fantasy novels Chapter 4348 Clouds and Mist
Chapter 4348 Clouds and Mist
Chapter 4348 Clouds and Mist
Is the evening bell of the night city difficult to ring?
It is undoubtedly very difficult.
Its difficulty level differs from "Golden Land" and "Nereid"; it's not a high-difficulty combat level, but rather a level with complex mechanics.
It's similar to "The Library of Echoes," emphasizing mechanics over combat.
These types of levels can be easily cleared once you figure out their mechanics.
Take the Echo Library for example. If you are knowledgeable and happen to possess knowledge that even the demon god's divine sense doesn't know, passing this level is only a matter of time.
In other words, "knowledge" is the key to breaking the Echo Library mechanism.
The most difficult mechanic for Night City Evening Bell lies in dealing with the almost limitless "ghosts," which also possess banishment and invisibility mechanisms.
Even if the Red Clay Squad and other ordinary squads knew the Ghost's mechanics beforehand, they would be completely outmatched. Therefore, the difficulty and danger here are undoubtedly extremely high for them.
But for the Rabbit Hole team, it's a different story.
The mechanisms currently exhibited by the Ghost are completely countered by the Rabbit Hole.
For example, the banishment mechanism for ghosts requires that the ghosts find a human. However, the illusionary effect created by the Nightmare Node makes ghosts unable to find them, allowing them to explore freely. If they can't even find the ghosts, how can they be banished?
Furthermore, the Ghost's invisibility mechanism is almost completely ineffective against Gray Porcelain's "danger sense." If combined with the illusionary invisibility effect, the Rabbit Hole team can even stay completely away from the Ghost throughout the entire encounter.
Even if we ultimately face an attack from countless ghosts, don't forget there's still a powerful weapon... Gabriel.
If this guy were to use his "jinx," even Night City could be destroyed overnight, let alone the ghosts hidden within it.
Therefore, in the battle between Rabbit Hole and Night City Evening Bell, Rabbit Hole wins decisively!
In this situation, Angell was naturally not worried about the Rabbit Hole team's future. As long as they proceeded step by step, conquering this level would be no problem at all.
He was more curious about Luigi's situation than what happened down the rabbit hole.
Luigi usually stays in the Uriel instance, diligently facing off against challengers, and there have been almost no unexpected incidents. — The arrival of the Sun and Moon Wizard could be considered an unexpected event, but it is currently confined to the instance and does not affect the overall situation.
Therefore, Angell was really curious about what had happened to Luigi.
Is it related to the dungeon, or to Luigi himself?
……
“It’s related to the Uriel copy, and it’s also related to Luigi,” Laplace answered, pausing for a moment before adding, “And it’s also related to you.”
Angel's expression froze: "What does this have to do with me?"
Laplace nodded: "That's right. Do you remember what you said to Luigi before you entered the Library of Echoes?"
Angor hadn't forgotten: "I remember when the Misty Swamp Forest instance first appeared, the instance information confirmed that the actual location of this instance was... in the swamp forest along the route from Dawn City to Evening Light Harbor."
"Furthermore, the main objective of this instance is to delve into the swamp and uncover the truth about the evil spirits."
And coincidentally, the real-world counterpart of the Uriel instance is Dawn City.
Even more coincidentally, several "otherworldly visitors" in the Uriel instance can log off freely, and their location after logging off is also in Dawn City.
Therefore, Angell thought that he might as well ask Luigi to ask them to investigate the Misty Swamp Forest in the real world.
In this way, the truth about the "evil spirit" can be found out more quickly.
Angel: "Could it be that what you're saying about Luigi is related to the truth I asked him to investigate?"
Laplace nodded, then shook his head: "It's related, but not entirely related."
With a puzzled look on Ingres's face, Laplace began to speak in detail.
The story begins after Luigi was released.
As soon as he logged on, he immediately left Uriel's courtyard and headed to Melun Street to find the Sun and Moon Wizard.
He wanted to ask Mr. Sun and Ms. Moon for help in investigating the truth about the "evil spirits" in the Misty Forest.
And the reward is the recognition he gives.
After spending this time together, the Sun and Moon Wizards have gained 90% of his approval. If they can gain another 10% of approval, they will be able to become Voyagers, leave the Uriel instance, and head to the Dream Crystal Plains.
This time, Luigi plans to reward them by directly increasing their approval rating by 9%, bringing them to 99%.
As for why it's still 1% short?
The main problem is... Luigi plans to bring the Sun and Moon Wizards to Dream Crystal Plains after he clears the Uriel dungeon.
After all, they were all legendary wizards.
If they enter Dream Crystal Plains alone, no one knows what kind of impact it will have. With him along, at least he can "monitor" them through the recognition he receives.
Therefore, I definitely can't maximize their approval rating before I've even finished the game.
99% is about right. Even a 0.1% growth rate after that can buy us some more time.
However, Luigi had already decided to give up 9% of his approval rating, but when he arrived at the apartment building on Murren Street, he did not encounter the Sun and Moon Wizards; they seemed to have gone offline.
However, Blanche and Camillo are still around.
Luigi had a sudden idea and approached the master and apprentice.
At that time, Camillo was teaching Blanche some knowledge about controlling dream power.
Teaching in the Uriel instance has become Camillo's routine. Due to her innate talent, Blanche is often in a coma, so in order for her to be able to learn even while asleep, Camillo simply uses this place as a classroom and comes here every day for routine instruction.
Luigi's arrival did not disrupt Camillo's teaching.
He stood in the corner of the room and waited until Camillo finished explaining all the key points before stepping forward to reveal his purpose.
Since the Sun and Moon Wizard is not here, we can ask Camillo to investigate the Misty Swamp Forest as well.
Camillo is also a certified wizard, and he comes from a local organization within the Great Sman Empire, giving him a geographical advantage. He might be able to find the truth more quickly.
After Luigi explained the situation, Camillo fell into deep thought: "I do know where the Misty Swamp Forest is, but are you sure there are evil spirits there?"
Luigi asked, somewhat puzzled, "From what you're saying, you don't think there are any evil spirits there?"
Camillo didn't hide anything and said frankly, "I come from the Church of Radiance. The church's main task is to hunt demons. Whenever there is any trace of a 'demon' appearing, the higher-ups will assign me a task to hunt it."
"And evil spirits also belong to the category of 'demons'."
If there were truly "evil spirits" in the Misty Forest, the Church of Light would have been able to discover them.
Therefore, Camillo believes that there may not be any "evil spirits" in the Misty Forest.
Luigi shrugged: "I don't know if there are evil spirits either. We'll have to investigate the truth to find out."
Camillo thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, I'm in Dawn City now anyway, it won't be a problem to go to the Misty Swamp Forest. I'll go take a look after I go offline."
As a certified wizard, he could arrive at the scene in just a few minutes, given his speed.
At that time, a mental scan will be enough to take in the entire situation of the Misty Swamp Forest.
Luigi: "Then I'll leave it to you. By the way, if it really is an evil spirit, and if it hasn't committed any serious evil, it's best to keep it alive for now and not kill it."
Luigi worries that the Misty Forest instance might crash once the "evil spirit" is killed in reality.
As soon as Luigi finished speaking, Camillo looked at him with a strange expression: "You..."
Luigi: "???" What happened to me?
"Never mind, I'll log off now and tell you the result later." Camiro didn't say anything more, turned around and logged off, disappearing from sight.
Luigi looked completely bewildered and turned to Blanche behind him: "What's wrong with your teacher? Why does she only say half of what she means?"
Blanche was covering her mouth and chuckling, but when she saw Luigi looking over, she immediately put on a serious expression.
"It's not the teacher's fault, it's just that Mr. Luigi's words are contradictory."
Luigi: "My words are contradictory?"
Blanche nodded: "Evil spirits are called evil spirits because they have committed heinous acts, which is why they are given this name. If they have not committed any evil deeds, even if they carry chaotic and evil negative energy, they are just ordinary undead."
The Church of Light simply couldn't be bothered with these ordinary dead souls.
After all, the number of the undead is too large. As long as they are not within the scope of human exploration and have not committed any heinous acts, the Church of the Light will turn a blind eye.
Luigi then realized why Camillo was looking at him like that.
"He... can explain it to me."
Blanche: "Perhaps the teacher thinks that your world's definition of evil spirits is different from our world's definition of evil spirits. Just like humans don't like rotten things, but scavengers think rotten things are the most delicious food."
Luigi glanced at him sideways: "Your theories are quite sophisticated."
Blanche gave an embarrassed, shy smile: "These are all things the teacher taught me; I'm just repeating them."
Luigi raised an eyebrow, thinking that since he had nothing else to do, he might as well stay here and chat with Blanche.
Over the next few minutes, Luigi and Blanche began to talk about all sorts of things, from the wizarding world of the Western Continent to the Dream Crystal Plains, and from the theory of dream power to the art of poetry...
Time flies by so quickly.
Two hours later.
Camillo is still not online, but there have been some new changes in the Uriel dungeon.
Just as Luigi was engrossed in his conversation, he suddenly felt the air around him become somewhat cool, as if the temperature had dropped by ten degrees, but the humidity was increasing.
If the temperature and humidity were only changing gradually, he might not have noticed, but the range of increase and decrease was too large. Not to mention Luigi, even Blanche felt that something was wrong.
She shivered and hugged her arms: "Is it getting cold?"
No sooner had she finished speaking than she heard a loud crashing sound coming from the window, which startled Blanche.
Looking back, I realized there was no one outside the window, but rather a strong wind was blowing in, crashing against the windowsill and making a clattering sound.
Luigi stood up, walked to the window, and gently opened it a crack.
The cold, damp wind from outside rushed in through the window, making the room howl loudly.
Luigi stuck his head out and looked around, only to see that the sky above was covered with thick, dark clouds. The clouds were being whipped and torn apart by the gale, and layers of shadows pressed down, creating a sense of oppressive force, as if a city were about to be destroyed.
What shocked Luigi the most was that the area around the Uriel instance was originally covered by white mist. This white mist was not real mist, but a kind of boundary wall that defined the limited area of the Uriel instance.
Now, although the white mist is still there, you can still see the outlines of the layered buildings behind you through it, and even the curves of the mountains in the distance.
This change was actually quite familiar to Luigi.
Just before midnight yesterday, after he had finished a challenger's challenge, a hurricane suddenly began to blow through the Uriel instance.
The surrounding fog was churning and swirling, very similar to the current situation!
When Luigi logged off earlier, he mentioned this change to Angor, but Angor happened to tell him about the "Misty Swamp Forest" at the time. Attracted by the new things, he didn't pay much attention to the strange phenomenon of the swirling fog.
Now, the same celestial phenomenon has appeared again, and this time it is accompanied by strong winds, which is obviously not right.
The Uriel instance is not a large instance, so it generally does not have a celestial module.
This phenomenon must represent some kind of change.
Without hesitation, Luigi quickly said goodbye to Blanche and hurriedly left the apartment building.
He ran outside onto Merren Street.
Outdoors, the power of the strong wind became increasingly apparent, howling and whipping against the walls on both sides of the street, creating a mournful sound.
He looked up and saw more clearly the faint outlines of buildings behind the white mist, layer upon layer, which was definitely not the scene in the copy.
Is the Uriel instance going to be expanded again, with new areas added?
He made this guess not only because of the shadowy figures behind the white fog, but also because of clear precedents!
Currently, the Uriel instance has two areas: Uriel Courtyard and the short Merren Street.
Initially, there was no Murren Street in the instance. It wasn't until Blanche arrived with the Sun and Moon Wizards that the instance experienced this strange phenomenon of "clouds and mist" and then Murren Street appeared out of thin air.
Now that the same strange phenomenon has occurred again, Luigi naturally suspects that a new area is about to be unlocked.
Filled with doubt, he walked step by step toward the end of Murren Street and soon reached the end of the street.
He reached out, trying to touch the white mist barrier to see if he could break through it and reach the new area beyond the mist.
Even though the white mist was blown thinner and thinner by the strong wind, the barrier remained incredibly solid. When you touched it with your fingertips, you only felt a cold resistance and couldn't budge it at all.
"Could my guess be wrong?" Luigi frowned slightly, his mind filled with doubt. "This is actually just a normal strong wind, and there's no new area?"
The fact that the boundary barrier could not be broken was an established fact, and even if he didn't understand it, he could only accept it.
Luigi sighed softly and turned to walk towards the apartment building. Since this unusual celestial phenomenon wouldn't bring any new areas, he would leave it for the time being and focus on the intelligence from Camiro's side.
But as he turned to leave, his gaze inadvertently swept over Uriel's courtyard not far away, and his heart skipped a beat—
To his astonishment, he saw that under the old, long-withered tree in the yard, a door had appeared out of nowhere...