Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2012: Chapter 2013: Entering the Ruins

Just as they were about to fly to the Star Pond Ruins, Angel suddenly frowned deeply.

Sanders was gazing at the sky above the ruins, ”Such dense Nightmare Realm aura, it’s twice as strong as before. Is it because Lord Rhein opened the passage earlier?”

As Sanders spoke, he glanced at Angel out of the corner of his eye.

Noticing his somewhat unusual expression, Sanders asked, ”What’s wrong with you?”

Angel shook his head while rubbing his temples, ”It’s nothing, just feels a bit noisy.”

”Noisy?” Tree Spirit also flew over, ”Noisy about what?”

Angel looked towards the distant ruins, ”Over there, there’s a very chaotic flow of emotions erupting. These emotions are too noisy, like a hundred, no, a thousand ducks quacking beside your ear.”

Before Tree Spirit could understand what Angel meant, a low sound came to their ears.

Not only Tree Spirit, but Sanders and Angel also heard it.

”The active lines are erupting, be careful when you approach.”

Without a doubt, it was Lord Rhein speaking.

As the words fell, a black cloud suddenly erupted from the Star Pond Ruins in the distance. As soon as this black cloud rose into the sky, it immediately scattered, quickly merging with the night and disappearing.

This was just the scene seen with the naked eye, but with the eyesight of those present, they could clearly sense that the black cloud was actually made up of a large number of active lines. The so-called ”scattering until fading,” was in fact the active lines dispersing in all directions.

The dense night became the best camouflage for the active lines. They seemed to dissolve into the darkness, but were actually hiding their ferocious tusks in the shade.

”Is today the eruption period for the active lines?” Watching the active lines dissolve into the night, Sanders asked Tree Spirit.

”Sort of, the eruption of the active lines has a fixed cycle, which we speculate is the gestation period for the active lines. Once they mature, they will erupt.”

”The gestation period does not extend to a specific moment, but based on previous occurrences, it could erupt any of these days. It’s unexpected that we’d run into it just as we arrived.” Tree Spirit also found it bothersome, as once the active lines erupt, would there be new disturbances in the passage of the ruins?

As Tree Spirit felt troubled, Sanders turned to Angel, ”The emotions you sensed earlier, were they from the active lines?”

Angel shook his head, ”The active lines, just like in the hospital before, are difficult to sense emotion fluctuations from.”

”If it’s not from the active lines, then it should be the old emotions erupting from the passage once it’s opened,” Sanders paused, then continued to look at Angel, ”Can you make out any general information from the emotions?”

Angel closed his eyes to sense it, then shook his head, ”Too chaotic, even more jumbled than last time, completely no clue.”

Sanders nodded, not asking further, but his gaze revealed a hint of solemn contemplation.

According to Angel, the emotions emerging from the passage this time were extremely chaotic. Could this mean that in recent days, a large number of Nightmare Realm creatures had appeared in the passage of the ruins?

Although the situation when Rhein previously entered the ruins passage had already confirmed this; Sanders was more concerned about why a large number of magical creatures had suddenly appeared in these few days.

Was it because of Angel?

Sanders dared not make any assumptions, but to him, the timing seemed too coincidental.

Sanders did not voice his thoughts, instead saying, ”Let’s go over there first and see.”

”Be careful of the active lines.” As they started to move again, Tree Spirit immediately reminded them. However, what surprised Tree Spirit was that when they flew over the ruins of the Star Pond, they encountered no active lines along the way.

Clearly, the number of active lines earlier was enough to form a black cloud, and if they scattered, no matter where they went, it would be impossible to avoid them. But they didn’t encounter any active lines, as if the active lines intentionally bypassed their path.

”Could it be some method of Sanders?” Tree Spirit couldn’t figure it out and could only attribute it to Sanders in the end, after all, he was leading the way. Moreover, it was Sanders who had managed to suppress the troublesome active line infection before. Maybe Sanders really had some way to deal with the active lines.

Tree Spirit shook his head, stopping to think more about it.

...

As they descended onto the ruins of the Star Pond, Rhein came to greet them and looked at Angel, ”The timing of the active line eruption is a bit unfortunate, there could be disturbances in the passage, perhaps we could change the time to enter next time?”

For Rhein, Angel’s safety was more important than exploring the ruins. Therefore, Rhein proactively suggested changing the exploration time.

Sanders opened his mouth to say something, but since it was Rhein consulting Angel, he ultimately didn’t say anything. It was up to Angel to decide whether to postpone or not.

Angel furrowed his brows and said nothing for a long time, Rhein thought he was contemplating how to decide and didn’t urge him.

However, as time passed without a response from Angel, Sanders noticed that his eyes were a bit vacant, not appearing to be in deep thought.

Sanders frowned, gently pushed Angel.

Angel shuddered, his eyes lighting up once more.

”Lord Rhein is still waiting for your decision.” Sanders whispered, ”Do you intend to continue exploring today, or change the date?”

Angel didn’t hesitate at all, ”Let’s do it today.”

Rhein looked deeply at Angel, didn’t persuade further, and just nodded, ”Alright.”

As they followed Rhein to the center of the Star Pond ruins, Sanders asked softly, ”When you were in a daze, did you sense anything?”

Angel nodded, ”Same feeling, I saw that door.”

Angel hesitated a bit at this point, then continued, ”Because I sensed the door last time, I didn’t pay much attention. The reason I froze was that once I landed on the Star Pond, I sensed some distinctly coherent emotions.”

”Can you analyze the meaning in those emotions?” Sanders asked.

Angel solemnly nodded this time, ”They were saying... praise the moonlight, praise the Queen, and praise...”

”Shava?” Sanders supplemented.

Angel nodded.

”It seems they know you’re here.” A glint flashed in Sanders’ eyes, it should be Angel’s appearance on that day that was sensed by the creatures of the Nightmare Realm inside.

The sudden surge of magical creatures in the passage these days might also be related to this.