Throne of Magical Arcana

In the gloomy old castle, silver hand-shaped candlesticks are placed on both sides of the corridor, and the bright red candles on them exude a strange beauty under the light of their own dim light.

Lucien, who was wearing a black hooded robe, stood quietly outside the basement, carefully studying the defensive circle arranged by Earl Vlad.

Due to the need to move ore, smelt metal, and allow slave dwarves to come in and out, Vlad's castle in the "day" was not closed, and only a few magic circles for surveillance were activated. Earl, only Mrs. Tess, the vampire bride, is a mid-level one, so the "high-level magician" Lucien easily slipped in.

"The defense is really strong." Lucien nodded slightly. Earl Vlad, as a strong vampire who has lived for thousands of years, has indeed obtained many good magic circles. These twenty-seven dark magic circles Connected together, it forms a powerful defense similar to a mystical chain, even the eighth-level divine spell Yang Yanbang can resist it, "The good news is that Earl Vlad is a talented spellcaster, not an orthodox mage, and the castle is not an alchemy life, otherwise I want to get in, it's not that easy."

In the corridor outside the basement, female blood servants transformed from humans, elves, dwarves and other races came and went like normal aristocratic families, but they all turned a blind eye to the unusually eye-catching Lucien standing on the edge of the corridor, treating him as nothing .

Since he has not yet started to learn the six-ring magic "group suggestion", Lucien has worked so hard to hint to all the living creatures in the castle one by one. only to recover.

"It will take at least two months to crack this defensive magic circle system that is similar to a mystical lock. The most troublesome thing is that once you start cracking it, it is easy to alarm the sleeping Earl Vlad inside, and a high-level vampire plus himself I have almost no chance of defeating the castle, and I may even be in danger of falling." Lucien stood at the door of the basement, rubbing his chin with his right hand, analyzing various difficulties.

Although Earl Vlad is sleeping, he is not the ancient magician who refuses to touch the arcane in the dark mountains. Anyway, he casts spells with the power of his blood, and he is not afraid of shaking the cognitive world. He can easily catch up with the trend and keep pace with the times , causing Lucien, an orthodox arcanist of the Magic Council, a headache.

"What excuse did the vampire bride use to trick Vlad out?"

"Tess eloped with Galata? It's too bloody!"

"Using their deaths? No, it will alert Vlad!"

"It's really troublesome..."

"Perhaps, you can think about it from another angle..."

After a while, Lucien nodded thoughtfully, and began to focus on analyzing the structure of the magic circle at the core of the defense, the direction of energy flow, and other things that could be directly observed.

…………

After more than ten days, the castle was operating normally, and the vampire bride, housekeeper, blood servant, and slave performed their duties in the same way as before.

But inside the castle, there was always a strange figure wearing a black robe looking around, stopping from time to time to take out various precious materials to arrange something, looking busy and as if there was no one else around.

But no matter whether it was the vampire bride, the housekeeper, the blood servant, or the slave, they all completely ignored the fact that there was such a person, even if he was making noise near the energy well behind him.

"Phew, it's finally set up." Lucien squatted at the door of the basement, clapped his hands, and slowly stood up straight.

A strange incantation sounded, spiritual power spread out, and the magic circle at the door of the basement was activated, and star-like lines were bright one after another, and rays of energy flowing surged in all directions.

The bondage room, the summoning room, the magic garden, the energy well, except for the energy room and the control center in the basement, all the important places in the castle are lit up with mysterious and mysterious magic arrays with the brilliant light flowing quickly. .

Soon, they were connected together, and the whole castle was shrouded in a layer of hazy and dreamy starlight, blurred and vast!

The mask of the magic circle, which seemed to be reflected in the starry sky in the dark night, shrank suddenly and stuck tightly around the basement, as if it had merged into the original darkness defense circle.

Afterwards, the magic circle arranged by Lucien remained unchanged, and everything returned to silence.

In such a vast and magnificent scene, the vampires and dwarves continued their original actions, as if this was a normal change in the castle.

And Earl Vlad in the basement was still asleep, and didn't notice it at all!

The reason for this is that Lucien didn't try to crack his dark defense circle at all, so naturally he wouldn't be alarmed.

The powerful magic circle that Lucien spent more than ten days arranging has a very single function. It is to add another layer of defense to Earl Vlad's basement, and to add a "lock" to him so that he can sleep more "at ease." ", more "rest assured".

Of course, this layer of defense does not distinguish between the inside and the outside. It is close to a deadlock. Even if Lucien tries to unlock it by himself, it will take nearly ten months. Moreover, the flow of energy wells and magic gardens to the energy room will pass through this layer. Magic circle, if Earl Vlad wants to come out after waking up, the energy room will be restricted by half of his ability. Therefore, even with the assistance of the control center, he didn't have five or six years to work, and he couldn't even think about leaving the basement, and he couldn't even pass the message.

As for five or six years later, Lucien believed that he did not need to worry about the exposure of space nodes at all, and other extremely small probability accidents were not considered.

Since your defense is strong, your guard is tight, and your vigilance is extremely high, making it difficult for me to crack or assassinate, then I will make your defense "stronger", your guard more "strict", and your security more "guaranteed"!

If you change your mind, there are multiple ways out. Lucien laughed mischievously, so he wouldn't say that he got his inspiration from a joke on the earth. If he can't open your lock, he will add another one for you!

"It's just a little heartache." Lucien rubbed his chin, shook his head and sighed.

Although the main source of magic circle materials is the warehouse of the "kind" Earl Vlad, Lucien also lost a large amount of materials that he planned to deploy a defensive magic circle in a critical moment in the future, and Earl Vlad's real treasure house is located in the basement As a result, Lucien was unable to recover the loss, so he could only take a lot of mithril and special metals "barely comforting himself".

After carefully checking the "powerful defense circle" and confirming that there was no problem with it, Lucien set up a hidden magic circle at the door of the basement to store the simulated voice of Earl Vlad.

If someone invites or tries to wake him up, "he" will reply apologetically that he is in a critical period of recovery from his injuries, so as long as the "Night Plateau" is not invaded by powerful enemies and is on the verge of failure, don't bother.

After doing all this, Lucien left the castle leisurely. After walking out of the gate a few steps, he turned around in a wicked way, pressed his right hand to his chest, and bent down to salute a gentleman:

"Sweet dreams, Lord Vlad."

…………

In the underground cave, the dwarves who signed the magic contract found their steam sledgehammer, iron stove, food, paper and other items in other places in the cave according to their "memory".

"Next, we need to do three things." The Great Elder Augustus stood in front of the altar with glory and said. Compared with other dwarves, he got three books, one is "Electromagnetic Transformation and Application Fundamentals" One is "On the Pope" and the other is "On Protracted Struggle". He was very excited after reading it, as if he had found a treasure to defeat the enemy.

"First, we need to improve the teachings as soon as possible and quietly develop more of the same race; second, we look for food suitable for planting in the desolate places underground and on the plateau, so as to solve the problem of hunger as soon as possible; third, we need to avoid the The frontal collision of vampires, even in a short period of time, do not have any collisions, we need sufficient time to master the knowledge bestowed by the Lord, cast more and better machines, and re-arm ourselves."

"Yes, Great Elder! Steam is supreme!" Harold led the dwarves to raise their arms and shouted. The knowledge in the books deeply shocked them, making them eagerly absorb the "nutrition".

They used to think that they and others inherited part of the inheritance of the steam civilization, but now they realize that they have not even touched the fur, let alone the miraculous civilization of Atlantis!

And the emergence of the dawn of hope filled them with motivation.

The Great Elder watched with satisfaction as the dwarves were busy, turned around and knelt down in front of the altar.

After reciting the holy name, he took out a pen and paper and wrote:

""Mechanical Apocalypse."

"He came here and told people that if you gain, you must lose, and if you lose, you must gain. The hardships and pains of life are tempering, so that you can gain wisdom and a strong soul that are better than others... You must follow the equivalent exchange, so that the whole body does not fall into hell..."

…………

After leaving Earl Vlad's castle, Lucien went back to observe what the dwarves were doing for a while, and then headed north with confidence.

There, there are several terrifying vampire princes. It is said that when the most powerful one is sleeping, his dream can directly turn into a "real" city, appearing on the plateau of night, in which there are countless human beings and dwarves who seem real and illusory. , elves, and werewolves continue to perform joys and sorrows.

However, their strength has nothing to do with Lucien for the time being. After sneaking into the north, Lucien quickly changed direction and headed for a castle that seemed to be shrouded in darkness forever.

This castle is gloomy, gloomy, and vague. It seems that it is just a projection of a powerful castle in the main material world on the night plateau, and it is not a real existence.

It is the "Observer's Castle" belonging to Silver-eyed Earl Rhein.

As a virtual vampire prince, Rhine naturally guards a space node leading to the dark mountain range.

Through the teleportation array located at this node, you can directly reach the periphery of the "Observer's Castle" in the Dark Mountain Range.

In the black mist, Lucien passed through the shadowy city wall, walked in the gloomy corridor, and dispelled the terrifying and dangerous traps from time to time according to the spell given by Rhine.

Soon, Lucien saw the node teleportation array, stepped on it, chanted the mantra, inspired light, and disappeared in place.

…………

On the night plateau, inside a flamboyant castle with the style of the ancient kingdom of Syracuse.

A bewitching man in a black tuxedo was holding a wine glass, shaking the bright red liquid, and said to the butler next to him: "Rhein has been missing for a long time, the old guy seems to be a little ready to move."

His crystal-like red eyes narrowed slightly, and he couldn't see what attitude he had on this matter.