Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 161 Have you seen the light again?
Under Olvera's complicated gaze, the giant wolf slowly closed his eyes and exiled himself back to the eternal darkness. Hair, flesh, claws... everything he once had turned into dim mist and dissipated, floating upward with the memories of the past, and finally melted into the residual light of the lamp and disappeared.

There was only a huge skeleton left, like a giant beast from ancient times, silently crawling. Between the pale bones, there were vague echoes of the past, and the wind passed through, making a low whistle, as if someone was talking, communicating with them through the sound of the wind, but when they looked up, they could not see anything.

Olvera pursed her lips and said nothing, quietly looking at the skeleton left by the giant wolf. After a few minutes, she spoke, her voice revealing a bit of confusion: "Alice, we and him... are enemies, right?"

Alice's brief response came to my mind: "Yeah."

"In that case, why did he say these things to us?" The girl unconsciously clenched the hilt of the sword in her hand. Although she was talking to Alice, it was more like talking to herself: "He said that he hoped I could muster up the courage to keep moving forward, but even without his encouragement, I would have done so; he said that by drawing strength from past memories, we can fight against the darkness, but doesn't he know how those memories were lost? He also said that he never wanted to hurt me, but isn't it a kind of harm to turn my shadow into countless ferocious beasts and force me to be locked in a dark cage forever?"

Olvera lowered her head slightly, letting her platinum bangs cover her eyes. The bright star cluster was stirring up the tide, and the dust was surging, proving that the girl was not calm: "What great cause... It is clearly an evil cause, because, "There has never been a cause that requires sacrifices when the parties involved know nothing. For the innocent, high-sounding words are not comfort, but more like pity, high above, and granting you the qualification to share the great cause, and then the dissidents can calm down the disputes and become vassals." Isn't this a ridiculous thing, Alice?"

she asked.

Alice could tell that her mood was a little off, so she agreed and changed the subject abruptly: "Yes, that's right, I think so too. It's really abominable that such an evil guy wants to whitewash himself with a plot. He really looks down on me as a game writer! Ah, I almost forgot, Ovira, let's take a look at what good things this BOSS has dropped. It will be bad if we delay too long and the system refreshes it."

Will the drops be refreshed by the system?

Olvera had never encountered such a situation before. She knew that Alice was trying to change the subject. After all, this method was not very clever. But now was not the time to discuss this issue. So she temporarily suppressed the complicated thoughts in her mind, put away the holy sword, walked towards the skeleton of the giant wolf, and picked up the props he dropped in the shadow of the huge skeleton.

A small bronze key.

[Attribute Orb - Magic: My magic will tear you into pieces... Sorry, I made a mistake. Actually, if you have reached this level, you don't need this orb. After equipping it, it will increase your magic value by 250 points and increase the natural recovery speed of magic by 50%. ]

A precious pearl.

A certificate in the shape of a shield, decorated with swords, griffins and dragon fire.

[Key to the next floor: After use, it will open the door to the corridor on the next floor. ]

[Proof of Heroes: The relics of the legendary heroes, which carry their memories, experiences and powers. Only those who are recognized can call upon the phantom of the hero to awaken and return to the world. Use it in the fire source to randomly awaken a dormant hero weapon and unlock the corresponding mechanism.]

A pale blue crystal, with a halo inside that outlines a girl bravely swinging a sword at the shadow of a giant wolf.

[Reverberation of Courage: The courage that once stirred in the heart will continue to echo after it calms down, telling the story of how the holder once fought hard here and defeated the memory of cowardice. Placing it in the prop column can activate the corresponding state. In addition, there may be unexpected functions that require the holder to discover by himself.] Then there are five pieces of [Ashes of the Fire], which will explode no matter what monster you kill. Olvera used it up before, and now it is just the right time to make up for it. In addition, what is surprising is that the skeleton of the giant wolf is also a prop.

[Wolf's Bones: The remains of a giant wolf that once relied on darkness and memory. It retains a trace of his power. If it is ignited with embers, it may be possible to start a new fire here and completely dispel the darkness that shrouds this corridor. Note: After the darkness is expelled, the monster will no longer refresh.]

After reading the detailed introduction of each item, Olvera stared at the giant wolf's remains with a sharp gaze, eager to try. Alice was a little disappointed after the surprise: "That's it? I thought it was a big drop, but it turned out to be useless. Only the Reverberation of Courage and the Proof of Heroes are somewhat useful, but they are the same as the key and the wolf's remains. They are all things that must be dropped in the plot, right? So the actual items you dropped are only five embers and a magic bead, which don't seem as good as the jumping bead and the rolling bead."

It turns out that Ovilla's luck may have really run out.

But she herself didn't care about such insignificant matters. She cared more about the wolf's remains in front of her: "Alice, it says that as long as the wolf's bones are set on fire, the darkness in this corridor can be dispelled. Should we... give it a try?"

Alice's answer was: "Of course I have to try. If you don't light a new fire source, you won't be able to use the hero's proof to activate a new weapon. You can't go back to the room you started in, right?"

It turns out this is what she cares about.

But what Olvera cared more about was the light that would come from lighting the fire. After all, she hadn't seen such a brilliant, glorious and dazzling light for a long time.

She took off the lantern from her waist and carefully moved towards the remains of the giant wolf. Suddenly, as if a flame from the sun had passed by, a bright golden flame first ignited in the empty eye sockets of the skeleton. Then, the flame quickly extended to every pale inch of the skeleton. Soon, the bones that were once covered with cold darkness burned like firewood, and a wolf-shaped bonfire was lit on the spot. The swaying flames were his hair blowing in the wind, the scattered fire was his breath, and the things floating in the shadow of the bonfire were his lurking claws... The dead wolf seemed to be alive again at this moment, bringing precious light to this space.

Everything was illuminated. The Colosseum was shrouded in a sacred and brilliant light. In the ruined square of bricks, tiles and gravel, every inch of light could cruise through the cracks and then spread to farther places, like a tide, gradually overflowing the edge of the square, overflowing the ancient stone bricks, overflowing the cold and lonely door... soaking the corridor where we came from, and giving the meaning of light to all the scenes that were once trapped in the darkness.

[A new fire source has been lit. Congratulations on successfully expelling the darkness from the fifth-floor corridor. From now on, this place will not be invaded by evil.]

[The fire source function has been unlocked. ]

Olvera had no time to pay attention to the cold and rigid narration instructions. She opened her eyes wide and looked at the scene in front of her, greedily absorbing the warmth and heat in every inch of light, until they cast a beam of light in her eyes, disrupting the chaotic star clusters, and suddenly it was like another flame was ignited, bright and beautiful.

She couldn't help but speak, murmuring, "So beautiful."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)