Another World Witch Training Manual

069. Stealing the Manuscript

Xinlai and Eve continued along the narrow crevice deep inside the cave. The water beneath their feet gradually turned into an ankle-deep shoal, its surface glowing with an eerie, ghostly green light.

The faint, cold light came from some kind of moss clinging to the rock face, flickering in the darkness like countless peering eyes.

Eve instinctively moved closer to Xinlai, her fingers gripping the corner of his sleeve tightly.

"Scared?"

Xinlai asked without turning her head.

"No, I didn't."

Eve's voice betrayed her; the slightly trembling tone at the end of her sentence sounded particularly clear in the empty cave.

Xinlai didn't expose her, but simply slowed down so Eve could keep up more easily.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, the narrow crevice suddenly opened up, revealing a magnificent and breathtaking underground palace before them.

It was a sealed palace forgotten by time.

The enormous dome hangs hundreds of meters above the ground, and dozens of thick stone pillars rise from the ground like pillars supporting the sky, each as thick as ten people could hug.

The pillar was covered with ancient runes, which emitted a faint blue glow in the dim environment.

These runes are arranged according to some mysterious pattern, forming a huge magic array that covers the entire palace.

The ground was paved with whole slabs of dark blue-green stone, each slab so flat that it looked as if it had been crushed by some divine force, with dark gold metallic patterns embedded in the gaps.

The moment Xinlai and Eve stepped in, the patterns seemed to sense the presence of outsiders, flickering slightly before dimming again.

But what is most striking are the chains covered in aquatic plants and rust.

Dozens of dark silver chains, each as thick as a bucket, extended from the walls and pillars around the palace. Each chain was covered with pale blue magical patterns that pulsed slowly like the veins of a living creature.

These chains intertwined and tangled in mid-air, eventually converging at the deepest part of the palace, firmly binding a huge, nauseating mass of dark green flesh.

That is the final boss of the entire ruins, the Tide King.

Xinlai held her breath, pulled Eve behind the nearest stone pillar, and carefully observed the legendary monster from the side.

The Tide King's body was ten meters tall, and he sat on a circular platform at the end of the palace.

Its body has no fixed shape; it is more like a large, wriggling mass of rotting flesh, with its dark green skin covered with pustules and wart-like protrusions of all sizes.

In some places, you can even see dark red fluid slowly flowing beneath a translucent membrane.

Countless thick tentacles extended from beneath its body, some coiled around the platform, some wrapped around the chains that bound it, and a few dangling limply at the edge of the platform, their ends falling into the dark pool below.

The Tide King's head was covered with eyes of varying sizes, some as small as a fist, others as large as a cartwheel. The cloudy eyeballs were a sickly dark red, covered with spiderweb-like blood vessels.

At this moment, all eyes were tightly closed, and with the Tide King's slow breathing, the eyeballs moved slightly under the eyelids, as if having some ancient nightmare.

"Is this... the creature that guards the manuscript?"

Eve's voice was barely audible, and her face was pale; she was clearly stunned by the scene before her.

Xinlai nodded, her gaze passing over the writhing mass of flesh and blood and landing on an altar ten meters directly in front of it.

It was an altar carved from a single piece of azure crystal, about three meters square and half a meter high.

The altar was covered with runes of the same origin as those on the stone pillars, but they were denser and more profound, with each mark seemingly containing some kind of ultimate truth.

The center of the altar was slightly concave, forming a shallow groove. Traces of some dried liquid remained in the groove, gleaming with a dark golden luster under the dim light.

That was probably a crystallization of magic left over from a sealing ceremony a thousand years ago.

In the very center of the altar, a thick book lay quietly.

That was the manuscript of Bernis, the god of water.

Even from a distance of tens of meters, Xinlai could feel the immense magic emanating from the manuscript.

Its cover was made of some unknown material, a deep-sea-like dark blue, with a ring of silver-white metal corner protectors around the edges. The cover had a title printed in ancient script that Xinlai couldn't understand, but the characters themselves seemed to be slowly flowing, like living creatures.

"The manuscript is there."

Sinlai said in a low voice, her gaze shifting back and forth between the altar and the Tide King.

The distance from his position to the altar was about fifty meters.

The ground within this fifty-meter stretch was also covered with magic array patterns, but unlike other areas, the patterns in this area seemed to be denser, and the flow of magic energy was more active.

Xinlai noticed that the ends of those chains were directly connected to the base of the altar, as if the altar were the central node of the entire sealing array.

"How are we supposed to get it?" Eve asked nervously, biting her lower lip. "It's right... in front of that thing."

Xinlai did not answer immediately, but instead carefully observed the Tide King's breathing rhythm.

The enormous mass of flesh undulated slowly at a frequency of about once every thirty seconds. Whenever it inhaled, all the chains would tighten for a moment, and the magical patterns on its surface would suddenly brighten.

As you exhale, the chains loosen again, and the light patterns dim.

During the few seconds that the Tide King exhales and the chains loosen, the magical fluctuations around the altar will noticeably weaken, and the sealing patterns extending from the base of the altar will dim.

I'm about 70% sure.

Xinlai finally spoke, her gaze steadily fixed on the distant altar.

"It's asleep, but the seal is still in operation. As long as we don't trigger the array's warning mechanism or directly touch the chains and seal patterns, we shouldn't disturb it."

"Seventy percent?" Eve frowned. "What about the other thirty percent?"

"The other 30%," Xin Lai paused, a slightly helpless smile curving his lips, "we're about to fight a tough battle against a creature that's nearly level 50."

Eve fell silent, a hint of struggle flashing in her purple eyes.

Xinlai said decisively.

"You stay here. If I disturb it, retreat immediately without hesitation."

"But……"

"No buts," Xinlai interrupted her, her tone calm but unwavering.

"Your speed is not fast enough, and the fluctuations in your magic power are too obvious. Those sealing patterns are probably very sensitive to magic power."

"But I should be able to get closer to them more easily, relying solely on my physical abilities."

Eve opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing. She just nodded vigorously, her eyes full of worry.

"I'm going."

"Um."

Xinlai took a deep breath, adjusted her breathing to the most subtle frequency, and then moved slowly towards the altar, close to the wall.

His steps were extremely light, each step precisely landing between the gaps in the sealing patterns, making almost no sound when his feet touched the ground.

This was an instinct he had honed during training; even without the stealth skills of a thief-type class, he could minimize his presence.

ten meters.

Twenty meters.

Thirty meters.

Xinlai drew closer to the altar, while the Tide King remained asleep, his tightly closed red eyes remaining motionless.

He could even hear sounds coming from inside that huge mass of flesh.

The low, sticky gurgling sound was like some kind of digestive juice churning, or like countless tentacles slowly wriggling in the mucus.

Forty meters.

Xinlai stopped in her tracks because the ground in front of her had suddenly changed.

From forty meters to the altar, the ground was completely covered with seal patterns, with no gaps visible. The seal patterns were so dense that not even a finger could fit between them.

What's even more challenging is that these patterns are not static, but rather pulsate at an extremely slow frequency, as if some kind of force is flowing through them.