Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 66 - 54 Run_1

66: Chapter 54 Run_1

66 -54 Run_1

(Today…

I don’t have the energy for Photoshop.

Still, I’m going to push myself and ask passing friends for support and recommendations.

Your support is my main motivation.)

“Phew, so tired.” Vivian breathed in deeply, looking at more than half of the already-opened boxes, she said: “Enough for now, I need a break to recover my mana.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Catherine patted Vivian’s shoulder: “If you’re too tired, we can take a break tonight and continue tomorrow.”

“No need, just a little rest will be enough.” Waving away the sweat from her forehead, Vivian looked around and asked, “Why are there only three of you?

Did Lina run off too?”

“Yes, Lina and Pannis have gone off to explore the next room,” Catherine sighed, “You know how curious she is.”

“Let’s go and see what they’re up to then, we need a break anyway.

Nicole, Rachel, come with us, it’s too cold here.” Vivian summoned the others to leave the freezing room, shouting in the hallway of the Core Area: “Where are you two hiding?”

“Third door on the left.” Lina’s voice faintly came through, “Come on, we’ve found something interesting.”

“As I said, she went to explore, definitely not doing any serious work.” Catherine shrugged and walked over, shouting back: “What have you found?”

“Some mirrors that show what’s happening outside in the cave.” Lina said enthusiastically, “Very intriguing.”

“Hmm, it should be the Mage Tower’s surveillance system, a solidified Eye of the Mage and Projection Spell, that’s the control room.” Vivian suddenly paused, then with quick steps she rushed into the control room yelling, “Hey, Lina, don’t touch anything! frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

That’s the control room.”

Lina glanced back at Vivian who rushed in flustered: “I’m not an idiot, I wouldn’t just touch anything I see.

Plus, I know this is the control room.

Pannis just said so.

Oh, Vivian, where’s big sis?

Call her over, there’s something here she’d be interested in.”

“What is it?” Catherine also arrived at the control room, hearing Lina’s words, she leaned in to ask.

Lina pointed at the image in one of the mirrors, “Look.”

“This image is so clear, although it’s so dark outside, from here, it doesn’t feel dark at all.” Seeing the image in the mirror, Catherine was the first to express her admiration.

“A solidified Eye of the Mage can see through darkness, it’s one of the Mage Tower’s defense mechanisms.” Vivian adjusted a few points on the base of the mirror, and the image in the mirror was suddenly enlarged.

“Hiss, is that them?” Catherine sucked in a breath of air, staring wide-eyed at the image in the mirror.

The mirror was casting an image of two people, both clothed in hooded Mage Robes.

One was tall and fat, seeming to weigh around 150 to 160 kilograms.

The other one, however, was extremely thin, shrouded in a loose Mage Robe, their gender impossible to discern.

It was impossible to see their faces under the hood, but each was seen carefully placing several crystals into different small boxes.

“What are they doing?” Lina asked in confusion: “What are those crystals?”

“I don’t know.” Vivian leaned close to the mirror, carefully observing the crystals in the two people’s hands: “I’ve never seen black crystals before.”

“Wait.” Catherine suddenly pulled Vivian back from the mirror, saying anxiously: “Zoom out the image, there’s something not right about the surroundings.”

“What’s wrong?” Vivian gave Catherine a puzzled glance before adjusting the Magic Array to zoom out of the image, before exclaiming: “What happened to these people?”

In the image, there were eight people lying around the two, all were dressed differently but six of them had one thing in common, their equipment obviously marking them as adventurers.

Looking closely, the clothes of two of them matched those of the persons they were tasked to rescue before entering the cave.

“Big sis, look.” Lina suddenly grabbed Catherine’s hand: “Look at their faces.” The eight people all had one thing in common – their faces were extremely old.

Every one of them had grey, dried hair, and their faces and hands were thin and bony, their skin full of age-wrinkles, making them look like humans who had lived for over a hundred years.

“What’s going on with them?” The shadowy surroundings, mysterious mages, strange black crystals, and the eight adventurers who’d become incredibly aged and weak – the eerie picture gave Lina, who’d been adventuring for many years, a shiver, her voice shaking: “Lisa or Liza, right?

She never said that their team leader and mage were this old.”

“Their lifespan, it’s been sucked away.” Vivian gulped, her voice trembling: “I’ve never heard of such an ability that can directly suck away a person’s lifespan.

It’s too horrifying, even more so than directly killing someone.

Could such a magic exist in this world?

That’s not possible, no records or legends have ever mentioned such a thing.”

“I can’t watch anymore.” Catherine punched the metal wall heavily: “Vivian, where is this place?

I need to go and save them.”

“Sis, calm down,” Lina gripped Catherine who had turned to leave: “This is just an image.

If you want to go there, you’ll have to go a long way around.

By the time you get there, they would’ve long gone.”

Just as Lina was speaking, the two people in the image started moving.

They each walked over to the weak elderly people lying on the ground and, without hesitation, raised their feet and stomped heavily onto the heads of the victims.

The frail skulls, weakened with age, shattered under the stomp, and red blood and white brain matter splattered all around.

“Bastard, bastard.” Catherine swore, her eyes were filled with fury.

She clenched her fists so hard that her nails pierced her palms.

Yet, she felt no pain.

She watched the figures of the two people in the picture with unwavering eyes, vowing to imprint them in her mind.

“I will never let these evil people go.

The two people in the picture were oblivious to the fact that a virtuous knight was making them her sworn enemies.

After ruthlessly crushing the heads of eight people, they sorted out their package, and one after the other, disappeared from the view of the Eye of the Mage.

“Don’t be impulsive, sis,” Vivian gently admonished Catherine, “Even if you go now, they’re too far to catch.

Better to remember them and hold them accountable in the future.

Their behavior is very unique – they’ll show their true nature eventually, and then we can settle the score.”

“I know, I’m alright.” Catherine’s voice returned to its calm.

She slowly unclenched her fists, took a few deep breaths, and shook her head.

“Don’t worry, I won’t act rashly.

I’ve memorized their figures.

No matter what happens, I will find them.”

“That’s the spirit.” Vivian forced a smile, though her mood was dampened by the incident.

The joy from finding the Life Force Potion was somewhat diluted.

Casually examining the other mirrors for projections, she asked, “Lina, isn’t Pannis with you?”

“I’m in here,” Pannis’s voice came from a small room inside the control room.

“I’m looking at the entire mana supply route map of this institute.”

“Did you find anything?” Vivian posed the question without entering the room.

“One route is flashing blue, which means the route has malfunctioned and cannot transfer mana as normal, right?” Pannis asked.

“Yes, it’s a signal to the Mage Tower’s controller to carry out repairs,” Vivian replied loudly.

“Then it means that the kitchen area, three rooms in the R&D area, and four experimental material containment rooms in the experimental area are faulty,” Pannis listed one by one.

“None of these are critical areas.”

“Yeah, those areas don’t affect us,” Vivian carried on adjusting the images in the other mirrors, cautiously assessing their surroundings.

“We can ignore them.”

“What about the red marks?

Do they represent routes that are irreparably damaged?

I remember my mage friend never mentioned the Mage Tower’s mana route map having red flashes,” Pannis questioned.

“No, red is more troubling.” Vivian continued to look down, casually answering with a distant tone.

“The red areas indicate that the ultimate defensive measures have been activated, and all members of the Mage Tower must evacuate immediately.”

As Vivian’s words fell, an eerie silence ensued.

Suddenly, Vivian hopped up and rushed into the inner room, shouting, “What did you say?

A red flash?”

Pannis pointed at a route map.

“At the entrance, there’s a red flash.”

“Dammit.” Seeing the ominous red glow flickering on the map and a progress bar that was more than half complete under the map, Vivian cursed out loud, “That damned magical creature must have triggered the ultimate defense before his death.”

“What’s the ultimate defense measure?” Realizing that something was wrong, the others crowded around.

Catherine asked Vivian, “What will happen?

Will the over a hundred magic puppets at the entrance be activated?”

“No, those puppets can only be activated from the security area and require a password.

There shouldn’t be anyone who can activate them now,” Vivian shook her head as she spoke.

“Every Mage Tower’s ultimate defense is different.

I don’t know what the effect here will be, but I’m sure that once it’s activated, it cannot be reversed, and everyone must evacuate immediately.

Many Mage Towers’ ultimate defense is self-destruction.

I hope it isn’t the case here.”

“It shouldn’t be self-destruction,” Pannis reasoned.

“You see, if it were self-destruction, the entire institute’s routes would all be flashing red, but now they are not, only the entrance…”

Pannis suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence and exchanged a look with Vivian.

“Son of a bitch,” Vivian screamed suddenly.

“I finally understand why he destroyed the teleportation array before he died.

What a cunning beast.”

Pannis didn’t say anything, but quickly picked up Vivian and put her on his shoulder.

Grabbing their bags, he made a dash for the exit.

“Big sis,” Vivian was shouting from Pannis’s shoulder, gesticulating as she spoke.

“Run, everybody, run.

The entrance is about to be destroyed, and we will be trapped here forever.

Run quickly, we only have a little over an hour.”

Surprised, Catherine began to run with Pannis, waving at Nicole and Rachel as they ran, “Hurry up, don’t fall behind.

If you do, you’ll be left behind.

Faster, run ahead of me.”

Meanwhile, Lina froze entirely and screamed in horror, “We can’t go, my partners.”

“Stupid Lina, did you forget what I told you earlier?” Pannis, who had reached the door of the control room, stopped to wait for the others.

Vivian yelled back at Lina, “There’s nothing wrong anymore.

Hurry up and leave, dummy.”

“Really?” Lina’s eyes lit up.

Without dwelling on the books she regarded as her partners, she chanted an incantation to enhance her physical abilities and rapidly caught up with Pannis’s pace.

The six of them were running crazily in the hallway, much faster than when they had entered, in a desperate attempt to escape the institute before the entrance was destroyed.