Chapter 248: Evil God Statue? Goddess Statue?
Accompanied by the release of magic power imbued with evil energy, Cheng Tian and his group were teleported to the lowest level entrance of the Black Tower.
The one responsible for the spatial transfer was naturally Sabba, the mage secretary, who was Dalles's bootlicker, filled with dissatisfaction but forced to keep it to herself.
Dalles's spatial transfer interference was primarily aimed at the forces of the Kingdom of Ys; he and his subordinate spellcasters were naturally able to perform normal transfer spells.
As the saying goes, Dalles didn't mind conflicts and competition among his subordinates, but the premise was that it shouldn't delay important matters. So, he decisively intervened to interrupt the "infighting" and forcibly assigned search tasks.
Even if the Axe Man and the secretary were unwilling, they could only obediently back down.
Cheng Tian's two people and one familiar were assigned to start exploring from the lowest level.
Although the Dark Clan could, to some extent, command monsters in battle, they essentially only utilized monsters rather than being true monster creators. Therefore, when facing the Dark Clan, the monsters inhabiting the Black Tower would still launch attacks.
In terms of monster difficulty, starting from the lowest level was naturally the easiest, but at the same time, there was a greater chance of encountering more rescue teams from the Temple Knights and the Six High Priests' Mage Organization of the Kingdom of Ys.
These people were also here to find the Goddess, and once they met, a fierce battle was inevitable.
One could only say that Dalles was not a fool. The things he had shown before were mostly to provoke his other subordinates. He was half-skeptical about the rumors concerning Cheng Tian, so he directly handed the high-pressure task of the lowest level to Cheng Tian and his group.
This also happened to be exactly what Cheng Tian wanted; many treasures inside the Black Tower really needed to be searched for from the very beginning.
"Catch."
After Sabba finished speaking, she didn't care whether Cheng Tian heard her or not and directly threw an object out.
Bazett was quick-eyed and quick-handed, directly intercepting the object falling in an arc in mid-air. It was a short sword, like a ceremonial item, with a black crystal as its blade.
[Black Crystal: Plot-limited item. A replica manufactured by Dalles according to the Kingdom of Ys's crystal artifacts. It possesses the power to corrupt the Goddess statues scattered inside and outside the Black Tower into Evil God statues and to use activated Evil God statues as teleportation anchors for spatial transfer.
Use the Black Crystal to touch a Goddess statue to corrupt it into an Evil God statue and activate the teleportation anchor, or to activate a statue that is already in the state of an Evil God statue.
Activating the Black Crystal allows up to 5 units to perform spatial transfers between Evil God statues. Based on the magic power source provided by the Black Tower itself, spatial transfers will consume no mana and will have no cooldown time.
The Black Crystal can only be used in a non-combat state.]
[Additional Hint: The number of Evil God statues/Goddess statues in the Black Tower is fixed, and the forces of the Kingdom of Ys also possess "White Crystals" that can purify Evil God statues and restore them to Goddess statues. Furthermore, the forces of the Kingdom of Ys can use Goddess statues as spatial anchors to bypass Dalles's interference transfer spell and achieve rapid transfers within the Black Tower.
Even an Evil God statue that has been corrupted and activated can still be purified by a White Crystal. Similarly, an activated Goddess statue can also be corrupted again by a Black Crystal. Therefore, contending for the statues within the Black Tower as teleportation anchors will also be an important strategic component.]
The moment the Black Crystal entered Bazett's hand, Cheng Tian immediately received a prompt from the space.
Seeing that the statues could be repeatedly purified and corrupted, Cheng Tian raised an eyebrow, an amused expression appearing on his face.
In the original storyline, the statues were essentially save points, enhancement points, and teleportation points within each independent area map of the Black Tower. Once activated, they would remain effective, facilitating quick exploration and travel for players, and there would be no situation where a teleportation point would become invalid.
But looking at this additional hint, a teleportation point activated just a few minutes ago might be taken over by the NPCs from Ys a few minutes later.
"How about it? Doesn't it feel very pleasant to see the seemingly righteous Goddess statue corrupted into such an ugly form?"
The female mage pointed at the distorted statue not far away, smiling very sinisterly.
The statue's form was like a goat-horned demon wrapped in vines. It had to be said that its corrupted appearance still had a touch of artistic flair.
It was unclear whether she harbored a great deal of malice towards the Goddess or if her boss's will was simply her driving force, but Sabba genuinely felt joy in the act of desecrating the Goddess.
Bazett's brows furrowed slightly, but since Cheng Tian said nothing, she also remained silent.
"This thing can corrupt Goddess statues, activate Evil God statues, and has spatial transfer ability. You know how to use it, right?"
Sabba, who had been smiling and admiring the twisted posture of the Evil God statue for a while, felt somewhat bored because she didn't hear a response from Cheng Tian's direction, so she directly got to the point.
"I know."
Cheng Tian's face was noncommittal.
"Heh~ Then don't disappoint Lord Dalles's expectations, and fight with all your might for him."
Sabba, sensing Cheng Tian's disdain but finding it difficult to lash out, left only this sentence before disappearing into thin air.
As soon as Sabba left, Bazett clearly wanted to say something, but upon seeing Cheng Tian make a "shush" gesture, she paused slightly, took a deep breath, and her expression returned to normal.
Cheng Tian then took the Black Crystal from Bazett's hand and strode towards the Evil God statue—
Then he simply walked past it! He continued straight into the Black Tower without looking back!
Cheng Tian chose not to activate the Evil God statue.
The Evil God statue would indeed provide a spatial transfer anchor, but its activation would also expose the information that "an enemy has been here recently."
It should be known that both the Temple Knights and the High Priests included quite powerful BOSS units, something anyone who played the Thor route in the original work would deeply understand.
As a charming villain just starting out, Cheng Mouren had a certain level of confidence in his own combat strength, but he was definitely not at the point where he could sweep everything. If he were surrounded by the Temple Knights and High Priests and farmed like a BOSS, that would be a big problem.
Since the Evil God statue had lost its original function of strengthening players, activating it or not didn't significantly affect Cheng Tian's map-clearing actions.
And if all went as expected, the Black Tower contained many things that could allow him to grow stronger in a short period. It wouldn't be too late to fight with the Ys people then.
When Cheng Tian and the others' figures disappeared into the entrance of the Black Tower, Sabba, who had just been teleported away, reappeared. She looked at the unactivated Evil God statue with a hint of thought on her face, then disappeared again.