Chapter 1005 Shadowy Hills <TOC> Chapter 1007 The Serpent's Den
Previous page password is bold portion: &H+DrUT6lF4
Translator: SumTLMan
In no time, Angel located the hollowed-out dead tree on the rear face of the hill that the couple had mentioned.
The tree hole, veiled by a thicket of creeping vines, wasn’t apparent at first glance. Moreover, a thick blanket of snow covered the tree hole, rendering it invisible within the snow, had it not been for the opening made by the escaping couple.
No wonder the reconnaissance puppet hadn’t discovered this place earlier.
Angel stooped to enter the tree hole, which led into a downward path, dark and deep-seated.
A short while after venturing into the cave, Angel transitioned from the tight passage into a spacious underground cavern. A pungent sulfuric odor pervaded the cavern, while intermittent wisps of white steam emanated from fissures in the earth.
Enveloped in mist and smoke, Angel could make out faint white shadows. A mental probe revealed nothing, likely the rumored “spectres.”
The cavern had a labyrinth of offshoots, leaving Angel unsure of which path to take. He decided to follow the footprints and tiny specks of blood left by the couple above, using these remnants as compass points.
Guided by the traces discovered on the cavern floor, Angel navigated through the geothermal region and found himself in a corridor redolent of a fishy dampness.
This corridor was longer than the previous one. Illuminated by the glow of the phosphorescent rocks, Angel could clearly see the disarray of bloodstains on the walls and the floor.
As the corridor neared its exit, Angel heard the babble of running water ahead, and then, he encountered what had caused the couple to flee in panic — the flying fish monster.
The creature bore an exotic appearance, its scales gleaming like glaze, its form sleek as a shuttle. The fish’s fins, both wide and large, were a size bigger than Toby’s wings. The fins oscillated rhythmically, enabling the creature to maintain flight.
Ever since Angel entered the Shadowy Caverns, he had activated the Boundless Silence, so the lone flying fish patrolling the passage hadn’t detected him.
However, as he tried to bypass the flying fish monster, it seemed to sense something. Suddenly, a fine mist of water shrouded its body.
Cloaked within the veil of mist, Angel quickly sensed that something was amiss with the flying fish creature. Its silver eyes instantly morphed into a startling shade of crimson.
With its mouth agape, the creature shot a stream of water, as slender as a white silk ribbon, towards Angel.
The trouble with Boundless Silence was that it was an existence eraser; an excellent strategy when unnoticed, but once spotted, receding back into obscurity became a significant challenge.
To Angel’s surprise, this airborne aquatic beast had devised a technique to blanket its surroundings in a misty veil, allowing it to monitor any nearby movement!
Silently cursing under his breath, Angel deftly dodged the incoming water projectile. In the same fluid motion, he retrieved a gleaming white longsword from his bracelet and lunged at the flying fish.
The creature was not only slippery but also remarkably fast. It deftly avoided Angel’s slashing strike.
However, Angel’s primary intention wasn’t to strike the creature with his katana.
Instead, he aimed to slash through the mist!
His weapon, imbued with the rune of frost, had an overpowering ability to crystallize moisture in the air, turning any surrounding liquid to ice almost instantly.
The flying fish creature, enveloped by the mist, was an easy target. Although Angel’s swordsmanship was not as stable as Nausica’s—enabling him to directly strike the creature—slashing through the mist was no challenging feat.
As his sword swished through the moist air, the frost’s bite spread through the mist, reaching the heart of the flying fish creature.
Before it could launch a second attack, it was frozen solid into an icy fish stick, tumbling from the mid-air with a thud. At this point, dispatching them became a simple task for Angel.
With a swift swing of his sword, the frozen creature was cleaved in two.
The flying fish creatures posed a substantial nuisance for the couple of apprentices, especially when their numbers increased. But for Angel, there were countless methods in his arsenal to exterminate them while conserving his magic source.
As he continued his journey, Angel encountered an increasing number of these flying fish creatures.
However, their strength could not compensate for their lack of intelligence. Guided by instinct alone and with an array of alchemy weapons at his disposal, Angel found handling these creatures remarkably effortless.
Having left the remnants of a dozen flying fish creatures on the ground, Angel finally emerged from the passage.
Outside the passage, he entered an even larger subterranean cavern. As Angel stepped out, he was immediately met by the expansive underground river.
The river’s length was indeterminate, disappearing into unknown depths.
The low, rumbling sound of the dark currents echoed through the cavern, harmonizing with the dripping water from the rocky ceiling above. The echoing sound filled the space, creating an atmosphere of eerie anxiety.
Beyond the water, the cavern was filled mostly with flying fish creatures, hovering in mid-air. They appeared to be resting, or perhaps patrolling. However, as Angel ventured into the cavern, the glow from the fluorescent stones immediately drew their attention.
Upon discovering an intruder, thousands of these flying fish creatures began to act with a maniacal frenzy.
They attacked Angel relentlessly; if their water jets missed, they would hurl their sharp bodies directly at him.
Against such a massive school, Angel was still unafraid. He had previously dealt with larger and more powerful schools of flying fish creatures when he was in the Purification Garden.
Angel set up an illusion of a misty realm, within which he simulated the water jets, taking on the role of a harasser. This left the flying fish creatures in a state of suspicion and over-vigilance, leading to chaos and infighting.
Angel merely set the stage and moved a single piece, then simply sat back and observed.
It didn’t take long for the number of flying fish creatures killing each other in the mist to dwindle.
At this time, Angel, with his Frost Katana in hand, started to reap his harvest with precision. Soon, all the flying fish creatures within his sight vanished, and the entire battle did not last more than twenty minutes.
After clearing out the flying fish creatures, Angel approached the edge of the underground river.
Under the glow of the luminescent stones, he could see that the water of the underground river was remarkably clear, even to the point where he could see the swimming fish beneath. As a flash of silver darted by, Angel rubbed his eyes in surprise. He discovered that there was a prawn-like creature, emitting a faint silver light, not far off in the river.
But it was not just one.
It was a whole school, at least a dozen.
This creature, shrouded in a halo of silvery radiance and resembling a prawn, was not alien to Angel. It was the elusive Silver Torrent Shrimp that Popoca and others had been tirelessly hunting — an exotic delicacy that is purportedly beneficial to men!
Now, it made sense to Angel why the couple had embarked on a quest to the Shadowy Caverns in search of this elusive shrimp. One discovery leads to a school, with each shrimp valued at dozens, even hundreds of magic crystals. Judging from this school Angel stumbled upon, it would easily amount to thousands of magic crystals.
The Silver Torrent Shrimp, individually, posed almost no threat. Angel, with a mere extension of his hand imbued with magical power, had these creatures writhing in his grasp.
Staring at the cluster of captive shrimps nestled in the palm of his magic hand, Angel couldn’t help but be awestruck.
The Abyss — a place synonymous with peril yet brimming with opportunities beyond comprehension. In the Wizarding World, an apprentice might have to toil for over a decade to accumulate thousands of magic crystals.
This very allure is what beckoned many, risking life and limb, to explore the Abyss.
Casually procuring a bottle, Angel stowed away these Silver Torrent Shrimps into his bracelet.
The Silver Torrent Shrimp was of no use to Angel himself. However, he considered, once he returned to the fortress, it might serve as a generous offering to his mentor and Canter.
Angel continued along the river, guided by the words of the female apprentice. The chirping she heard had emanated from the direction of the river’s flow.
Thus, Angel began advancing against the current. The river was long, and the cavern expansive. Along his journey, he encountered numerous flying fish creatures in a density that exceeded his expectations.
“Could Toby truly be up ahead?” Doubts surfaced in Angel’s heart as he exterminated another wave of flying fish.
However, this question was soon answered.
Not because Angel found traces of Toby, but because he stumbled upon the corpse of an unusual creature.
It was a crab, towering over an average human and carrying a sea anemone on its back, its size immensely daunting. Although the creature was deceased, Angel faintly sensed the traces of gravity lines on its body. This indicated that this creature was probably killed by Toby and its death had occurred no more than a day ago.
It would seem that the maiden apprentice was not weaving tales, for Toby might indeed be lurking in the profound bowels of the Shadowy Hills.
Angel speculated that Toby must have discovered the frozen rivers outside, finding fishing to be a rather laborious task. Then, by happenstance, he stumbled upon the subterranean river nestled within the confines of the Shadowy Hills. The river, teeming with fish, was a banquet he had lost himself in.
The reason why Toby did not respond to Angel’s summoning signal from the fortress became clear as well. How could any signal penetrate the thick shroud enveloping the Shadowy Hills?
A gentle sigh of relief escaped Angel’s lips.
Although some demonic creatures like flying fish monsters or this crab monster existed in the vicinity of the underground river, these entities posed an almost insignificant threat to Toby.
Although Toby might not be in immediate danger, Angel quickened his pace towards the heart of the cave, fueled by the wisdom of caution.
Before long, Angel, following the course of the river and passing through a narrow fissure, found himself in another vast subterranean cavern.
As he ventured into this expanse, Angel sensed an anomaly in the air.
He was gripped by an inexplicable sense of suffocation as if something was pressing down upon his heart, imposing an unwelcome weight.
Moreover, the smell of blood pervaded the air, its stench now stronger.
However, the stench was not that of the river; it was a more revolting amalgamation of blood and the rank odour that typically clung to reptilian creatures.
The scent reminded Angel of the odour he had encountered in Akeso’s cave when he departed from Hippocrates.
“Could it be a serpentine monster?” Angel mulled over this in his mind.
He trod towards the heart of the cavern, where distinct patterns of slithering trails were imprinted on the ground, and from which an even more potent stench emanated.
Unless his hunch was off, there indeed was a snake dwelling here, and judging by the dimensions of the trail, it was far from small.
Not only was it far from small, but the sheer number of serpentine trails Angel discovered in this cavern indicated that there could be more than one. Could this cavern be a nest of serpents?
Lost in thought, a faint sound suddenly caught his attention.
“Chirp——”
Chapter 1005 Shadowy Hills <TOC> Chapter 1007 The Serpent's Den