Chapter 424 - 422: Hilia the Tool
"Want more?"
Encore looked at the blue potion in her hand.
"This isn’t exactly a magic power recovery potion, but it does help somewhat with mana recovery."
Hilia opened her eyes and exhaled.
The draining of magic power had stopped.
So Rose must have settled things over on that side.
The remaining potion effect restored about a tenth of Hilia’s magic power, which was sufficient for now.
She stood up, "No need, it’s enough. Thanks, Encore."
Encore hesitated to speak.
Hilia said awkwardly, "I’ll withdraw gold coins from the bank and pay you back when we get back."
Encore shook her head, "It’s not about the money; that’s not important. I wanted to ask... Are these potions unable to restore magic power?"
Hilia said, "How is that possible? These potions work quite well."
Encore replied, "Then why... after using so much, it seems like your magic power barely recovered a little?"
Hilia brushed her hair aside, "Uh, this is a special situation; it’s quite normal."
Normal?
Not normal at all!
Seeing Hilia’s reluctance to speak, Encore didn’t ask further and said, "We’ve been delayed for so long, the guard of Letes City should have explored below by now."
Hilia frowned, "They’re exploring? Do they have an Array Master?"
"I don’t know."
"Then do they have a Tier Four Mage?"
"I don’t know."
"..."
Hilia gave Encore a long look, "Are you really Encore? Not Doris?"
"Encore is always Encore, Hilia, what are you talking about."
Encore was quite displeased.
"How could I be that fool Doris."
Hilia said, "I recorded what you said, and I’ll play it back for Doris when I see her."
Encore hurriedly said, "Don’t, you can’t do that, Encore was just joking."
Hilia giggled, "Just kidding, alright, let’s go, take me to see that underground chamber you found."
"Okay, follow me."
The two of them moved forward together and soon arrived at a house surrounded by a group of guards.
"The tunnel is inside this house."
Hilia observed the surroundings and shook her head, "Letes City’s Array doesn’t restrict tunneling, that’s a fatal loophole."
Encore curiously asked, "What fatal loophole?"
"The enemy can smuggle into the city through tunneling."
"Really?" Encore thought for a moment, puzzled, "Letes City doesn’t have city walls, why wouldn’t the enemy just smuggle in from the surface?"
Hilia: "..."
Hilia: "Let’s not talk about this. You don’t get it. Let’s go inside."
Encore: "..."
Calling me a child?
The two of them crossed the guards without being stopped, as Encore was the one who discovered the place.
Entering the house, Hilia saw a hole in the middle of the room beneath the dining table.
The dining table had been moved aside. Hilia leaned over to look, seeing it was only three meters deep, she jumped into the hole.
Encore followed closely and entered the hole as well.
The two of them descended quickly. Before long, Hilia felt waves of corruption emanating from the tunnel walls.
She casually scraped away some of the earth from the wall, revealing the presence of array patterns inside.
"It’s similar to the heretical outpost in the Golden Apple Stone Forest, although different, but they are all the same type of array. Tsk, tsk, has the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association incorporated all the surrounding houses into the array?"
Hilia suddenly thought of something, a terrifying idea popped up.
"No, maybe it’s not just here; many other places might have been secretly set up with arrays, just like that bait array."
Encore looked up in surprise, asking, "You mean, throughout Letes City, there are many such arrays?"
Hilia nodded, "Very likely. They set it up at every outpost in the Golden Apple Stone Forest, no reason to spare the large settlement of Letes City."
The two of them continued quickly downward, soon reaching the bottom in a vast open chamber.
Before entering, they heard sounds of battle coming from inside. Upon entering, they saw guards fighting cultists.
The Guard Captain seemed to recognize Encore upon their arrival and urgently shouted, "Miss Encore, quickly, come help us! These cultists are strong; we need to deal with them quickly!"
Encore glanced at Hilia, who was looking at the center of the underground chamber, at the altar guarded by the cultists.
On it knelt a person, thin strands of demonic qi sinking into his body.
His power was escalating rapidly, now approaching the limit of Tier Three.
Hilia instructed, "Encore, go help everyone; I’ll handle this array."
Encore nodded, "Okay."
She then summoned a magic puppet and charged forward.
With her joining the battle, the guard felt a significant relief, and the balance of victory tilted in their favor.
Hilia looked at the altar, pulling out her magic staff, which began to glow.
The Mage’s Hand appeared, transforming into multiple fine threads connecting to the array.
The array that sacrificed souls to boost the offering’s power was something Hilia had already thoroughly studied in the Golden Apple Stone Forest.
Although this array had slight differences, it was generally the same.
It could be broken.
Numerous Mage’s Hands penetrated the array’s nodes, rapidly seizing control of the array’s core.
Just as she prepared to destroy it, she suddenly sensed a change in the flow of corruption within the array. Instead of converging towards the offering on the altar, it began dispersing outward from the offering.
And the point of change was...
Hilia abruptly looked at the ’offering’ on the altar.
"While I was breaking the array, it reached Tier Four but did not enter the battle, instead dispersing its power?"
Hilia tried to follow the escaping pollution with the Mage’s Hand to see where it was converging.
A moment later, she felt an expanse open up before her, as if adrift in a vast ocean, and her spiritual power was like a speck of foam in it, trying to find another speck but unable to track its source.
The end of this array was like a stream flowing into a lake, with many other streams around, but she had been swept into the vast lake, unable to find other streams’ sources.
Hilia’s spiritual power was being slowly stretched and lost.
A stronger spiritual power enveloped hers, pulling her back from the ocean.
Hilia snapped awake.
Rose calmly said, "Just break this array; don’t try to locate other arrays through this one. Each of these arrays is a separate entity, but together they form a larger array with the same function."
"Lord Rose means..."
Hilia’s heart pounded, contemplating the terrifying possibility.
Rose nodded, "That’s right, each small array’s purpose is to produce a Tier Four Mage, and when all these small arrays converge, they aim to produce a Tier Five Mage."
"Tier Five..."
Hilia’s breathing quickened.
"This Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association is incredibly daring."
She glanced at Rose, "Lord Rose, can I... break this array?"
The girl’s voice lacked confidence.
Rose chuckled lightly, "Of course, as long as it’s an array, there’s a core, there’s a weakness. Go; the answer you seek lies by the coastline."