Chapter 757 Interesting Assassin
"When did you get a spatial treasure?" asked Lex, not hiding his surprise. "Actually, where did you get one from?"
The pup had originally not felt like this was a big deal, but seeing how Lex reacted it suddenly felt prideful. He growled and barked as it communicated with Lex, yet the man seemed to understand everything. The oddest part was that no one noticed the two talking, and not just because the other three in the room erupted into a battle for life and death!
"Oh, that's an unusual bloodline ability," Lex commented. Apparently, after Fenrir finished his task inside the tower, the reward he had received was information on how to unlock his bloodline abilities as quickly as possible.
Fenrir had begun to implement that knowledge, which was beginning to unlock more and more of his bloodline abilities. The particular one he used was not exactly equivalent to having a spatial treasure - although the effects were similar in a limited capacity.
It created small folds within Fenrir's fur which seemed to be linked to some unknown domain. For now, Fenrir could store small items in that domain, although it was best not to store anything too private as, technically, that domain could be accessed by anyone with similar abilities.
This bloodline ability was a part of a more powerful ability to be unlocked later on, though Fenrir did not know or care about that. It just liked putting anything and everything within that space. So far, besides chopsticks, he had put a lot of mud, some rocks, and other random small objects.
Lex listened in with interest as he watched the Frigals fight. Although the fight had just begun, it was almost over as well. Although the assassin had lost the element of surprise, his combat ability was nothing to belittle. The two random workers were not its match, although the assassin also suffered some injuries.
A few minutes later, everything was concluded. Lex watched with interest as the assassin ate the glowing vine excitedly. If eating the vine had any effects, they were not apparent. Besides the glow disappearing, resulting in the assassin once again turning invisible, Lex noticed nothing significant.
However that quickly changed when the assassin disabled his invisibility on his own a few moments later. He sat down in a corner, as if to rest, and took out a small device and began speaking into it.
"I've infiltrated into the first layer of the castle, but have received injuries. I will need to recover before I can continue to proceed further. Please be advised, I encountered an unknown object that can disable invisibility when exposed to its radiation. Let the others know, in case such means are applied throughout the castle. I have still discovered no signs of any of the members of the royal family."
Lex felt that the assassin was being deceitful in his report, for if the 'object' had really been unknown, he would not have proceeded to eat it, right? At least Lex discovered that the objective of the assassins seemed to be the royal family, quite predictably.
"Acknowledged. If recovering from your injuries will take too long, retreat instead. Your Band of Neglect can only allow you to tolerate the Dragons Might for so long. The closer you are to the entity, the faster it will be drained."
"Affirmative," the assassin replied, and put the device away. But then he continued to act suspiciously. Instead of focusing on healing, he approached one of the Frigals he killed and stabbed them with a particularly demonic blade.
The blade began to absorb the entire body, and after a few moments, it completely vanished. The assassin, instead, began to morph just a bit, and moments later assumed an appearance identical to the Frigal that had been absorbed. Or at least, Lex felt like he did. With these unusual creatures it was very difficult for him to distinguish facial features.
But the assassin was not done acting suspiciously. He then stabbed himself once as well, though with a different knife, and allowed himself to bleed out a little, before cauterizing the wound.
Lex and Fenrir exchanged looks, before returning their attention to the assassin who was not limping away. Before he left, however, he took out his small communication device, and crushed it.
Naturally, Lex followed the assassin. Considering that he had no idea how to navigate these halls, and didn't know where to go, following this suspicious person may lead to some unexpected rewards.
Unlike Lex, the assassin seemed to know exactly where he was going, and soon ran into guards.
"Assassins have infiltrated! They are searching for her majesty Seishan! You have to let her know at once!" the assassin pleaded, as if the very meaning of his struggle was to send the warning. Quite conveniently, he also collapsed just as he found the guards.
They immediately checked on his wounds and discovered something quite serious.
"Although he seems to have cauterized the wound, he did not manage to stop his internal bleeding. Immediately bring him to get treated, I will go and warn her majesty!"
The group of guards split up, and Lex now had the option to either follow the guard to whoever this 'Seishan' was, or continue to follow the assassin. After a moment's deliberation, he felt like the assassin was just diverting attention, and that his motives lay elsewhere.
Ultimately, Lex decided to keep following the group with the assassin. Considering the urgency of the situation, the group moved quickly, and Lex found himself entering deeper and deeper into the castle. The temperature had almost risen to above freezing, which was quite a big deal for a planet with no star nearby.
Just as they reached the makeshift hospital, which was filled with countless other patients, the castle trembled, and many decorations fell on the floor. Everyone in the room froze, as fear suddenly gripped them.
Something had attacked the castle? Was the Lord Dragon going to be disturbed?
The castle trembled again, and this time, it was much worse!
Chapter 758 Discovered
Neither Lex nor Fenrir were disturbed by the quaking, but all the Frigals in the room seemed to lose their souls. Cabinets shook, the walls creaked, and dust fell from the ceiling, but fortunately there was no destruction. The tremors from the explosion eventually vanished, but nobody in the room dared to move. It seemed like even the dying patients stopped dying for this duration, but in actuality they were just too frightened to release their pain-filled moans.
But nothing seemed to happen. The Dragons Might did not waver, and there were no massive repercussions, at least as far as Lex could tell. Slowly, the doctors began to move once again, as if testing if there would be a reaction. When nothing happened, they quickly started to tend to their patients again.
In that short, momentary pause, however, everyone was too occupied to notice that the assassin had left the stretcher he had been placed on, and moved through the crowd, somehow changing his attire as he did. Everyone other than the two specifically paying attention to him.
From the hospital the assassin continued, moving at a much faster pace. Lex did not know why he no longer used his invisibility, but considering that Lex had not encountered any other assassin this deep in the castle, perhaps it was not possible.
The longer he followed, the faster the assassin became, as if he was feeling anxious about something and running out of time. After nearly an hour passed, they once again crossed into a new layer of the castle, and suddenly the nouveau riche grandeur that filled every corner of the castle suddenly changed.
From the finest marble floors and walls lined with statues, the castle changed to look like it was a natural cave. There was no even flooring, no decoration and no signs that this was a part of a castle. The cave was also quite warm, by the planet's standards.
As he had completely run out of time, the assassin broke into a run without caring about alerting anyone with his actions. His destination, as it turned out, wasn't far. In a small, branching cave, a small group seemed to be waiting for the assassin. There were a few corpses tucked neatly atop one another, so as to be out of the way.
"You took too long!" one of the awaiting accomplices exclaimed angrily.
"It was worth it! I discovered something incredible. Those Icy abominations have made their way to the castle! While the forces of the noble families fight against the royal family on the west side, the main members of the royal family have gone to the north to fend off those monsters. The central chambers will be completely unattended! We have to move before others figure this out as well."
"Good job, that's valuable information. If that's the case, we don't need to waste time sneaking around. We'll recover the time lost, and then some. What about the King? Any news on the geezer?"
"No, but I think we should proceed as if he's still in the dragon's chamber."
"Based on this information, we can alter our plans a little. Disable all unnecessary treasures and conserve as much energy as possible. From here on out, our top priority should be resisting the Dragons Might. The more time we save, the longer we'll be able to resist the Might once we're inside the chamber, and each second in there is literally worth billions of soul stones!"
Everyone in the group nodded, and each of them seemed to disable an active technique. To Lex's great surprise, the previous group of Frigals began to change. What replaced them were twelve stocky dwarves!
Once all of them were ready, the leader of the group brought them to a formation he had drawn using the blood and organs taken from the nearby corpses. Completely unaffected by the scene, everyone got in the formation, Lex and Fenrir included. If it were anything else, Lex might have hesitated, but he had seen enough teleportation formations to recognize one, even if it was made from blood and guts.
The leader tried to activate the formation, but for some reason it wouldn't activate. He frowned, but did not waste too much time and took out a few more items from a bag and adjusted the formation a bit.
"Why is it using more energy than normal?" he muttered to himself, but did not ponder over it. They didn't have long to begin with.
The teleportation formation activated, and they disappeared. When they reappeared, they were inside what looked like a massive cavern that was actually quite hot, but Lex did not have the time or energy to focus on that.
The intensity of Dragons Might had increased so drastically that Lex felt like he had been punched in the gut. Even with all of Lex's incredible defenses, at this point he felt the influence of the aura as a physical force pressing him down and squishing him like a bug. Fenrir, too, was unable to escape the sudden change and for a few moments his abilities were interrupted.
As soon as he readjusted to the pressure, the pup reactivated its abilities, and turned to look at the dwarves. Fortunately for them, it seemed like the dwarves were taking the pressure much worse than both of them.
The dwarves were all in the Golden Core realm, with only the leader in the Nascent realm, so it made sense that they were not able to immediately recover. They noticed something amiss, but by the time they recovered enough to check, Lex and Fenrir had once again disappeared.
Lex used Harden and other defensive techniques, but nothing seemed to reduce the effects of the aura on him or Fenrir. The dwarves, who had some kind of treasure that reduced the effects of Dragons Might, did not seem much better off than them either.
"How the hell does anyone tolerate this pressure?" one of the dwarves asked, wiping some blood off from the corner of his mouth.
"Normal Frigals cannot," the leader explained, as he looked suspiciously in Lex and Fenrir's direction. "Only the royal family can tolerate this pressure. Why else do you think there is a royal family to begin with? Are they really royal? No, they're just glorified servants to the dragon. No one else can tolerate being this close to the dragon and still maintaining normal body function. Now let's go."
The dwarves followed their leader as he proceeded down one of the paths, seeming certain of his direction. For once, though, Lex and Fenrir did not follow them immediately. With so much pressure on them, it was hard for Fenrir to maintain his stealth, so they would need to resort to regular means: following them in the dark from a distance.
But while Lex was still capable of doing that, upon closer observation, it did not seem like Fenrir was in the condition to do so. It was not the pressure itself that was getting to Fenrir, but now that the strength of the Might had increased, so had Fenrir's aggressiveness.
His thoughts were getting clouded by the desire to lash out at anyone and everyone nearby as his blood rebelled against the overbearing might.
Ultimately, Lex had no choice but to send Fenrir back to the Inn. But, since the pup still felt reluctant to leave, Lex promised to summon him as soon as there was a fight. After all, there was no problem with him being aggressive if there were actual enemies to target.
Even without Fenrir, Lex was wearing his stealth suit made from Orion's scales, so he was sure as long as he kept his distance, he would not be discovered.
Unfortunately, Lex was not too familiar with the dwarven race, so he overlooked the fact that they had a unique racial trait that gave them an incredibly strong affinity with stones, ores, gems and minerals.
Although he was undetectable from this distance, the short while he and Fenrir lost their invisibility left detectable traces on the floor. The leader had picked them up, and though he did not let it show, he began preparing for the worst.
Once the group was far enough down their path that they were almost out of sight, Lex began following them. Even though his vision was restricted due to the darkness, Lex could still see a little.
Silently he followed the group, quite pleased with his decision to follow the assassin, when he felt a strange tremor. With a warning from his instincts Lex quickly leaped back, just in time to avoid a cave-in in the tunnel he was walking through.
He frowned. The cave-in happening right above him was too coincidental, so it was safe to say that he had been detected. He was not too surprised, though he wished that the group had fought him instead of running away. Then he could have interrogated them at least. With his guides separated from him, Lex had no choice but to once again rely on his instincts as he began randomly walking down another tunnel.
Simultaneously, he began to think about the dragon. The dwarves didn't seem worried about it at all, so were they the foreigners claiming the dragon was dead? If so, how could one explain the Dragons Might?
Chapter 759 Lost In Thought
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Unlike his first impression of the castle which was grand and majestic if a little over done, the cavern he was in now seemed like a long forgotten corner of the world filled with naught but darkness. There was no sign of anyone having ever crossed the various tunnels, nor that they had been used for any purpose.
If Lex had not followed the dwarves here, and clearly felt the increasing Dragons Might, he may have assumed that he had teleported to a tunnel in the middle of the planet that had never been discovered. Even the increasing temperature felt like to him that he was moving closer to the layer of molten lava deep under the surface of the planet.
As he made his way through, following not but his instincts to guide him, Lex felt something he hadn't in a long time. He used his thumb to wipe his brow, and discovered sweat. It had been a long time since he sweat naturally. Considering his cultivation, there must be something extremely unusual about the temperature.
Lex continued to explore, his thoughts often getting lost in random and seemingly unrelated topics despite his best effort to focus. The situation was so strange, that it took a couple of minutes before Lex realized that, while walking, he had encountered what should be an extremely large vein of rare ores.
They were emitting spiritual energy as if they had an unlimited amount stored within, and were sizzling to touch. Intrigued, he put on his Fancy Contact lenses, and was startled by the result. This was not an ore, but frozen dragon blood! What felt sizzling to Lex was actually well below the freezing point of the dragon's blood!
Why was there so much of it seemingly mixed in with the tunnel walls? Although he didn't have an answer, Lex broke off a few large chunks before adding them to his spatial bangle. Even if he didn't know that this would be extremely valuable, it might come in handy for Xeon, who was attempting to become a dragon.
He considered grabbing more, but he didn't want to waste all his time here. He had a strong feeling that he could find even more valuable things, so long as he kept looking.
He had only just begun to move forward when he detected faint tremors in the walls. He touched the tunnel wall to be sure and indeed felt faint vibrations. They were not constant and were sometimes stronger or weaker.
Someone was fighting nearby, most likely the dwarves. Having finally found a trace, he quickly began to traverse the tunnels once again. Every time he was presented with various choices as two or more paths appeared, he always selected the ones heading towards the signs of fighting. More than once, he came across dead ends, so he would just turn back and keep on trying.
Once, long ago, he read that if he ever got lost in a maze, he should either pick a direction, right or left, and always turn the same way. He would eventually find a way out of the maze. Although Lex did not yet start feeling like he was trapped in a maze, if he kept roaming around randomly like this he might just have to try it.
Lex sniffed as he picked up a strange scent, and a few moments later, he saw something unusual. A corpse lay on the floor, though its death had not been recent. Lex could smell the rot and decay that had gripped the corpse. When he approached, he discovered that it's situation was even worse than he imagined. There was little other than bone left on the corpse, meaning it had to have been here for months at the very least.
Unwilling to touch the rotting corpse, Lex used his spirit sense to investigate it but could not determine the cause of death, which was not too shocking considering its state. He looked down the tunnel, and in the distance detected another such corpse.
One need not be an expert to know that something was amiss with the situation, but Lex could not guess what happened at all. It seemed more and more likely that the dragon was dead, or critically injured at the very least. But how had such a powerful being died so simply? How had the royal family survived when the dragon had died? Not to mention these old corpses that he was encountering. Most importantly, did any of this have to do with the treasure that he was supposed to be looking for?
While Lex tried to reconstruct what exactly happened, he never stopped moving. At some point, the tremors stopped, but Lex did not even notice. His mind was completely focused on trying to reconstruct what had happened here based on the few clues that he had.
At some point, he had gone from walking through a natural tunnel to what seemed like it had been carved out of solid rock by hand. Torches hung on the sides, but Lex no longer noticed as he was too deeply lost in his thoughts.
At some point, he reunited with the dwarves who looked bloodied and battered. Unlike him, they were not completely lost in thought, and still retained their awareness thanks to the help of various treasures, but they were still too distracted to pick up on the few signs Lex revealed of himself despite wearing his stealth suit.
They walked past more skeletons, and this time even a few fresh corpses. One of them even belonged to a royal family member. It was easy to distinguish them from common Frigals, as they had a long, thick tail and some of them even had wings.
Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel network, and by then, the dwarves had completely lost themselves in their thoughts despite their various protective treasures. After all, since they were not being negatively affected in any way, it was very hard for a normal protective treasure to identify their situation as encountering some kind of threat.
A massive door hundreds of feet in height lay waiting for them, and it was conveniently slightly ajar, leaving just enough space for them to fit through.
Lex was walking towards the opening when a sudden noise woke him from his thoughts. A painful groaning and squealing filled the tunnel, coming from one of the dwarves. He had been already extremely wounded, which combined with the pressure of the Dragons Might finally got to him.
His leg fractured and deformed, causing him to stumble. The pain woke him from his stupor,, but other than Lex no one else noticed his cries. More than concerned about the dwarf, Lex suddenly became alert over how he had reached here! He had no recollection of the path he took, or even of reuniting with the dwarves.
Whatever was happening was clearly affecting even his spirit!
He employed every defensive technique he knew to protect his mind and spirit, but he felt no change whatsoever.
"Barley! Barley, don't leave me!" yelled the dwarf to his companions while trying to get up, only for one more of his bones to break. But it was for naught, as his companions soon crossed the massive door, all blissfully unaware of their companions' pain, or their own bleak prospects.
"Dammit!" the dwarf roared as he tried to push his fallen body upright, but was unable to. Before the dwarf could try again, he felt a hand grab him by the back of his collar and lift him up.
A human who had been standing beside him this entire time seemed to become visible to him, studying him and his condition.
"Unhand me you-" before the dwarf could complete his sentence, Lex let go, dropping the dwarf back onto the ground. Initially he was planning on threatening the dwarf, but seeing as how his situation was so dire, Lex did not feel the need to put in any effort at all. All the spirit energy in his body had dried up, and there were multiple hairline fractures across his body, under the strain of the dwarfs heavy armor. It would be a miracle if the dwarf was even able to sit up straight without help at this point.
Lex had just begun to wonder what could have happened to the dwarf when he suddenly caught himself again, and refocused.
"Mary, every few minutes check up on me and make sure I'm not lost in thought. There's something very unusual going on here, and I have no way of defending against it," he told his every present holographic companion.
"Sure, will do," said Mary, diverting her attention from the Inn to observe Lex. Usually, she was not one for gossip, or 'shipping' people, as Velma liked to call it. But given the recent developments at the Inn, she couldn't help but join Velma as she eyed Dr. Charles, and one of the Inns' other relatively new employees, Hera.
Lex, reassured that he would not get lost in thoughts again - for too long at least - turned his attention back to the dwarf.
"It seems like you need some help," Lex said, hoping he didn't have to resort to threats. Those kinds of things really suited Luthor more.