Chapter 41: Ransacking the Wizard Tower!
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
Sheyan returned a feeble smile.
“This is because I don’t belong to Middle-earth…..I was sent here on a special mission, that is the reason why. Take note of that door ahead, right, walk to the left.”
As they chatted, they arrived at the third floor. Upon reaching here, Sheyan’s face turned stern and he warned.
“This floor is Saruman’s cloning room. There should be at least one Tentacled-freak monitoring his experiments inside, in order to adjust the temperature at times. If not, the uruk-hais that are cloned out would malfunction. Do you think you can swiftly dispatch the Tentacled-freak?”
Melody delayed for a moment before replying.
“I should be able to. As long as it isn’t one of those larger tentacle models.”
Sheyan nodded and performed a gesture to Melody to prepare to burst in. Gesturing three, then two, but he hadn’t reached one!!! Sheyan had completely forgotten he wasn’t in the present world, and Melody had no knowledge of the standard ‘3,2,1 ready go!’ action!
He could clearly see Melody’s crystal spring-water pupils dilating as she raised her pure untainted slender fingers, swiftly carving out abstrusely as a splendid gold ancient elvish character floated out. It rapidly undulated into form in midair, before a turbulent surge of force was emanated out. The character ultimately congealed into a golden chain shackle, shimmering brilliantly as it directly broke through the stone door ahead!
Twilight Silencing-shackle!!
A tentacled-freak was currently jabbing away towards one cloning process with its tentacles. However though, that single eye, filled with densely packed compounded eyes, on its brain was like a 24 hours CCTV without a blind spot. Still, when facing the sudden crashing in of an alienated golden shackle spinning in, it had totally no chance of resisting.
Melody twisted her hands with a flower blossoming gesture; the golden chain shackles suddenly crisscrossed and morphed into an ancient archaic golden lock, locking down over the brain of that Tentacled-freak!
The Tentacled-freak was now locked to the ground. Melody then strolled in, her slender fingers consecutively formed 3-4 different gestures, as she commanded the golden lock to morph back into a chain shackle, then back into the golden elven character, and finally disappearing back into her fingertips. The Tentacled-freak then slumped to the ground, from henceforth, it was pronounced dead.
Presently, an astonished expression flushed on Melody’s face. Truthfully, she too didn’t believe her spell would be so fearsome! Instead, it was Sheyan that appeared rather relaxed. Just based on the awe-inspiring might of this one spell, it wasn’t really out of reason; besides, throughout 317 years, she was the first twilight elf that had appeared in Rivendell.
The following events were needless to say. The guards in this Wizard tower were all rather weak and frail, and Sheyan knew the insides and out of every mechanism those orcs had installed. Very quickly, they sped up to the fourth floor. This was Saruman’s research dissecting room, and 3 orcs were currently accomplishing several odd jobs inside. In a flash, Melody unleashed 3 ‘Twilight Dictum’; the nature based javelin impaled their chest, turning them into a tree puppet.
Placed within this broad room were 8 crudely manufactured wooden tables. The granite on the floor displayed dense crisscrossed flaws, and this place could be the model of uninhibited. Massive amounts of organs like hearts, kidneys, livers and so on were arranged on the tables, while a dissected orc corpse was piled against a corner like a piece of junk.
Black ponds of blood congregated on the floor along with clumps of flesh that looked like pebbles. A piercing and pungent stench forced Melody to frown instantly, as she executed a nature spell to envelope her own body.
Sheyan’s attention halted at an ordinarily looking door located at the remote end of this hall. The sliding door was made with wood, which wasn’t at all sturdy as it contained distinct cracks. Even through the cracks, one could easily view the contents inside the room. Yet Sheyan knew this was just an illusion. Once this door was opened, it would lead to the passageway towards the fifth floor of the Wizard Tower.
As the saying goes, the closer one gets to completion, the tougher the task gets. From here onwards, Sheyan and Melody weren’t just facing those crude physical mechanisms; instead, it was the true authentic defense mechanisms of the Wizard tower.
This signified that mithril killing weapons or murderous talismans could be embedded in unimaginable places, or perhaps other lethal deviations that issues immense threat could occur. Traps that weren’t limited to just acid, flames, storms, lava, deadly spokes, poison gas but also untold dangerous creature summons, or incomparably deadly magic pitfalls.
The golden ancient character glittered in front of Sheyan’s face. Melody once again executed the formidable ‘Twilight Dictum’, sending the golden javelin tearing through the wooden door. Then it seemed like the empty space rippled for a moment, before swallowing the golden javelin in.
At this moment, glorious sparks erupted. Black and white magic lines interweaved and finally everything settled down. A shocking and spotlessly white flight of stairs built with mica stones could be now seen stretching upwards. The lateral walls of the flight of stairs was vandalized with an appalling writing – ‘City of Silver Streams’.
*******
This crooked upwards flight of stairs wasn’t particularly long. In fact, it was so short that even by raising one’s head to look, one could see the flooring of the roof floor. The handrails of the stairs radiated a metallic brilliance. Although it didn’t emit a splendorous and majestic aura, it still carried the imposing aura of a sovereign king!
From here onwards, physical common sense would no longer work anymore. Based on its construction itself, it was already established that it contained a supernatural foundation, like arcane magic or devil witchcraft etc.
The only good news was that strictly speaking, the genuine portion of this tower was only one floor. Therefore, whatever enchantment magic or mechanisms were all situated on this floor. Besides, the main resident of the Wizard tower was probably still battling an octopus. This undoubtedly meant the threat of this Wizard tower had probably declined by half.
Sheyan deliberated carefully. Although he wasn’t able to recognize or destroy any magic mechanisms; when he entered as a alchemy assistant previously, he still had his 25 points of perceptive sense. Hence, his perceptive sense had already warned him of this fatal region. Moreover, he had previously sense the tremendous threat jabbing at him from different positions, and could now pinpoint them for Melody.
After a series of squandering spells, the passageway was now a chaotic mess with billowing smokes. Only half of the writings on the wall were left after the explosion. As for Melody, she had previously summoned 13 ancient elf characters but was only left with 3 characters now.
Melody’s face was terribly pale; though her pupils remained clear as water, a distinct weariness could be seen within it. Fortunately, those ancient elf characters wouldn’t vanish after forming, and only its internal magic would be exhausted. After meditation and adequate rest, she would gradually recover.
Along with the final magic trap mechanism being destroyed, the entire interior of the Wizard tower abruptly pierced out with a warning siren. The siren was like a lunatic female ghost screaming mournful shrills tirelessly as though it would go on forever. The siren extended throughout the entire orc metropolis, and proceeded to sorrowfully echo through the snowy peaks. Its loudness was essentially like an anti-aircraft defense alarm in the present world, amplified by several folds.
Upon hearing this ghostly female screech, Sheyan instantly celebrated. Obviously, this was the final desperation method installed by Saruman’s doppelganger, and was merely a helpless distress call. Actually, no matter if the final mechanism had been destroyed with brute force or triggered in a legit fashion, it would similarly emit this horrifying screech and stir up the entire orc encampment. If Saruman did not utilize his booming voice technique to calm the orcs down within 5 seconds, then the orcs would have to rush here immediately.
Yet the current orcs who were left to guard this camp, were probably the weaker or injured insignificant ones. According to Sheyan’s deductions, they amounted to not more than a pathetic ten! Even if those orcs dared to rush here as reinforcements, the 3 tree-puppets would put an end to them. Sheyan and Melody overlooked down from up above, but only witnessed a line of sparse orcs limping and hobbling over. He released a long sigh.
Time was tight as the two hastily rushed forward. The area of the fifth floor wasn’t exactly huge, and was roughly a hundred square metres. In the middle was a huge experimental stage made with a glossy stone material, it resembled marble but distinctly revealed vestiges of undulating magic. It had been probably solidified and polished with a small small cleansing spell. On the stage were several filthy looking metals/crystals refining apparatus, even a magnifying lens, crystal ball etc.
Pasted against the surrounding wall were several large chests. Some of them appeared like they were constructed with bronze metal, looking extremely solid and fortified. Sheyan opened them in succession, his ears then rung with a list of delightful and wild notifications.
“You discovered a precious metal: Mithril (14.65 pounds).”
“The value of Mithril is a hundred folds that of gold, and is the most desirable metal of this world. It can be beaten like copper, and polished like glass. Dwarves used it to forge metals that are harder than tempered steel, yet light as a feather. Its beauty is likened to common silver, but the beauty of the mithril would not tarnish or grow dim. It contains a cloth-like flexibility, but remains cool as ice and tougher than steel.”
“Its greatest value lies therein its rare affinity with magic. If forged into a mithril mail or mithril weapon, it would not influence the casting of spells, but enhance the deadliness of it. This would bestow the magic wielder with unparalleled supremacy. Moreover, by the Third age, mithril became exceedingly rare, its only source was Khazad-dûm, the kingdom of the dwarves in Moria. It became incomparably priceless after the kingdom was destroyed by a Balrog.”
“You discovered precious gems: Ruby x3, Sapphire x4, Cat’s eye (Chrysoberyl) x 2.”
“These rare gems after being embedded can cause an equipments to be ‘born again’. One rock is sufficient for one to exchange for a thousand slaves in any kingdom.”
“You discovered 3 pounds of Adamantine. This extremely solid, rarely seen metal can raise the intrinsic quality of an armour or weapon. A weapon forged with Adamantine has an innate strength of neglecting hardness. When being struck by other weapon or destroying materials, it can neglect a hardness of less than 20*. An Adamantine armour will provide damage reduction for its wearer. Normally, only a metal based weapon, armour or shield can be forged with Adamantine. A weapon, armour or shield that is forged with Adamantine has a durability that is stronger than others by a third.”
(TN: Probably referring to durability. A lower hardness weapon will not deal damage to its durability, or when the weapon is striking against a hard material)