Chapter 744 Blocked Path
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CLAASH! CLAASH! CLAASH!
Angelina and her group kept hitting a strange magical wall in front of them. They had only advanced for a bit over a few rooms within the Hidden Dungeon before they could not even advance anymore.
Gandalf, the greatest magician in the team, still only relied on skills for spells, and had no idea how to actually deal with Runes and Magic Circles, so they had been pointlessly trying to destroy the domain barrier to infiltrate further.
But after pointlessly trying for a while…
"It's useless, we can't get past this…" Angelina sighed. "Ugh, I feel so embarrassed, I bet Planta and her group made some results while we barely did much!"
"Well, we've hunted about a hundred of those weird Frankenstein monsters, I think that's enough for now, nyah…" Said Anikitty.
"It's useless… I feel embarrassed as well! I'm supposed to be an amazing magician yet… All the magic I know is just based on Skills. I have no idea how the NPC arrange these things, it truly is something beyond just Skills. Runic Arrays, Magic Circles, Rune Creation… All these things I haven't learned yet. I have been seeking some sort of Rune Master Subclass Quest but nothing…" Gandalf sighed.
"Well, let's go back. My new Undead will surely be of some help, right guys?" Eldritch asked, looking at his many new Undead, he had limits to how many permanent ones he could keep, but he replaced some of them by these stronger Chimera Undead.
"GRAAAHHH…"
The chimeras had all shapes and forms but seemed more like "failures" compared to the previous ones they had fought. If the hidden dungeon Elayne and her friends explored was where they gathered Miasma, Nether, and Souls to sacrifice to their experiments, this was the place where such experiments were done and tested.
All the failures were most likely left in the dungeon side, as guards to defend against invaders or something else… But now that they had finally reached the place where they could find the cultists, the area was tightly sealed by a powerful Magical Domain Barrier.
"Yeah, let's go back for now." Angelina agreed. "We'll tell this to Planta and her friends, so we can get some more clues, we might come back again with them as well. Maybe one of her NPC friends could be able to manipulate Runes too! Let's not lose hope, friends."
Angelina was always the cheerful leader of their party; her leadership abilities were superb and so was her charisma and well… beauty. However, she was sometimes quite clumsy, and her sense of justice and righteousness puts her on dangerous places sometimes as well, so her friends were also like her voice of reason and covered her back too.
Nonetheless, they had to admit that her personality always helped them on moving forwards, even in their real lives. Despite being guild masters of their respective guilds their friendship was strong enough that it made them create a whole Alliance with them.
And now, Planta and her friends were slowly being absorbed into their little circle, looking bad in front of her was the least they could have wanted, but there was no helping it. At least Angelina's cheerfulness helped them look forwards to what they could try to do tomorrow, instead of loathing over what they couldn't do.
"At least, based in the few books and papers we found; it looks like this is a place where they created their chimeras." Angelina said.
"What might be waiting for us beyond the barrier could either be even more ruins, or the cultists hiding." Said Anikitty.
"It's a bit disgusting how they were using people of the town for their experiments, aside from monsters or animals…" Sighed Gandalf. "I know it's a game, but does it has to be this realistic sometimes?"
"Even as a Necromancer that deals with that sort of stuff, I felt a bit disgusted." Erdrich sighed. "I appreciate when they are long dead, and maybe just bones preferably, or ghosts. And not innocent people too! Though, I guess a graveyard with long dead people… Yeah that's fair game."
"Stop it, you're just going to make me puke already… Just use bones." Gandalf was nervously stroking his beard.
"Hahaha, do you guys have to be such a bad match?" Anikitty laughed.
"All that talk has taken away my appetite for dinner." Angelina cried.
.
.
.
A group of cultists gathered around a tall, old man wearing a black tunic, sitting over a throne of bones, his hands wearing many shiny and magical rings and bracelets, imbuing him with greater powers and effects.
However, one hand in specific held many tattoos, and a large black and red jewel imbued into the palm of his hand, strange powers emerging from within.
In front of him, and surrounded by the cultists, there was a large black and purple jewel, containing something within… it was glowing, pulsating with life.
It had just finished its "meal", absorbing hundreds of souls…
"Bring the next souls batch, this isn't going to be enough." The man said. "How long until we can get a breakthrough?" He asked a skeleton at his side.
"Not so long…" The Lich spoke. "But we need many more souls…"
"S-Sir! Something terrible has happened, the area where we harvested the souls and the miasma…!" Suddenly, a cultist came running from outside. "It has been raided by players and then the Knight Order! All the cultists are dead…!"
"WHAT?!" Their leader suddenly roared in utter fury and disbelief. "You mean… Everything?! Even the souls?! Wait, what about the Fragment I left there?! It was very precious even if it was a failure!"
"I-It was destroyed… According to the reports." The cultist lowered his head.
"No…!" The old man roared in utter anger, flabbergasted about what had happened. "Who…?! How did they found out about that place? I made sure to seal it with my strongest Runes and Magic Arrays! There were hundreds of dangerous Miasmic Mud Slimes there too, even that larger one could had swallowed almost anybody!"
"It was reported that the Player leading the party that found the hideout was… Player Planta." The Cultist spoke.
"That woman again?!" The furious old man groaned. "How did she even found out about it?!"
"I heard the knights said she could speak and be guided by Spirits…" The cultist spoke again.
"Not even that old swamp woman could do something like that though!" The old man cried. "How is it… possible?! A spirit just told her where our hideout was EXACTLY?! It doesn't make sense! Is there some traitor among our ranks?!"
"We've all taken a full loyalty contract with you, my lord…"
"If one of us ever dared to betray you, we would have our souls sucked…"
"So, it doesn't really make sense."
"Indeed!"
"Hmm…" The old man glared at his own subjects with suspiciousness.
"Yggdrasil is moving quickly." The lich laughed at his side. "You better move even faster, if you don't want to be caught by her branches…"
"Tch! Shut up!" The old man roared. "I won't let that filthy dryad get away with this!"
The man quickly stood from his throne and walked towards a dark altar right behind the giant and mysterious jewel, in there, the corpse of a certain someone was resting within a stone coffin.
"I was planning on taking things slowly, yet steadily… But their presence is really ruining everything." He sighed. "We might have to hasten our plans…"
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