In truth, Valen Argos kept a low profile normally, so not many knew of his true skill. However, thanks to the restrictions of the kingdom, his strength could not be more than Silver-rank. Considering his age, it was most likely that he was only Bronze-ranked, because the king would never allow Gold-ranked dark races within the royal city.
“The Argos clan is a clan of necromancers, but due to the local laws, they can’t cultivate too many undead warriors. Any king would be wary of that, since necromancers are very reliant on their undead summons, not having high combat abilities themselves.”
“Soul Disintegration is what you need to look out for the most, but there’s no need to worry too much. That spell is very inaccurate against targets that are moving at high speeds; it’s easy to dodge.”
The old man rambled about all the possibilities. Xiao Lin coughed dryly, rolling his eyes in hiding as he interrupted, “I’m not going in to fight. I’m just trying to rescue some people. I might not even fight Valen.”
“You’ll need to eventually, since you’ll definitely end up facing him in the martial tournament.”
Xiao Lin was speechless.
“Uncle!” Ibeiya chided.
“Fine, necromancers are different from us because their constitutions are closer to humans. That’s why they have regular active periods. Everything will be fine as long as you’re not discovered.”
“After that?”
“There’s nothing else.”
Xiao Lin did not know what to say.
The old man did not hide the fact that he was not interested in saving anyone at all, but it was not a problem, Xiao Lin knew enough now. He would need to avoid any form of confrontation if he could.
Even if he could not avoid it, just like the old man said, he was a student from Dawn Academy. He had even quietly told Ibeiya that, if he did not return, Ibeiya would have to look for Liang Taibai at the embassy. Xiao Lin did not believe that this small clan of necromancers would dare stand up to all of Dawn Academy.
The Argos clan’s home was situated at an old castle on a hill to the east of the city. According to the old man, the castle was over a thousand years old. The Argos family had also been in the Rosa Kingdom for just as long. It seemed like a very long time, but in truth, the Argos family only had two clan leaders before this, and thus Valen was their third. Necromancers could often prolong their life by abandoning their mortal flesh in the later years.
The old man stopped when he arrived at the foot of the hill, explaining that he had very dense death energy around him as a dark lifeform, which would be easily noticed. Ibeiya had wanted to go in with Xiao Lin, but she would only be a burden, so she wisely stayed back.
Xiao Lin did not give them any trouble, heading toward the ancient castle himself after activating Miracle.
Under the Miracle state, his necromantic mediation was at its peak. Due to the differences between the three main energies, normal elemental mages had a hard time perceiving death energy.
The moment Xiao Lin stepped onto the hill with Miracle activated, he was almost suffocated by the death energy that surged forward. He had never experienced such amounts of death energy before. He even suspected that the hill had countless dead bodies buried underneath. Only a large amount of death could produce such an environment.
Xiao Lin was immediately on alert. His necromantic meditation was already at a decent rank. The death energy on the hill was thick like fog, and within the fog, there were numerous groups of tightly gathered, flame-like energies, which would be necromantic lifeforms.
The hill belonged completely to the Argos clan, and the death energy was confined to the hill itself, which was probably within the degree that the royalty could tolerate.
Xiao Lin’s perception increased by a lot under Miracle, and he had quietly avoided the undead beings. Low-level undead beings had no intelligence, so sneaking through was not too hard.
After a moment, Xiao Lin reached the peak of the hill without issue. The ancient castle was huge, and the walls that surrounded it were over two meters tall, but they lacked any defensive mechanisms. He first looked around carefully, making sure there was no one hiding nearby before changing his attributes to agility, deftly allowing him to climb over the wall.
Before he even landed, he suddenly felt a huge sense of alarm, and he quickly hid himself, using the walls to block any lines of sight. After a moment, he peeked over and looked around, noticing a clock tower about a hundred meters away. However, on the clock tower was not a clock, but a large eyeball.
‘A Necromantic Eye!’
Xiao Lin was shocked. He had seen the spell at Wildfire Town before, when that undying high priest Asabanor used the spell to spy on Lilith and himself.
After that, he researched it in the library, finding that the necromantic eye was a more highly-ranked observation spell, but the conditions to cast the spell were very steep. The spell needed the eye of a live person as an offering. Necromancy was something that a lot of people hated on Planet Norma, and cruel conditions like these were the main reason.
There was only one necromantic eye on the castle, but it basically covered every road that led to the main entrance. The person who placed the eye there had been very smart as well; there seemed to be no blind spots in the vicinity at all. Xiao Lin could only retreat temporarily, since he would definitely be discovered if he crossed the wall. After kneeling for over ten minutes, he suddenly heard the sound of talking outside.
Xiao Lin hurried over and hid nearby, noticing someone slowly approaching in a carriage. Someone had actually come over at such a time, and the driver seemed to be a regular person because his face carried intense fear. That was definitely not what a necromancer would look like, but Xiao Lin sharply noticed that he seemed to be wearing a special pendant on his chest. The pendant seemed to block any influence from the death energies around him, and also caused the undead beings to ignore him.
“O-open the door. I-I’m here to deliver vegetables!” Outside of the door, the driver shouted out, stuttering.
Deliver vegetables?
Xiao Lin’s heart raced. Most of the dark races had their own unique eating habits, and necromancers usually ate fresh meat and fresh blood that was filled with death energy. That was because they believed it would replenish the energies in their bodies. Vegetables? There was no way vegetables would never appear in the diet of the necromancer.
Then who was he delivering the vegetables for? It was also so late, so the delivery was clearly meant to be hidden. Who could possibly need vegetables in this ancient castle of necromancers?
Xiao Lin was beginning to understand. He took out two New Dollar notes from his pocket before picking up a few rocks from the ground. He threw them nearby.
The driver jumped with fright, almost running away from the carriage. However, once he saw what looked like money on the ground, he hesitated. New Dollars were naturally accepted in the Rosa Kingdom, and he understood the value of the notes. After a few minutes, the allure of the money had succeeded his fear, and he got out of the carriage to walk toward the notes.
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