Chapter 2629 Unbearable Stench <TOC> Chapter 2631 First Exploration of the Foul Sewers
Translator: SumTLMan
Facing Daus’ bombardment of questions, Angel’s response was silence; then, with a touch of impatience, he dug at his ear.
Daus was directly stifled by Angel’s ear-digging gesture, choking back a breath.
Seizing the moment when Daus paused, Angel unhurriedly said: “Finally done talking? Then may I have my turn?”
Angel wasn’t deliberately being difficult; Daus’ questions didn’t touch upon core issues, and he could answer them all. Moreover, he noticed that the others were also curious about these questions. So, he would certainly provide answers. However, Daus’ mantra-like, nagging, and relentless questioning made Angel quite displeased. He simply let him talk until he ran out of steam, and only then did Angel finally speak up.
“The previous few questions can basically be condensed into one,” Angel said, extending his hand and snapping his fingers.
As the snapping sound fell, the surrounding illusion nodes rapidly gathered and quickly formed four identical books.
“If you’re interested, you can take a look. Especially the author’s notes on the sixth page from the end; they contain the answers you’re seeking.”
After speaking, Angel placed the books on a magical hand, indicating that everyone could freely take one.
Without a doubt, Daus was the first to grab a copy. The Black Count manipulated his mental power to take the second book.
Their reactions upon receiving the books were entirely different.
The Black Count’s nostrils flared, and he snorted disdainfully, displaying a look of aversion.
Daus, on the other hand, was completely different. He buried his head to look, and upon seeing the book’s title, his eyes instantly lit up. As he turned the pages, he immediately let out a series of lewd chuckles and smacked his lips with relish.
The differing reactions of the two elders piqued the curiosity of the two apprentices about the book.
There were still two books on the Magic Hand; Lord Super Dimensional must have prepared copies for them, right? The two apprentices hesitated to step forward but were filled with anticipation.
Seeing this, Angel saw through their thoughts at a glance: “If you two aren’t interested, I’ll put them away.”
At this, Wye and Kael stopped hesitating. They exchanged a glance and quickly approached the magical hand. Each took a book and began to read.
Compared to the Black Count and Daus, the reactions of these two apprentices were quite normal. They quietly flipped through the books, occasionally showing slight expressions but nothing exaggerated.
This reaction seemed normal, but in Angel’s view, they were deliberately restraining themselves.
Because just from the title of this book, one could guess its content, it indeed warranted some puzzled expressions.
This book was precisely that research material: —A Record of the Different Postures of Wizard Eye Ghosts’ Fusion—.
Although this material was indeed a bit peculiar, combined with the author’s descriptions, it might make one think of certain reproductive behaviors of bipedal primates. But strictly speaking, the author didn’t overly embellish; just as the research topic’s name implied, he was earnestly recording the fusion postures of Wizard Eye Ghosts.
In plain terms, it was the —Wizard Eye Ghost Observation Diary—.
Although Angel didn’t know why the author would observe Wizard Eye Ghosts, it could be considered a relatively rigorous dataset.
Everyone’s expressions while reading the book varied, excluding any pretense; it purely depended on their perspective.
Some treated it as normal data material, while others saw it as the —Three Hundred and Sixty Bedroom Techniques—; it varied from person to person, and Daus’ reaction was undoubtedly the latter.
As for the Black Count’s disdain and disgust, it was also normal. Before Angel opened this material and skimmed through it, he too was full of questions.
It wasn’t until just now, when it truly came in handy, that he had a new understanding of this book.
It’s similar to the magazine —The Wizard’s Little Tricks—, which contains extremely bizarre “life hacks”, tedious and dull. Initially, readers generally treated it as a collection of spoof jokes.
But only those wizards who have truly experienced difficult situations, needing these tricks to survive, would treasure this book.
Even Sanders was a loyal reader of this magazine.
—A Record of the Different Postures of Wizard Eye Ghosts’ Fusion— is similar to —The Wizard’s Little Tricks—. At first glance, it seems useless, but when it comes in handy, your perception of it changes entirely.
At this moment, Angel had a revolutionary change in his view of this material.
Everyone read through quickly, especially with Angel’s guidance; they mostly went straight to the key points. Only Daus appreciated it page by page… but he used a reading spell, so he wasn’t slower than the others.
After everyone finished reading, Angel finally spoke: “Now, you should understand, right?”
Daus was still the first to speak, but this time he didn’t respond directly to Angel’s words; instead, he shared his impressions: “Marvelous, truly marvelous! I didn’t expect someone to share my interests. I really want to meet the author of this book. Oh, I forgot to check the author’s name… ‘Blue Fatty’?”
“Is this a pen name? This pen name is so… distinctive, I like it!” Daus exclaimed again, but his facial expression was rather subtle.
Is this forced enthusiasm? Or perhaps, loving the house and its crow?
The Black Count didn’t comment much on the book but directly asked the core question: “The time you left earlier was to find out how to make the Wizard Eye Ghosts fuse?”
Angel nodded: “To be precise, how to forcibly make the Wizard Eye Ghosts fuse.”
“If you want to understand the fusion of Wizard Eye Ghosts, at the very least you have to fuse with them once to know. But you haven’t practiced shadow elemental spells, have you? So, you had Eremy do it?”
The Black Count once again hit the nail on the head. Angel sighed inwardly but didn’t hide it and nodded: “Yes, earlier when broadcasting with the illusion light screen, Eremy was still fusing with other Wizard Eye Ghosts. Later, the broadcast suddenly cut off because Eremy woke up. It told me it could complete the task, so I took it out to find Wizard Eye Ghosts to test… After confirming there were no issues, I came to the square.”
“The entire process is like this.” After speaking, Angel looked at everyone: “So, any more questions?”
The two apprentices shook their heads vigorously.
Daus did have questions, but before he could speak, the Black Count interrupted.
“Eremy fused with the Wizard Eye Ghosts without any rejection?” the Black Count asked.
Rejection, as it’s called, occurs when the Wizard Eye Ghosts disdain you, directly bombarding you with useless streams of information, blasting the integrator out. This is no joke; most Shadow Wizards have suffered the headache-inducing torment of being overwhelmed by such information overload to the point of dizziness.
“No,” Angel replied: “I’m puzzled by this as well. However, before fusing, Eremy disguised itself as a Wizard Eye Ghost. Perhaps he managed to deceive the other Wizard Eye Ghosts because of this.”
The Black Count said: “Appearance alone can’t fool them. Once the shadows fuse and the initial information integration begins, they can determine whether you’re one of them.”
“That’s odd then. Eremy wasn’t rejected at all… Even when it exited, the Wizard Eye Ghosts didn’t notice anything and continued fusing,” Angel said, perplexed.
The Black Count pondered for a moment: “I don’t know what’s going on in this situation either. Perhaps it has something to do with the innate talents of Demons from the Panic World. I have too little research on Demons. If you’re willing to let me study Eremy for a while, perhaps I can help you solve this mystery…”
“That won’t be necessary. Eremy was given to me by Lord Rhine. If research is needed, I believe Lord Rhine can handle it,” Angel promptly invoked Rhine.
Since the Black Count and Rhine are friends, he couldn’t very well seize Eremy. Therefore, faced with Angel’s refusal, the Black Count could only accept it begrudgingly.
However, the Black Count still ‘kindly’ reminded Angel: “Although I don’t know how you make a Demon obey you, even able to have preliminary communication. But I can tell that Eremy doesn’t possess an independent consciousness, which is a good thing; otherwise, he would have turned on you by now.”
“However, even though Eremy’s independent consciousness has been erased, it doesn’t mean a new one won’t efuse.”
“An independent consciousness is similar to a personality; it requires memory capacity, cognitive ability, emotional perception, and behavioral logic. And these requirements can actually be met.”
“If you allow Eremy to exchange information with too many Wizard Eye Ghosts, even though the information obtained from them is low-level and chaotic, there are quite a few flashes of insight among them. When these sparks accumulate, Eremy might develop a Nascent Consciousness.”
“You’ve been with Eremy for quite some time; you should be aware of how terrifying the power of Demons is. To gain strength, they voluntarily allowed themselves to be possessed by Evil Gods, protecting their former kind. But as they used this power, their integration with the Evil Gods deepened continuously, eventually ‘awakening’ into Demons. Demons are no longer the guardians of their kind; they can’t even be called human anymore but have reverted back into Evil Gods. They begin to relish devouring humans, especially favoring human brains.”
“By consuming human brains, they can partially absorb the residual information within.”
“But yours has directly obtained a large amount of information through shadow fusion.”
“Perhaps it has already developed a nascent consciousness. The fact that there’s currently no backlash likely means it’s digesting the acquired information. So it’s best if you refrain from using it for now. Once you return, have Lord Rhine conduct a comprehensive examination. Only after confirming everything is fine should you use it again; that will ensure your safety.”
The Black Count’s reminder was timely and his words earnest, but Angel couldn’t shake the feeling that he was trying to use this opportunity to make him give up using Eremy… After all, if the team were to fracture in the future, and it came to a standoff with the Black Count, Eremy teaming up with Angel, plus Daus, might tip the scales, and the Black Count wouldn’t necessarily prevail.
Angel contemplated many things. Although he doubted the Black Count’s intentions, his words did make sense.
Angel himself also felt that Eremy had become more lively than before.
However, their minds were still connected, and the Seed of Distortion was deeply implanted within Eremy. Angel believed that even if Eremy awakened a new consciousness, under the control of the Seed of Distortion, it shouldn’t have the ability to turn on him in the short term.
Thinking of this, Angel first expressed respect and gratitude for the Black Count’s warning. Then he said: “At present, there’s no way to let Eremy withdraw; it carries the main axis of the moving illusion realm. However, after everything is over, I will seek out Lord Rhine as soon as possible to conduct a comprehensive examination of Eremy.”
The Black Count also knew that the moving illusion realm couldn’t function without Eremy, and within the illusion realm, Angel could also cast purification fields to block the stench from outside.
Therefore, he didn’t insist that Angel put away Eremy immediately, but said lightly: “No matter. If Eremy does produce a backlash during this process, I believe that with our abilities, suppressing it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Angel nodded in agreement. Although he had spent day and night with Eremy and developed some affection, if an uncontrollable independent consciousness really efused, Angel wouldn’t hesitate to act.
After the Black Count finished speaking, Daus, who had been waiting for a long time, finally had the opportunity to ask a new question.
“Can the silver pendant and the crown combine together as we guessed?”
But to be honest, Daus didn’t really care about this question; he was just routinely curious, satisfying his insatiable gossiping heart.
“Regarding this question, actually your guesses… eh?” Angel had just begun to speak when he suddenly stopped.
Everyone looked at Angel with confusion; he wore a peculiar expression and pointed ahead.
They had been within the moving illusion realm all this time and hadn’t extended their mental power outside, since mental power is an all-encompassing sense, more sensitive to external stimuli, and can even simulate the sense of smell.
To avoid their mental power being overwhelmed by the stench, none of them wanted to extend it outside. Even Kael and Daus, who weren’t particularly bothered by the smell, refrained from doing so.
So when they saw Angel pointing ahead, they were momentarily stunned, not realizing what had happened.
Angel sighed, manipulated the mental models within his mental space, and swiftly constructed the model of a second level trick, the “Light Source Spell”.
However, this model was a modified variant of the Light Source Spell, altered using the computational power of the holographic tablet.
In his own compiled —Introduction to Tricks: Revised—, Angel had recorded this trick, whose name was vastly different from the Light Source Spell; it was called Flashlight.
Those who obtained —Introduction to Tricks: Revised— didn’t understand what it meant at first, but as the trick names became increasingly peculiar, they couldn’t be bothered to investigate further.
However, if Jon knew, he would probably immediately guess why Angel’s revised Light Source Spell was called Flashlight.
Because… it really was a flashlight.
By constraining the light source, preventing it from fully emitting light and heat, and focusing it into a beam, although it reduced the overall brightness, it increased the visible distance of the illumination.
As Angel used the Flashlight trick, a beam of light directly pierced through the illusion, cutting through the pitch-black labyrinth like a warrior blazing a trail, opening the way with light, straight to the labyrinth’s end.
——This isn’t an exaggeration; it’s just that the end of the labyrinth was relatively close, just within the flashlight’s illumination range.
“See that? Two hundred meters ahead, there’s a dead end,” Angel said softly.
Initially, everyone was astonished by the Flashlight; they recognized it as the Light Source Spell but didn’t expect it could be used in such a way. However, when Angel mentioned that there was no path ahead, their attention immediately shifted.
“What do you mean? Are you saying we have to turn back and find a new route?” Daus asked, puzzled.
Angel looked at Daus as if he were an idiot: “I really miss the you when you were guided by inspiration.”
Daus: “…Huh?”
Angel didn’t bother to explain further. He directed the flashlight’s beam downward, and as the light descended, everyone saw a very familiar hole in the floor at the end of the labyrinth.
“Do you understand now? When I said there’s no path, I meant there’s no fork. We can proceed ahead, but we might really have to enter… the sewer.”
As Angel’s words fell, the air within the moving illusion realm instantly grew heavy.
Chapter 2629 Unbearable Stench <TOC> Chapter 2631 First Exploration of the Foul Sewers