novelraw Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Chapter 21. Secret Realm
“Ho, it’s really lively!”
After a busy day, once Kyle confirmed that Adrian’s bodily transformation had entered a stable stage of self-reconstruction, he was finally able to temporarily withdraw his focus.
Out of habit, he began sensing the threads of causality, probing for information related to himself.
If he hadn’t checked, it would have been fine—once he did, it was a shock.
A new secret realm had appeared!
As for those who had disappeared, it was hard to say whether they were lucky or unfortunate.
A place like a secret realm was like opening a blind box. With good luck, one would gain immense rewards; with bad luck, one would die on the spot.
With his current strength, without obtaining useful intelligence first, he would never step into such a place lightly. Anything called a secret realm naturally had its own unique aspects.
From the vague information he had read so far, he only knew that it was a secret realm. As for the rest, he would have to personally go to the location of the incident to see whether more information could be obtained.
“Still fairly smooth,” Kyle’s gaze returned to the center of the karst cave, where a light cocoon wrapped in pale spider silk pulsed continuously.
“The transformation of flesh and bones is basically complete. Next comes the most time-consuming part—the reconstruction of the life core and regeneration of the skin… at most three more days, and it should be finished.”
“Too bad I only have you, Beren, capable of maintaining a formation of this level under my command. Otherwise the speed could have been even faster~”
Kyle actually wanted to go check out that secret realm right now. Aside from the small secret realm belonging to his own family, he had never been to any others.
“My lord, do you need me to increase the formation’s operating power?” Beren’s hoarse skeletal grinding voice added several more shades of eeriness to the cave’s terrifying atmosphere. Eight white skeletal limbs trembled uneasily upon the web, like a child who had done something wrong.
“Beren, you’re overthinking it. This is fine—you’ve done very well! Don’t let your thoughts wander.” Kyle gently reassured him.
Bone-Bound Spiders were pure dark creatures. Their intelligence was generally low, about the same as a child’s, and they required careful ‘nurturing’ from their superiors.
“Yes, my lord!”
Beren’s uneasy spider legs steadied again as he continued plucking the web silk in a steady rhythm. The faint blue flames within his skeletal eye sockets flickered with a hint of excitement.
Kyle withdrew his gaze, his thoughts turning toward Coral Thorn City.
I should still notify that fat man Mills. Daring to bully the fat man on my territory—are they really not putting me in their eyes? Or are they trying to give me attitude?
And that fellow Kuli? This clown actually dared to be so bold?
“Isos.”
“My lord.”
From the shadows along the cave wall slowly emerged a bizarre humanoid creature woven from countless torn cloth strips and darkness—the Shadow Demon.
Kyle tossed a recording crystal to Isos. “Deliver this to Mills. Then go to the western part of the city. Tonight you should be able to have a full meal. As for those gang members who’ve invaded the territory of the Rock Adventurer Team—leave none of them alive.”
If those scum stayed within his territory openly, it would be inconvenient for him to order his subordinates to act; it might provoke dissatisfaction from other forces. But if they sneaked out on their own initiative, then he had no reason to be polite. Opportunities for black-eating-black should never be missed.
“As you wish!”
Isos’s trembling figure sank into the shadows together with the crystal and vanished.
***
Mills sank heavily into his wide velvet-wrapped office chair. His small eyes, which normally gleamed with shrewd light, were now unfocused as he stared out the window at the busy harbor that had nothing to do with him.
Thirty years…
He had come to Coral Thorn City nearly thirty years ago. He had seen countless storms, yet never had he felt such bone-deep helplessness as he did now.
For the first time, he truly felt how much his strength limited him. But he had no choice—strength also required talent. Reaching the Formal rank had already required massive resources to push him there.
Unless he obtained some heaven-defying treasure, or…
“Ah…” The thought had only just surfaced before he crushed it himself.
As someone with royal blood, having dealings with vampires was already crossing the line. Fortunately, he and the “intelligence merchant” maintained a tacit understanding. Considering the greater profits involved, everyone simply pretended not to see it.
Besides, if he transformed into a vampire, he would only be expelled from his family and hunted down. Everything he currently possessed would turn into nothing.
Moreover, after frequent contact with the intelligence merchant, he had learned quite a lot about vampires. Mixed-blood vampires transformed through the Embrace by purebloods found it extremely difficult to control their craving for blood and life.
Without sufficient willpower, they would only become slaves to their own power—turning into a ‘madman’—and eventually be reduced to ashes beneath the silver swords of the Witch Hunters.
While he was lost in these wandering thoughts, the temperature in the room suddenly dropped, as if a cold current had swept through.
A crystal-clear recording crystal suddenly fell from the ceiling without warning and struck his round belly with perfect accuracy.
“Wha—what is that?!”
Mills jumped out of his chair in shock, his fat body nearly overturning the desk.
When he finally looked down with lingering fear, the familiar dark moon emblem glowing faintly on the crystal’s surface came into view—it was the exclusive mark of the “intelligence merchant,” Kyle.
“That elusive vampire…” he muttered, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead while his plump palm pressed against his still-pounding chest.
After calming himself for a moment, Mills eagerly bent down and picked up the recording crystal glowing with a faint blue light.
Carefully, he injected a trace of weak mental power into the crystal.
“Buzz…”
Light flowed across the crystal’s surface as two clear moving images projected side by side into the air before him.
Both images showed the same scene—a caravan loaded with goods traveling steadily along an emerald forest trade road. Everything looked perfectly normal, but as time passed, the two images gradually began to differ.
In one image, the caravan continued forward normally. In the other, the caravan was erased as if by an invisible rubber eraser, fading frame by frame starting from the rear of the convoy until it vanished entirely. The image then froze.
“They entered an unknown space. As for whether they can come out, even I don’t know yet. Once I finish what I’m doing, I’ll investigate,” Kyle’s lazy voice sounded from the crystal.
“As for those fools, let them go ahead and make a fuss. The Greenfield region isn’t so simple. This is a perfect chance for those self-important idiots to recognize themselves. When they look down on others, they don’t realize they themselves are the objects of others’ ridicule~”
Mills pressed the recording crystal to his ear, repeatedly listening to Kyle’s final mocking remark. The corners of his mouth unconsciously lifted. That lazy, sarcastic tone sounded incomparably pleasant to him, instantly sweeping away the gloom clogging his chest.
“Heh… a bunch of arrogant fools!” He could practically see Willie Blackthorn and the others returning covered in dust and disgrace.
“Go on, show off all you want! When you smash your heads open—”
He suddenly lowered his voice, imitating the hypocritical tone of nobles.
“‘Dear Chairman Mills, you must have a solution, right?’”
“Haha… hahahaHAHAHAHA!!!”
Outside the door, the secretary waiting to be summoned by the chairman had no idea why his previously gloomy boss had suddenly burst into laughter. Could he have gone ‘mad’?
He hesitated, wondering whether he should break in, yet feared angering the royal noble even more if he disturbed him rashly.
Just as he was hesitating, the door opened. Mills walked out while humming a cheerful little tune.
“Come on, let’s see what kind of mind-blowing grand plan those fools have come up with~”