Chapter 2768 Special Information <TOC> Chapter 2770 Poet
Translator: SumTLMan
In the passage so long that the end was hard to see, darkness was the eternal theme.
However, this was not perpetual darkness, when someone arrived, lights would ignite, guiding the path forward.
And at this moment, a series of light footfalls sounded in this passage.
As the footsteps went deeper, the lamps on the walls lit one after another, illuminating all the way to the limit visible to the naked eye.
「Is this the arrangement of the Sovereign of Wisdom?」 Daus walked to a wall sconce, carefully observed for a moment：「It seems very ordinary, the quality of the lamp oil is average too, but it wins in quantity, if we take them all, they should fetch a good price.」
「Lord Super Dimensional already said, what the Sovereign of Wisdom called arrangement only refers to using the glow of the wall sconces to guide the way forward, not gifting them to you as presents.」 Vai complained somewhat speechlessly.
Ever since being scolded by the Black Count, Daus had instead gone even further, he did not even want to spare these wall sconces. Yet what the Black Count called foundation, was not merely 「magic crystals」!
Daus：「The Sovereign of Wisdom did not forbid me from taking them, right? As long as it’s not forbidden, it’s tacit permission.」
「That’s what you say.」 Angel turned his head to look at Daus：「But do you dare take them?」
Daus chattered for quite a while but did not take action, which already showed he actually did not dare to move recklessly, after all, this was an underground sewer covered by a large number of magic formations.
But not taking action did not mean he did not want them. Saying such a long string of words, wasn’t it just to attract Angel’s attention?
「As long as you say I can take them, why would I not dare! After all, I am to sell my life for you, you wouldn’t watch me die without helping, right?」 Daus’ tone was still firm in the front half, but in the latter half the style turned on a dime, it was downright fawning.
Seeing this, Vai couldn’t help but roll his eyes inwardly.
Previously Daus had the appearance of a tough, forthright man, with a resolute face unwilling to lose his freedom; but since he went into debt to Angel and resolved to 『sell labor』, he had simply become a different person, those who didn’t know would even think he was Angel’s servant……
Of course, if in the future Daus truly 『sold his body』, he would indeed count as a subordinate servant under Angel. But from Angel’s disdainful look, Vai could read that Angel only needed Daus’ 『labor』, not his person, it could only be considered an employer–laborer relationship.
No matter the final outcome, Daus’ change did indeed make Vai feel surprised.
「You can take one.」 Angel finished speaking and fixed his gaze on Daus.
Daus still did not move, instead continuing to stare face-to-face with Angel.
After quite a while, Angel finally sighed and spoke the latter half：「As long as you’re not afraid of dying, you can take them.」
「Just as I expected, there had to be a caveat.」 Daus muttered a sentence, but did not mind it, he had been tricked by Angel many times along the way, even without using inspiration, he could feel that Angel was probably setting him up.
Or rather, the calmer and more 『compliant』 Angel was, the less trustworthy he was in Daus’ view. The reason for 『compliance』, most likely, was that he was holding back bad water.
Angel：「These wall sconces are all connected with the magic formations, but the connection is relatively weak.」
As Angel spoke, he walked to a wall sconce, and with a casual severing of several energy flows, he took the wall sconce down, and no anomalies appeared around.
Angel tossed the wall sconce in his hand to Daus：「Since you want one so much, keep it as a memento. I believe the Sovereign of Wisdom should not begrudge these wall sconces.」
Daus：「I don’t want just one, since it’s so simple, why not take all of them all……」
Before Daus finished speaking, Angel’s smile began to turn kindly.
Daus instinctively shut his mouth; whenever Angel showed this smile, there was never anything good to follow.
「Do you want me to spend a large amount of time and magic, to help you pry off all these wall sconces?」 Angel said with eyes crinkling in a smile.
Daus：「I…… I, I only said, if you had the time.」
Angel：「If I used the same amount of time and the same amount of magic, I should be able to refine alchemy tools worth at least more than ten times the total price of these wall sconces.」
Daus：「……」 Listen, just listen, is this something a human would say?
Although Daus forcefully restrained his inner emotions, the envy that inadvertently flowed from his eyes still exposed his thoughts.
After Angel used 「tactful」 words to refuse Daus’ proposal, he continued walking forward.
Daus hurried to follow：「Since these aren’t being gifted to us, then what is the surprise the Sovereign of Wisdom mentioned?」
Angel：「You ask me, who should I ask?」
Although Angel and the Black Count had communicated with the Sovereign of Wisdom for some time earlier, what they discussed was only the itinerary to come, they had not mentioned any 「surprise」 at all.
The Sovereign of Wisdom’s sudden statement before leaving, that a surprise had been left on the path ahead, made Angel feel puzzled as well.
However, compared with the expectant and yearning look Daus revealed, Angel did not think much of this so-called surprise.
A surprise can be literal, but it can also be irony. It entirely depends on context, and the speaker’s character.
If these words were spoken by a white wizard of the academy faction, Angel would believe them. But the Sovereign of Wisdom…… Angel still had to draw a question mark.
Not only Angel thought so, Vai clearly thought so too：「Perhaps it’s shock without joy.」
Daus：「If it really is shock without joy, then I’ll……」
「You’ll what?」 Vai slanted a glance at Daus：「Are you…… one-sixth?」
At the mention of 「one-sixth」, Daus deflated again, bowed his head with a sigh, even his steps became hollow and weak.
But Daus had only walked a few steps when with a 「bang」 his head directly smashed into an iron sheet.
Clutching his head and cursing, Daus retreated a few steps.
When he reached a safe distance, he finally looked up and discovered that what he had hit was not some 『iron sheet』, but an alchemy puppet.
This alchemy puppet was precisely the one possessed by Speedling; since the possession, Angel had never told Speedling to withdraw.
Previously Daus had also asked Angel the reason, and Angel’s explanation was: Speedling did not want to come out.
Most likely because Speedling had always been in an energy state before, and this was the first time it had a body…… although it was only a body of steel, for it this was also a very wondrous experience.
It was rare that Speedling made a request to Angel to continue experiencing the alchemy puppet.
For such a trivial request, Angel naturally would not refuse. Besides, Speedling’s battle power was not the focus in this team, its ability to perceive wind was. And the alchemy puppet’s body did not limit Speedling’s perception, and because of the embedded magic formations, it even strengthened Speedling’s ability to perceive the lines of wind.
Seeing that it was Speedling he had bumped into, Daus could only accept his bad luck; protesting to Speedling was useless, it would not pay attention to anyone other than Angel; as for protesting to Angel, since he still owed a debt, Daus lacked confidence, and could only drop it.
While Daus kept quiet silently, Kael walked to Angel’s side and asked curiously：「My lord, have you discovered something?」
The reason Daus had run into the alchemy puppet was that Angel had suddenly stopped. The alchemy puppet guarding at his side naturally halted as well, which led to Daus carelessly hitting a wall.
And Angel, who had stopped, was looking around in puzzlement, as if he were looking at something.
This was also why Kael stepped forward to ask.
Angel：「It told me just now that there is a concealed creature nearby.」
As Angel explained, he raised the staff-wall to make a gesture. This also told everyone that the discoverer of the 「concealed creature」 was this staff, namely…… the Wood Spirit.
According to Angel, when they walked near here, the vine tendrils on the staff moved secretly, rubbing incessantly against Angel’s palm.
At first Angel thought the Wood Spirit was 「acting cute」, but after carefully perceiving it later, he discovered that the Wood Spirit was writing words on his palm.
The content stated that there was a concealed creature nearby.
Angel had been observing all around, searching for this so-called concealed creature. However, no matter how he searched, he found no clues at all.
He then looked to the Black Count, and the Black Count gave the same answer. The Black Count did not smell any special scent nearby either.
「Are those dog holes?」 Vai asked curiously.
Daus：「Can’t you just look to know whether there are dog holes, there aren’t any dog holes around.」
Vai ignored Daus and continued to look toward the Black Count.
The Black Count did not speak, but descended from midair and directly adhered upon the black hole where Vai’s nasal cavity was located.
After re-fusing into one, Vai himself could smell the surrounding scents.
「No smell.」 Vai sighed.
Since even Lord Black Count could not smell anything, how could the Wood Spirit know there was a concealed creature around? Everyone looked to Angel in curiosity…… If they looked toward the Wood Spirit, the Wood Spirit would be timid, so only Angel could be used as the intermediary to relay words.
Angel did not answer immediately, because the Wood Spirit’s 「writing」 speed was too slow; Angel wanted it to speak, but the Wood Spirit ignored him, and he could only give up.
After quite a while, Angel finally finished reading the message written by the Wood Spirit.
「Because the concealment method used by that concealed creature belongs to the same vein as the Wood Spirit. Therefore, the Wood Spirit can perceive it.」
As to why a creature with concealment ability of the same vein as the Wood Spirit would appear, according to what the Wood Spirit said, it should be related to the Sovereign of Wisdom.
When teaching the Wood Spirit, the Sovereign of Wisdom was also researching the Wood Spirit’s abilities, and had even taken branches shed by the Wood Spirit.
The Sovereign of Wisdom taking branches did not matter to the Wood Spirit. After all, the Sovereign of Wisdom was its enlightenment teacher.
And the Wood Spirit could smell that within the concealed creature’s scent, there was the smell of its branches.
「So that means, the concealed creature is the Sovereign of Wisdom’s doing? Could it be, this is the surprise the Sovereign of Wisdom spoke of?」 Daus asked in doubt.
Angel：「Whether it is or isn’t, we must find it first to know.」
Daus：「Since the Wood Spirit can perceive it, then just have the Wood Spirit search directly.」
Angel had originally intended that as well, but……
「That concealed creature has been moving all along, relying solely on the Wood Spirit’s writing speed, there is simply no way to keep up.」
Previously the Wood Spirit had said the other party was straight ahead, but after a while, it changed and said it was ahead to the right.
Most importantly, the Wood Spirit seemed to have a bit of 『compulsion』, it was extremely fixated on writing prefixes.
It could have indicated position directly with the direction of the tendrils, but the Wood Spirit refused; it had to write, and every time the opening was: 「It is at such-and-such position.」
The prefix in front was entirely unnecessary, yet the Wood Spirit repeatedly wrote it, which meant its writing speed could not possibly keep up with the rate of the other party’s movement. Under such circumstances, relying on the Wood Spirit to find that concealed creature was truly difficult.
Daus：「Then what do we do now?」
Angel pondered for a moment, looked to the long corridor ahead, and said slowly：「Encirclement Hunt.」
Encirclement hunt is a hunter’s term, referring to an operation in which the prey’s range of movement is restricted to carry out encirclement and eradication.
When Angel spoke it here, he did not actually mean to encircle 「prey」, what he was emphasizing more was 「encirclement」 of the hunt.
Since the other party could not be found now, then simply restrict the range; as long as the range is continuously narrowed, in the end the other party can be trapped.
Of course, if the other party truly wanted to run, it could run out.
But since the other party carried the Wood Spirit’s scent and might be related to the Sovereign of Wisdom, even though Angel said with his mouth that he was uncertain, in his heart he still believed this could be the surprise the Sovereign of Wisdom had spoken of.
Since it was a surprise, whether shock-with-joy or shock-without-joy, one had to make contact to know.
If contact was the other party’s goal, then it definitely would not focus solely on fleeing; as long as a range was delineated and the other party’s movement space was slowly narrowed, sooner or later the other party would be found.
This counted as a brute method, but here it was not a bad method.
They were very clear on how strong the Wood Spirit’s concealment ability was; Angel had met the Wood Spirit by taking advantage of a loophole.
And this time, yet another existence with concealment ability homologous to the Wood Spirit appeared; the trick-taking method was gone, so they could only rely on the dumb method.
If in the end the brute method still did not work, and the other party was still unwilling to show itself, then…… forget it.
Just as Angel had said before, he did not look forward to any surprise.
Shock-with-joy was certainly good, but no shock and no joy was actually not bad either.
……
Because this was a roofed corridor with walls on both sides blocking, carrying out an encirclement hunt was very simple.
Using the spot under his feet as the boundary, Angel connected to the walls on the left and right, and demarcated half the range.
And the other half of the range was to be bounded by Speedling moving forward to find a position beyond the other party, and demarcating the other boundary.
In the process of Speedling surpassing the other party’s position, it would inevitably be discovered; if it fled, then everything would be called off, as if nothing had happened.
If the other party did not flee, then the encirclement hunt was half a success already.
With the encirclement-hunt operation officially underway, Angel easily delineated his boundary here, while Speedling manipulated the alchemy puppet and rushed ahead at extreme speed.
A few seconds later, the Wood Spirit wrote in Angel’s palm: 「It has been exceeded.」
Angel waited a few more seconds, and after confirming that the Wood Spirit had no intention of revising, he finally indicated for Speedling to set the boundary at the other end.
Very soon, an 「encirclement-hunt corridor」 of about two hundred meters or so was carved out by them.
After finishing all this, Angel once again confirmed with the Wood Spirit whether the other party was within the encirclement-hunt range.
The final answer obtained: 「Within.」