones.

What Anthony did next dispelled Ronald's doubts; he even laid out the enemy's background directly:

"I did run into that guy, and there was even a bit of a troublesome fight."

"While trying to stop him from escaping, I discovered that when one of his avatars died or was voluntarily dismissed, its memories would sync to the other avatars. Unfortunately, there were too many figures scattering across the sea surface. I wiped out quite a few targets, but still couldn't find his true body, and in the end he got away."

Ronald didn't care at all that the enemy had escaped:

"That's nothing. Victory has never been about annihilating the enemy in a single battle, but about accomplishing your own goals."

"Right now, we've weakened the Nine Commandments' high-end combat force and dealt a blow to their plan to excavate the island's ruins. From any angle, this was a very successful raid."

Anthony agreed with Ronald's view.

He quickly stopped dwelling on his own failure and instead picked up on Costate's earlier question:

"So what do you intend to do now?"

"Are we going to stay here and set traps, quietly waiting for their counterattack, or retreat to the mainland and continue to bide our time?"

"..."

Faced with this question, Ronald didn't answer immediately.

He glanced at the underground ruins around them, packed tight with compacted soil, and a selfish desire stirred in his heart.

Ronald had always been someone who loved his work.

That hadn't changed, even after coming to this world.

So after weighing the pros and cons according to the actual situation, he made a decision that was a bit selfish, but wouldn't affect the bigger picture:

"Once we leave today, we probably won't have a chance to set foot on this island again for a while."

"So before we go, I suggest we study the situation here as much as possible, check the ruins' exact condition. We might even discover some secrets about the Nine Commandments."

"Of course, so we don't delay our main business—"

"Whether we find anything or not, as soon as dawn breaks tomorrow, we leave this place at once!"