Chapter 138 The Fool’s Key

After the Myconid King left, John and his team went to pick up Arlington.

"You really deserve to be called the former Hell Lord." Standing on the edge of the pit, John said as he looked at the pit melted by the hellfire.

The volcanic rocks on the scorched earth are condensing, a huge pale blue fire is burning among the ashes, and the pungent hot wind with the smell of sulfur squeezes out the limited oxygen. The climate of the island is obviously humid and cold, but the heat in this area makes the air restless and distorts the light.

Arlington crawled out of the flames. There was no scar on its body. There was no sign of weakness on the devil's upright body, but his eyes stared at Barnes with an extremely fierce look. Hell Guard has consumed part of his previous accumulation, and he has not yet achieved his original goal.

Arlington originally planned to use this opportunity to escape from the unequal contract with John.

While being controlled by John's order and charging towards the Corrupted Titan, Arlington thought of a plan in the crisis. It gave up its defense and allowed the enemy's attack to knock it away. The mushroom giant's full blow was fully capable of extinguishing the devil's flames. In fact, it almost did it. After ordinary devils are killed in the material plane, they will be resurrected in hell. The resurrection process will last for decades or even hundreds of years, so devils will avoid death and waste time. In addition, if the devil dies during the execution of the contract, the contract will be revoked without any advance payment. This is the rule of Asmodeus's contract, and it is as strong as the rule of breaking the contract.

Arlington escaped from the battle on the brink of death and planned to escape after repairing his body. In this way, the warlock will think that the contracted demon is dead and mistakenly believe that the contract has expired. Arlington would escape back to Hell and hide for more than ten years. He did not believe that the power of the Corruptor could still chase him to Hell based on the weak connection of the contract. Even if the crimson power really comes to hell, come on, there are so many devils in hell, who knows that power is coming to Arlington. Arlington is just a lazy hellcat.

However, John and the others defeated the corrupted giant so quickly that Arlington had no time to escape after recovering. Now, he was discovered by the contractor that he was still alive, and he could only continue to be the slave of the terrible warlock. .

Arlington had no doubt that it was Barnes, the bone-crushing guy, who was reminding him. The middle-aged man's winking actions made the Hell Guard feel angry.

"Come on, we have to keep tracking those mind flayers."

They came to the abandoned temple that Barnes had visited. The adventurers first skipped the stone slabs and then split up to search for useful clues in the ruins.

They found nothing. Those damaged reliefs, even Vivian, who had the most profound knowledge of history, could not identify their era.

"These reliefs give me a sad feeling." Vivian stared at the statue of a man and a woman embracing each other without their heads.

"If I found out that I lost this handsome face, I would also feel sad." Barnes squeezed out a few tears.

Raven walked in from outside the ruins and shook his head at his companions.

Arlington folded his arms and squatted on the damaged stone pillar, exuding his passive aura like a gargoyle. However, John and the others did not force the hell guard to do the delicate work of identification.

Barnes and others looked at John, who was studying the dark slate. The magician closed his eyes and placed his palms against the slate.

"John!" Barnes was about to step forward to stop him, but then he thought that the magician would not carry out unintentional actions, so he suppressed his worries and waited for the result.

After a few seconds, the warlock stood up, opened his eyes, and looked at his companions calmly.

"This is not a curse, but a breath from another world."

"What?"

The confusion on his companion's face made John realize that he needed to explain himself.

"The world we are in now is the material world, where organic and inorganic matter coexist, and solar energy maintains the food chain for material exchange between individuals. And the multidimensional world does not have only one plane, there are nine levels of hell controlled by the devil, and the devil rules The abyss, heaven, and other kingdoms of gods. These are all alien worlds to us in the material world."

"The so-called breath of other worlds is the atmosphere that carries the characteristics of other planes. For other worlds, the breath of other worlds is just like air for us, it is just a common component. But when these atmospheres cross the plane barrier, Entering our world and being accidentally touched by life in the material world..."

Raven thought of the Corruption Myconids.

"Will it be corrupted?"

John shook his head.

"These power characteristics that do not exist in our world will have an immeasurable impact on living organisms. It is like adding new variables to a determined formula, and no one knows what the result will be. Those myconids were killed because they were exposed to the aura of another world. The infection has made it look like that, but I have tested it and it seems that the alien atmosphere on this stone slab will not cause harmful changes to humanoids."

Raven thought about John's words, and he was puzzled by John's rash attempt.

"If you try this with your bare hands, aren't you worried that there will be dire consequences?"

"I won't." John remained silent, and those who noticed the change in the atmosphere did not continue to ask questions. They vaguely guessed the answer.

The power of crimson is also an alien aura.

The warlock reached out and touched the groove in the center of the stone slab. His fingers were stained with a bit of dark, sticky liquid, which had no smell.

"The breath of the other world is leaked from here. The answer is obvious. This stone slab is a portal that communicates with other worlds. The mind flayers went to another plane through the stone slab. However, the way they opened it was a bit violent. , causing the original complete blockade to be destroyed, causing the breath of the other world to leak."

In another world, several adventurers looked at each other and saw fiery passion in each other's eyes. A brand new world is different from the laws of the material world. A large number of unknowns are waiting on the other side of the stone slab. Nothing is more exciting than unlocking the secrets. And what they want is also on the other side, where the mind flayers are.

The Morning Star team quickly made the decision to go to another world, but problems were also placed in front of them.

"There is no key." Barnes carefully looked at the lines on the stone slab, looking for the mechanism that might be hidden inside. He realized that he needed a hemisphere that fit the groove, and the team obviously didn't have that thing. "We want How do you open it?"

【Crenzo's Silver Key】

John took out the silver key that had been prepared from his arms and tried to bring the key close to the stone slab.

There was no movement. The silver key didn't bring any feedback to John, just like an ordinary decoration.

"What is this?" Vivian looked at the exquisitely shaped key in John's hand, and the artistic cells in her body seemed to be activated.

"The master key made by magic can open all 'doors'."

"Then why wasn't it opened?" Raven asked.

"...I don't know either." John felt a headache. This was one of the few times he tried to open the door by himself after he learned Crenzo's secret technique. He once watched the Paladin holding this key without any disadvantages, and he subconsciously thought that using it would be a very easy thing, but the reality hit John. Some things still have to be experienced personally to appreciate the hardship.

"I'll try." Barnes took the key, knocked it on the stone slab, and put it into the groove, but to no avail. "No, find someone else."

"I'll come!" Vivian has been coveting this beautiful little thing for a while. She carefully took out the key and turned to look at John, "Do you need any spells?"

John Kemp filtered the memories in his mind and shook his head.

"You can try to say 'I, Lillian Odiz, the noble ranger command you to open it!', something like this."

Vivian's face turned red quickly, and she looked at John with a little more suspicion.

"Is that what the last Silver Key user said?"

John answered in the affirmative.

"Well, he read it very loudly."

Vivian also failed in her attempt. Even though she recited the Holy Knight's Command Spell with a blushing face at the end, the stone slab did not move at all.

The last one is Raven, and Arlington is not within the scope of consideration by several people. The warrior was obviously not confident in his attempt. He just held the key, pressed the front end against the stone slab, rotated his wrist in a circle, and returned the silver key to John when he saw that it was useless.

The Warlock was thinking about the reason for the collective failure of the four of them, and what was the difference between him and the Paladin. The soldier's perfunctory actions gave John a little inspiration.

It's doubtful. The biggest difference between them and the Paladin is that the Paladin is an overly confident person. Carl Demiras believed he had a mission and that he was the chosen one.

The paladin didn't understand any mechanism magic at all, and his only reliance was on a word given to him by the warlock.

[This is the master key, which can open all 'doors'. 】

As for the Daystar Team, this team has sufficient rationality and sufficient IQ. They have their own mature and reliable thinking, even if they see the magical magic of the magician, they will have doubts. They do not believe from the bottom of their hearts that this key can open the stone slab in front of them, and think that the relationship between the key structure and the stone mechanism is illogical.

Crenzo's silver key is the key to belief. The doors it can open are the doors the user believes it can open. Suspicion and doubt will limit its capabilities, knowledge and reason will turn it into a mortal thing.

It's not logical because it's magic.

The ultimate answer to knowledge is to be as wise as a fool and return to nature.

John smiled bitterly, realizing that Metatalon, the god of knowledge and taboos, had made a joke. He put the ultimate answer of wisdom into the fool's head.

"I guess the reason why we can't open the door is probably because we are not stupid."

John recounted his guess to his companions, and the eyes of several people looking at [Crenzo's Silver Key] changed from suspicion to surprise.

"Okay, maybe your hypothesis is true. But even if we figure out the reason, cognition is not something we can easily change. Our subconscious will still refute this 'if you believe it, there is it, if you don't believe it, there is nothing' Concepts, it's hard to fight unless our consciousness is rewritten, we're hypnotized."

"Yeah, unless you're hypnotized." John repeated.