Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15: Entrance
The environment of the Dusk Forest grew darker and darker.
Jiang Lin continued following slowly behind them the whole time. Judging by the time, and with the weather outside already overcast, once night truly fell, the Dusk Forest would likely become even dimmer.
The distant Knight Kline and the others seemed to understand that as well, so their pace had clearly quickened.
Along the way, they ran into several more waves of Magical Beast attacks.
Most of the time, they fled whenever they could, but there were also times when they encountered Second-Tier Magical Beasts and could not escape, leaving them no choice but to fight head-on.
After they killed those Second-Tier Magical Beasts, Jiang Lin reaped the benefits.
By the time they had pressed this far inward, he had already gained a total of four Magical Beast Crystal Cores.
Without a doubt, he had profited greatly.
Jiang Lin felt immensely grateful that he had not rushed to kill them.
Looking at it now, having them risk their lives up front while he took the rewards behind them was simply too profitable.
He ought to squeeze as much value out of this as possible.
However,
After several consecutive battles, they were already exhausted to the point of collapse.
In the end, they decided to rest for a while in an open clearing.
Beneath the interwoven shadows of the trees, the sky grew darker and darker.
At the center of the clearing, Knight Kline and the other three leaned against a large tree, took out the dry rations they had prepared long ago, and ate in silence.
After swallowing the tasteless food, Knight Kline only felt more and more irritated.
Their repeated encounters had also made him feel that the deeper they went, the more dangerous it would become.
He was beginning to regret it. If he had known things would turn out like this, he would never have accepted this damned mission. He should have gone to arrange the matter of inheriting the noble title instead.
But now he was riding a tiger and could no longer get off.
They had already come this far.
If he turned back now, he would not be reconciled to it.
The reward promised by the Gerson City Lord was something he found extremely tempting.
Knight Kline stuffed the dry ration into his mouth and chewed silently, then turned to look at the three equally silent warriors beside him.
The archer among them had had half of one arm torn off by a Magical Beast in the previous battle.
Now that the Blood-Burning state was gradually fading, that intense pain was quietly spreading through him.
Even in the gloom, Knight Kline could see the man’s face gradually twisting from pain, yet he still clenched his teeth and refused to let out even a sound.
Sotor was helping him treat the wound on his severed arm, remaining silent the entire time.
The remaining warrior was keeping watch over the surroundings.
Looking at this scene, Knight Kline took a deep breath and tried to force himself back into a better state of mind.
“It is getting darker and darker. Let us rest here for the night. Moving around in the dark will only be even more dangerous for us.”
“If not for that damned old bastard, we would never have ended up like this, and Laude would not have lost his left hand forever.”
Sotor gritted his teeth. After tending to his brother’s wound, he buried the bloodstained linen in the ground.
Kline looked at him quietly and sneered inwardly. Was his death really unrelated to you at all?
Although he thought that, in a situation like this, saying anything more would only add pointless fuel to the fire.
“That is already in the past, Sir Sotor. We still have a fine future ahead of us.
“Do not let a dead man affect our mood.”
As Knight Kline spoke, he handed over a few pieces of dry ration.
Sotor took them and gave one to his brother, then said in a low voice,
“I am not as optimistic as you are, Kline. I think we need to find the location of the Underground Palace as quickly as possible.
“Even if we have to move in the dark, we still need to find that damned Underground Palace. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous things will become for us.”
“You want us to find the location of the Underground Palace in the dark? That is not realistic.”
Knight Kline immediately shook his head and rejected the suggestion.
“It is not dark yet, is it? You can still see me, and I can still see you.”
But Sotor rose to his feet at once, shoved the dry ration into his mouth, and chewed loudly, his greatsword already slung over his shoulder.
The other two also stood by his side, ready to move.
At the sight of this, Knight Kline’s expression darkened further. Did these brainless warriors not have even the slightest bit of common sense?
Of course, the biggest problem was that he did not hold the authority here.
Clearly, those three warriors were the ones on the same side.
“Come on, Sir Knight Kline. We will protect you.”
Sotor smiled and turned to look at him.
Knight Kline said nothing. He took out the treasure map and brought it closer so he could see it clearly, only barely managing to make out the location.
After a brief rest, the group pushed deeper into the Dusk Forest once more.
And behind them, a figure continued trailing them the entire time.
The terrain of the Dusk Forest had also begun to show obvious rises and dips.
They had already gone deep enough to enter the middle region. The Dusk Forest was enormous, occupying nearly half the border of the Tanner Kingdom.
And beyond the Dusk Forest lay the Wasteland, where there was nothing but endless barren earth and those savage Beastman tribes.
The Beastman tribes were spread widely. Aside from the northern Beastman Tribal Kingdoms,
The other Beastmen all existed in tribal form, scattered across every corner of the Atre Continent.
In any deserted and uninhabited place, you might come across the presence of those savage and violent Beastmen.
However, the Dusk Forest was a natural line of defense, cutting off incursions by the Beastman tribes from the Wasteland.
The territory of the Gerson City Lord just so happened to be a region along the border of the Tanner Kingdom.
Compared to the lands of other lords, his was even more of a poor and remote backwater.
That was why, no matter what, the Gerson City Lord had to obtain this Underground Palace within the Dusk Forest.
It represented an ancient legacy, a vast amount of treasure, and perhaps even the scholarly research of certain Archmages.
Of course, that also depended on what the owner of the Underground Palace had left behind.
As Knight Kline and the others continued to go deeper, the forest had already become completely dark.
Amid the overlapping tree shadows, pairs of faintly glowing eyes could occasionally be seen.
The Magical Beasts inhabiting this forest had begun to come out and move about.
Kline and the others also slowed down considerably. On the one hand, it was to avoid drawing attention. On the other, it was simply too difficult to walk through such complete darkness.
Although none of them were ordinary people, and their vision was somewhat better than that of normal people,
that only meant they could adapt to darkness faster.
There were even several times when they nearly went the wrong way.
Jiang Lin, however, had no such concern at all. The moment his divine sense spread out, he could perceive everything in the surrounding environment.
And so he followed them the entire way. Strangely enough, after darkness fell, Kline and the others did not encounter any more Magical Beasts at all.
It truly was the blessing of heaven. No, the blessing of the Goddess of Luck would be more accurate.
After about another hour, Knight Kline and his group finally came to a halt.
Jiang Lin’s divine sense brushed lightly over them as he perceived the situation.
It seemed they really had found the location of the Underground Palace.
A flicker moved through Jiang Lin’s expression as he slowly drew closer to them.
At that moment,
ahead of them, in the darkness, only vague outlines of the scenery could be seen.
A faint firelight gradually illuminated the area around them.
Since they had already reached this point, Knight Kline simply lit the Kerosene Lamp and held it in his hand, carefully studying the treasure map before bringing the lamp closer to something in front of him.
As the light of the Kerosene Lamp shone over it, a stone stele buried halfway in the ground gradually came into view.
The moment they saw the stele, delight appeared on the faces of Knight Kline and the other three.
“It is real. We found the entrance to the Underground Palace!”
Knight Kline could not help but laugh. He then placed the Knight’s Sword against the stone stele and slowly activated his Knight’s Power, intending to awaken the hidden magic array inside it.
When that hazy knightly radiance touched the stele, the ancient runes on it, nearly weathered away, gradually began to glow.
In the next moment, all of them retreated several steps.
The ground began to tremble faintly, as though some structure beneath the earth had begun to operate.
The giant trees around them shook and trembled as well.
As the runes on the stele flashed one after another, the ground behind it began to cave in, and the soil started collapsing downward.
Within that sunken earth, a staircase leading below was revealed.
It was the entrance to the Underground Palace.
Their expressions grew even more excited.
Under the dim yellow light of the Kerosene Lamp, their thrilled faces were clearly illuminated.
And at that very moment, a fierce sword light suddenly appeared.
In the darkness, that sharp sword gleam was especially conspicuous.
Before any of them could even react, the expression on one of the warriors’ faces instantly froze.
Because that sword gleam, so fast it had reached the absolute limit, had already pierced through his throat...
Knight Kline’s face changed drastically in an instant. His eyes widened as he stared into the surrounding darkness.
The light had vanished the moment it appeared. He could not see clearly what it was that had killed that warrior at all!
“Damn it! Someone is lying in ambush! Quick, wa—”
Sotor’s voice came to an abrupt stop. Within his horrified eyes, the lingering reflection of that fierce sword gleam still remained...