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Chapter 116: Infiltration (2)

Heading into the castle through the passageway, the group cautiously looked around as they noted that they ended up in a dimly lit room.

"...uh, we're in the castle now, right?" Frey questioned as she glanced around the room. Although dark, the eyes of the group besides Shinto's slowly adjusted to the darkness, thus allowing them to see properly.

"I guess so..." Shinto mumbled out as he scrutinized his surroundings, taking note of the many sorts of boxes and gear lying around in the vicinity. "This should be a storage room?"

"Yep!" Rustly nodded his head as he hurried over towards the entrance of the room. "From here to where I think that human is... It should be up a few floors!"

"Huh?" Shinto tilted his head in question as he heard Rustly's statement. "...we're that far?"

"We are at the basement level of the castle..." he sighed. "But it's fine! It shouldn't be that hard to get by the guards."

"I see," Shinto nodded his head as he turned towards his group. "Then let's hurry."

...

Within a room situated within the castleA young girl, Raina paced around the room filled with many books all scrambled around the area. Whilst doing so, in her hands, she held onto a book titled 'Flames that Burns Death'.

"...to burn against the darkness, one must try for the flames against death," Raina repeated to herself as he walked back and forth in the room. "Continuing on the legacy of Etheral, blaze through the void!"

[ 'Flames of Etheral' proficiency has increased by 0.02%. ]

[ Current proficiency in the arts: 37.02% ]

[ Wisdom has increased by 1 ]

"...sigh," Glancing at her notifications upon finishing up her lines, Raina let out a sigh. "It's been days and only the proficiency is at 37%..." Moving her eyes away from the screen in helplessness, she turned over towards her status screen.

...

[ Player Profile ] 

Player Name: Raina

Level: 25

Rank: N/A

Class: Mage (Common)

-Class Attribute-

N/A

-Titles-

[ Novice Bookworm ]

You have touched and absorbed many sorts of books. However, most of them are of the advanced levels which you are yet able to understand. Even then, you still make the effort to learn.

*Wisdom Stat is opened.

*By reading books, you will slightly gain experience points.

*Current progress to advancing the title to 'Intermediate Bookworm': 26%

-Stats-

HP: 618/618 | MP: 876/876

Strength: 21 | Stamina: 41

Intelligence: 101 | Agility: 31

Wisdom: 17

Stats Point: 60

...

"At the rate this proficiency is increasing at... my newly opened Wisdom stat might surpass the percentage," Raina helplessly shook her head. "Well, at least I'm slowly gaining experience points."

During the past days where Raina was within closed doors, she had either been reading through books in order to learn the arts of Etheral or has been experimenting with spells from other books.

However, despite experimenting and learning, Raina didn't manage to learn any spells. This was because most if not all of the spells within the room were that of advanced to high grade. Even if she knew the words written on the pages, in practice, she wouldn't be able to use any spells due to the lack of understanding of the concept.

"..." Closing her profile window, Raina's eyes then turned over to the door. "...I wonder when that slime is coming back..." Unable to do anything at the moment, she quickly opened up the book within her hands once again as she began to read through it.

...

Thuck thuck...

Back within the castle hallway, the group silently manoeuvred through it as they slowly made their way over towards the 2nd floor of the building. From the basement level to the first, it had taken them around 15 minutes to find the staircase leading up.

"..." Turning around to look at the corner of the hall, Shinto's eyes narrowed over to see multiple slimes that wore armour customized for their bodies within the area. "...sigh. There are tons of guards within this area too."

"Grr... Are you serious?" Ethaniel clicked his tongue. "What other pathway can we take then?"

"I don't think there are any more options..." Shinto helplessly shook his head.

"Ugh. Wouldn't this all be better if we had just barged in from the front entrance?" Ethaniel scoffed. "So much better than wasting time trying to sneak around and avoiding confrontations..."

"Grrr, human! How many times do I have to tell you that I don't want us to get killed?!" Rustly cried out. "The moment we make a noise, the guards will come and arrest us, you'll lose privilege on so much stuff and even worst- You'll be jarred from helping out that human!"

"...yatty yatty yatta." Ethaniel moved his hand as if mocking the slime. "You're going on and on about the same reasoning again, right? Sigh. It's hopeless."

"Grrr, human! Stupid human!"

"Now, now..." Shinto helplessly sighed. Even without being able to understand Rustly's language, Ethaniel had been arguing with the slime non-stop since at the passageway. "Ahem. In any case, the only option to get to the second floor is through here, so you got any ideas?"

"If I say my idea, you'll probably get mad," Ethaniel shrugged. "-and counting on that slime and Frey wouldn't be good as well."

"Huh? Why am I dragged in this?!" Frey blurted out.

"Do I have to reason?"

"I can tell..." Shinto answered as he glanced around the area, noting that there was a few hiding spots that could conceal someone that was the size of a slime. "Hmm..."

"What do you mean you can tell?" Frey pouted. "I was gonna suggest knocking the slimes out or something..."

"No good!" Rustly stated.

"Bah... this guy and his nos," Ethaniel angrily turned away from the slime as he looked at Shinto. "Got any bright ideas?"

"Well... I got one," Shinto calmly replied as he looked at Kon on his shoulders. "Kon, you have the camouflage ability, right?"

"Mhm!" Kon nodded his head. "What do you want me to do?"

"It's simple. Cause trouble at the end of the hallway and distract the guards."

"...cause trouble?!" Rustly cried out. "It's not what I think it is, right?"

"Nothing of that sort. Just calm down and follow my lead," Shinto helplessly said.

...

By the hallways of the castle, the guards cautiously roamed around as they anticipatedly waited for something.

"Why did the king want us to stand guard here again?" One of the guards lazily muttered out.

"The black fog is outside, so... The chances of the Farku race suddenly charging into this place is high," The other guard stated. "His majesty tasked us to be on high alert at all times because of that."

"Sigh... so troublesome. Can't we just exterminate them outside?"

"Are you crazy? The fog is outside. The more exposed you are to it... The higher chances you'll get corrupted!" The guard shivered. "His Majesty had put up a barrier just for the sake of fending off against the fog from this castle, and, as for our people... We'll have to pray for that human to hurry up with the process of learning the arts."

"So slow... Wasn't Renryth much faster?"

"We could've been done by now if he wasn't corrupted..." The guard lamented. "But whatever. Back to your duties-"

As the slime was about to speak out his orders, a sudden loud sound rang throughout the halls by the front.

"...?!" The guard jumped back in caution. "The Farku?!"

"Tch... hurry, head to where that sound came from! We mustn't let them go anywhere near the throne room!"

The slimes within the area quickly dispersed as they hurried along the halls, quickly making their way over towards the direction of the sound. Minutes later as the slimes were gone from the areaFrom the back of the hallway, a few figures silently rushed through it.

"...wow, that worked much better than I expected," Frey blinked at the sight.

"Rustly, where's the staircase?" Shinto questioned.

"Over there! It's beyond here! Follow me!"

Hurrying along the corridors, the group quickly headed up towards the second floor. Soon after, they followed the direction of where Rustly was leading them, finally reaching towards a door by the end of the hallway.

"The room that she is in should be in the next corner," Rustly stated as he turned right. "After that... We'll need to confirm whether or not that human is-"

"Not so fast, Rustly. Where do you think you're going?" The moment Rustly had turned around, he heard a sudden voice coming from the front.

"...?" The group wary of the sound, hurriedly turned towards the direction as they noticed a slime by the front of them. 

"Hey... Isn't that the slime that took Raina?" Frey pointed out.

"...It's that guy?" Ethaniel frowned as he moved his hand over to the hilt of his sword.

"That slime's here... So it seems we've come to the right place," Shinto nodded his head as he held onto his staff tightly.

"Hmm, Rustly... It seems you brought the humans with you." The slime seemed to be frowning. "I see now. So you want to bust Raina out of here?"