Things about the female knight in black stockings

Although many of the corpses have been significantly improved, most of their prototypes are still those created by Savat Landon in various testing grounds in Fran, mainly consisting of flesh stitched monsters and zombie wolves, with strength roughly between Candlelight and Lighthouse.

The location of these undead corpses clearly shows signs of a battle, indicating that the pursuit team must have engaged in a fierce fight here. It appears that the pursuit team won a decisive victory, with the undead suffering a near-total massacre.

Bang!

To prevent any accidents, Valensa ignited a ball of holy flame in her hand to destroy the remains of various undead creatures on the ground, while also purifying the air inside the mine.

These undead creatures now appear lifeless and no different from ordinary corpses, but it's hard to say whether they will rise again under the power of necromancy. It's best to burn them.

Valensa and Tia made slow progress as they walked and cleared away the remains of the undead in the mine, while also remaining vigilant against potential attacks.

The two walked for more than an hour through the mine tunnel, which was about 100 meters long.

At the end of the mine tunnel, there is a relatively spacious area that branches into four forks, each of which looks quite deep at first glance.

This place should have nothing to do with the mine anymore; there are no more mining tools to be seen. Instead, there are many crystal jars filled with strange liquids, which clearly resemble a spellcaster's laboratory.

Valensa is quite familiar with this kind of environment. Last year when she was in Frankfurt, she helped Lika and Fran clean up several similar places, all of which were testing grounds left by Savart Landon.

"Hmph, it seems that Savat Langdon hasn't changed his habit of building testing grounds even after he went to America."

Valensa examined the entrances to the four forks in the road, made her judgment, and confidently introduced them to Tia one by one:

“Savat Langdon, that guy, really likes to divide his lab into four parts like this… This should be his arsenal for creating undead creatures, this is his soul prison for holding his poor victims, this is his rotting greenhouse for growing special plant materials, and this should be his workshop, where he conducts all sorts of insane research.”

"Shall we go take a look here first?"

Tia pointed almost without hesitation to the soul prison:

"There might still be survivors inside, even if they are pitiful souls who have suffered greatly. At least we can let them rest in peace."

"……it is good."

Valensa originally wanted to go to the workshop first, because that was where the most likely clues about Savart Langdon would be left.

However, it was clearly important that Tia chose to save people first, so Valensa did not refuse.

The two soon entered a side passage of the Soul Prison. This path was about 50 meters long, and at the end was a cave of more than 300 square meters. There were more than a dozen magical seals in the cave that could imprison souls, but these magical seals had all been broken, and the souls imprisoned inside had disappeared.

Tia carefully examined the two magical seals, pondered for a moment, and then said:

"It must be the work of the sages... Lily's pursuit team probably discovered this place, broke these seals, and released those poor imprisoned souls."

"maybe……"

Valensa first surveyed the entire cave to make sure there was no threat, then examined it carefully like a forensic investigator examining a crime scene, and soon made some discoveries on the ground.

"what?"

What caught Valensa's attention was a wet patch on the ground.

She dipped her finger into the damp spot, rubbed it, and then smelled it. Her expression immediately turned disgusted, but her demeanor was very serious.

"...What's wrong? What did you find out?"

Noticing Valensa's reaction, Tia quickly asked.

"Didn't that Mord say that six days ago, he received magical signals that Lily was in both a life-threatening and a chastity-threatening situation? The incident must have occurred here."

Valensa sighed, shook her hand, and then rubbed a small ball of holy flame between her fingertips, burning away everything that had just touched her hands.

"Among those marks on the ground, there is human blood and human male semen."

Valensa first pointed to the large wet patch on the ground, then to some marks next to it that looked like signs of a battle:

"There was also a battle here, but it was very short, maybe only a few seconds... If there weren't any other young women in Lily's pursuit team, then Lily must have been attacked here and assaulted by a human male."

"You mean Lily met Savart Langdon here? And was assaulted by him?"

Tia frowned deeply:

"Is that unlikely? Lily's pursuit team wasn't just her alone... Even if her team split up temporarily while searching this place, the noise Savat Landon made when he assaulted her couldn't have gone unnoticed by the others, right? There's a combat-type sage in that team."

"Then I don't know... Anyway, let's take these back first, so we can test who these blood and semen belong to."

As Valensa spoke, she took out a small shovel and a small cloth bag from the storage space of her artifact cloak and shoveled the remaining damp soil into the small cloth bag.

However, after only a few digs, Valensa suddenly felt something hard under the soil... She quickly dug away the soil on the hard object and saw that under this layer of soil, there was a metal plate whose surface still had a magical seal in operation.

A traitor appeared in the team (Chapters 124-126)

"Oh ho? That guy actually hid something underground?"

Valensa exclaimed in surprise and examined the metal plate closely.

The metal plate is made of very ordinary material, not some rare metal, and its area is not large. Overall, it looks like a security door, as if it is trying to press something down on the ground.

The magic seal on the board looked rather complex; Valensa couldn't quite understand it, but she could roughly sense the strength of the magic seal.

"This seal... seems rather weak? I think I could break it in an instant."

As Valensa spoke, she grabbed the edge of the metal plate and made a lifting motion, seemingly intending to forcibly break the seal to see what secrets lay beneath.

"Wait a minute."

Tia grabbed Valensa's arm and examined the seal on the metal plate more closely for a moment before saying uncertainly:

"This seems to be a sealing technique that became popular a long time ago... It's a special seal with extremely high internal strength but ordinary external strength. Don't be fooled by how easily you seem to open it now; if you were inside it, you might not be able to break free."

This kind of seal... well, in my memory it's always been used to seal powerful and difficult-to-kill monsters. Opening it carelessly could pose unknown risks, so I suggest being more cautious.

"Unknown risks... let's forget about it then."

Valensa immediately withdrew her hand.

Although she was very curious about what was under the metal plate, she was a cautious female knight and decided to wait until later to find more people to check the seal.

However, Valensa seemed to have used a bit too much force when she lifted the metal plate. Although Tia stopped her in time and she was unable to completely destroy the seal, it did cause the seal to loosen slightly.

So, just as Valensa and Tia finished checking the rest of the cave and were about to leave after confirming there were no other clues, a very faint sound suddenly came from under the metal plate:

"Help... help."

Is someone inside the seal calling for help?

Valensa and Tia both heard the sound, exchanged a glance, and returned to the metal plate.

Monsters that mimic cries for help to lure humans into attacking are not uncommon.

Neither Valensa, with three years of adventurer experience, nor Tia, who had read many books, rushed to break the seal just because they heard cries for help... There could be danger if the seal contained a monster that could mimic cries for help.

But if someone is truly trapped inside the seal and needs help, we cannot stand by and watch them die.

dong dong dong.

So Valensa tapped the metal plate lightly with her fingers a few times and asked:

"Excuse me, who are you?"

Since most monsters only have a superficial understanding of human society, although they may mimic human cries for help to lure others, when asked for their identity information, they will generally give an identity that is difficult to verify.

For example, a girl living alone in the mountains, a survivor of a village destroyed by disaster, or simply pretending to have amnesia and saying that she knows nothing.

This is also how most skilled adventurers handle similar situations.

It's certainly not 100% accurate, but it's good enough.

Although Tia wasn't a hands-on expert like Valensa, she had read many books and knew about these things. At this moment, she also listened attentively and patiently waited for the person calling for help under the metal plate to respond.

"I...I am..."

The person calling for help under the metal plate seemed very weak, and it took them a while to finish speaking:

“I am Carlos, the 31st Battle Sage of the Council of Sages, and also the captain of the fourth pursuit team of Savat Landon... In our team... cough, there is... a traitor.”

"You say you are the Sage Carlos?"

Tia and Valensa exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

Without waiting for the person under the metal plate to answer, Tia pressed on again:

"What a coincidence, I'm also from the Sage's Tower, one of the apprentices of the Seventh Sage... Since you say you're Sage Carlos, do you know the names of the 13th, 25th, and 29th Sages?"

"...I...know."

Although the voice from under the metal plate was very weak and intermittent, it still clearly uttered three names to Tia.

"He answered correctly."

Tia then nodded to Valensa:

"It seems he really is Sage Carlos... Let's break the seal."

"it is good."

Valensa trusted Tia's judgment and, without hesitation, grabbed both sides of the metal plate and used brute force to lift it up.

Beneath the metal plate was a stone pit about half a meter deep, in which lay a richly dressed middle-aged man, around 50 years old.

A dagger was stuck in the man's heart, and the wound was surrounded by dried blood.

The man's skin was very pale, like a corpse... no, the man was a corpse. He had no breath or heartbeat, his body was completely cold, and he had even developed rigor mortis.

However, there was a faint flow of magic around the man, his eyes shone with a pale light, and his lips trembled slightly as they opened and closed. It was clear that he had just been asking Valensa and Tia for help.

"...Are you really Sage Carlos? What's going on with you?"

Valensa and Tia carefully examined the man, their expressions somewhat confused, and they secretly prepared to dispose of the body at any moment.

"I really am Carlos."

The man seemed to sense Valensa and Tia's thoughts and quickly explained. Although his expression was unreadable due to the corpse's stiffness, his tone was clearly bitter:

"There was a traitor in my team, and I was killed by her in a sneak attack."

Fortunately, I had some knowledge of necromancy. When I had just died and my soul had not yet left, I used my soul to control the remaining magic in my body and cast the dead talk spell on my corpse. This barely kept my soul in my body and has kept me alive until now.

"It's a pity you arrived a bit too late. My body is probably beyond saving. Even resurrection magic can't bring me back to life. From now on, I can only become an undead creature and advance to the lich class... Sigh."

Immediately after death, one uses their soul to perform a communion spell with their corpse, thus fixing their soul within the body and preventing them from leaving this world.

Is this even possible?

Valensa and Tia exchanged glances, and could only sigh inwardly.

As expected of a sage... or rather, this is probably what true experience looks like. He can often use tricks that normal people can hardly imagine to minimize losses at critical moments.

Is there anything we can do to help you?

Valensa had by now basically believed the man's words. As she spoke, she carried the man's body out of the pit and placed it against the wall.

"I hope you can send me back to the Sage's Tower as soon as possible."

Carlos said weakly:

"I can only make do in my current state for a few more days. I can't hold on much longer. I have to perform the real necromancy ritual."

"That's no problem, I can send you back to the Sage's Tower anytime."

Tia pulled out a golden magic card and chuckled:

“Our family happens to have some expertise in spatial teleportation.”

"you……?"

Carlos glanced at Tia a few times with his dead eyes, which shone with a pale, magical light, and his tone revealed a hint of realization:

"The apprentice of the 7th Seat, skilled in spatial teleportation, and with silver hair... You are the heir of the Britannia family? I've heard of you."

“It is my honor, Mr. Carlos.”

Tia smiled politely but firmly, and then said:

“However, my companion and I are here to investigate something. So before I escort Mr. Carlos back to the Sage’s Tower, may I ask you a few questions? Don’t worry, it will only take a few minutes and will not delay your conversion ritual.”

"Sure, go ahead and ask."

Carlos was also very agreeable:

"I can hold on for at least another half a day without any problem."

"It's like this... The reason my companion and I are here is because we were commissioned by Mr. Mord, the Sage's assistant, to investigate the unusual night a few days ago involving his lover, Miss Lily."

Tia smiled and briefly explained Mord's request, but noticed that Carlos became unusually silent as soon as he heard the name Lily, and even the faint necromancy in his body became somewhat agitated.