Chapter 503: Discovery
Chapter 503: Discovery
Ren recalled the part of the Sky City’s design plans that pertained to the prison.
The corridors ahead on both sides were the detention areas for Exalted Beings. The cells were larger and more secure, equipped with special energy restriction devices and reinforced high-alloy grating to handle close combat.
The unknown presence made Ren increasingly cautious.
However, Ren did not stop. He continued to move slowly forward.
The sound, which resembled breathing, grew louder, likely coming from the fifth cell on the right side of the corridor, about twenty meters ahead.
Moreover, he heard other sounds coming from the cells further down.
"Hmm? There’s more than one?"
"Also, the air temperature is starting to rise."
As Ren thought, he slightly slowed his pace.
The change in air temperature was now quite noticeable. After moving just a few meters closer, the temperature had risen by at least five degrees.
This minor temperature change would not cause any physical discomfort to Ren, who had a ‘Superior’ level Mutated Dragon Bloodline.
However, it indicated that the breathing sound he heard was unlikely to come from a humanoid creature. Instead, it was more likely from a high-energy creature like a dragon or a dragon-descended being, known for their fiery breath.
"Could it have survived for thousands of years? Could it be a dragon?" Ren's eyes flashed with a hint of keen interest.
Even a thousand-year-old dragon did not instill fear in Ren, unless it was a being like the ‘Red Dragon King’ Strazz, who was nearly a demigod.
Otherwise, with Ren’s current sixth form of Dragon Vein Transformation, while he could not guarantee victory, he certainly would not fear engaging in battle.
As Ren slowly approached, the air temperature increased even more.
"Hmm, something’s off. The air temperature is almost seventy to eighty degrees. Even a regular dragon wouldn’t cause such a significant temperature change with normal breathing unless it used its breath attack."
"Could it be a special fire dragon?"
Ren couldn’t help but think of the ancient fire dragon ‘Anguskin’ that leaped out of a volcano.
However, he did not stop. He continued to move cautiously, and as his view shifted, he could see part of the cell on the right. Suddenly, he noticed that the fifth cell was emitting a faint red glow.
"This—"
Finally, Ren stopped.
He was certain that neither a red dragon nor a fire dragon would have skin or scales that glowed with such intensity.
At this point, he was standing in front of the first cell designed for Exalted Beings.
Ren glanced inside.
The cell was empty, with no skeletons or remnants on the ground.
This suggested that not all cells in the prison were occupied, which was normal.
After a moment’s thought, Ren continued forward.
The second cell contained a skeleton, which, based on its size, seemed to be a goblin Exalted Being. The clothing was tattered and unrecognizable.
Ren glanced a few times, confirming it wasn’t human, and then moved on.
By now, Ren could see part of the fifth cell on the right.
Inside, there was a creature resembling a Naga but with four horns of varying sizes on its head. It was over three meters tall, and Ren noticed a black mist swirling around its head, in addition to the flames.
The black mist gave Ren a feeling of familiarity, similar to the black grubs found in the heads of dryad goblins.
This was an instinctive perception of a Dawn Wizard.
The creature’s body seemed unusually “fresh,” yes, fresh! Its skin was not as dry and wrinkled as that of a dryad goblin. While it was somewhat withered, it didn’t look strange and appeared somewhat robust.
However, Ren recalled the goblins infected by the black grubs and understood.
Whether goblin mechanists or goblin engineers, their subcutaneous tissues were merely shriveled, not fully decayed. The black grubs seemed to have inhibited the decay to some extent.
As Ren approached the cell, he carefully observed the creature, which seemed to sense his presence. It turned to face him and growled:
"Despicable...goblin...daring to imprison Les..."
Ren immediately noticed the creature’s broken speech.
Goblin?
In the next instant, he saw that the creature’s eyes were entirely devoid of pupils, a reddish white.
From the disjointed words, it seemed the creature was either delirious or had only retained some basic instincts.
Ren observed the creature and lost the urge to attack.
The creature did not seem to possess any valuable treasures, no necklaces, no rings, not even a light armor.
He was here to find the head of the Valzigg School, or at least someone human.
The humanoid creature before him was not one of his targets.
However, the opponent's strength seemed formidable, roughly at the peak of the Legendary stage.
Ren didn't know if the opponent's original strength was stronger or weaker, or if it was due to the black mist shrouding the opponent's face?
Boom!
Suddenly, a surge of red light enveloped the opponent's body, releasing a wave of scorching heat.
Bang!!!
The creature resembling a Naga charged toward Ren and slammed heavily into the steel grating!
"Despicable goblin, you still dare to show your face."
Clearly, the opponent harbored deep resentment toward goblins. Combined with the muddled mind and blind eyes, the opponent mistakenly identified Ren as a goblin.
The opponent's attack, due to the distance, had no chance of harming Ren.
"Can't even see, yet still thinking of revenge," Ren couldn't help but shake his head.
However, in the next instant, he was startled to notice that the alloy grating, as thick as thumbs, in the opponent's cell was melting!
"Hmm?" Ren narrowed his eyes and looked into the cell.
He discovered that the intricate lines on the cell floor, which formed a magic array structure to restrict the opponent's strength, were damaged for some reason. No wonder the opponent could break the grating.
This meant that the cell's suppression of the opponent's strength was no longer effective.
Moreover, unlike the stiff and wooden movements of the Dryad Goblins, the opponent's movements and speed were very coordinated, suggesting that the black mist affected this individual differently than it did the goblins.
"Does the black mist preserve the opponent's strength?"
As Ren's thoughts wandered, he raised his hand, and six buzzing toothed metal rings appeared in front of him.
It was the Tier 3 Metal-based Sorcery, 'Toothed Ring.' Since the opponent's strength was not at the Epic level, Ren's Toothed Rings, which had nearly the power of a Dawn Wizard's spell, were sufficient to handle the situation.
Although he had no intention of attacking first, if the opponent dared to initiate an attack, Ren would not hesitate to eliminate them.
Moreover, this was an opportunity to observe the changes in the black mist.
For Ren, the black mist was the more concerning element.
As the metal grating melted, the opponent raised a crimson arm with sharp claws, and suddenly, several flaming vortices, each about a meter in diameter, appeared on the ground around Ren.
The flames at the top of these vortices were white, indicating extremely high temperatures, and they rapidly expanded.
By this time, Ren had already retreated, and he extended his finger, pointing at the opponent.
"Go!"
With Ren's command, the six high-speed rotating metal rings shot from different angles, tracing bright arcs and instantly hit the Naga-like creature.
Sss! Sss!
The Tier 3 Sorcery 'Toothed Ring,' enhanced by Ren's 'Steel Heart' meditation technique and his Overclass metallic affinity, had a power comparable to a beginner's Dawn Wizard spell. The six metal rings sliced through the opponent's pale red, scaly body like cutting through tofu.
Instantly, the opponent was cut into several pieces!
"No!"
As the opponent let out a dying roar, a powerful flame shockwave erupted from the dismembered body, shooting in all directions!
"About the peak of the Legendary stage, I wonder what role this black mist played," Ren mused, looking at the opponent's severed body.
But just as the several pieces of the opponent's body hit the ground heavily,
Suddenly.
A cloud of black mist suddenly rose from the remains and rapidly changed shape in the air, forming various grotesque forms, sometimes resembling an insect like a giant mantis, other times like a giant clawed centipede.
In the next instant, the black mist lunged toward Ren's position.
Swish!
Facing this sudden attack, Ren was already prepared. He flicked his finger, and the six buzzing metal rings flashed past the black mist from behind.
The black mist churned violently, but it seemed to have no physical form, and the Toothed Rings passed through it like smoke.
It only delayed the black mist for a moment before it continued its lightning-fast assault on Ren!
However, Ren had already devised a comprehensive plan to deal with this bizarre black mist before the battle.
His neck suddenly thickened, covered in dark silver scales, and his head transformed into a fierce and massive dragon's head. He then unleashed a 'Dragon's Breath' at the black, twisted mist cloud, which was less than two meters away in mid-air.
"Roar!!!"
The flames started as a small beam but quickly expanded into a cone, instantly engulfing the continuously twisting and deforming black mist.
"Zzzt!"
A sound like hot water splashing onto a hot iron rang out! At the same time, Ren faintly sensed a piercing, shrill scream mixed in, as if something was wailing in its final moments, sending chills down his spine!
As a faint, pungent odor wafted over, Ren's transformed dragon eyes scanned the cell cautiously, confirming there was no residual danger before reverting to his human form.
Earlier, he had used partial dragon transformation to unleash Dragon's Breath, successfully extinguishing the bizarre, twisted mist.
However, his heart was not particularly optimistic.
"As expected, this thing doesn't seem to be a solid entity."
Ren had suspected as much when he first saw the black, deformed beetle. Now, his suspicions were further confirmed.
"More accurately, it seems to be able to transform between a solid and a mist state. Moreover, the more black mist there is, the more bizarre changes it might undergo."
"But it seems one thing is clear: as the volume of black mist increases, its aggressiveness also seems to surge."
Ren frowned, pondering, and quickly drew some conclusions.
The black beetle wasn't as difficult to deal with before, but as the black mist expanded, it became immune to physical attacks, which was quite troublesome.
However, this was just based on limited experience. There were too few samples to form a definitive pattern.
"Bang! Clang, Clang!"
Suddenly, the commotion from the depths of the corridor intensified! Ren quickly turned, focusing his gaze on the dim, deep corridor.
It seemed that the noise from his battle with the monster had triggered a reaction from other things within the prison.
He heard several stiff footsteps, thuds, and the sound of metal striking the grates.
From the sounds, there were at least four or five of them.
This made Ren's expression change slightly, and he attentively observed the changes in the cells on both sides of the corridor.
"Bang!"
At that moment, the metal grate of a cell to his right was completely twisted and deformed by some immense force, and it flew out violently. A black, upright hoof, at least as thick as an adult's waist, stepped out.
The creature was a bull-headed orc, over 3.5 meters tall, with large, white eyes, one broken horn, and a mane extending from its head to its back. Its muscles were knotted, but its skin was cracked, giving it a rough, rocky texture.
Black mist swirled around the orc's upper body, especially its face, where the mist was particularly dense.
Clearly, this was another prisoner invaded by that bizarre black mist.
"An extinct bull-headed orc from ancient times?"
"I didn't expect to see one of these here." Ren immediately recognized the creature's origin from its distinctive appearance.
But it didn't end there.
In a cell to his left, a withered, wrinkled hand touched the metal grate, causing it to quickly deform and twist.
"Metal Morph?!" Ren's eyes widened.
Unlike the previous monster, which used fire-based magic, the energy fluctuations and magic this dryad goblin used were familiar to Ren. They were metallic energy particles.
A human dryad goblin, dressed in a wizard robe and walking with a slightly unsteady gait, emerged.
"Ancient human wizard? This attire! It can't be wrong." A flash of insight crossed Ren's eyes.
He had seen this type of wizard robe in the Valzigg ruins, which seemed to be the standard attire of the ancient wizard school of Valzigg.
Due to the special magical patterns etched on it, the robe on the human dryad goblin, despite being thousands of years old, had not completely deteriorated, allowing Ren to recognize its unique decorative features.
In other words, this dryad goblin, even if not the school's headmaster, was definitely a wizard from the ancient Valzigg school!
"It seems my previous suspicions were correct."
Ren felt a surge of excitement!
"Creak!"
At the same time, a door opening sound came from behind Ren.
Near the entrance of the corridor, a hidden door had also opened.
Ren had seen this door when he first entered but hadn't paid much attention to it, assuming it was a guard's resting room. He had planned to check the cells first, so he had passed by it directly.
A small, dark-skinned female goblin dryad goblin, dressed in tight, dark leather armor and surrounded by black mist, stepped out. Ren noticed a whip tied around her waist.
"Inquisitor?"
"Two in front, one behind, am I surrounded?"
(End of Chapter)
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