"You know, I was going to praise them this time." Albert said.

Without raising his head, Dinen wrapped the rope around the tree trunk, tied the knot, and tugged hard, making sure it could support a person's weight: "Why? ”

"Because they've finally put the base on the ground." The paladin crossed his arms and looked down at the ancient castle below, "So I didn't think I had to worry about tons of dirt falling on my head anymore." ”

"Oh?" Dineen raised an eyebrow, "Isn't it?" ”

"As far as I've seen," Albert pointed to him as the crumbling stones and growing moss of the façade, "I don't think it's any different than before—unless you think stone and dirt can be the difference." Is it a hobby? Specializing in living in a building that is about to collapse? ”

Dineh looked at it carefully for a while, revealing a look of regret: "So, I should have brought more explosives." ”

Albert immediately turned his head and glared at him: "Don't tell me, you plan to blow this castle into the sky again?" ”

"Nope." Deliberately waiting for his partner to breathe a sigh of relief, Dineh added slowly, "...... At most, it will blow up. ”

The paladin glared at him for two seconds, and then suddenly thought of something: "Wait, you have to promise me not to do this in Stratholme in the future." ”

"The use of a lot of explosives in the city? Do I look like a goblin? Dineen asked, pointing to herself.

Albert nodded without hesitation before asking, "What is a goblin?" ”

Dineen decided to put an end to the topic.

He was about to throw the rope in his hand down the cliff, but after thinking about it, he turned his head: "I hope you've tried rappelling before." ”

"To be honest, I won't." Albert replied sincerely. This is not taught in the Paladin's curriculum. After all, they had never had to sneak into an enemy castle from above through ropes before. He has confidence in climbing up, but he is a little unsure about going down.

Dineen sighed with an expression I knew, and then threw the rope to him: "Then tie it up, and I'll let you go." ”

Albert did as he was told. Fortunately, Dinein's long-healed arm was able to bear the weight of an adult male for a long time, and Albert tried to borrow strength from the cliff from time to time, and after ten minutes, he landed on the platform at the top of the castle without any twists and turns, except for a little dizziness.

And Dinen is much more nilly than he is. It only took him a few minutes to complete the process, and he didn't even make a sound when he landed. At this time, Albert was still tugging and pulling and fighting with their only way out. The rusty lock creaked under his force, but remained unmoved.

"Don't use your feet." Seeing Dinen approaching, he immediately declared, "I know we're here to distract the Cursed Cultists, but I still don't want to run around the castle with a horde of undead in pursuit. One such experience is enough. ”

Infiltrating the headquarters of the Cult of the Damned causes a riot to divert their attention from the outside and provide an opportunity for the South Seas' army to attack. That's what Dineen intends to help. Although he was not willing to cooperate with the nobles, it was enough to reduce the casualties of the soldiers to a certain extent, and he could achieve his goal without having to contact the other party. As for whether the other side plans to take the opportunity to stir up the situation and add fuel to the fire, or wait for the riots to end before entering the market by surprise, this is not Dining's concern.

He knew exactly what his goal was, so he wouldn't go on a rampage like Albert feared. There will be at least hundreds of undead and an unknown number of necromancers, infiltrating despite the danger, but after all, there is still a possibility of success, and go straight to the ...... No, they're not here to contribute to the progress of the plague development.

Dinen drew his sword, made a cut around the lock, and then struck it with his shoulder, and the wooden door that had been separated from the lock was easily pushed open. Albert was stunned for a moment whether this should be regarded as a simple and crude or delicate and ingenious technique, and then reluctantly followed.

As they had guessed, in order to hide the fact that there were still people active inside the castle, the Cultists of the Damned would not be able to appear in areas that could be directly seen by pedestrians outside. The staircase leading to the bottom had apparently not been used since it had been abandoned, and the thin wooden staircase was covered in dust. Dineen took two steps covered in smoke and dust, and simply jumped to the bottom of the stairs. Albert covered his mouth, resisting the urge to cough and quickly followed.

Before they set off, Korver retrieved the blueprints for the castle from the library in Southsea Town. Although it is very old, the family that owns the castle has only lived there for three generations, and then abandoned it due to the tragedy of fratricide, so the structure has not changed much. The people of this area believe that evil spirits roam the castles, and the horror stories of some money-grubbing people who venture into them and disappear without a trace have frightened many of the daring ones. However, whether it is the Cursed Cult or Dinen and Albert, naturally they will not take the so-called resentful spirit seriously.

Although he only listened to Korver's narration as a backstory, Dineen took a brief look around and did find a lot of traces. There was dried blood on the floors, sharp objects on the walls, many of the doors were in tatters, fragments of torn portraits and ornaments were thrown in the corners, and some of the wood still showed signs of fire. Fortunately, most of the castle is made of stone, and the damage to the structure is not too serious.

"It looks like it's not going to collapse." After touching the wall, Dineen said regretfully.

Albert stabbed him hard, then pointed around the corner of the hallway, motioning for him to listen.

Dineen shrugged. In fact, he had already heard the grinding of armor and the sound of uniform footsteps. This kind of discipline that the regular army does not necessarily have must belong to the skeleton. Because those modified deformed monsters, even if they act in unison, will appear disorganized due to the difference in body structure, and the difference between the skeleton stripped of flesh and blood will not be too obvious in comparison.

Compared to those half-alive and half-dead flesh monsters, skeletons are easier to deal with. They observe their surroundings by looking and hearing, and although they are keen, it is not very difficult to be fooled. And if they encounter the kind of undead who directly perceive the life force, if they don't do it, then their only choice is to run as far as they can, and they may not be able to run away.

Recalling the plan, they took refuge in a nearby room, clinging to the wall on the side of the door. Even without a door, the undead were unaware of their presence. After the sound of the skeleton passed by the doorway, Dineen poked his head out with interest to observe the distant backs.

"It's not much." "Is it because there is too little armor, or is most of the corpses transferred to the branch?" ”

Albert counted to thirty-three in one breath and then gave up the evaluation criteria for understanding his partner. He guessed that in Dineen's eyes, there were probably only tens of thousands, and the scale that couldn't even run away was a lot.

Wait until the skeleton has gone far enough before moving on. While searching for a way down, he dodged and observed the scale of the undead.

There are more types of undead here than Talenmere. As they descended, in addition to the skeletons, demons, and zombies Albert had already seen, they also encountered the Abomination stitched together by corpse pieces, the three wildly waving arms, and the exposed intestines that made Albert sick to his stomach. He stared at the creature as he walked as he walked out, dripping foul and foul fluid from his abdomen, and was sincerely grateful to Dinen for reminding him to cover his mouth and nose.

After that, there are gargoyles and ghouls with fangs and claws hidden in the ceiling, all relying on the invisibility potions provided by Korver. The ghouls with a keen sense of smell chased them suspiciously for a few steps, but were fortunately blocked back by the patrolling zombie squad. When the corpses passed by them, Albert wanted to sink himself into the wall. After appearing, he looked at his partner, and found that Dineh's face was also unusually serious and cold, and his fingers were pressed tightly on the hilt of the sword.

The more enemies there were, the more proof they were going deeper into the core, and several times they saw the black robes hurrying by, and the surrounding rooms were no longer in tatters, and through some of the hidden doors they could see blood-stained test benches, piles of corpses, candlesticks burning with blue flames, iron cages full of spikes, man-tall jars filled with green liquid, and stacks of books and papers.

When he saw the last room, Dineh's heart moved, and he stopped, motioning for Albert to follow him in.

He wanted to see if he could find some information on the distribution of the Cultists in the area. Although Viscount Tester will definitely continue to sweep after obtaining this information, the interests of human society are inextricably linked and extremely complex, and the pursuit of the Cursed Cultist can easily be stopped. And the other party is obviously not the one to ignore this. If this information were given to Thrall, the growing orcs would be able to cope with most of the situation. And after uprooting those strongholds, the remnants hidden in the city will naturally be much more honest, and may even waver in their position.

There were only two members in the room, and they were both immersed in reading, and Dinen silently snapped their necks from behind before sitting down at the table and began to look through the papers. Albert, who was close behind, closed the door with a backhand. He stood close to the door, listening to the movement outside, his gaze falling inadvertently on the crowded bookshelves around him. A familiar sign caught his eye.

Arcane Eye. This is the hallmark of Kenrito. But unlike the lilac he'd ever seen, the sign glowed greenish.

"This means that the author used to be a mage in Dalaran, but now he has changed sides." After hearing his question, Dinen said without replying, "The founder of the Cult of the Damned, Kel'thugad, was once a member of the Council of Six Kenrito, and even after his exile, his name was very appealing to the mage. There are not many people who throw themselves into his disciples for the sake of studying forbidden knowledge. They also take their research with them when they leave Dalaran. Changing the color of the logo indicates that the author considers his knowledge to belong to the Cult of the Damned. As for why they didn't just change it, it was probably because they still felt that the mages from Dalaran were more noble than those who were self-taught. ”

Hearing that the author of the book had been a member of Dalaran, Albert hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took it down. He had just wanted to see if the author's name might be someone he had heard of, but just as he turned the first page, a cloud of black smoke exploded!

The sharp pain from his fingers made Albert immediately throw away the book, and a holy light erupted from his palm, which instantly swept away the black smoke and healed his wounds by the way. The book clattered to the middle page, then closed and opened it again and again, like a beast with its mouth open and intimidating. However, Di Ning, who was rushed over in the next second, stepped on it impatiently: "Are you okay?" ”

Albert looked at the book lying quietly at his feet, and inexplicably felt a little like laughing: "It's nothing." It's trying to attack me. ”

Only then did Dineh look down at the book, his face becoming serious. He is not a mage, but he is familiar with mages and how to deal with them. His experience has allowed him to easily identify some simple and common spells.

"This is supposed to be an activation spell. Provide the most basic intelligence for dead things. Seeing Albert's puzzled face, he continued to explain, "For example, a mop that sweeps the floor automatically, a teapot that pours water automatically, and so on. ”

"And what about books?" Albert thought for a moment, "Judging by the way it looked just now, it shouldn't be an automatic homing or something...... Is it trying to bite off the fingers of everyone who reads a book? ”

"It's everyone who is 'without permission.'" "It's a warning spell—by now, its owner must know that someone has touched the book." ”

That is, they are in trouble.