Chapter 86 - Buried Castle (3) - Poop

They looked like ordinary humans at first glance, but anyone with a keen eye could tell they were different. Leonard, the nerdy researcher, couldn’t contain his excitement, his fingers twitching.

"Mindless humans, consumed by the mana crystals from below. I thought that was just a legend!"

Arthur frowned. Leonard noticed it and explained further.

"I’m not the only one looking for the dragon’s knowledge. Others tried, but most of them couldn’t keep it together and lost their minds in the process. You have to remember this Castle has been here for a very long time, so of course others came before us."

"Are you saying we might end up like them?"

Leonard brushed it off with a chuckle. "Won’t happen. I mean, mathematically speaking, there’s a chance, a slim one, but I don’t think it will. The odds are too low, and the rewards are too grand. Worth the risk."

When one of the mindless humans turned around, revealing its face, Arthur saw just how different they were. Their eyes were two blue crystals (mana stones), and parts of their bodies were covered in crystals too, as if something was slowly consuming them.

Even after losing their minds, they were still taking care of the library. Some were even picking up books and reading them. Arthur wondered if they knew what they were doing, or what they were reading, or if it was just the mindless acts of soulless bodies.

"They’ll attack us," Leonard stated the obvious. "They’re the protectors of this library. We have to fight them and head further down, toward the depths of this place. That’s where we need to go."

To reach the staircase, Arthur and Leonard had to circle around the library, passing through tall shelves packed with books and, of course, infested with mindless humans.

Arthur picked up a book and opened it on a random page to have a look. He didn’t understand shit. The language wasn’t human, and it wasn’t the dragon tongue either.

"Rune language. A special language created by ancient wizards. Only a handful of people can read it."

"Can you?" Arthur asked.

The guy was nerdy and knowledgeable, so for a moment, Arthur thought he could read it too. But no.

"Of course not. I’m a young man, healthy, in my prime. How could I know a language that’s probably 2000 years old? That’s a stupid question, but I’ll let it slide because we’re Soul Artisan brothers."

Leonard wrapped an arm around Arthur’s neck for a moment before picking up his staff again. The first group of mindless humans had gathered near the railing, not far from where they stood.

"Prepare to fight," Leonard said.

The monsters were certainly level 33 or higher, considering the gargoyles were that level, so Arthur wasn’t confident about helping. He made that very clear to Leonard.

"Can you clear this place alone?" Arthur asked, pulling the bow from his back. "Not that I don’t want to help, I do, but I’m weak. My hits won’t damage them. You’ll be doing almost all the work."

For once, Arthur was the one being carried, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

"Just cruise along. I have lots of trinkets to take those bastards down."

Leonard swapped staffs, storing the last one inside his spatial bag. The next staff had a different aura to it.

He’d gone for a frost staff because he didn’t want to burn the library down. Frost spells vanished moments after use.

With a few circular movements and some random incantations (Arthur was sure Leonard didn’t need to say those weird things), frozen spikes burst from the ground, so big they looked like icebergs, freezing the mindless humans in place.

[Leonard dealt 4100 damage]

Same damage to all four mindless humans the spell hit. Lower than the fire spell, but they all stood frozen, unable to move. That gave Leonard more than enough time to strike again, and what he did next was unexpected.

[Crystal Infused Human]

[Level: 36]

[Status: Frozen]

Leonard walked over to one of the Crystal Infused Humans and, instead of attacking, tried to pick it up and toss it over the railing.

He gritted his teeth, doing his best to lift the frozen human, but he couldn’t. It was too heavy for just one person.

"Would you mind helping me out?"

Arthur walked over, grabbed the same human, and helped Leonard throw it over the railing, right into the abyss. They did the same with the rest.

[+15000 EXP]

Each one gave 15k EXP... That was just too much EXP. Usually Arthur wouldn’t be able to kill those monsters, and in most missions, like 95% or more, there were no powerful NPCs helping players out like this. This mission in particular was doing wonders for his level, making him jump up the leveling ranking.

And even though the creatures died from the fall, the EXP and drop loot worked the same. Arthur got some gold coins for the kills, stacking up nicely into a huge sum by that point, but he also got mana stones.

Mana stones were used for channeling magical barriers and enchanting items. Expensive and not easy to find, so Arthur was more than happy to get them.

They kept moving forward, using the same strategy on the rest of the mindless humans they found on the way to the staircase. A smart way of fighting. Arthur gave Leonard the credit. The guy knew more than just history, it seemed.

Once they finally reached the spiral staircase leading down, they took it with slow steps, holding the railing tightly so they wouldn’t fall. Some steps were damaged, and the staircase wasn’t easy to use in the first place, so it took them a while...

The library was deeper than Arthur had thought at first. The shelves were so tall they hit the ceiling, and each floor had lots of them, along with more mindless humans. Gladly, they didn’t need to explore every floor. All they had to do was keep going down the staircase.

"See those blue lamps on the walls?" Leonard pointed out.

The lamps were the only light the place had. It wasn’t enough for a library this massive, but at least they weren’t in complete darkness.

"What about them?" Arthur asked.

"They’re powered by the dragon too! Well, not exactly. This dragon in particular, when he shits, his poop is basically mana crystals. It happens because of how much pure mana is inside his body, way more than any normal dragon. So back in the early days, the people working here just collected the dragon’s poop and used it as a power source, not only for the lamps, but for the whole Castle."

Arthur blinked a few times, still not believing what he’d just heard. They were using magical dragon poop to power the place. What the fuck...

Anyway, the staircase didn’t go all the way down to where they wanted to go. It eventually stopped at a floor that was different from the rest.

This floor was open, like an arena, and at its center stood a mutated human, way bigger than the others. It was a wizard. Not just a common wizard. It was a boss.