Who designed this underworld dungeon?.

Chapter 708: The Eternal City of Noklon

Let's turn back time a while.

"The ruins we just walked through are also part of Noklonn, right? It's quite large."

Maru said as she drew a map of the places they had traveled so far.

This bridge, littered with the corpses of secret agents, connects the ruins to the city, but a closer look reveals that the two connected parts should have originally been one.

Judging from the strong signs of destruction on the ruins, it is not difficult to see that this place has been severely damaged, which is why it has become a barren place with only wandering corpses.

"If only I could see Nokron at his peak. Wait, didn't I say that in Anor Londo?"

No one responded to Maru's words because the child was simply talking to herself. She liked to relieve stress by talking while working, even though she wasn't under much stress at all.

Noklonn appears spectacular at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it is riddled with scars.

Below the bridge lies a bottomless abyss shrouded in smoke, and the edges of the two banks connected by the bridge show signs of violent destruction despite the passage of time.

Perhaps in the past, these two places were not only connected by a bridge, but also had more magnificent architectural complexes, but they all fell into the abyss with unknown destruction and will never appear in people's sight again.

Thinking about all this, someone who really enjoys sightseeing would probably feel very sad.

After crossing the bridge, we finally found the hard-won bonfire—no, it was a blessing fire. The golden light of the blessing fire healed people's physical fatigue and soothed their spirits.

The other end of the blessing is where another complex of buildings in Norklon is located.

Clusters of buildings are gathered here, yet they are utterly lifeless, making the atmosphere of the place perfectly match the coldness of the night.

They hadn't noticed anything amiss while on the bridge, but once they got closer to Noklonn, Leon and his companions realized something was wrong.

Because the buildings here are collapsed in a chaotic mess, no, it doesn't look like they've collapsed, it's more like they've been turned upside down because gravity has been altered.

Most of the buildings are still in normal condition, but some tall buildings stand out abruptly, forming a layout that is definitely not suitable for human habitation. The details of these buildings indicate that this place has suffered a major upheaval and is no longer inhabited.

Leon carefully walked up. The flat surface he was standing on was a horizontal castle. The castle had many windows crowded together, some tightly sealed and others open and letting in cold winds. If he missed a step, he would fall directly into the cliff.

"Boss, the atmosphere here is awful."

As Maru spoke, she jumped over several windows and walked toward the real ground not far away, but just then...

"Bang bang bang!"

Suddenly, the blocked windows shattered, and countless silver tentacles reached out and grabbed at Maru.

The latter was so frightened that it looked like a cat with its fur standing on end, but it quickly reacted and drew its sword to fight back. However, when it saw those slippery, irregularly shaped tentacles, a bad memory came flooding back.

"Whoa!"

Maru yelled and did a backflip, retreating quite a distance before nearly falling off.

"Maru!"

Leon swung his sword horizontally, severing all the tentacles.

However, the severed tentacles immediately blurred their shape, turning into shapeless slime, and their true owner finally crawled out of the window.

Sure enough, it was again.
"A lifelike teardrop!"

Looking at those round "slimes," Leon's eyelids twitched wildly. What was going on? Was this city a factory that wholesaled artificial teardrops?

There were far more "humanoid teardrops" emerging from the window than before!

This situation is getting a little too exciting!

Just then, the bodies of those "tear-like creatures" began to deform, and their liquid-like bodies gradually formed multiple spear-like spikes, which shot towards the crowd with a "whoosh".

A gust of wind swept in from behind Leon, causing him to stumble and the spikes to be blown away.

“Look closely, Leon, these aren’t bio-teardrops,” Japar’s voice came from behind. “They’re just other species that look very similar.”

"They look very alike?"

Upon closer inspection, these "humanoid teardrops" that appeared before them were indeed a bit different; they were all black in color and did not appear to transform into other creatures.

"Scared me."

Finally realizing the truth, Leon breathed a sigh of relief. His heart had been pounding wildly, but now he could finally relax.

The black teardrop's strength was significantly weaker than the silver clone teardrop from before. After confirming that the opponent was not a clone teardrop, the group finally mustered up the courage to step forward and fight. Unexpectedly, they defeated it in no time, making it surprisingly easy.

"call"

Having slain the last black teardrop, Leon breathed a sigh of relief and muttered to himself:
"No matter how strong I get, I still get scared every time I'm in the Sien Dungeon."

Others shared the same sentiment.

"On the other hand, this place is really empty." Walking on the streets of Noklon, only a cold wind blows against you, carrying an extremely desolate feeling. The noise of monsters appearing will break the silence, and the death of a monster will immediately return it to deathly silence.

It feels completely different from walking in Irithyll or Anor Londo.

"Ow—"

The clear wolf howl rang out again, and Leon and his companions immediately turned and chased after it in the direction of the sound. The enemies they encountered along the way were all black teardrops.

However, in the end, the group came up empty-handed and found no trace of Blazer, as they had wandered into a dead end.

At the deepest part of the dead end lay the corpse of a secret envoy, his body also severed by a giant sword.

Beside him lay scattered fragments of a severed stone tablet. As Leon approached, magical runes lit up on the tablet.

Before the king left, his other half returned to this place, where he met the king and was received by the teardrops.

"What does it mean?"

Leon frowned. If "King" refers to the King of Elden, then who is the Half-Body?
People often use the term "half-body" to describe a partner. Could it be referring to Lani? But they first met in this city?
"Something feels off; I might be mistaken."

"Boss, what are you looking at?" Maru ran over, glanced at it, and immediately put on a thoughtful expression.

Just as Leon was expecting her to come up with some different conclusion, she shrugged and said:
"I don't know."

"."

The Eternal City is vast, so vast that a single glance is enough to fill your eyes with its scenery.

The Eternal City is also small because many places have collapsed and crumbled, and there are very few roads that are passable. Some places are impossible to walk through without some destruction, which goes against the intuition that people have developed from the fact that buildings in the Cinn Dungeon cannot be destroyed.

Whenever people have been walking on a new road for a while, the howling of wolves will sound, attracting people to run over and follow the sound.

Every time they chased after the sound, they would find nothing, or even encounter many monsters.

The black teardrops gradually disappeared, replaced by silver teardrops that could mimic various creatures. In an instant, the howls of all kinds of monsters echoed within Noklon. On average, eight out of ten silver teardrops turned into Rune Bears, while the remaining two transformed into other ferocious beasts.

Fortunately, the group is now quite experienced, and with Japar's help, they escape danger unscathed each time.

If it were a strategy team from a few months ago, they would have happily typed "GG" when surrounded by two or three rune bears.

After each defeat of a monster, you can find an inscribed stone tablet nearby.

The teardrops of the mind, which cannot be imitated, give birth to thought through repeated imitations.

The Knox people placed high hopes on the teardrop, yearning for a king of the night, unlike the golden tree, to be born from it.

The teardrop, having learned to think, tried to imitate the king but failed, so it began to imitate half of the king's body.

The riddle-like words were inscribed on the stone tablet, and Leon recorded them one by one with a photo stone.

Although I don't understand the meaning of these sentences yet, reading them gives me a feeling of being impressed but not quite, and people in their chuunibyou phase would probably find it very cool.

Moreover, Leon's guesses were gradually confirmed.

"Is the faith of this city really different from that of the Golden Tree?"

"Ow—"

The wolf howls rang out again at that moment. People exchanged glances and immediately rushed over.

Japar gripped the hilt of his sword tightly; his intuition told him that this was the time to hold his weapon firmly.

Because at some point, the wolf howl changed.

Although it's hard to describe, Japar had that feeling. The wolf howls were no longer as clear as they were at the beginning, but became increasingly frenzied, like wild beasts that could no longer suppress their ferocity and were about to explode at any moment.

This is quite different from Blaze. Although that half-wolf was quite wild, he never made such a frenzied sound, even when he was defeated by Rataen during the Battle Festival.

So something's not right. Either Blazer has changed in some way, or what they've been chasing isn't what it used to be.
The wolf howls ceased, and the people once again found nothing. However, what lay before them was a vast expanse of forest and mountains, and Noklon had been left behind.

The words "Dark Realm" appeared before me, indicating that this place was connected to, yet completely different from, Nokron.

The tranquil forest, the leaping spirit creatures—the atmosphere here is quite different from that of Noklonn; it has a harmonious charm.

People knew they would lose track of it, but they were not disappointed, because a brand new blessing awaited them not far away.

Leon walked over and stretched out his arm before he even reached the blessing.

"Ow—"

At that moment, the frenzied howls of wolves rang out.

[Invaded by the "Shadow of Calamity"!!!]

(End of this chapter)