Chapter 00033: The Ancient Town
# The Ancient Town
Chapter 33
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 33: The Ancient Town
Roy, squatting in the prison cell, looked especially wretched at the moment.
His hair was matted and disheveled, and his body still bore bruises and wounds left by physical torture.
From the look of it, Hill had already brought men to interrogate him not long ago.
But his spirit wasn’t broken; he seemed rather alert.
Noticing the footsteps and the torchlight, he even idly flicked the bangs from his eyes.
“Oh? Someone different today?”
He sized up Lord Leon from head to toe and sneered:
“What makes a corrupt noble like you think you can make me speak?”
“Shut your mouth! This man is the lord of Leon Territory. For someone of your rank to even lay eyes on Lord Leon is already a stroke of fortune. Mind your words!”
“Hah, I’ve seen plenty of nobles. A small-time lord in some remote backwater thinks he can scare me?”
In the darkness, Roy’s eyes gleamed like a wolf’s.
“You must’ve done no shortage of illegal dealings for profit, huh? No need to deny it. All you corrupt nobles carry the same stink — I can see it at a glance.”
Normally, Lord Leon would have flown into a rage.
However, now, the fury within him burned like a quiet and steady flame.
He ignored Roy’s mocking tone, stepped closer to the bars, and said:
“The next guards return in fifteen minutes. Whatever we say here, no fourth person will know.”
Roy, hearing this, immediately dropped his feigned indifference.
“So then, my lord seeks out a prisoner like me for what reason?”
“I know why you came here.”
These words made Roy’s heart skip a beat, though he still tried to act nonchalant.
“Is that so?”
“Before you even arrived in Leon Territory, someone sent me a letter. I know what you're here to find. And I’m pretty certain… that the object in question has already ended up in Princess Viola’s hands.”
Roy narrowed his eyes and stared at Lord Leon’s face.
There was no joy nor sorrow in his expression, but an unshakable determination radiated from him.
“So you’re saying… we have a common enemy?”
“That’s right.”
“You need to take the territory back from the princess. I, on the other hand, need to bring back the mission item—ideally with Princess Viola’s severed head thrown in for good measure. Not a bad arrangement. But…”
Roy looked down and gestured to his own state:
“Look at me. I’m still seriously wounded. Even without these chains, I couldn’t get far.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
Lord Leon pulled a small, palm-sized red bottle from within his robes.
At the sight of it, Roy exclaimed in surprise:
“High Grade Healing Potion? Didn’t think a rural lord like you would have such a treasure.”
“Since you recognize it, then you know it can heal all your external injuries in just minutes. So… what’s your answer?”
Roy didn’t immediately reply.
After thinking for a moment, he looked back up at the lord:
“Do you have a plan?”
–‐‐——–‐‐——
Demon Lord Calendar, Year 648.
April 11th, morning.
Far away, deep within the ancient underground ruins from the Mythic Era, Zola received a signal from the Demon God, indicating that the group could proceed further.
Their feet stepped onto the damp carpets of fungi and moss as they formally entered the old, crumbling town.
“Is the Lord giving you directions on where to go?”
Zhuoya asked upon seeing Zola decisively turn left at a junction, as if already familiar with the roads.
“Mhm. His voice echoes within me.”
Zola pulled out a notebook, and with each intersection they passed, she used a charcoal pencil to sketch simple maps.
Zhuoya pointed to a slab in the middle of the road and said:
“The ground ahead looks unnatural. Might be a trap.”
A Royal Guard took off his scabbard and prodded the spot.
The moment he did, a large section of the road gave way, revealing a perfectly square pit beneath.
“This place really doesn’t welcome visitors, huh...”
“The Lord said there are lots of traps. He told us to be cautious.”
“Were you an adventurer before? You seem used to taking notes.”
“Because of my family. Growing up, I spent a lot of time around adventurers. That’s when I picked up the habit of note-taking.”
This habit among adventurers was used to avoid forgetting or overlooking valuable things.
Memories could fail, but a rough note never would.
For most people, forgetting a detail wasn’t a big deal.
But for adventurers, a missed detail could cost them their lives.
“The Lord says there’s a great treasure deep inside. There’s no way we few could carry it all alone. Mapping the route helps if we bring soldiers later to haul it out.”
As they spoke, the group passed through two alleys before Zola led them to the right.
They were now on one edge of the ancient town.
In the distance, they could just make out the cave entrance where they’d entered.
Not far off, the river connecting directly to the sea was visible.
By the riverbank, right next to the current, there was a round terrace.
The moment she spotted it, Druid Al rushed over excitedly.
“This is a ritual ring! A place people of the Mythic Era used to hold nature-worship rituals!”
She gently caressed the weathered, broken stones, as if trying to feel the lingering spirit of nature from long ago.
“Unfortunately, the salt levels here are too high. The ancient language inscriptions on it are too eroded to read.”
Druids are roughly akin to the priests of nature deities—but not entirely.
Some druids worship natural laws themselves.
Druid Al, who had joined the treasure hunt, was one of them.
They share an innate affinity with places where nature was worshiped in the ancient past, believing such sites to be sacred ground—where civilization had first touched the divine forces of nature.
So it wasn’t hard to understand Al’s excitement.
Being considerate, Zola said:
“We can stay here for a few minutes.”
“Thank you so much!”
Al gave a tiny cheer and began carefully inspecting every crack and groove in the stone circle with the meticulousness of an archaeologist.
But just then, the ever-vigilant Zhuoya suddenly pulled her bow from her back.
“I sense a cold, sinister aura. Something might be approaching.”
Zola, who had been jotting down notes, immediately closed her notebook and placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.
The surroundings went deathly quiet.
Only the rushing sounds of the underground river and the group’s breathing could be heard.
“Over here!”
Without warning, Zola turned and slashed her sword in one fluid motion.
A piercing screech like a violent wind ripped through the air, and a blurry humanoid shadow—semi-transparent—was cleaved out of thin air.
It was like a signal.
One after another, ghostly transparent figures emerged from the air, crowding everyone’s field of view.
They floated weightlessly, their faces featureless save for one terrifying, gaping mouth.
“Ghosts! Switch to silver swords!”
Ordinary weapons are useless against ghosts—only magic or enchanted gear could harm them, but silver was a rare exception.
As one of the sacred metals, silver-plated swords don’t perform as well as pure steel blades, but they’re effective against corrupted beings.
The other two Royal Guards immediately swapped weapons and, eyeing the oncoming ghosts, struck swiftly.
The transparent figure let out a shrill wail before shattering into nothing.
Which seemed to infuriate the rest of the ghosts, who surged forward all at once like a solid wall of malevolence.
“Enchanted arrows!”
So fast her hand movements were barely visible, Zhuoya loosed three shots in near succession, blasting a hole through the ghostly encirclement.
Then she drew another arrow, not nocking it on her longbow, but gripping it like a dagger.
Her body spun and glided in a lethal, elegant dance.
(End of Chapter)