Inside the gloomy castle, there were many silver candlesticks on both sides of the corridor. The bright red candles on the candlesticks were emitting an eerie sense of beauty under the dim light of the candlesticks.
Lucien, who was wearing a black hooded robe, was standing outside the basement quietly, carefully studying the defensive magic circles set up by Vlad Count.
Since Vlad's castle was not closed during the day, and only a few surveillance magic circles were activated. Also, other than Vlad Count, Madame Tess was the only middle-rank vampire bride in the castle. Therefore, Lucien, a senior-rank sorcerer, was able to sneak in easily.
"The defense is indeed strong." Lucien slightly nodded. As a powerful vampire who had lived for thousands of years, Vlad Count did have a lot of good magic circles. The twenty-seven dark magic circles formed a powerful defense that could even resist the level eight divine spell Sunburst. "The good news is that Vlad Count is not an orthodox sorcerer, and the castle is not an alchemical life. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so easy for me to sneak in."
In the corridor outside the basement, human beings, elves, and dwarves who had turned into female blood servants were walking around like normal noble families. However, none of them paid any attention to Lucien, who was standing at the edge of the corridor, as if he was invisible.
Since Lucien hadn't started to learn the sixth-circle spell, Group Suggestion, he had to use a lot of effort to hint all the living creatures in the castle one by one. Even though he was a senior-rank sorcerer, it took him quite a while to recover from the exhaustion of his spiritual power.
"It will take me at least two months to crack this defense system, and the most troublesome thing is that once I start to crack it, Count Vlad will be very likely to wake up. Count Vlad is a senior-rank vampire, and he has his own castle. It's almost impossible for me to defeat him." Standing in front of the door of the basement, Lucien rubbed his chin with his right hand and analyzed the difficulties he was facing.
Although Vlad Count was in a deep sleep, he was not like those ancient sorcerers in the Dark Mountain Range who refused to learn arcana. After all, he could cast spells with his Blessing and was not afraid that his cognitive world would be affected. Therefore, Lucien, an orthodox arcanist of the Congress of Magic, was having a headache.
"What excuse did the vampire bride use to lure Vlad out?"
"Tess and Galata eloped? That's ridiculous! "
"With their deaths? No, Vlad would be alerted! "
"This is so troublesome …"
"Maybe I should think about it from another perspective …"
After a while, Lucien nodded and started to focus on the structure of the magic circles in the core, the flow of energy, and other observable things.
… …
More than ten days later, the castle was functioning normally. The vampire bride, the butler, the blood servant, and the slaves were doing their jobs, just like before.
However, in the castle, there was always a strange man in a black robe walking around and looking around. Sometimes, he would stop and take out all kinds of precious materials to set up something.
However, the vampire bride, the butler, the blood servant, and the slaves all ignored the man, even though he was making noises around the energy wells behind them.
"Finally, everything is done." Lucien squatted at the door of the basement and clapped his hands. Then he slowly stood up straight.
Lucien chanted a strange spell, and his spiritual power spread out. The magic circles at the door of the basement were activated, and the star-like lines lit up one after another, and the light of flowing energy surged in all directions.
The Binding 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 lit up with different mysterious magic circles as the brilliant light flowed over.
Soon, all the magic circles were connected together, and the whole castle was covered by a layer of hazy, dreamy starlight, blurred and vast!
The magic circle that looked like the reflection of the starry night suddenly shrank and stuck close to the basement, as if it had been merged with the original dark defensive magic circle.
After that, the magic circle that Lucien set up was no longer active, and everything was quiet again.
In such a magnificent scene, the vampires and the dwarves were still doing what they were doing, as if it was a normal change in the castle.
In the basement, Vlad Count was still sleeping, and he did not notice anything at all!
The reason was that Lucien did not try to crack his dark defensive magic circle at all, so naturally, he would not be alerted.
The powerful magic circle that Lucien spent more than ten days to set up had a very simple function, which was to add another layer of defense outside Vlad Count's basement, and to add a "lock" for him, so that he could sleep more "peacefully" and "safely".
Of course, this layer of defense did not distinguish between the inside and the outside, and it was almost a dead lock. Even if Lucien tried to crack it himself, it would still take him almost ten months. Also, the energy wells and the magic garden would all flow through this magic circle, so if Vlad Count woke up and wanted to come out, the energy wells would be restricted by half of their power. Therefore, even with the help of the control center, it would take him five to six years to get out of the basement, and he would not even be able to send a message.
As for five to six years later, Lucien believed that he would not have to worry about the space nodes being exposed at all, and he did not care about the small probability of accidents.
Since your defense is so strong and you are so vigilant that I can't crack it or assassinate you, then I'll make your defense even stronger and more vigilant, and your safety will be more "guaranteed"!
Lucien grinned mischievously. He was not going to say that he got the idea from a joke on Earth. If I can't open your lock, I'll add another one!
"It's just a bit painful." Lucien rubbed his chin and shook his head.
Although the main source of the materials for the magic circle was the warehouse of the "kind-hearted" Vlad Count, Lucien had also lost a lot of materials that he planned to use in the future. Also, Vlad Count's real treasury was in the basement, so Lucien could not make up for the loss. Therefore, he could only take a lot of mithril and special metals to comfort himself.
After carefully checking the "strong defense circle" and making sure that it was fine, Lucien also deployed a secret magic circle at the door of the basement and stored the simulated voice of Vlad Count.
If someone invited or tried to wake him up, "he" would answer apologetically that he was in the critical period of his recovery, and as long as the Night Highland was not invaded by a powerful enemy, he should not be disturbed.
After everything was done, Lucien left the castle leisurely. After a few steps out of the gate, he turned around, put his right hand on his chest, and bowed like a gentleman.
"Have a good dream, Vlad Count."
… …
In the underground cave, the dwarves who had signed the magic contract with Lucien found their steam hammers, iron stoves, food, and paper in other places in the cave according to their memories.
"Next, we need to do three things." Elder Augustus stood in front of the altar and said. Compared with the other dwarves, he got three books, one was "Electromagnetic Transformation and Application Basics", one was "Pope's Theory", and the last one was "On Protracted Resistance". He was very excited, as if he had found a treasure book to defeat the enemy.
"Firstly, we need to perfect our doctrine as soon as possible and secretly develop more of our kind. Secondly, we need to find suitable food to grow in the desolate places underground and on the highlands to solve the problem of hunger as soon as possible. Thirdly, we need to avoid direct confrontations with the vampires. In fact, we need to avoid any confrontations in the short term. We need enough time to grasp the knowledge that the Lord has given us and build more and better machines to rearm ourselves."
"Yes, Great Elder! Steam above all! " Harold led the dwarves to raise their arms and shout. The knowledge in the books deeply shocked them and made them absorb the "nutrition" as if they were thirsty.
In the past, they always thought that they had inherited part of the heritage of the steam civilization, but now they realized that they had not even touched the surface of it, let alone the miraculous civilization like Atlantis!
Also, the dawn of hope filled them with motivation.
Seeing that the dwarves were busy, Augustus turned around and kneeled in front of the altar.
After reciting the holy name, he took out a pen and paper and wrote:
"Mechanical Apocalypse."
"He came here to tell people that if there is gain, there will be loss; if there is loss, there will be gain. The hardship and pain of life are all training, so that you can gain wisdom and a strong soul better than others … You must follow the equivalent exchange, so that you will not fall into hell …"
…
After leaving Count Vlad's castle, Lucien went back to observe what the dwarves were doing for a while, and then he went to the north.
There were a few terrifying vampire princes there. It was said that when the most powerful one of them was asleep, his dream could directly turn into a "real" city that appeared on the Night Highland. There were countless humans, dwarves, elves, and werewolves who were both real and illusory. They were constantly acting out the joys and sorrows of their lives.
However, their power had nothing to do with Lucien for the time being. After sneaking into the north, Lucien quickly changed his direction and went to a castle that seemed to be always covered in darkness.
The castle was gloomy and vague, as if it was just a projection of a powerful castle in the main material world on the Night Highland.
It was the Observer's Castle that belonged to Silver-Eyed Count Rhein.
As a vampire prince, Rhein was guarding a space node that led to the Dark Mountain Range.
Through the transmission circle located at this node, one could directly reach the periphery of the Observer's Castle in the Dark Mountain Range.
In the dark fog, Lucien walked through the shadowy wall and walked in the gloomy corridor. According to the spell given by Rhein, he removed the dangerous traps from time to time.
It didn't take long for Lucien to spot the teleportation portal. He stepped onto it, chanted an incantation, and vanished.
…
On the Night Highland, in an ostentatious castle in the style of Syracuse.
A strange man in a black tuxedo was holding a glass of wine and shaking the red liquid. He said to the butler next to him, "Rhein has been missing for a long time. The old guy seems to be a bit restless."
His crystal-like red eyes slightly narrowed. It was hard to tell what his attitude was.
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