Chapter 575: Very Powerful Sword

GOR Chapter 575 Very Powerful Sword

There were two passageways within the hall which led to the basement. One of them was an elevator that was constructed much later - now that the place had become an instance dungeon, it was only natural that the elevator had disappeared.

The other one was a spiral staircase made of stone. Walking down the spiral staircase, they could feel the dampness and gloom in the air.

Chen Xiaolian had a tactical flashlight in his left hand while his right held onto Soo Soo. The two of them went down the stairs together.

As there was only one flashlight to serve as a source of illumination within the darkness, their surroundings gave off a rather terrifying atmosphere. However, the two of them had gone through many instance dungeons and the atmosphere, which would have terrified a child was nothing to them. Rather, Soo Soo had curiously reached out with her hand to feel the wall.

"It is a little moist." The little girl flicked her hand and wiped them on the edges of Chen Xiaolian's clothes. There was a look of distaste on her face. Chen Xiaolian responded with a smile.

They moved down along the stairs for a long time. When they finally came to the end of the stairs, they found an empty lair. The basement was not too high - considering the standard of the structures made hundreds of years ago, there was no way for them to make this underground basement large. A few stone pillars rose upward, supporting the space that was tens of metres wide. The stone pillars also appeared somewhat aged, mottled with various colours.

There was a row of bronze pipes on the wall of the basement. Judging by the looks of it, they must be used for communication.

Chen Xiaolian walked over and lightly rapped the surface of the bronze pipe. The pipe shuddered.

"Sounds should be able to travel upstairs."

Walking forward, they noticed a wooden double leaf door. The door's bronze handles had gone to rust and the surface of the door was covered with dust. It was obvious that the doors had not been opened for a long time.

Soo Soo glanced at Chen Xiaolian. "What could be behind the door?"

Chen Xiaolian smiled. He walked forward and pushed open the doors with a smile on his face. "Since there is the legend of vampires here, this will likely be something related to that. Who knows? There might be a coffin with a thousand-year-old vampire inside it."

By the time he finished those words, the doors had been fully opened. At that moment, the two of them grew stiff from shock.

Beyond the door was a room, not too large in size. Damp floor tiles beneath and red velvet curtains on the wall - however, most of the curtains have gone to rot.

Shockingly, there in the centre, on a hexagonal stone platform, was a coffin.

It was the Western, with a slight rhombus shape type of coffin.

The two of them were momentarily stunned. They exchanged glances. The look in Soo Soo's eyes clearly conveyed the words: You actually guessed it right?

Chen Xiaolian, on the other hand, stopped smiling. His face took on a grim countenance.

He quickly pulled Soo Soo to stand behind him. At the same time, he retrieved a sword from his Storage Watch.

It was an ordinary steel sword. He could feel the weight of the sword in his hand. It was the Western type of knightly sword and was both wide and heavy, a double-edged sword suitable for both hacking and slashing.

With one hand holding onto the flashlight and the other the sword, Chen Xiaolian carefully took several steps forward. As he did so, his eyes stared intently at the coffin on the stone platform.

After taking a few steps forward, he suddenly blurted out, "Eh?"

Soo Soo ran forward and stood beside Chen Xiaolian. She pointed at the coffin and said, "It looks like it is empty?"

It was empty.

The cover of the coffin on the stone platform had been opened and placed aside. As for the coffin, it was empty save for a layer of rotten, black coloured velvet cloth.

Other than that, it would appear that there was nothing else there.

Chen Xiaolian narrowed his eyes and observed the coffin for a moment. After pondering the situation for a few seconds, he kept the flashlight. Instead, he pulled out a handful of glow sticks from his Storage Watch. Flicking them, he then casually tossed them all around. In just moments, the room was illuminated with light.

Although the green coloured light from the sticks was somewhat eerie, it was enough to light up the room.

"Ah! Look at the cover of the coffin!"

Scratch marks could be seen on the cover of the coffin, criss-crossing each other. Earlier, they were unable to clearly see it due to the darkness of the room. Now however, thanks to the illumination provided by the glow sticks, everything had become clear. Coarse, fine, there were tens of those scratch marks, a terrifying sight.

Chen Xiaolian extended his finger to feel them a few times before whispering out, "It is done using a sharp item. I fear there may be more than one of those sharp items."

"Xiaolian oppa, look here."

Soo Soo suddenly spoke up and she pointed with her hand.

Chen Xiaolian turned to look at what she was pointing at. He crouched down and looked at the floor. Surprisingly, there were several long, black coloured items on the floor. He leaned closer to examine them... ...

"It looks like, nails?"

Those were obviously nails. However, they were all black in colour with the hardness of iron and sharpness of a knife. However, all of them had been cut off by something. The cut off area revealed that it had been cleanly cut off.

"And the walls." Soo Soo looked around and quickly said.

Truth be told, there was no need for Soo Soo to tell him about that. Chen Xiaolian had already noticed it.

Shockingly, there were gouge marks on all four walls.

Chen Xiaolian walked along the walls in a circle. After spending some time examining the walls, he closed his eyes and pondered for a few seconds. Then, he gave a long sigh.

"What a powerful sword aura!"

...

Phoenix dashed into one of the buildings serving as a barracks. It did not take long for her to quickly make her way out again.

Inside the buildings were several stacked up bedframes. However, they were all empty and the scent of rot filled the air.

Rusting armour parts lay in the corner.

In the middle area was a large tent and Phoenix strode toward it; to her surprise, she noticed that there was a stretch of blackness all over the ground within the tent.

One glance was all it took for Phoenix to tell that the stretch of blackness was a result of dried blood, a great deal of blood.

As the tent allowed air to flow in and out from all sides, no scent of blood remained within the tent. However, the moment Phoenix stepped inside, she felt her heart palpitate furiously.

There were bloodstains all over the surface of the tent. Although they had all dried up, she could sense that an intense battle had erupted here. Blood sprayed about in every direction, turning the interior of the tent into something like a Shura killing field.

Nothing was left intact. Every table was hacked apart. Each of the cut off surface area was so smooth, when Phoenix reached out to feel it, she was unable to refrain herself from making a grim face.

Blood filled every corner of this place. Judging by the amount of blood here, how many people had to die here? Finally, the question that had Phoenix puzzled was: Since so many people died here, what happened to their corpses?

"What a powerful sword!"

Phoenix felt sweat on the palms of her hands and she subconsciously retrieved her wand, gripping it with her hand. It was as though doing so was the only way to give herself some sense of security.

It was at that moment...

[System prompt: A participant from the Non-Player faction has found the special quest item (1/5), access to new instance dungeon area is now granted. Participants from the aforementioned faction is to enter the new area to search for the quest items. Instance dungeon countdown: 299 minutes 59 seconds... ...]

Phoenix abruptly turned back. She looked outside the tent, a gloomy and dubious expression on her face.

...

Chen Xiaolian gave the new system prompt in his personal system a blank stare. Next, he turned to look at the piece of severed nail that he had just picked up.

In addition to the prompt regarding the access to a new instance dungeon area, Chen Xiaolian also received a separate prompt regarding the nail he was holding in his hand.

[Vampire Primogenitor's Body Fragment (1/1). Branch quest completed. Information on the acquired reward: By gathering 3 of the fragments, you may summon the 'Bloodsword of the Bloodclan Primogenitor' once. The prop is a one-time consumable. Equipment level at [A-] class. It has a bonus effect against powers of the holy-type.]

Looking at the still unmoving countdown timer, Chen Xiaolian frowned. After considering it, he crouched down and picked up all of the severed nails on the floor.

Three pieces of nail could be used in exchange for a 'Bloodsword'. There were nine severed nails on the floor. That meant he could exchange out three Bloodswords. Although they were just one-time consumables, they were still [A-] class equipment.

Chen Xiaolian handed six of those nails to Soo Soo while he kept three. Next, he led Soo Soo with him as he quickly made his way out of the basement.

He led Soo Soo through the staircase and once again made his way to the hall in the first floor. There, he saw a figure rushing in through the gate of the castle.

"Eh? Phoenix?"

After identifying that the two figures in the distance were Chen Xiaolian and Soo Soo, Phoenix, who was ready to attack, retracted her attacking gestures and exhaled deeply.

"You two have been here all this time?" asked Phoenix with a frown.

"Mm," replied Chen Xiaolian, who looked at Phoenix. "What about you? Didn't you say you are not coming in?"

Phoenix hesitated for a moment before saying coolly, "I thought, since I have accompanied you all the way here, staying before the entrance is pointless - at the end of the day, it is just an instance dungeon. Just remember this, you owe me big time. Very, very, very, big."

Chen Xiaolian smiled. "All right, there is no need for you to say it. I understand."

After a pause, he then knitted his brows and looked around. "Do you see anyone else? Soo Soo and I seem to be the only ones inside this castle. I have been going around for a long time, but I have not found anyone yet. Also... ... the system's countdown timer... ..."

"It has stopped." Phoenix quickly continued, "I found out as well. It seems a BUG has appeared in the system."

"That is why I feel strange." Chen Xiaolian spread his hands open. "Since when did BUGs appear within the system?"

"I do not know. At any rate, I get the feeling that there is something very irregular with this instance dungeon."

The two of them quickly exchanged a few words. Phoenix did not conceal what she found. She informed them of what she found in the barracks outside the castle.

"A powerful sword?" Hearing that, Chen Xiaolian's face took an odd turn. Next, he told Phoenix about what he found in the basement.

"... ... I have kept the nails of the Bloodclan Primogenitor. I suppose that is something of a loot. However, the biggest question here is the lingering sword aura there. I suspect that... ... the Bloodclan Primogenitor mentioned by the system has been finished off. Logically speaking, the system must want the participants to kill off the Bloodclan Primogenitor for this phase in order to acquire the Bloodclan Primogenitor's Body Fragments. That is how this branch quest is supposed to be completed. However... ... the Bloodclan Primogenitor is already gone. We could only find an empty coffin there. Moreover, a battle had erupted there. Even the Bloodclan Primogenitor's nails had been cut off," Chen Xiaolian quickly said.

"Bloodclan Primogenitor... ... should be the BOSS for the first phase. It is already killed?" Phoenix frowned. "How is that possible? This instance dungeon has only just begun not long ago. You entered the moment this instance dungeon began. Could there be someone who entered this instance dungeon earlier than you?"

"Impossible," Soo Soo, who was standing beside them, said in a near whisper. "When we entered, this instance dungeon had just begun its refresh process. We did not see anyone else nearby."

"Have you tried going upstairs? Can you enter the other areas?" asked Phoenix.

"No. We had only checked the first floor and the basement. We have not checked the upper floors."

"I suspect we will be unable to get to the second floor. Just now, if you two had not found those nails, I would have been stuck outside this castle, incapable of stepping inside."

Hearing that, Chen Xiaolian was momentarily taken aback. "Maybe... ... this is the system's assignment? All the participants are assigned to different areas. Only by finding the quest item in each of the different areas would access be granted to more areas?"

Phoenix's eyes lit up. "That makes sense... ... eh, if that is the case, there must also be quest items in the barracks outside, just like the nails you picked up!"

"Let's go! We'll check it out. Maybe you missed something." Chen Xiaolian was quick to come to the decision. He pulled Soo Soo along as he led Phoenix out through the castle gate.

After the three of them ran out through the castle gate, two silhouettes ran down from the second floor.

...