Inside the gloomy castle, the corridors are lined with silver hand-shaped candlesticks, on which the bright red candles exude an evocative beauty under their own dim yellow light.

Dressed in a black hooded robe, Lucien stood quietly outside the basement, carefully studying the defensive circle set up by Count Vlad.

Due to the need to carry ores, smelt metal, and provide slaves and dwarves in and out, the "daytime" Vlad Castle was not closed, and only a few magic arrays for surveillance were activated, and in addition to Count Vlad in the castle, only Mrs. Tess, the vampire bride, was mid-level, so the "high-level magician" Lucian easily mixed in.

"The defense is really strong. Lucien bowed slightly, Count Vlad, as a vampire powerhouse who has lived for thousands of years, has indeed obtained a lot of good magic arrays, and these twenty-seven dark magic arrays are connected to form a powerful defense similar to a mystery, even an eighth-level divine magic Yang Yan Burst can withstand it, "The good news is that Count Vlad is a talent caster, not an orthodox mage, and the castle is not an alchemical life, otherwise I want to mix in, it's not so easy." ”

In the corridor outside the basement, female blood servants of humans, elves, dwarves, and other races come and go like in a normal aristocratic family, but they all ignore Lucien, who stands on the edge of the corridor, and treat him as air.

Since he had not yet begun to learn the six-ring magic "group suggestion technique", Lucien worked hard to hint at all the living creatures in the castle one by one, even as a high-level mage, his mental power was exhausted after a circle. It took a while to recover.

"If you want to crack this almost mysterious defensive circle system, it will take at least two months, and the most troublesome thing is that once you start to crack it, it is easy to alarm the sleeping Count Vlad inside, and a high-level vampire plus my own castle, I have almost no possibility of defeat, and even have the danger of falling. Lucien stood in the basement doorway, his chin rubbed in his right hand, analyzing the difficulties.

Count Vlad, though asleep, is not the kind of ancient heritage mage in the Dark Mountains who refuses to touch the arcane. Anyway, he relied on his blood power to cast spells. Not afraid of the shaking of the cognitive world, it is easy to catch up with the trend and keep pace with the times, which gives Lucien, the orthodox arcane master of the Magic Council, a headache.

"What excuse did you use for the vampire bride to trick Vlad out?"

"Tess and Galata eloped?

"With their deaths? It will alert Vlad!"

"What a hassle......

"Perhaps. Think about it from a different perspective......"

After a while. Lucien nodded thoughtfully, and began to focus on analyzing the structure of the magic array at the core of the defense, the direction of energy flow, and other things that could be directly observed.

............

After more than ten days, the castle was functioning normally. The vampire bride, the butler, the blood servant, and the slave all perform their duties, just like ever.

But in the castle, there was always a strange figure in a black robe looking around, stopping from time to time to take out all kinds of precious materials and arranging something, looking busy and busy, as if there was no one around.

But whether it's the vampire bride, the butler, the blood servant, or the slave, they all completely ignore that there is such a person, even if he makes a noise near the energy well behind him.

"Whew, it's finally arranged. Lucien crouched in the basement doorway, clapped his hands, and slowly stood up straight.

The strange incantation sounded, the spiritual power spread out, the magic array at the door of the basement was activated, the starlight lines were bright one after another, and the light of energy flow surged in all directions.

The Bondage Room, the Summoning Room, the Enchanted Garden, the Energy Well, in addition to the Energy Room and the Control Center in the basement, all the important places in the castle lit up with the brilliant brilliance that flowed rapidly, and the mysterious and mysterious different magic arrays lit up.

Soon, they were connected, and the whole castle was shrouded in a layer of hazy and dreamy bright stars, blurry and vast!

As if the magic array light shield reflected in the starry sky in the night shrank violently, clinging to the surroundings of the basement, as if it had merged into the original dark defense circle.

After that, the magic circle set up by Lucien did not move again, and everything was quiet again.

In such a vast and magnificent scene, the vampires and dwarves continue their original movements, as if this is a normal change in the castle.

And Count Vlad in the basement is still asleep, and he doesn't notice it at all!

The reason why this is so is because Lucien didn't try to break his dark defense circle at all, so naturally he wouldn't be alarmed.

The powerful magic array that Lucian spent more than ten days arranging had a very simple function, which was to add another layer of defense outside Count Vlad's basement, and add a "lock" to him, so that he could sleep more "at ease" and "at ease".

Of course, this layer of defense is inseparable from each other, almost deadlocked, even if Lucien himself tries to unravel, it will take nearly ten months, and the flow of energy wells and magic gardens to the energy room will pass through this layer of magic array, if Count Vlad wants to come out after waking up, the energy room will be limited to a small half of the ability. Therefore, even with the assistance of the control center, he didn't have five or six years of work, and he didn't want to leave the basement, and he couldn't even deliver the news.

As for five or six years later, Lucien believes that he doesn't have to worry about the exposure of space nodes at all, and other extremely unlikely accidents are not considered.

Since your defenses are strong, heavily guarded, and extremely vigilant, making it difficult for me to crack or assassinate, then I will make your defenses more "strong", more "tight" guards, and more "guaranteed"!

There are many ways out of the way to think differently, Lucien laughed wickedly, so that he would not say that he was inspired by the jokes on the earth, and if he can't open your lock, he will add another one to you!

"It's just a little painful. Lucien rubbed his chin and shook his head and sighed.

Although the main source of materials for the magic circle was the warehouse of the "kind" Count Vlad, Lucien also lost a large amount of materials that he planned to set up a defensive circle in the future, and the real treasure house of Count Vlad was located in the basement, so Lucian was unable to recover the loss. I could only "barely comfort myself" and took a lot of Mithril and special metals.

After carefully inspecting the "Powerful Defense Circle" and confirming that there was no problem with it, Lucien set up a hidden circle at the door of the basement to store the simulated voice of Count Vlad.

If someone invites or tries to wake him up, "he" will reply apologetically that he is in a critical period of healing from his injuries, and as long as it is not the "Night Plateau" that is invaded by a strong enemy and is on the verge of defeat, do not bother.

After doing all this, Lucien left the castle leisurely. It wasn't a long walk out of the door. He turned around with wicked amusement, pressed his right hand to his chest, and stooped down in a gentlemanly salute:

"Good dreams, Count Vlad. ”

............

Inside an underground cavern. The dwarves who have signed a magical contract follow the "memory". Elsewhere in the cave, he found his own and others' steam sledgehammers, iron stoves, food, paper, and other items.

"Next. There are three things we need to do. "Grand Elder Augustus stood gloriously in front of the altar and said that he had been given three books compared to the other dwarves. One is "Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Transformation and Application", the other is "On the Pope", and the other is "On Protracted Resistance".

"First, we must refine our doctrine as soon as possible and quietly develop more of our kindred, second, we should look for suitable food for cultivation in the desolate places of the earth and the plateau, and solve the problem of hunger as soon as possible, and third, we must avoid confrontation with vampires head-on, even for a short time, without any collision, we need enough time to master the knowledge given by the Lord, forge more and better machines, and rearm ourselves. ”

"Yes, Grand Elder!

In the past, they always thought that they and others had inherited part of the inheritance of the steam civilization, but now they realized that they hadn't even touched the skin, let alone the miracle civilization of Atlantis!

And the appearance of the hope dawn makes them full of motivation.

The Great Elder watched with satisfaction as the dwarves went about their work, and turned and knelt down in front of the altar.

After reciting the Holy Name, he took out a pen and paper and wrote:

"Mechanical Apocalypse. ”

"He came here and told people that if there is gain, there will be loss, and if there is loss, there will be gain, and that the hardships and pains of life are tempered, so that you may gain wisdom and a strong soul that is superior to others...... and shall follow an equal exchange, and will not lead the whole body into hell......"

............

After leaving Count Vlad's castle, Lucien went back to observe what the dwarves were doing, and then he was relieved to head north.

There, there are several terrifying vampire princes, and legend has it that when the most powerful of them is asleep, his dreams can directly turn into a "real" city, appearing on the Plateau of Night, where countless humans, dwarves, elves, and werewolves are constantly performing joys and sorrows.

However, their strength has nothing to do with Lucien for the time being, and after infiltrating the north, Lucien quickly changed direction and headed for a castle that seemed to be shrouded in darkness forever.

This castle was gloomy and vague, and it seemed to be just a projection of a powerful castle in the main material realm on the night plateau, not a real existence.

It is the "Castle of the Observer" belonging to Count Silver-Eyed Rhine.

As a vampire prince in effect, Rhine naturally guards a spatial node that leads to the Dark Mountains.

Through the teleportation array located at this node, you can directly reach the outer edge of the "Observer Castle" in the Dark Mountains.

In the black mist, Lucien walked through the shadowy walls and walked through the gloomy corridors, following the spell given by Rhine, from time to time to disarm the traps of terror and danger.

Soon, Lucien saw the node teleportation array, stepped on it, recited the incantation, activated the light, and disappeared in place.

............

The Plateau of the Night, a glitzy castle in the style of the ancient kingdom of Syracuse.

A bewitching man in a black tuxedo held a wine glass, shook the bright red liquid, and said to the butler next to him: "Rhine has been missing for a long time, and the old guy seems to be a little ready to move." ”

His crystalline red eyes narrowed slightly, and he couldn't tell what his attitude was toward the matter. (To be continued......)