Crystal Palace from Infinite Anime

Lin Zhiyu took the spirit-calling bell from Lani, and the prompt tone of the infinite system immediately rang in his mind:

[Special item detected - "Soul-calling Bell", triggering special options, please select! ]

[Soul Summoning Bell: A special item that can be used with ashes to summon a specific spirit to assist in combat. However, the person is gone, and the ashes will be consumed with each summoning until they are completely depleted.]

[Option 1: Submit the "Soul Summoning Bell" to the system to gain the special ability "Soul Summoning"]

[Option 2: Deal with the "Soul-Calling Bell" on your own, no reward]

[Necromancer: A secret technique that summons spirits to fight for you. You can sacrifice ashes to permanently gain the right to summon the corresponding spirit. The initial summon slot is 1, and an additional summon slot is added for every 50 points of spiritual power. Even if the summon slot is full, you can still sacrifice ashes to replace the old summon slot.]

……

Unlike in the game, players can use the summoning bell to continuously wool the same ashes.

Through the prompts given by the system, Lin Zhiyu realized the reality that the ashes would be consumed!

Although the ashes will not be consumed after each summon, there will always be a time when all the wool will be plucked.

In comparison, "Necromancer" is a permanently effective summoning method, but it also has limitations such as the "summoning slot". Otherwise, Lin Zhiyu could collect ashes as much as possible and build a spirit army for himself, making him invincible.

In general, Lin Zhiyu was definitely willing to hand over the Summoning Bell to the Infinite System in order to obtain the Summoning Technique. Every time he obtained some special props and triggered this special option, the system's choice of handing it over was actually a benefit for him. He was not a fool, so why would he refuse to take the benefit?

However, Lani was right in front of him at that moment. Lin Zhiyu didn't dare to take the summoning bell from her hand just a second ago and then make it disappear the next second, so he held back and didn't respond to the system for the time being.

Seeing that Lin Zhiyu accepted the spirit-calling bell and the ashes of the stray wolf, Lani changed the subject and asked Lin Zhiyu, "You came here to see me tonight because you got the news from Jie Lian, right? Did he tell you my identity?"

I know it in my heart without Jie Lian telling me. Aren’t you my future wife... Lin Zhiyu answered Lani’s question in his heart, but on the surface he said nothing and shook his head silently.

Lani then raised her head, looked at Lin Zhiyu with a disdainful gaze, and said slowly:

"My name is Lani, the princess of Kalia, and the younger sister of General Latan, whom you defeated at the battle festival."

Here, when Lani said that she was Latan's sister, she emphasized her tone a little.

Lin Zhiyu remained calm and said neither humbly nor arrogantly:

"So it's Princess Lani. No wonder Lord Jerlian acted so mysterious during the day. Now that I think about it, he was born in Kalia, so it's only natural for him to have some dealings with you."

"Hmm? Aren't you worried that I'm here to avenge my brother?"

"Haha, General Latan was deeply afflicted by the Crimson Corruption, living a life worse than death. I slew General Latan with honor at the battle ceremony, liberating him and allowing him to die honorably as a warrior. How can this be considered an enmity with you?"

"Hmph~ You're quite eloquent."

Seeing that Lin Zhiyu was still so calm and composed even though he knew his identity, and Lin Zhiyu had already proved his strength through the battle festival.

At this time, Lani had already recognized Lin Zhiyu, but on the surface she still looked indifferent and arrogant.

Lin Zhiyu felt that it would be better to be direct with this kind of tsundere and skip the beating around the bush, so he took the initiative to ask:

"Besides delivering the things entrusted to me by the former master of Torret, I believe Princess Lani has other matters to discuss with me. It's getting late, so please speak frankly. I'm listening."

Chapter 52: People of the Night

In response to Lin Zhiyu's question, Lani was silent for a moment, as if she was organizing her words.

Then, she looked directly into Lin Zhiyu's eyes and said slowly:

"As I said before, it was because of Torret that I became interested in you. Even before the battle festival began, I had already come to Red Lion City just to see with my own eyes what Torret's current master was capable of."

"You are indeed quite good. Although a group of other powerful warriors helped you to break the Latarn state, if you were not strong enough, this battle festival would probably not be able to finish and would end in failure."

"Well... your abilities are unquestionable, so would you consider working for me?"

At this time, although Lani was trying to recruit Lin Zhiyu, her tone was still so cold.

Her expressionless face made it seem as if she was just casually saying that Lin Zhiyu was recruiting her. If Lin Zhiyu agreed, that would be the best, but if he didn't agree, she wouldn't have any regrets at all.

However, for various reasons, Lin Zhiyu did not intend to reject Lani.

Because even if we put aside the fact that doing things for Lani will result in generous rewards such as the Darkmoon Greatsword and Lani herself.

Even for the sake of Daluun, Lin Zhiyu has to maintain a good relationship with Lani.

You must know that Lani's biological mother went insane after being abandoned by the unfaithful man Radagon, and was locked up in the "Full Moon Queen" Renara in the great library of the Magic Academy. She has a big rune there!

In the game, there is only one way for players to get the "Great Rune of the Unborn" in Lenara's hand, and that is to beat up this mother-in-law.

If Lin Zhiyu could establish a good relationship with Lani in advance, he would be able to save a lot of trouble. At least he wouldn't have to work so hard to fight the boss like in this battle festival.

Because in the game, the second phase of Reinara is actually played by Rani. In order to prevent others from disturbing her mother, the Dark Moon Princess set up a protection mechanism for her mother Reinara, which will be triggered if Reinara is damaged.

If only he had Lani's support. Lin Zhiyu wouldn't have told Lani to go to Lenara and get the Great Rune for him. At least that would have allowed Lani to remove the restrictions she had placed on Lenara, right?

With this in mind, Lin Zhiyu did not immediately accept Lani's offer. Instead, he pretended to ask Lani, "I wonder if the princess can help me with anything?"

Lani, who was sitting on the guardrail nearby, shifted her gaze away from Lin Zhiyu's face and looked towards the west.

She did not answer Lin Zhiyu's question immediately, but asked Lin Zhiyu:

"Do you know the 'Night People' and the 'Eternal City' Knocklongn?"

Lin Zhiyu blinked and replied:

"Legend has it that in ancient times in the Borderlands, the Night People established a powerful dynasty. However, their ambitions were so great that they even dreamed of slaying gods, creating a weapon said to be capable of killing gods. This angered the Supreme Will, who then sent a meteor down from the sky, destroying the once-prosperous Night Dynasty. Noklongen, then the Night Dynasty's most prosperous city, is said to have been blasted underground by the meteor, and no one knows if any survivors remain."

Lani had just casually asked Lin Zhiyu a question, but she didn't expect Lin Zhiyu to give such a detailed answer.

So she continued to say to Lin Zhiyu:

"I didn't expect that as a foreigner, you know so much about the history of the border area."

“…” Lin Zhiyu fell silent and did not respond.

Lani had no intention of delving further into this matter.

She continued to gaze far to the west, and then told Lin Zhiyu that just when Latan died and the battle ceremony ended, the stars that had been fixed by Latan began to move again, and among them was a very huge meteor that fell from the sky immediately after Latan's death.

"According to my observations, the meteor should have landed in the west, in the Nimgefu area adjacent to Galid. In the southeast corner of Nimgefu, there is a fortress called Hyde Fortress. The meteor should have fallen near there."

Having said that, Lani paused for a moment before finally giving Lin Zhiyu the task:

"I hope you can reach Noklongen, the eternal city in the underworld, and help me find the god-killing weapon once crafted by the Night People. The meteor that crashed near Hyde Fortress was powerful enough to blast a deep crater leading to the underworld. Furthermore, according to my previous research, the area around Heil Fortress is likely the location of Noklongen above ground in ancient times. Therefore, I need you to travel to Hyde Fortress to conduct relevant research."

"Hmm...near Hyde Fortress? No problem. But when do I leave? Am I alone?"

"You just participated in the battle festival, so take a couple of days to rest! In two days, Blaze will be waiting for you near Hyde Fortress. You should have met him by now, right? He's one of my men, too. From now on, you two may have to work together for a long time, fighting side by side."

Sure enough, Lani would not leave such an important task to Lin Zhiyu alone.

This is exactly the same development as in the game plot.

However, as far as Lin Zhiyu knew, when the player's Faded One reached the meteorite crater near Hyde Fortress... Blaze wasn't there! He'd only left a message on the ground, telling the player he had something urgent to attend to. So, in the end, the player had to enter the underground world alone.

Back to the topic.

After giving Lin Zhiyu the task, Lani said hello to him again, asking him to pay attention to adjusting his condition so that he wouldn't have to enter the underground world before he recovered...

In short, she wanted Lin Zhiyu to have a good rest for the next two days, but if she said it directly, it would seem as if she was concerned about Lin Zhiyu, so she would rather beat around the bush and use a harsher tone.

After completing all the instructions, Lani disappeared from the watchtower.

Lin Zhiyu was left alone on the watchtower, feeling the cold night wind. He had no intention of returning to the city immediately, but fell into deep thought.

According to Lin Zhiyu's idea.

If he were to enter the underground world next time, he probably wouldn't bring Saeko and the others with him. Firstly, he was the only one who had agreed to work for Lani, and Lani probably didn't want other people she didn't know to get involved in her plans.

Moreover, after Latan's death, Lin Zhiyu had already been thinking about the current ruler of the neighboring Nimgefu area, who "amputated" the Great Rune from Greg's body.

Speaking of which, Greg is the weakest Great Rune holder.

Without help from others, Lin Zhiyu was confident that he could kill him alone.

The problem is that Greg has many capable people under his command. Apart from anything else, the "Lost Knights" under his command alone are a force that cannot be ignored!

"I have to think of a way to accumulate more strength, so that I can be sure to break into Stonewell City where Greg is..." Lin Zhiyu thought.

Chapter 53: Plan for Building Troops

Grek the Limb-Girdle - One of the Shard Kings who, like Latan, wields the Great Rune.

However, he is different from the second generation demigods of the Golden Dynasty such as Latan.

Greg is the third generation.

His father was the eldest son of Marika, "Golden" Godwin, who was once recognized as the most outstanding and perfect demigod in the Golden Dynasty.

Unfortunately, a good father produces a bad son.

Many years ago, Godwin was assassinated in a conspiracy, and Marika subsequently smashed the Elden Ring.

The world was in chaos at that time.

This kid Greg slipped out of the royal city early in the morning and ran to Nimgfu, the fiefdom that originally belonged to his father Godwin.

Later, he even formed an alliance with other fragment kings to attack the royal city of Rodel for the throne.

As the third generation demigod of the Golden Dynasty, Greg's divine bloodline was much thinner than that of the second generation demigods, so he was destined to be much weaker in strength.

But this kid had once been a lazy, unpromising playboy... After all, his father was the universally recognized perfect golden demigod Godwin, the heir to the throne in almost everyone's eyes. So it was understandable that Greg wanted to live a miserable life by relying on his father's influence.

But no one expected that Godwin would die!

It was from that time that Greg, who inherited everything from Godwin, including Godwin's Great Rune, began to gradually feel the pressure.

Also, among all the fragment kings, he is the one with the lowest seniority and the weakest strength.

So in alliance with other Shard Kings.

Greg was often ignored, even despised.

The boy was naturally dissatisfied.

Later, he even provoked Malenia, thinking that Malenia, a woman and a sickly person, shouldn't she be the worst one in their alliance of fragment kings?

Why is it that everyone looks down upon Greg the most?

The result was that Marennia and her knights of the Zunfu gave Greg a good beating.

In the end, Greg knelt down in front of Marennia and kissed her feet.

Marlennia let Greg go because his father Godwin had taken good care of her and Michaela, instead of killing him directly and taking away Greg's Great Rune.

As Godwin's son, he has a high opinion of himself...

After inheriting everything from Godwin, the pressure is growing...

Because I was looked down upon, I desperately wanted to prove myself and was extremely eager to become stronger...

Ultimately, Greg's mind became twisted, and he chose to embark on the crazy and cruel path of "limb transplantation," which was a path of no return.

And the so-called limb grafting.

It means killing a strong person and attaching some of his limbs to your own body, thereby gaining some of his strength.

However, even by relying on this unorthodox method, he became a lot stronger.

Greg is still the worst among all the Shard Kings.

Lin Zhiyu was confident that he could kill him alone, not after he got Latarn's Big Rune and increased his strength with ten consecutive draws!

But before this ten-draw streak, Lin Zhiyu had full confidence in killing Greg.

Then why did Lin Zhiyu choose to come to Red Lion City first and take the Great Rune of Ratan?

This is because Lin Zhiyu came directly to Gaileed at that time, and in order to repay the grace of saving his life, he promised the two Red Lion soldiers to send their ashes to Red Lion City.

The second reason is that although Greg's own combat power is not strong, his leadership ability is quite good. He has a group of powerful warriors under his command who are willing to follow him even after he embarked on the crooked path of "limb reattachment".

To fight Ratan, because of the "Battle Festival", Lin Zhiyu and a group of other strong men were outnumbered and had to fight Ratan together.

Fight Greg?

What Lin Zhiyu has to face is the Stonewell City standing on the cliff, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the thousands of troops defending the city!

Reality is not a game.

Lin Zhiyu is not like the faded ones controlled by players in the game. They can be resurrected infinitely after death and have no psychological pressure even if they are enemies with the entire border area.

Of course, Lin Zhiyu is not really alone.

Saeko Busujima, Rin Uehara, Meifeng Li, Laura, even Millicent and Melina, they can all help Lin Zhiyu. However, in order to successfully capture more Great Runes later, Lin Zhiyu believes it is still necessary to pull together a team of his own.