novelonline Chapter 3478 The Stairwell and the Corpse
Chapter 3478 The Stairwell and the Corpse
Chapter 3478 The Stairwell and the Corpse
"Vampire evolution, huh?"
Because he had friends with Mr. Bernhardt and Mr. Albert, both high-ranking vampires, and had also gained knowledge about vampires, he was quite knowledgeable about this. As long as the other party didn't kill people or arbitrarily change their familiar, he didn't feel that taking a few sips of blood was a bad thing.
"So let me summarize—none of you three really want to leave immediately?"
"Yes, so during those exploration trips, the three of us actually maintained a considerable level of understanding."
The sixth and fifth floors were quickly traversed, and at the same time, the light from the lantern hanging at Miss Noire's waist was noticeably dimming, but it should last a little longer. Although they hadn't been out for long, the distance they had traveled was incredibly vast.
“I also realized that it wasn’t just this hotel that locked us in, but the three of us locked ourselves in as well. So your appearance is a good thing. If you hadn’t appeared, even though we knew there might be an exit on the first floor, we might never have gone back to the first floor. My rationality tells me that leaving here is the most important thing to do, but my desire tells me that this place is quite nice.”
As Xia De followed her downstairs, he sighed:
"Okay, actually I also have some important things to take care of here."
"whats the matter?"
"Do you know about the 'House of Fake People'? For some reason, I need to know how to escape from the 'House of Fake People'."
"Of course I know about that disgusting thing, but there's nothing I can do to help you. The tribal records only document our tribe's interactions with it; the blood of the pseudo-humans tastes to us the same as candle wax."
Her voice suddenly stopped, and she also stopped walking, almost causing Xia De behind her to bump into her.
The two were currently between the third and fourth floors, but had not yet reached the corner halfway down the stairs. Miss Novare raised the lantern at her waist, allowing Shad to see a corpse lying on the landing at the corner of the stairs.
It looked like a man, but the body was severely weathered, the flesh and blood had long since dried up, leaving only skeletons and tattered clothes. It looked like it had been lying there for many years.
"No, we reached this place three times before during our explorations, and we didn't see this body then. Could it be that so much time has passed due to the chaos of time?"
The vampire girl hadn't expected this to happen, but both she and Shad concluded that it was indeed just a corpse.
The two men cautiously approached the body and examined its condition. Due to severe weathering, the cause of death was impossible to determine, but several ribs were missing. He had fallen face down, his head facing upwards, suggesting he had struggled to escape from downstairs before dying a reluctant death.
The food and other items he carried were rotten or damaged. He held a candle stub in his left hand, and Shad also pulled out six matches from the inner pocket of his belt.
The matches were wrapped in a small paper packet, which also had writing on it:
Room 0301 is safe and produces food regularly.
Room 0315 is dangerous; an unknown entity exists there. You can leave after discarding some bones.
Room 0348, Danger, leads to another building, unknown killer threat;
Room 0380 is safe. An odorous liquid periodically comes out of the sewage tank, but the room is very cold.
The dense text is not particularly clear, and the language used is not from this era.
Shad and Miss Novare guessed that he must have come here in an earlier era. Whether he could use supernatural powers was uncertain, but he probably didn't live long, since he only knew about the third floor and there were only four rooms.
Of these four rooms, the three witches had explored room 0380, but their understanding of the room was completely different from that of the corpse.
"There was a very powerful undead in that room, extremely powerful. However, it wasn't very aggressive, and we retreated immediately after we accidentally entered."
There were no personal belongings or alchemical items on the body, but Shad eventually found a black metal key in the inside pocket of his coat.
Only then did he remember this problem:
"Miss Novare, all the rooms in this hotel can be opened directly, right?"
The red-haired vampire girl was also taken aback, then nodded firmly:
"Yes, at least all the rooms we encountered could be opened directly from the outside. But the rooms here have a deadbolt function. Our room was locked when you knocked on it, wasn't it? As for why our room cannot be forced open, it's because of the power of the Old Gods protecting the house."
She also looked at the key in Xia De's hand:
"Was this a key he brought from outside, or..."
The metal key showed no signs of rust, while the body's belt buckle was heavily rusted, which speaks volumes.
Out of caution, Shad ultimately decided to temporarily carry the corpse as a toy instead of leaving it in the stairwell. Although the corpse didn't pose any danger, the presence of something new in the stairwell made the cautious vampire girl refrain from further conversation with Shad on the rest of the journey.
The lantern's flame eventually disappeared between the second and third floors, but then a new match was lit on the wall, causing the flame to leap again in the lantern.
Instead of continuing their conversation, the two continued downwards. Although the second floor should have been the safest, as they were about to turn down on the second floor, a streak of blood-red light suddenly shot towards them in the deep darkness of the corridor.
Neither of them had yet entered the stairwell below, and they were facing away from each other. However, since the incident with the corpse, they had been on high alert, and Xia De, who was closest to the streak of blood, turned and slashed.
A bright silver light clung to the blade of [Dawnbreak]. Although the interwoven gold and silver light was controlled by Shad and wasn't particularly bright, its power was undiminished. The longsword collided with the blood-red light. Shad initially thought he was encountering a formidable attack, but the blood-red light immediately exploded into a cloud of blood mist.
He only realized at the last moment that it was a black bat. Of course, by then it had turned into bat sauce.
The red-haired vampire girl's expression was quite unpleasant:
"That's my bat."
"what?"
“My bats, some of the bats I summon in this hotel mysteriously disappear. The one I just saw is no longer under my control, but I recognize it as one of the bats I summoned before.”
They had already retreated to the stairs below, and after turning a corner, they would reach the first floor of the hotel.
Nothing else appeared in the darkness on the second floor. Blood dripped down the blade of the longsword in Xia De's hand, the sound of it falling onto the wooden stairs was so clear.
So Shad used the dim firelight to evaporate the blood, then turned to look down:
"This only proves that even the second floor isn't safe. Let's go. Since that thing hasn't caught up, let's ignore it. We've reached our destination."
Miss Novare then looked down as well:
“Last time we stayed on the last step before the corner, since the first floor is right below when you look down after the corner.”
"You have absolutely no memory of the first floor now?"
Shad confirmed, and the vampire girl shook her head:
"I vaguely remember that the first floor was not very big, but I really don't remember anything else."
She hesitated for a moment:
“I’ll go with you. Last time I only sensed the situation below through the bats. This time, I’ll use my real body. Maybe I can remember some things.”
"Just hide behind me for a bit."
Shad then instructed Miss Novare that although she was unsure just how powerful Shad was, since he was blessed by the gods, she was willing to believe in his power.
There are two fixed staircases between the two floors, each with thirteen steps, which can be crossed in just a few seconds.
Upon reaching the corner of the stairs, Miss Novare immediately pressed herself against him, but this time it wasn't a clumsy attempt at seduction; she was genuinely afraid.
The lantern had now been transferred to Xia De's hands. With the lantern in one hand and the sword in the other, he continued downwards. After climbing two steps, he could clearly see the condition of the floors below.
The vampire girl was right; the first floor was indeed not very big, probably only the size of the Shad family's living room and bedroom combined.
There were two square tables here, and against the wall was a dilapidated counter. Behind the counter stood a figure that was not yet clearly visible, and when one looked at him, fragmented golden light emanated from the surface of Shad's skin.
He breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed his guess was correct—the deity was indeed here.
The ground floor, which appears to be the lobby of a hotel, doesn't extend into corridors on either side, meaning its size differs from the upper floors. However, the hotel and the "Whispering Hills" it's situated in possess spatial-temporal distortions, so the discrepancy in size is to be expected.
The hotel lobby was decorated in the same style as upstairs, largely in the early steam age. Two or three pipes of unknown function could even be seen on the walls of the first floor. Although there was no light source on the first floor either, Shad was certain that a gas lamp hung on the wall behind the counter.
There are doors and windows on the wall opposite the stairs. The windows are still boarded up, but the doors look normal.
He continued down, and the vampire girl noticed the abnormality in Shad's body, but she didn't dare to ask and just kept close to him as they descended.
Once the two were actually on the first floor, Miss Noire regretted not transforming into a bat and hiding in Shad's pocket. The immense pressure emanating from the direction she dared not look ahead was like a tsunami about to drown ants; if it weren't for someone standing in front of her, she felt she would have already bled to death.
Her strong reaction was not only because vampires, being "dark creatures," were more afraid of the power of gods, but also because the person behind the counter was not a saint at all.
This is a true god.