At another location in the Ashen Deadlands.
"Holy shit!" I cursed." I was this close to losing my life.
"Confident in getting out of here my ass. As if!" I scoffed.
I was indeed confident in getting out of the Ashen Deadlands even with it's reputation. But that was before a tentacle monster gave me a wake up to reality call.
And the worst part was that it was so overwhelming. We didn't even stand a chance. At the time when it had caught me, I kind of had a feeling that seemed to express to me that no matter what I did or how hard I tried to resist, my death was inevitable.
The monster must at the very least be of the gamma rank or higher, which would explain why captain Baldor got crushed effortlessly
That was why I had wasted no time in swapping with one of my reflections. And not even three seconds after I did that, my reflection died.
"Fuu!" I let out a cold breath. Let's just hope I don't encounter any particularly overpowered horror.
In fact now that I was alone, I didn't stand a chance against even those undead, let alone that octopus.
Hiding like a mole was the only way to go. I felt a massive dip in my reserves as a phantom separated from my body and became me.
"There goes my Aether." I muttered dejectedly.
I now had less than 10 percent of my entire reserves. That was because aether reinforcement burned through my aether like hell. And I had also used mirage steps which also cost me a moderate amount of aether, but I didn't use any of the Darkfell royal sword style's art.
I had taken care not to use any of it's art for fear of my 'companions' recognizing it. It was unlikely, but one can never be too careful. It was very famous in Vorde as the sword art of the royal family.
Anyway, low on aether or not, I already had one reflection in stock, and I had just made another, and swapping away cost little to no aether, so I was good as long as I didn't fight anything, which I was not planning to do anytime soon.
"Now," I looked ahead at the titanic doors of the dark magnificent castle that stood tall before me, "it's time to check out this castle."
Before I had swapped to this location, as a reflection I had chanced upon a Castlevania looking castle. With the all the pointy gothic architecture and all. Not to mention almost it's entirety was covered in the grey fog.
Now this was a strange looking creepy castle in even stranger and creeper lands, but damn if I don't check it out.
I don't know if transmigration had loosened some of the screws in my head, or I was a thrill seeker cursed with the sin of curiosity, because my past self would definitely not be doing this.
In fact I was quite sure that if my past self saw this castle from a hundred meters away, he wouldn't take a step further. So maybe it was one of those reasons, or even both.
Just in case, I made my reflection retreat far away from the creepy castle, before I touched it's doors.
"CREEEEAK!"
A creaky groooan resonated in air as my hands pushed against one of the two titanic doors. It refused to budge at first, not until I put my entire strength into it.
Soon the door began to shift inwards revealing a marbled floor. Not what I was expecting given the fact that the castle looked kinda old, as in really old.
Once I pushed the door to it's hinges, a soft rush of cool air softly blew the locks on my forehead.
But there was a problem. The inside was so dark that I couldn't see a single thing.
'How am I supposed to explore if I can't see anything?' I frowned.
As if hearing my thoughts, a low hum echoed , as the inside of the castle suddenly began to light up.
"Bloody hell!"
I had to take a few steps back to take a second look at the exterior of the creepy castle, before turning once again to look inside.
"How the hell is this the same building?!" I muttered in awe. The outside looked old and dilapidated but the interior was a stark contrast.
It looked like I had walked into heaven from hell.
Before me was a glorious throne room. The floors was stark while marbled, the pillars were in the form of massive marbled veiny stone that stood against the walls.
And at the far end, on an elevated obsidian dias, was a grand golden throne.
I was mesmerized for a good half a minute. I know it was stupid, because it was more than enough time for an abomination which may or may not be ready to sneak attack me.
But for now, "That throne is mine." I muttered to myself. I was going to take it.
Why you ask? Well why not? Shit was probably real gold. And not to mention, I would enjoy sitting on a throne at leisure times.
As I slowly walked into the throne room, I slowly pondered about this castle. I had never heard about there being any mention of some creepy castle in the Ashen Deadlands.
Which gave me two options, this was an unexplored region, or worse, no one who reached here ever made it back.
And unfortunately for me, the second was most likely to be the case. Why you ask? Well because in my journey here as a reflection, I had seen several humanoid skulls and skeletons.
The only reason I continued forward was because I was a reflection. If it was my real body that saw all that, I would have turned tail in another direction.
Right now the reflection I had recently created was two hundred meters away from this castle. As for the other one, it was much, much, farther away. In fact it was in a completely different area.
_BANG!
Halfway to the throne, the door I had pushed open slammed itself shut.
"Ughhhh... okay?!" Talk about creepy. I've seen more than enough of this particular event in horror movies.
But still, I had my guard up. One more suspicious event, and I was get out of this castle.
Fortunately, nothing happened until I got to the throne. And most especially, no ancient guardian that I had to fight to get the treasure.
As soon as I touched the throne, the bulk of it disappeared into my storage ring, leaving the space it had occupied weirdly empty.
After seeing no adverse reaction from the castle, I spent the next few hours taking everything of value, and plucking jewels from throne room's walls. Unfortunately, my storage ring capacity was limited, so I had to prioritize, especially since I hadn't yet visited other parts of the castle.
"Now which way do I go first?" I pondered. With a lunch break in between, I had finished taking everything I wanted from the throne room, and was wondering if I should go to the wing on my right first, or the one on my left.
Just as I muttered that, the wall behind the space the throne had been, started shaking.
"What the...!" The wall sunk inwards, before shifting to the side.
"A hidden room?" The gears in my mind turned, and the greed in my very being blossomed. This was definitely the place that's most likely housing the real treasures.
But I quickly quelled my urges. I was not that stupid, I was still in a deadland, magnificent castle or not. I was not entering that place.
But that also didn't mean I would leave potential treasures behind now would I?
I was not entering the hidden room didn't mean my reflection wouldn't. It's been a few hours since I entered the throne room, 3 or 4 to be exact. By now I had recovered around 50 percent of my essence.
I made a reflection, and walked towards the opening on the wall. Behind the opening was a long well lit corridor.
The moment I stepped into the corridor, the opening on the wall closed behind me just like the door of the throne room. But luckily I was a reflection.
I walked not for long in the corridor before I found myself in a plain looking room. The only thing not plain about it was this large table on which a blue egg the size of a rugby ball laid on a cushion.
"Cliché."
I've seen enough materials of far east fantasy novels to determine the possible outcome of this predicament. (Sorry had to add this 😂😂)
First, either in this egg was some ancient mystic sovereign that had reincarnated and would become my familiar and teach me good stuff not unlike those protagonists who had old men in a ring.
Or second, in this egg lies a phoenix goddess who would become my companion beast, attain human form and we live happily ever after.
"Hahahaha." I couldn't help but laugh at my own thoughts.
Rubbing my palms, I reached for the egg. It was somewhat warm to touch. I took it off the cushion, silently wincing in anticipation to what I thought was going to happen.
After a few seconds, "Well that was anticlimactic!"
As soon as I said that, a low groaning sound started coming from the ground. The entire ground started shaking, and soon I could barely even keep my footing.
"Fuck, I just had to run my mouth!"
***********
A/N: Well, here we go. If you like my story, support it with power stones, and leave a review. I'm open to suggestions.
Oh and, sorry for the late chap.