13 Mink Street

A washroom? The corner of Hewson’s mouth twitched. He turned to look at Karon. “Why did you add that to your design?”

In fact, that particular detail had not taken much effort. The same went for the castle’s exterior design and so on. It only consumed a bit of energy. The cost itself was not high, at least, the overall design was much simpler than Mars’s initial suggestion of directly carving ritual arrays onto the outer walls, because arrays were not made by simple “carving,” just as one could not pile cement into an array pattern and expect it to take effect. An array was an intricate project built within, having unseen parts.

However, before Karon could explain, Mavero spoke first, “Black Keep is generally used in emergency situations, especially for them, as they are about to enter the Reincarnation Gate for the trial. Their main purpose is exploration, not attack, so there is a high probability that the castle will be used when they are under attack or when a teammate has been injured.

“Having a washroom within the castle can effectively accommodate injured teammates and better allow their wounds to be treated.”

Karon immediately said, “Instructor Mavero is right. That is exactly what I was considering.”

Hewson blinked, coughed, and said, “Oh, so that was it.”

“This castle is very good,” Mavero said approvingly. “Have you studied architecture before?”

In fact, the Art imprint scroll did include some architectural blueprints, but expecting a layman to build a house after one look at some plans was simply being too dismissive of professionals. Karon, however, had the Cube Key to help with various deductions, which had allowed him to construct a three-dimensional mental model while building the castle, and he had used extensive calculations to reduce the difficulty of the operation.

“I previously designed and built my own residence.”

“Oh, a manor? I would really like to admire it.”

“It is a funeral home.”

“All right, then it must be even more artistic.”

Mavero pointed at the small black sphere and said, “Begin. Since this is the first connection, I’ll need to help you to establish contact and confirm it.”

“Yes, Instructor.” Karon reached out and gripped the small black sphere.

“Do not resist the mental power it projects toward you. Actively receive it.”

“Understood.” When their mental powers came into contact, Karon’s consciousness began to be drawn in. He quickly found himself standing on an ancient platform, and beside him stood Mavero. Only, at this moment, Mavero’s body was covered with a blurry black shadow.

Karon noticed that Mavero was looking up, so he also raised his head to look upward. He saw an incomparably enormous scythe. Its existence seemed to completely fill the space above them. It was difficult to imagine what kind of existence could possibly wield such a thing.

Mavero said, “That is the War Scythe.”

The War Scythe?

Karon remembered that Mr. Hoffen’s notes contained records about the War Scythe. It was said that its long handle had been tempered from countless bones, while its blade had been condensed from countless dead souls. Often when the God of War, Nathos, had appeared holding it, it had signified the beginning of war and the arrival of death’s harvest.

The God of War was a High God from the early camp of the God of Eternity. After the God of Eternity had lost, the God of Light’s forces had launched an attack on the God of Eternity’s camp. This was the first large-scale war of gods that had broken out at the beginning of the previous epoch. In that battle, the God of War fell, so the God of War’s divine artifact had fallen into the hands of the God of Order, and Marchettini, one of the Twelve Knights, had used it as the foundation to establish the Black Keep Arts system, changing, to a certain extent, the way the Knight Regiments under Order fought.

The black shadow on Mavero’s body began to emerge, as if another person had appeared, but it was still impossible to see clearly. However, as Mavero began chanting and calling out, a beam of white light fell in front of Karon.

“Use the hand with the imprint to touch this light.”

“Yes, Instructor.” Karon reached his hand into the light. A strand of golden rune light flashed on the back of his hand and began to resonate with the white light. Unseen, Karon sensed that some kind of relationship was formed. This relationship was not like a pact; It was much, much weaker than a pact, more like a form of recognition.

The War Scythe was like a banner. Now, it recognized Karon and allowed him to stand beneath it. From this point onward, he would be able to wage war in the name of that banner. In other words, when he used Black Keep to call to it, it would answer his summons. This meant that it was an intact top-tier divine artifact, one capable of serving a role similar to a god: receiving and answering prayers.

“All right, it’s over.” Mavero’s figure began to retreat.

Karon also sensed that his consciousness was being pulled backward. Before he was dragged out of this place, Karon still raised his head once more and looked upward. Was this divine artifact not said to be preserved in the Temple of Order? Then was this place simply a space of consciousness, or was it a certain area inside the Temple of Order?

Before Karon could see anything more clearly, his consciousness returned to his body. He opened his eyes and found himself back in the control room.

“If you have a nightmare tonight in which you are killed, do not panic. That is a normal psychological projection. Anyone who has faced it directly will have a similar experience. You will recover after a while,” Mavero informed him.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you for the reminder.” Karon felt that he should not be so fragile.

“All right. Now, try controlling this castle.” He really was teaching, step by step. It was like receiving after-sales service.

Karon lowered his head and saw that the small black sphere from before had already grown larger. While initially just the size of a tennis ball, it had grown to be about the size of a basketball. When Karon extended his consciousness into it, a black vine appeared from the black sphere and wrapped around his hand. At that moment, Karon completely sensed everything in the castle. The feeling was like suddenly gaining an extra leg or arm on his body.

“Go help move things,” Mavero said to Karon’s squad and Murray’s squad.

Murray’s squad had no complaints. They followed Bart and the others downstairs to move the armaments, as if it was only natural for poor students to have to do more labor no matter where they were.

The armaments were moved in one at a time. Bart and Vintral set up the repeater crossbows beside the tower, and Ashley placed the Imprisonment Cage on a raised platform to one side of the control room. In his own workshop down below, Mars spread out the Array Curtain and tied it to the flagpole. Across the room from Ashley, Blanche arranged her Priest’s Star Chains. Finally, the magic crystal cannon was dragged up and set in place by Murray personally leading people.

Once all of the armaments and personnel were in position, Mavero, Hewson, and Murray’s squad all left the castle and went outside.

Karon once again sank his consciousness into the black sphere. Black threads appeared along the walls, first binding the Priest’s Star Chains and the Cage of Imprisonment inside the control room, then the two Tracking Repeaters that Vintral and Bart had set up. Finally, one went up and another went down, binding the Array Curtain at the bottom and the magic crystal cannon at the top.

Karon asked, “Ashley, do you still have any of your most useless demonic beasts?”

Ashley immediately rolled up her sleeve and said, “Yes, a lot.”

“Choose one that can fly and release it.”

“All right, Captain.” Ashley stood before the Imprisonment Cage and began chanting her summons. “My dearest friend...”

Very soon, a cloud of green smoke entered the cage, and then flew out from there. It drifted outside the castle and became a phantom of a large green bird, which looked like an enormous peacock.

Karon immediately ordered, “Bart, Vintral, shoot the tail!”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Yes, Captain!”

Bart and Vintral immediately began turning their tracking repeater crossbows to aim.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!... A string of arrows flew out. Bart’s shots were very accurate, all of them striking the large bird’s tail and knocking off a large patch of feathers. The bird was so startled that it quickly flapped its wings and flew upward. As for Vintral, he basically hit nothing. All of his shots missed.

Karon made a mental note that Vintral needed more practice in controlling armaments.

“Blanche, buff everyone!”

“Yes, Captain!” Blanche relied on the Priest’s Star Chains to activate her Arts. Very soon, clusters of white light floated out and landed on Karon and Ashley. The other lights continued spilling out and landed on the others one after another.

“Mars, binding array!”

“Yes, Captain!” Mars quickly set up the array and raised it up the flagpole. The curtain rose, and the array’s effect was released. A huge net appeared in the air and trapped the big bird.

At the top of the castle, the muzzle of the magic crystal cannon began to adjust at Karon’s control, aiming at the trapped bird. It sensed danger approaching, and stretched out completely, struggling with all its might.

Boom! In the end, Karon elevated the angle of the cannon before firing. A terrifying beam almost instantly struck the distant sea, creating an explosion. Water and fish rained down from the sky.

Karon felt that Murray’s squad would not need supper delivered tonight. With so much falling from the sky, they could probably last for two days.

Having survived a calamity, the big bird was so frightened that it nearly went limp. It remained completely trapped in place, not putting up even a token struggle anymore.

“Ashley, recall it.”

“All right, Captain.”

The bird transformed back into smoke and returned to Ashley’s arm, where it again became something that looked like a tattoo.

Outside, Hewson shouted, “All right, you can come down.”

After shouting, Hewson turned to Murray’s squad. “Go up and help move the things.”

Karon looked down. The black vine loosened from his wrist and retracted into the black sphere.

The various armaments that had been moved up earlier were moved back down again. Karon dispelled the Art, and the castle quickly dissipated and dispersed.

Mavero addressed every member of Karon’s squad, “Before you officially enter the Reincarnation Gate, the church will give you some specific scrolls. When it is time, you will only need to take a scroll and use it at the proper location to teleport the corresponding armament into place. You will not need to move them up like now.”

Everything was just as Karon had expected. For this excursion, the church would set up a teleportation array in the camp in the Reincarnation Valley so that these armaments could be teleported in. However, it would be impossible to recover them afterward, and it would be even more impossible for his squad to drag the armaments away when they left. This was a bit of waste, but it was a waste that was part of a calculated cost.

“Karon, you can lead your squad back to the hotel to rest,” Hewson said.

“I have one request. For armaments such as the repeater crossbows, can we practice using them at the base?”

Mavero spoke up, “Of course. Except for the magic crystal cannon.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

The staff began repacking the armaments. After a nod to Murray, Karon led his squad members to the cruise ship and back to the hotel. Murray and the others still needed to practice through the night.

After returning to the base, Vintral first went to the front desk and asked for food to be sent up to the rooms, and also ordered an extra portion of the day’s allotment of tobacco and alcohol.

“Oh, right. The people in the other three rooms won’t be returning tonight. You can send their tobacco and alcohol to my room.”

The front desk staff looked at Vintral, who maintained a smile the entire time.

“All right... it will be sent up shortly.”

“Good, thank you.” Vintral left the front desk and ran ahead to take the elevator upstairs with his teammates.

After they arrived on their floor, Karon clapped his hands and said to his squad members, “After eating, get some rest early. When you wake up in the morning, you can go to the base warehouse and take out the armaments for practice.”

“Yes, Captain!”

After returning to his room, Karon first went in to take a shower. By the time he came out, dinner had been delivered, along with a great deal of tobacco and alcohol. Vintral had his head lowered and was stacking them into the suitcase.

Karon took a bit of food and sat on the sofa to eat. After Vintral had finished tidying up, he ran over to eat with Karon. “Captain, do you think they’ll finish practicing tonight?”

“More or less.”

“Will there still be class tomorrow?”

“There should be. Our final lesson isn’t training, but an explanation of the situation inside the Reincarnation Gate, as well as informing us of our mission for this excursion. Even if they don’t rest all night, it won’t prevent them from attending that class.”

“Oh, I see. I was planning to go to the black market after dawn and sell these for credits.”

“There’s no rush. There will definitely be time. All right, keep eating. I’m going to rest.”

“All right, Captain. Good night.”

“Good night.” After lying down, Karon read for a while longer, letting himself ease out of his study state. Before long, he tossed the book aside and closed his eyes.

***

Drip... drip... drip... He heard the sound of water. Karon opened his eyes and saw an intimidating scythe before him.

I’m having the same dream too. So I was affected by the War Scythe. Karon thought of what Mavero had said earlier. He had said that anyone who had faced the War Scythe directly would have nightmares for a while, dreaming that they were killed by the War Scythe.

Creak... A piercing sound rang out. Karon had already prepared himself to be killed by this scythe in his dream, but was surprised to discover that the scythe was not cutting toward him. Instead, it looked like the scythe had originally been standing beside him and had lost its restraints and was falling forward. In the abyss below, an imposing figure seemed to appear.

Pfft! The scythe sank into the darkness, as if severing something within it.

Immediately afterward, an enraged growl rumbled up from the depths of the darkness. “Order...”