Chapter 2621 Strange Buildings <TOC> Chapter 2623 Fragrance and Borne Dream
Translator: SumTLMan
Although the doors were also enveloped by the magic formation, their simple and flimsy structure made it difficult to inscribe advanced inscriptions from the formation onto them, such as three-dimensional runes and overlapping runes. Therefore, although the doors bore extensions of the magic formation, they were the weakest links in the entire setup.
Just look at these two buildings.
All the doors of these two buildings had been destroyed. Even though the doors were reinforced with the magic formation, when faced with the relentless assault of countless Wizard Eye Ghosts, the doors were doomed to fail.
Hence, when Angel saw a door that remained intact, he was quite astonished.
Why was this particular door still unscathed?
With questions swirling in his mind, Angel approached the door. In his mental space, he swiftly constructed the “server” of Eye of Nalda. By operating the wealth of knowledge accumulated within the “server,” Angel rapidly analyzed various information about the door.
The door’s material, its dimensions, the traces left upon it… All kinds of information were processed by the “server,” presenting Angel with clear and immediate answers.
Sure enough, this door was fundamentally different from the others.
Its material was premium stone, of a grade far surpassing that of the building itself. This allowed the door to bear more runes than the others.
Among them, Angel discovered at least a hundred rune nodes related to “reinforcement,” whereas other doors might have only a few rune nodes like “toughness” or “sturdiness.”
This was the reason why this door had remained intact until now, it was as solid as a rock.
Unfortunately, apart from the reinforcement runes that remained operational due to their perfect compatibility with the stone, the vast majority of other runes had been destroyed. This was also why the door could be opened.
However, from those destroyed runes, one could catch a glimpse of how tightly secured this place was in its heyday.
If not for the erosion of time’s inexorable march and the onslaught of countless Wizard Eye Ghosts, this door would have been an impregnable fortress, strictly guarding the comings and goings of the two buildings.
Such stringent protection made Angel all the more curious, what exactly were the fifth and sixth floors of the building opposite used for?
Passing through the gate, Angel entered a sealed corridor bridge, the other end of which led to the top floor of the building he had initially entered.
There were no Wizard Eye Ghosts on the corridor bridge, and Angel smoothly arrived at the terrace on the other side.
On this terrace, another door stood tall.
This door was almost identical to the previous one, the material was pristine, and it remained sturdy, but the other runes had been broken.
With a gentle push, the door slowly swung open.
Behind the door was a pitch-black staircase descending into the depths.
Without hesitation, Angel stepped inside. The length of this staircase clearly exceeded normal spatial boundaries, indicating that the fifth and sixth floors of this building were not as small as they appeared from the outside; the interior must have undergone spatial expansion.
After briskly walking for about ten seconds, Angel reached a turn in the staircase.
At the corner, there was an open door, beyond which a bright and spacious hall was clearly visible.
However, this was not the end of the staircase; continuing along the bend, there was yet another staircase leading downward.
If the spatial expansion was only carried out horizontally on the original floors, then behind this door should be the sixth floor, and continuing downward would lead to the fifth floor.
But if the spatial expansion was a three-dimensional expansion that didn’t follow standard specifications, then it’s hard to say exactly how many floors there were here.
Angel personally believed that the answer was likely the latter.
Guarding this place so tightly, if there were only two floors, wouldn’t that be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
Angel did not continue downward to verify the exact number of floors; instead, he first walked into the nearby door.
He hadn’t forgotten his purpose; the primary goal was still to find suitable Wizard Eye Ghosts for Eremy’s shadow fusion. As for exploration and verification, that was not an immediate concern.
After entering the gate, he found himself in a familiar hall layout.
Similarly, there were quite a few Wizard Eye Ghosts in the hall. The spacious area combined with a large number of Wizard Eye Ghosts was not conducive for Eremy to complete the task.
Angel softly called out “Speedling” in his mind.
Without needing Angel’s instructions, Speedling was already manipulating the flowing wind, quickly exploring the general situation of this level’s space.
Because he was worried that the wind’s power might alert the Wizard Eye Ghosts, Speedling only manipulated the wind that was already present, which reduced its efficiency and detection accuracy. However, it was still faster than Angel exploring by himself.
After a while, Angel received a rough spatial distribution map of this level from Speedling in his mind.
“Is it even larger than I imagined?” he mused. Moreover… it was a staggered floor plan with multiple staircases leading downward at varying heights.
There was no longer any need to specifically descend the stairs at the corner to verify; it could be basically confirmed that this space extended vertically. Angel didn’t know exactly how many levels there were, but it was definitely more than two.
Although Speedling had detected the general spatial distribution, the specific details still required Angel to investigate personally.
The rooms on this floor were quite spacious. Moreover, the central room was not the current hall but another circular hall.
All the other rooms were constructed around the circular hall, including the hall before him.
Naturally, Angel first headed to that circular hall, which connected in all directions and served as the best transit point.
When he stepped into the circular hall and saw the scene before him, Angel’s brows furrowed slightly.
Although this place had been almost completely destroyed, from some fragments on the ground and familiar metal handles, it could be basically confirmed that this circular hall was a laboratory.
Moreover, it was a massive, public laboratory.
It was even larger than the previous laboratory where hundreds collaborated that he had seen before.
What in the world was Nightfall City researching back then that required so many such large laboratories, and why was this laboratory so well hidden?
From the debris scattered all over the ground, Angel couldn’t obtain any clues and could only suppress his doubts.
Wizard Eye Ghosts were more concentrated in the circular hall. Angel carefully avoided them, shuttling through various rooms via different corridors.
After traversing two or three rooms, Angel decided to give up. The rooms here were all exceptionally large, perhaps used for different experiments. In any case, this was not a suitable place.
However, just because this floor was unsuitable didn’t mean other floors weren’t.
According to Speedling’s detection results, there were three stairways leading downward here. It had only lightly probed one; the other two were too deep, and the flowing wind inside was very thin. If it forcibly probed, it might attract the attention of the Wizard Eye Ghosts inside.
On the floor that Speedling had only lightly explored, the rooms were not large, and there seemed to be many compartments. Perhaps a suitable place could be found there.
Thinking of this, Angel retraced his steps back to the circular hall and, following Speedling’s guidance, passed through numerous corridors to find the first stairway.
This stairway was the one that Speedling had lightly explored.
The stairs were of normal height; soon, Angel saw the layout of the lower floor.
Not-too-large rooms and three corridors leading in different directions. Along the corridors, there was a room every so often.
It was worth mentioning that although many of these rooms were so damaged that their original appearance couldn’t be discerned, from some clues, Angel roughly guessed the purpose of these rooms.
“Detention,” Angel whispered softly.
These rooms should all be places for detaining people.
Previously, Angel had speculated that the fifth and sixth floors were so tightly guarded; could they be temporary prisons for those criminals?
Now it seemed that this speculation might not be wrong.
However… the lower levels were prisons, and the upper levels were laboratories. This design caused some unsettling thoughts to arise in Angel’s mind.
Was this place once used for large-scale live experiments?
Angel narrowed his eyes, refraining from thinking further, or rather, he didn’t dare to delve deeper.
The decline of Nightfall City, although until now, Angel still didn’t know the specific reason, made it seem that Nightfall City was definitely not entirely innocent.
There were many secrets here, and the waters ran deep. Angel didn’t intend to investigate deeply… Even if he really wanted to check, he would go to the Nightmare Plane’s projection of Nightfall City to investigate.
After all, there were still ancient monsters alive here, for example, that Sovereign of Wisdom mentioned by Day.
This was just the Hanging Prison Stairs, an official institution of Nightfall City, and yet there appeared an old monster that had lived for millennia, not to mention other places.
Perhaps there were more ancient monsters existing here.
They coldly watched the decline here, observed as this place was plundered, yet remained indifferent, not even leaving… Just thinking about it made cold sweat drip down Angel’s back. Something was wrong, extremely wrong.
Angel took a deep breath, suppressing the sudden panic in his heart.
Then he stopped pondering other matters and quickly moved through the prison cells.
He no longer wanted to know what had happened here or what secrets lay in the past. The only thing he wanted to do now was to find a suitable place for Eremy to perceive the state of shadow fusion…
Soon, Angel finished searching this floor of the prison. Among them, there was a compartment where six Wizard Eye Ghosts were hanging upside down from the ceiling, conducting “cultivation.”
This was the most suitable place Angel had found.
But there were two things to note. First, in the adjacent compartments on both sides of this room, as well as in the outside corridor, there were Wizard Eye Ghosts wandering. Once a battle started, it might alarm the outside Wizard Eye Ghosts. Since they could transmit information through shadows, perhaps in an instant they would alert all the Wizard Eye Ghosts on this floor to their presence.
Second, it was Eremy’s first time performing shadow fusion; would merging with six Wizard Eye Ghosts be too many? Would he bear too much miscellaneous information, leading to hidden dangers?
The best choice was two or three Wizard Eye Ghosts.
Based on the above two points, Angel temporarily abandoned this compartment. However, it was only a temporary retreat.
He speculated that the other two staircases that Speedling hadn’t scouted might also lead to similar prisons. He intended to check out the other prisons, and if there was truly nothing suitable, he would double back.
As for continuing to explore the staircase beneath the corner, or retracing his steps back to the previous dark alley, Angel no longer planned to do so.
He had already been away for almost five minutes. Although the time wasn’t excessively long, he didn’t want to let a minor issue cause too much delay.
Now, there were still two staircases he hadn’t explored. Speedling hadn’t delved deeply into them, but that didn’t matter, as long as he knew their locations.
Since he was in the dark about the situations on both sides, it didn’t matter which one he chose. Therefore, to save time, Angel selected the staircase entrance that was closer.
As soon as he descended this staircase, Angel sensed a different atmosphere.
This staircase… seemed rather long?
Furthermore, the scent of Wizard Eye Ghosts in this staircase was very faint.
The walls on both sides of the staircase bore few scratch marks or signs of damage, which seemed to suggest that the number of Wizard Eye Ghosts here might be relatively low?
This was a piece of good news.
With fewer Wizard Eye Ghosts, whether they ended up in battle or simply departed, it would be relatively easy.
Moreover, if there was still a prison below, it would undoubtedly be a relatively enclosed space. By placing a sealing formation at the staircase entrance, or directly concealing it with an illusion, even if these Wizard Eye Ghosts caused a commotion, they shouldn’t affect the Wizard Eye Ghosts outside.
With this thought in mind, Angel swiftly proceeded downward.
Ten seconds later, Angel reached the bottom and saw the familiar “prison warden’s” room. It remained dilapidated, but compared to other places, the tables and chairs in this room still existed, indicating that the Wizard Eye Ghosts here were indeed few.
In addition, unlike before, there was only a single corridor here.
Moreover, this corridor was a dead end; at the end was a wall, and to leave, one could only retrace their steps.
If this was still a prison, then the “prisoners” once held here were likely far more important than those in the other prison.
This was evident from the layout and size of the cells.
The cells here were noticeably larger, and the materials used for the prison doors were relatively superior. Even from a distance, Angel spotted several cells whose doors hadn’t been completely destroyed.
With a heart full of expectation, Angel stepped into the corridor.
Entering the first Cell, Angel was pleasantly surprised. Inside were five Wizard Eye Ghosts curled into circles.
Although the number was still considerable, the location was excellent, close to the staircase entrance. As long as he accomplished his objective, he could swiftly retreat.
Angel quickly put the previous cell with six Wizard Eye Ghosts out of mind, giving this cell the top spot in his considerations.
However, Angel didn’t immediately instruct Eremy to act. Since he was already in this prison, he decided to continue forward and take a look. After all, the corridor wasn’t long; one could see the end at a glance. Perhaps there were better options in other rooms.
As it turned out, Angel’s thinking wasn’t always wishful.
Avoiding the Wizard Eye Ghosts wandering in the corridor, Angel proceeded inward. Before long, he saw a room where only two Wizard Eye Ghosts were cultivating.
In terms of numbers, this was better than the previous cell with five Wizard Eye Ghosts!
However, somewhat regrettably, in the cell directly opposite, there were also two Wizard Eye Ghosts, and these two weren’t in a fusion state.
If these two were also cultivating, it would be perfect. He could simply choose any cell and begin.
But as it stood, in terms of priorities, Angel was still inclined toward the first cell.
Shaking his head slightly, Angel continued forward a bit. He could already see the wall at the end of the corridor. Evidently, he had reached the latter half of the cells.
Unfortunately, he still hadn’t found a better option than the first cell.
Just as Angel sighed slightly, suddenly, a faint, delicate fragrance wafted over from not far away…
Chapter 2621 Strange Buildings <TOC> Chapter 2623 Fragrance and Borne Dream