After hastily stuffing the dry biscuits, the team that was promoted to the sea scorpion level walked down the road in despair.
With the lessons from the previous corpse seals, Nemo didn't dare to use black shadow detectives to probe again, and he didn't want to think about what he would touch.
So he directed the shadows to gather into a ball, thought for a few seconds, and then split it into a black sphere the size of a human head. The black ball bounced on the ground, struggling to free four tiny feet on one side of the ball. They wriggled for a moment, landed on all fours, and then spread out, rushing awkwardly in different directions—a bit comical, but not slow.
Nemo decides to find his way in a different way.
After all, along the way, Guan and the magic circle are basically all the original traps that already existed in the ancient tomb. The first obstacle that Medes added on his own initiative was the corpse seal at the main entrance of the ancient tomb just now. Unlike the rumored cheerful miscellaneous scholar, Mr. Medes, who turned into a necromancer, has undoubtedly become a gloomy character.
Now that they've entered the tomb, Nemo doesn't want to be so powerful and take the darkness in front of him lightly. He had companions to take care of, and countless blood-stained biographies kept repeating in his mind—even the strong would die from a small mistake. Unlike myself, everyone's life is just one, and it's always good to be careful.
"Nimo, since you can feel the position of Medes, can you open a space crack?" Oliver clenched the sword of rest carefully, and didn't mean to relax at all.
"It's not easy." Nemo whispered, "If the other party considers the possibility of being probed, it is likely that other segments will be prepared in advance. Under this premise, if I open the crack to some dangerous place... Not only will we not be able to pass through. , It will also cause Medes to be unhappy. At least we are acting properly for now, not a 'despicable intruder'."
"Sure enough, it's not that easy." Oliver breathed a sigh of relief, using his bone sword to cut off the poisonous spear that was shot obliquely.
Unlike the rough exterior of the tomb, veteran warriors are well aware of the dangers inside the tomb. Except for Jesse, no one seemed to want to be lazy. An cautiously grasped the hunting spear, and the dull metal flashed the brilliance of lightning from time to time. The knight commander held the metal bow in it, the arrow on the bowstring, and sounded from time to time to remind them of the possible ancient trap.
Only Jesse carried the half-bald grey parrot, still looking like he was visiting the Trap Museum.
The black dumplings that Nemo made were running fast on their little feet, screeching to and fro. The dumplings were very active in triggering physical traps in advance, or crowded into a pile in front of the cursed circle that leaked the aura of magic, desperately reminding the master not to approach.
After leaving the hall at the entrance of the tomb, the advance speed of the tumbleweed was reduced by two-thirds.
Fortunately, the cautious advance has definitely improved the safety factor, and no one has been injured so far.
Under the guidance of the Somiko Dango, despite the lack of map information, things like getting lost did not happen. But there are downsides—everyone knows how far in a straight line from the destination, but has no idea how many detours it takes to get there. The only consolation is that they didn't encounter many horrific-looking bones this time.
After four hours of cautiously advancing, strange things began to appear.
First a weird skeleton.
It didn't look much different from the skeletons they scattered outside the grave, but it had a lot more on it - like a white lace apron and a golden wig. The blond wig was wavy and curled, and they could even see the white glue that held the wig to the bone.
The skeleton in the apron held a metal bucket and the other grabbed a wet cloth, and looked at them silently.
"..." It might be an illusion, Nemo read a little disdain from those dark eyes.
The skeleton looked at them for a moment, clicked his chin a few times, and even shook his head in a humane way. Instead of paying attention to the group of tumbleweeds, it squatted down neatly and began to clean the moldy wall.
"Can puppetry do this?" Oliver asked stiffly.
"Should be, but I've never seen such a boring spellcaster." Jesse responded enthusiastically. He took a few steps closer to the skeleton and lifted a corner of his lace apron. "The fabric is quite old, with a lot of washing marks, I think they—"
The skeleton who was cleaning stood up and pulled out the corner of Jesse's apron—
Then he slapped the blond youth directly.
Jesse was caught off guard by the slap, and he turned his head to look oddly at the… huffing skeleton. It tugged at the hem of the apron, stood up a little coyly, then raised its chin and even pulled up the blond wig forcefully.
"It hit you," Nemo pointed out dryly, trying to suppress the shock in his tone.
"Hey, it's not murderous or hostile, and I'm not the paranoid that I'm always on guard against." Jesse walked away from the skeleton unhappy. "Besides, it doesn't have any fighting power at all, and it can't hurt me at all—Ed!"
The knight commander tightened his face as before, but there was a rare smile on the corner of his mouth.
"I have to put this account in Mr. Medes' name." Jesse rubbed his face pitifully, though there was no red mark on the fair skin. "In short, they should have been free to move for a long time, and now they are only acting with pre-set spells, not controlled by Mr. Medes himself... What kind of puppet art did he set up? It's too much."
Oliver's expression was a little distorted, and he seemed unsure whether to laugh. But Nemo's shadow dumpling helped him solve this trouble - a dark dumpling rushed out of the shadows and crashed into Oliver's arms. It clawed at the seams of the armor with its four little feet, shivering and screaming rapidly.
"There's a problem over there." Nemo approached Oliver, tore the dumpling from Oliver's chest without changing his face, and placed it on the flagstone road.
The black shadow group rolled a few times, then stepped forward and slowly led the crowd along its path.
It turned out that this "problem" was more troublesome than they thought.
"What the hell is this?" This time it was An Xian's voice.
The moment she saw the scene in front of her, she almost stabbed it with a spear.
Unlike the quiet corpses that covered the door, the giant in front of them was slowly wriggling. A dull, drum-like heartbeat came from the pile of meat—pinks peeked out from beneath the smooth, grayish-black lumps, irregularly embedded with blood-red eyeballs that swirled around. It plugs the entire cemetery and holds it full. Thick, slug-like touches protrude from the flesh, exploring the rough rock walls slowly and haphazardly, making unpleasant sticky noises.
"It's not a demon anyway." Nemo looked away painfully, staring at Oliver's profile, trying to divert his attention.
"...Are you sure?" An dry coughed, "There is nothing more in line with the description of the devil than this thing."
Her voice was not small, the lump of meat seemed to be frightened, and all eyes turned to Ann. The visual effect was so amazing that the female warrior snorted and instinctively took two steps back.
"The Chain of Pain." The smile on the former knight commander's face disappeared.
Nemo suddenly pulled his gaze away from Oliver's face: "The Pain Lock?! But what it looks like..."
"It's not like an ordinary Chain of Pain, but it is." Adrian approached the huge mass of meat that blocked the entire tomb passage, staring at the blinking eyes.
Nemo knows Pain Locks.
Not to mention the book collection of the Abyss Church, even the biographies of ordinary adventurers have mentioned this thing - they are more common in ancient tombs, and they are deformed creatures specially bred to guard the tombs in ancient times.
In order to prevent the internal structure of the tomb from being leaked, the nobles thousands of years ago would directly seal some craftsmen in the tomb. At first, some people planned to apply puppet magic in advance, so that the corpses of these craftsmen would act as some kind of guards - unfortunately, the effect can last for decades at most, and the spells cast cannot be handed over to others. When the caster dies, these corpses will collapse into ordinary skeleton.
But that didn't stop the nobility and the royal family from their desire to guard their resting place. The gatekeeper took over the commission and researched the creature called "The Lock of Pain". Their vitality is extremely tenacious and can live in the dark for a long time. Their food sources are also very single-
The suffering and despair of living beings.
The craftsmen locked in the tomb slowly died of hunger and thirst, and the pain in between was enough to keep the Chain of Pain alive for nearly a thousand years.
They were supposed to be about the size of a human, and then shrank as their energy waned until some eyeless tomb robber passed by—then they would swarm up, imprisoned in flesh and blood, and deliberately prolong their death in order to gain more much pain.
A normal pain lock should never grow this big unless…
"Someone has been feeding it for many years." The knight commander was silent for a while, then whispered firmly. "… feed it with someone who is still alive and who will continue to live comfortably."
"But there is only a normal life reaction underneath." Oliver had a guess that made his heart tighten.
"That is to say... Medes is feeding this thing with his own pain, and then using it to guard the door?" Electric light flickered at Ann's fingertips, and the grey touch that was about to move was mercilessly repelled.
"That way we really can't move forward," Nemo gasped between his teeth. "He doesn't look like he's hungry enough to attack us very aggressively. But if we insist on going, I think he'll be happy to get himself some stockpile of different flavors. No way, maybe I'll have to make him a little bit. Get hurt, drive it away—"
This thing basically has no IQ, and it is useless even to show momentum in front of it.
"Wait." Adrian grabbed Nemo's right arm before he could lift it.
Nemo looked at Adrian in surprise. After all, the former knight commander never liked physical contact with people: "Mr. Cross?"
"The Pain Lock has a solution." Adrian said softly, "Considering that the younger generation may decline, the nobles will pre-set an answer... If the visitor is caught, they will ask the question first."
"I know, a question, right? But if it was set by Medes, no one would know his answer."
"If he really doesn't want to see anyone at all, he won't choose the Chain of Pain." The knight commander's voice became flat, "When I was still on the mission of the church, I went to a lot of tombs. It's more murderous. The guardian monsters, the intractable death curse, the highly poisonous carnivorous plants... No matter what, they are more lethal than the Chain of Pain, which has long been eliminated."
"It's rare." Jesse was still stroking his cheek aggrieved. "You care about this all of a sudden? Mr. Wright didn't mean to blow it to the ground, although I don't think it's a big deal."
"Mr. Medes didn't set an additional lethal trap, and now he's got this thing..."
Adrian Cross stretched out one and stroked the monster's slimy skin. The slug-like touch immediately wrapped around his arm, and the countless red eyes on the flesh turned frantically.
"And I'm familiar with the pain, which may be a form of expression. Mr. Medes is rejecting the enemy, and... calling for help to the guests." It'll get out of the way. It's better to ring the doorbell than kick it, since it's asking him questions."
Expose all your pain to the outside world. Let it fill the gloomy tomb and make the air turbid—
But really desperate people rarely express their pain to the outside world.
Nemo scratched his head, he didn't feel the "pain" category at all. But Adrian looked confident, so he had to step aside obediently. Oliver raised the bone sword: "If there is anything wrong, I will cut these things off immediately. Please, Mr. Cross."
Ann folded her arms and leaned against the wall, her eyebrows raised high.
"Visitor... Are you in pain at this moment?" The fleshy voice came out in a high-pitched, hoarse voice, like several babies babbling together.
"Yes." Adrian replied without hesitation.
Hearing this, the meat piece stopped wriggling, and the touch that was wrapping the knight's long arm no longer climbed along the arm.
"How painful is it?"
"Maybe the same as you."
"Why the pain?"
"For the same reason." Adrian Cross's voice was very low, "I recognize your form, born from the painful lock of 'betrayal'. Although I did not betray, but considering your situation, Medes Sir... my answer is probably the same as yours."
"… because of my fault, my friend suffered and was eventually swallowed by despair."
Oliver held his breath, staring intently at the touch around the knight's long arm. But the moment Adrian's voice fell, it fell softly and seemed to have lost all its strength—
The Pain Lock began to wriggle, spreading out its bloated body, making way for a narrow passage.