novelonline Chapter 3916 Night Visit
Chapter 3916 Night Visit
Chapter 3916 Night Visit
Luvia didn't say a word the whole time Shad was packing. Only when Shad entrusted the cat to her care did she open her arms and hug Shad.
Xia De felt somewhat confused:
"I'm just going to scout ahead; there won't be any danger. Luvia, you can stay home and read or prepare some late-night snacks. I promise I won't linger on the other side for too long."
"I just wanted you to know that there are people and cats at home waiting for you to come back. Go quickly and come back soon. I hope everything goes well."
After bidding farewell to Luvia and the cat, Shad touched the statue of the ancient god and officially entered the white mist world with its paths.
[Outsider, you have entered a "spatial maze."]
[A message from the Old God "Primal Rift":]
[Existing spatial landmarks: 13.]
Thirteen dilapidated wooden road signs were stuck in the path. Shad didn't touch any of them, but instead used [Body of Courage] to make himself bigger, and then threw the apple directly into his mouth.
After chewing a few times, Shad laboriously swallowed the entire apple. As "she" smiled and reminded him of his "significantly increased luck," Shad, now back in his original form, rubbed his throat with his left hand and held up the white crystal in his right.
"Offer a white crystal as a sacrifice, and determine the direction—southeast."
As the crystal in his hand merged into the thick fog, the path was swallowed by the white mist, which then immediately dispersed, allowing Shad to return to the circular hidden area.
Although the ancient god statue was still nearby, the supplies he had stored there had vanished, proving that this location was no longer his own basement. And since the space was empty, Shad didn't need to bother with who had been there before.
"So, what is the exact location this time?"
The hidden passage opened, revealing complete darkness outside, devoid of human voices or heartbeats. Shad emerged from the passage and used [Enhanced Spatial Awareness] to confirm he was indeed underground, then summoned moonlight to illuminate the surrounding area.
The musty smell was quite pungent, and the brick and stone basement and the clutter piled up inside convinced Shad that this was the basement of a modern building, because he could see gas pipes on the walls.
"Finally, the entrance and exit of the maze have reappeared in the normal buildings!"
Shad was overjoyed. The entrance to Fatummister Island was in the ruins beneath the tower in the mountaintop area; the entrance to Vista Forest was beneath a large tree in the ruins deep in the forest; and the entrance to Moon Bay was at the bottom of the dragon's nest outside the city. The last time the entrance to the [Space Labyrinth] was beneath a normal building was back at Green Lake, when the entrance was located in the basement of the Green Lake Inn.
The entrance and exit of the spatial maze are located inside the building, which likely means that he won't need to spend too much time traveling in the future.
"However, this basement looks like it hasn't been used for a while."
The basement was quite large, divided into different sections by brick walls, but the different areas were not completely separated. Instead of going to the surface, Xia De explored the basement. The overall structure of the basement was relatively simple, with six opposing areas distributed on both sides of a large rectangular space.
There are no doors separating the six rooms from the large space, and the basement is entirely open.
Besides old furniture such as tables and chairs, Shad also found some abandoned bookshelves. During his subsequent exploration, he discovered an old, rusty printing press in the room closest to the right of the basement exit.
This is a manual flatbed printing press that requires no steam power and can be used by manpower only. It adopts a compound lever design and can print not only letters but also illustrations for copperplate engravings.
The body is made of cast iron and is not large in size. Although it is rusty, it still looks exceptionally exquisite and has a pure mechanical beauty.
Besides the printing press itself, the room also contains typesetting trays, lead type boxes, paper drying racks, paper cutters, and so on. It seems that some simple printing work can be completed with just the tools here.
In the adjacent room, Xia De indeed found a large quantity of printed materials wrapped in oil paper. He unpacked them and found that the printed materials included everything from pamphlets and leaflets to advertising flyers and pirated books.
"Is this the basement of some abandoned publishing house?"
Although there was a lot of clutter, Shad found nothing of value during the subsequent inspection, so he went up the stairs in an attempt to leave the basement. However, the basement door was locked from the outside, so Shad used magic to "jump" out.
The basement was located at the end of a corridor, which wasn't very long, with six rooms on either side. The doors to the rooms were all open, the rooms were in a mess, and the windows were sealed, so Shad couldn't see what was happening outside.
After pushing open the door at the end of the corridor and taking a deep breath, Xia De finally understood what this building was.
Rows of bookshelves stood in the dark library, the dust underfoot and the musty smell in the air indicating that no one had been here for a long time. Only about a third of the books were on the shelves, and most of them were covered in cobwebs.
Xia De casually wiped the table against the wall, and sure enough, a layer of dust appeared.
"An abandoned library?"
He explored the area briefly and confirmed that his guess was correct. The building had two floors, both of which were dedicated to the library. The eastern section of the first floor had been partitioned off with the short corridor he had just seen, which was clearly used as the library's office area.
There were no footprints in the dust on the ground, and the "Echoes of the Past" could not hear any of the recent sounds that had appeared indoors. Shad roughly estimated that the area of the library's first floor was about four times that of the first floor of No. 6 St. Teresa's Place, which was not small in any city.
Although all the windows were sealed, Shad was still very curious that the books hadn't been stolen, as books were very expensive in this era.
The library doors were locked from the outside with chains, so after assessing the surrounding space, Shad went directly from the library to the alley behind it.
"Whoo~"
The pungent smell of mildew and dust was gone from outdoors, and Xia De took a deep breath. Although the alley was narrow, the ground was fairly clean. He looked up at the starry sky again; although a few dark clouds drifted by, the weather in this unfamiliar city was quite nice tonight.
"It's great that the entrance and exit are in the city, and the air here is much better than in Tobeskoye and Willendale."
Thinking to himself, he unfolded the simplified map of the Old World he carried with him and used [Enhanced Spatial Perception] again to confirm that he had indeed arrived in the City of Scholars - Arcadia.
"very smooth."
With family members worried about him, Shad didn't immediately go to explore the city. He picked up his sword and returned to the library, making his way back to the basement before quickly arriving home.
Because Shad hadn't been gone long, Luvia was still waiting for him in the basement, clutching the reluctant-looking cat. Seeing that he had returned so quickly and safely, the purple-eyed girl finally smiled.
"Welcome home~ How was Ellie's apple?"
“Very good. We’ve arrived in Arcadia City without incident. This time, the entrance/exit is inside the city, and it looks like an abandoned library. I haven’t checked the surrounding area yet. Since we’re in the city, it wouldn’t be good to suddenly appear during the day. I plan to take another stroll around the library area and come back soon.”
Shad extended an invitation:
"Luvia, would you like to go to Arcadia City together? I can have Grace and Helen come over and help open a portal."
The purple-eyed girl holding the cat shook her head:
"I won't go. It's so late, I don't want to disturb them. Besides, I feel much more at ease now that the entrance and exit are in the city. You go by yourself, I'll go upstairs to prepare a late-night snack. Be careful too."
"I'll be back in twenty minutes at most, see you later."
After returning home and reporting that he was safe, Shad set off again, but this time he left the Night Watchman in the basement.
Once again, he emerged from the alley behind the library, only to find it deserted. Shad decided to check the library's front entrance for a sign, and began walking eastward along the alley. Gas streetlights illuminated the alley's exit, confirming Shad's belief that he was in the city.
The street wasn't very wide and had a slope. After reaching the streetlight, Shad took a deep breath and turned to look to his left. He saw the road sloping upwards, and the lights outlining the city in the distance stretched upwards from his current location, proving that he was in the middle of the mountainside where Arcadia City was located.
The brightest spot in the city's nightscape, where the lights are highest, is neither the Church of Christ nor the local town hall. It is the Candlekeborg Library, the largest existing library in the Old World.
Surrounding the "Candlecastle Library" are the various universities and research institutions that exist in the city, and further down is the "Upper Town" where the nobles live, followed by the "Lower Town" where the commoners live, which spreads down the mountainside.
The neighborhood where Shad was located was part of the Lower City. It wasn't the lowest point in Arcadia City, and it wasn't far from the Upper City. As for how to identify the Upper City, you only needed to look at the style and layout of the buildings.
When Shad reached the roof of the library and looked down to the right of the street, that is, further down, the scattered lights together made up most of the city's true area.
The city's outline, illuminated by lights, stretches all the way to the plains below the mountains. Modern Arcadia is no longer confined to the mountainside. Of course, the area higher up remains the most important part of this ancient city.
The plains below the mountain are called the "outer city." Xia De glanced out and saw that the entire outer city was shrouded in gray smog in the darkness. It seemed that most of the local steam factories and poor people lived there.
Looking further into the night, the famous "Grey Rock Pass Fortress" can be faintly seen.
The five parts—Candlecastle Library (mountain top), Upper Town (high up), Lower Town (lower down), Outer Town (below the mountain), and Greyrock Pass (in the distance)—together form Arcadia, the "city of scholars" of this era. Unlike the magnificent natural landscapes of Fatummst Island, this is a purely human city constructed by civilization.