Holding the few pieces of parchment, Kade felt moved. He recognized the language but he didn’t speak it. It was the language of the Ancient Goblins--before the Goblin clans fell, their race had quite a dazzling civilization; their accomplishments in Engineering rivaled that of the current Dwarves and Gnomes.
Kade knew very little about the fall of the Ancient Goblins, but he was quite knowledgeable about their Engineering.
The sheets contained some of their knowledge, but he didn’t have an Engineering Class. However, he carefully stored them in his Void Ring.
He may not have known much about their language, but from what he could see, it should be a very famous kind of construct called a Mechanical Ghost Statue.
It seems that this treasure chest wasn’t dug up by the Goblins, but rather had been handed down from generation to generation.
He also made sure to carefully store the blue gem as well. He may not know what it was, but since the gem and blueprint were stored together, it was safe to assume that they probably came from the same place.
***
Kade cheerfully followed the small path down and soon arrived at the end of the cavern. The first thing he did was start to feel the walls; this caused a small platform to appear in front of him after he pushed on a stone.
Even through the dense fog, he could see the sunset in the distance.
Kade’s small body stood on the platform staring down into the fog below. He saw the Monastery Gate not too far away, the two ignorant Pain Monks who were guarding the door--completely ignorant of what was happening inside, and what was about to happen.
The Scarlet Slaves would hide in the Ghost Hallway to pray, so if there weren’t any problems, they would avoid going outside. As for the Demon God Enforcers, there were only a few of them in the whole Monastery.
Kade hoped that his luck wouldn’t be too bad, since the Monastery was vast.
A thin path lead down and around, two or three meters long, providing access to the structural support for the platform, digging deeply into the stone. Following the path, Kade quickly tied one end of the rope to the support and the other end around his waist.
Under the dim light of sunset, he firmly held onto the rope and cautiously descended the sheer cliff, going down bit by bit. If anyone were to look closely, they would see his silhouette nimbly repelling down the rock.
Three minutes later, his feet touched the bottom.
He quickly checked his surroundings, before chanting the incantation that untied the Wishful Rope from around his waist. It hung down, ready to be used again at any time.
Taking advantage of the fact that there was still a bit of light in the sky, Kade sprinted for the entrance. Just as he entered the door, he heard the sound of an approaching horse coming from deeper in the valley.
A tall, heavily armoured horseman on a skeletal Warhorse rode through the swirling fog, arriving at another entrance into the Scarlet Monastery.
It was a Demon God Enforcer, and it was close to two meters tall, as well as riding on a warhorse--Kade was barely as tall as the back off the horse.
On top of that, the Demon God Enforcer was wearing a full set of pitch-black plate armour, covered in spikes. It was a creature that had already died once, and no longer had any Vitals.
It would be somewhere late in the 2nd Class, or early 3rd Class; there is no way that Kade could fight it.
The Demon God Enforcer suddenly halted and abruptly let out a few weird, unpleasant sounding words. The Monastery gate opened and the Warhorse continued on; entering the Monastery gate.
When the gate closed, the two Pain Monks stood expressionless, and a small cloud of dust was raised.
***
Three minutes later, Kade was soaked all over by sweat and, not daring to stay still, quickly entered the Ghost Hallway.
This Demon God Enforcer must have been out to carry out a specific mission; their boss, Avenger Fegan, a man full of ambitions, was staying in the 3rd Hall. In the past, he was an avid follower of the Sleeping Lich, but later he started having ideas on that Divinity.
Definitely a troublesome guy, and Kade had no intention to look for him. His main goal this time was the eighteen rooms between the 1st Hall and the Ghost Hallway.
There might be Scarlet Slaves in those rooms. While they weren’t dead, or Monsters exactly, the Demon God Enforcers had deprived them of their ability to think. Killing them would only give Experience, an almost nothing else, so Kade wouldn’t specifically hunt every one of them down.
However, there were a lot of treasure chests littered throughout those rooms, and these were Kade’s targets; while thinking this, Kade walked carefully down the hallway.
He had to look around carefully, making sure not to trigger any traps, which was why he spent quite almost 5 Wizard Gold on an Uncommon Item called Thief’s Glasses--which allowed the wearer to spot lower-level traps without a Thief Class.
Paintings hung on both sides of the Ghost Hallway. They were all portraits: Knights in their armour, Nobles in extravagant clothing, Wizards in Rune-Inscribed robes, and Scholars sitting in giant libraries. They were all smiling, but it was a very weird smile; if you started at a painting for too long, it would sent shivers down your spine.
Their eyes felt like they were staring right back at you, their smiles began to twist with wicked intentions.
There was something off about these paintings.
But Kade didn’t bother examining them, as he had often gone to Scarlet Monastery when he was a low-level Player of Feinan. He knew that they wouldn’t cause trouble as long as he didn’t pay much attention to them.
He followed the Ghost Hallway for some time before arriving at a fork, which had a total of three different paths. Each path led to identical rooms, with three on each side, having a total of 18 rooms--at the end of each path was a door which lead into the 1st Hall.
Kade headed to the left side. He planned on cleaning up each of these rooms, one by one, starting from the left, looking for treasure chests.
Uncommon Items could appear inside these treasure chests. He had once gotten an Uncommon Great-Axe from one in the game. The effects of the weapon were quite good, so he had used it for quite a while.
As he was considering this, he unexpectedly caught a glimpse of a painting from the corner of his eyes. This painting was quite special and Kade was suddenly attracted to it--it was a painting that he had never seen when he played the game.
It was the last painting on the left hallway. A young lady was painted, her hair was the colour of wheat and her smile was brilliant. She was quite different from the other people depicted in the paintings because her smile felt very sincere.
Kade felt a weird feeling, this was the first discrepancy between the game and his new world. He couldn’t help but take a look at the painting’s description, but the name made him jump back, suddenly frightened.
Headless Girl
He had no idea why he felt frightened when he saw the name, because the girl in the painting seemed to be the only one who had a sincere smile among all of the others, and her beauty was unparalleled.
Kade suddenly felt his hair stand on end, causing him to shiver. But, when he looked down at his Status Window and Log, he didn’t see any changes. Maybe it was the inconsistency of the sincerely smiling girl, or it could be purely psychological.
There had been no Willpower checks, no Curses.
He tried to ignore the feeling and continued on his way.
Approaching the first room, he gently pushed the door open a little, leaving a small opening to peer through. Inside the room was a wooden bed, visible only by the dim light from the sunset through a large glass window, sitting on top of the bed was an apathetic looking man.
It was a Scarlet Slave.
Kade pushed the door open completely and darted through the opening, swinging his sword at the man’s neck; the Scarlet Slave’s head separated from his head before he even got the chance to wake from his stupor.
They were low-level, so Kade only got 25 Exp from killing it.
But the real compensation sat in the room, a shabby wooden chest stood at the foot of the bed.
Thanks for the chapter