"Let's go here." The tall maid led the way forward. Ximoken led Hemi to follow her. When passing a narrow window in the corridor, Ximoken stopped a little. It was pitch black outside. Just standing in front of the narrow window, you could feel the cold night outside, but the sound was not calm at all. The noise that made people restlessly blew with the cold wind. As long as you stick your head out of this narrow window, you could see the burning city walls not far away. The soldiers and mercenaries were fighting against the monsters attacking from the valley on that battlefield.

As long as he poked his head out, he could see it. Ximoken looked at the darkness outside the window and thought. "Go here." The maid walking in front turned around and urged him. Ximoken immediately led Hemi to follow him.

After they arrived in Neiburg with Ms. Ethran, Ms. Ethran handed them over to the maids and told them: "You will be safe here, just stay here obediently." After that, she took the tall and strong man Alev and the two anxious craftsmen away. Then the bald, middle-aged man wearing glasses but seemed to be respected, said to them and the tall maid behind him: "Miss is now alone in the room, and take two girls to accompany her. If the lady is more at ease, the Duke can handle affairs more with peace of mind."

Then Simoken led Hemi to the corridor of the inner castle, walking silently on the stairs. From time to time, people were walking by with eager steps and walked by silently. Simoken noticed that many people looked at them in surprise, but they just glanced at them quickly and walked quickly by them. Because their clothes were not like those in this inner castle: the servants in the inner castle were relatively uniform, mainly gray tones, and the materials were mostly linen. After winter, most servants (mainly maids) would wear shawls dyed light gold, and the experienced servants also had wool sweaters with golden wavy patterns.

These are what Simoken heard when he was helping with work in the tavern and chatting with guests. She looked at the tall maid walking in front of her. She did not have a cardigan that symbolized her seniority, nor did she have a shawl, and her walking posture was different from other maids. She was more like a man, Simoken couldn't help but think of this, but she was indeed stronger than many men.

Just in confusion, Simoken and Hemi came to the third floor of the inner castle. She had been here before. She had been secretly scrambled into the inner castle to look for Miss Kadiya. She raised her head and looked at a door in front of the corridor. Two guards in armor stood outside the door. Simoken couldn't help but lower her head. She was the same when she came last time. This time she didn't sneak in like last time, but at this moment she was still as nervous as last time, and she felt a little uneasy.

"Who are they?" One of the guards asked when he saw the tall maid approaching and looked at Simoken and Hemi behind her.

"Miss' playmate." The maid replied in a cold tone.

"Playmates? Shouldn't you go to the Round Hall to find some noble ladies? What's the matter with these two dirty little things?"

"It was Lord Plain who asked us to bring it."

"Hmph, anyone who asks them to come must search. This is the Duke's order." Another guard replied angrily, "Tell them to lift their skirts and let us see if there are any weapons hidden in private."

After hearing the guards' words, Ximoken's heart suddenly jumped into his throat, and Hemi beside her also hugged her hand nervously. The tall maid turned her head and looked at them, and then she was from her belt - Ximoken had noticed it from the beginning, but because of the folds of the skirt, she couldn't see clearly what it was - she took off a wooden iron mace with a wooden handle with square iron teeth on it, "Weapon? Are you talking about this?"

The two guards immediately stopped talking.

"Who would hurt the lady," the tall maid looked at the two girls behind her again as she spoke, "This thing will break his head. Do you understand?"

The two guards did not answer, and the tall maid ignored them anymore. She pushed open the door and then calmed down again. While she hung the mace in her hand back on the button on her belt, she said lightly: "Go here."

Simoken held Hemi, and she could feel Hemi trembling slightly. Although she was also uneasy, she told herself that she could not make Hemi even more afraid, so she mustered up the courage and walked into Miss Kadiya's room with a steady step.

The room was brightly lit, and Simoken noticed in surprise that there were much more candle holders here than when she came last time. There was another tall maid in the room, standing next to Miss Kadiya's bed like a guard, with soft pillows on the bed. Miss Kadiya, with a haggard expression, was leaning against the soft cushion, holding a thick book in her hand. When she noticed that Simoken and Hemi walked into the room, she obviously showed surprise on her face.

But she immediately recognized Simoken. "It's you?" she shouted in surprise, and then she closed the book. "Why are you here?" She threw the book on the bed, then walked down from the bed, reached out to pick up a blanket and wrapped it on herself, barefoot, and stepped on the animal skin stall.

"Miss Kadiya." Simoken lowered his head and bowed his body to salute. Because she was holding Hemi, she could not perform formal etiquette. She had learned the etiquette she should perform when she met nobles in the church, but it was not as deliberate as in the north as in the south, so she had never performed such etiquette officially. She was a little worried about whether her etiquette was appropriate, but fortunately Miss Kadiya didn't care.

She took the lantern from the maid next to her, wrapped herself in a blanket, and walked to her side. She immediately noticed Hemi, and then the look of surprise on her face told Simoken that she knew Hemi.

"It was Lord Plain who asked us to come here." Simoken learned the name from the tall maid, but she had heard of him. In the tavern, he was said to be the shrewd governor of the inner castle, and he was said to have studied in the southernmost Lighthouse City of the Principality when he was young.

"He?" Simoken nodded when he saw Kadiya, and her eyes never left Hemi. Obviously she didn't care about this famous inner castle manager. "Where has he been?" Kadiya raised her head and looked at Simoken, and Simoken was stunned.

Suddenly she noticed the pale and simple ring on Miss Kadiya's hand holding the lantern. The ring was also Simoken and Hemi, and it is said that she could resist the curse, so Mr. Kangting handed the ring to them. It turned out that the third one was here? Simoken felt a little unnatural in his heart, but he couldn't understand why.

"Mr. Kangting and the others are going to the battlefield." Ximoken replied.

"Battlefield?" Kadiya nodded slightly, and she turned around, her eyes as if she had lost focus, "By the way, the battlefield. They all went to the battlefield. They always went to the battlefield."

They? Ximoken was a little confused, but Kadiya had already returned to the bed. She handed the lantern back to the tall maid, and then sat on the bed, "Come here, sit down here. Talk with me for a while." Ximoken saw Kadiya's haggard face squeezed out a smile, "Tell me what's happening outside. I haven't left the inner castle for a long time, and I'm almost suffocated."

"Yes, Miss." Ximoken replied with a slightly lowered head. Just as the rumors were as bright flowers withered, Ximoken couldn't help feeling sad when he looked at Kadiya.

She was like she was in her life, and she was completely devoid of the vitality that a girl of her age should have.

...

When Joel and the other four arrived deeper when the loud noises were made, they were stunned by the scene in front of them: the large clusters of ice crystals were like angry flowers, blocking the entire tunnel tightly. The ice crystals reflected a strange purple luster under the firelight. The white air conditioning made everyone tremble. Joel raised the torch, and the flames could not shine too far. On the ceiling, the ice crystals on the walls and the ground blocked the firelight. They seemed to have entered a mysterious alien world.

"What happened here?" Feiyu behind Joel couldn't help asking, he supported his companion Kairi. Both of them were injured to varying degrees, and Kairi almost died. If Aleya hadn't had the special hemostatic ointment on her body, his body might have been thrown into the dark tunnel by them.

"God knows." Kaili, who was supported by Feiyu and bandaged, replied gloomyly.

"Do you want to get around?" Aleya looked at Joel beside her for advice.

"No." Joel said easily. He raised his ears and stepped forward. The ice crystals at his feet immediately scattered around the ground like building blocks when they touched his legs, breaking into small pieces of fine ice crystals. The sharp edges of the ice crystals made Joel a little uneasy, but what he didn't expect was that these ice crystals were too crisp and would break if they were gently tapped.

The four of them waved their weapons and hit the ice crystals. The broken ice crystals made a crisp sound, and then fell to the ground and were crushed into powder under their feet.

"Wait." Joel suddenly shouted, and the other three stopped.

Joel strodes forward, and at the edge of the fire, a cluster of ice crystals attracted everyone's attention because the cluster of ice crystals was bright red. Joel kicked away the ice crystals in front of his feet in silence, and then carefully moved towards the cluster of bright red ice crystals. The knocked ice crystals above his head hit his white mask.

He lowered his head and looked at the cluster of bright red ice crystals.

"How is that? What is that?" Aleya, who was behind her, asked.

"It's a man," Joel replied, but the other three didn't seem too surprised because they had vaguely guessed it.

But what they could not imagine was that even Joel could not help but take a breath of air conditioning when he saw it: those bright red ice crystals "grown" from the body of the corpse, and cracked leather and fabric could be seen in the gaps between the ice crystals. Joel even accidentally mentioned an iron piece - it was an iron piece embedded on the leather armor. Generally only mercenaries would wear it like this, so it was obvious that the corpse with "grown" bright red ice crystals had already been unrecognizable, half leaning against the wall, and under it was white frost.

Aleya walked behind Joel, and she showed great calmness, which surprised Joel a little. However, what Joel didn't know was that what she saw was just a vague body without any bloody details. She put away the sword in her hand, then squatted down, and looked at the intelligence panel that appeared in front of her.

"He was torn apart by the ice cubes of his own blood." Aleya said lightly. The bright red ice cubes were also air conditioning, but these air conditioning was shining by the fire, and the ice cubes were also bright red, making people feel a little difficult to breathe.

"Is it magic?" Feiyu asked nervously.

"It should be." Aleya reached out and Joel wanted to stop her, but in the end she didn't say anything. When Aleya's fingers with leather gloves touched the bright red ice crystal, the ice crystal made a crisp sound, and then the cracks quickly crawled across the surface of the ice crystal, and finally shattered into small pieces of fragments, covering the terrible corpse.

"Is it the boss?" Carey, a wounded clerk, asked in contemplation, "the monsters we have seen before do not have this skill, otherwise we would have looked the same as this corpse."

Aleya stood up again, and she lifted the lantern, but the light was still not far away, and it was blocked by the ice crystals coming from above. "It seems that this may be some kind of terrifying range magic." Aleya said calmly, Joel turned his head slightly and saw her blue eyes calm as usual. "This range... is simply comparable to the strong light technique."

"Strong Light? Is it the kind of spell that emits dazzling strong light that makes people blind?" asked Feiyu on the side.

"Well, it is a very practical magic. The mage who has mastered the strong light technique is quite terrifying on the battlefield." Aleya looked at Feiyu and replied. Feiyu immediately turned her eyes away nervously. Aleya didn't care, but just continued: "These ice crystals seem to be quickly formed by absorbing water. The crystallization process is unusual, so it is quite fragile." As she said that, she spread her hands and showed them the bright red crystals in her hands. "The weight is much lighter than ordinary ice cubes. It seems that the purpose of this spell is not to 'result', but to 'process'."

"Process?" Feiyu was stunned.

"In other words, the focus of this spell is on the process of 'eliminating water to quickly crystallize', rather than 'producing crystallization'. "Areya said, throwing away the crystal in her hand at random, and then touching her chin thoughtfully. "The magic produces many reactions, and then picks the needed parts from these reactions and strengthens it. Such spell techniques are too accurate. Magic such as fireball is just like pediatrics in front of such spells."

"A pretty advanced spell?" Kairi's tone seemed very uneasy, "That means that the opponent is not simple? Is it really the boss?"

"It should be the boss." Aleya nodded, then looked at Joel beside her, "and..."

"And what?" Joel asked directly.

"And it's very likely that it's the master of the dungeon you're talking about." Aleya replied calmly, "that wizard."

Joel was silent for a moment.

"Why do you think so?" he asked.

"As far as we can master this complex spell, the most likely wizard is the wizard." Aleya replied, her eyes staring at Joel's mask, and Joel could also see her serious expression.

Joel turned around, bypassed the cluster of bright red ice crystals, and continued to walk forward. "Stay on." He said, "We must meet Anthony and the others as soon as possible."

Seeing that Joel was no longer discussing this topic, Aleya didn't say anything more. She pulled out the sword from her waist, and knocked on the wall and the ice crystals raised on the ground, while following Joel, while Feiyu and Kaili just looked at each other and followed immediately.

As they advanced, they gradually walked to the middle of the tunnel, and saw more and more bright red crystals. What surprised them even more was that under these bright red crystals were not only human corpses, but also dark red half-worm and half-human creatures waving slender black needles. The crystals "grown" on the corpses were even more turbid, just like they were directly frozen into pieces of flesh and blood, and immediately broke into countless tiny ice crystals after being hit.

The monster's body is much larger than that of humans, almost blocking the entire tunnel. What is surprising is that there is an open space on the other side of the monster's body, and there is nothing except the white frost on the ground. Aleya stood there and observed it carefully for a long time, and said with certainty that the area was the area where the monster's shadow was located. At the edge of this blank area, large clusters of ice crystals "growed out" again.

"It seems that not only the range and 'Strong Light Technique' are the same, but also the mode is the same." Aleya commented in surprise.

"What does it mean?" Feiyu asked curiously.

"It means that this spell emits light like a strong light technique. When it is shined by the light, it will quickly extract water to create crystals," Aleya explained patiently. "These corpses are shining with 'light', so the body fluids are converted into large pieces of crystals, and the crystals pierce their bodies and eventually kill them."

"This is too exaggerated, right?" Feiyu widened his eyes, "Light? How can I resist such a thing?"

"Giant shield." Kairi, beside Feiyu, said in contemplation, "The giant shield that can cover human body may be able to withstand it. However, there is no time or condition to prepare these things now. It seems difficult to win this monster with current equipment."

"How many mercenary corpses have been found along the way?" Feiyu asked with a frown.

"Eight." Joel at the front replied in a hoarse and ugly voice, his tone was bitter, because he didn't know whether he should be grateful or afraid of killing eight people with one magic.
Chapter completed!