Void Beetle Evolution Guide

Chapter 120: Who writes a diary?

Ahri pointed out an area on the map, and Kai'Sa went over and found that the area was the dormitory of the vault keeper.

"Do the undead need rest too?"

Ahri shook her head. "This was told to me by a human ghost. He couldn't stand Thresh's torture and chose to commit suicide. He turned into a ghost and escaped back. He wanted to release everyone, but he collapsed because his illusory body couldn't touch the door lock. But in his few words, he mentioned that Thresh put him in a room with a bed... I think the most likely possibility is the dormitory."

Kai'Sa fell into deep thought. Ahri's words only proved that Thresh had stayed in the guards' dormitory, and it was not certain that he would run into him if he went there.

But this is the only clue at the moment, and even if the probability is low, we can only try our luck.

The three of them continued to go deeper into the basement. Since there weren't many people here in the past, they didn't encounter many undead on the way. Apart from spending a little more time on the journey, they arrived at the dormitory smoothly.

Kassa walked down the last narrow spiral stone staircase and looked along the corridor at a row of dormitory rooms in front of her. A strong stench of rotting corpses filled the cold and depressing air.

Just like Ahri said, someone was tortured to death here, and the torturer Thresh didn't seem like the kind of guy who would help collect other people's bodies.

The biggest difference between the dormitory and the warehouse door is that there is no iron window for surveillance, so you can't directly see what's going on inside. After all, guards are not prisoners and they also need privacy.

All the dormitory doors were locked with heavy padlocks, and the three of them only had one keystone, so they did not act separately.

Kassadin opened the room closest to the stairs, and was greeted by a corpse covered with scars. The strong and pungent stench made Ahri cough.

The body was tortured beyond recognition, with a fishhook through the cheek, fixing the head to the bed, and the limbs were tightly tied with chains. But the most eye-catching thing was the pair of torn thighs.

The muscles on the corpse's thigh had been completely stripped away, leaving only extremely hideous wounds. The leg bones were carved with intricate patterns by a knife: painful and twisted faces were posted on the inner wall of the lantern, pressing against the people trapped inside, longing for the world of the living outside.

The carving is very detailed and it is a beautiful masterpiece.

Because of this, it looks even more terrifying.

"Bone carving is an art of torture. The victim must be awake to complete the carving, and watch himself being carved into a 'work of art' step by step. When the knife scrapes across the bone, there is not much physical touch, but more mental torture. The impact of fear is stronger than pain."

The scene reminded the Wild Hunt of some chefs who would slice off all the meat from a fish without killing it, then put the fish head and the clean skeleton back into the pond to linger, in order to show off their knife skills.

The current situation is actually similar to the example just mentioned, except that the fish on the chopping board is replaced by people.

The three people who were fortunate enough to witness Thresh's masterpiece were all shuddering in fear. They couldn't imagine how cruel the means he used to torture others were, how much time he spent on a piece of bone, and his terrifying patience.

And it seems that Thresh does not even let go of souls. Those souls suffered physical pain during their lifetime, and after death they are imprisoned in lanterns and tortured for eternity.

"What bad luck." Iris was the first to look away. She had killed quite a few people, so her tolerance was relatively high.

However, she only poisons people to death and then lets the spiders eat them up, and she doesn't torture her food in such a perverted way. She only shows some evil tastes when facing those suitors who are fascinated by her beauty, and she will lead them into a trap and turn them into spiders to taste fear.

"Thresh isn't here, next one." Kai'Sa didn't step into the room, but turned around to unlock the door of the next dormitory. She didn't care what was going on inside, as long as she saw that Thresh wasn't there, she would continue to walk down.

In this way, she checked all the dormitories, but didn't see a single ghost.

"Damn it, there's nothing here and nothing there. Is that guy hiding from us?" She was a little annoyed and simply grabbed a piece of the door panel with her hands.

When Thresh was alive, he could walk in the dark basement with his eyes closed and without the help of a lantern. No one was more familiar with the basement than that guy. If he wanted to hide, there was no way they would be able to find him.

Suddenly, she noticed that one person was missing from the team... It was Iris. She disappeared without a sound. Because she was used to having only two people in the team, her reaction was a little slow.

Kaisa's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly asked, "Ahri, have you seen Elise?"

"She seemed to... have entered a dormitory and never came out." Ali, who was walking at the end, tried hard to recall, but the impression was too vague to explain clearly.

"Follow me closely." Kaisa was afraid that Elise would be dragged away by Thresh without anyone noticing, so she hurriedly took Ahri back to look for her.

Fortunately, her worries were unnecessary.

Iris was not dragged away. She just stayed in a dormitory they had passed before and rummaged through the drawers looking for something.

"What are you doing alone?"

In the face of Kassa's questioning, Iris was not angry, but pointed to the big box she dragged out from under the bed.

The lock of the box was melted off, and the clothes and books inside were turned out and scattered everywhere, revealing the secret compartment hidden at the bottom of the box, which had also been opened by her.

"I found this in there. Can you guess what this good thing is?" Iris raised her eyebrows proudly, holding the mysterious notebook that was originally sandwiched in the compartment.

"No guessing, what does it say?"Mei wants me to have a wish that Kong Yong doesn't have Lin You Yong......

Kassa can read maps, but she can't understand notes. She doesn't know many words, so she can only ask others to read them to her, and then she will decide whether Iris's unauthorized actions are meritorious or guilty based on the content.

But judging from Iris's smug expression, it's probably the former.

"The cover looks so plain, is it a secret diary?" asked Ali.

"Kai'Sa is really boring. Ahri is the only one who is willing to cooperate." Seeing that Kai'Sa was not cooperating at all, Elise said angrily, "This is the diary of Erlok Grell. If I remember correctly, that was Thresh's name when he was alive, right?"

"Yes, you remember it right, so what did you see inside?" Hearing the name, Kassa's breath was caught.

Seeing that Kassadin was finally curious about her, Iris stopped keeping her in suspense and began to read aloud the first paragraph of the diary.

-

Well, that day has finally arrived.

In a better world, I would definitely go to Hylia and work with the masters there.

Yet, I was assigned a job as a basement guard! How disgusting! I am a top student in my class and I don't deserve this.

However, I think I can find some fun in this low-level task.

My job is to evaluate and classify the various treasures and books kept in the secret vault. Just by looking at the structure of the secret vault, countless ideas for improvement and improvement have already popped up in my mind.

Then I will show these watchmen what a smart person can achieve in his or her position!

——Erlok Greyr, the Watcher of the Boundary

-

Elise read out the diary contents in Thresh's voice, even though she had never met him.

However, based on the contents of the diary, it is not difficult to see that Thresh, who had just been demoted to the basement, was full of reluctance and arrogance. He felt that he would be able to make it with his extraordinary talents, but he did not expect to be forgotten by those masters and classmates in the dark basement.

Moreover, Thresh during this period seemed a little bit immature and even gave himself the name of the Warden of the Boundaries, which made people laugh.

But it’s normal. No serious person would write a diary.

"The diary mentioned that Thresh classified and evaluated the items stored in the basement, as well as some of the things he encountered during his work."

Iris extracted the key information, and Kassa frowned immediately after listening to it.

“This doesn’t help us find Thresh. It’s impossible for it to record where he hid the keystone. These are records from when he was alive and before he fell.”

"Don't be impatient, the key is yet to come." Iris flipped a few pages and continued reading her diary.

-

I've only been on the job for a few weeks and I've already experienced an incident where items in a secret vault resulted in a death.

According to records, the Heart Key must be turned in its corresponding lock once every thirty-nine hours. Outside of that time, it can be used to open any locked item. However, the guards were so lazy that they actually used it to navigate the maze of secret rooms. It was really disappointing!

Ames failed to return the key to its proper place and turn it at the correct time. The name was correct, and the key did find the nearest heart—Ames's heart—and turned it. What it opened, I'm afraid we will never know, for it cost Ames his life.

I have written extensive documentation on the use and maintenance of keys. Ames's death was pointless, but if we can learn from his failure, perhaps some good can be gained.

——Erlok Greyr, the Watcher of the Boundary

-

"The Key to the Heart..." This time, there was no need for Iris to summarize the contents of the diary, as Kassadin had already keenly captured the key points.

This forbidden object called the Key of the Heart may seem a bit strange, but if used properly it can open any locked object.

What they are looking for is a key that can open the door to Wanzaijing!

I don't know if this will work on the gate of Wanzai Well. If it does, we won't have to look for Thresh like a headless fly.

"Elise, you did a great job. The next thing we need to do is to find the key to the heart!"

Kassa gave orders decisively and no longer shouldered all the responsibilities alone and moved forward silently. Her every move acted like that of a hostess.

Chapter 121: Thresh's Downfall

Kai'Sa and Ahri continued to search the room, looking for possible secret compartments, while Elise continued to look through Thresh's diary, trying to find any clues about the Heart Key.

This could be the classification system mentioned earlier, or just some handwritten reminders.

The diary records Thresh's work details and his evaluation of his colleagues, which are basically all negative.

In addition to his daily musings, whenever a fatal accident occurs involving items contained in the secret vault, Thresh will reiterate his classification system.

A guy named Petrion mixed up two items that looked similar but had different effects. His accidental death made Thresh realize the necessity of accurate documentation and classification.

Contained objects do not follow common sense as we know it, and their most dangerous characteristics can often only be discovered through observation. If the observations can be recorded in detail and systematically, and these records are kept in a clearly classified and unified location, the sacrifice of "test subjects" can be reduced.

From this point of view, Thresh's initial idea was not only correct, but also a practical solution to the problem. He was indeed proud of his talent, so he found the stupidity of his colleagues unreasonable.

Elise flipped back and saw Thresh beginning to write a sample record for an older item in the vault.

This is an unnamed book, very large and covered in dust, and no one has maintained it for a long time.

The old record read "It is evil and will whisper your darkest thoughts", a vague description that had no value to Thresh and did not meet the standards he had set in his mind.

So Thresh personally took action to resist the effects of the Nameless Book, and initially developed a classification system based on the type of impact, range of action, and effect strength, in order to classify all similar objects.

This made Elise certain that there must be a classification catalog compiled by Thresh. As long as she found it, she could find the Key of Heart according to the clues above.

Besides, she also had her reasons for having to get this catalog.

With the catalog, she could clearly identify the characteristics of the objects and retrieve and use them safely. It was no exaggeration to say that with the catalog, the entire basement would become her backyard.

To be honest, when Iris found the diary, the first thing she thought of was to hide it.

But after thinking about it, I decided to share it openly. Kai'Sa has no interest in these things anyway. If I find the Key of Heart, I can get the praise of the Wild Hunt. There is no need to keep it to myself.

There are so many things in the secret vault, even if three people share it equally, the amount she can get is astonishing.

Thinking of this, Elise's breathing became hot as she continued to flip through the pages. She then saw that Thresh was determined to kill him because Overlord Lastofil had rejected his proposal to study the Nameless Book.

He did not see anything wrong with his proposal and suspected that Rastofer rejected him in order to take credit for his research and proposal.

To this end, he planned to kill Rastofil and disguise the tragedy as a misclassification of the containment, hoping that the stewards' ideas would move in a safer and more practical direction and his research proposal would be approved.

Even an outsider like Elise could tell from the contents of the diary that Thresh had been influenced by the Nameless Book.

Listening to it telling its darkest secrets every day, his heart became darker and darker. He began to assume the worst of others and his actions became more and more extreme, but he was completely unaware of it.Mei wants to be without Lin. I am in the air. There is no Lin. There is no Yong...

This passage made Elise realize that Thresh's classification catalog might not have been promoted, because too clear a classification would cause the guards to lose their fear and awe of the unknown for these objects, leading to them being bewitched and hoarding them.

If it had not been promoted, then the only copy in the category catalog would most likely be Thresh's own.

Elise continued to flip through the pages. As Thresh became absorbed in his research and lived in seclusion, his contact with other guards became less and less, and the time span in the diary became longer and longer.

More than a decade later, Thresh became a guard. After a patrol, he returned to his dormitory and found that Warden Maxim had searched his room thoroughly.

All the desk drawers were pulled out, and the contents were overturned. A large box was dragged out from under the bed, the lock was broken, and clothes and books were scattered everywhere. The bed against the wall was also forcibly opened, and the sheets and blankets were torn off the hard mattress.

It was pretty much the same thing that Elise had just done.

However, the most deadly of all were the banned books in his private collection, all of which were found by Warden Maxim and placed under the light, exposing all the evidence in the room.

No matter who it is, anyone who takes anything from the warehouse without the masters' explicit written permission will be expelled... Thresh, who is desperate, becomes more and more vicious, and finally decides to make this fat, bloated, bald warden, who has always made his life miserable, pay the price.

Thresh seemed to be familiar with this kind of thing. He dealt with Maxim very calmly and locked him in a dark room where few people passed by.

That was Thresh's execution room. On one wall of the room was a sturdy wooden board, on which were neatly arranged various sizes of butcher knives, chopping knives, and blacksmith's pliers.

Thresh's favorite thing was a frighteningly sharp curved sickle. He locked Maxim on the wall and tortured him beyond recognition, and spent a pleasant time with him in a corner where no one cared about him.

Afterwards, Thresh was summoned by the Grand Warden to inquire about the disappearance of Warden Maxim.

Since Thresh transferred the stolen banned books to Maxim's room and pretended that the latter had fled for fear of punishment, he was not only not punished, but was promoted because of his longest tenure, replacing Maxim as the warden of Thresh Prison, in charge of a larger area.

Afterwards, Thresh was humming a song in a happy mood, and went back to Maxim to "thank" him again.

Elise skipped over the specific details of the torture. She noticed that Thresh mentioned the stone slab he had hidden behind the canopy bed, so she asked Kai'Sa to pull the bed open and she went to the wall to feel around carefully.

As Kasa pulled the bed open, a hidden alcove was exposed to everyone's view.

Elise reached out and touched it, and sure enough, she touched a movable stone slab. She pried the stone slab open with her fingernails and took it off, and the books stuck inside immediately fell out.

When she opened it, it was indeed the category directory she was looking for!

The catalogue has tight handwriting and beautifully written sentences, making it more formal than a casual diary.

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