Chapter 244 – The Lantern

The vengeful spirits summoned by the Soul Shepherd charged toward Punk while howling and roaring, their voices as piercing as sharp nails scraping against steel plates. Fortunately, Punk had already abandoned receiving sound, completely opting to use his perception ability to replace his auditory sense. Otherwise, the exceptionally shrill cries of the vengeful spirits would have been a nightmare for any creature with keen hearing.

The trouble with the sound was, overall, only a trivial part. The pursuit of these two vengeful spirits was the key issue giving Punk a headache.

The Fanged Vengeful Spirits were extremely adept at tearing through various energy defenses. Moreover, these two spirits were the products of a Master-Level summoning spell. Punk had no doubt that if he were bitten by those mouths full of sharp teeth, he would either die or suffer severe injuries.

The most troublesome part was that after summoning the two vengeful spirits, the Soul Shepherd did not stop its attacks. It continued to sporadically cast “Negative Energy Finger,” and the “Negative Energy Finger” began to intentionally coordinate with the movements of the vengeful spirits. Thus, while dodging the vengeful spirits, Punk also had to pay attention to the attacks of “Negative Energy Finger.”

“This is troublesome. Both the vengeful spirits and ‘Negative Energy Finger’ can only be dodged, not blocked. But there’s no way to counter these two vengeful spirits… Damn it, the mana consumption is too high!”

While thinking, Punk abruptly rolled to the right to avoid a bite from one of the Fanged Vengeful Spirits. Without even time to stand up, he quickly cast “Kinetic Ejection” on himself, narrowly evading a “Negative Energy Finger.”

The current situation had become extremely unfavorable for Punk. Although he had managed to dangerously avoid every attack so far, the Soul Shepherd on the other side seemed to be observing Punk’s dodging habits. Therefore, Punk had to ensure his evasions remained as random as possible to prevent being cornered by the Soul Shepherd’s attacks and the vengeful spirits’ bites. After over ten uses of “Kinetic Ejection” combined with “Mana Compression,” Punk had already consumed half of his mana. In other words, time was running out for him!

However, Punk would not lose his composure because of this. He knew that the more critical the moment, the more important it was to maintain a clear mind. Panic and despair were utterly meaningless.

“This Soul Shepherd hasn’t moved a single step from the very beginning. Otherwise, even if it isn’t skilled in close combat, by following my trajectory and changing directions to cast ‘Negative Energy Finger,’ I would have been finished long ago. So, can it be assumed that ‘inability to move’ is one of the restrictions placed on this Soul Shepherd?”

Though Punk was now in an unfavorable position, he felt that the Soul Shepherd was even more pitiable than himself. A Master-Level powerhouse restricted to such an extent, forced to remain in place as a turret—such frustration was truly unparalleled.

However, while the other side was acting as a turret, Punk was currently serving as a target—and a particularly fragile one at that. A single hit would mean instant defeat. If anyone had the right to feel frustrated, Punk had been simmering with irritation all along.

Now, he had also thought of a way to deal with the two vengeful spirits. Although Punk, at only level fourteen, certainly couldn’t eliminate the two vengeful spirits, he was confident he could slightly delay their movements to buy himself opportunities to dodge.Watching a wrathful spirit hysterically open its mouth wide enough to reach its ears as it lunged to bite him, its icy, gleaming teeth wreathed in gray-black negative energy, Punk, who had barely any time to dodge, quickly cast a spell at the spirit’s head!

“Formal-Level Conjuration Spell—Kinetic Stasis”!

A pale purple energy sphere instantly expanded into a circular field. The sharp-toothed wrathful spirit, caught within the influence of “Kinetic Stasis,” abruptly slowed by fifty percent. Though it shook its head furiously and its terrifying negative-energy-infused teeth soon shattered Punk’s “Kinetic Stasis,” the half-second slowdown allowed Punk to narrowly evade the attack from the side.

Control-type spells were always particularly effective against mindless monsters like these. Since such spells didn’t deal damage, these single-minded, sharp-toothed wrathful spirits wouldn’t attempt to dodge but would instead endure the effects head-on—resulting in their attacks being rendered ineffective.

But merely restraining the wrathful spirits wasn’t enough, and dodging enemy attacks wasn’t sufficient either. Punk now had a new objective, as he had already noticed something unusual in this room.

“If the trial of the Netherese Civilization was only designed to prevent the Soul Shepherd from instantly killing the successor, then this trial still wouldn’t offer any theoretical chance of victory. After all, no Formal-Level being, without using any magical items, could outlast a Master-Level monster in a battle of attrition. Evasion and escape could only be temporary measures—there must be something here that could pose a real threat to the enemy!”

Since this was a carefully arranged trial, clues must exist. It couldn’t rely on the successor stumbling upon sheer luck. Punk was certain that the clues must have been presented from the very beginning—he just hadn’t noticed them yet.

“Consider the Grand Arcanist’s trial criteria: intelligence, curiosity… Could they be related to this?”

Punk suddenly grasped the designer’s way of thinking. Since curiosity was listed among the four essential qualities, the designer must have expected the successor to apply these qualities resourcefully. After all, flexible application was the true manifestation of wisdom.

“So, what does applying curiosity entail…?”

The azure magical energy in Punk’s pupils grew increasingly brilliant. With a clear direction, his thoughts flowed much more smoothly. Soon, he identified something incongruous in the room—the four Lanterns placed in the Corner.

A Lantern is a tool for illumination, meant for lighting, not decoration. Moreover, those four Lanterns in the Corner were old and worn, hardly fitting as ornaments.

Most importantly, the room’s lighting primarily came from the glow emitted by the alchemical walls. The Lanterns’ illumination was redundant, even pointless, since the room was already bright enough. They couldn’t possibly be there just for lighting.These inconsistencies are precisely the crux of the problem. Though the sense of dissonance here isn’t particularly strong—who knows if the Grand Arcanist might have a hobby of collecting old Lanterns—furthermore, several Lanterns completely devoid of magical fluctuations are truly inconspicuous objects. It’s entirely normal for such details to be easily overlooked during tense battles!

To summarize, the purpose of the four Lanterns is most likely just to spark a bit of curiosity, testing whether one can remember this trivial sense of dissonance amid life-and-death combat and maintain that faint flicker of curiosity!

Upon realizing this, Punk immediately dashed at high speed toward one of the Lanterns. His spells stood no chance of harming a Master-Level Soul Shepherd anyway, and in this empty Room, aside from a few jagged metal boulders scattered across the arena, the only seemingly usable elements appeared to be those four Lanterns he had initially overlooked!

(End of Chapter)