Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 774 - : Ghost-faced Spider and the Blood-Sucking Festival

Chapter 774 -774: Ghost-faced Spider and the Blood-Sucking Festival

After sending off the owl, which didn’t quite fancy cat food but still reluctantly accepted it, Shard made his way through the white fog to the outskirts of the city, carefully avoiding the prying eyes of the church. Compared to the relatively tranquil central area of the city, the situation here was far more severe, as not everyone had houses to take shelter in.

As Shard passed through the slums of Motini Alley, he spotted a corpse that looked as if it had been dried out for a long time at the entrance of the alley. He worried about the corpse reviving and went to check it. He found that the body still retained some warmth, clearly indicating it had not been dead for long.

Continuing along his planned route, he soon encountered dense black spiderwebs deep within the alley. Raising his kerosene lamp to light the way, the spiderwebs melted away in the firelight.

Moving forward, Shard reached the doorstep of an illicit smokestack at the end of the alley and saw a horrifying scene—it had become a spider’s nest.

The dense spiderwebs had completely enveloped the entire building and the surrounding alleyways; he could see more than a dozen ordinary people bound by webs in the fog. The master of the webs enveloped buildings whose walls were peeling, and from a high spot, “admired” its prey—it was a Ghost-faced Spider.

It was a black spider, roughly the size of six or seven Shards stacked together. Its thorax and abdomen were covered with black fur, and its six pairs of appendages appeared as a bizarre semi-translucent yellow.

“Ghost-faced Spider?”

Shard was somewhat surprised; the Ghost-faced Spider, like the “Mirror Ghost” that had once appeared in his house, was a fairly rare type of Undead. Only special environments could spawn such terrifying Spiritual Bodies, and these ghosts with individual names also possessed considerable strength.

The giant spider had evidently noticed Shard too; amidst the quivering of the webs, it began climbing down towards him. Although it wasn’t very fast, the sight was truly chilling.

“Silvermoon!”

His hand traced an arc in the air, cleanly severing the web strands above. Amidst the hissing sounds of the spider, dense black webs sprayed from its mouth-organ downward.

“Feliana’s Witch Light!”

Raising his left hand toward the sky, a semi-transparent golden arc appeared overhead, melting the spider silk. Simultaneously, Shard leapt upwards with great force, using the power of Sorcery to reach mid-air.

The wall-clinging giant spider also lunged at Shard at that moment, but Shard, who was in the air, disappeared and then reappeared above the spider.

“Ha!”

With both hands holding the sword, he stabbed into the back of the Ghost-faced Spider, and gravity pulled them both down to the ground. The force of the impact drove the “Night Watchman” deeper into the spider’s body, Shard’s arms even touching its fur:

“Silvermoon!”

Pressing his fingers on the blade, he utilized the “Night Watchman” to perform Arcane Technique. Silvermoon’s light beamed from the blade, and soon, the twitching spider’s body sported dense cracks from which moonlight shone brightly until the entire spider exploded into a stinking dust.

“Woah!”

Shard nearly collapsed, his legs going weak. It was then that he noticed his hands had blackened, clearly indicating he had been poisoned. He quickly employed the Elf’s Detoxification on himself and then sent out a Sunlight Ray with a wave of his hand, burning away the web blocking the path.

Raising his sword toward the sky, he intended to use Silvermoon’s light to draw the nearby Circle Sorcerer squad of the True God Church to rescue the people entangled in webs. Even with the dense fog, Shard wasn’t worried about the church missing the enhanced Arcane Technique of the “Night Watchman.”

But before he could perform his Arcane Technique, a cocoon, tightly wrapped in black webs nearby, began to wiggle.

“Are the little spiders hatching?”

Shard was alarmed, but after he put on his mask and used a Sunlight Ray to burn off the webs, he discovered that it was a man inside the cocoon waking up.

The man woke so quickly because he was of the Vampire Kind, as clearly evidenced by the small bat symbol above his head.

The man was confused for a few seconds, but soon figured out what had just happened. After Shard helped him up, the man eagerly told him about how the Ghost-faced Spider crawled out of the Interstice and informed him about other dangerous creatures nearby. He even pointed out a route for Shard to escape the area.

When Shard asked about the man’s plans, the scruffy middle-aged Vampire Kind shook his head as he surveyed the dense fog,

“The city is too dangerous now; I plan to leave town for a while. My kin… I mean, my friends, have already left. The festival is about to start; had I known such misfortune would strike, I should have left earlier.”

“Festival?”

Shard asked cautiously, and the middle-aged Vampire Kind didn’t hide it:

“It’s something about Sicarl Mountain, but rest assured, it won’t affect this city in any way. I can guarantee it on my soul. Sir, if you are interested, don’t forget to look up at the peak of Sicarl Mountain tonight. There, a spectacle that common folks might not see once in their lifetime will occur.”

He enthusiastically shared, thanked Shard again for saving his life, and even gave Shard all the banknotes from his wallet. Just before leaving, he also wrapped a bundle of spider silk around his arm, reminding Shard that the “Ghost-faced Spider’s” web was a highly special semi-solid material, a top-tier substance for undead creatures.

“I knew it, where great events unfold, gold pounds are bound to appear.”

But Shard was short on time and didn’t have the luxury to remove all the spider silk nearby. So, he just followed the example of the departed Vampire Kind, gathered a large bundle of spider silk into his pocket. Only then did he raise his sword towards the sky, and after confirming that the squad of Circle Sorcerers from the True God Church had been drawn in, he hastily left.

If he had enough time, Shard believed he could break through ten thousand Gold Pounds in his savings today.

“With so much money, should I consider investing? Getting some fixed assets for myself, even buying a building and collecting rent monthly wouldn’t be bad…”

Although the matter of The Chosen One was important, making a living was equally significant.

At five forty in the afternoon, a breathless Shard finally saw the massive black silhouette of the Mechanical Academy Castle in the fog. Upon nearing the castle, it was indeed discovered that the academy had been cordoned off with barbed wire and no entry was allowed, as this building was a key area guarded by the City Hall.

But these obstacles could not stop Shard; without much effort, he truly entered the castle. Soon after, he met up with three nuns wearing silver eye masks from the High Ring at the location they found most suitable for opening the gate.

Ironically, it was the basement where the charity auction’s valuable items had been stored during the Fire Worship Festival, and Shard even remembered that Vampire Kind, Mr. Armand Benhart, had taken an antique coffin from there.

Of course, these incidents were unrelated to opening the gate.

Due to the Interstice’s increasing proximity to the material world, the ritual this time did not need to be as complex as before. Using bells, a bonfire of bones, and a piece of black cloth as symbols, the three nuns used the powers of Spirit Rune Whisper—[Door], Miracle—[Death], and Desecration—[Phantom], forming an equilateral triangle around the bonfire.

As the bells jingled, the red flames turned blue with a sharp explosion. And the black veil hanging on the wall began to sway by itself in the windless basement.

The nuns were muttering something in a low voice, but it sounded like they were singing. In this eerie atmosphere, the wall behind the veil seemed to disappear, and wisps of white mist were seeping through:

“Mr. Watson, please take care on your journey.”

The nuns blessed, and Shard softly thanked them, knowing his adventure was about to officially begin.

He approached the wall, stood in front of the thin veil for several deep breaths to adjust his state, and then walked through the black veil.

In the instant he stepped through, Shard felt a loss of balance, but as his raised right foot touched the solid ground, he knew he had re-entered that strange world again. freeweɓnøvel.com

He sincerely hoped it was his last visit to this haunted place.

[Outlander, you have left the world of the Living.]

[You have experienced Miracle, Desecration, Enlightenment, Whisper.]

[Please note, the Interstice has undergone further changes.]

[The power of Death overwhelmingly surpasses the power of the Living, any Arcane Technique related to life or light will be weakened.]

“What?”

Shard was shocked—his Moonlight Series Magic and the newly acquired [Sunlight Ray] were his most effective means against the Undead.

[This effect is ineffective on you, a slight glimmer of Divinity disperses the power of Death.]

Shard breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately received another prompt:

[Outlander, you are afflicted by a Curse of Death entangling the soul. This curse is ineffective on you, but the recovery of your stamina and Spirit is further weakened, please be cautious.]

“I understand.”

The Interstice was still the same—a basement in shades of black, white, and gray, as if it had gone through thousands of years of erosion. Corpse Grass grew in the cracks of the walls, nauseating black sludge was present everywhere on the ground. On the opposite side of the basement, a mummified corpse was even leaning against the wall.

As Shard looked at it, the mummy started to move.

“Sunlight Ray.”

He raised his finger and flicked, a beam of sunlight-colored light shot from between his fingers. Though it was very thin, after making a small hole in the mummy’s head, it immediately melted its entire head. The corpse collapsed against the wall, finally motionless.

[Sunlight Ray], a nemesis to the Undead and dark creatures, coupled with the Witch’s Golden Necklace and the heightened amplification of Shard’s Soul Power within the Interstice, made this effect rather normal.

However, compared to his first entry into the Interstice, Shard’s power there had been significantly constricted. The growing intensity of Death’s power, restricting Shard who was essentially still alive, felt even more limited.

During the rescue of Priest Augustus, he could even incompletely use [Maze Lock]. But in the current state of the Interstice, even if he exhausted all his Spirit, he couldn’t achieve that effect.