Whispering Verse

In short, the matter of Tobesk is temporarily settled, and new adventures can begin. Considering that he would probably not be back until very late, on Tuesday morning, Shade asked Dorothy to take care of Mia temporarily today, and of course the writer agreed.

"May the original crack protect me in the infinite space."

In the basement of his home, Shade reached out alone to touch the statue of the ancient god. As the thick white fog quickly surged around him, he entered the fog.

[Outlander, you have entered the ‘space maze’. 】

[Message from the ancient god "Original Crack": ]

[Existing space landmark: 5. 】

After taking a look at the five dilapidated road signs on the trail, Shade raised his head and drank the potion "Oak Lucky Potion" in one gulp, and then held up the white stone crystal in the fog:

"Offer sacrifices to the labyrinth of space."

The stone turned into a wisp of white mist and disappeared into Shade's hand. At the same time, "she" prompted:

[New information has been obtained and new spatial landmarks can be searched. Please choose a direction. 】

"southwest."

Shade said in a very calm voice. After the words fell, the sixth street sign appeared on the path in the thick fog, still in the same dilapidated shape as if it had been ravaged by time for a hundred years.

After passing the first five street signs, Shade stretched out his hand and pressed it on the rotten wood.

[The original rift will guide you. 】

The surrounding white mist slowly dispersed, like a curtain moving to both sides. Shade looked at the statue of the ancient god he touched. As he looked, the statue emitted a soft light, illuminating the dark circular space.

"Every hidden space seems to be the same size."

He murmured softly, and then looked at the other objects here besides the statue.

In fact, because similar hidden spaces can be entered as long as you have the "space" spirit rune, before Shade reaches a certain space, there may be things left by others here.

For example, he found a message left by the "Hermitage of Light" in the basement of his home, found a corpse whose identity is still unknown in the White Valley vineyard, and the island in the middle of the Pantanal Lake was an empty... rough gray stone bookshelf.

At this time, the hidden space corresponding to the sixth road sign was not empty. There was an iron hoop box placed against the wall. The box itself was made of wood with a flip-up lid, and some rusty iron bars bound the box. This appearance inexplicably reminded Shade of the relic [Mimic Monster] he encountered on the [Fishbone Pirate Ship].

[No, you can be sure, this is just an ordinary box. 】

"She" reminded softly.

So Shade didn't rush to leave here to confirm which city this was, but knelt down on one knee in front of the box.

The box itself has a built-in lock. Judging from the shape of the lock, the box is probably quite old. Fortunately, under the effect of [Door Key], this lock is equivalent to non-existence. But when he opened the lid of the box, Shade was a little worried that the ancient wooden box would disintegrate.

Squeak~

Fortunately, it was much stronger than it looked. After opening it, I saw that half of the box was filled with books.

""Folklore Examination of Randall Valley", "Fairy Tales of the City of Spring", "The Silmarillion", "Crazy Earth" and "Hymn of Flowers".

He took out a few of the books and looked through them, and determined that seven of them were books written by ring magicians, while most of the others were religious classics from the Zhengshen Church, or ordinary books that recorded folklore or mythological stories.

Let's look at the other items in the box besides the books. They are two extremely gorgeous-looking metal medals inlaid with gems, an unsealed letter, and gold coins covering the bottom of the box.

Shade had seen those two medals more than once at many banquets in Tobesk during the winter. They were among the medals hanging on the chests of the Kasenlik nobles who attended the banquet.

"let me see."

He rubbed his fingertips on the metal medal, and then noticed the medal number. In this way, it is very simple to know who the original owners of these medals are.

There is no stamp or address on the unsealed letter, but there is some faded dark blue ink on the envelope, which tells Shade who this letter is for:

[To you who read this letter. 】

"Letter to me."

Shade nodded and took out the letter. The exaggerated cursive letters used by the nobles come into view. This cursive letters are quite difficult to read:

[To you who opened this letter. I don't know your identity, and I can't determine the identity of the next ring warlock to come here, but if you want, can you finish my story? 】

Shade continued to look down, and then recorded the story of a low-level warlock named "Thomas Granger". Mr. Granger came from a well-known local family in the Randall Valley. He unexpectedly awakened his talent and successfully became a ring warlock under the guidance of a ring warlock passing by the local area.

"It seems this is indeed the Randall River Valley."

It took him ten years to advance to the fourth ring, but he also understood that this was probably his limit. Entering middle age, Mr. Granger focused more on his ordinary life as a heir of a noble family, until this gentleman was contaminated by a curse in an accident. Not only did the curse leave him with only a few weeks to live, but it also tainted everything he carried with him.

Other items are not important, but the two medals collected by the family cannot be left alone. That strange curse will not weaken as time passes, but will become stronger and stronger. Therefore, at the end of his life, Mr. Granger placed these books and medals here to suppress the curse with miraculous elements.

He hoped that those who would come after him could return those two medals to his family. The gold coins at the bottom of the box and the books he collected were the rewards for returning the medal.

"There is indeed no curse on the medal. It seems that his idea is correct. But why is it not written in this letter? How did he find it here?"

Shade muttered and saw that the date written on the signature was 1780, and now it is 1854. Although the time is less than a hundred years, it was already a long time ago.

There are no traces of the curse on the items in the box, but the gold coins covering the bottom of the box, after a rough identification by Shade, are the original "Randall" in the Randall Valley area before the establishment of the United Kingdom of Carsonlik. A gold coin minted by the Principality, this antique is now known as the "Randall Crown".

He counted it and found that there were a total of 51 gold coins here, all of which were in pretty good condition. Although he is not sure of the value that can be sold, Xia De believes that if it were all converted into money, it would definitely exceed his current savings.

"Thank you Mr. Granger."

He said softly, intending to send the medal back. This was not only because of the reward of these gold coins, but also because he knew nothing about the Randall Valley, and in order to find the key mentioned by "Luvia", he had to at least establish certain social relationships in the local area.

"I hope the Granger family won't die too."

The books and gold coins were kept where they were until they returned, and the letters and medals were put into their pockets. Shade turned to look at the wall facing the statue. Under the light of the [Time and Space] spirit runes, the hidden path was opened.

As always, it was dark outside, with only the cool air coming in.

"What could be out there?"

He walked out along the long and narrow hidden passage, made sure there was no one here, and then lit up the moonlight on his fingertips.

This is the corner of a dilapidated room. The space here is not very large. The surrounding walls, including the ceiling, are made of square bricks. Next to the wall on the right side, there are some half-collapsed stone shelves. It looks like this should be a storage room or something.

Although there was dust on the ground, there were no spider webs or small animals such as mice or bats. Although the air is not very good, it does not have the rotten smell that is unique to abandoned buildings:

"Maybe there are still people living here."

The door leaving the room was on the side, and the stairs leading up were blocked by collapsed shelves. It seemed like they were still underground this time.

However, when Shade walked along the stone stairs to the top, he unexpectedly found that the stone door could not be pushed open.

"Feliana's Witch's Light!"

The palm of his right hand emitted a golden light, and as the arm melted and penetrated the wooden door, Shade saw that the corridor outside had collapsed, and part of the ceiling blocked the doorway.

There was no other way, so Shade could only use the [Moonlight Great Sword] in conjunction with the [Witch's Light] to forcefully carve out a path outward. Fortunately, the collapse of the ceiling only reached the door. After leaving the underground storage room, he could still choose to move in another direction.

"It's all like this. It seems like it's uninhabited, but why don't we see any small animals?"

This is indeed an abandoned building, and the internal space of the building itself is really not small. Although there were collapsed walls and ceilings everywhere, which greatly limited Shade's comprehensive exploration, he still sensed that this might be an abandoned church.

Of course, the churches of the Five Gods Church will not be abandoned easily, but the churches of the old gods who have gone away may have survived into the Sixth Age for various reasons.

It's a pity that time is also fair to churches without faith, and there are no traces left here to indicate the ownership of the church.

Shade relied on his knowledge of church-like buildings to break through a wall before finding the corridor leading to the front hall. Walking along the semi-curved corridor to the end, the sunlight made my eyes that had adapted to the darkness feel a little uncomfortable.

Shade raised his hand to cover his eyebrows, squinted his eyes, and saw the main hall of the church in the snow, illuminated by the sun.

There is a large hole above the church door on the east side of the ceiling. Winter sunlight slants in, and bits of dust swirl around the light pillar, which illuminates the ancient stone pulpit. This picture is extremely shocking. The traces of time and years are clearly visible here, and the pulpit in the light seems to have witnessed all the stories here.