Goddess Kaleidoscope

The old butler's face was ashen. Although he had only caught a glimpse of the enemy, he had already guessed their attack method and devised a countermeasure.

At his command, the adventurers took off their cloaks or coats and threw them onto the puddles to absorb the water, while several mages conjured fireballs or ice arrows to evaporate and freeze the surrounding water, quickly completing the drying of most of the area.

Since the opponent launched a surprise attack using water as a medium, simply eliminating these channels would render them helpless.

It must be said that experience counts; the old butler's solution was both correct and swift. Once the water on the ground disappeared, the attack was contained. However, before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, many suddenly felt something moving on their bodies. Upon pulling it out, they discovered it was all water bottles.

In the blink of an eye, before anyone could react, the agitated kettles suddenly exploded, spraying out a large cloud of water mist. From within the mist, a twisted shadow quickly appeared, lunging at the living people enveloped in the mist.

The captured survivors immediately let out a shrill scream, and a large amount of blood splattered from their bodies, mingling with the water mist.

Seeing more people being murdered before his eyes, the old steward, Sajin, flashed forward, his fingertip flashing with a cold light that pierced the twisted shadow within the mist with lightning speed. The invisible blade, moistened with holy water, cleaved the shadow into pieces in the blink of an eye. The mist, mixed with blood, then fell to the ground, revealing several mangled corpses.

Having landed a successful blow, the old butler's face turned grave, barely managing to suppress the blood welling up in his throat and spit it out in public. While the attack seemed to have finished off the enemy, the old butler knew that although he had severely injured and repelled him, he hadn't managed to deliver a fatal blow.

"senior……"

"I'm fine, but that guy isn't dead, everyone be careful!"

He secretly wiped his mouth, circulated his qi for a moment to regulate his breathing, and finally calmed his somewhat disordered qi and blood. He roughly estimated that, in his current state, he could barely use "Illusion Flash" twice more, just like before. If he forced himself to use it a third time, at best he would be seriously injured and crippled, and at worst he might lose his life.

The old butler was in a dilemma. He had been retired from the world for more than ten years. At the invitation of the Navarro family, who had saved his life years ago, he became a butler for the wealthy family under the pseudonym Sarkin. He lived a peaceful life every day, occasionally helping the head of the family with some tricky dirty work, which he regarded as a pastime.

He longed to live to a ripe old age and die peacefully in his bed like an ordinary person, but things didn't turn out that way.

"This is probably the retribution the teacher was talking about..."

Shaking his head, the old butler temporarily put these distracting thoughts aside. His immediate priority was to find Young Master Tring before he turned into an idiot, while his secondary objective was to kill the necromancer Dick.

Before this, the old butler had never imagined that this guy who specialized in underworld activities would be so difficult to deal with. The abilities of his high-ranking undead slaves were all kinds of strange and wonderful, and if he wasn't careful, even he himself would suffer a setback.

"This guy must die, or he'll be a huge problem!"

Muttering to himself, a rogue adventurer noticed a subtle danger in the wall, noting that it appeared to be hollow rather than solid. The drones the old steward had released earlier were also flying around this area, further confirming his suspicions.

"We finally found him!"

Inside the secret room separated by a wall, Dick had already realized that the enemy outside had discovered him. His spell was in its final stages; he had already roughly browsed through Trin's memories and indeed found much interesting content. His next step was to extract this part, making it his own memory, and then everything would be complete.

But the problem is that the enemy has also reached the door. He just discovered through the badly injured siren that the old steward he was so wary of was still alive.

"You persistent old ghost, wait until the day you die..."

After cursing viciously in his mind, Dick used his mind to command the two most capable of fighting among the three remaining dead slaves to go out and hold off the enemy, while the remaining one stayed by his side to protect him.

The spell is down to its final step; once that's done, we can make our escape.

Two undead slaves launched an attack. One was tall and thin, like a stick, while the other was burly, clad in full plate armor, and wielding two swords, but headless. These two were the most formidable undead slaves under Dick's command, capable of direct combat. The headless knight even possessed resistance to holy water, taking half the damage he received.

Two dead slaves emerged from the wall, and soon the sounds of fierce fighting rose outside, while Dick began the final stage of his spell.

He pulled Trin’s soul completely out of his body and temporarily swallowed it into his own body. This process was like a predator eating; his soul would eat the part it wanted and then spit out the rest to ensure that the intake would not “contaminate” itself.

During the process of being devoured, Dick's body trembled incessantly, while Trin lay sprawled on the ground like rotten flesh, barely breathing and indistinguishable from a dead man.

Just as the final steps were about to be completed, Dick was about to spit out the remaining Trin soul when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his vest, and an invisible blade pierced through his chest.

Dick turned around in astonishment. The old steward, who should have been fighting the dead slave outside the secret room, had appeared behind him at some point, without even the dead slave, who had been guarding him closely, not noticing.

The old butler looked at Dick, seemingly already seeing the astonished expression on his face beneath the mask, and said with a sinister grin.

"You didn't expect that, did you! I also have a backup plan!"

End of this chapter

The necromancer, who was just one step away from success, failed at the last moment and was pierced through the heart. He stared at the old butler who was grinning behind him, completely unable to understand how the other man had gotten in.

It wasn't until the slow-witted dead slave attacked the old butler that he was shocked to discover that the other party was actually in a spirit-like state, like an undead.

"you……"

"Think about it slowly!"

Without offering any "kind" explanation of his abilities, the old butler sheathed his weapon and his body vanished without a trace.

Meanwhile, outside the secret chamber, the old butler's "true form" was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed. The captain of the guards was leading his men on guard, while the rest of the guards were fighting against the Slender Man and the Headless Horseman. The battle was quite intense for a time.

At this moment, the old steward let out a long sigh and opened his eyes. Immediately afterwards, he spat out a mouthful of blood and began to cough violently.

Using the sect's ultimate technique after a long absence only worsened the already weakened old steward's condition. He estimated that he had truly suffered a severe blow this time, and no matter how much he recuperated after returning home, he would only retain one or two tenths of his previous strength. From then on, he would really have no choice but to obediently remain a steward.

The old steward just used a technique called "externalizing battle qi," which only top-tier ancient martial arts masters can master. It allows one to release powerful battle qi and condense a "body outside the body" similar to a spirit to fight. Therefore, it can pass through walls and enter rooms like an undead to ambush and kill necromancers in secret rooms.

In fact, even the old steward himself had only scratched the surface of this technique. According to his late sect master, the powerful figures who dared to challenge the gods during the Age of Gods had reached the pinnacle of their fighting spirit. They could transform their fighting spirit into horses or wives, and even use it on themselves. Their various methods were beyond imagination and more magical than magic!

Having scaled the wall and killed the necromancer, the old butler was exhausted and had no strength left to fight. Meanwhile, the Gauntlet and the Headless Horseman, who were engaged in fierce combat with the others, seemed to sense their master's demise and immediately stopped fighting and fled.

Ultimately, the undead slaves are essentially undead forcibly enslaved and controlled by Dick using necromancy. Once their slave owners die, the bondage to them will also disappear. Having been treated like dogs for so many years, it's hard to imagine that these undead would have any loyalty to the necromancer. Naturally, they will scatter when the tree falls.

After the two powerful high-ranking undead escaped, the survivors began to clean up the battlefield. In just over ten minutes of fighting, the two undead slaves killed five and seriously injured seven. The family guards that the captain had brought in were reduced to half their original number, and almost all the hired adventurers were wounded, with several fleeing out of fear.

The captain didn't bother with those cowards, so he sent people to take care of the old butler who was in a weakened state, while he led a group to figure out how to open the secret room door.

With the help of several experienced thieves, the group quickly figured out how to open the secret room door. When the captain rushed in, he found only the young master, Terlin, looking utterly exhausted and broken, and a pool of bright red blood. The necromancer, Dick, was nowhere to be seen.

According to the old butler, he had indeed pierced the necromancer's heart, and the undead slaves had indeed scattered and fled. Now it seems that the old butler may have made a mistake, and Dick escaped.

But no matter what, their young master has been found. Although he looks dazed and seems to have lost his soul, at least he is still breathing. If they take him to Priest Rude, maybe he can be saved.

Without lingering, the team leader ordered the unconscious Terin to be carried on a stretcher and hurriedly headed towards the third containment point. Some people stayed behind to clean up the battlefield. Shortly afterward, they found the unconscious Denzel in a nearby corner and sent him back to the containment point as well.

At this moment, at the third level of the shelter, Lu De was treating the wounded who had gathered from all directions. He gave medicine to those with minor injuries and used divine magic on those with serious injuries. With him here, as long as they were still breathing when they were carried over, none of them died. Everyone was grateful and praised Lord Lu De's benevolence and kindness.

When Trilling was brought in, even though Hume had warned him beforehand, he was still quite shocked by the condition of the man. Trilling's symptoms were remarkably similar to those of brain death; his body, though still alive, was like a lifeless shell.

Lude tried to heal him with divine magic, but there was no reaction at all.

What's wrong with him?

"We...we don't know either!"

Unable to provide details, the captain could only tell Lude that their young master had been attacked by a strange man who could command the dead while leading a group to explore the maze. The young master was captured and, after being rescued, ended up in this state. They suspected he was under a curse and wanted Lude's help to break it.

Of course! The captain knew the actual situation in Trin perfectly well. Their rescue was ultimately a step too late, allowing that damned necromancer to succeed and escape even with a fatal wound.

The captain couldn't even imagine what the Navarro family would do to him if he took this zombie-like young master back with him. If his whole family weren't in Yanmu City, he would have run away right now.

"Master, please, you must save our young master!"

Clinging to their last glimmer of hope, the captain and his group prayed to Rudd, who bore the name of a saint, hoping he could perform a miracle. But after carefully examining Trin's body, Rudd shook his head and uttered a cruel conclusion.

"I...can't help you..."

"H-How could this be!?"

“I don’t know how that strange person you encountered managed to do it, but this young man is now just a living shell; his soul isn’t inside. I can heal his internal and external injuries, but I can’t create something from nothing. You must know that the soul is a sacred realm that even gods cannot interfere with!”

"Then, then this..."

"However, it's not entirely hopeless. If his soul is at peace and you can find him, I might be able to put him back in."

This gave the family guards a glimmer of hope. Lude shrugged helplessly, glanced at the lifeless-eyed Trillin, and was actually quite surprised by the result.

Fortunately, he ultimately achieved his goal. He successfully exacerbated the existing conflicts between different factions within the Brotherhood of the Black Hand, making it a potential catalyst for a larger-scale internal conflict.

Internal strife would inevitably hinder the Brotherhood's growth, delay the process of the false god of thiever replacing the real Hume, buy time for Ludd, and provide an opportunity to retaliate.

End of this chapter

For the Navarro family and their group, their trip to the North was undoubtedly a disastrous failure beyond their wildest imagination.

The eldest son, Terlin, became a mere shell of a vegetable, the peerless master he supported was almost useless, and more than half of the accompanying guards were killed or injured. In the end, not only did the divine artifact fail to deliver a blow, but even the necromancer he was supposed to kill escaped.

Although the old butler insisted that he had delivered the fatal blow, it was difficult to be absolutely certain that he had succeeded without seeing the body.

This result was obviously impossible to explain back home, and the captain even considered quitting and running away, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

He dared not betray the Navarro family, not because the family had been incredibly kind to him, but because he had witnessed firsthand how the family had treated those who betrayed them. If he didn't return, his entire family in Yanmu City would be doomed.

Without saying much to the dejected captain of the guard, Lud simply patted him on the shoulder to comfort him before turning to treat the other wounded present.

Then, among the wounded lying on the ground, he saw a familiar face—Denzel, whom the other adventurers had "picked up." This kid had been captured by Dick along with Trin, but Hume had rescued him after luring Dick into the pre-arranged battlefield and then dumped him at a crossroads where people were sure to pass by, so that other adventurers would find him.

Throughout the entire incident, he was the only outsider who was involved.

So Lude squatted down in front of him and examined him carefully, and soon came up with an effective treatment plan.

Hey! Wake up, wake up!

"Hmm...is it morning already?"

After being slapped twice on the cheek by Lud, Denzel sat up from the stretcher with a bewildered look on his face, looking around blankly with a perfectly appropriate expression of idiocy!

Lude didn't know whether to call this guy lucky or unlucky. He was innocently dragged into a fight that had nothing to do with him, and after all the commotion, he managed to escape unscathed and even got a lot of good stuff.

"Hey! Are you alright? How are you feeling?"

"I feel a little dizzy, like I had a strange dream, and also... I'm hungry!"

Having confirmed that Denzel only had mild concussion symptoms, Lude had some food prepared for him and then arranged for the boy to leave the labyrinth with the other wounded soldiers later. Afterwards, the dwarven soldiers would temporarily seal the entrance to the third level, prohibiting adventurers from entering.

Based on current user feedback, the difficulty of the third level of the maze is indeed "a little bit" too high, resulting in a poor gaming experience for players.

Especially with the appearance of Terlin's team, who had an unparalleled master like the old butler to lead them, after breaking through two layers of the maze, they opened the maze gates wide, allowing those adventurers who were previously stuck on the first layer to easily enter the third layer.

It's like a group of newbies who haven't even finished the beginner levels, whose levels and equipment aren't good enough, but are unexpectedly taken into a mid-to-late game dungeon by a veteran player and get tortured.

As the chief designer of the level, Lu De is clearly responsible for the entire incident!

Ultimately, Lude overestimated the average strength of so-called adventurers and mercenaries, arbitrarily linking this world to some fantasy novels he had read in his previous life, thinking that adventurers were a high-class profession, full of strong individuals whose combat power could even surpass that of the army.

However, the reality is that anyone with even a little skill who could serve a noble lord would not choose to be a mercenary whose livelihood is uncertain, let alone an adventurer like a handyman.

There may be top experts in this field, but they are extremely rare. You might not find even half one among ten thousand adventurers.

The labyrinth designed by Lud is designed to trap top-tier experts like Hamilton or the old butler. How could ordinary adventurers withstand such a trap?

Left with no other option, Lude had to temporarily suspend the game for maintenance, setting up a medical station on the third floor to rescue the newbies who had rushed in to get themselves killed, while also preventing subsequent adventurers from entering. Shanis was currently holding a sign, blocking the entrance to stop people.

"Let's explore the area ahead later!"