The cave was dark and narrow, no different from an ordinary mountain cavern—animal droppings and similar debris could still be seen in the corners. But after Lucian followed the winding path deeper into the cave, he found the branching passages growing more and more numerous, dense as a spider's web.
He took the crystal ball from his storage bag and rubbed its surface, combining the information Rhein had provided to cast a simple divination spell, roughly determining which path to take.
Stepping into a downward-sloping passage, Lucian walked for several dozen meters before encountering new branches—and also spotted the pile of oddly shaped, deep-black coal ash that Rhein had described.
It was shaped like the palm of a hand, deliberately left as a waymark.
The destinations he needed to reach were the Dark Mountains, the contaminated waters of the endless ocean, the desert south of the Gustav Empire, and Antifleur—the capital of the Sacred Haerz Empire—covering the north, south, east, and west of the entire continent. Even though Lucian had mastered the Advanced Flight Spell, with the need for caution, concealment, and rest, completing the task within a year would still be extremely tight. So Rhein had provided an extradimensional space controlled by vampires for Lucian to jump through, which could greatly save travel time.
The relationship between extradimensional spaces and the primary material world was completely different from what ordinary mages imagined—a large bubble embedded with many smaller bubbles—because the form of spatial existence already exceeded the limits of imagination constrained by experience, the physical body, and the soul, and could only be determined through formulaic descriptions.
These extradimensional spaces connected to the primary material world through numerous "spatial nodes." Although their actual area was far smaller than the main world, the coordinates of spatial nodes might place one in the Dark Mountains and another in the sky city of Allence, with the distance between them inside the extradimensional space perhaps only one percent, one-thousandth, or even one-ten-thousandth of the distance in the primary material world. Therefore, using the Planar Gates stationed at spatial nodes to jump was an excellent method for travel.
However, if the extradimensional space was extremely dangerous or labyrinth-like, the time spent inside would skyrocket, and due to the barrier of spatial separation, one could not communicate with the primary material world. For instance, the "Element Master" Hathaway had once explored an extradimensional space called the "Erlkex Labyrinth," attempting to find its Chaos Sea boundary, only to waste a full ten years inside without finding the exit node. In the end, she had no choice but to rely on the connection between a legendary mage and her own demi-plane, forcibly performing a "Space-Time Drift" that took five years before she could return.
Thus, Lucian was both skeptical and wary of the Netherworld's existence. It was almost a chaotic reflection of the primary material world—it had no spatial nodes, yet was intertwined everywhere, connected through strange, imperceptible rifts.
This gave Lucian a constant feeling that the Netherworld was the dark side of the primary material world. Combined with the fact that mages like Maskelyn were trapped inside, along with his own innate fear of undead creatures, he frequently worried that one day it would endanger the primary material world—endanger his own life.
It was precisely for this reason that, upon learning from Rhein that disturbances had occurred deep within the Netherworld, Lucian, despite some reservations, chose to remain vigilant yet trusting. Adding the promise he had made beforehand, he decided to attempt it—though if the difficulty truly exceeded his capabilities, he would undoubtedly return without hesitation and choose to risk reporting to the Supreme Council.
After finding the first inconspicuous waymark, Lucian's speed heading deeper underground toward the spatial node increased steadily, and he no longer needed divination magic to choose between the branching passages.
But Lucian did not put away the crystal ball. Instead, he let it float before him, his hands rhythmically rubbing its surface five times.
The crystal ball grew brighter and more transparent, until suddenly it shifted from bright to black and "spat out" a strange object.
The object was only as large as a thumb, entirely dark, its surface covered in deep wrinkles.
Lucian pointed a finger, and the strange object flew upward. A crack suddenly split open in its center, quickly widening to reveal a pale pupil threaded with fine black lines.
It was actually an eye!
The bizarre eye blurred for a moment, then split into nine equal-sized copies. They concealed themselves from sight and flew forward, backward, left, and right.
The darkness within the crystal ball gradually faded, revealing the cave's conditions in nine separate segments—exactly what the eyes could see. This was the fifth-circle astrological spell Scrying Demon Eye.
At the same time, Lucian cast another fourth-circle astrological spell, Detect Danger, to provide early warning within a fifty-meter radius against malice and surveillance.
Combining what the demon eyes observed, Lucian advanced carefully into the depths. According to Rhein, the ancient dwarven ruins concealing the spatial node and the Planar Gate harbored quite a few monsters—subterranean hunters, dwarf ghosts that could not dissipate after death, the Corrupted Brood Mother, and the countless fallen abominations she had spawned. Even though there were no high-level creatures, a surprise attack could still pose a threat to him.
……
Branch after branch dazed Anguus's eyes. In this dark, damp, oppressive cavern passage, it could no longer sense Lucian's aura, let alone see his figure.
In terms of covering his tracks, Lucian had received the true teachings of Natasha the Sky Knight, and since Anguus dared not get too close, in the ordinary sense, it had already lost his trail.
Two points of crimson flame flickered on its rotting face, but Anguus did not panic. It chanted a silent incantation, beginning to use astrological divination magic to pinpoint Lucian's location.
Despite the numerous branching passages, Anguus was very certain that the straight-line distance between them had not exceeded one kilometer. At such close range, divination magic was extremely precise.
"Stellar coordinates (159, 260); Lucian is at this position, four hundred meters from me." Based on Lucian's position, Anguus chose a passage and advanced cautiously. Whenever it encountered a dead end, it would transform into an incorporeal form or slip into the Netherworld, passing directly through the walls.
Stellar coordinates had no unified standard—the system used by high-level undead differed significantly from that employed by the Magic Parliament, especially since the magic they cast was innate instinct that manifested naturally upon advancement.
After passing through more than a dozen rock walls, just about to catch up to Lucian, Anguus reminded itself internally: "I must not enter within thirty meters of him, or I'll be detected by the ninth-rank divine item. Once I've confirmed his destination, I'll ambush and kill him!"
……
With the Scrying Demon Eyes scouting ahead and standing guard, when wave after wave of hideous fallen abominations lunged out, Lucian showed not the slightest surprise. The simplest and fastest Magic Missiles condensed in his hands, tracing silver-black trajectories through the air, hitting their marks with perfect accuracy as he dispatched them one by one.