Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 548 - Gate of Darkness

Chapter 548: Chapter 548: Gate of Darkness Chapter 548: Chapter 548: Gate of Darkness “Unfortunately, only the Blood Coin in my hand remains,” Shard said with a reminder.

“No worries, I’ve made significant contributions this time, and applying for a Relic from the Church shouldn’t be a problem,” Iluna said happily.

Afterward, the three of them set off for the basement. Shard first returned the Relics transported this time to a hidden wall in the basement. As for the ordinary items, that is, the “Man of the Future” card made from an unknown metal, after Luviya’s inspection confirmed it was indeed an ordinary item, Shard placed it in Miss Feliana’s notebook to use as a bookmark.

In the circular space behind the hidden wall, once it was confirmed that the spot holding the Ancient God of Space “Primordial Rift” couldn’t accommodate the door, Shard officially determined the location of the door to the “Dark Dungeon.”

The entrance to the basement was behind the stairwell on the first floor, with the stairs to the west of the basement and the hidden wall on the opposite east side. At this moment, Shard, standing in front of the north wall of the basement with a cat on his shoulder and watched by the two girls beside him, tossed the card into the air.

The newly installed gas light was very bright, but under this light, the card did not fall due to gravity. Instead, it floated towards the wall in front until the back of the card was completely affixed to it.

Shard extended his finger towards the face of the card and at the same time whispered:

“Darkness!”

A peculiar halo radiated from the card’s surface as his fingertip touched it. Simultaneously, a thin white mist dispersed from the gap where the card’s back and the wall met, crawling along the wall.

Shard moved “Genesis: Darkness” away from the wall, but instead of disappearing, the mist became denser until it formed a Mist Gate that completely obscured the wall behind it. After a few seconds, since no one entered, the mist disappeared and the wall returned to normal.

“No problem now, this here is the entrance to the ‘Dark Dungeon,’ a space left by the Ancient God ‘Crawling Darkness,'” Shard stated, patting the wall, which seemed normal.

“Unlike the usual entrances, entering this door doesn’t require a ‘Darkness’ Spirit Rune, just place your hand on the wall and recite the spell. The spell goes like this—” Shard coughed.

“May darkness bless the me within the shadows.”

A white mist appeared again between his palm and the wall, forming the Mist Gate.

Leaving Mia outside, the three walked in, and indeed, the space beyond the Mist Gate was completely shrouded in white mist.

“Outlander, you have stepped into the ‘Dark Dungeon.'”

“Taking one step here will get you into the ‘Dark Dungeon.’ It’s a special region nearly infinite in area, created by The Great One, sometimes directly referred to as the ‘Shadow Realm.’ The dungeon’s interior is similar to a maze, imprisoning the shadows of all creatures, other than deities and saints,”

Shard recalled the information obtained from the leaves, swinging his hand in the air, with mist wrapping around it:

“The correct conditions for entry are finding the door’s location and having ‘Darkness.’ The correct way to use it requires a Relic called ‘Black Robe Fragment.’ But due to the special nature of this door, we don’t need it,” he explained.

Luviya, curious, looked around, while Iluna, who had previously entered the “Judge’s Court,” had experienced many similar places, only she was first-time amidst the white mist:

“What use is this place?”

“Normally, we can only encounter our own shadow through the dungeon,” Shard explained.

As he spoke, the surrounding mist slightly dispersed, revealing three bronze trapdoors on the ground, each bearing their names written in Draleon’s common language, making it easy to distinguish.

“Because we entered together, we can see each person’s dungeon, but in fact, we can only open the door that belongs to us.”

“Our shadow? The dungeon beyond the door, is it another us?” Iluna asked curiously, only Shard, who knew ‘Dark Dungeon’ through the Father of the Infinite Tree, could provide such detailed knowledge.

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Their “other self” was not as convenient as the voice whispering in Shard’s ear; even after entering here, they could only know this was the “Dark Dungeon,” unaware of other circumstances.

“No, you could think of it as… um… it’s hard to describe, sort of like the us in the mirror. Identical, but not actually existent,” Shard explained while Iluna still seemed confused, but Luviya showed a look of understanding:

“The us recorded by darkness.”

“That’s about right. Heading deep into the dungeon to face ourselves, to converse or even battle with our essence, allows those who enter here to better understand themselves, helpful for mastering certain arcane techniques that require inner strength. But most importantly, even a Circle Sorcerer who has lost control, as long as they haven’t completely lost their mind, can gradually recover from the process of losing control by encountering themselves here.”

“A reusable way to reverse losing control? That is quite interesting,” Luviya commented.

Actually, it’s more than interesting; among the three spaces Shard could fully utilize—the Time Corridor, Spatial Maze, and Dark Dungeon—the Dark Dungeon, for reversing loss of control, ranked second.

“Of course, that’s just meeting oneself. By having someone’s hair, blood, part of their spirit, and true name, you can also open someone else’s dungeon. Talking to them to gain information or defeating them to gain part of their memories or even arcane techniques and sorcery is possible. But by doing so, you also inherit the other’s negative emotions, a very severe effect, typically not worth it for the sake of power,” Shard added.

“It sounds like the dungeon left by the Ancient God is like a specimen room in the dark, chronicling all life forms that have appeared,” Iluna said, though she furrowed her brow in doubt:

“But, why does this sound familiar?”

“What?”

Both Shard and Luviya looked at her as Iluna smiled awkwardly:

“When I was training in the Papacy, I heard the old priests talking about the ‘Dawn Church,’ that is, the ‘Church of Light and Darkness.’ I think they mentioned such a method that allows Circle Sorcerers who have lost control to return to normal, but it requires stringent conditions, needing either specific Spirit Runes or intricate rituals.”

“The Dawn Church also controls the way to the ‘Dark Dungeon’!”

Luviya suddenly understood:

“Shard said the Blood Spirit School has almost found the Creation Chamber, so the space left by the Thirteen Ancient Gods doesn’t necessarily need to be discovered following the appearance of The Chosen One. Those ancient Circle Sorcerer Organizations might already possess some of it… Speaking of which, the Prophet’s Society seems to have a strange saying.”

Luviya furrowed her brows slightly, puzzled by something. Meanwhile, Shard was thinking even more. He had confirmed earlier, that the power of the Old Gods mostly came from the departed Ancient Gods. Thus, the power of the True Gods might also originate from the Ancient Gods. Hence, Mr. Dawn, also known as the God of Light and Darkness, very likely inherited the power of the Ancient God of Crawling Darkness, which is why the church could enter the Dark Dungeon.

Thinking about it, the clergy of the five True Gods seemed to correspond closely with the main clergy of the Ancient Gods.

“As for here, that’s pretty much it. We don’t have anyone we want to see now, so why not visit ourselves? There might be something to gain. Time here synchronizes with the outside, and there are doors in the depths of the dungeon that we can leave through.”

Shard said to the two girls, then took the lead and crouched down to try to open the door engraved with his name.

But what he didn’t expect was that just as he grasped the doorknob, that door actually crumbled into gray dust amidst the white mist.

He watched, dumbfounded, as the metal doorknob in his hand also slowly disintegrated into dust, disappearing into the mist.

“Why do I feel that I wouldn’t be surprised by any surprises that happen to you?”

Luviya said with a smile, and squatted down to open her own door. Under the trapdoor was a deep staircase. Although the white mist drifted down, it wasn’t as thick as on the ground, so she could see some murals carved on both sides of the wall, depicting a woman holding a baby.

Iluna also opened her door, and below was similarly a deep staircase. The mural next to her door also depicted a woman holding a baby.

“Look, we are all quite normal.”

The seventeen-year-old girl said.

“Well… ladies, who would give me some hair and blood? I’d like to go down and take a look too.”

He looked at Luviya, who just smiled:

“Shard, don’t even think about it.”

He then turned to Iluna, who shook her head slightly:

“That won’t do, Shard. Girls always need to have their secrets.”

Both of them entered their own dark staircases, and the trapdoors closed behind them. Shard couldn’t approach those two trapdoors and could only watch as they melted into the mist.

“Really, why did my door have to crumble?”

He was quite dissatisfied.

“It’s probably related to your use of divinity.”

Her voice murmured softly.

“That’s indeed possible.”

Shard looked toward the white mist in front of him:

“Compared with the white mist left by Time, Space, Balance, and the Witch, this place’s function is equally intriguing. The self in darkness, the specimen rooms of ordinary items, the dungeon… I think you must have some additional information, right?”

“Outlander, when you touched the doorknob, you gained additional information.”

“Sacrifice a drop of divinity, gain a monthly opportunity to delve deeper into the dungeon.”

“Sacrifice a powerful soul tainted by darkness, gain a one-time opportunity to delve deeper into the dungeon.”

What a “powerful soul” was, Shard didn’t know, but soul trading was strictly forbidden. Whether it’s on the black market, at the Academy, or any other means, once a soul trade was discovered, the church held unrestrained law enforcement and killing rights.

Moreover, in the Circle Sorcerer System of the Sixth Era, Arcane Techniques and Sorcery that purely used souls were already quite rare, belonging to the category of things you couldn’t even buy if you wanted to.

“But, what does opportunity to delve deeper into the dungeon mean?”

“The Dark Dungeon consists of vast spaces, and normally only the shallower layers are entered. Deeper layers of the dungeon imprison some terrifying things. Those demons from the Third Era, even older evil fiends, creatures existing only in Subspace, unclassified level shadows of Humanoid Relics, all lie in deeper layers. Additionally, more secrets of ancient Eras are buried even deeper. After each sacrifice, you have three hours to explore. Knowledge, power, relics, wealth—as long as you come out alive, you are bound to come away with something.”

“Dungeon exploration? Ancient Evil Demons? That sounds very dangerous.”

Shard said, looked around, then took a step back and walked out from the wall back to his own basement:

“Sacrificing someone else’s soul is not something I could do… unless I really encountered a bad person.”

He picked up the cat sniffing around on the ground:

“I wonder if the Dawn Church would do something like that… Oh, the church would at most know about sacrificing divinity and would not obtain information on sacrificing dark souls. However, divinity actually allows one to explore once a month… If a lucky person really opens the Dark Dungeon once a month under very coincidental circumstances, it would probably be very exciting.

Right, Mia?”

For some reason, she was giggling again.

Carrying the lazily wriggling cat, he walked out of the basement, but standing on the steps, Shard suddenly turned his head back towards the basement wall:

“According to this trend, the ‘doors’ at No. 6, Saint Delan Square, won’t keep increasing, will they?”

Nobody answered his question.

“Well, it’s good my house is big enough, even if there really were thirteen, ahem, twelve doors, it would totally be sufficient.”

Thinking this, Shard left the basement to go close the windows as it seemed to be raining outside. But when closing the windows, he was very careful not to stand by the window, afraid of being struck by lightning.