Chapter 648: Inspection, Black Ball

Xia Duo concealed his form, tracking the radiation traces left by the Drow, walking through the Villa District of Savile Town again and again, yet the traces were incomplete!

It was impossible to find the initial source of that Drow Assassin!

The earliest starting point he could find was in the Villa District, as if the Drow Assassin had appeared out of thin air, but Xia Duo did not quite believe in such a possibility.

Associating this with the fact that Drow live in the Underdark for long periods and rarely see light, he thought of a possibility—

"Perhaps it is because of the sunlight!"

Xia Duo returned to the "Yishu Xianchang" area again; near the location where the Drow had just been, the radiation traces were still fresh, making it convenient for experimental comparison. He chose a spot with the strongest radiation, summoned a ball of light, and only disintegrated it after a moment.

Faint traces of positive energy remained in the air, while the radiation traces originally left by the Drow had completely vanished without a trace.

This meant that the traces left by the Drow could only be discovered at night; once the night passed, they would be "refreshed."

This also meant that it was almost impossible to track the traces of that Drow Assassin from before dark today.

But likewise, if radiation traces were discovered elsewhere tonight, it would mean that the Drow Assassin had accomplices, because his traces were only in this Villa District area, indicating he had not left the Villa District after dark.

If there were no accomplices, then where did the traces in other places after dark come from?

Or, any traces appearing tomorrow night would indicate that the Drow Assassin had accomplices.

However, Xia Duo was unwilling to drag this out until tomorrow night. The fact that this Drow Assassin did not kill during the day did not mean he could not kill during the day, although this possibility was not high.

If that Drow Assassin had accomplices and went on a killing spree during the day, even if he could be dealt with in the end, the resulting panic and losses would be difficult to eliminate.

Currently, the existence of the Drow Assassin was known only to Elves and a very small number of humans; resolving it as early as possible was the right course of action.

……

The first place Xia Duo checked was the Trade District in the east. There were many outsiders here; if this place were slaughtered by the Drow Assassin, the reputation of Savile Territory would likely be ruined.

Fortunately, after walking around, he did not discover any radiation traces, though he did hear quite a bit of distressing news. When Xia Duo left the Trade District, his expression was somewhat poor.

Afterward, he went to the South District and West District in turn, neither of which had any radiation traces. This made Xia Duo feel slightly better; at least he did not have to worry about the appearance of more Drow assassination incidents.

As for the news he had just heard in the Trade District, since Xia Duo already knew about it, he naturally would not let those fellows succeed easily.

……

Returning to the Tower of Time, Xia Duo immediately went to the basement level and saw the Drow Assassin already locked in the cell, with several people surrounding the outside of the cell.

They were Aiboke, Niya, Saixili, and Xiaolei, who had arrived there somehow.

Seeing Xia Duo, Niya took the initiative to greet him, "Xia Duo, you've come just in time! We were just discussing a strange item this Drow was carrying; you should take a look too!"

"Oh? I'd like to see what could stump you all!"

Xia Duo had just been searching for the radiation traces left by the Drow in Savile Town; although it did not take much time, for a Mage possessing 【Identify】, wanting to know the function of an item would not be too difficult.

Especially for a Magic Item, it basically could not escape the inspection of 【Identify】.

Xia Duo initially thought they had found some ordinary item and were having trouble determining its use, but when he saw the black ball clearly emitting a magic aura, Xia Duo realized that the matter might not be that simple.

So he said, "What were your identification results? Surely you didn't get absolutely no results?"

The Principles of 【Identify】 are similar to sandbox simulations in the field of computer science on Earth, capable of simulating the usage state of a Magic Item from the underlying level. Although it might not be possible to know the specific details of the spell, the function could generally be determined.

Regarding Xia Duo's confusion, Niya said somewhat irritably, "The identification result is that this black ball can emit weak sound waves in a specific direction. What use is that? Yet that Drow was most nervous about this black ball!"

"Have you already interrogated him? Did he say anything?" Xia Duo asked again.

"We asked a few simple questions, but apart from filthy cursing, he didn't say anything else. Uncle Aiboke made him shut up for the time being." Speaking of this, Niya turned her head to look at the unconscious Drow in the cell again, her eyes revealing an expression of extreme disgust.

"So you were just discussing the function of this black ball?"

"That's right!"

"And did you reach any conclusions?"

"I think this should be some kind of communication device, similar to 【Wind Message】, which is why that Drow was so nervous about this black ball, but Uncle Aiboke thinks it is an attack device, because those sound waves, even if very weak, possess a certain degree of aggression."

As for the views of Saixili and Xiaolei, Niya did not say, but from the expressions of the two when Niya was speaking, it was clear that Saixili stood on Niya's side, while Xiaolei leaned more toward Aiboke's view.

And after hearing Niya's description of the black ball, Xia Duo could not help but think of a possibility, so he proposed that he would also identify it, and at the same time, he asked Aiboke to wake up that Drow Assassin.

This way, even if he could not identify anything, he could use mental spells to make the Drow voluntarily confess the issues.

Next, Xia Duo directly chose the 5th-circle 【Identify】, the highest rank he could master, to perform the spellcasting.

After all, when he and Niya were studying the Fielder Spellbook, 5th-circle 【Identify】 was used the most, because they had to frequently check and confirm whether the bridging experiments on the spellbook met expectations, while lower-circle 【Identify】 spells had actually not been used many times.

As the spell was completed, a field that looked like a ball of light, but was actually similar to a "sandbox simulation space," appeared instantly, completely wrapping the black ball.

As the ball of light gradually permeated the black ball, Xia Duo gradually noticed a "simulated black ball" appearing within the field. The spell levels involved did not reach the 5th circle; the spell levels involved in this black ball only went up to the 3rd circle.

Afterward, Xia Duo easily discovered the activation port of this black ball, which is the switch of a Magic Item in the general sense. At the same time, he also performed a simulated activation in the corresponding simulation field.

It was truly as Niya had said: the black ball emitted a beam of flat-cone-shaped sound waves in a specific direction. At the same time, the attributes of the sound waves were also reflected in the simulation field, matching Xia Duo's previous guess.

Just as he was preparing to perform multiple simulations and integrate the information, a series of curses suddenly erupted from the cell to the side. Apart from the lack of Netherese, Xia Duo heard Elvish, Dwarven Language, and several other languages with clearly different styles.

The languages changed repeatedly, and the content did not repeat in the slightest.

Xia Duo could only understand Elvish, but he still had to admit that this Drow was truly a language genius. Any negative vocabulary in Elvish that Xia Duo could think of, could not think of, was straightforward, or was obscure, all came out of this Drow's mouth.

Of course, Xia Duo did not stand on ceremony with him either. He turned and walked to the front of the cell, directly casting 【Stun】 at him. However, this Judgment Spell originating from the 【Projection Plane: Arcane Empire】 was actually ineffective against this Drow Assassin!

He was only slightly stunned for a moment, and the subsequent cursing actually grew even louder.