Chapter 274 Life Cycle 3

[1380 Exp]

[Your skeleton has been slain]

A large amount of exp had accumulated while Jay escaped the gatehouse, sneaking through the wall and finally making it to the castle; of course it wasn’t without casualty.

“Two skeletons left.” Jay thought, keeping track of the mass summoning spell he left behind.

“Something probably flanked them from the other passage; another intelligent knight, I’m guessing. It probably would’ve been worse if we didn’t kill the intelligent knight on the other flank.” He nodded.

Pushing on, Jay entered the lighted passage which led deeper into the castle. The air turned from a stale dirt smell to, oddly, a pleasantly fresh forest smell.

Various lamps and jars placed on the walls and the ground throughout the passage radiated the leaf-green light; instead of a magic flame within the old glass iron lamps, a glowing green fluid filled them.

Jay picked up a lamp and gazed at the luminous fluid sloshing around inside.

“Huh. Similar to a luminous orb.” Jay thought, seeing that it has the same strength and intensity of light.

“It’s probably produced by the plant. The knights don’t seem smart enough.”

Jay continued through the passage and entered a large hall, complete with a luxurious red carpet. Various art pieces lined the walls, with occasional stone pillars, featuring carvings of exquisite depictions of knights.

The hall itself was silent, completely insulated from the battle in other parts of the castle.. Other passageways exited the hall; the ones with doors opened up into adjoining rooms, while the ones without led to other areas.

It was lit by more jars filled with the luminous green fluid, making it easy to see everything.

The casual splendor of the room charmed Jay, but there was no time to sufficiently enjoy it.

Curious, Jay picked up a jar and emptied it. It felt warm as he touched the jar, and when the liquid splashed onto the floor, it released both light and steam. However, after the gaseous mist cleared, there was nothing left. No puddle, and no light. Just an empty jar.

“Oh… Oops.” Jay shrugged, putting the empty jar back into place.

Under the red carpets were more of the plant roots, and it was a welcome sight as Jay had seen none since entering the gatehouse; they were his guide to the heart of the plant.

“Strange. They’re not like the roots outside, trying to cover everything. They seem more functional, somehow?”

The roots within the room were all single, straight, and unbranched. More like vines than roots. It was like each of them had their own mission and wasted no energy on anything else.

Jay followed one of the roots, leading him to a door in the hallway.

(Red, get ready.)

Jay cautiously placed his hand on the latch and turned. Readying his sword, he pushed it open with the tip of his blade.

Red stepped forward, ready for whatever was on the other side. However, as the door swung open, no enemies were waiting.

Instead, there were more of those strange basins filled with the green fluid.

“Oh. Interesting…” Jay approached. “this must be like their food. It’s no wonder they reacted so strongly to a few of those flesh pits being cut off.”

The basin itself was made from the single root that entered the room, having enlarged at the base to form a foundation, with a large bowl structure on top. If there was water in it instead of green fluid, Jay would have mistaken it for a wooden hand washing sculpture of some sort.

Jay raised a sword to cut it down, but just before he swung, he decided against it.

“If they knew we cut the roots before, they’re going to know if I cut this. The plant is warning the knights somehow.” He thought.

“As for how it communicates with the knights, I can’t be sure, but neither does it matter. After destroying the plant, this dungeon will hopefully allow me to exit, so ultimately, who cares?”

“As for leaving this dungeon, I still need to figure out who is innocent. Plus, the needle of the starved only ever says ‘tainted’, so it’s not much use at all. Everything might as well be tainted.” He shook his head.

Jay casually pulled out the needle and pricked the root. After a moment it turned the familiar red color.

“Red. Tainted. Even the damn plant is tainted.” He smiled reluctantly.

Jay wasn’t sure how often they patrolled this area, so he kept Red waiting in one room just behind a half-closed door, while he stayed close to the entrances of various rooms he searched. If enemies came through here, they could simply hide, wait for them to pass and hope that they didn’t enter either of the rooms they were hiding in.

Jay covertly entered another room, yet this time no root led under the door, so he wasn’t as cautious of enemies.

Inside the room was a glass table with various test tubes and other laboratory instruments Jay couldn’t identify.

“Strange… it doesn’t match the rest of the castle at all. I was expecting to find weapon racks, sculptures, or a storeroom.” He thought.

It seemed far more advanced than the castle it was in. After a quick search, he found nothing of interest, and couldn’t add anything to his inventory, so he turned to leave, placing his hand on the door latch.

“Must be a small research area by whoever set up this experiment.” He guessed, remembering the corpse in the white coat at the top of the tower.

Jay was about to exit the room, yet heard the stomping of heavy armor suits echoing into the hall. For a moment Jay smirked, hiding in the room, feeling as if the passing enemies were moronic, though as he listened to them getting closer, his paranoid thoughts cycled through his mind.

“Damn. If they go down the passageway leading to the wall, they will find the bodies.” Jay thought.

“But if they don’t see any knights at all, they will probably send for help…”

“Though if I kill these, they will notice a patrol missing. Dammit.”

After escaping the gatehouse, Jay bought himself some time by fleeing into the castle. However, there was a trail of dead knights left in his wake. It would only be a matter of time until the knights realized he was in the main castle.

“We may as well slay them now. Better now than later, when they come back in greater numbers.”

(Red get ready.)

Jay cracked the door and peaked through.

There were only two knights, though it sounded like more because of the echoing through the hall and passages.

He steadied his breathing as he prepared to burst out of the door. The knights marched past, about to be in the perfect ambush spot.

Jay took one deep breath in and squeezed the door latch with his sword in the other hand.

However, just before he made a more, they suddenly paused.

Jay held his breath, freezing his body.

The knights, oddly, looked around the room and then awkwardly turned back.

“Huh?” Jay thought. “They were marching confidently, like they were on a mission, and then suddenly seemed… lost?”