Night Raven Master

Chapter 177 Predator Hut?

"Ok?"

When Art came to the castle, he didn't enter directly.

After adjusting his bow tie, shadow crows emerged from the shadows between his hat, sleeves, trousers, pockets, and even between his shirt and tuxedo.

The bodies of the huge group of shadow crows gradually solidified, like a black cloud covering the sky and the sun, covering the castle in an instant.

"Explore from the shadows."

The shadow crows who received the order landed in the shadows of the castle. The moment they landed, their bodies turned into a pool of shadows, blending with the shadows of the castle.

After giving the order, Art adjusted the top hat, looked at the black and gray eyes inside, slightly raised the corners of his mouth, and put the top hat back on his head.

Because it moves by jumping in the shadow world, it cannot carry other crows.

And under such circumstances, the effect of the hat-trick came out——

He can exchange for other types of crows whenever needed.

As a regular troop Shadow Crows are applicable in most situations and can be carried around, hat trick is useful even after learning the ability to hide crows.

After observing briefly in front of the gate, Yate's body turned into a black shadow, and entered the castle through the crack of the gate by passing through the shadows.

The large hall was pitch black. Although it was daytime, the intensity of the dim light entering the castle through the broken windows became weaker due to the heavy snow.

He sniffed his nose lightly and frowned slightly.

There was an unpleasant stench left in the hall. Although it had almost dissipated, what filled the nostrils was mostly the cold air, but this smell could not be ignored.

A pair of eyes emerged from the shadow of the lower edge of the top hat, and their eyes swept across the hall. Through shared vision, Art was also able to see the scene clearly.

Some simple furniture is placed in the hall, covered with dust and snow from the broken windows.

A bench like a sofa.

A simple sleeping bag that looks like a mercenary left behind.

A round table that was broken in half from the middle, as if cut off by a sharp weapon.

A long rusty sword.

Like the target of venting anger, the carpet was cut to pieces.

The soles of his feet rubbed against the ground, scraping away a piece of snow, exposing fragments of the carpet that had been frozen like jerky.

It seems to have been abandoned for a long time.

Turning his eyes to the wall, Art first observed the lamps, just like most castles, every once in a while, there will be a lamp that is broken, and there is no burning material such as grease on it. The same goes for the giant light fixtures that hang from the ceiling.

Besides
painting.

On the right side of each lamp, there is an oil painting, just like a gallery for display.

Divided by type, some are landscape paintings, some are utensil paintings, and some are figure paintings.

However, the styles of these paintings are quite different. Some paintings are abstract in lines and implication, combined with various geometric shapes abstractly, some are realistic and look like photos, and some pay great attention to light and shadow rendering, which has a style of impressionism.

While waiting for the search results from other shadow crows, he was thinking about something.

Art rested his right hand on his left arm, touched his chin with his left hand, and a light flashed from the twisted lens hanging in front of his right eye.

He stretched out his hand, and touched the picture frame in front of him with the palm of the white glove.

Kaka-

It was originally a painting of a smiling female portrait, and the expression changed instantly. The part that used to be the eyes suddenly split open, and a mouth full of fangs like a lamprey, which took up half the width of the face, bit towards Atex. out of hand.

Yate just opened his palm indifferently, and a ball with a metal shell was directly stuffed into this mouth.

click -

When it bit the ball, Art had already pulled back a few meters.

The moment the soles of the feet hit the ground, there was a loud bang.

boom! ! !
Under the terrifying explosion, flesh and blood splattered.

Tilting his head slightly, a piece of flesh with teeth flew past his ear, and a dark ring spirit appeared in front of him, blocking some pieces of flesh and gravel.

The evaluation recorded in the alchemy textbook flashed in my mind:

"Alchemy bombs, any alchemical items, including alchemical products that may appear when refining potions."

Unstable alchemical items can be counted as alchemical bombs.

Just like the one just now——

[Excessive Shock Gloves lv6: Simple alchemy gloves.

Impact lv6: It will cause strong impact damage when directly attacking.

Excess Explosion lv4: A strong explosion will be produced when an attack above the limit is performed.

——"The failed alchemy item used too much shock grass, and there were mistakes in coordination, and the material could not bear it."]

Originally, he planned to refine gloves that could increase strength and damage, but the result was not as he expected. Among the 21 alchemy items, only five were barely considered successful.

Others can basically only be used as alchemy bombs.

Pick up a piece of flesh and put it in your inventory:

[Personal body part lv3: The body part of the pseudomorph with teeth looks very fresh. ——"Bombs can't be bitten casually"]

It really is a mimic.

Because of Prome, he is very familiar with the characteristics of mimics, especially the shadow crows that walk along the shadow of the wall. After the warning came, he immediately thought of mimics, undead and similar monsters. of several organisms.

Could this castle be a predatory hut where swarms of mimics gather?

In the previous hunter's hut, Prome's idea of ​​gathering a large number of mimics is not an original and unique idea. In addition to large-scale mimics, some small mimics have the characteristics of gathering themselves.

The bark of a certain tree in a dense forest might be full of mimics.

The stone pestle in the mountains, even a piece of stone may be a mimic.

In the swamp, the grass and puddles under your feet may be mimics.

Especially after encountering a disaster like the cold winter, there are many cases where mimics hide in abandoned buildings.

It is for this reason that this feature is called a predation area or a predation hut.

"If it's a predator hut where mimics gather"

Art ordered to the shadow crow, changing the vague "search" command to search for "things that move."

If there were any living creatures in the castle, they would move under the sound of such an explosion.

Rather than spending time and energy looking for it, it is a better choice to let the things hidden in the castle appear by themselves.

If you are in danger, just hide in the shadow world, and then control the shadow crow to attack.

There shouldn't be that kind of method against shadow stealth here. Even if shadow jumping doesn't work, you can finally consider the Phantom Realm.

Anyway, he didn't panic.

With all kinds of life-saving means, his safety has been fully guaranteed.

After confirming that the mimic in the picture frame was dead, Art approached the wall where the picture frame was.

After the explosion, the wall shattered in a small area, and an incomplete rectangular corpse was embedded in the wall.

Judging from the situation, there is a groove behind the picture frame, and this mimic turned itself into a biscuit or tile shape, embedded in the wall, simulating its body like a painting.

For food, there are not many monsters that do this.

The brown earth demon crow captured before is also a monster like this.

Afterwards, he began to check the paintings one by one, shadow crows shuttled across the wall, and then took a bite from time to time——

The mournful cries of the mimics rang out one after another in the hall.

Among the dozens of transformations, seven mimics were found. After the shadows were eaten by the shadow crows, these mimics died.

After the corpse died, it gradually faded, and finally turned into a glass-like material. It still felt like flesh and blood, but it had become completely transparent.

The faint light directly passed through the corpse and fell to the ground.

Creatures whose shadows were eaten would end up like this in the end.

And the shadow crow has no interest in the corpse of the shadow that has been eaten clean.

A pale black psionic hand emerged, holding a piece of transparent corpse with eye outlines that should be a head.

"Every time I see it, it feels amazing, the skill of Shadow Devouring."

This kind of ability is nothing in the shadow world. There are many shadow creatures with similar abilities, but in the plane of glory, there are not many such abilities.

I heard that there is a powerful creature in the astral world that can swallow a person's existence. After being swallowed by this creature, all his existence and other people's memory of him will disappear, as if he never existed.

This is also what is known as the third type of death - non-existence.

The first type of death - the death of the body.

The second type of death - the annihilation of the soul.

Death of the third kind - non-existence.

This is a theory put forward by a wizard from the Glory Empire.

The first and second types of death are fine, but Art cannot imagine the third type of death, and it is also difficult for him to understand how the third type of death is achieved.

If it no longer exists, how do others know that "there is such a person" "does not exist"?
By comparing a certain phenomenon with the memory, because of the blankness of the memory, you feel a violation, so you notice it?

Moreover, memory is the information record of each individual. What kind of power is it to be able to erase the memories of different information of related people at the same time?
And just when Yate was about to continue the investigation, suddenly, the crow watching in the shadow of the castle gate issued a warning.

"What?" Arthur was surprised with a hint of doubt, "Someone is approaching the castle?"

At this time?In a blizzard?
He came here by jumping from the shadows, so naturally he didn't have to worry about a snowstorm.

And if it is other people, it is more than [-] kilometers away from Dullard County City, and it is also [-] to [-] kilometers away from the nearest village or small town.

Under such a journey, he came to this castle under the heavy snow that was falling and the severe weather that might cause a blizzard?

Taking a deep look at the gate of the castle, Art's body became pitch black, and he took a step back, entering the shadow of the wall.

(End of this chapter)