Chapter 540 Mountain’s Keep: Inner Castle
Before it could do so a third time, the creature finally broke out of the chains holding it and used its aura-coated tail to slap the ball of lightning away, in the direction of the other human who was just standing by and watching.
And that was the last action it ever took.
"Whoosh!"
Five fist-sized bullets of aura slammed into its neck, perforating holes in its body and knocking it off its balance before a slash of that same aura came along and sliced the neck off cleanly.
As for the last T-Rex, it lay on the floor weakly, with over fifty swords and spears of lightning energy piercing through its body from all directions.
A volatile ball of energy suddenly floated right in front of it, and before it could even react, it exploded, blasting the creature's head to bits.
[Mhmm? Master…what's going on? Sensed…my skill?]
'Nothing serious, Kayla, you can go back to sleep.'
[Mhmm, kay.]
"You took too long to handle them."
Right after sending the lightning spirit back to sleep, Luke's voice rang out, his hand grasping the ball of lightning that the T-Rex had slapped in his direction in his hands. He then tossed it back to Evan who caught it and reabsorbed the energy.
"I know.
I did it on purpose."
"And why is that?"
In response to Luke's query, Evan grinned and replied.
"I wanted to savour the feeling of dominating grandmaster-level monsters."
"…"
"Don't look at me like I'm weird. At this time a year ago, a single grandmaster would have had me running for my life, but now I can easily make short work of them.
Naturally, I relish the sensation of being more powerful."
Luke only sighed softly and shook his head before speaking.
"If you do that for every monster we come across, we'd be here far longer than planned."
"I know.
That's why I'm picking up the pace, starting now."
The moment Evan spoke, he stretched out his left hand, pointing in the direction behind Luke before swiping two fingers to the right.
A skill activated and two black gold portals appeared beside the monster that was rushing towards them, releasing beams of condensed energy that slammed into its neck and torso, boring holes in them and ending the creature's life instantly.
"I'd have plenty of other chances to revel in the feeling of power, after all."
After collecting the corpses into his inventory, they resumed their movements, with Evan slaughtering the monsters that appeared one after the other with relative ease, only passing the baton on to Luke when level 450 monsters started showing up.
He could handle them if he used BoD, but he was heeding the warnings of the Legendary Light spirit he met in Duscon that cautioned him against overuse.
"I'm quite surprised this place actually existed. There were only mentions of it in History Books with little proof of its existence."
Luke spoke as he surveyed the Inner Castle they had entered half an hour later, finding a few things that matched the descriptions he had read in the past.
"It's not so surprising for me. Aidos is a pretty big world, and just the Alpha continent alone was recently estimated to be around 102 million Kilometre squares in area.
Don't you expect that there'd be lots and lots of ancient, hidden, undiscovered stuff lying around?"
"When you put it like that, I guess it makes sense.
Still, I have to give it to the monsters living here. Looking at this place, one would not think it has been abandoned for seven centuries."
The Sword Saint remarked in reply to Evan's words, citing how the area around them did not look as broken down and depilated as the Outer Castle did.
It struck him with an eerie sense of contradiction.
The doors, though showing signs of age, remained intact and still swung on their hinges.
The evidence of habitation was evident all around, through pieces of crudely crafted clothing made from the hides of monsters scattered about. The pillars, instead of being cracked and crumbling, had been magically mended, indicating someone's efforts to preserve the structure.
As for the runes etched on the walls, they emitted a faint glow, revealing that someone was still trying to maintain the magical supply that powered the place, even if not as effectively as before.
Occasional clanging sounds echoed through the halls, suggesting that someone might still be dwelling within, despite the overall worn-out appearance.
"The monsters in the Inner part of the castle are all at least intermediate grandmasters. Monsters who've lived long enough to get that strong are fully sentient and capable of civilizing themselves.
After all, although they are called 'Monsters', they are still living beings of races like us."
"True that. Is this place the only one of such 'civilizations' you know of?"
"Obviously not. There are a lot more.
Heck, there are others in Verduracliff too. Just that we didn't pass through them on the way here, didn't want us to waste time."
Hearing the occasional clanging sound echoing through the walls, Luke's wondered what the monster making it was doing, his brow raising lightly as he arrived at an answer not long after.
"Perhaps…it's making weapons?"
"Yep."
Evan confirmed the thoughts he voiced out loud, before pointing with his thumb to the side and saying.
"He's making the weapons that monsters like that guy over there use."
The moment he spoke, a tall figure emerged from behind the curtains of the banquet hall they had just stepped into.
"I'm impressed you were able to notice it."
"I have a skill that alerts me of any dangers to my life in the vicinity; no way it'd miss something like 'that' lurking around.
Though it can be bypassed with certain concealment abilities, this guy's concealment is clearly not as high level as required."
Evan replied to Luke, explaining a bit about his 'Danger Sense' skill, before turning his gaze to the figure who was staring at him with narrowed eyes.
"Are you mocking my abilities, brat?"
"Why would I do that?"
The boy replied with a look of genuine confusion on his face, taking the time to scan the figure all over and appraise them too.
It was a humanoid male, dressed in a simple rugged jean brown polo shirt and shorts, with a featureless mask-like visage in place of a face and a pair of glowing red eyes that locked onto the both of them.
Its eyes had red sclera, with tiny black pupils that darted around rapidly, scanning the area for any other presence.
"Now that I'm appraising you, you could beat the heck out of Craitid Luke who skimmed through it with a glance.
based on just pure stats alone."
Evan remarked as he noted the monster's status, making it visible to Luke who skimmed through it with a glance.
"Craitid? What's that?"
"A certain Dragonkin who tried to kill me last week. He's dead though."
The young hero replied to the inquiry of the monster—a Blade Wraith: Veradas, with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
"Anyway, we have business with the guy who locked himself up in the centre of the Core Castle, so mind ignoring us as we go on our merry way?"
"And why should I listen to the request of someone as weak as you?"
"Because there's no point fighti-Oh, dammit. 1st Activation + Mesarthim."
Evan suddenly activated his Unique skills and coated his arms in rainbow-coloured flames, raising them just in time to block the fist that suddenly appeared a metre away from his face.
**BAAMMM!!!!
The impact knocked the boy back a few metres, his legs carving lines in the ground; but he remained standing on his feet and only sighed softly before saying.
"Oh well, I tried dialogue. You're up Sir Luke."
As he spoke, he deactivated the two skills and grabbed his left hand with his right, using his paladin skill's limited healing to mend the cracked bone.
"Hmm? Why did I take damage even though I'm the one who attacked?"
The Blade Wraith voiced out a question to him but Evan didn't even bother answering it, instead trying to figure out the reason why the 'Survival Enhancement Mode' of the system did not activate despite the fact that he was just attacked by an existence over Level 580.
'Perhaps because he had no hostility?'
While he thought that, Luke silently stepped forward, placing his hand on his sword and unsheathing the simple-looking blade that possessed no markings, no decorations and no engravings.
Seeing Luke's actions, the Blade Wraith placed Evan's strange skills at the back of its mind and unsheathed its own weapon, a single sinister, blackened blade that seemed to materialize from the very essence of darkness.
Its aura flared up and a maniacal grin appeared on its face, making Evan sigh as he instantly figured out the type of creature it was.
'A battle junkie. From the start, it was here because it had sensed Luke's presence and wanted to fight him.'
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