Chapter 111: Accompanying

There are two "deepest points" in Castlevania: one is the Throne Room at the very peak, and the other is the Forgotten Hall in the deepest part of the graveyard underground.

It is impossible to compare the danger levels of the two, but in terms of strangeness and the unknown, the Forgotten Hall in the graveyard is far more cryptic.

"What is buried in the graveyard is not the relatives or subordinates of the Demon King, but the lingering shadows of the commanders of past generations of Castlevania, as well as the echoes of every Demon King. In terms of strength, they might not even be half, or even a tenth, of their prime, but what is most terrifying is their sheer numbers and the encroachment of Chaos!"

Xia Luote said to Su Xing with a grave expression, "The Church's exploration of Castlevania has been ongoing for thousands of years, long before the appearance of the End-Time Giant. Yet... no one has ever explored to its true bottom!"

"The graveyard of Castlevania is bottomless!"

Xia Luote wanted to persuade Su Xing to give up, because the graveyard was truly too dangerous!

If Castlevania itself is a place where Chaos monsters gather, yet still retains intelligent life forms like commanders and Demon Kings, then the graveyard is a place of pure Chaos essence, devoid of any intelligence.

The entities there are the enemies of all life!

Beyond those lingering shadows of past commanders and Demon Kings, there are the Chaos phenomena wandering the graveyard area. These are manifestations of Chaos essence even purer than the monsters—similar to rule-based horror, but far more unsolvable. Some phenomena are truly impossible to resolve; to encounter them is to die instantly!

"Besides these..."

Xia Luote said very seriously to Su Xing, "The chaos in the graveyard is even more pronounced. The entire area of Castlevania changes over time, but there is always a cycle—usually the full moon, or several full moon cycles. The closer you get to the peak's Throne Room, the lower the frequency of map changes. But in the graveyard, it changes at every moment. You might blink and lose the path back. You climb upward, thinking you are ascending, but you find yourself entering the Throne Room of a past Demon King..."

Mary also chimed in from the side, "Yes, before I entered, the Archbishop and the people from the Papal Hall told me that the graveyard is a forbidden zone. For an existence like a Hero, do not waste your life in that forbidden zone. What we should do now is head to the Throne Room; many heroes of extraordinary strength have already gathered there. One more person means one more glimmer of hope."

Su Xing, however, just smiled and said nothing.

He stood up, cupped his hands in a salute to the man and woman, and said, "Thank you both for your help, and thank you for the information from the Church. The green hills remain, the clear waters flow; we shall meet again if fate allows!"

Having said this, he turned to leave the Return Chamber.

Xia Luote immediately called out to him from behind, "Since you are determined to go to the graveyard, let us travel together."

Su Xing looked at him in confusion. Xia Luote explained, "We are currently in the Entrance Area. To get to the graveyard, we need to finish the Entrance Area, enter the Corridor Area, then enter the Sewer Area from the middle of the Reception Hall, and only at the very bottom of the sewer is the entrance to the graveyard. Do you know the general paths for these areas?"

Su Xing shook his head blankly. Xia Luote laughed, "We do."

Mary also added with a smile, "We are a low-rank extraordinary exploration squad. Unlike those extraordinary hero teams that kill Demon King commanders to gain strength and climb upward, our mission is to explore any area we can reach, record the changes in monsters, track the commanders, and record the locations of Return Chambers and Safe Zones."

Xia Luote took over the conversation, "Exactly. We have no clear destination or specific task. Simply put, if we die, we die. So we can perfectly well travel with you until the entrance to the graveyard. It can be said that no one is more familiar with the paths through these areas than we are."

Su Xing was naturally overjoyed, but he also knew that he truly owed them a debt.

Both of them were quite weak. In Su Xing's perception, the man was stronger, but he claimed to be a Second-Rank Saint-Name extraordinary, so the woman was likely between First and Second Rank.

To be honest, Su Xing felt they couldn't even survive in this Entrance Area, yet they were willing to go deeper, essentially risking their lives to accompany him.

He wanted to refuse, but the words wouldn't come out. On the other side was Jiu Jiu, who had fallen into such a dangerous place, and he had absolutely no idea of the specific path. If he were to grope his way there slowly, dozens of days might pass, and he dared not imagine what would happen to Jiu Jiu.

"I..."

Su Xing turned and cupped his hands, but couldn't utter a complete sentence.

He didn't say much else. This debt of them risking their lives to accompany him could not be repaid with words; he could only keep it firmly in his heart.

At that, the three of them left the Return Chamber. Less than half a day had passed outside, and no new monsters had spawned. Xia Luote began to introduce their extraordinary systems and strength to Su Xing.

Both were Saint-Name climbers, but the Saint-Name is sacred and cannot be spoken of casually to outsiders, so the two only introduced the specific capabilities of their extraordinary systems.

Xia Luote could manifest an emotion of "sloth" to make the opponent "hold back." Simply put, it caused the opponent's exerted power to drop by a percentage. This power was comprehensive, including raw physical strength, attack speed, reaction speed, extraordinary abilities, and even the speed of thought.

He was walking the path of sublimation through the Seven Deadly Sins—Sloth. According to him, as he grew stronger, the percentage of the reduction would increase, and each rank promotion would grant an additional extraordinary power related to the domain of Sloth.

The woman, named Mary, walked the path of sublimation through Benevolence. She was currently a First-Rank extraordinary and only had one ability: enhancing the efficacy of Holy Water, giving it slight healing and pollution-dispelling properties. This was an extraordinary power that could only maintain the enhanced effect of the Holy Water for five minutes, so it had to be consumed within that time and could not be manufactured in advance for long-term storage. This was an excellent logistical and medical support ability. Similarly, as her Saint-Name rank climbed, her extraordinary power would also be enhanced, and she would gain new extraordinary powers with each rank promotion.

Finally, there was Su Xing... uh, uh...

Great strength, knows martial arts, high stamina, and possesses the Sleepless Spiritual Light that can purify pollution.

Simply put, aside from a light-ball spell, Su Xing had maxed out his warrior skill points—tripping, dual-wielding attacks, two-handed attacks, sweeping strikes, great sweeping strikes, and so on.

How should a mage add points? Waiting online, it's urgent. jpg.

However, Xia Luote and the woman showed no surprise. On the contrary, Mary said happily, "Your extraordinary power is just like that of a hero from the Age of Gods. According to the Church's records, heroes of that era could tear apart sea monsters with their bare hands and strangle evil dragons. It is said that the strongest God-Blooded Heroes even killed Titans that attacked Mount Olympus."

Xia Luote also nodded in agreement, "This is a pure combat-type extraordinary power. Among Saint-Name climbers, only the Pride path of the Seven Deadly Sins is similar, but the purity is insufficient, and they have some flashy extraordinary powers that are far inferior to the pure combat prowess of the heroes of the Age of Gods."

Su Xing walked in the front, his face turning red.

Heaven and earth be my witness, if he had a choice, he wouldn't want this pure physical fighting style at all!

How cool was Chu Minghao? Walking the world with a sword box, looking at whoever he disliked and unleashing the Ten Thousand Swords Return to Sect—that was what you called cool, right?

Regardless, with two veterans leading the team, Wu Pifu's speed in moving forward was indeed much faster. He also discovered that the two had a set of identification methods. The passages they entered and the rooms they entered usually had very few monsters. Rooms with twenty or thirty monsters were considered many, and relatively speaking, the monsters were also weaker. For him, it was just a "chirp" monster with one slap. After walking for a while, the three of them came to an internal garden area from the room.

Xia Luote introduced, "This is the Corridor Area. It's mostly these garden-connected passages. The monsters here are one rank stronger than those in the Entrance Area, but as long as you don't encounter elite monsters, even a group of ordinary people can handle them."

!

Mary also said with a smile, "There are picnic tables in some of the gardens here. There are usually no monsters there, so we can have a full meal and use them as safe zones for rest."

Su Xing nodded, still letting the two lead the way. He suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, with so many people entering Castlevania, haven't there been conflicts, clashes, or alliances and trades?"

Xia Luote answered with a smile, "How could there not be? Hostile extraordinary factions will clash. Even if they are all here to deal with the End-Time Giant, once they meet, they often end up fighting. Of course, they maintain restraint and a tacit understanding toward each other, unless the difference in strength is too great, not to mention that. As for alliances and trades, they do exist. Usually, it's teams of extraordinary factions with complete personnel and strong strength that unite to deal with commanders."

"As for the trading area, or the public safe zone, it's in the Library Area. We haven't been there, but the Church's records say there is a huge safe zone that isolates Chaos pollution. However, you can only stay there for seven days per full moon cycle, which can be counted separately. For extraordinary people fighting in Castlevania, this is the only place for thorough rest besides the Return Chamber. I heard it has already developed into a small town-like area."

How wonderful, Su Xing thought.

At this moment, the three of them had passed through three rooms and two gardens, yet they hadn't encountered a single monster. Either their luck was extremely good, or someone had cleared the monsters ahead of them.

Then, as they entered a garden area again, they saw three people eating and drinking at a dining table ahead.

When Xia Luote saw these three people, his face darkened. He whispered to Su Xing, "They are dark forces, not Chaos monsters, but they are not good people—they have wantonly used people for experiments and committed massacres in the real world... However, thanks to you, with a powerhouse as strong as you by our side, these bullying cowards will absolutely not dare to provoke us easily."

Mary also nodded repeatedly, "They are also reconnaissance squads of a similar rank to us, and since they are dark forces, they are the most sensible."

Su Xing, however, just wanted to cover his face.

Sure enough, as soon as the three saw Xia Luote and Mary, they all snorted coldly. It was clear they were old acquaintances, and old acquaintances with opposing factions at that.

However, the next second, a skinny old man stood up from the dining table. He held a skull staff and sneered, "Two pieces of trash, bringing along a big piece of trash who is a mortal! Why not give me this mortal? I can just extract his soul to manufacture a weapon!"

Xia Luote: "?"

Mary: "?"

Su Xing: "..."

The skinny old man pointed his skull staff directly at Su Xing.

(End of chapter)