Angor saw the creepy eyesight scanning through the island and felt his hair stand.
He had to do something immediately to conceal himself. Being noticed by the monster definitely meant trouble.
He quickly canceled the effect of his boots and landed on the ground while deploying a simple nightmare illusion around him that camouflaged his body with the barren earth. At the same time, he activated Infinite Reticence to its maximum level.
But he still didn’t feel safe. The land was almost washed flat by the tidal waves earlier. It was too difficult to stay hidden if more light shined through the door. Even though Leviathan wasn’t a sensitive monster, it would notice the illusion nodes hanging in midair sooner or later or detect the energy of an illusion in this otherwise dead land.
“Must find a way out of here...” Angor forced his body to look around.
The earthquake had ended after it overhauled the whole landscape. Earlier, Torras came to hide in the mountains nearby. However, there were no longer places to hide here apart from a fissure not far from Angor’s position.
He wondered if that was where Torras used to stay before. Nevertheless, going into the land gap should be a better choice right now, as his illusion and Infinite Reticence would fail easily if the Leviathan somehow decided to keep looking his way.
He immediately moved. It seemed the monster was still randomly checking different parts of the island. He didn’t know how much time his tricks would last.
Bit by bit, he proceeded toward the fissure by crawling on all fours while avoiding debris left behind by the disaster earlier.
Fortunately, he arrived at his mark before the Leviathan looked at the central area of the island. Swiftly, he combat-rolled into the crack and left a scout avatar behind as a monitor.
While falling, he also used Purification Field to avoid leaving any smells or bodily pheromone behind.
After tumbling and bumping in complete darkness for a few seconds, he finally reached the bottom.
The mighty aura of the Leviathan had reached all the way here, albeit weaker.
Angor stood up and used the glowing effect of the Purification Field to inspect the area he was in.
He saw an underground tunnel that was obviously built by human hands. There were support beams in his view, which remained steady even after the earthquake. And as far as he could see, the path was clear.
A perfect spot for Torras to find shelter.
After making sure there was no danger around, he diverted a small part of his spirit to connect to the scout puppet on the surface.
The Leviathan was still looking around, but at the same time, Angor noticed that the monster was also doing something to the door. Apparently, the Leviathan was going to rip the door bigger using raw strength.
Each time it unleashed an attack at the door, the dark dimension would shake greatly. This was probably what caused the earthquake.
While observing the monster through the scout puppet, Angor also heard something else.
When the Leviathan was no longer howling as furiously as before, it allowed Angor to perceive other noises coming from the door, such as the sound of sea tides and... a strange sequence created by seawater.
He once heard a clue from Sunders that, apart from Sunders himself, there were a few individuals in this world who owned personal Sorcerer’s Gardens. One example was “God of Seas” Flunza, from Song of the Deep.
Flunza’s garden was a mid to low-tier Sorcerer’s Garden called the “Aquatic Paradise”. By using it, Flunza successfully learned the sequence of the sea.
Angor grimaced when he realized that there were already wizards waiting outside the door, just as he expected.
They had not entered the door yet probably because the Leviathan was there. But still, this meant there would be people coming eventually, and he’d better not remain here when that happened.
He had to head to the teleportation array now!
Yet he couldn’t go out and go for the cliff area when the Leviathan was peeking.
Thankfully, the scout puppet could help him wait for a chance when the Leviathan was looking elsewhere. The puppet was essentially an alchemy item that relied on a magic crystal inside to function without affecting the energy flows outside, which meant the Leviathan probably wouldn’t notice it.
While anxiously checking on the Leviathan’s moves, Toby suddenly called beside his ear.
He looked aside and saw Toby pointing a wing behind him, but he couldn’t see anything across the darkness.
“Is something wrong over there?” Angor asked while not forgetting to watch the puppet.
“Tweet.”
“You saw something flashing?”
Toby nodded and asked whether he should check ahead.
“A golden flash... Torras used to hide here, so he might have placed his treasures. Or maybe it’s Lucas’ treasure?”
Or both, if what Lucas said in his diary was a “prediction” again.
Angor reached his spirit feelers inside the Church of the Deceased to check whether Torras could tell him anything useful. Unfortunately, Torras was still an emotionless shell hiding at a corner of his prison.
The good thing was, the soul of Torras wasn’t breaking apart either.
Angor decided to go and see for himself. Using the full speed made possible by gravity power, he could travel a few kilometers within seconds, so it wouldn’t hurt even if the tunnel would take him far.
“Let’s go.” He nodded to Toby and moved ahead. “If there’s any big secret in this dimension, we can find it there.”
Similar to before, he kept his attention on the puppet outside while moving.
The tunnel wasn’t long. They soon arrived at a narrow room at the end of the path, where they saw a stone bed, a chair, and many random wooden objects that had rotten beyond recognition.
A creepy human skull was placed at the edge of the bed.
He looked around and didn’t see anything that could “shine with a golden light”. He released his spirit feelers to check and managed to find a hidden compartment behind the bed.
After putting a Luminous Stone inside the small cell, he was astonished to finally see the “treasures” he had been looking for.
Gold coins, treasure chests, decorative swords and arts enclosed in jeweled frames... Everything brilliantly amplified the light of the glowing stone and made the room brighter.
Even though Angor had no use for mortal prizes, he still felt amazed and a bit excited to discover the rich stash.
“This must be Torras’ pile.” He scanned through the items and sighed. “But nothing useful to us...”
But Toby said something that shines. I see nothing here that can create light on its own. Maybe he mistook something in his vision?
Since there was nothing of interest here, Angor stood up and was going to head back. He was only a little interested in the artworks, which were obviously done by masters of their times. Even so, it wasn’t the right time to collect them right now.
“Let’s move.” Angor tapped Toby’s head and turned away. “Wait... Leviathan isn’t at the door right now. Here’s our chance. We’ll make a run for it, Toby!”
Without a second thought, Angor dashed into the tunnel.
Toby was going to follow behind, but he suddenly sensed a golden light coming from behind him again.
It was the skull on the bed.
While humans might avoid such things that boded ill, Toby simply found the shining object to be rather pretty. After stuffing it into his Snowy Feather storage, Toby left the room and went after Angor.