564 We Found The Lair

I let Eins 'lead' us while I followed behind her to where she had heard the voices come from.

I could still hear Thorn and and Olgar whispering behind us wondering if Eins and I were twins.

I mean… Aside from the colour scheme change, we're pretty much alike in terms of physical looks so I guess that would give them that impression.

Of course, Gwen already knows that Eins was just my Shadow Guard so she wasn't surprised by her presence. She seemed to be more surprised that we had found her in that room I guess.

Along the way, we were attacked by a few more Shadow Devourers but with both Eins and my support, none of them even came close to threatening our party.

We then reached a rather familiar intersection though this time there were no sounds of people talking.

Eins pointed at the left turn and I understood that she was pointing at the exact location she had stepped before she was teleported away.

I went towards the intersection, keeping my [Spotlight] on to illuminate the way before peeking around the corner.

At the end of the corridor, I spotted an iron door that was closed shut with a single Shadow Devourer sitting in front of it like a guard.

Well… If this doesn't scream 'hidden boss room here', I don't know what does.

Now if I remember correctly… Eins got teleported away when she turned the corner… Was it a one time thing or is it still in effect here?

I picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it in the direction of the corridor, which I also intended as a way to see if the Shadow Devourer would react as well.

The stone flew past the threshold that Eins had failed to get across and bounced on the ground, making a soft sound which the Shadow Devourer did indeed react to.

The monster lifted its head and stared at the direction of where the stone had hit the ground.

I had already ducked back around the corner to hide myself after confirming its reaction so I don't believe it had spotted me.

But there was one other thing I would like to confirm…

I directed Eins to stand in the middle of the intersection, putting her in full view of the Shadow Devourer.

"What are you doing?" Olgar asked but I silenced him with a raised finger.

Under normal circumstances, I believe that monster would be trying to attack her or at least have some sort of reaction to her presence.

But on the contrary, it seems like the monster did not even react to her and simply went back to guarding the door.

Hmm… I stepped out into the intersection to reveal myself.

And as though a switch had been flipped, the monster suddenly hopped to its feet and charged towards me with its claws outstretched.

Seems like I managed to confirm one of my hypotheses.

Eins moved in front of me and struck the Shadow Devourer across the head with the back of her hand, sending it flying towards the wall.

Without hesitation, she stepped towards the fallen monster and pierced her hand through its chest and pulled out, leaving a hole there.

The monster let out what sounded like a groan before dispersing and leaving behind a Mana Crystal.

Yep… Seems like for some reason these Shadow Devourers aren't hostile to my Shadow Guards. I wonder if there's a link for that aside from the name similarity?

"What was that?" Thorn asked.

I turned to raise an eyebrow at him, "What was what?"

"Did she just… Stab that monster with her bare hands?"

"Yes? Is it really that weird?"

Gwen gave him a look, "Yeah, is it really that weird? We see these sorts of things all the time."

I can't tell if she was being sarcastic or not but… Err… Pretty sure I've seen Odeta have punched holes in the monsters she fought before so it's not something we have not seen before.

Now putting that aside… I've confirmed that a stone can get through the passage and Shadow Devourers have no problem coming out either. But can we go through it or would we get teleported as well.

The other three seemed to also have the same question as they stood behind me and waited to see what I would do.

I looked at Eins and she wordlessly started walking towards the door, all of us watching her with bated breath as she stepped towards the corridor.

She stepped past the threshold and… Nothing happened.

Huh… Ok… Let me try then.

I was about to walk towards Eins when Gwen tugged on my arm, "Let me, Aster."

I didn't really want to put her at risk but she looked like she would not accept any arguments and I stepped aside for her.

With her weapons held at the ready, she went up to Eins who was waiting on the other side of the threshold.

I almost expected something to happen but Gwen reached my Shadow Guard without any problems either.

How odd.

Eins then raised her hand, "Master, I believe we are bypassing the teleportation trap because of your light."

I looked up at the two [Spotlight] that were floating above me.

Huh… Was that really the case? Eins did not need to use a light spell since she could see in the darkness due to her Umbramancy proficiency. I'm also only using this spell because the three Rejmars could not see in the darkness otherwise.

Was light really preventing the trap from being sprung?

Actually, it doesn't really matter at this point, we just need to get to the door at the end.

Thorn and Olgar followed me and the three of us stepped past the threshold together.

Yep, nothing happened as she had guessed.

What kind of trap is this to be neutralised by light? I would say that this guy needs to review his traps but hey, it's working in our favour right now.

That left us free to approach the metal door at the end and we're now back to our formation with myself hanging behind as the support.

Eins also joined me at the back but she would be focused more on casting offensive spells instead so that I could focus more on support.

Gwen went to the door and tried opening it, finding it unlocked.

She pushed it open while using her shield to protect herself in case of an ambush.

The door swung into the room with a loud creak, revealing an interior with a light blue glow.

Peeking inside, we quickly realised that the blue glow was coming from several glass tanks filled with liquids that were emitting that specific colour.

It was basically a stereotypical mad scientist laboratory with all the vials, tools and diagrams scattered around the room and walls.

There was a bed and a study table in one corner of the room but aside from all that, the room was completely empty.

"I'm going to guess that the person who created those Shadow Devourers has been hiding here all this while…" I mused.

Olgar grumbled, "To think we thought he had run away from the Kingdom… But he has been hiding underneath our very noses all this while…"

I turned to him, "Do you think he planned all of this? Even the quest for the Dungeoneers to gather materials in the Dungeon?"

Thorn scowled, "I don't want to admit it… But I believe that is quite possible… Someone showing up out of nowhere and offering large amount of Creas for Dungeoneers to gather materials from monsters specifically found in these Dungeons? That's definitely fishy… Damnit, we've been tricked."

"This means he must have accomplices too… The fact that Jugar had that thing to transform himself… He might have reached out to other Rejmars who support him to do something like this…"

Olgar kicked the door in frustration, "Damned traitorous bastards! May their beards all be shaved off and never grow back!"

"And I'm guessing that he only needs Rejmar Dungeoneers to be involved and non-Rejmars like myself were thrown in a different part of the Dungeon to be kept away. Not that it worked I guess."

Gwen looked around, "Still… If this is his hiding spot… Where is he?"

I also started inspecting the room as well.

The first thing I decided to check out was of course the large tanks filled with bluish liquid.

There wasn't anything floating inside of it and for some reason, it kind of looked like a slime was stored inside these tanks.

I tried to use [Screened] on it.

[Liquid Mana]

…

Eh? That's all you're telling me?

But I suppose that it was enough information for me to understand what is going on inside this room at least.

I'm guessing that he found a way to create monsters that are obedient to him by making use of this Liquid Mana but in order to create those monsters, he needs a body or something.

The first city that he destroyed most likely was his initial test and when it succeeded, he retreated down here into the Dungeon where he secured a hiding spot for himself to further improve on it.

Now, he's most likely ready to expand his experiments so he's looking for new test subjects.

And… We're the test subjects…

Great…