Chapter 2519 The Painting Gallery or Specimen Room <TOC> Chapter 2521 The Spirit of the Snake
Translator: SumTLMan
“Something seems off about these stairs,” Ms. Melo noted, feeling an imperceptible pulse emanating from the wooden staircase. Although nothing seemed wrong on the surface, her past experiences led her to suspect that the interior, or possibly the unseen side, was marked with a magic formation.
The purpose of this magic formation… probably wasn’t anything good.
However, Ms. Melo wasn’t overly concerned. While she couldn’t decipher the magic formation, she was accompanied by a master of such formations.
With this thought, Ms. Melo looked at Angel with expectant eyes.
She hadn’t forgotten the magic formation she had encountered on the fourth level of the dungeon. Witnessing Angel break the magic formation would certainly broaden her horizons… even if she couldn’t understand it now, she might appreciate its significance later.
Yet, Ms. Melo’s expectations were dashed.
Angel did not break the magic formation. Instead, he conjured an illusion, causing glowing footprints to appear on the staircase.
“Just follow these glowing footprints to be safe. If you don’t step correctly, you’ll probably… die? The kind that ends up on a plate,” Angel said nonchalantly, then stepped back, glancing at the group of talents. His meaning was clear——your move.
Angel had initially considered cutting off the energy to the trap temporarily to disable the magic formation. But as he looked at the designated safe spots and imagined the clumsy steps of a child, he suddenly lost the urge to decipher the magic formation.
Confronted with Angel’s sudden stance, the group of talents was taken aback.
“Are we… going first?” the plump one asked, pointing to his nose.
The others looked at Angel with eyes filled with hope and pleading; they desperately hoped they had misunderstood his intentions.
Under normal circumstances, the footsteps on the stairs would have been unremarkable, but these were peculiarly shaped, suggesting that maintaining balance and performing leaps were necessary to proceed. This was a truly daunting task!
However, Angel’s slight nod shattered their hopes.
For a moment, the expressions of the group were priceless, some were terrified, some swallowed hard trying to appear calm, and even those who typically maintained a cool demeanor couldn’t hide their dilating pupils.
Angel simply watched silently, saying nothing.
“Are we really letting them go alone?” Ms. Melo spoke up.
She seemed concerned, but her heart told a different story. Angel had laid out the solution on the Stairway Test; simply following the footprints was all that was needed. If they couldn’t manage that, they had no place in the Wizarding World. Her question was purely motivated by selfishness; rather than training these apprentices, she preferred to see how Angel would break the magic formation.
Unaware of Ms. Melo’s true thoughts, everyone else sent her grateful looks. Indeed, Ms. Melo seemed to care more about them than anyone else.
Angel didn’t ponder Ms. Melo’s intentions, simply thinking she had softened, and replied: “Isn’t that the point of bringing them here? Now, why hesitate?”
Ms. Melo chuckled awkwardly, always hesitant to express her true thoughts, she equivocated: “It’s not that I’m worried about them; rather, it’s that all the answers have been provided. Letting them go now hardly offers any real challenge.”
Angel responded skeptically: “Is that so?”
“Yes.” Affirmed Ms. Melo firmly.
“But…” Angel pointed to the talents across the way: “Are you sure that just because they’ve been given the answers, they would dare to leave?”
Following Angel’s gaze, Ms. Melo noticed that, aside from Sybil who maintained her aloof persona, the others clearly displayed signs of fear.
Even for Sybil, as Melo understood her, was likely hesitating internally, though her facade could not falter.
“Since Ms. Melo believes that providing the answers doesn’t really train them much,” Angel pondered aloud: “how about this, I’ll give you a few minutes to memorize where you need to go, and then I’ll erase the footprints. That should add a bit of a challenge.”
The group was genuinely stunned upon hearing this.
They thought Ms. Melo was their guardian angel, but just a few exchanges revealed a shift from clear guidance to blind navigation.
Ms. Melo opened her mouth to say something but, seeing Angel’s indifferent expression, ultimately chose to remain silent.
These talents were indeed too naive. As their guide, even Ms. Melo herself admitted this fact.
Taking this group of utterly unprepared talents back to the Savage Grottoes, would any wizard truly bother to reach out to them?
With this in mind, Ms. Melo hesitated no longer and decisively aligned herself with Angel.
“There are only eighteen steps on the staircase, and I’ll give you five minutes… no, five minutes is too long, three minutes is more appropriate. Start memorizing now.”
Angel snapped his fingers, and a hourglass illusion appeared mid-air to keep time.
Although the group wanted to protest that “three minutes is too short,” the sight of the overhead hourglass made them realize escape was futile, and they gathered near the staircase to memorize their path.
While they memorized, Angel turned his head to look down the specimen corridor.
He was under no illusion about having ample time; he had long been monitoring the situation on the first level of the castle through the intervention of the castle’s magic formation.
The princess’ meal was nearing its conclusion. If she did not detour elsewhere, she would likely ascend soon.
Nevertheless, Angel had no intention of relenting in his “training” of these talents.
His confidence lay in… illusion magic.
Angel extended a finger towards the specimen corridor and released a multitude of illusion nodes, which, in combination with the densely packed head specimens, could transform the corridor into an endless looping hallway.
Even if Gray Crow accompanies the princess, Angel is confident that he can trap them temporarily.
After all this, Angel turned to look at the group of talents.
Angel realized that this group of talents actually had redeemable qualities; the deeper you push them, the more their potential emerges.
For instance, Angel now observed the various strategies employed by the talents.
Almost none resorted to rote memorization. Some were scribbling notes on their hands, looking as if they were playing the piano with their fingers to rhythmically encode their memories of the positions.
But the most interesting was Amesa.
Amesa simply simulated jumps on the spot, hopping left and right, then striking a balanced pose, using her muscles to memorize.
After three minutes, the hourglass disappeared, and the glowing footprints on the stairs gradually vanished as well.
Angel looked at everyone: “Who will go first?”
At that moment, everyone eagerly volunteered to go first, as the sooner they used their temporary memory, the better.
Ultimately, Amesa went first, a gesture of consideration from the others, as she was the only one who had faced punishment.
Amesa didn’t hesitate; she took a deep breath and approached the stairs.
She didn’t start walking immediately but instead hummed a cheerful nursery rhyme. With the rhythmic beat of the nursery rhyme, Amesa ascended the stairs as if dancing.
Perhaps aided by the nursery rhyme, the others noticed that Amesa’s performance was incredibly smooth. It took her only a few seconds to reach the third level without triggering any mechanisms.
Seeing Amesa’s success also gave the others some confidence.
They began to line up to ascend the stairs.
At this point, the talents were entirely focused on how to safely climb the stairs and failed to notice how… graceful their movements were.
Ms. Melo watched each talent bouncing and hopping like foolish children and suddenly had a thought.
Could it be… Ms. Melo turned to look at Angel.
Angel glanced at her briefly, and Ms. Melo immediately turned away, seriously watching the comical scenes unfolding on the stairs.
Everyone’s method was different, and their efficiencies varied, but Ms. Melo was relieved that everyone managed to ascend the stairs smoothly without triggering any mechanisms.
Indeed, potential has to be forced out.
Although this exercise was not particularly difficult, for this group from the ivory tower, achieving this much was already a good start.
While Ms. Melo felt relieved, Angel felt nothing at all. If they couldn’t handle this small challenge, then they were truly hopeless.
However, once the talents ascended the stairs, it was their turn.
The group of talents was also on the third level, craning their necks to look downward, curious to see the manner in which Angel and Ms. Melo ascended. They vividly remembered their own clumsy attempts, wondering if Angel and Ms. Melo would end up the same… The thought was unsettling to the talents, as they considered themselves to be beings of higher status.
Unexpectedly to everyone, Angel did not use the staircase at all.
With a simple gesture, ripples appeared before him, and a gate, invisible to the naked eye, materialized.
“Ladies first,” Angel gestured to Ms. Melo.
Silently, Ms. Melo stepped through the gate, followed by Angel. Passing through this passage, they immediately appeared beside the group of talents.
Seeing Angel and Ms. Melo emerge from the spatial passage, the group fell silent.
With such a sophisticated spatial passage available… Why were they forced into such ridiculous actions?!
Ms. Melo remained silent as well; she had also assumed she would need to ascend in an awkward manner, but Angel had used space magic to teleport directly.
Moreover, they had only opened the gate and teleported after all the talents had reached the third level.
This reinforced a suspicion in Ms. Melo’s mind.
Perhaps her cheap junior, Little Shalem, was right; Angel was indeed a stealthy show-off. Outwardly elegant and mild, yet occasionally mischievous at heart. This staircase incident was likely a manifestation of Angel’s playful side…
Of course, Angel would never admit he wanted to see how the ‘foolish’ children ascended stairs to create such a scene.
He genuinely believed he was training these talents, pushing them to realize their potential.
Angel felt no remorse about his actions, glancing at the group: “The situation on the third level differs from the other two; there’s only one room here, but it might contain some surprises.”
With that, Angel steered the talents’ thoughts away from the staircase incident, directing their attention to what lay behind them.
They had noticed upon their arrival.
The third level had no corridors; what seemed like corridors were actually walls visible from the end.
And right opposite the stairs, stood a door styled like something out of a fairytale.
The door, predominantly pink and red, had all the elements of a fairytale, complete with engravings that seemed to narrate stories. However, upon closer inspection, these fairytales had been twisted, such as the princess happily living with the prince, but in an unconventional way, with the prince being consumed by the princess; a union of sorts.
The door had no traps, but the handle was placed unusually low, clearly designed for the height of the princess.
Angel simply pushed the door open.
Everyone curiously peered behind it, yet nothing could be seen, as the area was engulfed in rainbow-colored mist.
“Go ahead, there’s no danger, but perhaps some surprises,” Angel paused: “or rather, shocks.”
With that, Angel stepped into the mist of rainbow hues.
Ms. Melo promptly followed.
At this point, the other talents had no other choice but to follow along.
…
As soon as Ms. Melo entered the rainbow mist, she sensed something wrong, as if a familiar energy swirled around her.
Before she could pinpoint this energy’s source, a door materialized in front of her.
As the door appeared, the surrounding rainbow mist seemed to fade slightly. Vaguely visible was a gravel path next to the door, enclosed by a fence. And this door, it appeared to be that of a cabin?
Why would a three-story castle contain a cabin? Was this an illusion?
Hesitant for a moment and without any other clues, Ms. Melo decided to investigate further inside. Moreover, Angel had mentioned earlier that there seemed to be no danger.
With this thought, Ms. Melo walked down the gravel path to the door.
The door was unlocked and swung open easily.
A warm, kind, and elderly voice called out from inside: “Little Melo, you’re back, I’ve just heated up your favorite sweet snail soup, come and try it.”
The familiar voice momentarily stunned Ms. Melo; she looked up and saw at the center of the room, an elderly woman with white hair, smiling at her by the fireplace.
This elderly woman was not a stranger to Ms. Melo; she was her… grandmother.
Her grandmother’s voice and smile were just as she remembered. But Melo knew that this wasn’t her real grandmother.
At least, her grandmother would stir the soup with a long spoon, not by plunging her hands into the boiling pot.
“Is this the surprise, or rather, the shock that he mentioned?” Melo whispered softly.
Even though she knew that the grandmother before her wasn’t real, Melo still walked forward, her buried memories awakening in an uncanny manner. Real or not, she wanted to closely observe her grandmother’s face again and listen to that familiar voice, even if the figure spoke unsettling words and performed bizarre acts.
However, before Melo could reach her grandmother, the scene abruptly changed.
Her grandmother had disappeared, the log cabin was gone, and the pot, stewing something unknown, had also vanished. She was no longer in that cabin, but had arrived in a glass house.
The glass house was not solely occupied by her; Angel was sitting in the middle of it.
After confirming that Angel was not an illusion, Melo hesitated for a moment before asking: “Was it you, lord, who pulled me in here?”
Angel nodded.
“Although I’m not sure what you saw, it was merely an illusion created like a bubble… You should have recognized those clear falsehoods, so it’s best not to indulge in them,” said Angel softly, looking at the bewildered Ms. Melo.
Ms. Melo remained silent for a long while before nodding: “I understand.”
Seemingly unwilling to discuss the illusions she had seen, Ms. Melo took a deep breath and quickly changed the subject: “Lord, may I know where we are?”
“The only place within the Rainbow Illusion House that is unaffected by the illusions, and it is also the transit area to the next room.”
Chapter 2519 The Painting Gallery or Specimen Room <TOC> Chapter 2521 The Spirit of the Snake