Mystery: Death Singer

While Edric awaited the extraordinary properties extracted from the snake-haired skeleton, Freya and Solana also protectively salvaged the materials in the second-level library.

—The ice crystals made from the snake-haired skeleton are melting, and if people just watch, the precious data that has already been reduced to little by time will surely suffer a devastating blow.

After dealing with the snake-haired skeleton, all the materials in the second-floor library can be considered the spoils of war for the three of them. Who would sit idly by and watch their assets continue to be lost?

Minutes later, the faint light finally detached completely from the "remains" of the serpent sea skeleton, and then condensed and took shape in front of Edric at a speed visible to the naked eye:

This extraordinary object roughly resembles a white bone clenched into a fist, radiating a lustrous sheen. However, the color of its very center is distinctly different from the rest, exhibiting a regular, deep blue hue. It looks like a beautiful gemstone inlaid on the back of a hand, with fine, thread-like lines running through its interior.

Edric looked at the extraordinary characteristics that were clearly unusual in front of him, and became even more convinced of his previous conjecture. The snake-haired skeleton was an extremely special individual, as it actually possessed the abilities of two extraordinary pathways!

Unfortunately, he is not yet a "necromancer," and his communication skills as a "psychic" are simply not enough to calm down the snake-haired skeleton, which is like a wild dog that has broken free. He has no choice but to kill it on the spot.

After storing the special and extraordinary item in an iron cigarette case, Edric did not help Freya and Solana salvage the data. Instead, he once again commanded the surviving shadow to enter the corridor that he had accidentally broken through the wall to discover.

The corridor wasn't long, or rather, it was more like a secret passage connecting two locations. The shadowy figure that Edric was driving quickly stopped and conveyed to him that it "didn't want to go any further."

Edric was no stranger to this situation. The Shadow was not very intelligent, so it would instinctively reject places where there was extraordinary power in certain areas. However, the fact that it was just a "psychic" was not enough to make it ignore this instinct.

He ordered the shadowy figure to remain where it was, intending to explore the rest of the library before going to see what secrets lay at the end of the corridor.

Just then, Freya, who was using half a bookshelf lit for lighting in a corner, suddenly shouted:

"Edric, Solana, there's another breach in the wall here. It looks like that thing just crashed into us from another room!"

Edric immediately headed toward Freya's location and quickly spotted the "hole" Freya had mentioned by the firelight. However, before he could get close, he noticed that the stench in the air had suddenly become much stronger and more noticeable.

Caught completely off guard, Solana nearly fainted and fell headfirst onto a bookshelf, quickly retreating a considerable distance.

Seeing that only Edric was approaching, Freya, suppressing her discomfort, gave an awkward smile and pointed to the remaining frost around the breach, speaking rapidly:

"This place was probably completely frozen by the frost from the snake-haired skeleton before. After it died, the frost gradually melted because it lost its support, which exposed this breach."

Edric looked at the wound in front of him, which was clearly caused by a violent impact from some kind of creature, and expressed his agreement with Freya's speculation.

He summoned a shadowy figure, which plunged into the bottomless darkness ahead through the breach. After a moment, it shook its head and said:

"This is also a corridor, about ten meters long, filled with melting frost. At the end, there are no other rooms, but a pool of black liquid seeping from the floor, which is very likely the source of the stench in the air."

Freya seemed to be deep in thought upon hearing this. She was quite certain that when she and Solana discovered the second library last time, it wasn't this cold, the ice crystals weren't scattered throughout the library, and there were no monsters like the snake-haired skeletons.

After a moment's thought, she shared a discovery she had made while searching for the surviving data:

"The second-floor library contains many shattered pieces of corpses. If you piece them together, there are more than a dozen living corpses. But judging from the marks, they were all deliberately destroyed by the snake-haired skeleton."

"Is that so?"

Edric frowned slightly. In the realm of the undead, the suppression brought about by the difference in sequence was absolute.

For those low-level corpses that are only barely called "living corpses" because they can move, the snake-haired skeleton at Sequence 7 is practically no different from an emperor here, and has no ability to resist at all.

They do not possess any extraordinary characteristics; they are merely "resurrected" due to the corruption of necromantic power. Why would the snake-haired skeleton actively destroy these beings that resemble its guards?

Unconsciously, Edric's gaze shifted to the few remaining ice shards around the breach, and a highly improbable yet most likely guess suddenly popped into his mind:

Unless there exists a more powerful and dominant undead creature in the unexplored area of ​​this castle, a creature of a higher level than the Serpent's Hair skeleton, and that creature is the true emperor of this place!

The snake-haired skeleton knew that the suppression of the sequence was absolute, which was why it took the initiative to clear out all the living corpses in the second-level library, because they might defect at any time under the real emperor's orders!

Call ~

A cloud of low-temperature mist suddenly spread out beneath Edric's feet, quickly refreezing the melting frost. One icicle after another pierced through the breach, soon separating the second-floor library from the corridor.

After doing all this, Edric turned to Freya, who was standing beside him with a curious expression, and asked seriously:

"Freya, this place is far more dangerous than I predicted. Tell me everything you need to know about this place now, or I will abandon the exploration for my own safety."

Freya exclaimed "Ah!" in confusion, then subconsciously looked at Solana, who was walking towards them. Solana, also looking puzzled, explained:

"Mr. Edric, I learned about this castle from an uncle. Before the collapse of the First Solomon Empire, this was one of our family's residences, but with the collapse of the First Solomon Empire, the castle inevitably disappeared in the war."

"Later, the northern continent fell under the control of the Tudor-Trensost United Empire, whose capital was Backlund. This ancient castle was gradually forgotten because of its location."

"Some time ago, my uncle accidentally found a rather old map in the family library, and with the help of 'divination' and that map, he successfully found the castle."