Black Hearted Mage

Chapter 285 Enemy 8

Caesar raised his palm, silencing the sound. The puppy immediately crouched, its ears perked in alert. A strange noise from deep within the tomb's passage echoed through the stone walls—the dull thud of boulders rubbing against stone troughs, punctuated by the clacking of machinery. Caesar narrowed his eyes, his knuckles unconsciously tapping the magic blade at his waist. It was a familiar sound, a long-dormant mechanism awakening.

"Don't move, damn dog!"

He whispered a warning, the magic patterns on his spider silk robe gleaming faintly. He clearly remembered the heyday of Roland's First Dynasty, when magic hadn't yet reached its present pinnacle. Emperors and nobles placed greater reliance on sophisticated mechanical killing arrays. He had seen records in ancient texts of the most terrifying rockfall traps weighing millions of pounds, controlled by specially designed triggers, often placed in blind spots at turns in tomb passages. The moment a tomb raider turned a corner, the boulder overhead would crash down, crushing the intruder to a pulp.

Caesars extended his right hand, and three magical tentacles shimmering with a gray-blue glow extended from his fingertips. These translucent tentacles slowly advanced along the damp tomb wall, probing every suspicious crevice. The puppy suddenly growled anxiously, its wet nose pointed into the darkness—from where the scent of human flesh and leather wafted.

"Interesting!" Caesars sneered.

Tom's soul memory revealed no experience of going deep into the tomb, but the storage ring beneath the stone at the entrance to the tomb explained everything. Whenever Old Garlon needed something, he would send him a magical message. He would prepare the item and place it at the entrance, taking the empty storage ring with him.

Caesars stroked the empty ring in his hand, touching the cold metal surface, and recalled what old Garlon needed.

The magical tendrils gradually dissipated fifty meters away; this distance had already drained some of his magic power. In the shadows of the tomb passage, the improved steel mechanisms could be vaguely seen, gleaming coldly in the darkness. These later-added magic steel components made the ancient killing array even more deadly.

Caesars pulled a deep blue mana potion from his inner pocket. The shimmering light of the liquid within the glass tube illuminated his solemn face. "Revenge requires a clear mind, and a clear mind requires abundant magic power and vitality, and of course, sufficient spiritual power!"

He spoke to the puppy, tilting his head back to drink the mana potion, then took out a bottle of vitality potion. The cool sensation of the potion in his throat caused his pupils to constrict, and spiderweb-like magical patterns appeared around his body. When the last drop of blue light disappeared from his lips, he took out a few magic crystals and slowly absorbed them.

Taking advantage of this moment, Caesars finally calmed down and carefully examined the straight tomb passage. It was not made of bricks and stones, but was directly carved out of the solid basalt mountain. The patterns on the bricks and stones were just a clever disguise, or perhaps a decoration.

Half an hour passed in a flash, and Caesars finally finished replenishing his magic power. However, he did not continue to go deeper into the tomb passage as planned, but turned around and walked out of the tomb passage with the puppy.

"Listen up, you idiot!" Caesars ordered the puppy, "You need to carefully sense your surroundings to see if there are any subtle fluctuations in magic power. I'll go check the situation up there!"

Caesars made this decision because he was suspicious of Old Garlon's behavior. Normally, if Old Garlon had received a magical message, he would have immediately left the tomb. But he didn't, probably because no one had told him about the incident in Fire Maple City.

Caesars speculated that Old Garlon was able to detect his entry into the tomb passage because of a peeping array. This array differed from ordinary arrays in that it didn't require a recording stone to record the image, but it consumed more magic power. This magic power needed to be conducted, requiring a large number of magic crystals or a small mana pool to provide energy. The peeping array had a range limit, maintaining a maximum range of several hundred meters.

In less than half a minute, Caesars climbed up the mountain wall. His sharp eyes, like those of an eagle, quickly swept over every corner above him, his magical tentacles extending outward. Finally, his sight stopped at an inconspicuous spot, where the peeping magic circle was located.

This magic copper array disk hung high above the tomb entrance, over a hundred meters away. Even more surprising was the fact that the magic power transmission material used in this array was also magic copper. You must know that while magic copper is a precious magical material, its transmission distance is quite limited. Generally speaking, the maximum distance magic copper can transmit magic power is no more than a hundred meters, and beyond fifty meters, the magic power will rapidly decrease, at least by half.

Kaisas stared at the magic copper array, calculating silently. Based on the location of the peeping array and the magic copper's ability to transmit magic power, he roughly estimated the height of the tomb chamber. According to his guess, the burial chamber of this abandoned ancient tomb should be approximately fifty meters higher than the entrance.

Not only that, Caesars also noticed that the direction of the tomb passage was downward, which made him alert, because such a design might mean that there was a complex maze-like route inside the tomb passage.

Kaisas decided not to hesitate any longer. He unceremoniously and violently dismantled the magic copper array. With a resounding metallic crash, the magic copper array instantly shattered under his fierce force. With the destruction of the magic copper array, the mysterious light curtain deep within the ancient tomb also dissipated, as if its support had been removed.

The people in the tomb were obviously shocked by this sudden change. They had never expected that the people outside would be so cautious, not only discovering the location of the peeping array, but also destroying it so quickly.

Caesars slowly stepped into the dark tomb passage, his entire body instantly enveloped by the icy air. He cast darkvision on himself, observing the passage. His left hand gripped a magical blade, ready to respond to any emergency. The walls of the tomb passage were neatly carved, and fine water droplets condensed on the damp rock, shimmering with an eerie light.

As he went deeper, the soles of his boots made a slight "crunching" sound on the damp ground, a sound that was particularly clear in the silent tomb passage. Every few dozen steps, he would stop and use his magical tentacles to carefully examine the seams between the ground and the wall, while simultaneously releasing perception magic to detect magical fluctuations in the air. Surprisingly, this straight tomb passage, stretching for six or seven hundred meters, was surprisingly clean. No mechanisms had been triggered, and no traces of magical traps were found.

He then cast a shimmering illumination spell. Illuminated by the faint blue magic ball, he could vaguely see a gray-black stone wall stretching across the end of the tomb passage about two hundred meters ahead. The stone wall was remarkably smooth. Caesars narrowed his eyes, noticing the metallic sheen on its surface—it was specially treated hardened rock, commonly used to reinforce and protect tomb passages.

He paused and pulled a new sheet of parchment from his interspatial ring. His slender fingers quickly sketched across the paper, accurately mapping the tomb passage he had walked through into a three-dimensional diagram. He periodically glanced up to measure the passage's inclination, then lowered his head to perform complex calculations. Several magical runes illuminated the diagram, revealing a precise depth measurement.

He muttered to himself, "The depth of the turning point of the tomb passage... 320 meters... This is the most suitable location for setting up the trap!"

As he continued forward, Caesars suddenly noticed patches of grayish-white moss beginning to appear on both sides of the tomb passage. These mosses emitted a faint fluorescence in the darkness, dotted on the damp rock walls like stars.

"Graveyard moss..." his voice was filled with unconcealed surprise. This rare alchemical material, which only grows in ancient tombs, is almost extinct in most dark places. Due to the lack of the corresponding alchemical formula, most explorers turn a blind eye to it.

But Kaesas knew their value—the great alchemists of the elves could use them to concoct the famous "Dark Pain Potion," which could greatly increase the attack power and penetration of dark spells. He gently stroked one of the tufts of moss, feeling the dark energy contained within.

The corners of Kaisas' mouth curled up slightly, and he muttered to himself, "Old Garlon really knows how to choose a place. He even chose his own grave in advance!"

No longer in a rush, Caesars methodically began to gather these precious alchemical materials. He drew the magic blade from his waist and precisely cut the moss at its roots. Each piece of grave moss he cut was enveloped by a silver light before it landed in his palm, disappearing into his spatial ring. The entire gathering process was silent and efficient, with only the gentle hissing of the magic blade as it scraped across the rock wall echoing through the tomb passage.

At the turning point of the tomb passage, a section made of steel appears. Compared with the surrounding tomb passages, this steel tomb passage is particularly eye-catching. A closer look reveals that there are very obvious gaps around the tomb passage, which seem to be carefully designed.

After some investigation, the secret of this mechanism was finally revealed - it was a rockfall mechanism! If someone stepped on it, the mechanism would be immediately triggered, and a heavy object weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds would instantly fall from above, smashing the person to pieces.

The entire mechanism was a staggering thirty meters long, and there was a ninety-degree turn in the middle, making it even more difficult to traverse. Even more astonishing was that the mechanism was designed with the magician's flash spell in mind, making it nearly impossible for a magician to circumvent it even if they wanted to.

However, facing such a sophisticated mechanism, Caesars said fearlessly: "This is not a problem for Master Caesars!" He quickly cast the levitation and feather fall spells on himself and the puppy, and then stepped into the mechanism without hesitation.

After entering the mechanism, Caesars and the puppy seemed to float in mid-air, barely touching the walls of the tomb passage. Instead, they slowly glided forward, a foot above the ground. At a bend in the passage, Caesars cleverly exploited the reaction force of the walls. With a gentle push, he smoothly turned with the puppy and continued to glide forward for more than ten meters.

After stabilizing himself, he immediately surveyed the tomb passage. Ten meters ahead lay a mass of shattered bones, covered in a thicket of graveyard moss. This indicated the mechanism was frequently used and maintained. The passage continued to slope downward, but three branching passages had emerged, each heading in a different direction.

"Dead dog, smell it quickly, which tomb passage is the human scent in?"

The plump puppy, its stubby tail wagging, approached the edge of the three tomb passages. It sniffed briefly, then extended its strong front paws, pointing toward the middle passage. Caesars nodded, but he didn't rush on. Instead, he gathered grave moss, a rare commodity found elsewhere.

A few minutes later, Caesars stood before three forked paths, his gaze finally fixed on the deep, central tomb passage. He leaned forward, lightly touching the ground with his fingertips, and with his eyes closed, he detected a faint, gossamer-like fluctuation of magical energy. It was so subtle that it would have been nearly unnoticeable had he not deliberately detected it.

"Something's strange..." he muttered to himself, then stood up, clenched his right hand, and a pale blue magic barrier slowly unfolded before him. The dark red puppy clung to his leg, whimpering softly, as if it too had sensed something was amiss.

Caesars advanced slowly, each step cautiously. The atmosphere within the tomb passage was heavy and oppressive, the ancient torches lining the walls long since extinguished. After walking over a hundred meters, his gaze suddenly fixed on the stone wall to the right. Fragmented magic patterns lay scattered across the wall like a torn wound. Those patterns should have been sophisticated fire attack patterns, forming a defensive system alongside a low-level magic gathering array. But now, they seemed to have been forcibly split apart by some violent force. The fractures were jagged, and the stone wall itself was also cratered.

He squatted down, his fingertips gently tracing the deepest crack, his brow furrowed slightly. "This isn't natural damage... it's a sign of human destruction. And judging by the oxidation at the edge of the crack, the damage must have occurred a long time ago!"

The puppy's ears suddenly perked up, peering warily into the depths of the tomb. Caesars immediately retracted his thoughts, raising his hand and casting several detection spells. Dark gray threads of magic stretched forward, as if alive, outlining the outline of the tomb passage in the darkness. This passage was clearly deeper than any he had walked through before, its slope undulating, sometimes descending, sometimes climbing strangely upward.

"The main tomb passage..."

Kaisas said softly, a flicker of understanding in his eyes. This kind of complex design often means the core area is just ahead. He no longer bothered to calculate the depth—on such a constantly changing path, simple depth had lost its reference value.

A brighter ball of magic light condensed from his fingertips, drifting slowly deeper into the tomb passage, pushing the darkness ahead back dozens of meters. The light gradually faded away in the narrow tomb passage, leaving only the incomplete magic patterns on the wall, faintly visible in the magic glow, like silent witnesses.