Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 209: Deep in the Ruins
"Huff... Huff..."

A cold wind, mixed with snowflakes, blew in from outside the door. The group lit a campfire behind the opened stone door to escape the blizzard outside.

After all, the weather in the deep mountains is unpredictable. The sky had been clear just a moment ago, but unexpectedly, only half a day later, a blizzard was raging outside. Under these circumstances, the airship definitely couldn't get here anymore. So everyone knew that unless the blizzard subsided in a short time, they would have to rely on themselves.

What's even more deadly is that some kind of monster is lurking here.

In addition, the entire monastery space made everyone feel unsafe. As mentioned before, everything here was too big for ordinary people. Even the corridor behind the main gate was like this, with a towering dome that was four or five stories high and pitch black on top, flanked by statues of knights in armor holding weapons.

These statues are also very tall; even when Li Wei stands up, he only reaches the lower legs of these knight statues with the base.

In fact, the upper bodies and heads of these statues were mostly hidden in darkness, and even when people lit bonfires and torches, they could only illuminate a very small area.

This made the remaining guards very nervous. They sat in front of the campfire, forming a flimsy defensive line, and warily watched ahead—of course, this was actually quite ineffective. If the monsters really wanted to attack them, they could easily slip down from the ceiling and climb over the heads of the statues under the cover of darkness and launch an attack.

Yeah, that would be troublesome.

Anne set up an alcohol stove in front of the campfire, then took out various solutions from her bag and began experimenting on the monster's bones.

Olivia remained silent, her brows furrowed as she pondered how to deal with the situation before her.

Katie, on the other hand, sat idly to the side, yawning.

As for Li Wei... well, he's very busy.

While everyone was preparing the camp, Li Wei quietly released the puppet bird, hiding it in a corner of the ceiling to observe the surroundings. He then manipulated the black cat puppet to silently slip into the depths of the monastery, wanting to see what secrets this place held.

And is that monster a single creature or a group of them?

The black cat puppet moved silently down the corridor. To Li Wei's surprise, although the monastery looked like one, it had almost no rooms. Normally, there would be rooms and doors on both sides of a corridor, but Li Wei, controlling the puppet, hadn't found a single door along the way. All he could see was a deathly silent corridor, with knight statues lining its sides.

This place should have been pitch black, but fortunately, thanks to the ability of [Mimicry Control], the black cat doll also possesses the ability to see in the dark, similar to that of felines. Therefore, even without a light source, Li Wei can see everything around him clearly with the help of the black cat doll's eyes.

They were all armed and on high alert, which reminded Li Wei of the inscription on the gate that Qiao had translated earlier.

This is a prison cell, and prisoners are held inside.

These knights might actually be jailers.

Finally, the corridor came to an end, splitting into two passages to the left and right. Li Wei manipulated the black cat puppet to look to the left and right, and then didn't forget to look at the top of his head—well, there was nothing there.

But this only made Li Wei more worried. After all… Katie had just been attacked as soon as she pushed open that door, which meant that the monster had clearly sensed their presence. If there was a group of monsters, then they must have also sensed that they had entered the monastery.

However, the monsters did not rush out to drive away these invaders.

what is the reason?
Could these monsters possess a degree of intelligence? Or, as Annie suggested, might the monster not be a native inhabitant of this place, but rather chose it as its lair?
But this still doesn't explain why there isn't a single insect here besides that monster.

After all, the fact that the monster could be killed so easily meant it shouldn't be that powerful... Hmm, Levi didn't sense anything strange, and he didn't know how the three-headed dog was behaving. Perhaps it came with everyone this time; when Levi observed the puppy earlier, the latter was quite relaxed, nestled in Olivia's arms, and didn't show the anxious and uneasy behavior Olivia had described before.

Just as Li Wei was carefully observing the two passages while manipulating the black cat puppet, he suddenly noticed an inconspicuous protrusion in the passage on the left, so Li Wei quickly chose the direction.

left!

The black cat doll changed direction and followed the base of the statue forward until it came to the protrusion. Only then did Li Wei see clearly that it was a torch. Judging from the marks on it, it had long since burned out completely.

The torches are the same style as the ones Olivia brought when she came to investigate this time, which means that these should be the torches of the previous investigation team.
But what's strange is... how did they get in?
Levi carefully recalled that after Katie pushed open the stone door and killed the monster, everyone went inside. Levi was the first to go in, and at that time, he saw no footprints on the ground. Moreover, how the previous investigation team had opened that door was also puzzling.

After all, Li Wei didn't believe that there was a girl with terrifying strength like Katie in their team.

wrong.

The black cat doll circled the torch once, then noticed something. There were no footprints around the torch. If these people had truly entered this monastery, they should at least have left footprints and traces on the ground. But there was only this torch, and no other traces.

Um……………

The black cat doll cautiously approached the torch again, and Li Wei quickly noticed several scratches on it. Some of these were from when it fell to the ground, while others looked like they had been made when it was being swung or whipped at something.

Staring at these traces, a scene immediately flashed into Li Wei's mind—a winged monster grabbing a member of the investigation team and flying him forward down the corridor. The latter struggled desperately, waving torches in resistance, but the monster knocked the torch away with a claw, and the torch fell to the ground, landing here.

This is a bit troublesome...

The black cat doll shifted its gaze from the torch, looked again into the passage on the left, and continued walking forward.

"—————————"

The entire corridor was deathly silent, not a sound could be heard. Occasionally, snowflakes would drift in from both sides of the passage, indicating that there must be windows, but they were completely hidden by vines, so the inside could not be seen at all.

After a while, the corridor finally came to an end. The black cat doll slowed its pace at the door, cautiously poking its head out to look inside.

This place looked like a chapel, with long stone benches inside and a pulpit at the front. Behind the pulpit, on the wall, hung a stone carving of the All-Seeing Eye. Li Wei manipulated the black cat into the chapel and then cautiously looked around.

Hmm, left side is fine, right side is fine, front is fine, top... damn it!
The black cat doll raised its head and looked upwards, then almost cried out.

Fortunately, the doll doesn't have vocal organs and can't make any sounds.

But what I saw before me was quite shocking.

On the chapel ceiling, hundreds of monsters hung upside down like bats, their wings folded to cover their entire bodies, their hind claws gripping the ceiling beams tightly. Surrounded by them was an even larger, shadowy monster—Levi couldn't make out its appearance because its wings were so much bigger that they completely enveloped its body.

How the hell am I supposed to fight this?
Li Wei inwardly scoffed, then carefully maneuvered the black cat puppet backward. Fortunately, these guys didn't seem to notice the black cat puppet's presence. Li Wei continued to manipulate the puppet, step by step, until he reached the entrance of the passage again, then quietly turned around and quickly left the hall.

"………………………"

Throughout the entire process, there was not a sound in the chapel, and nothing noticed his presence.

"call……………"

Li Wei only breathed a sigh of relief after leaving the chapel.

It now seems that the members of that investigation team are likely doomed; they may have already become the monsters' dinner.

But the question is... what should they do?
Li Wei's plan was to wait for the main force to arrive and then blow it up.

The problem is, under these circumstances, can the main force still arrive?
According to Olivia, the weather in the mountains is unpredictable, and since it's winter, it's hard to say how long this blizzard will last. If the captain of the guard hadn't gone back to get reinforcements and seen the blizzard coming, they should have retreated. Now, things are really messed up; the blizzard only arrived after the airship had left, and everyone is stuck in this godforsaken place.

Should we confront these monsters head-on?
Li Wei thought about it for a moment and felt it was unlikely. He had too few capable fighters on his side, and the firepower of the guards was insufficient... Hmm... Hmm?

Wait, it seems there is a way.

Thinking of this, Li Wei suddenly remembered the sea monster that the Far North Star had encountered.

He snapped out of his reverie, opened his eyes, and looked at Annie, who was still intently conducting her experiment by the campfire.

If it were this young lady, I wonder if she would have any way to apply debuffs to those monsters?

If we can really apply a debuff, maybe it's not impossible to fight?
Thinking of this, Li Wei stood up, walked to Annie's side, and asked her.

"Miss Anne, do you know anything about this monster?"

(End of this chapter)