Chapter 2510 Princess Castle <TOC> Chapter 2512 The Fourth Level
Translator: SumTLMan
Daus said they should split up, and he didn’t hesitate at all. But before leaving, he made a mental connection with Angel to ensure a synchronized departure time.
Daus had always boasted about his excellent stealth spells, and Angel was curious about how he achieved such invisibility.
Under Angel’s watchful eyes, Daus stepped into the woods and at a certain point, his figure seamlessly blended into the shadows and completely vanished.
“Is it a shadow spell?” Angel murmured, but then shook his head slightly: “It seems a bit different.”
Although he wasn’t skilled in shadow spells, Eremy, who resided within his shadow, knew a great deal about manipulating them.
The moment Daus entered the shadows and disappeared suggested he was merging with the shadows, but the tree shadows here were sparse, making seamless movement within them unlikely.
Rather than a shadow spell, it seemed more like…
Angel was still pondering when Daus’ thought came through the mental connection: “How about that? I told you my ability to hide is strong!”
Even though Daus restrained his emotions, Angel could guess the smug expression Daus must be wearing secretly.
Angel remained silent for a moment, then softly uttered a name: “Dark Specter Demon.”
Suddenly, there was silence from Daus’ side.
After a long pause, he spoke with hesitation: “How did you think of that?”
Angel thought to himself: I guessed right.
Yes, it was a guess, but it wasn’t without some basis, though not conclusive. Now, from Daus’ reaction, Angel felt he must have guessed correctly.
“I’ve encountered a Dark Specter Demon in the Abyss,” Angel said calmly.
“Dark Specter Demons don’t appear on the surface, have you been to the deeper layers of the Abyss?” Daus asked curiously.
Angel replied: “Sort of. I once ran a shop for a while in La Sutherland, and a Dark Specter Demon had patronized it.”
Angel’s tone was so even, without any fluctuation, but Daus felt like he had… lost. He wanted to boast about his stealth spells, but instead, his secret was identified, and the other party nonchalantly mentioned an utterly terrifying fact.
He had a shop in La Sutherland? That was the unfallen city of demons… Although it had now fallen, setting up a shop in the demon’s stronghold was not something a mere mortal would dare do.
“Is what you’re saying true?” Even through the mental connection, Angel could hear the tremble in Daus’ voice.
Angel pondered for a moment: “Just kidding.”
Hearing it was a joke, Daus’ heart, which had leapt into his throat, finally settled down.
Daus felt that his voice trembled a bit when he spoke earlier, which affected his personal image, so he deliberately used a teasing tone and said: “You look serious and act normally, so why is there a sneaky badness about you? Are you secretly playful?”
Angel originally planned to stop at “just kidding,” but Daus suddenly joked again.
Angel: “There was no Dark Specter Demon that came to patronize.”
Daus was stunned for a moment, wondering why this was brought up: “What do you mean?”
Angel calmly explained: “What I just said about kidding you, meant that no Dark Specter Demon was patronizing my shop. However, when I was running a shop, I saw a Dark Specter Demon use its powers on the streets.”
The ability of the Dark Specter Demon, similar to shadow powers, is not to merge into the shadows but to blend into the dark. As long as it is a dark and overcast area, even if this haze doesn’t greatly obstruct visibility, it can easily merge into it.
And though the beast forest has sparse tree shadows, the large tree leaves still provide cover, coupled with occasional overcast clouds in the sky, which led Angel to guess towards the Dark Specter Demon. And he guessed right.
At this moment, Daus was not concerned with how Angel knew about the Dark Specter Demon’s abilities; he was interested in: “Did you really run a shop in La Sutherland?”
Angel: “Yes, it was quite popular. When I left, one of my employees was very reluctant and hoped I would come back to open again. By the way, that employee was a half-blood sea demon.”
Angel added to himself: Although it was only one half-blood sea demon.
Daus was somewhat confused at this point; he couldn’t determine if what Angel was saying was true, but he was somewhat believing it.
If it were the wandering wizards in the Cross Bar speaking like this in front of him, there would be no doubt they were boasting. But Angel was different; he might seem secretly playful, but the things he did and said were quite earnest. Daus rarely encountered such earnest people.
The so-called earnestness actually means scholarly. Scholarly wizards are mostly either researching or on their way to research, rarely leaving the organization. Daus had only encountered a few scholarly wizards.
Therefore, since Angel spoke this way, even mentioning the details of the employee, perhaps, it should, maybe be true?
Moreover, it seemed that the wizard magazines had mentioned that when Lord Mengke attacked La Sutherland, Angel was also there…
If all this was true, Daus felt as if his whole life had gone to the dogs; he had practiced for so many years and hadn’t had as spectacular a few years as Angel.
Running a shop in La Sutherland was simply… indescribably powerful.
At this moment, Angel was unaware of Daus’ thoughts, because Daus had been silent after he finished speaking. Angel couldn’t be bothered to guess what Daus was thinking, now that he had figured out that Daus was using the Dark Specter Demon’s concealment abilities, nothing else mattered.
It was still important to focus on the right things.
Angel, though not as silently elusive as the Dark Specter Demons, wielded a layer of Nightmare Illusion that made it challenging even for a wizard like Sanders to locate him, much less anyone else.
Wrapped in the faint power of Nightmare Aura, Angel stepped into the beast forest.
The Nightmare Illusion adapted in real time, mimicking the surrounding environment, light sources, even the sounds of insects and the wind. Even as Angel passed through the center of several groups of magical beasts, he went unnoticed.
This was his unique stealth ability.
Crossing the beast forest, Angel headed straight for the expansive Princess Castle.
Old Porter had found out that those imprisoned were in the castle’s Dungeon, but the exact location of this dungeon and how to enter it still required confirmation.
Of course, Angel could have used other methods like mental power, the wizard’s eye, or scouting puppets… but these were not as straightforward as simply asking someone.
On one side of Princess Castle, Angel spotted a patrol of armored guards.
The armor bore the emblem of “a garland encircling a rapier,” undeniably, the Princess’s guard.
The team consisted of seven guards, one leader, and six followers.
With a slight stomp, Angel unleashed a ripple of Nightmare Illusion energy from beneath the ground, enveloping the team leader silently.
The leader felt nothing out of the ordinary, his expression unchanged, but a recent rumor came to his mind.
It was said that the dungeon guards had reaped many benefits from the prisoners. Although these prisoners were merely apprentices, someone always seemed to encounter wonders, and perhaps the guards had secured treasures of great value.
This thought made the leader itch with envy.
Those dungeon guards were mere weaklings, undeserving of such fortunes. Such treasures, if any, should belong to someone powerful and promising like himself.
With that, the leader halted.
Under the puzzled gazes of the six, he turned and said: “I’ve heard rumors of negligence among the dungeon guards. If true, it warrants punishment! Little Tom, come with me to the dungeon; the rest of you, continue your patrol.”
The others, though unsuspecting, looked enviously at Little Tom, who had risen through the ranks by flattery and often accompanied the leader, reaping many benefits. This trip to the dungeon would likely allow him to skim more off the top. Even if Little Tom couldn’t partake in the main course, he’d still manage some scraps, fueling their envy.
After splitting into two groups, the leader and Little Tom walked in the opposite direction.
Their behavior, including that of the leader himself, seemed normal to them. However, it was all orchestrated by Angel through a subtle manipulation of the Nightmare Illusion.
His way of confirming the dungeon’s location wasn’t by asking but by making others lead the way, saving him the effort of conversation.
Following behind the leader, their path grew more secluded.
Angel originally thought the dungeon would be located beneath the Princess’s Castle, but it appears this was not the case; the dungeon was quite far from the castle.
After walking for about five minutes, the team leader and Little Tom stopped in front of a black fortress-like building enclosed by sharp iron fences.
There were magic formations on the fences, and the fortress itself was also equipped with magic formations. Although, in Angel’s view, they were not of a high level, they still provided formidable defense for such a place.
Angel didn’t attempt to break the magic formations but openly followed the team leader into the black fortress.
The first level of the black fortress was very spacious and seemed uninhabited except for more than ten gargoyle statues.
Angel quickly noticed that these gargoyle statues were mostly fakes, with only one being real, presumably used as a guard.
This gargoyle, upon hearing footsteps, subtly started sniffing the air.
Angel was prepared, with all his aura tightly controlled, making them undetectable to the gargoyle’s senses unless faced with a Dark Specter Demon, for which Angel had a different strategy, such as illusion magic.
The auras of the team leader and Little Tom were already memorized by the gargoyle, which didn’t move at all but continued to blend in with the statues, pretending to be one of them.
They descended a spiral staircase to the second level.
Upon reaching the second level, the first thing Angel saw was not the jail guards or the blood-stained torture devices hanging on the walls or piled in the corners, but… a variety of oddly shaped dolls, as well as a seesaw and slide.
The setup looked somewhat whimsical.
However, one would have to overlook that one end of the seesaw was as thick as an arm with steel spikes and that the slide was covered with broken glass shards. Otherwise, the theme wouldn’t be whimsy but cruelty.
Angel guessed that these items, which carried a hint of ‘whimsy’, were likely the creations of a certain princess.
Because not long ago, Angel had received a message from Daus.
Daus excitedly said: “Do you know what I saw in the castle kitchen? A large spinning dartboard! Each section of the spinner was labeled with food items like pancakes with milk, creamy pasta, roast chicken platter… It seems the princess has trouble making choices.”
Up to this point, the description was normal.
But what Daus said next took a twisted turn.
“By the way, the names of those foods were written on people, twelve in total, painted in different colors and stuck to the dartboard, and the darts were axes.”
This revealed the princess’s distorted and cruel sense of humor.
That spinning dartboard, along with the seesaw and slide, shared a similarly twisted vibe.
At this moment, Angel had not yet met the princess, but his impression of her was already starting to change.
The descendants of King Guman seem to be somewhat mentally unstable, including Mandara whom he previously encountered at Black Castle. However, under the simple-minded, brawny leadership of a certain baby-faced individual, Mandara is showing signs of becoming more gentle. Although deceased and transformed into a soul, it is somewhat of a release from her troubled past.
The team leader and Little Tom began negotiating with the dungeon guard.
The team leader maintained an arrogantly elevated demeanor, but the dungeon guard did not dare to show any resistance, highlighting a significant disparity in their realms.
The team leader came to the dungeon specifically to extort, starting with this second level guard.
Angel, however, had no desire to continue watching and walked away into the deeper corridors.
Starting from the second underground level, there were cells.
This level, however, held only mortals. Apart from a few handsome men and women, nearly all were tortured beyond human recognition, their lives hanging by a thread within days. These attractive individuals were internally hollowed out, their eyes lifeless, bodies covered in blood, and skin lacerated with tiny cuts, it seemed that seesaws and slides were prepared just for them.
Such degradation had already erased their wills. Essentially, they were no different from the dead.
Angel sighed softly to himself and continued forward.
Soon, he arrived at the third level.
The guard here was a hefty man carrying a massive club with wolf’s teeth, not confined to a room like the one on the second level, but instead patrolling between the cells.
This level contained individuals with extraordinary abilities.
And the chubby guard was the one patrolling around these cells for transcendents.
He chuckled sinisterly, attempting to appear cruel as he threatened the prisoners, demanding they hand over any possessions they had.
Angel paused briefly upon seeing this.
Previously, he had used the illusion of a guard threatening transcendents to obtain valuables to stir greed in the team leader to come to the dungeon.
Unexpectedly, the casual excuse he had used turned out to be true.
Chapter 2510 Princess Castle <TOC> Chapter 2512 The Fourth Level