Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 443 Can I let her be my grandmother?

As to why Alice knew there was a secret passage here, it has to be said that this is a question worth pondering, even though she herself was unaware of it.

"I don't know." She said carelessly, "The game editor reminded me that I could set a hidden road here, so I did it to enrich the gameplay. How about it? Isn't it a surprise?"

Playability is really a universal excuse. Perhaps in Alice's view, no matter how unreasonable something is, as long as these three words are added, it instantly becomes very reasonable.

Taking an oil lamp from the wall of the corridor for lighting, Leticia led her grandmother into the dark passage. First, there was a spiral staircase going down, as if walking in an endless tower. The light of the oil lamp flickered, illuminating the pale bricks and dusty cobwebs on the walls on both sides. The scene was repetitive and monotonous, as if trapped in the same cycle, empty and meaningless.

It has been who knows how long since anyone used this secret passage. The air inside is turbid and heavy. The dust floating in the darkness is attracted by the flames and sticks to the outer shell of the oil lamp like moths to a flame, giving the originally delicate copper lamp wall a layer of dirty shadow.

The sound of footsteps echoed in the void, covering the two people's slow and even breathing, setting off a deep and dead atmosphere. The further they went down, the more obvious this feeling became, until in the end, Leticia could not stand this atmosphere anymore. She spoke, and although she deliberately lowered her voice, it was still so clear in the silent environment, even a little abrupt: "Alice, where does this secret passage lead to?"

The repetitive spiral staircase made the girl lose her original keen sense of direction. She only knew that she was going down, down and down, and she might even have reached the base of the castle, but she didn't know which direction she was going. The countdown passed by minute by minute, and she felt a little anxious.

"Ah, about this." Alice hesitated for a moment before replying, "I didn't look at it carefully when I made the map. After all, time is tight. The only thing I can be sure of is that this road should lead to the outskirts of the castle. Don't worry, even if the castle is really blown up by the people of the Balance of Order, it has nothing to do with us. Anyway, we should be underground now."

Isn't that worse?
A series of keywords such as "earthquake", "landfall", "buried", and "no remains left" flashed through Leticia's mind, so she was skeptical of Alice's blind optimism. At this time, the two finally reached the bottom of the stairs. In front of them was an extended corridor that led straight to the depths of darkness. The walls on both sides were no longer made of stone bricks, but dark brown rough rock walls, inlaid with unknown minerals that emitted a dim fluorescence, mud, sand and weeds mixed together, and a wooden support frame supported the space above the head, which looked a bit like the structure of a mine cave.

Leticia also shrank her neck: "I always feel like something terrible is going to happen."

Going deeper along this corridor, the road is not very long. It will reach the end in about two minutes. At the end is an open space filled with exquisite treasure chests. Various valuable treasures are hung on the rock walls: paintings, jewelry, jewels and even weapons. The bookshelves are filled with parchment and copperplate books. The wooden barrels contain various unknown scrolls and equipment, and bottles and jars are placed on the medicine racks... Among them, the most eye-catching is the knight statue in the center of the secret room. It is tall, like a giant, wearing heavy armor, holding a three-palm-wide giant sword in each hand, and carrying a huge iron shield behind it, as heavy and majestic as a door panel. It looks like it is made of iron, and the surface of its body is covered with dust. The eye sockets under the mask are empty and eerie, silently watching the uninvited guests who have stepped into this place for the first time in more than a hundred years.

Alice seemed to remember something when she said this, but she couldn't remember it for a while, so she fell into deep thought.

The sound of dripping water probably seeped from the soil above, filtered through mud, sand and rocks, and then dripped onto the floor of the corridor, accumulating into a small pool of spring water. The atmosphere here was more empty and deader than when he was walking on the stairs before.

Nevill covered her nose and frowned slightly: "Did the werewolves of Neoesu build this road so that they could go to the underground world and rule over the rats there one day?"

"I understand!" Leticia suddenly realized: "Could this be the treasure house of the Neoesu family?"

“Ah.” Alice finally remembered what she had overlooked before: “Generally speaking, there are powerful hidden bosses in these secret passages and secret rooms. Leticia, you better be careful.”

However, her reminder was obviously too late. Leticia's voice disturbed the guardian in the secret room, so the knight statue that was standing motionless in the center of the room suddenly moved, raised its head stiffly, and the joints of its limbs made a violent roar similar to the friction of rusty gears. Two cold rays of light were projected from its hollow and deep eyes, locking onto the petite vampire girl like a searchlight penetrating the foggy forest, and then rumbled forward a few steps, instantly shortening the distance, and with a slow and oppressive movement, raised the giant sword in its hand and chopped it down towards Leticia, cutting through the whistling wind.

Leticia was startled and instinctively used her only control skill [Light Fusion] to try to buy time to escape. But in the fierce flash of light, the Knight Golem's movements remained firm and unshakable. It didn't even hesitate for a short breath. The two giant swords crossed and swept over Leticia's head, casting a terrifying shadow.

"It's over, this guy is not a living creature, so he can't be controlled!" Alice exclaimed in her mind.

The silver hair on Leticia's forehead was lifted by the wind from the giant sword, revealing her smooth pale forehead and bewildered eyes. She had no idea how to deal with the current situation. When the cold blade in her eyes gradually enlarged until it covered her pupils, the girl could even smell the rusty smell of ancient steel. She shouted out the only clear word in her mind without thinking: "Grandma!!!"

The next moment, a tall and elegant figure flashed behind the Knight Golem, without any sign, just like a figure in a painting suddenly descending. She gently stretched out her hand, and her seemingly thin and frail palm formed a shocking contrast with the Knight Golem's huge physique, but she easily broke through the iron armor and reached into the golem's body, as if she had grabbed something and squeezed it casually.

With a sharp and sharp snapping sound, the golem's heart shattered, and the cold light in his eyes dimmed in an instant, and his whole body became stiff as if dead. Only the giant swords in his hands continued to chop down Leticia by inertia, but they had lost their fierce and fierce momentum, so they finally stopped powerlessly, hanging less than a finger's width away from the girl's nose, so that the girl felt that if she was a second later, the sharp blades of the two swords would cut her cheek and bleed bright red.

The Knight Golem slowly lowered its head, motionless and silent, and from its cracked limb joints and neck opening, hot white mist slowly gushed out. Through the torn hole on its chest, one could clearly see that the gears, levers, and bearing parts inside were in pieces and unrecognizable. The extent of the tearing even made one feel that a storm had raged inside it. At this moment, Nevelle had just withdrawn her hand and gracefully shook off the iron filings and dust on her palm, with a calm expression on her face, as if she had just killed a flying insect.

"This Guardian Golem invented by the Windmill Cross borrowed the construction technology of the Steam Cult, but it has neither a shell made of magic metal nor an internal magic core to provide power. It relies more on the small steam engine in the heart and the mechanical structure between the parts. Therefore, as long as the integrity of its structure is destroyed, it does not even need to destroy the small steam engine that serves as an energy supply to stop it from functioning."

She said to Leticia, "If you remember the enemy's weaknesses, it will be easy to defeat it. However, you probably don't need to do that because you won't encounter the same enemy again. I heard that the Windmill Cross eliminated all the old models of Guardian Golems a hundred years ago. I didn't expect that the people in Neoersu are still using this outdated thing and even think it can protect the family's last wealth. What a bunch of ignorant people."

There was a lot of disdain in her words, and Leticia, including the spirit behind her, were stunned.

Judging from the momentum displayed by the Knight Golem just now, its combat power is definitely not as bad as Nevelle belittled, but it is indeed shattered at the touch, and can be described as a kill in one second. Is this the true strength of the legendary Undead Witch? The margin of the immortal?

"Your grandmother is so strong." As a strength-oriented person, Alice expressed her envy and made a very shameless statement that could be said to break the moral bottom line of human beings: "Can I let her be my grandmother too?"

Everyone: "..."

Leticia: "No way! Alice, you are so shameless, get out of my mind now!"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)