Chapter 505 - 271: The First Treasure Vault Key (2)

His gaze once again fixed on the six keys.

So just based on this one condition, among the six keys in front of him, only two were left that met the requirement.

But the problem was, there was a second point.

Because besides the vault gate itself being extremely sturdy, it was also reinforced with multiple complex Arrays, so in order not to obstruct the conduction of Magic Energy when unlocking, the keys were made almost entirely of mithril.

Mithril was an extremely special metal.

Aside from its excellent Magic-conducting properties, unlike silver, mithril had an extremely bright silvery metallic sheen on its surface, making it easy to distinguish from ordinary silver at a glance.

And if he added this second characteristic, then all six keys in front of him were wiped out.

Not a single one fit!

’Could it be that the Hernet Family’s vault gate is special, or that the keys have been modified somehow?’ Raine pondered.

But very quickly Raine frowned, shook his head, and rejected that conclusion.

Because he carefully recalled the tone Lunen had used when saying this—utterly certain, which meant these two points should be universal traits.

’If that’s the case, then is it possible there’s another hidden compartment?’

Thinking this, Raine let his gaze sweep around the room again, and soon paused on the spider-and-web reliefs on the walls and the bookshelves filled with books.

After a brief thought, Raine switched to the Giant Bloodsucking Bat Leader Bloodline.

He had obtained this Bloodline a long time ago as well, but just like the Deep Moss Spider Bloodline, after helping him grow stronger, it had been shelved for quite some time.

This time, Raine was activating it again to rely on its Sensitive Hearing Lv2.

He could use Sensitive Touch Lv2 to sense unnatural or uneven spots within a complete object, but if the objects in question were individual books, or individually hand-carved reliefs, that method would be painfully slow.

And he had no idea when the meeting upstairs would end.

But it was obvious that for this operation of his, the faster the better!

As his ears twitched slightly, Raine first strode quickly to the wall, then began to tap lightly.

"Dong, dong~"

If there was a cavity inside, there would be a faint echo.

Often, if the cavity was small or the wall was thick, even Classes would find it difficult to detect subtle differences in the echo—but to Sensitive Hearing Lv2, that difference could be picked up instantly.

A moment later, Raine stopped at the center of the left wall, right in the middle of a spiderweb relief.

’There’s a hollow space here, a hidden compartment?’

Raine’s brows lifted slightly, a hint of joy flashing through his eyes.

Immediately after, he tried pressing on it, but the wall didn’t react at all.

’So it’s not a press-style switch... then where’s the trigger?’

While lightly tapping again to confirm the cavity’s presence, Raine turned his gaze back to the bookshelf, thinking.

As if he’d thought of something, Raine quickly walked to the bookshelf, stretched out his left hand, and like a gentle spring breeze brushed it over the books of varying thickness and bindings.

At the same time, his fingernails kept tapping lightly at high speed, like he was playing a piano.

When he reached the first book on the fourth shelf, he suddenly stopped, then tried to move the book.

But as he pulled the book slightly outward, he immediately felt that the tactile feedback was off, and at the same time, the slightly tilted book triggered some sort of chain reaction.

A very faint sound of gears turning came from inside the wall.

The section of wall where he’d found the hidden compartment suddenly sank inward a little, revealing a square opening.

Overjoyed, Raine’s figure blurred as he instantly appeared in front of the opening.

Inside lay a Spider Key, quietly resting there, shining with a dazzling metallic lustre.

’Perfect!’

’Done! The first Treasure Vault Key is found!’

-----------------

Just as Raine reached out, intending to take the first Treasure Vault Key—

Suddenly!

His brows furrowed, as if he’d thought of something, and he carefully inspected the inside of the square opening again.

Sure enough, he sensed extremely faint Magic Energy Fluctuations emanating from both sides of the opening.

’So there is a trigger Array after all?’ Raine’s heart tightened!

He’d almost failed at the last step!

After a brief consideration, Raine quickly removed the Deep Moss Spider Bloodline from his Bloodline bar and switched in the Drow High Priest Bloodline.

As his fingertip lifted, the Magic Radiance of the Third Level Spell "Dispel Magic" burst out, and the faint Energy Fluctuations of the Array were obliterated in an instant.

Only then, still shaken, did Raine check for the third time before finally taking the Treasure Vault Key out of the hidden compartment and holding it in his hand.

Weighing the mithril Treasure Vault Key in his hand, a smile finally appeared on Raine’s face.

Immediately after, he took out a very ordinary bronze key, the kind commonly seen in Surface Human Kingdoms, and after infusing it with Nestu Magic Radiance, turned it into another identical Treasure Vault Key, then put it back into the hole.

When the hole closed again, Raine planned to leave the room at once.

But just as he turned around, another question popped into his mind.

"There are monitoring Arrays outside, but none in the main building. If that’s the case, then casting Prophecy here is actually the best choice."

This intel-gathering phase was originally Meredith’s responsibility; she would have collected information on Guard Captain Narrell and the other twelve Drow High Priests.

But now that Meredith was absent for some reason, if possible, locking onto the location of the second key in the shortest time was without question the best option.

"It’s just that without any information on the target, the difficulty of Prophecy will increase drastically."

"Whether the feedback is in short verse or images, it’ll become increasingly obscure, hard to interpret, and blurry."

"This..."

"Wait, as the saying goes, money makes even ghosts grind the mill."

"Since that’s the case, how about sacrificing twenty thousand Gold Coins?"

"No! Prophecy can only be cast once a day, so... double it, forty thousand!"

"Jumping from ten thousand to forty thousand, can that buy me a high-definition prophetic guide?"

Thinking along these lines, Raine started casting Prophecy.

Prophecy wasn’t quite like any of the other Magic he’d cast before. As he silently focused on clues about the second Treasure Vault Key, and the Magic Radiance flowed across the four black-gold cards, a blurry, graceful silhouette appeared in Raine’s mind.

However, although the graceful figure’s face was completely indistinguishable, Raine’s current perspective was bizarrely fixed on the top of the figure’s head—on that distinctive Black Pearl Hair Crown.

The vision lasted long enough for him to clearly memorize the number of black pearls on it.

At the same time—

A voice, impossible to tell male or female, echoed in Raine’s mind in sync: "Ring of the Veil."

The first revelation was, without a doubt, crystal clear to the extreme, letting Raine fully experience the power of Gold Coins!

"The wearer of the Black Pearl Hair Crown holds the second Treasure Vault Key."

It was just that the second revelation was a bit more blurred.

"But it was actually explained fairly clearly too—that is, I have to find the Ring of the Veil, which is directly tied to the precise location of the second Treasure Vault Key."

Although it cost forty thousand Gold Coins, without question, "money makes mills push ghosts"; the clarity of the revelation far exceeded Raine’s expectations.

In high spirits, Raine immediately prepared to leave the room!

However, just as his hand rested on the doorknob, it suddenly stopped.

Because he had suddenly thought of a problem.

If he walked out now still in the identity of Master Smith Zaryan, it would very likely arouse the suspicion of the guards at the door.

After all, when he entered the main building just now, he had already stirred a faint sense of doubt among the Drow elites.

With the meeting not yet over, if he left the main building again under the identity of Master Smith Zaryan, it would be far too conspicuous.

"Change identities?"

Raine immediately thought of this.

But he quickly gave a slight shake of his head.

Because a low-status main-building guard wouldn’t work—he’d be questioned and slip up; and of the higher-status figures, he had only ever come into contact with Master Smith Zaryan. He hadn’t met anyone of an even higher tier.

If he used the Shapeshifter’s Transformation Spell to simulate someone else, there would be obvious gaps.

Although the Shapeshifter’s Transformation was near Divine Skills, it also had limitations: he needed at least brief contact with the target to mimic their looks, voice, and mannerisms.

"Don’t leave for now?"

But once the meeting ended and a group of Drow Transcendents came downstairs and saw two Master Zaryans, what would happen then?

The moment Raine pictured a dozen Drow Transcendents turning their gaze on him, his scalp instantly went numb!

And just as Raine hesitated—

Suddenly! From the ring-shaped staircase outside the door above, he heard the guards’ salute and a series of slightly dense, light footsteps.

"No way, the meeting’s over already?"

Raine’s pupils shrank sharply!

...