Chapter 1618: The Shelter
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
If not for the sprite leading the way, Hao Ren felt that he probably be lost in the crystal pillar zone for a hundred years and not finding the entrance into the deeper layer.
As the entrance was not something physical!
The group followed the sprite deep into the crystal woods. There was an already lake of solid crystal. Before the corruption of the Mad Lord, this was the place where life flourished the most, and many wondrous beings and active energies gathered here. But now, the lake had frozen into a block of crystal and along the lakeside were the crystalline remains of the once lively creatures.
And on the mirror-like frozen lake, a light beam shot up from a crystal pillar in the distance and refracted on the surface of the lake towards the sky.
That was the pathway to the planet’s core.
“Just follow this pathway upwards!” the little sprite was pointing all over in the holographic display, pride beaming on her face, “You need to go upwards only will you reach the planet’s core. The sprite’s creativity is awesome yeah?”
Hao Ren and his crew were all gawking. This is already beyond the question of creativity! There’s actually such a function?
What others thought Hao Ren would not know, but the first thing this reminded him was a drunk climbing a staircase of light from a torch. Yet over here, with the sprites’ incredible powers, the steps materialized.
The path towards the planet’s core really was a beam of light, and you could literally climb it…
“You sure we won’t fall off following this?” Lily was picked to be the first to try and she stood where the light had refracted as she looked on suspiciously at the slanting light beam before her that extended deep into the planet’s crust. “Have a feeling that climbing up with this looks darn stupid.”
“You are worried about that?” Vivian rolled her eyes at Lily. “Just do it, we’ll cheer you on. With your body, you won’t die if you fall anyway.”
“And you can bloody fly! Why aren’t you the first one to go?!” Lily glared back at Vivian with her arms on her waist, before pouting. “Forget it, I agreed anyway. I’ll go up first. Don’t mess around though, no blocking the light!”
In truth, based on the sprite’s explanation, the light was just a guide, but even without it the hidden pathway would not disappear, but it seemed like that werehusky was not paying attention…
With a gallant expression mixed with nervousness, Lily took the first step on the bright light beam.
And found herself standing firmly on the surface of the light.
“It…. it actually works!” The husky’s nervousness instantly gave way to excitement and curiosity, “And there’s no feeling of slanting or vertigo! Interesting! Mr. Landlord! I’ll be going up to check things out~”
As she said that, the werehusky that was so reluctant a moment ago ran up the light beam, and in a blink of an eye was a few hundred meters away. At the back, Hao Ren leaped angrily as he saw it. “Eh wait… Oh bloody hell, she really…”
The group then quickly followed the werehusky on the ‘secret path’ to the sanctuary, and after going along the path for a while, Hao Ren realized that the path was exactly what the sprite had said, it was a ‘miracle path’ that was beyond normal dimensional structures.
As when he looked down, the forest was no longer visible, even when in reality they were barely a thousand-odd meters away from the starting point.
All sorts of bizarre scenery started appearing around the light beam as light and shadow flowed by the sides like an aurora, some even formed the image of a palace and towers and disappeared fleetingly after a few moments.
As they head forward, the scenery disappeared and Hao Ren felt the whole trip did not take more than ten minutes, the objects around him became from ghostly light into a physical object: Thick rock layers and large crystal prisms appeared around them, they were originally just shattering fragments floating in the air, but as Hao Ren went farther in, the objects appeared more solid: The team was going through a crust of rock and crystals.
“Wow!”
Lily, at the front of the team, let out an awed gasp and Hao Ren quickly followed behind and a vast, vibrant scene greeted him.
The path had come to an end, and the team had passed through the divine-created crust covering the planet’s crust, and within it was a vast space. As Amantir was the goddess of creation’s creation, the planet’s core did not have the oppressive heat of a normal planet’s core. Conversely, it was a vast space with a very comfortable temperature. At the center of the spherical dimension, a tiny, even ‘cute’ little planets floated.
These were crystal balls that were about a few thousand meters wide. Well, calling them crystal balls was a misnomer as they were not processed or refined as rocks and crystals were still meshed together, more like a rough orb made out of rock and crystals.
This was the Origin Crystal that the sprite was talking about, the semi-finished products during the process of creating the resonance crystals (or rather the conduit crystals).
While semi-finished, these items were still massively useful, and Hao Ren noticed countless lines on the tiny planets, that was the runes and magic circles across the planet and these facilities left by the goddess were operating. They were projecting a series of moving, reforming and morphing pictures around the mini planets and drove anyone looking at it dizzy at first, but at the same time looking seemingly arcane and regulated.
“Those symbols…” Y’lisabet glowed with the spark of interested, “Are these the goddess’ left behind know…”
“Those are puzzle bobbles.” the sprite in the projection said nonchalantly.
Hao Ren and Y’lisabet went, “Huh?”
“It’s a puzzle bobble,” the sprite had a ‘that’s right’ smug look on her face, “The goddess of creation got bored while creating planets and while she was carving magic circuits on the planet’s crust she had added a puzzle bobble in the matrix. You wanna play? It’s very fun! The sprite usually…”
“No, stop there.” Hao Ren gestured for the sprite to stop as he facepalmed, “That’ enough, any further will kill our morale.”
“?” The little sprite gestured.
“Anyway, lets head down,” Vivian pursed her lips as she said, but she at least managed to keep her emotions in check. “I’m seeing many tiny lights gathering there. Are those your friends coming to get you?”
“Ah, the sprites! The sprites!” The tiny sprite indeed yelled happily as she drove the MDT to get over there. “Fly! Fly! I wanna let the others see my new mount!”
“You’re the mount, your entire family consists of mounts!” The MDT snapped and bellowed angrily. “I am a high-tech gadget, high-tech, you know?”
As they spoke the group had reached the skies above the mini planet, and even at this distance, Hao Ren could see a wide arc on the ‘land’ underneath his leg and on the surface of the crystal and rune encrusted “core”, a group of tiny sprites had already gathered.
“Outsiders! Outsiders!”
“This sprite had brought outsiders! The sprites are nervous!”
“Are these humans the energy reaction detected earlier?”
“The sprite’s earlier reports was that they are not baddies…”
“What happened above? I saw many runes were heating up…”
“These outsiders are so weird, that one is a few meters tall!”
Hao Ren felt a sense of friendliness among the chatter. This was a scene that he was used to… at least when he is with the sprites.
Vivian looked at the swarm of tiny tots around here as she gently bumped Hao Ren’s arm. “All of them have the same trait.”
She was referring to the tuft of reddish-black ahoge on their head. All the sprites here had an identical cowlick, and that seemed to be the sole unique trait that resulted from the Mad Lord’s taint.
By then, the gathered sprites had noticed their partner in the holographic display form floating above the MDT and gathered around her as they started chattering again on how the latter ended up like that.
“This sprite is temporarily living in this tin-can!” The little sprite, for easy identification, Hao Ren had labeled her Sprite One) said smugly. “These people are here to fight against the monster, and they plan to blow up this tainted planetary starship, but before that, they will take us away, and that is to let the sprites stay within this tin can!”
The MDT let out a deep sigh, “This is the first time I got screwed over so badly.”
“Are they reliable?”
“Is there a big space inside the tin can?”
“Can it really fit all of us?”
“What is it like living in there?”
“Wanna play puzzle bobble?”
“What’s going on outside?”
Sprite One patiently answered her kin’s questions one by one, and as the one chosen to be the scout, she was indeed different from your usual sprites. While she may not look all that smart, but she had superb patience and observation skills compared to the rest of her kind, and could explain clearly what she had encountered above ground.
But just as she was about to go for a round of puzzle bobble, Hao Ren grunted. “Our time is short, let’s discuss how do we get this done.”
The sprites immediately chattered again. “Oh… oh, right, you want to get Amantir’s crystal right?”
“Amantir’s crystal is linked to the Lair of Nightmares!”
“I have already told them that!”
“So to get the crystal, you need to first deal with the monsters in the lair!” Or you will be discovered instantly and get swarmed to death by the monsters from the deep!”
“So I want to know, what suggestions do you have.” Hao Ren did not hold much hope as he looked at the wide-eyed sprites looking at him. “We have a rough idea of the workings of the Lair of Nightmares from your friend, and know that there are many monsters in there, plus a super-strong bastard is dreaming in there as well. I want to know is there any way to take the crystal without raising any alarm?”
“Without raising any alarm? That’s not possible.” A sprite that looked a little more matured (yes, just that little) walked out from the crowd. “Amantir’s crystal had already been the energy source of the Lair of Nightmares, and there are many levels of connections as well, so taking it away stealthily is not possible.”
“You seem to be very informed about this?” Hao Ren looked curiously at the tiny one before him. “Are you…”
“This is a professional among the sprites!” Another sprite started yammering, “She knows the most, especially about Amantir’s crystal and the command center. There’s nothing she doesn’t know about them!”
“I was a support sprite in the command center, responsible for monitoring Amantir’s crystal status and the data going in and out of the central computer.” The seemingly matured sprite said slowly with her chest puffed up. “My crystal is still in the command center and was not destroyed by the monsters, as my crystal is directly connected to Amantir’s crystal, and they dared not lay their hands of it. Using the resonance, I am able to sense that the connection between Amantir’s crystal and the Lair of Nightmares is very tight, and the birth of every monster has to do with the crystal. While I don’t know why the sacred relic left behind by the goddess would become the ‘material’ used by the monsters to create more of their kind, but something in the lair is draining energy from Amantir’s crystal.”
After listening to that, Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other while Y’zaks by the side too was deep in thought, “Seems like things are all linked to the Lair of Nightmares… and we need to make a trip there.”
Vivian shook her head as she frowned, “But our information is insufficient, and our understanding of the numbers and strength in the lair is limited, and going in blind would be foolish.”
Hao Ren nodded, “If there’s another Lockmarton in there, things will get really sticky.”
Lockmarton was the most difficult adversary they had faced thus far, and while the monster was completely annihilated by Hao Ren’s detailed planning, and the final battle was pretty much over within an instant, that was achieved by the efforts of ten inspectors working together and using the surface world as their home turf. At that time, Hao Ren had a home ground advantage and lured Lockmarton into the trap, and now it was the reversed, this was the lair of the Mad Lord’s power.
If not careful, the one being surrounded and wiped out would be Hao Ren and his friends.
“We don’t have to worry about an enemy like Lockmarton appearing here, as Lockmarton’s combat ability is pretty much the same as a planetary starship with an unactivated doomsday weapon. If the corrupted monsters have such a trump card in their deck, they would have used it to face the guardian army head-on.” the MDT shook as it gave a brief explanation. “That monster is basically squatting in the dream creating those abominations and that is proof of its limitations. That means its abilities are restricted to the production of armies, thus its head-on combat ability should not be high.”
“Even if it’s not too strong it is no weakling either, summoner-type enemies are the worst.” Nangong Sanba shrugged.
“So you want to look for the monster within the Lair of Nightmares?” A chirpy voice suddenly rang out among the sprites. “I think… if you are stronger than the guardians even by a bit, you may be able to pull it off.”
Hao Ren gave the newly appeared tiny tot a curious look. “Oh? You know something?”
“I am responsible for monitoring and studying the Lair of Nightmares!” the little sprite’s words burst out like a cooked popcorn. “While we cannot directly see the big monster in the lair, but we can sense some of its movements. To continuously create new monsters, the big monster has to be in a dreaming state and its surrounding is not heavily guarded. We think that the guards that are awake will affect the nightmare so the monster’s body in the real world can be easily destroyed if you can get close to it.”
“Won’t it be awakened?” Vivian frowned.
“It will, but that will not affect the crystal of Amantir, and the big monster will wake very slowly! To ensure efficiency in creating the monsters, the dreaming monster is in a very deep dream state, and its main sensors to the outside world are using Amantir’s crystal and the temple’s network as a conduit. Simply put, the monster is not well defended against an underground assault.”
The other sprites at around them started blabbering too, “This is because Salaman’s guardians had never managed to land on Amantir all these years!”
“So that’s why the monster never considered the possibility of its lair being attacked!”
“They never thought Amantir’s underground section needed any defense…”
“How much time do we have?” Nangong Sanba asked.
“From the time the Lair of Nightmares responding to the attack, about thirty minutes. We have calculated before, but the sprites never have the power to launch an attack, it remained only a calculation…”
Hao Ren rubbed his chin, “If the monster does not have any counter-offensive ability in the real world, and we have about half-an-hour time frame, then that is rather plausible. But we need to be able to breach the barrier in the Lair of Nightmares and get to the front of the monster, or else half-an-hour would not be enough for us to break through its defenses.”
At that moment, a rather timid voice rang from the sprites. “If… if that is the problem, we have a way.”
Hao Ren looked down and squinted hard as he tried to look for the speaking tot, and a diminutive sprite with short hair entered his sight.
“I… I was responsible for monitoring the crystal pillars and the crust stabilizers,” the little sprite said nervously. “I… I had been monitoring the area around the Lair of Nightmares for changes to the geological and dimensional structures since I came to hide her. I found that the Lair of Nightmares has already materialized within the planet’s crust and most of its area is… is supported by three crystal pillars. The geological structure of the area is very brittle because of the equator rift, if…”
An idea immediately welled up in Hao Ren’s mind and he took over from the stammering sprite, “If we blow up those crystal pillars…”