NOVEL NEXT Chapter 45 - In the Archives
Chapter 45: In the Archives
Translator: CKtalon
In the Astral Lighthouse’s archives, two pitch-black gems the size of half a person floated in midair, emitting a faint chill.
Although William had been hiding in the shadows with Walking Shadow, he got into trouble when he entered the archives.
He never expected the guardian to be a Shadow Soul. As he strolled along the shadows cast by the rows of bookshelves, he bumped into two pitch-black shadows who were patrolling in the shadows around the corner.
The two pitch-black, deformed figures and the shadowy William looked at each other for a few seconds. In a daze, William felt as if a green exclamation mark had jumped out of his head.
Before the two Shadow Souls sounded the alarm, he threw out two spinning illusory ring blades to imprison them.
Fortunately, I reacted quickly.
William wiped the nonexistent sweat on his forehead and muttered to himself.
Otherwise, he needed to use Peerless Stealth.
If he hadn’t discovered that this Astral Lighthouse was essentially a Moon Realm rift, he might not have felt any psychological pressure when he turned peerless here.
It didn’t matter if the tower was destroyed if they fought. In any case, he had long made up his mind to uproot all the Astral Lighthouses on the continent. It didn’t matter if it happened sooner or later.
However, even he couldn’t estimate what would happen if he destroyed the tower without making any preparations.
Perhaps he would find the Moon Realm portal slapping him in the face?
Thankfully, the spell—Shadow Cage—that imprisoned the two Shadow Souls lasted long enough. It probably wouldn’t remove itself even after he finished viewing the entire tower.
After applying another layer of illusion disguise over the Shadow Cage, William walked to the next row of archive racks and checked.
Most of the files here contained the personal information of registered mages. These things were very valuable after he took over Thorn City, but they were of no help to him now.
As he walked, he flipped through them. This took him about ten minutes before he finally arrived at the last row of the archive shelves.
“Regarding the activity distribution of the Moon Realm parishes and underground organizations in the Blackwater Province?”
William read the annotations on the archive shelf and became intrigued. He reached out and prepared to pull out the documents to take a look.
However, a floating magic halo blocked his hand.
“Eh?”
William was slightly surprised. He was still in the illusory state of Walking Shadow. Ordinary defensive barriers shouldn’t be able to stop him.
Moreover, it was a relatively high-level defensive barrier?
William took out an appraisal scroll from his spatial rift and pasted it in front of the archive shelf. As the scroll burst into a faint blue flame before turning to ashes, a message appeared in his mind.
“It has a self-destruct function?”
According to the information from the appraisal scroll, if he cracked the barrier by force, it would incinerate the files within.
This was a spell that didn’t exist in his era. It was probably developed later due to the need for confidentiality.
This troubled William.
Dissecting the barrier spell required time and equipment. He couldn’t undo the spell quickly.
“If only Sibylla were here at this time.”
Looking at the unfamiliar magical barrier in front of him, William suddenly missed his companion Judge.
Sibylla Norn was the greatest astrologer of that era. She had the Eye of God bestowed by the Holy Spirit, the Lady, and could understand the composition of all enchantments and barrier spells at a glance. It was also because of this ability that she was the strongest enchanter and barrier master of that era.
It was said that in her eyes, the entire world was a painting woven from pure magic. She only needed to slightly adjust the direction of the magical fabric to turn a spell on its head.
William also saved a large sum of money from buying appraisal scrolls in the early stages of the game thanks to her. The appraisal scrolls extracted in the later stages of the game were at 99+ in his backpack all year round.
To ensure she had both the Eye of God and Legendary Craftsman, William reloaded his save more than 200 times.
He turned delirious from all the reloading to the point of not caring much when he eventually got the negative status of Alcoholism alongside his goal.
It was normal for an Astrologer and Enchanter to drink more alcohol. That was what William thought back then.
It was only when he asked her to enchant his equipment and her accidentally adding the wrong stats because she was drunk that William realized that he had been too hasty.
A Vampire-only weapon with the Exorcism attribute, a desert set that allowed one to breathe underwater, assassination daggers with explosive runes, and stealth sets that automatically activated Fire Cloak.
William seriously suspected that she was a demon who wanted to tease the user.
He couldn’t help but laugh now that he recalled all the shenanigans.
He wondered if she was…
William came back to his senses.
It was already a thousand years later. To mortals who seldom lived past a hundred years, she should be long gone.
A sudden feeling of loss filled his chest.
He wondered what her outcome was. Did she fulfill her goal of opening a tavern in the Storm Kingdom’s Myriad Feet City after retirement and fill her wine cellar with different spirits from all over the Vic Continent?
When he was done with the matters in Blackwater Province, he planned on visiting Myriad Feet City to take a look.
After making this decision, William turned his attention to the archive shelf.
He sighed.
It seemed like he could only use some clumsy methods.
William snapped his fingers, and a deep spatial rift opened above the archive shelf. A few bandaged hands and spider legs reached out and lifted the entire shelf.
He would slowly study it later.
Legendary summoning spell, Gluttony Realm Demon.
This spatial rift was a summoned creature to begin with. The hands that reached out were its organ for hunting, and it would gradually change according to the prey it swallowed.
Of course, things like shelves were indigestible. To the Gluttony Realm Demon, this was probably as uncomfortable as eating a rock.
It can’t be helped. Opening a large spatial door causes too much commotion. Just be a temporary storage space for the time being. Sorry for being hard on you. I’ll treat you to Lunar Monsters next time…
William steeled his heart and ignored the cry of the summoned creature in the ether domain before leaving the archives.
He had spent too much time inside.
It’s time to take a look at the Astral Observatory at the top of the tower, William thought.
He continued up the stairs and dodged a few batches of Elemental Souls and moving armor. After circling a few traps and barriers, William finally arrived at the door of the Astral Observatory.
It was also at this moment that a weak star fragment extinguished in the sky full of stars in William’s ether domain.
“Huh?”
William would add the Mark spell to all the enchanted items he made to prevent himself from failing to find his items one day.
Which enchantment tool he made was destroyed?
With this in mind, William quickly checked what the missing star fragments were.
Then, his expression turned serious.
The missing star fragments represented the Phoenix pendant he had given Liliana.