OBS Chapter 3476 The Inn of the Gods
Chapter 3476 The Inn of the Gods
Chapter 3476 The Inn of the Gods
First, there's the room number. This room's number is "1024," meaning it's located on the tenth floor of the hotel. Judging from the room numbers, there are at most 100 rooms on this floor, ranging from 1000 to 1099. However, the corridors themselves are extremely dangerous, so even after being here for so long, they haven't been able to fully explore this floor.
"Most of the rooms here contain things, and the locations of the rooms are constantly changing, but fortunately they only change on the same floor. Don't stay in the dark for too long, or you'll encounter danger; but you also can't turn on any light sources, or you'll become the most conspicuous target in the dark. The light sources here also include the light from spellcasting."
The middle-aged witch, Lady Gerd, who was explaining the situation to Shad, said this, then pointed to the fireplace:
"The safe way to start a light is with matches, specifically the special matches from this hotel. It doesn't matter what you ignite, but the source of the fire must be one of these matches."
Each match's flame can only last for a limited time; after that, it will go out. Moreover, the flame lasts longer if the vehicle remains stationary, but it becomes more easily extinguished the further it moves. This is the most precious resource in this inn; we can endure going without food and water, but we absolutely cannot go without fire.”
She did not tell Shad how many matches they had in total:
"Miss Koens's current condition is what happened when we went out to search for matches last time. We encountered a slime-like creature in the corridor that could spit out mud. After being touched by the mud it spat out, Miss Koens lost feeling in her lower body and began to turn into rock."
The twelfth-tier vampire also added:
“I drank her blood to analyze the cause, but it’s not a curse; it’s part of the relic’s properties. By constantly replenishing her blood, I can barely control her petrified body, only down to her lower body, but it’s hard to say what will happen after that.”
"I have a solution, you can try it."
As Shad spoke, he stood up and rummaged through his pockets, pulling out soil and flower petals, and then the magical technique that had helped him so much all along:
"Earth Power - Healing Spiritual Energy"
He had always cast this spell on the environment before; this was the first time he had used it on a person. Fortunately, the effect was quite good. After the illusory Holy Grail took shape, it entered Miss Cohens' heart, and then the earthy yellow spiritual energy surged through her body.
In just a moment, she regained feeling in her lower body. But perhaps because the target of this spell was life itself, not the environment, Shad did not receive the "Holy Grail" as a reward for purifying the earth after the spell ended.
Miss Cohens was still unable to stand independently and needed a short period of recovery. Shad had only dispelled the influence of the relics, but her physical injuries remained. She sincerely thanked Shad; being unable to move in such a place was no different from lying down and waiting to die.
Seeing that Shad had indeed healed their companion, and that the "Earth Divine Magic" he used was quite ancient, Miss Novare the vampire and the middle-aged witch Lady Gerd trusted Shad a little more.
Xia De then seized the opportunity to ask:
"So your understanding of this place is limited to the rules of matches?"
"Do not."
The vampire girl shook her head:
"There are stairs in the corridor that go up or down. Generally speaking, the floors going down are safer, but the chances of finding good stuff are also lower. The floors going up become increasingly dangerous. The slime monster we encountered was on the fifteenth floor."
She knew what Shad was thinking:
“There are empty rooms on each floor, but even if you light a fire in those rooms, it will be dangerous to stay there for a long time. Only this room with the statue of that ancient god is absolutely safe. Before you appeared, we were planning to go out and explore again to see if we could find a way to remove the relic’s properties. We were just discussing our plans for this trip when we heard the knock on the door.”
Everyone sat down in front of the fireplace, Miss Cohens leaning against the beautiful red-haired vampire. Shad felt they were getting a little too close. But considering this was the Fifth Age, it was quite normal.
"Vampires and Witchers"
The food that Shade brought out was shared by everyone. They were able to eat fresh food for the first time in a long time, and their companions were also healed. The witches were obviously happy.
The warm flames of a fireplace always bring a sense of security, even if the flames aren't particularly strong. This time, without Shad needing to ask further, the vampire Miss Novare continued to share what she knew:
"Apart from a few empty rooms, most of the rooms here are dangerous even for a twelfth-tier witch like me. Fortunately, the room numbers don't change, so we've recorded all the rooms we've explored. We've also entered the 1022 Demon Room you mentioned once; it's inhabited by the ancient evil spirit—the Ice Demon Herimsul."
It feared the matches in the hotel more than anything else in the darkness; that's how we escaped.
She then looked curiously at Xia De, hoping he would explain how she had escaped. But Xia De didn't know either, only guessing that the Tree Father's power had temporarily suppressed the demon, and that he had reached the doorway by the time the demon's power gradually returned.
If given the chance, Shad would very much like to have a chat with that demon. The demon must have witnessed the scene when he "appeared," and Shad was very curious about it.
Besides demons, many other dangerous things, such as evil creatures and humanoid relics, are also imprisoned here. Some doors even connect directly to the interiors of certain dangerous architectural relics.
The witcher, having come from the deserted village, most likely mistakenly opened the door connecting the relic to this inn. And in the summary they shared with Shad, he even saw a familiar relic:
"Does Gate 1713 lead to the Sin Mansion?"
Theoretically, leaving this place by entering the interior of a location-type relic and then returning to the normal world from inside those strange buildings is also a way to leave, but this method is too dangerous, and they cannot do it either.
"Could there be a door connecting to the House of the Pseudo-Humans here? No, no, this is the House of the Pseudo-Humans of this era, it's no use for me to leave."
Some of the worn and yellowed notebooks recorded the places they had explored, page by page.
Shad noticed that they had been to the second floor at least, and most of the rooms there were empty, with a few rooms occasionally having some terrible food. They would go there periodically to check.
The witches went as far as the 23rd floor, but no room was marked on that floor; they only wrote "Danger in the corridor, do not enter this floor".
Although they wouldn't be in danger as long as the stairwell was well-lit, they hadn't been to the higher floors out of consideration for not wasting matches, so they didn't know how many floors the hotel had.
"Haven't you been to the first floor? Is there an exit on the first floor to leave this place?"
Shad then asked, "Miss Noire, the vampire, is brewing black tea right now. The other two are eating, but she seems to crave the tea more than the food."
"The situation on the first floor is a little different. When we explore each floor, I first release bats to scout the area. If the corridor allows the bats to stay for more than twenty seconds, then we will enter."
The danger of the 23rd floor was discovered in this way. But the 1st floor was different; after the bat entered, I saw something, then the bat disappeared, and my memory of that part of the story vanished as well.
"I was out with Novare at the time, and the situation was very strange."
The witcher girl, who had been sitting up eating her chocolate bread, put down her food and said that she didn't like talking while holding food, because it was impolite.
"Noire was bleeding from her mouth and eyes, but she didn't realize it. After the bats disappeared, she told me: 'Then I'll release the bats down to the first floor.' There must be something extraordinary on the first floor, so even though Noire saw it, she forced herself to forget it."
Ms. Gerd chose to eat cold steaks, and she heated one up for everyone before starting to eat.
"I have some guesses about the situation on the first floor, but I can't verify them."
My mother's notes say this is a hotel, and here we've seen all sorts of evil creatures, demons, and even more terrifying things. Since the hotel could imprison so many things, its founder and manager must have been far more powerful than them—perhaps the person on the first floor was a saint.
Aside from gods, I can't think of any other being capable of building such a hotel.
Now Shad knew what he had to do.
The task had a time limit of fifty minutes, and he had already spent ten minutes talking to the girls. He didn't have much time left to waste.
"I want to go downstairs and check the situation."
He noted down the floor summary information shared by the witches:
"My situation is a little different from yours, and it's complicated to explain, but there should be someone on the first floor who can help me. So, could you lend me a few matches?"
He had just given her food and supplies, and even treated the witcher, so he could have simply asked for matches, but Shad still used the word "borrow."
They were only slightly surprised by Shad's suggestion, but none of them objected. After a silent exchange of glances, the strongest of the three witches, Miss Noire, spoke:
“I’ll go with you. Our original plan included exploring the first level again when conditions allowed. Although I don’t know why you’re confident enough to go after hearing that there might be a saint on the first level, we choose to trust you.”
I'll show you the way; after all, you don't know much about this place.
She pried open the wooden floorboards in front of Shad and took out two matchboxes. The matchboxes were quite old-fashioned, containing a total of 32 matches. They were old-fashioned, unsafe matches that could be lit with a single strike anywhere.