Chapter 398 Blocked Path <TOC> Chapter 400 The Cold Storage Room
Translator: SumTLMan
A path not meant for humans? Angel and his companion exchanged glances, looking at Phineas, waiting for her to continue.
Phineas was truly reluctant to take the main path. With her strength, taking this path would be like accepting death. So she didn’t hide anything and told them everything she knew about the situation.
“Each floor beneath Black Castle has a theme. For example, the ninth floor underground is the Blood Prison…”
There are a total of eighteen floors beneath Black Castle.
The first floor underground is the Corpse Forest, the second is the Soul Domain, the third is the Land of Soul Hunting, the fourth is the Insect Nest, the fifth is the Ice Cavern, and from the sixth to the eighteenth floor are the twelve prison floors.
“We are now on the ninth floor underground, and from here to the sixth floor underground are all prisons. Although there are apprentices on duty in these four floors, I believe that with both of your abilities, you should be unharmed. But starting from the fifth floor underground, almost every floor has dangers, with the greatest dangers being the second and third floor underground. These two floors are the Paradise of Souls, not a place for humans to walk.”
After Phineas finished speaking, she directly said: “If you two insist on taking the main path, I can take you through the previous floors. But as for the third and second floors underground, if you want to enter, just kill me. With my strength, it’s absolutely impossible to get through.”
“Listening to you, the third and second floor underground are the most difficult areas. So what specific dangers are there on these two floors?” Shadow asked.
Phineas shook her head: “I’ve never stepped into these two floors, but I’ve observed the third floor from a distance. It’s full of ghosts, far surpassing the ones outside Black Forest, almost densely packed shoulder to shoulder. It’s absolutely impossible to pass by using stealth. If you want to break out, you can only fight tough battles against the ghost.”
“As for the second floor underground, it’s an even more forbidden area. Because that’s where Isabelle once had her meditation chamber, filled with the soul barriers she had left behind.” After thinking for a moment, Phineas continued: “I’ve heard that there is a strand of Isabelle’s soul in the Soul Domain of the second floor underground, leaving her inheritance. But later it was confirmed that this might be a lie, because a peak apprentice of the soul branch had entered before and came out as a madman afterwards.”
After listening to Phineas’s words, Shadow secretly conveyed through the mental link: “I’ve observed her micro-expressions, and she should be telling the truth. According to her, we have to go through these two floors if we want to leave. What’s your opinion? Have you studied souls?”
Angel replied: “I am an illusionist, and my research on souls is limited…”
“What should we do? I can’t do anything about the ghost. Can you… can you use illusions to confuse the ghost?”
Angel pondered for a moment: “Confusing ordinary ghost shouldn’t be a problem. However, if the density of the ghost is truly as she described, illusions will be difficult to set up, as the illusion nodes are easily destroyed.”
For a while, they didn’t know what to do and could only look at each other helplessly.
After a long pause, Shadow said: “Are there no other teleportation formations besides this one?”
Phineas became quiet: “Yes, there’s a teleportation formation on each floor. But since the teleportation formation here is closed, the others must be closed as well. Because the teleportation formations on the eighteen underground floors are interconnected, if one is closed, they all close.”
Phineas had said enough for them to make a decision.
“That witch misunderstands my mentor and may try to kill me. You came to rescue me, and with your blonde hair and blue eyes, she would definitely classify you as being on my side. So, waiting for her to release us voluntarily is unlikely.” Shadow patted Angel’s shoulder, looking apologetic for involving him.
“However, she probably won’t attack us proactively, and even if she does, she won’t use power beyond wizard level. So, I think we should still have some chance of survival.” Shadow continued.
“So, what you’re suggesting is?”
Shadow: “Break out!”
Shadow chose to “break out.” and Angel agreed with the decision. Phineas looked a little pale, but with her shadow held by Shadow, she could only nod: “If you want to take the main route, I won’t stop you. But if we reach the third floor underground, I won’t go any further, not a single step unless you can guarantee my safety.”
As a first-level apprentice, facing endless ghost would mean certain death. So Angel and Shadow accepted her terms, agreeing for now, and taking things one step at a time.
Phineas looked resigned, moving to the front to lead the way. Shadow stopped her and moved to the front himself: “I’ll go first, Mask, you cover the rear, and as for you… what’s your name?”
“Phineas.”
“Alright, Phineas, stay in the middle. Tell us how to proceed in advance, and if I run into any issues, I’ll crush your shadow immediately.” Shadow took out a small cloth bag and weighed it in his hand.
To prevent Phineas from causing trouble, he had to take the lead. Angel hadn’t injected any bloodline, so even if Shadow encountered danger at the front, he would have a better chance of survival than Angel.
Phineas nodded helplessly: “Go straight ahead, the staircases between floors are generally free of traps.”
As they proceeded, everything was as Phineas had described. When they reached the entrance to the eighth floor, nothing unexpected happened.
“To open the door here, you need to light this wall lamp with fire.” As soon as Phineas finished speaking, the wall lamp beside the eighth-floor entrance was lit.
“Why isn’t anything happening?” Shadow extinguished the flame on his fingertip and looked at Phineas.
“Then blow it out, and the door will appear.” Phineas said, wanting to approach the wall lamp to extinguish it.
Angel, however, stopped her and let Shadow do it instead.
Phineas swallowed and retreated fearfully.
After Shadow extinguished the wall lamp, a door appeared from the wall where the lamp was.
Upon entering the eighth floor, Phineas said: “This is the Water Prison, but there are no prisoners at the moment, so there should only be an ordinary apprentice on duty here.”
The three of them passed through the empty Water Prison and came to another blood pool bathroom. However, there was no one to be seen in this bathroom.
Shadow glanced at the corpses with disgust and prepared to leave.
“There’s a teleportation formation mechanism on the right wall of the bath.” Phineas suddenly said: “If this mechanism is also closed, then Lady Butterfly must have closed all the teleportation formations.”
“I’ll go take a look.” Angel volunteered for the task, as his research on magic formations was definitely superior to that of Shadow.
After a while, Angel shook his head at Shadow: “There’s a teleportation formation, but it can’t be activated.”
Since the teleportation formation here was also closed, it could now be confirmed that Phineas was right; all the teleportation formations had indeed been closed. Their only way out was to take the main path.
They continued to walk out until they exited the Water Prison and came to the place where the layers turned. They did not see the “apprentices on duty” that Phineas mentioned.
They continued to go up, the negative seventh and sixth floors, all completed, but they did not see anyone else.
Phineas’s expression darkened. Normally, there would be apprentices on duty every day, but now they were gone. There was only one possibility – they had been transferred before the teleportation formations were closed.
Those who remained, including her and the two intruders, were likely the ones Lady Butterfly had given up on.
Thinking of this, Phineas’ mood also fell into a trough.
Angel and Shadow naturally thought of the same thing, and Shadow lamented mentally: “It seems she really intends to trap us to death.”
They had originally discussed kidnapping a few more apprentices on duty to use as bargaining chips, but it seemed that this path was still blocked.
After pushing open a large wooden door, the scene before them changed, and an endless wave of icy air enveloped them.
“We’re here. This is the Ice Cavern.” Phineas said.
“What dangers are there?” Shadow asked.
Phineas was silent for a long time before saying: “When Lady Isabelle was still here, this level was used for soul training. But since Lady Isabelle left Black Castle, this level has been empty until a few years ago when some low-level materials were stored here at low temperatures for preservation…”
“So, this level is essentially a cold storage room?”
Phineas nodded: “You could say that.”
“What low-level materials are there? Mist Silk, High Copper, Starfall Iron?” Angel suddenly asked.
Shadow glanced at Angel. He knew Angel needed a batch of low-level materials, but he didn’t expect him to ask at this point in time.
Phineas thought for a moment: “I don’t know. I’m not familiar with materials… If what you’re talking about are low-level materials, they should be here.”
Chapter 398 Blocked Path <TOC> Chapter 400 The Cold Storage Room