Chapter 489: Underground Palace
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
An adult Night Demon Bat’s individual ability typically reached Level-17 to 19. A Night Demon Bat King could likely reach Legendary level. What was more important was that these magical beasts lived in groups. Even smaller groups consisted of about 30 of them. Thinking about it, 10 level-18 Archmages could rival an ordinary Legendary powerhouse, so what would it look like to fight with 30 of them? Even a Legendary magical beast would avoid confronting a group of about 30 adult Night Demon Bats.
Night Demon Bat’s favorite food was Vampires, so wherever there were Night Demon Bats, Vampires certainly wouldn’t get close. Even a Legendary-realm Vampire wouldn’t dare to provoke those Night Demon Bats in groups. However, if a Vampire was lucky enough to obtain the fresh blood of Night Demon Bats, then it would be extremely beneficial for its personal growth in abilities.
Lin Li looked at Norfeller. This vampire that was merely level-17 could do less for him by day. Since they had encountered the Night Demon Bats this time, it could be considered an opportunity for Norfeller. Lin Li was never stingy towards his men.
That group of Night Demon Bats was close to 30. Their flight patterns appeared to be somewhat clumsy, wobbling from side to side as if they would fall to the ground or bump into the wall at any moment. However, with careful inspection, one would realize that when they moved forward, their bodies were shining. This shine wasn’t referring to the brightness of the light, but the sparkle caused by the disappearing and reappearing of bodies. This was an inborn talent of the Night Demon Bats: the ability to move between the Shadow Dimension and the Main Dimension. This was also their only way of moving around.
“Master, they are more interested in Vampires. I will try my best to hold them up, please leave this place quickly, sir!” When Norfeller identified the number of Night Demon Bats, he didn’t dare wishfully think of escaping anymore. Even though his master was already a Legendary-mage with Magical Domain, his chances of winning against nearly 30 adult Night Demon Bats were slim.
“Norfeller, I’ve heard that the Night Demon Bat’s fresh blood can strengthen the abilities of Vampires. If I can provide you with a large amount of Night Demon Bat’s blood, what kind of state do you think you can reach?” Lin Li asked Norfeller as the Night Demon Bats flew increasingly close.
“Master…!” Norfeller shouted anxiously.
“Reply to my question,” remarked Lin Li calmly as he raised his magic staff.
“Yes, I’ll probably level up to level-19, but if I want to reach the Legendary level, I have to evolve on my own.” Moved by his master’s emotions, Norfeller miraculously calmed down while facing his approaching natural enemies.
Noticing a most delicious Vampire on the other side, that group of Night Demon Bats screeched with excitement. Their bodies shone with increasing frequency, and then vanished completely all of a sudden. It was as if they used Invisibility, only theirs was far superior.
Invisibility could be immediately destroyed with a sprinkle of Sparkling Powder. These Night Demon Bats, however, could shuttle into the Shadow Dimension. Not to mention Sparkling Powder, even bombarding this whole area with magic wouldn’t harm them an inch.
Unfortunately, these Night Demon Bats didn’t encounter an ordinary Legendary-mage, but one who could use the laws of light and darkness. Although Lin Li had yet to truly master the laws of light and darkness, with the two pieces of debris of the stars—Holy Light and Gloomy Dark—he could totally bring out the expected effect of the laws of light and darkness.
Night Demon Bat’s ability to shuttle through the Shadow Dimension was actually also a type of dark elemental Rule. Competing with Lin Li who owned the debris of the stars—Gloomy Dark— however, was pretty much showing off skills in front of a master.
Just as the Night Demon Bats disappeared, Lin Li’s surroundings suddenly turned black and white; the laws of light and darkness from the Magical Domain were used in isolation. After that, those Night Demon Bats that entered the Shadow Dimension were forced out. The law of light immediately confined them. Without shadows, they had lost their ability to move.
Still the same old saying: one thing went with another. In the Abyss of Tharlen, even the most overbearing Lord of Darkness was defeated by a single ancient demonic rune spell. How horrid these Night Demon Bats were definitely wasn’t a baseless rumor fabricated by people. Their ability to travel through the Shadow Dimension provided them with an unbeatable advantage from the start, not mentioning their attacks which left their opponents unable to defend themselves effectively.
“Norfeller, it’s your turn next. Suit yourself and bite whichever is more pleasing to the eye…” said Lin Li generously.
Norfeller’s heart was filled with gratitude at that moment. He obviously also knew that he wouldn’t be helpful to his master anymore should he fail to enhance his abilities, so he didn’t object. Mumbling spells characteristic of Vampires, he made his sharp nails slice through the throat of a level-18 Night Demon Bat. A stream of blood oozed out and gathered into a sphere in the mid air. Next, that sphere of blood shrank until it became a droplet the size of a bean. Norfeller sucked the blood essence into his stomach.
Seeing that Norfeller stopped after sucking the blood from one Night Demon Bat, Lin Li teased, “Yo, help yourself, there’s still so many.”
Norfeller respectfully replied, “Thank you, Master. This drop of blood essence is enough for me to absorb for a period of time.”
“Ujfalusi, do you want to have some too?” Lin Li was aware of Norfeller’s situation, and so turned to Ujfalusi.
“Thank you for your concern, but this is useless to me,” replied Ujfalusi immediately.
Since those bats were already caught, then naturally there was no reason to give them up. This world didn’t have animal protection laws anyway. Lin Li wasn’t in a hurry to continue exploring the caves, so he attended to the 20-plus Night Demon Bats on the spot with the help of the two Undead helpers. Night Demon Bat’s blood essence was beneficial to Vampires, but its magical crystal was also a rare treasure to mages.
Due to the small size of Night Demon Bats, their magical crystals naturally weren’t big. It was hard to imagine that a level-18 or 19 magical crystal was only the size of a green bean, but precisely because of the magical crystal’s small size, it was the best material for crafting magical accessories since magical crystals weren’t cuttable.
For the crafting of most magical accessories, only the magical crystal from the bodies of magical worms were used to deal with the size problem. Most magical worms, however, had extremely low levels, the highest being no more than level-10—the worms won by numbers in the first place. If one were to socket a more advanced magical crystal in a pair of magical earrings—level-18 or 19 for example—then using the magical crystal from a magical beast was the only option. This kind of crystal was usually fist-sized; using it on earrings could possibly pull the ears of the wearer off.
For the same level of magical crystals, those of the Night Demon Bat could be sold at more than 10 times the price because of their rare quality of being both small in size and high in level. With 27 Night Demon Bats’ magical crystals in his pocket, even if there was nothing deeper in the caves, Lin Li’s trip was certainly already worth it.
“Continue forward!” exclaimed Lin Li in high spirits with a wave of his hand. He thought that even if there were some more groups of Night Demon Bats, he could always catch more Vampires as subordinates. How cool would it be to command a troop of level-19 Vampires!
Actually, Lin Li wasn’t able to get anything much as he continued to survey the cave. After encountering the Night Demon Bats, Lin Li seemed to have used up all his luck. At some unknown point in time, more low-level Undead creatures like skeletons and vengeful spirits started blocking the way. Lin Li had some premonition at the moment.
It was funny, but the High Elves who had a so-called irreconcilable grudge with the Undead creatures also lowered their prideful heads when faced with the merciless time to investigate the way to eternity using Necromagic. Therefore, as Lin Li concluded, he had to see if Undead creatures were actually present in order to find out whether the ruins and High Elves were related. This certainly wasn’t drivel, but words of experience. Looking at Norfeller’s previous owner, or the one who fell to his death from the Scar of Death, which hadn’t been a High Elf investigating Necromagic?
So many years had passed since the end of the Dark Age. For the High Elves ruins to remain undiscovered until now, it was impossible that there wasn’t anything to guard this place.
“This…” Suddenly, the scene was completely revealed. Lin Li was completely mesmerized by what he saw.
An elegantly designed and lavishly, intricately decorated underground palace stood before the trio. No matter from which aspect, this magnificent underground palace was totally comparable to the royal palace of Felan Kingdom. The obvious architectural style from the Dark Age further confirmed Lin Li’s speculations.
In front of the palace was a small square. Hundreds of Skeletal Warriors armed with helmets and body armor dragged their rusted swords, walking aimlessly back and forth. Those swords had been dragged along repeatedly for so long that the stone floor was left with numerous deep marks.
The appearance of the trio immediately drew the attention of the Skeletal Warriors. Although all the Skeletal Warriors were scattered around, orderless, almost all of them stopped in their tracks and turned towards the trio simultaneously. After a moment of stagnation, the Warriors trod in the direction of the trio slowly while shaking their bodies.
After coming here, there was nothing much to say. No matter whether Osric was really involved here, the palace was 80% sure to be related to the High Elves judging by its architectural style.
Lin Li didn’t even have to fight off these Skeletal Warriors which didn’t even reach level-10 himself; Norfeller zoomed into the crowd of Skeletal Warriors and instantly sent broken arms and bone fragments flying everywhere.
Lin Li kept walking towards the palace gate, never slowing down. When he stood before the palace gate, Norfeller came to his side. The hundreds of Skeletal Warriors had all been smashed to pieces.
“Ah, such decadence! Those High Elves have fallen to such a state.” Lin Li gazed at the intricately designed palace gate. The same mageweath of the Song of Death was similar to the one found at Norfeller’s previous master’s place. However, a few details proved that the two mageweaths weren’t drawn by the same person. There was also a bigger difference: the mageweath on this gate either wasn’t working, or had already been destroyed.
“Am I too late?” Lin Li was a little worried that some people had found this place before him. That would be too tragic. He inspected it carefully again to make sure there wasn’t any trap on the gate. Then, he instructed Norfeller to push the gate open.
Behind the gate was a courtyard of considerable size. Skeletal Warriors were still present in the courtyard, only of slightly higher levels compared to those at the gate. They were more agile and their attacks weren’t merely aimless stabs with their swords, but rather had some hints of military training and techniques.
However, this minor hindrance was unable to stop Lin Li. It was still Norfeller who made the move. 40-odd Skeletal Warriors in the courtyard instantaneously turned into bone fragments strewn all over the ground. Walking past the corridor of the courtyard, Norfeller suddenly caught a few bone arrows and returned them backhandedly, crashing a few soul fires of level-12 Skeletal Archers.
Walking along, the Undead creatures they met were of increasing levels. However, they didn’t meet any Vampires, be it because they had already turned to bat feces or simply didn’t dare to live here.
When Lin Li finally reached the main hall gate of the palace, he was met with 20 level-16 Undead warriors. These warriors were reserves for the Death Knights. After they had subdued the Shapeshifters and owned their own mounts, they could be considered Death Knights.
20 Undead warriors all armed with tailored magical equipment. The equipment still shone as if it was brand-new even after so many years. Their weapons were also thin sharp magical longswords commonly used by senior officers in the military. These warriors held their sheathed swords with grayish, shriveled hands, keeping them in the position to strike at any moment. They stood as still as statues, orderly and quiet on the steps of the main hall gate.
Lin Li didn’t want to waste any more time. He held his magic staff close to his chest and slowly recited a spell.
Sensing danger ahead, those 20 Undead warriors finally moved. They pounced down the steps like flashing lights.
“Thousand Miles of Ice!” As the spell reached completion, Lin Li waved his magic staff.
On the ground in front of Lin Li, crystal clear white frost condensed, and then spread forward rapidly like oil dripped in water. When the white frost reached the feet of the Undead warriors, those warriors still in midair froze instantaneously and heavily fell to the ground, shattering into pieces like ceramics. Out of the 20 level-16 Undead creatures, not even one dared to come close to Lin Li.
Whatever was in the palace would be revealed soon. Lin Li walked up the steps with the two Undead servants. Striding past the remains of the Undead warriors, they came to the front door of the main palace hall.
The massive and extravagant door wasn’t completely closed; the slit in it revealed deep darkness inside the palace hall. Norfeller and Ujfalusi walked forward and pushed the heavy doors open from both sides. The inside of the grand palace hall was finally unveiled in front of Lin Li’s eyes.
When seen from the entrance, the center of the hall was laid with lavish red carpet with gold decorative patterns. The pillars on its two sides were only half visible in the darkness. The carpet extended from the entrance all the way to the heart of the palace. On the other side of the carpet stood a tall, wide throne. On the throne sat a person—it was, surprisingly, a knight wrapped in thick armor…