Keeper of Secrets

The Great Cemetery Maze had not originally been this absurdly difficult.

The normal puzzle-solving procedure was for the hunters to first deal with the skeleton monsters in the maze, whether by bulldozing through them, managing their Sanity Value, or using some other method, until they found clues like an Adventurer's Notebook among the monster hordes.

Then they could trigger the Hidden Scenario.

It was a long process that required careful exploration.

With clues, even if they encountered the Keeper of Secrets later, it would not necessarily be a death sentence.

But someone had directly triggered the Hidden Scenario, which was why everyone had faced a dead end the moment they entered.

Since Ji Xun had managed his Sanity Value as soon as he entered, he had been fairly lucky and found some clues.

But the threat of death still remained.

The miraculous thing about a maze was that it was a "maze."

Before walking it, there was no way to know where a corridor led.

Even if one deliberately avoided a path, after circling around for a long time, one might discover they had returned to the starting point.

And some passages that seemed to lead in completely different directions might still converge somewhere later, even if one deliberately avoided one of them.

Ji Xun carefully avoided the directions from which the sounds of battle came.

But as he walked, something suddenly felt wrong.

He had already mapped the maze routes in his mind like a QR code. Although it covered only one corner of the maze, it should have kept him from retracing his steps.

Yet some of the passages in his mental map were shifting farther and farther off, gradually converging toward one direction.

He could try his best to avoid them, but he could not stop others from charging wildly through the maze.

After passing several intersections, though he should have been far away by then, Ji Xun suddenly heard the sounds of battle coming from the corridors again.

"Boom." "Boom." "Boom."

Battle sounds like a thunderstorm came from all directions.

The only ones capable of causing such a commotion were the Governor's Mansion's main forces.

Ji Xun immediately felt that something was wrong and wanted to avoid them.

But whether he turned back or chose another corridor, the commotion kept getting closer.

Ji Xun frowned as he listened and thought, Looks like I can't avoid them.

After identifying the direction of the sound, he realized that the nearby corridors seemed to be interconnected galleries.

In other words, no matter which way he went, he might end up heading toward the battle.

Those people were moving quickly, and the sounds of combat grew louder and louder. It seemed that they had reached the corridor next door in the blink of an eye.

After running the routes through his mind, Ji Xun knew he might run into them regardless of what he chose, so he simply stopped choosing.

Remembering the notebook's description of the Keeper of Secrets, he no longer tried to avoid them. Instead, he decisively lay down in the corner of a dead-end passage, choosing a spot where he would not easily be stepped on.

Then he played dead.

It was the only way he could think of to avoid danger.

And precisely because he had not rashly run around, Ji Xun narrowly avoided this deadly crisis.

Not long after he put on the Clown Mask and lay down, the far end of the corridor suddenly erupted with a boom.

Countless skeletons exploded into fragments, spraying through the air like a rainstorm.

Several bones struck Ji Xun on the ground with a crackle, like artillery shrapnel, making him suck in a sharp breath from the pain.

Fortunately, he had chosen a blind corner and stayed low to the ground, so he was only lightly affected.

Otherwise, if he had been on the main passage, the shockwave alone would probably have taken half his life.

After that explosion, Ji Xun saw three blue cards fly out from around the corner, wrapped in Vortexes of Qi. The vortices grew larger and larger as they flew, transforming into serrated wind blades the size of wagon wheels.

The three wind-blade vortices covered the same cross-section, instantly slicing every skeleton in their path into two.

Just three high-tier Wind Blade Cards cleared an entire maze corridor dozens of meters long in one stroke.

Then came the hissing sound of a steam boiler venting after Energy Accumulation. With another deafening boom, large swathes of skeletons throughout the corridor were crushed into powder.

The high-pressure blast rolled forward like a dragon. Even its aftershock left Ji Xun dizzy and disoriented, and he nearly could not hold back a mouthful of Old Blood. He inwardly grumbled, The Governor's Mansion really does have some fierce firepower.

These people's combat power was indeed enough to sweep through the maze's skeleton monsters.

However, the skeleton monsters' greatest advantage was their numbers. Once their hostility was drawn, it would trigger a chain reaction.

As they bulldozed their way through, the monsters not only did not diminish, but were drawn in greater and greater numbers.

Ji Xun had not yet seen how many people there were, but judging from the dense footsteps, he estimated there were quite a few.

And the footsteps were frantic. They were clearly fleeing in a panic.

The only thing that could chase this group of people into running like that was the Keeper of Secrets.

"Protect the Governor!"

"Damn it, have you found the maze exit yet?"

"Not yet. The exit mentioned in the Hunter's Guild intelligence has already been blocked by a Sealing Stone."

"..."

Those people spoke loudly amid battle, their voices carrying far through the maze.

They had probably never expected a D-rank space to trap them here to die.

As the commotion drew closer and closer, Ji Xun lowered his breathing as much as possible.

Several breaths later, a gust of wind swept over his scalp. Through barely opened eyelids, he watched a group of Frost Knights escorting the potbellied Governor charge past him. There were well over a hundred of them.

The momentum they unleashed alone was like an Iron Tide.

The Frost Knight Legion truly lived up to its reputation.

However, just after that group passed, the temperature in the vast corridor suddenly plummeted, accompanied by a thick, bloody wind that came rolling in. It carried the stench of corpses crawling out of graves, a smell any Corpse Collector knew well.

Even without looking, Ji Xun knew the Keeper of Secrets had arrived.

Just how terrifying was the monster that could drive the Governor's Mansion's elite knights into such desperate flight?

Ji Xun suppressed his breathing to the absolute minimum and quietly played dead, though he was also intensely curious.

With a slight glance from the corner of his eye, he saw a patch of Black Mist.

Within the dense Black Mist, tall figures mounted on rotting warhorses swept past at high speed. Their skin had decayed beyond recognition, leaving only bones connected by clinging flesh. Their shriveled mouths were sewn shut with needle and thread, and the sight alone was chilling. As the monsters approached, the surrounding air became heavy and distorted, filling people with inexplicable fear.

Keeper of Secrets

Details: Second Rank S-Class Calamity; guardians of the underground palace and loyal keepers of the royal family's secrets; Death Knights that wield destruction, feeding on the flesh and fear of the living, undying and indestructible;

As expected, an S-Class Calamity.

Ji Xun had heard hunters say that any Calamity above A-rank possessed certain special abilities.

S-Class Calamities, meanwhile, were monsters granted "special rules" by the Alternate Dimension.

Those rules were usually impossible to overcome.

That was why hunters spoke of them with such dread.

For now, it seemed the Keeper of Secrets had been granted one rule—undying and indestructible.

As long as the space remained intact, they would not die.

No matter their rank or abilities, this "undying and indestructible" trait alone meant that even the strongest Spell Card Master would have to avoid them.

And the monster's terror did not lie solely in its immortality.

Ji Xun had only taken one glance, yet it felt as if he had glimpsed some immense terror beyond comprehension.

Even his composure in the face of death was pierced as if by needles, and he was startled for no reason.

This was not fear that could be controlled by human will.

It was an instinctive shudder born from seeing some indescribable demon.

Then Revelation appeared.

"Unknown contamination eroded you. The Clown Mask reduced it by 70%. You suffered Fear +2, Intimidation +1, Soul Contamination +1."

"..."

That single glance.

It was as though his soul had been entwined by a nightmare, and an even more terrifying contamination spread into him.

A string of negative statuses appeared on his status panel.

"Visual contamination?"

Ji Xun was startled and quickly closed his eyes.

Once the image in his vision vanished, the contamination stopped.

If not for the Clown Mask, that one glance might have caused a serious problem.

Fortunately, the Governor's Mansion group was drawing the fire.

One side chased and the other fled, both moving at tremendous speed. The two groups whooshed past.

The instant that terrifying sensation washed over him, the bone-scraping chill also vanished completely.

The Keeper of Secrets apparently did not notice the "corpse" in the corner and directly continued chasing after the Governor's group ahead.

It was as if Death's scythe had scraped across his scalp. Ji Xun felt like a venomous snake had crawled up his spine, then slid away slickly.

His scalp went numb.

But since he had not died, the sensation left a strange lingering thrill.

Only after the deathly threat pressing against his back had completely faded did he stand up. Squinting at the devastated corridor ahead, he muttered, "That monster really is terrifying."

Seeing a prompt was one thing.

Witnessing that horrifying contamination firsthand was another.

Remembering that instant, he still felt lingering fear.

But he was also glad he had taken that look.

If a group of experts drew its hostility this time and he still refused to look, then the next time he saw that Calamity, he might be looking at the countdown to his own death.

Ji Xun's eyes trembled slightly.

But it was not entirely bad.

His thoughts raced as he analyzed, The adventurer's notebook was right: the monster reacts slowly to nonmoving objects. And it isn't only nonmoving objects. Part of the contamination spreads through vision, so closing one's eyes can also reduce its hostility.

By lying there and playing dead, he had avoided drawing the monster's attention.

And he had also confirmed a new piece of intelligence: how the Keeper of Secrets spread contamination.

That was extremely important as well.

"But the Keeper of Secrets may be insensitive to stationary objects, yet it isn't blind. And I can't just close my eyes and play dead whenever I encounter it, can I? Without someone drawing its fire, I'll be discovered sooner or later."

The more Ji Xun thought about it, the more his head hurt.

This monster looked like nothing less than a bug.

So the only way out now was still—solving the puzzle.

Now that he had witnessed every method used by the person orchestrating things behind the scenes, he was even more certain that the Governor's Mansion group was doomed.

Well... he was probably doomed too.

Ji Xun mocked himself inwardly, then stopped dwelling on realities he could not change.

What he needed to do now was stay far away.

Looking on the bright side, at least it was not coming after him. The situation was not completely disastrous yet.

The benefit of having that group around was that as they ran wildly through the maze, they would draw all the fire toward themselves.

Ji Xun cupped a hand to his ear again and listened to the direction of the battle sounds coming from the corridor.

This time, he did not choose a corridor in the opposite direction. Instead, he retraced his steps through the passage the Governor's Mansion group had taken earlier.

Normally, if those people wanted to leave the maze, they definitely would not backtrack.

As long as he avoided them, he would avoid the greatest danger.

And there was one more thing.

Every passage was dangerous anyway.

He might as well go back and take a look. Perhaps there would be an unexpected surprise.