Chapter 665 I’m a Demigod
Densely packed translucent ghosts surrounded them.
Not to mention Stephanie, even Roland felt a little uneasy.
Because only a small number of these ghosts were fully in human form, while the rest were in the state when they had died.
Some had loose tongues, broken arms and legs, wobbling intestines, and so on.
All sorts of grotesque shapes and forms.
Roland took a glance and twisted his head to say, “Stephanie, I’d want to ask a question. Didn’t any of you use Dust of Appearance to check it out during your previous worships?” She shook her head repeatedly, clutching Roland’s arm even harder.
Roland carefully examined for a while longer and said, “These ghosts, it seems, are all members of the royal family.”
Hmm?
Although Stephanie was afraid, she had not been the First Princess for so many years for nothing, presiding over many great events and having a large number of imperial guards under her command.
She’d experienced great events and seen storms and blood… If tens of thousands of living people stood in front of her, her face wouldn’t even twitch.
But these were a bunch of terrifying ghosts.
She was scared, but not so scared that she didn’t dare to speak or move.
Hearing Roland’s words, she swept her eyes over and then found that the ghosts were all wearing royal clothing. There were even elderly ghosts wearing crowns.
Something suddenly occurred to Stephanie as her eyes began to search through these ghosts, and soon, her eyes were fixed on a middle-aged woman.
Gradually, the fear faded from her face, and there were even traces of tears in her eyes.
“Mother!”
Stephanie’s eyes were on a certain middle-aged woman among the ghosts. She let go of Roland’s hand and subconsciously took a few steps forward.
But the middle-aged female ghost smiled and shook her head. Stephanie stopped in her tracks. She just stared at the middle-aged woman for some time.
The ghosts just watched and they didn’t take another step forward.
Stephanie also just watched and didn’t want to go forward.
Soon, the ghosts all disappeared.
The time limit for the Dust of Appearance had passed.
Stephanie wiped her eyes and returned to Roland’s side.
There was much less fear on her face now.
Roland quirked his head and asked, “Do you need me to use the Dust of Appearance again?”
“No.” Stephanie shook her head. “I’m content to know that my mother is here.”
“Shall we continue?”
Stephanie walked ahead of her own accord and said lightly, “I’ll lead the way.”
Compared to before she entered the royal tomb, the current Stephanie gave off a more steady feeling.
It seemed to be as if she had a sense of security.
But this seemed normal. These so-called ghosts were almost all members of the royal family, probably royals from hundreds, even thousands of years ago. However, Roland thought it strange that the Nether God didn’t collect these souls with so many of them crammed into one place.
Stephanie’s footsteps grew faster and faster.
After crossing several high bridges and climbing several stone steps, Roland felt like he was going to get lost when the two finally climbed up to a platform.
The platform was large, and only by standing here did Roland realize that it seemed to be the center of the entire royal tomb.
The densely packed stone bridges around it, forming a network, had just covered it up. From the direction they came, this place couldn’t be seen at all.
In the center of the platform, there was a functioning magic array.
Although the magic glow was there, it was a cold light and didn’t travel far. More importantly, the center where this magic array was located was a bit lower and more concave than the surrounding area.
“Payne’s legendary necklace, it’s right in the center of the magic array.” Stephanie stood between the magic array and said, “It’s where we usually worship, but the vast majority of us are not sure what this magic array does. I guess Father knows, but he hasn’t told me about it.”
Roland walked over to the magic array and examined it carefully.
The magic array was a very common circular shape, and the magic pattern would slowly brighten and lighten again as if it were breathing
And in the center of the magic array, there was indeed a necklace made purely of white crystal. There were clouds of magic power faintly surging in each crystal fragment as big as a thumb.
He looked at it for a while and finally found the entry point of the magic array.
At this point, Stephanie came over and stood next to him. She asked, “Can you tell anything?”
“A rough idea, but it will take time to confirm.” Roland looked around. “Do you still see the glowing female spirit now?”.
Stephanie shook her head repeatedly. “I guess she’s probably also part of the royal family.”
“That’s hard to say.”
Stephanie became vigilant and looked at Roland questioningly.
Roland crouched down and gently touched the magic array with the tip of his finger. A tiny bolt of lightning wrapped around Roland’s finger before quickly disappearing again. He stood up again and said, “There is a vague unholy aura here, exactly like the infested area in your soul, and also very similar to the one in Peter, yet not the same individual.”
“What does that mean?”
Stephanie didn’t know much about magic, so she always followed the rule of asking questions if she didn’t understand.
“I don’t know exactly what the woman you saw looked like, but I do know that she more than likely came from the same place as the devil Peter provoked.
Stephanie looked annoyed. “In other words, these devils are coming for the capital?”
“Most likely!”
Roland walked around the magic array and then said, “Now I know, in general, what this magic array is for.” “Oh?”
“It’s used to protect the soul while isolating it from outside detection.” Roland clicked his tongue. “So that’s why this royal tomb is filled with ghosts.”
Stephanie thought about it and said, “But what is the purpose of this, another kind of immortality?”
“I guess so.” Roland thought for a short while and asked, “What was the name of the king who cast the bronze gate and threw iron blocks into the water?”
“Payne?”
“Hmph, as expected.” Roland laughed. “Actually, the royal family’s trump card is not that exaggerated bronze door, nor those massive iron blocks that were thrown into the water, but the ghosts of the royal family members in this royal tomb.”
“Ghosts?”
Roland nodded. “I just looked at them, and each of these ghosts has decent strength, which means that this is a terrifying army of ghost professionals, and once the royal family is in danger, I guess that’s the time to release them.”
Stephanie froze for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands lightly. “Not bad for an ancestor, thinking about the long term.” “But this still doesn’t solve the problem of the infested area in your spiritual world.” Roland looked at the necklace placed in the magic array. “This thing is the eye of the array, and for a long time, it has been providing the magic array energy. Also, ordinary people can’t take it out-the magic array comes with a protection function-I guess the Third Prince just couldn’t enter the magic array, which is why he returned empty-handed. But I’m curious, if this magic necklace is not a thousand years old, it’s at least a hundred years old, right? Even the energy of the magic brick would be used up by supplying such a large magic array. How is it still supplying energy now?”
Stephanie showed an apologetic expression.
The magic theories that even Roland didn’t know about, she couldn’t possibly recognize. “I’ll check it out.”
Roland’s curiosity as a Mage was piqued. He spread out his mental threads and reached out toward the eye of the magic array. Soon, a dozen mental threads were tied to the magic necklace in the middle. Upon contact, one could feel a constant flow of magic from the magic necklace—not a large outflow, not much at all, but something was wrong for it to have been flowing like that for hundreds, even thousands of years.
Roland’s mental strands reached into the magic necklace and soon found something peculiar.
This magic necklace came with a small spiritual world.
And the magic flowed from this small spiritual world.
Roland’s mental threads didn’t hesitate to drill a hole in the exterior of the small world and poke inside.
Then the image in his mind flashed, and he found himself standing on a desolate red land.
In front of Roland, an old man was sitting, wearing a crown.
And farther away, there was a huge, walking, winged devil.
He was two times larger than all the walking winged devils Roland had seen in the Realm of Devils.
Even on all fours, the upper half of its human body was at least six meters tall.
The walking winged devil had a rather painful expression, and it kept bleeding green blood, which was still gurgling and bubbling onto the ground before it gushed into the strata and disappeared.
Is the magic outflow… because of this?
Roland set his sights on the old man.
The old man wearing the crown was lost in thought, looking into the distance. Then he seemed to feel Roland’s gaze but didn’t turn his head and simply spoke, “Lur… na… you still want to fight… me…?”
He spoke in a hesitant voice as if he hadn’t spoken in so long that he didn’t even know how to say the words anymore.
Roland answered, “I am not Lurna. Old man, who are you?”
When the old man heard Roland’s words, his entire body shook, and then he slowly twisted his head. His eyes, which had almost been completely deadened and lost, came back to
life.
“Oh my goddess, it’s actually a young outsider.”
He looked at Roland with fervent eyes and gradually stood up. “I can’t believe it.” Roland noticed that this old man seemed to be on the verge of tears.
Why’s he so excited? He subconsciously took a few steps back.
Watching Roland back away, the old man became anxious. “Don’t go, don’t go. I don’t mean to hurt you, come and talk to me. I haven’t talked to a normal person in over seven hundred years.”
Roland turned his head to look nearby at the bound and “sleeping” walking winged devil on the ground!
“Old man, who are you?”
“I am the seventh king of Fareins.” The old man squared his golden crown. “King Payne the Lionheart.”
“Payne’s legendary necklace…” “I made it.” He waved his hand and a round table and chairs appeared between the two, followed by some fruit wine, and pastries. “Young man, tell me, how are things outside
now?”
“The country of Fareins is still the most powerful.” Roland sat down on the chair and said, “The country is very peaceful now.”
“Has the country expanded yet?”
“Not sure.”
“How can you not know that?” asked King Payne, clearly anxious. “It’s not like I’m from Fareins.” Roland smiled. “Besides, there’s no continuous historical record of the royal family. I have no idea how big the country of Fareins was a few hundred years ago.”
“North to Froststar Kingdom, west to the Elven Forest, and south to the Red Sea of Orcs.” old Payne smiled smugly. “Most of it I conquered.”
“That’s not even close.” Roland thought about it and said, “I guess it’s only a third of what it was in your day.”
“Rubbish, unfilial, useless things.” Old Payne was so angry that his beard curled up as he heard this. “Was it easy for me to conquer so much land? I would have been called emperor soon if the Church of Light hadn’t screwed things up… By the way, how is the Church of Light doing now?”
“Same as the Fareins Kingdom, relatively balanced.”
Old Payne breathed in relief. “That’s good, that’s good.”
“Old king, you actually conquered such a large territory, so I guess you must be good at governing the country and fighting wars,” said Roland.
“All average.” Old Payne smiled smugly. “I’m best at magic. Back then the second strongest Mage was me, the Demigod Payne, King Payne the Lionheart. Every time I fought, I hurled fifty fire meteors at the same time. Not many people could stand up to it, ha ha hahaha!”
Demigod!
Roland was surprised.
Looking at Roland’s expression, old Payne felt even vainer, and his laughter became even more arrogant.
Roland couldn’t help but ask, “So, who was number one?”
“Mystra!” Payne’s smile instantly lost half its brightness. “That twat, who is younger than me, only took thirty years to surpass me. This world is so unfair.”
Roland felt that he was being overshadowed. Payne had reached Demigod and still said that the world was unfair.
How many people in the Red Tower of Magic had a lifetime goal of becoming a Legend? Demigod was too much for them to even think about. Legends like Alfred, who thought that they would definitely have no chance of reaching Demigod in the remaining tens or hundreds of years of their lives, although they were smiling on the surface, they felt despair on the inside.
“That’s too modest of you, old king, it’s too much.” Roland felt like he was being overpowered in magic talent for the first time.
It felt odd.
Old Payne laughed. “It’s fine. I’ll teach you a few tricks to quickly build up your magic cap, and even if you can’t be as amazing as me, you definitely won’t be worse than other geniuses.”
Roland’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh? Old man, please do tell.”
“The first method is…” Old Payne was about to recount his experience when he suddenly remembered something. “Wait, I almost forgot, who are you?”
“Roland. A member of the Red Magic Tower.”
“The Red Magic Tower?” Old Payne shook his head. “Never heard of it. How did you get into the Fareins royal tomb? You are an outsider; are you a tomb raider?” “I’m a Mage, not a tomb raider.”
“Heh, you think I’m not a Mage?” Old Payne looked contemptuous. “The more powerful a Mage is, the more he likes to raid tombs. There is a lot of knowledge of the past in these places, and if you can find books or records on magic, you’ll be rich. And most of the ancient books are only readable by powerful Mages who know Language Proficiency, so generally speaking, Mages are the ones who like to raid tombs the most.”
Roland felt he had a good point and couldn’t argue with it.
“Forget it. Do me a small favor, and I’ll teach you the skill of building up your magic cap.”
“Please go ahead.” Roland stood up. “Just don’t ask me to kill and slay gods.”
