Chapter 49: Within Reach

In fact, the boy’s voice wasn’t loud at all, barely louder than a sigh, yet in that situation, it was clearly enough to make one’s heart fill with fear…

“No! Don’t hurt Sister Dilia!”

This sudden turn of events caused the other apprentice to let out a sharp shriek, her small figure lunging desperately towards Constantine’s knife-wielding hand, as if trying to push away the deadly weapon. However, being just a mage apprentice facing someone with combat skill and experience, her effort was obviously futile — the boy merely shifted slightly and extended a foot, and the poor girl who tried to stop him was already sprawling clumsily on the ground.

That high-pitched voice made Constantine’s brow twitch. This short apprentice who had been quiet all along was actually a girl as well.

She struggled awkwardly to get up, and only after noticing that the weapon had merely paused near her sister’s neck did she give up on screaming further, sitting dazed on the spot. This series of movements caused her hood to fall back, revealing chestnut-colored short hair underneath, and a face that, perhaps influenced by the same environment, was just as pale and delicate as her sister’s.

In fact, Constantine only needed a brief glance to easily spot the similarities in their facial features. However, similar looks manifested on her as a kind of pure innocence particular to a young girl. The combination of bright eyes and a slender nose bridge, while far from her sister’s mature radiance, held a delicate and elegant beauty, making her appearance even more striking.

“Sisters, huh… Hmm, maybe letting you join could be somewhat useful…” After a slight thoughtful pause, Constantine nodded, then slowly addressed the younger girl. “But first… to show goodwill for cooperation, please tell me the approximate locations of the three items. Also the guarding monsters. And, the abilities of you two. You, Miss, yes, you! Speak… keep it brief.”

Constantine certainly wasn’t bored enough to kill for no reason… Moreover, within the limited time, trying to find that Bequli Gem in such a vast labyrinth by his own power alone was, as one could imagine, a very difficult task… However, that didn’t mean he would choose companions casually, especially taking as companions people like those before him who clearly had their own agendas. But now it seemed he didn’t have much choice. So, this girl who appeared to have her own ideas needed to be given a warning, to avoid causing unnecessary trouble for him along the upcoming journey.

Perhaps it was due to the stimulation from those successive events recently… Constantine found himself disliking things that were beyond his control more and more.

“My name is… Alina Blackhurst. This is my sister Dilia… I specialize in the Divination school, my sister in Conjuration… That…” Hesitating, the delicate-looking girl spoke with a slight sob in her voice. This statement made the girl named Dilia look anxious and panicked, but just as she was about to open her mouth to stop her sister from spilling secrets, the slight movement of the blade at her neck transmitted a sharp icy heat, choking her words in her throat.

The boy under the dark gray cloak raised a finger and shook it, his lips curling into a nasty smile within the shadow of his hood.

“The Bequli Gem is in a temple on the surface. The ring is placed in a three-story house… Both places have magical traps and guarding monsters, but the monster was temporarily chosen by the instructor, so we can’t know what it is without seeing it…” The fear for her captured loved one completely stripped this girl named Alina of any will to resist. At first, her words were halting, but later, she practically spilled everything she knew like beans from a bamboo tube.

“Your luck isn’t bad. The offense and defense of a Diviner are weaker than a skeleton’s, but they have many detection and scouting spells. Even though this girl is just an apprentice mage, bringing her along should indeed give you quite an advantage in navigating the labyrinth…” Through the dual-soul state, Constantine could even feel a hint of the Lich’s pleasure: “Divination magic… If it’s an item locating spell, even an apprentice level should barely manage it, though the range won’t be far, at most six or seven hundred feet. But, be aware, their abilities should allow them to cast first and second level spells only once or twice at most. To cast again, they’d need to spend an hourglass’ time to memorize… So it’s best to find the Bequli Gem quickly.”

It must be said, having such a magic consultant was a very convenient thing in this situation. If it were Constantine alone, he definitely couldn’t know the pros and cons.

“It seems this young lady’s goodwill for cooperation is quite sufficient. Then, please lead the way…” The boy leisurely withdrew his scimitar, letting the tearful young girl and the frowning young lady hug each other, then gave an elegant slight bow, making a gesture for them to proceed.

…

The wooden door hinges groaned, turning in another direction. The sudden influx of bright sunlight made Constantine squint slightly. The fresh scent of grass and trees in the air felt refreshing to him.

“This is made too realistically? What kind of magic could create such an effect? The power of an Archmage is truly… magical.” Watching the sun passing overhead at midday, the boy, who had just been wondering if he could see the faces of the observers, shook his head in disbelief and muttered to himself.

With the help of the map and the human indicator’s dual effect, the following journey was doubly smooth. Although they encountered two small groups of Kobolds, the three people, maintaining a hostile state, reached the surface before an hourglass could flip over… And now, they were approaching Constantine’s target. Passing through this corridor built into the mountainside ahead, they would reach the “abandoned temple” known to the two girls, and the Bequli Gem was reportedly placed there.

“An Illusion effect is enough to create any untouchable illusion… But a Sorcerer probably has a hard time understanding these things.” The boy’s mutter might have been a bit loud, for Dilia, walking ahead of him, suddenly replied, though her voice was thick with sarcasm and hatred, sounding particularly sharp: “And this labyrinth model isn’t something Master Nikolai created. There are rumors that this sort of thing is a creation of the Devils from the Lower Planes — only they possess infinite magic power and twisted tastes to come up with such things.”

Constantine lowered his head, habitually touching his nose to hide a bitter smile at the corner of his mouth. In fact, in all his decades of life, making a fierce, villainous expression like he just did to intimidate others was probably the first time. If not for the shadow from the deep hood and the dim environment, whether he could have succeeded remained unknown.

But thanks to the success of this performance, everything was now going according to plan… Except for one thing.

“I can see it now… the Gem’s location… it’s placed in the central hall of the temple, huh?” After a series of gestures and chanted incantations, a strange faint white light glowed in the eyes of the girl named Alina. This soft white light swirled in her eyes, and then she murmured, her voice taking on an ethereal quality, only to be replaced next by a surprised tone: “I also see… a Staff?”

“A Staff! Sister Dilia… it’s a Staff!” The light in her eyes instantly faded… The girl happily grabbed her sister’s hand, shaking it excitedly, shouting: “Sister Dilia! That Staff is inside too! Great, we don’t have to go look in the underground waterways!”

“What did you say?” The young woman named Dilia clearly wasn’t as happy as her sister. On the contrary, this news made her frown tightly: “Alina, can you be sure what you saw is really the sigh… really that Staff? Not something else similar?”

“That’s right, my magic can’t possibly be wrong! It’s that Staff! All the details and key points are correct! Even if someone used Alteration to change another staff into that shape, it definitely wouldn’t have that same aura! Isn’t this good? We can just…”

The young girl’s excited voice suddenly stopped. Obviously, she also noticed the key point — a staff has no legs, and no one would waste time casting Animate Object on it. So there was only one explanation for it moving here… someone had already gotten there first, obtained it, and brought it here… And this Staff was the best of the three prizes for this exam. To obtain it less than halfway through the exam time and reach another place this far, that person’s ability was easy to guess — with the two girls’ abilities, defeating that person and getting the Staff seemed rather unrealistic.

“It looks like we need more candid cooperation… How are your combat abilities?”

The expression hidden under Constantine’s hood also turned serious at this news — this news came with another fact that was not optimistic for him either… The person who obtained the Staff wouldn’t be easily satisfied; the Bequli Gem here was also his target. Although he was confident he could beat any apprentice-level person in close combat, in the current situation, it obviously wasn’t easy.

What’s more, if the entity that obtained the Staff was a group, that would undoubtedly fit common sense better in Constantine’s mind.

“That idiot who caused trouble earlier made me waste several spells… Now I have one Magic Missile left, along with a first-level Summoning spell… and one second-level Summoning spell.” Dilia quickened her pace toward the door at the end of the corridor, pulling her sister along: “Alina hasn’t memorized spells suitable for combat… except Magic Missile. And now she can only cast it once. Besides, she’s no good at fighting.”

“Then it might be better to leave her here…” The boy was taken aback. The Lich had also said the combat power of a Divination mage was completely unreliable, so it was better not to let her take the risk. But this thought was immediately interrupted: “According to past conventions, the room where treasures are stored has many traps. If we’re unlucky and run into one made by someone with a twisted taste for maze-setting, then probably everyone would be tormented unbearably — such things are said to happen often. So we must rely on her power!”

By now the corridor had reached its end. Pushing open the ornately carved door, a vast space unfolded before the three.

The interior of this so-called abandoned temple was exquisitely and grandly built, without the decay the boy had imagined. Only the extraordinary emptiness perhaps fit the mood of an adventure labyrinth — or perhaps because this was inside a model, even an abandoned hall, everything still appeared orderly. The smooth floor seemed waxed, shining so brightly it could almost reflect one’s shadow. Rows of marble pillars stood within, and at the far end of the line of sight, two huge doors could be seen.

Constantine’s eyes narrowed to slits under his hood. He noticed the problem with this hall: countless lines of light crisscrossed in his vision, converging into light points and clusters large and small, their density almost rivaling scenes the boy had seen in Vernal’s laboratory — only, these glows often emanated from certain building materials — for instance, on a floor tile, or at the base of a pillar, etc. Their interconnected yet scattered state clearly indicated their purpose — magical traps. And most were red glows representing the most aggressive Evocation spells! The overlapping lights even made Constantine somewhat dizzy.

But from the end, from the half-opened doors, a familiar blue-green glow leaked out, perking up Constantine’s spirits — clearly, the spell from the girl called Alina wasn’t far off; that glow was the unique sheen of the Bequli Gem.

Just as he prepared to head that way… a strange cacophony came from there! It sounded like a scream?

From the opened doorway, several figures suddenly rushed out! Their identical robes marked their identity, yet clearly, these guys weren’t ordinary apprentices — their magic robes shimmering with various colors stood out strikingly in the dim temple, and in Constantine’s sight, each robe had at least two or more spell effects attached!

But the thing behind them was even more astonishing — it looked like a huge, eight-foot-long serpent, its barrel-thick body almost entirely black, with only the lower belly showing a bit of dark gray.

However, on its head… if not mistaken, that was its head, yet it lacked a typical snake shape, having instead an octopus-like head — between the four tentacles lined with suckers, one of the slowest fleeing unfortunates was struck, letting out a heart-wrenching scream — he wasn’t sent flying; the monster’s suction cups on its tentacles firmly held onto him!

“Damned it!”

Constantine cursed habitually. He had already noticed that familiar speck of blue-green glow, now shining at the unlucky fellow’s neck!

And at that moment, the fleeing group seemed to seize an opportunity. Everyone turned around simultaneously, each pulling out a scroll!

Thus, three or four burning spheres appeared in the air! These fireballs accurately hit the monster’s central area and erupted into a huge burst of flame. Rolling heat waves spread out from the explosion point in all directions. The magic fire didn’t need fuel; it burned fiercely just like that in the air!