The show was over. It was time to continue the progress of the journey.
Lenny had spent hours making this torture device, only to use it for a few minutes and it was done.
"Let's go!" Lenny instructed.
"D999" A222 called to him.
"Huh,"
"Aren't you forgetting something very important?"
She walked up to a corner and pulled out a black shield.
It was of the same color and size of the mini boss devil he had just killed.
"Remember? Dungeon Bosses leave behind items. Very useful items."
She handed the black shield to him.
*Surveyor!*
//Weapon//
<Name: Black shield
<Type: Dual (Shield/ Projectile)
<Nature: Chaos magic
<Durability: Grade 3 (lesser devil) in relation to available magic points
<Usage: *Defence (in penetrable by Darkline and chaos magic )
*Uses magic points to shoot out spikes.
This Black Shield was strong and according to what the Satan system said, it could be used with magic points to increase durability.
He could also shoot out spikes just like the Mini boss devil had done when he was fighting it.
Lenny raised it to up.
It was surprisingly very light and very easy to use.
As an assassin, he was used to forward attacks and not defensive.
In fact, Assassins considered being in a defensive position as sealing their lives in death.
For that reason, most would come, hit and run.
All done as fast as they possible could.
Lenny was not an exception.
If it was not absolutely important, he would not engage in battle.
"Thank you!" Lenny muttered.
A222 nodded.
This attitude she had shown him actually impressed him.
After all, he had totally forgotten that the Mini boss devil dropped an item.
His mind had been too focused on taking out his revenge on E666.
It was quite impressive to see that regardless of his forgetfulness, instead of using the Black shield for herself, she handed it over to him.
Lenny chuckled lightly as his eyes did a quick scan of her body language.
He shook his head, "of course!" He thought to himself.
He willed and the Black Shield disappeared into the storage unit of the System.
"What about him?" Lenny pointed to A123 behind.
The injury on his side no longer bleed, but it was obvious that it was going to affect his fighting capability.
"Ahhh! Don't worry about me. It's just a bruise. I can manage."
"Let me see!" Lenny walked up to him to check the injury.
At first A123 did not want him to, but Lenny insisted.
A222 had helped A123 bandage the wound with a loin cloth.
Obviously, because of the nature of things in the dungeon, it was not a very clean one.
Half Borns were very strong and this was an injury that A123 could still definitely fight with, but in the long run, it would not be wise.
Besides, they did not yet know what was going to come.
It would only be foolishness on their side if assumptions were made.
One look at the wound and Lenny could tell that it was infected.
Fortunately, he had a quick solution for it.
"Lay him down," Lenny instructed. "Hold his arms!"
C888 and A123 did as he instructed.
"Here! Bite hard on this!" Lenny put the broken arm of a random gladiator he found on the ground in his mouth.
"This is going to sting a little."
Activating heat on his palm from his White Flame ability, he pressed his palm down on the injury.
~Mmmmmm~
A123 muffled down on his screams.
The smell of burnt meat was in the air from the procedure.
"Good! That should do it for now. He just has to be careful not to open the inj...."
~Ooouuuu~
A weird echo sound like the rushing of breeze against hollow rooms was heard.
~Oooouuuuuuu~
They heard it again.
Except this time around, it was louder.
"We have to go." A222 frowned.
"It's the devils from the second level. Without the Mini boss here, they are coming up."
Lenny nodded in understanding, "let's hurry up then."
All of them nodded as they left.
None of them including Lenny noticed that the fingers of E666 that had just enjoyed Lenny's torture to death twitched a little.
They went through a carven space that felt like the demarcation between the first level and the second level.
Through a rough patch that led downwards they advanced steadily.
And then they reached a passage way.
Lenny led in front for the obvious reason that he was strongest.
The moment he stepped into the cave way, everything before their eyes changed.
The change was so sudden and so abrupt that even Lenny was left perplexed by it.
From dark brown sand and stone filled walls with stalactites from the ceiling to a big hall way, highly decorated for luxury with mavelously drawn portraits of ancient royalty and artistic bright Chandeliers dropping from the ceiling.
The muddy ground filled with uneven rocks had suddenly become a tiled ground with a red carpet.
One look at this corridor and Lenny instantly remembered it as a royal castle.
It was like he was some how reliving a memory from his previous world.
"Where the fuck are we?" A123 asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Is this heaven!?" C888 blurted out the words without thinking.
However he was not to be blamed for this.
Gladiators had only seen dirty walls for the most of their lives.
They had never seen the beauty and luxury of the former world.
From the world he knew, this was really heaven.
However, this place made Lenny frown.
This was not heaven.
"Be careful!" Lenny adviced as they advanced step by step.
His eyes were focused.
Left and right, they darted around in attention for any surprising guests.
However, the three behind him were too concerned with admiring the place.
With how dirty they looked with only loin cloths to cover up their nakedness, and crude weapons in hand, they looked so out of place that it was almost comical.
They looked like savages that had been invited by a noble man to see the possibility of a better life.
As they passed by, they did not notice that the eyes of the noble men and women in the beautiful portraits seemed to slowly move on their own accord, following their walk through.
They kept moving step by step.
However, Lenny suddenly stopped.
He could feel something strange.
As an assassin, a great part of his work was hammered into his incredible instinct.
If he felt something was wrong, then it meant that something was wrong.
For one, even though they had been able to hear the approach of the devils from the first level, they had till this point not come across a single devil.
Something was definitely wrong.
Also, Why did it feel like hundreds of eyes were on him when they were only three people behind him.
He sharply turned about.
However, as he did, the eyes of the nobles in the portrait quickly resumed their former state.
Lenny frowned. He suddenly looked ahead of him.
This hall was filled with paintings, all of which were exquisite, but just ahead of him was a particular painting that made him frown.
Lenny gave a side smile as he walked to this portrait. It was one that was very famous in his previous world.
By now, Lenny had a guess has to what was going on.
After all, he was the first to step into this place.
This corridor must have been fetched out of his memories.
He did not know how, but that was the only explanation he could arrive at.
The Satan system probably allowed it because it was of no threat.
However, this portrait before him was just too wrong.
After all, this was the portrait of the Monalisa.
"A222, this portrait!" Lenny pointed at the portrait.
"The portrait of the Monalisa. A very beautiful portrait, is it not!?"
She looked at Lenny puzzled. After all, this was the first time she was seeing it.
However, she saw Lenny signal her with his side eyes and she immediately understood.
"Yes! Yes it is. A very beautiful portrait."
"Yes! I mean it has the eyes, nose, that smirk, but...hmmm... I can't help but feel something is missing. I mean what do you think?"
"Yes! You are right D999. Something is definitely missing," she turned to him, "but exactly do you think it is?"
"I don't know...hmmm.... maybe it's the background. Yes! It has to be. Was it not a giant sky scraper that was behind her? I mean I remember it was not a Waterfall."
"Yes. That's true. It was a....What did you call it?"
"Sky scraper!" Lenny reminded her.
"Yes! A sky scraper!" She nodded.
Just as they talked, the image of the valley behind the picture of the Monalisa Suddenly changed to that of a Sky Scraper.
It morphed and changed so tactically that Lenny would have sworn that the Sky Scraper was there when they first looked at it.
However, that was exactly the problem.
Firstly, in the portrait of the Monalisa, there was no water fall behind.
Secondly, it was not drawn in a time with Sky scrapers.
Lenny looked at A222 and she at him.
Both of them frowned deeply.
At the same time, the eyes of the Monalisa darted between both of them as its smile slowly revealed long, sharp razor teeth....
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m