Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 210 Dark Mage
Li Wei discovered that although Annie was physically weak and unable to lift heavy objects, she played a very important role.

That means adding a debuff.

If we use an RPG game as an analogy, Katie is the tank, Levi and Olivia are the damage dealers, and Annie is the dark mage who specializes in applying debuffs to enemies. She doesn't seem to have any direct attack power, but she can only give the enemy a bunch of debuffs such as "weak to fire", "weak to electricity", "attack reduction", "defense reduction", and "speed reduction".

It may seem ordinary on the surface, but sometimes you really can't do without it.

"At the moment, I don't know much."

Anne stared at the bone being held by the tweezers and said softly.

"First of all, I can confirm that these creatures are indeed highly flammable, which is perhaps why they hide in the darkness and don't appear in the sun. But one very strange thing is..."

"Ok?"

"Generally speaking, animals that live in the dark, having not needed to use their eyes for extended periods, should have developed eyesight that has degenerated. Yet these creatures still possess an extremely high sensitivity to light, which is somewhat perplexing. I'm not entirely sure how they hunt; of course, perhaps their behavior isn't like that of bats, but rather similar to that of certain nocturnal birds of prey…"

Just like an owl, right? It's practically blind during the day, but it can see things clearly at night.

The problem is, this place is currently pitch black, which is clearly the best nesting spot for them. Owls sleep during the day because they can't see well, but for these creatures hiding in caves, there should be no difference between day and night.

With that in mind, Levi decided to tell Anne some things, including the torches he found in the corridor and the fact that he had investigated and found out that there was a large group of the same monsters deep inside the monastery.

Upon hearing this, Annie's eyes lit up.

"There's another group? Of course, that's not surprising..."

"Could you figure out some of the creature's behavior patterns using this? It might be helpful for our upcoming battle."

Li Wei knew that Annie didn't really believe in things like demons and ghosts, so he didn't say it directly. Instead, he silently used this method to let Annie apply a debuff to the other person.

"Um……………"

After listening to Li Wei's description, Annie thought for a moment.

"Based on the current situation and the characteristics of these monsters, they are probably nocturnal, hunting for food at night. Considering the climate here, they are very likely in some kind of hibernation state to minimize energy consumption."

"So, they're afraid of the cold?"

"There are no creatures that are not afraid of the cold, it's just a matter of cold resistance. Although I haven't actually dissected them, these creatures don't have fur for warmth, so they certainly don't seem to be very cold-resistant."

That's true; which animal that can run around the streets in winter isn't furry?

"So you mean..."

Li Wei stood up and looked outside. It was still snowing heavily outside, and the sky was getting dark.

"They start moving at night? When the whole monastery is so dark?"

"Humans can stay up all night, but don't they also need to sleep at night? And the temperature drop that comes with the blizzard will also make them unable to move. After all, they are not humans who can wear thick clothes to keep warm."

“That makes sense. So, what about that guy who attacked Katie earlier…”

"Perhaps it's a sentinel-like creature. Many social animals employ sentinels to monitor their surroundings. If Miss Katie hadn't unexpectedly captured it, those monsters would probably have been alerted by now."

"makes sense."

The monster hiding inside the door was clearly not a coincidence; it was a sentinel of that monster pack, responsible for guarding the area. Therefore, it launched its attack when Katie opened the door.

Even if he couldn't win, he should have been able to escape, but Katie pulled him out from inside—well, I have to say, even Levi wouldn't have expected Katie to do something like that.

It's like someone trying to catch a cat, perhaps thinking that the cat might scratch him, bite him, hiss at him, or run away.

But he never expected the cat to throw him over its shoulder and slam him to the ground.

That might explain why the monsters deep inside the monastery haven't made a move.

Incidentally, after that, Levi manipulated the black cat puppet to the right passage, but unlike the left passage, the right passage was also sealed by a heavy stone door. Unless Levi asked Katie to help, it would be virtually impossible to open that door.

However, opening that door without alerting the monsters is virtually impossible.

Moreover, all the adventure movies that Li Wei had watched were written in the same way: when you try to act cautiously to avoid disturbing something, you will eventually disturb that thing and end up in a miserable situation where you are surrounded by enemies.

Therefore, there is only one relatively safe approach.

After considering for a moment, Levi called Olivia and Katie over, explained the current situation to them, and then presented his plan.

"You're going to do that?"

After hearing Li Wei's plan, the first person to raise objections was Annie.

"This is a building from the golden age..."

"But ultimately it's just a building. What? Do you think a building is more important than human lives?"

Li Wei stared at Annie, his tone serious. What disgusted him most when watching those adventure movies was that the archaeological experts didn't care about human lives in order to protect the ruins. They would rather have more people die than let the ruins remain intact.

However, in Li Wei's view, relics are ultimately just relics, and how could something abandoned by the times be more important than human life?

"Given the current blizzard, we're unlikely to receive reinforcements anytime soon. Besides, there are only a few hours left until nightfall. Even if we were fully prepared, we would still suffer heavy losses if we went to fight those monsters head-on, wouldn't we?"

"……………I see."

Anne paused for a moment, then nodded.

"But please try your best to... save some."

"It depends. It's not up to me to decide. You can try to persuade those monsters. If they're willing to let them go out on their own, then I have no objection."

"………………………"

Annie fell silent.

"What about us?"

Olivia stared at Levi. "You're responsible for guarding the main gate. If you encounter any danger, leave immediately and be prepared to escape at any time."

Anyway, Olivia can summon Cerberus, and Levi has personally experienced how fast you can run on its back.

"It will be dark in three hours."

As Li Wei spoke, he took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, and then looked towards the door.

Because of the blizzard, the sky was already very dark, and the sun would set even earlier than usual.

"Alright, if there are no objections, let's get started. Katie, come with me!"

"Alright, Mr. Li Wei!"

Katie, who had been eager to try, jumped up excitedly when she heard Levi's words.

She couldn't wait any longer!

If this were a game, then everyone would probably only be able to try to confront these monsters head-on or avoid them.

But this isn't a game; it's reality.

So Li Wei quickly came up with a way to deal with these monsters.

There's a saying that goes, "People either adapt to their environment or change it."

Li Wei felt that he would never be able to adapt to this awful environment in his lifetime, so it would be simpler to change it.

Just like now.

"Huff... Huff..."

The wind and snow rushed towards us.

Levi walked ahead, gripping his cane tightly in his right hand, bending over to maintain his balance, letting the wind and snow blow past on either side. Behind him were Joe and Katie.

This big guy, who was clearly taller and stronger than Li Wei, was now trembling with fear, like a snail.

"Hurry up, Joe, what are you doing?"

Instead, Katie, who was behind him, couldn't help but urge him on, and Joe looked distressed when he heard Katie's urging.

"I don't want to either, Miss Katie, but it's so high up here, I'm so afraid I'll fall and die!"

Indeed, the three of them were not somewhere else; they were on the roof of this monastery. Levi's plan was very simple: since the monastery only had one floor, they could simply walk from the roof to the chapel and then blow the roof open, enough to ensure that the nearly one hundred monsters would be either killed or crippled.

This is why Anne was initially opposed to it. This is a building from the Golden Age. If there were any decorative paintings or something on the walls and dome, it would be heartbreaking to see them blown to pieces.

But Li Wei clearly didn't care. After all, it was just a painting. Did they expect them to fight face to face with the other side?
That's just wishful thinking.

There was plenty of explosives; after all, Li Wei had wanted to blast open the stone gate, and Joe, the young man in the archaeological team, was also very skilled at demolition.

But Li Wei overlooked one problem.

This girl has a fear of heights!
The entire monastery was about seven stories high. For Levi, climbing up was not difficult, but for Joe, it was a real challenge. Katie climbed up first and then pulled him up with a rope.

Otherwise, he might dawdle until dark before he gets up.

Speaking of Katie…

Li Wei watched as the girl standing not far behind him, pulling Joe along with a rope, practically dragging him forward. She carried a large iron bucket on her back, the contents of which Li Wei recognized. He'd used it before in the mine—it was the kind of fuel used to spray flames. This thing was heavier than Joe, a grown man, yet Katie carried it with one hand, as easily as if she were holding the first cup of milk tea of ​​winter.

To my shame, neither of the two grown men here is as capable as him.

Of course, walking on the roof of the monastery is not an easy task. After all, the roof of the monastery is tilted at a 45-degree angle, and in the snow, these slippery tiles are even more difficult to walk on.

However, no matter what, this can only be considered a natural disaster.

It's much better than facing over a hundred bizarre monsters.

Of course, Li Wei also kept watch from below with the cat doll to see if the monsters would notice them moving on the roof, and also to keep track of their direction.

"All right!"

Li Wei hooked onto the railing once more, using his strength to maintain his balance as he reached the top of the chapel. Here, the roof structure was the same, with four-cornered spires rising high, like a long spear piercing straight into the sky.

"Joe, hurry up and plant the bomb, we don't have much time left!"

"Ugh...okay, fine..."

Joe's legs were still trembling, but Li Wei had no mood to comfort him. The sky was gradually getting dark, and the black cat doll had also noticed that the monsters that had been hanging upside down from the ceiling like stone statues were now starting to move.

This is not a good thing.

"quick!"

If he weren't ignorant of construction and demolition, Li Wei would have loved to replace Joe directly. But now, he could only watch this big guy tearfully setting up explosives in the blizzard—thankfully, although Joe was crying his eyes out, his hands didn't slow down.

The first one, the second one…

On the ceiling below, the monsters that had been sleeping began to tremble, whether they were about to wake up or had realized that they were causing trouble on the roof.

"Quick, how is it!?"

Seeing Joe trembling on the roof, Levi shouted, and Joe looked up, lit the last fuse, and then tumbled down the roof, where he was caught by Katie.

Perhaps because Joe was making too much noise, the monsters hanging upside down became even more and more agitated. They began to flap their wings and scream incessantly, emitting piercing and eerie cries.

They may have instinctively sensed the approaching danger, but they still couldn't find where that danger lay.

At the same time, the fuse also came to an end.

(End of this chapter)