Chapter 82: The Dark Castle (II)

“How can there be so many skeletons here?” Bernie, a member of the Galkic Magic Association’s branch, stared wide-eyed at the vast expanse of white skeletons in the distant graveyard, his expression strange.
After all, Older also fell within Galkic’s territory. As a branch of the Galkic Magic Association, they didn’t have accurate information about this place. Faced with this sight, Bernie and Reid both looked embarrassed.
“That’s just skeletons…” Lisa blinked at the large group in the distance. As children of their generation, skeletons, wandering spirits, and the evil necromancers who summoned them only existed in stories. They thought magicians were merely divided into dark and white magicians. They didn’t realize that between black and white, there was also a gray area in this world—just like among magicians. Dark magicians, necromancers, and other evil-aligned professions had long been forgotten in the course of history.
“Wow, that’s really spectacular!” Allen laughed, slightly excited, as the sheer number of skeletons gave him a sense of being on a battlefield.
Seeing Allen fidgeting with his knight’s sword, Scott spoke up first, frowning, “Calm down, Allen. Dealing with this many skeletons will be quite difficult!” Then he turned to Bernie and Reid and whispered, “Since you’re both national magicians of the Galkic Magic Association’s branch, you must have a solution, right?”
“Well…” Bernie gazed intently at the graveyard and said solemnly, “I suggest taking a detour. From what I can tell, this graveyard seems to have a barrier—probably to prevent others from passing through. We can avoid it…”
“No way,” Allen interrupted, annoyed. “Sir, take a detour around this graveyard? I can’t even see the edge of it. In my opinion, we should just go straight through!” He then turned to Jiang Zhe and asked, “What do you think, buddy?”
Jiang Zhe seemed to be thinking about something. Hearing Allen’s words, he replied nonchalantly, “Whatever!”
“That’s two votes then!” Allen grinned, raising two fingers in a provocative gesture at Ravia.
“Hmph!” As if seeing through Allen’s intentions, Ravia snorted disdainfully.
“Three votes!” With a teasing smile, Allen turned to Scott, who shook his head speechlessly.
“Now it’s four votes!”

Looking at the yellow-haired child with a mix of anger and amusement, Bernie said with a bitter smile, “Kid, you’re not serious, are you? I guess there are about two or three hundred of those skeletons…” As he spoke, he glanced at Scott, his eyes showing a hint of helpless concern.

“Tsk tsk!” Allen shook his finger at Bernie and said laughingly, “You underestimate us too much, uncle!”

“Uncle?” As if hearing something unexpected, Bernie snapped angrily, “Who do you call uncle, brat? I’m only 27 today…” Subconsciously, he glanced at the children in front of him, then shut his mouth in frustration, muttering under his breath.

“Let’s go—uncles, take the lead!” Allen pointed at Bernie and Reid.

“Kids these days… really not cute!” Sighing in exasperation, Bernie nodded at Reid, telling him to stay at the back of the group, while he walked alone at the front.

Bernie’s estimate was clearly correct. As soon as the group entered the cemetery, the skeletons wandering around there turned their heads in unison, staring at them intently, their hollow eye sockets glowing with eerie green flames.

“Guh!” Bernie, who was at the front, felt a chill run down his spine as those flames stared at him.

“Crack! Crack!” The skeletons, having spotted their enemies, staggered toward them. Though each one seemed unimpressive on its own, their sheer number made people wary.

“Go ahead, uncle!” Allen said cheerfully, nodding at Bernie.

Tch, underestimated by a bunch of kids!

Rolling his eyes, Bernie became serious and recited a long spell toward the distant skeletons. Once the last syllable faded, the ground beneath their feet instantly turned into a swamp. No matter how hard the skeletons struggled, they couldn’t escape its grasp; all that awaited them was being swallowed by the swamp.

Grade 4 Earth Magic [Mudflow Swamp]!

“Wow!” Allen glanced at Bernie in surprise before saying mockingly, “There are still quite a few!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard Reid behind them recite a spell in a deep voice. Immediately afterward, a green liquid poured from above the skeletons, covering them. The moment the skeletons came into contact with the liquid, they began to corrode and dissolve.

Grade 4 Alchemy Magic [Acid Erosion]!

“Impressive…” Allen praised sincerely. He realized he had underestimated these two uncles after all. After all, they were national magicians—how could they not be skilled?

“How’s it going, kid?” Bernie taunted Allen with a hint of pride. He didn’t dislike this sunny little boy at all.
“Not bad. Now watch me!” With that, Allen drew his knight’s sword, handed the scabbard to Lisa, then took a deep breath while gripping the sword. Immediately, a faint red and green glow spread across his body.
[Strength Enhancement: Bull’s Power]
[Speed Enhancement: Antelope’s Power]
With both enhancements active, Allen rushed forward at incredible speed before Bernie could react. In just a few leaps, he reached a skeleton, reached out with his left hand, and grabbed its head. With a low roar, the skeleton’s head was crushed instantly. Then, Allen turned and swept his large knight’s sword horizontally, reducing the entire row of skeletons in front of him to half their height.
But skeletons from all sides immediately surrounded them. Seeing this, Bernie shouted, “Kid, watch your back!”
Yet before his words faded, Allen’s knight’s sword emitted a greenish light, and a small tornado enveloped him. Powerful wind blades torn apart all the skeletons in front.
“Whoa!” Bernie looked stunned. It was no wonder—anyone who saw a student from the Rexox Magic Academy fighting with a knight’s sword would be amazed.
As he was thinking, he caught a glimpse of over a dozen skeletons wobbling closer. Just as he was about to act, a beam of black light flashed past him, turning into dozens of black threads that tightly wrapped around the skeletons.
Bernie instinctively turned back and saw Scott pointing at the skeletons with his right hand, pushing his glasses up with his left. At the same time, the black threads trembled slightly before tightening further, crushing the skeletons to pieces.
[Curse: Binding]
These kids are no ordinary ones…
Watching Ravia control over a dozen flames, Lisa summon a white unicorn rhinoceros, Lailira shoot dark arrows that hit the opposing skeletons one by one, and Dia summon water elements while also firing water arrows and creating water shields, Bernie was secretly shocked: Even students from that famous academy were incredibly strong… far beyond their peers…
Hmm… the strongest must be that kid named Allen, followed by the count’s grandson who uses curses, and that girl who controls fire. Compared to them, the other two girls are weaker, but…

As he thought about it, Bernie glanced in surprise at the lone little boy who was doing nothing, with his dark golden hair, seemingly lost in thought… To be honest, those skeletons were pitifully weak—aside from their sheer numbers, they had nothing worth praising. Not even Allen’s brute force could deal with them, let alone Scott’s binding spells, which could crush those skeletons. But as the battle continued, they encountered a problem… “It seems the number of these skeletons hasn’t decreased at all…” Lisa said hesitantly, under the protection of the long-horned white rhinoceros. To stand outside the graveyard and look at those skeletons was one thing; being surrounded by them was another entirely. Looking at those skeletons with faint green soul flames in their eye sockets, Lisa knew they were easily defeated, yet she still felt some fear. Lailira beside her felt the same way. “They haven’t decreased?” Ravia, who was controlling over a dozen fire waves at once, looked around in surprise. Her precise control allowed the attacks to form a dense web of fire, crushing any skeleton that approached it in an instant. “Indeed, they haven’t decreased…” Seeing Lisa’s confusion, Scott glanced at the vast number of skeletons around and suddenly frowned. “Did those crushed skeletons get up again?!” “What?” Bernie instinctively looked around and, seeing that Scott was right, sighed bitterly. “I’m sure there’s a barrier in this graveyard. As long as we’re inside it, those skeletons won’t be completely destroyed—we’re just wasting time!” “A barrier?” Scott frowned and shouted at Allen in the distance, “Allen, stop wasting time! Charge in—these skeletons can’t be killed!” “Huh?” Allen swung his knight’s sword to create a wind blade, knocking down a skeleton, then turned back, scratching his head in confusion. “I thought so—why does their number never seem to go down? But these guys are really fragile!” With that, he didn’t even look; he simply bent his left elbow backward and easily broke a skeleton’s spine. These ten minutes once again proved necromancer Poole’s guess was correct—there was an inherent barrier in this graveyard, preventing any skeleton within its range from being completely destroyed.

Compared to before, the number of skeletons now was simply enormous, surrounding the few children and the two national magicians tightly. From a distance, the entire graveyard resembled a sea of white. Moreover, more and more skeletons kept crawling out of the ground.

“Trouble!” Looking around, Bernie’s forehead gradually beaded with sweat. Staring at the vast number of skeletons, he said anxiously, “Charge over! Don’t waste time—we have to get through!”

“Uncle, that’s easy for you to say!” Allen rolled his eyes and drew his sword with his left hand. A faint blue glow appeared on the blade, and with a powerful swing, he created a massive crescent-shaped shockwave. With a series of cracking sounds, every skeleton touched by the shockwave was completely frozen and then shattered into piles of ice shards.

“There’s nothing we can do!” Bernie said with a bitter smile. He hadn’t expected these seemingly weak skeletons to be so troublesome from the start.

Just as he was anxious, a voice came from behind him.

“Stand beside me!”

“Hm?” Bernie instinctively turned his head and saw the boy who had been standing still slowly raising his right hand…

Suddenly, as the boy raised his hand, a large amount of fire elements in the air gathered here. Due to their density, Bernie could even see the faint red traces left by those fire elements in the air.

“Hey, buddy, you better control this!” Realizing something was wrong, Allen immediately returned to the group—he didn’t want to accidentally hurt his friend.

“Swish! Swish swish!” Under Bernie’s astonished gaze, countless small red dots gradually formed around the group, or rather, in the surrounding area. Like a vortex, they absorbed the fire elements in the vicinity and gradually took on a spherical shape.

Fireballs…

Bernie immediately recognized the nature of this magic. It wasn’t anything special—just ordinary fireballs the size of pebbles. But the number…

Looking at the countless fireballs floating motionless in the air, Bernie instinctively swallowed hard. He had a vague feeling that he might be about to witness a spectacular scene he might never see again in his life…

As Bernie had guessed, before the skeletons around them could stagger forward toward Jiang Zhe and the others, the fireballs moved… Hundreds of fireballs, like a hail of artillery, flew through the sea of skeletons along various trajectories with swishing sounds.

Bernie stared in shock as a skeleton was reduced to fragments in an instant by at least dozens of passing fireballs—its arm bones, leg bones, skull… all completely shattered. He saw the bones of those skeletons scattering everywhere; one skull was sent flying into the air by a fireball and, unfortunately, collided with others, being utterly destroyed. Those fragments didn’t even get a chance to fall to the ground, continuing to be bombarded by countless fireballs until they turned to powder. Could fireballs be used like this?

While stunned, Bernie was also amazed by the astonishing magical power of the boy before him. Although fireballs were a low-consumption spell, such a large number…

The group stood quietly inside the protective shield created by Dia, listening to the continuous crackling sounds around them, watching as the skeletons around them were smashed like in a magic trick, left severely injured…

In just two minutes, all the skeletons in the graveyard had turned into white bone fragments scattered everywhere.

“Let’s hurry away before they recover!” Jiang Zhe whispered, glancing at his somewhat dazed companions and the two national mages who clearly were in a daze.

“Oh,” Bernie snapped out of his shock. He glanced at the scattered bone fragments, which were strangely vibrating, and quickly said, “Hurry! Let’s get across!” As he spoke, he instinctively glanced at the boy with dark golden hair.

This kid…

“Impressive, guy!” Allen said with a smile, patting Jiang Zhe on the shoulder. The others also showed admiration in their eyes, except for Ravia, who frowned slightly.

Because she sensed that beneath the boy’s originally clear, deep blue magical fluctuations, there were faint traces of dark, profound fluctuations… That familiar feeling that made her uncomfortable…

“Avi? Hurry up!”

“…” After giving Jiang Zhe a deep look, Ravia nodded silently.

“Mm!”

Meanwhile, in the basement of that dark castle, Connel, Argus, and Pule were descending the dim stairs deeper into the interior.

It was a long and narrow passage, without any torches, but this posed no problem for the three of them. Not only did the werewolves have night vision in the darkness, but for Argus and Pule, the night was originally the domain of dark mages and necromancers. Moreover, they possessed strong mental powers, allowing them to easily explore the passage beneath their feet with their minds.

After walking for about eight or nine minutes, the three of them finally reached what seemed to be the end. To their surprise, there was nothing there—only a solid wall in front of them. Yet their expressions didn’t change at all…
“It’s behind this!” Connel said firmly after sniffing around.
“It seems so…” Agus agreed with a smile, as he too could sense dark energies seeping through the other side of the wall from time to time.
“Step back!” Connel said expressionlessly. Before Agus could react, he punched the wall. With a loud thud, the wall and the entire passage shook violently, but surprisingly, the wall remained intact.
Even without using his full strength, as the most powerful Gungro, Connel’s fist couldn’t break a wall? What kind of joke was this?
“Tap, tap!” Pur stepped forward and knocked on the wall with his finger before shaking his head. “Obsidian!”
“Tch!” As if recalling some unpleasant memory, Connel snorted coldly. He clenched his right hand and swung at the wall with great force. But in the end, his fist didn’t land on the obsidian wall because Agus grabbed him by the arm.
“What are you trying to do, Agus?” the werewolf asked warily.
“Don’t misunderstand, buddy,” Agus said, releasing his grip and shrugging. “I just want you to avoid being so impulsive…” He tapped the obsidian wall with his finger and smiled. “Connel, since you’ve agreed to be my companion… well, even if it’s only temporarily, we’re companions now. I won’t harm you. On the contrary, I’ll help you—whether it’s killing the enemies you want to kill or bringing back your beloved woman. But the condition is, if we’re all buried here, we won’t be able to do anything, right?”
“…” Connel was speechless.
It made sense—after all, they were in a castle basement. If they used too much force and caused the ground to collapse, it would be a problem. Not only for Agus, but even Connel himself would be in trouble. After all, being immortal was one thing, but being able to escape from being buried dozens or even hundreds of yards underground was another entirely.
After thinking for a moment, Connel said in a low voice, “So what do we do?” It was the first time he had spoken to Agus in a questioning tone.

“Leave it to me!” Before Argus could speak, Poole said calmly, then began rubbing the wall with his right hand, seemingly searching for something.
“What are you doing?” Connel asked in confusion.
“Looking for a mechanism!” Poole whispered as he carefully examined the wall. “We can all feel that dark force coming from behind the wall. That means this path isn’t a dead end. If we try to break through the wall with force, it’s likely to cause an avalanche… Besides, the master of this castle couldn’t have entered in the same way as you—there must be some mechanism!” As he spoke, his expression changed slightly as he lowered his head to study the thirteen skull patterns on the wall.
“What are these?” Argus asked, looking down at the patterns in confusion.
“Thirteen skulls, symbols of the power of death. It’s a secret known only to us necromancers. Legend says that by gathering thirteen magically charged skulls, one can establish a connection with the land of death. But I’m not sure if it’s true…” As he spoke, Poole traced the thirteen skull patterns in a strange sequence with his index finger. Instantly, the patterns turned green and eerily opened their mouths as if laughing.
Then, with a muffled thud, the wall before them rose loudly upward—it turned out to be no wall at all, but a door made of obsidian.
“It seems I was right…” Poole said softly, glancing at Argus. “At least one necromancer must have lived here! And one who was highly skilled in the power of death!”
“Oh, really?” Argus smiled slightly and shrugged. “If such a person really existed, you wouldn’t have been suppressed by the dark magicians for over a hundred years…”
Glancing at Argus, Poole said unhappily, “It wasn’t a difference in strength, but in magic. Most of the spells passed down through our generations were lost in battles against the dark magicians, while the dark magicians still have Rexos, Vandel, Gory…”
“Yes, yes. I hope you can find your ancestors’ magical manuscripts here too, dear companion!” Argus said, patting Poole’s shoulder, then turned to Connel. “What are you waiting for, buddy?”
Connel gave Poole a deep look and nodded at him, perhaps as a thank you, then walked toward the darkness.

It was a very large and spacious room. In the darkness, rows of bookcases and shelves could be faintly seen, giving it the appearance of a library. However, this library was unattended, with books scattered haphazardly everywhere; the shelves were covered in dust, suggesting it had been there for a long time. “Bear!” Poole raised his hand to summon a faintly green flame resembling soul fire. With its light, he picked up a book from the ground, flipped through a few pages, and then looked surprised. “Bone Spear Art?” Poole frowned further as he flipped more pages, his expression growing even more surprised. He murmured, “Bone Prison? Skeleton Awakening? Enhanced Skeletons? Death Erosion? These are all our spells…” “Oh? Could it be that one of your ancestors’ necromancers built a library here?” Argus laughed heartily. Then, as if he noticed something, his smile vanished instantly, and he said with a smirk, “My dear companion Poole, maybe you can study your ancestors’ magic books later…” “Hm?” Poole raised his head in confusion and happened to see several vague shadows emerging from the darkness. They stared at the three of them with their milky yellow eyes, and faint growls could be heard, like those of wolves…