Stray: Chapter 191 Pain Lock

After hastily stuffing the dry biscuits, the team that was promoted to the sea scorpion level stepped on the road ahead in despair.

Having learned the lessons from the seal of the corpse before, Nemo didn't dare to use the shadow detective to probe again, and he didn't want to think about what he would touch.

So he directed the shadows to gather into a ball, thought for a few seconds, and then split it into a black sphere the size of a human head. The black ball bounced on the ground, struggling to free four tiny feet on one side of the ball. They wriggled for a moment, landed on all fours, and then spread out, rushing awkwardly in different directions—a bit comical, but not slow.

Nemo decides to find another way.

After all, along the way, the Guan and the magic circle are basically all the original traps that already existed in the ancient tomb. The first obstacle that Medes added on his own initiative was the corpse seal at the main entrance of the ancient tomb just now. Unlike the rumored cheerful miscellaneous scholar, Mr. Medes, who turned into a necromancer, undoubtedly became a gloomy character.

Now that they have entered the interior of the tomb, Nemo does not want to rely on his strength and take the darkness in front of him lightly. He had companions to take care of, and countless blood-stained biographies kept repeating in his mind—even the strong would die from a small mistake. Unlike myself, everyone's life is just one, and it's always good to be careful.

"Nimo, since you can feel Medeth's position, can you open a space crack?" Oliver clenched the sword of rest carefully, and did not mean to relax at all.

"It's not easy." Nemo whispered, "If the other party considers the possibility of being probed, it is likely that other sections will be prepared in advance. Under this premise, if I open the crack to a certain Dangerous places... Not only will we not be able to get through, but Medes will be unhappy. At least for now, we are acting properly and are not 'despicable intruders'."

"It's really not that easy." Oliver sighed and used his bone sword to cut off the poisonous spear that was shot obliquely.

Unlike the rough exterior of the tomb, the veteran warriors knew the dangers inside the tomb. Except for Jesse, no one seemed to want to be lazy. An cautiously grasped the hunting spear, and the dull metal flashed the brilliance of lightning from time to time. The knight commander held the metal bow in it, the arrow on the bowstring, and sounded from time to time to remind them of the possible ancient trap.

Only Jesse carried the half-bald grey parrot, still looking like she was visiting the Trap Museum.

The black dumplings made by Nemo moved quickly and ran around. The dumplings were very active in triggering physical traps in advance, or crowded into a pile in front of the cursed circle that leaked the aura of magic, desperately reminding the master not to approach.

After leaving the hall at the entrance of the tomb, the advance speed of the tumbleweed was reduced by two-thirds.

Fortunately, moving forward cautiously has definitely improved the safety factor, and no one has been injured so far.

Under the guidance of Sombra Dango, despite the lack of map information, things like getting lost did not happen. But there are downsides—everyone knows how far in a straight line from the destination, but has no idea how many detours it takes to get there. The only consolation is that they didn't encounter many horrific-looking bones this time.

After four hours of careful progress, strange things began to appear.

First a weird skeleton.

It doesn't look much different from the skeletons they scattered outside the grave, but it has a lot more things on it - such as a white lace apron and a golden wig. The blond wig was wavy and curled, and they could even see the white glue that held the wig to the bone.

Skulls in apron, one carrying a metal bucket, the other holding a wet cloth, and looked at them silently.

"..." may be an illusion, Nemo read a little disdain from those dark eyes.

The skeleton looked at them for a moment, clicked his chin a few times, and even shook his head in a humane way. Instead of paying attention to the group of tumbleweeds, it squatted down neatly and began to clean the moldy wall.

"Can puppetry do this?" Oliver asked stiffly.

"Should be, but I've never seen such a boring spellcaster." Jesse responded enthusiastically, he took a few steps closer to the skeleton and lifted a corner of his lace apron. "The fabric is quite old, with a lot of washing marks, I think they—"

The skeleton who was cleaning stood up and pulled out the corner of Jesse’s apron—

Then slapped the blond youth directly.

The slap caught Jesse off guard, and he turned his head to look strangely at the… exasperated skeleton. It tugged at the hem of the apron, stood up a little coyly, then raised its chin and even pulled up the blond wig forcefully.

"It hit you." Nemo pointed this dryly, trying to suppress the shock in his tone.

"Hey, it's not murderous or hostile, and I'm not the delusional victim that I'm always on guard for." Jesse walked away from the skeleton unhappy, "Besides, it doesn't have any fighting power at all, and it can't fight at all. Hurt me - Ed!"

The knight commander tightened his face as always, but a rare smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"I have to put this account in Mr. Medes' name." Jesse rubbed his face pitifully, although there was no red mark on the fair skin. "In short, they should have been free to move for a long time, and now they are only acting with pre-set spells, not controlled by Mr. Medes himself... What kind of puppet art did he set up? It's too much."

Oliver's expression was a little distorted, and he seemed unsure whether to laugh. But Nemo's shadow dumpling helped him solve this trouble - a dark dumpling rushed out of the shadows and crashed into Oliver's arms. It clawed at the seams of the armor with its four little feet, shivering and screaming rapidly.

"There is a problem over there." Nemo approached Oliver, tore the dumpling from Oliver's chest without changing his face, and placed it on the flagstone pavement.

This "problem" turned out to be more troublesome than they thought.

"What the **** is this?" This time it was An Xian's voice.

The moment she saw the scene in front of her, she almost stabbed her with a spear.

Unlike those quiet corpses that covered the door, the giant in front of them was slowly wriggling. A dull, drum-like heartbeat came from the pile of meat—pinks peeked out from beneath the smooth, grayish-black lumps, irregularly embedded with blood-red eyeballs that swirled around. It plugs the entire cemetery and holds it full. Thick, slug-like touches protrude from the flesh, exploring the rough rock walls slowly and haphazardly, making unpleasant sticky noises.

"It's not a devil anyway." Nemo looked away painfully, staring at Oliver's profile, trying to divert his attention.

"...Are you sure?" An dry coughed, "There is nothing more in line with the description of the devil than this."

Her voice was not small, the lump of meat seemed to be frightened, and all eyes turned to Ann. The visual effect was so amazing that the female warrior snorted and instinctively took two steps back.

"The Chain of Pain." The smile on the former knight commander's face disappeared.

Nemo suddenly pulled his eyes away from Oliver's face: "The pain lock?! But what it looks like..."

"It's not like an ordinary pain lock, but it is." Adrian approached the huge mass of meat that blocked the entire tomb passage, and stared at the blinking eyes.

Nemo knows the Pain Locks.

Not to mention the book collection of the Abyss Church, even the biographies of ordinary adventurers have mentioned this thing-they are more common in ancient tombs, and they are deformities specially bred to guard the tombs in ancient times biology.

In order to prevent the internal structure of the tomb from being leaked, the nobles thousands of years ago would directly seal some craftsmen in the tomb. At first, some people planned to apply puppet magic in advance, so that the corpses of these craftsmen would act as some kind of guards - unfortunately, the effect can last for decades at most, and the spells cast cannot be handed over to others. When the caster dies, these corpses will collapse into ordinary skeleton.

But this does not stop the desire of nobles and royal families to guard their resting places. The gatekeeper took over the commission and researched the creature called "The Lock of Pain". Their vitality is extremely tenacious and can live in the dark for a long time. Their food sources are also very single-

The pain and despair of creatures.

The craftsmen sealed in the tomb will slowly die of hunger and thirst, and the pain in between is enough to keep the Chain of Pain alive for nearly a thousand years.

They were supposed to be about the size of a human, and then gradually shrank as the energy wore off, until some eyeless tomb robber passed here - then they would swarm up, the future imprisoned in flesh and blood, and deliberately prolonged The process of their death in order to gain more pain.

A normal pain lock should never grow this big unless…

"Someone has been feeding it for many years." The knight commander was silent for a while, then whispered firmly. "...feed it with someone who is still alive and will continue to live comfortably."

"But there is only a normal life reaction underneath." Oliver had a guess that made his heart tighten.

"In other words... Medes is feeding this thing with his own pain, and then using it to guard the door?" Electric light flickered on Ann's fingertips, and the dark touch that was about to move was mercilessly hit retreat.

"We really can't move forward like this," Nemo drew a breath from between his teeth. "He doesn't look like he's hungry enough to attack us very aggressively. But if we insist on going, I think he'll be happy to get himself some stockpile of different flavors. No way, maybe I'll have to make him a little bit. Get hurt, drive it away—"

This thing basically has no IQ, even if it is in front of it, it is useless.

"Wait." Adrian grabbed Nemo's right arm before he could lift it.

Nimo looked at Adrian in surprise. After all, the former knight commander never liked physical contact with people: "Mr. Cross?"

"The lock of pain has a solution." Adrian said softly, "Considering that the younger generation may decline, the nobles will pre-set an answer... If the visitor is caught, they will ask the first question. "

"I know, a question, right? But if this was set by Medes, no one would know his answer."

"If he really doesn't want to see anyone at all, he won't choose the pain lock." The knight commander's voice became flat, "When I was still on the mission of the church, I went to A lot of tombs. Guardian monsters with more murderous intent, death spells that are difficult to undo, poisonous carnivorous plants... No matter what, they are more lethal than the Chain of Pain, which has long been eliminated."

"It's rare." Jesse was still stroking his cheek aggrieved, "you care about this all of a sudden? Mr. Wright didn't mean to burn it to ashes, although I don't think it's a big deal. of."

"Mr. Meders didn't set an additional lethal trap, and now he has made this thing..."

Adrian Cross stretched out one and stroked the monster's slimy skin. The slug-like touch immediately wrapped around his arm, and the countless red eyes on the flesh turned frantically.

"And I'm familiar with the pain, which may be a form of expression. Mr. Medes is rejecting the enemy, and...calling for help." The former knight commander twitched the corners of his mouth. The answer will be precise to the word, and as long as the general idea is right, it will move away. Since it is to ask him a question, it is better to ring the doorbell than to kick the door."

Expose all your pain. Let it fill the gloomy tomb and make the air turbid—

But people who are truly desperate rarely express their pain to the outside world.

Nimo scratched his head, he couldn't feel the "pain" category at all. But Adrian looked confident, so he had to step aside obediently. Oliver raised the bone sword: "If there is anything wrong, I will cut these things off immediately. Please, Mr. Cross."

Ann folded her arms and leaned against the wall, her eyebrows raised.

"Visitor...at this moment, are you in pain?" The meat block made a high-pitched and hoarse voice, like several babies babbling together.

"Yes." Adrian answered without hesitation.

The meat piece stopped wriggling after hearing this, and the touch that was wrapping the knight's long arm no longer climbed along the arm.

"How painful?"

"Maybe like you."

"Why the pain?"

"For the same reason." Adrian Cross's voice was low, "I recognize your form, born from the painful lock of 'betrayal'. Although I have not betrayed, but consider In your case, Mr. Meders...my answer is probably the same as yours."

"… because of my fault, my friend suffered and was consumed by despair."

Oliver held his breath, staring intently at the touch around the knight's long arm. But the moment Adrian's voice fell, it fell softly and seemed to have lost all its strength—

The Lock of Pain began to wriggle, spreading out its bloated body, making way for a narrow passage.