Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 730 - : The Person Who Shouldn’t Appear
Chapter 730 -730: The Person Who Shouldn’t Appear
Both individuals attempted to speak simultaneously, but they stopped as well. From within the black fog not dissipated by the Red Butterfly, came muffled footsteps. Someone was approaching.
The girl in the black dress’s expression turned sour instantly; Shard thought for a moment that she might obliterate the village entirely.
“Someone has come to interrupt us.”
She was about to command the seemingly harmless Red Butterflies to attack, but Shard quickly grabbed her hand to stop her:
“Let’s see who it is first.”
The girl in the black dress suppressed her anger and reluctantly nodded with a forced smile:
“Very well, sir.”
With a gentle lift of her left hand, the scattered Red Butterflies gathered around them. Although they didn’t land, they enveloped them.
“I’ve heard that under the swarming of these red butterflies, other people cannot see or hear us,”
the girl in the black dress explained.
Shard was actually curious to know if the cat Mia, who was carried in his backpack, would randomly pounce at the butterflies… come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure if the young kitten Mia had ever seen butterflies before.
The figures emerging from the black fog were three people, but upon closer observation, there were four: one of them, a middle-aged woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties, seemed unconscious and was being carried on someone’s back.
The three who walked were all Circle Sorcerers, all male, and the leader was a middle-aged man with a mustache in his forties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a well-fitted suit. Were it not for the skull lamp he carried, emitting a light that dispelled the black fog, he would have seemed more like a senior academic in a university.
Following him were two men; one, holding a book and wearing a robe, was familiar to Shard. This was the Inner Ring Sorcerer from the Truth Society, whom he and Iluna had together fended off in the forest during the Fire Worship Festival dinner a week ago. Shard remembered him distinctly because the man had “snatched” the Moonlight Greatsword, forcing Shard to summon another sword using the “Yellow Moon” Spirit Rune.
As for the man carrying the middle-aged woman, he appeared to be the youngest, only slightly older than the body of the outsider. He was neither dressed in a robe nor a suit, but in an ordinary and somewhat shabby yellow coat. Although all three were Circle Sorcerers, the young man’s status and level seemed to be the lowest.
“These are members of the academic group—the Truth Society,”
the girl in the black dress explained to Shard, noting that the trio approaching the village tower had not noticed them at all.
“A standard field operation group, a High Ring ‘Professor,’ an Inner Ring ‘Lecturer,’ and a Low Ring ‘Apprentice.'”
The ‘Professor’ likely referred to the man carrying the skull lamp, the ‘Lecturer’ was the man Shard had fought once, and the ‘Apprentice’ was the young man carrying the woman.
“What are they trying to do? Oh, they are coming this way.”
The High Ring Sorcerer with gold-rimmed glasses walked to the front of the tower, looked back at his followers, and sighed:
“By the truth, we’ve finally returned.”
This was spoken in the language of Carsonrick.
“Yes, Professor Johnson, obtaining the key was not easy.”
The Inner Ring Sorcerer pulled out a bronze-colored metal key, stained with what looked like blood:
“Worthy of a Sage-Level localized Relic, just finding the key nearly led to our total annihilation, unlike those Low-Level Relics. The village chief’s Evil Spirit was particularly troublesome, along with those Corpse Infants that always appeared in the corners… I might need to seek psychological counseling when we get back.”
His mouth twitched, as if recalling unpleasant memories:
“What I can’t understand is why such an important key was thrown into a cardboard box in the corner of a warehouse.”
“I’m sorry, if I hadn’t wanted to hear the complete last words of the village chief’s servant, transformed into an evil soul, before his collapse, the chief’s evil spirit wouldn’t have absorbed other evil spirits and become even more terrifying after the collapse. That madman probably slaughtered half the village before he died,”
whispered the young man carrying the middle-aged woman.
“Alright, alright, we successfully got the key. As for the madman, aren’t we all mad here?”
Mr. Johnson, leading the group, joked humorously and then took the blood-stained key:
“It was unexpected to encounter this resurrected person here. Our main mission was to let this mountain village lose control. If the Sage-Level Relic ‘Gold Mining Village’ goes out of control, and we successfully bring back the ‘resurrected nail,’ then this merit is enough for each of us to exchange for a five-digit Arcane Technique.”
“The ‘resurrected nail’?”
Shard looked surprised at the woman being carried, and the girl in the black dress explained in Shard’s ear:
“The only exit from the village is in the gold mine beneath the tower. There lie the remains of generations of miners from the village, but also a secret tunnel leading out of the village. It serves as both the route for secretly trading the gold mine’s output and the path for sacrifices of the children.”
Shard nodded, then watched as “Professor Johnson” took the key to insert it into the lock. But with just a gentle push against the lock, the door surprisingly opened.
After all, the door had already been slightly open, but due to the surroundings being too dark, the three members of the Truth Society had not seen it.
“This…”
Professor Johnson looked astounded at the door in front of him. Just when Shard thought he would guess someone had opened the door ahead of time, the “Professor” looked at the key in his hand and realized:
“Oh, that’s it, the key is just a symbol. The key isn’t what opens the door, but ‘finding the key’ that matters. Opening this door is a symbolic ritual, which is why finding the key was so difficult.”
His explanation naturally won the approval of his two companions. They didn’t linger at the doorway any longer and directly pushed the door open and walked in.
“Let’s follow them,”
Shard said to his companion, and so they too entered the tower within the village.
The outer door served as adequate concealment, so there was no need for further disguise inside. The first floor of the tower had a bronze-colored metal lift that descended automatically when stepping on the central button, its power source unknown.
The three members of the Truth Society had already gone down. Shard was about to wait for the next ride when the girl in the black dress, laughing, took his hand and jumped down with him.
Red butterflies enveloped them, making their descent light as if they were equipped with parachutes. The two landed soundlessly on the lift’s top cover and then jumped down from the top.
By then, the way ahead was already illuminated by the spiritual light of three large Brass Life Rings—Ten Rings on the high ring, Five Rings on the inner ring, and Four Rings on the low ring. Their opponents from the Truth Society were magicians facing a dense mass of fierce evil spirits.
The souls in this eerie mountain village, due to the black mist, were incredibly ferocious and terrifying. Added to that, the “field effect” of the Sicarl Mountain Region after two earthquakes made each evil spirit surpass the strength of a Low Ring Magician.
Even so, there was an insurmountable chasm between the low ring and the high ring. Mr. Johnson stayed at the forefront. His Ring of Fate flickered with spiritual light from the three Spirit Talismans—Exorcism, Corrosion, and Transformation. An unknown High Ring Sorcery called ‘Death Praise’ radiated a gray glimmer around him, eroding souls as if they were mere dust. freewёbnoνel.com
“This is High Ring Sorcery for the undead—Death Praise. Those gray glimmers can easily corrode any unprotected souls… I heard this from my magician friend,”
whispered the girl in the black dress.
What surprised Shard the most was that within the core spirit rune of this High Ring Magician, there was a black iron-colored Whisper Rune labeled ‘Remains’.
The doctor had told Shard that although the exact number of core spirit runes for a human magician was uncertain, it could only be the bronze color of ‘Enlightenment,’ because the power of civilization is the strongest force in the human race. However, some irregular initiation ceremonies might allow magicians to acquire the other three types of core spirit runes, but those methods undoubtedly carried great risks.
“It’s no wonder the Truth Society researches taboo knowledge. Their core spirit rune has added the Whisper Element… Madmen.”
