Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2016: Chapter 2017: Stitched Corpse Fiend

In the view of the Eye of Nalda, the ancient, rustic gate in front of them was primarily made of an alloy that boasted both spatial stability and magical pattern compatibility.

This alloy was exactly the same as the one used on the gate of the ruin where Angel resided. Because it contained some magical metal materials completely unfamiliar to Angel, he had a strong memory of this alloy.

Although judging a connection between the two just from the similarity of the main materials seems somewhat presumptuous, this alloy is so rare that its simultaneous use in two nearby ruins leaves room for speculation.

Furthermore, with various previous indications, Angel became increasingly certain that this ruin had some connection with the ruin he was in!

”I didn’t notice the main material problem when I came before, but since you’re certain they’re the same, these two ruins become more intriguing.” A flicker of indeterminate light shone in Rhein’s eyes, ”As for the main material, we can study it after returning to your ruin. For now, let’s first look at the magic patterns behind the door.”

Angel nodded. To determine whether there were magic patterns on the door, he must push open the door to see what lay behind it. He unhesitatingly reached out his hand, preparing to push open the great door.

”Let me do it.” A short staff blocked Angel’s hand as Rhein stepped forward.

Earlier, when Rhein arrived at the passage, he had pushed the door open, and nothing unusual had happened inside. However, to be on the safe side, he decided to push it himself.

This door was not locked, and with a dull ”creak,” it slowly opened from both sides.

Simultaneously, a faint light shone through the crack, indicating there was illumination behind the door.

Since Rhein was positioned directly opposite the crack, Angel closely watched Rhein’s expression, trying to deduce whether there was any change in the situation behind the door.

Fortunately, as the crack widened, Rhein’s expression showed no fluctuation.

When the door was fully opened, Angel looked inside.

Behind the door was still a corridor, with a wall sconce on each side, the weak flames dispelling some surrounding darkness, providing a slight sense of reassurance.

This corridor extended forward less than ten meters before making an almost right-angle turn, so all they could see was a mere ten meters. However, in that ten meters, there were no magical creatures.

”It seems we have good luck.” Rhein slightly sighed with relief and looked at Angel, ”Now, it’s your turn, remember not to step inside the door; attempt to observe beyond the door with your spiritual power.”

Although the environment of the ruins pressed their spiritual power to the extreme, simple inspection of the adjacent environment was still feasible.

Angel nodded; stepping inside the door represented truly entering the ruin, with unforeseen contingencies. So, as much as possible, they must not step inside the door.

Angel closed his eyes, controlling his spiritual power slowly to extend outside his body.

Just as Angel prepared to extend his spiritual power inside the door, rustling noises came from behind. Using spiritual power to probe, he saw a tall, humanoid magical creature walking out from the darkness, its skin stitched together in various colors, with a bulging belly.

”Stitched Corpse Demon?” Rhein called out the name of this creature, but as it was identified, Rhein’s brow slightly furrowed.

A corpse demon is a creature transformed from a corpse contaminated with negative energy, mostly born by coincidence. The ”Stitched Corpse Demon,” on the other hand, is artificially created by wizards who delve into unorthodox dark arts. Through surgical organ reorganization and skin stitching, it accumulates greater resentment energy and attains more formidable power.

Thus, if Rhein had seen just a regular corpse demon, it wouldn’t have mattered much, but such a stitched corpse demon made him frown, questioning whether there was an intelligent being behind it conducting artificial modifications?

”I’ll handle it; Sanders, you continue guarding Angel.” Rhein stood up, gravely approaching the stitched corpse demon.

The strength of a stitched corpse demon is gauged by the organs stitched within it, as well as the skill of the handler behind it. From the skin constitution of this stitched corpse demon alone, it was composed of very ordinary magical creature skin and didn’t possess top-notch defense. Generally, stitched corpse demons of such nature aren’t very powerful. However, there could be extreme cases, where a stitched corpse demon with seemingly weak skin is deceptively strong internally with highly powerful organs... Of course, such cases are rare, as achieving a balance between external defense and internal organs isn’t easy.

And the stitched corpse demon before them was not an exception.

Its external defense was weak, as were its internal organs, making it easy for Rhein to resolve it.

However, after dealing with the stitched corpse demon, Rhein didn’t show a relaxed demeanor. He continued to look towards the deep darkness, though unlike Angel, he couldn’t sense emotions as clearly, he vaguely perceived a hidden unrest lurking deep in the seeming calmness of the dark.

On the other side, Angel extended his spirit tentacle through the door.

At the moment his spirit tentacle entered the door, he felt a slight resistance, as if penetrating a water membrane, entering an other-dimensional space.

Simultaneously, a more condensed force was applied to his spirit tentacle, making movement even harder to control.

At this moment, Angel also had a sense of enlightenment, realizing why it was recommended not to step inside. Because inside and outside the ruins were completely different worlds. He harbored a suspicion that perhaps inside the ruins was already a semi-plane area.

This suspicion made Angel uneasy. If the inside of the ruins truly belonged to a semi-plane area, a spirit tentacle entering it might have already been detected.

Because a semi-plane is very much like the Wilderness of Dreams, having a nascent form of Law.

Just like when Angel entered the semi-plane within the Sleepless City, he was immediately discovered by the creatures of the Nightmare Realm who commanded the laws of the semi-plane.

However, now that Angel had set foot, he could only brace himself, accelerating his pace to quickly investigate the magic pattern situation behind the door.

With this in mind, Angel carefully controlled his spiritual power to explore past the door. Yet, what made Angel feel troublesome was perhaps due to the spirit tentacle traversing the semi-plane and reality, coupled with certain suppressive auras in the semi-plane, making his spirit tentacle move very slowly.

He could only move a few centimeters per second, and it would take at least two minutes to probe past the door!

If added to the time spent on observation behind the door, it might take even longer. This made Angel increasingly uneasy, his expression more and more solemn.