A thick strand of spider silk shot out from the muzzle, accurately entangling the "Sharon" in front of him.
However, the moment before the silk touched, "Sharon" suddenly became illusory, transforming into a thin, eerie human skin. With a cold wind, it pounced toward Lorne, attempting to wrap itself around him!
"What on earth is this?" Lorne quickly retreated a few steps and pulled the trigger again.
*Bang!*
This time, what sprayed out was frost.
Taiwan Novel Network is super useful and comprehensive.
Under the attack, the human skin's movements visibly slowed down.
Without giving the Monster any chance to catch its breath, a Runic Steel Sword appeared in Lorne's hand. With a shimmering slash, like a hot knife through butter, the eerie human skin let out a silent shriek and lost its vitality.
The battle happened extremely fast; from the appearance of the skin Monster to its total destruction, the entire process took less than ten seconds.
"Did something happen?"
Sharon appeared at the doorway once more.
This time it was real—sensing the familiar spirituality, Lorne let out a sigh of relief.
He briefly recounted what had happened to Sharon and then turned his gaze toward the "corpse" of the skin Monster.
At this moment, the skin's characteristic had already condensed. It looked like a large, irregular diamond with countless facets, reflecting an eerie light under the faint glow. On every facet, a different distorted and pained face was reflected. These faces were so densely packed that a single glance caused a wave of discomfort.
"Human-skinned Shadow," Sharon judged. "A Monster capable of mimicking the appearance of others."
"A very intuitive name," Lorne commented.
After confirming there were no other dangers, the two began to organize the loot. Besides the "Human-skinned Shadow" characteristic and the Beyonder characteristic from the corpse, Lorne unexpectedly found a metal badge about the size of an eyeball, carved with complex and strange patterns, on the body of the slain explorer. On its back was a circle of compact, small Ancient Hermes inscriptions: "Hold this to join."
What does this mean? A pass? Lorne was somewhat puzzled, but after confirming it didn't seem dangerous, he chose to put it away.
I'll study it slowly after I get back—
The two finished packing the loot in the room and continued exploring deeper into the mausoleum.
Before long, a passage leading to the main burial chamber appeared before them.
By the faint light of the lantern, the two noticed that the entire passage, including the walls on both sides and the stone slabs on the ceiling, was covered in dense pits and hollows, but only one thing remained perfectly intact.
It was a picture frame hanging seven or eight meters ahead. It was brownish-yellow, the wood grain clearly visible, and for now, only one side was exposed.
"That thing... is very dangerous." Lorne's gaze shifted warily toward the picture frame. His Premonition of Disaster was far stronger than it had been for the "Human-skinned Shadow" just now.
Sharon observed it carefully for a moment and shook her head slightly, indicating she wasn't sure what it was exactly.
Seeing this, Lorne took out the Monocle again and gently rubbed it.
"I don't know... if it'll still work from such a distance—"
He took a deep breath and slowly placed the Monocle over his right eye. His vision blurred at first, and then, some intermittent information painfully surfaced in his mind: "■—Ghostly Picture Frame■"
2
■■—Reflection—Spirit—Seal ■□
"
It actually worked! Although the appraisal result was incomplete, it at least let Lorne understand what the thing in front of him was.
"This is a 'Ghostly Picture Frame,'" Lorne explained to Sharon. "As long as we step into its effective range and are reflected in its surface, our spirit bodies will instantly leave our flesh and become a portrait, sealed inside it forever."
"What do you think?"
"Very dangerous..." Sharon sensed the spirituality emanating from the "Ghostly Picture Frame." "My 'Wraith' state cannot completely evade its effects."
A "Wraith" is also a special kind of spirit body—
"What about a long-range attack?" Lorne thought of his submachine gun again. "Break it with bullets—"
No, doing that might lead to some unforeseen accidents."
"Find another way around?" He surveyed the stone walls, which seemed to be one solid piece.
"Hmm—"
After thinking for a moment, he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a strangely shaped brass key from his "Portable Space."
This was the "Master Key" gifted to him by Father Utravsky.
Along with the injection of spirituality, a shimmering door, existing between reality and illusion, appeared out of thin air on the stone wall beside them.
"It actually worked?"
Logically speaking, this key shouldn't be able to open a "door" with mystical effects added to it.
"Is it because most of the defensive power of this mausoleum is concentrated on the main passage and those obvious traps? So the surrounding walls were neglected."
"The area behind the walls is actually safer than the obvious passages."
He analyzed while looking at Sharon.
"Teacher Sharon, do you want to try taking a detour?"
A "Wraith" can pass directly through walls, not even needing this key, but she had no way to bring a living person through with her.
"We can try," Sharon said softly, glancing at the illusory door on the wall.
Lorne quietly mobilized some of the "Luck" he had accumulated and walked straight into the door.
"Good, no accidents—"
Following the door opened by the "Master Key," the two successfully bypassed that dangerous passage and arrived directly at the entrance of the main burial chamber.
Before them was a black stone door, also covered in patterns that looked like they were carved by axes and knives. In the center of the stone door was a grayish-white disk. The surface of the disk was divided into twelve segments, but those segments were not distributed evenly; some were large and some were small, appearing extremely uncoordinated. Furthermore, within each segment, there were shadows of varying sizes.
"Is this the symbol of the Amon Family?" Lorne said softly. "This disk seems to represent time. Could it be that this family... once possessed the authority over 'Time'?"
After pushing open the stone door, a very wide burial chamber came into view. In the very center of the chamber, a high platform was built, upon which sat a heavy, deep-black coffin.
On the surrounding walls, iron lamp stands protruded, each supporting white candles that were still burning quietly.
None of the candle flames flickered in the slightest, as quiet as if they were part of a frozen painting, not at all like they had been burning in a closed space for a thousand years.
But even more conspicuous than these eerie candles were the corpses of various forms scattered throughout the burial chamber. Some wore black wool coats and semi-tall silk top hats, while others were dressed in ordinary worker's clothes and flat caps.
Judging by their clothing, they were definitely people who had entered within the last few years.
What was even more eerie was that every single one of these corpses had shriveled skin and snowy-white hair, curled up on the ground as if they were all extremely old people who had died of natural causes.
"Are these the people who came to explore earlier?"
"How did they all end up like this...?" Lorne's brow furrowed. Those who could come to explore a place like this were certainly young and strong Beyonders; how could they have all suddenly turned into this aged appearance?
"These people... had their time stolen," Sharon's cold voice rang out from beside him, carrying a rare hint of solemnity.
Time... "Marauder"... Could it be that High-sequence members of the "Marauder" Pathway can even steal "Time"? Lorne instantly thought of the distorted clock-dial symbol at the entrance of the mausoleum.
"What do we do now? There's no way to take a detour here." He felt the situation was a bit tricky.
"Look over there."
Looking in the direction Sharon pointed, Lorne discovered another picture frame, placed face down in the shadows of the high platform, extremely similar to the "Ghostly Picture Frame" they had encountered before!
"Another 'Ghostly Picture Frame'? Or... something similar?" He took out the Monocle once more.
The strange thing was, this time, before he even put the Monocle on, it began to vibrate slightly in his palm, as if resonating with something deep within the burial chamber!
"This thing... really is related to this family?"
Lorne muttered to himself, tossed a coin into the air, and sighed slightly after it landed heads up.
With a strange and complex mood, he slowly placed the slightly vibrating Monocle over his right eye.
"This, this is—"
Suddenly, a strong sense of daze emerged, and an invisible pulling force surged from the deep-black coffin ahead.
Through the lens, Lorne found that everything in his vision was covered in a faint, grayish-white filter, as if settled by time. Even the eerie power in the air that could strip away time seemed to become gentle.
"I'm fine, and—"
"Interesting, truly interesting."
Then, under Sharon's watchful gaze, he moved.
Without any protection, just like that, step by step, he walked straight toward the high platform and the stone coffin radiating an ominous aura.
"Don't go!" Sharon's voice carried a clear sense of urgency for the first time.
She saw Lorne's body stiffen after putting on the Monocle, and then he began walking toward the dangerous area filled with mummified corpses as if sleepwalking. Without hesitation, her body surged forward, wanting to stop him.
However, the moment she stepped into the central area of the burial chamber, an indescribable sense of sluggishness and decay instantly seized her.
As a "Wraith," her spirit body felt as if it had been submerged in a thick swamp; every turn of a thought became incredibly difficult. Even more terrifying was that she could clearly feel her life force being continuously plundered.
She had to stop and even retreated several meters in a somewhat disheveled manner before barely escaping the influence of that eerie power. Looking at Lorne's back, she couldn't maintain her composure and said anxiously, "Come back!"
Lorne, who was moving forward, paused slightly. He didn't turn around, but spoke in an unusually steady voice.
"It's alright, Teacher Sharon."
"My intuition tells me—"
"This mausoleum... seems to treat me as one of its own."
"Or rather—"
"—Kindred."