Esther faced the heavy coffin and did not move for a long time.

The coffin is heavy stone, but there is a slight difference in the color of the cover and the bottom, which is obviously not matched, and there is nothing on the outside of the coffin.

The basement was very quiet, with only the occasional grinding sound, all from the black algae constantly wriggling and hiding from the light.

She shook the torch in her hand again, the coffin did not move, and Esther looked around to see a ladder standing behind the coffin, leading to a place on the ceiling covered in algae.

As Esther ignored the coffin, used the firelight to disperse more shadows, and slowly approached the ladder, the roses on the coffin suddenly began to wither, and soon dissolved into a piece of detrination.

Esther held the torch in one hand and spread it in the other, ready to grasp or take out the "Pale Bone Spike".

But there was still no movement in the coffin.

After waiting for a few minutes, Esther made up her mind, and she clasped her palms together and stole her weight directly. Suddenly, her body was already hanging on the top of the ladder, and she almost touched those strange plants.

As the flames approached, the black algae on the ceiling writhed even more wildly, like a large mass of entangled black snakes desperately escaping, and soon revealed the hole farther away from the ladder.

As Esther suddenly moved away, there was a slight grinding sound in the coffin, and Esther clearly heard two knocks from below, not in a hurry.

When the algae above her head completely gave way to the hole, Esther climbed up with a torch in one hand, allowing her unusually light body to rise and distance herself from the coffin below.

At the top of the hole is a trapdoor, and Esther holds the torch between the ladders to stabilize her balance.

She fumbled twice around the trapdoor, without any handles that could be moved. So Esther smashed her fist on it decisively, and puffs of dust fell from the top of her head and landed on top of her.

The trapdoor opened upwards to reveal another glowing room, and there was another noise in the coffin below:

"Knock, knock, knock."

The percussion was even faster than the tempo it had just been.

This made Esther hesitate for a moment, she followed her instincts, jumped up to the top of the ladder, and fell into the lighted room, Esther slammed the trapdoor with her backhand, no matter what it was, she didn't want to meet the other person to say hello.

This violent movement kicked up another cloud of dust, and they slowly fell in the air, and no sound came through the heavy trapdoor, or maybe the strange movement in the coffin had subsided?

Leaving luck behind, Esther quickly looked around for something available.

It looked like some kind of storage warehouse, except that the bottles and jars were empty, broken glass was scattered everywhere, collapsed cabinets were covered with cobwebs, and in the corners were several deformed iron cages, each half a man tall.

The door of the cage was open, and the contents were long gone, but it was still quite heavy, so the iron cage was what Esther wanted. Considering that her "stealing" might be seen as hostile, Esther did not steal the cages, but simply dragged them over with all her strength, pressed them against the trapdoor that led to the ground, and stacked them on top of each other.

At least when the thing below comes up, there will be a lot of obstacles, and if the cage collapses, Esther can hear the sound.

It's not like a banquet hall full of "vitality", everything is in line with what an abandoned castle should be, everything is in tatters, maintained at a roughly recognizable boundary, books and other things are extremely fragile, with gnawing marks on them.

Esther dusted off the thin ash that had fallen on her shoulders, and her nose felt faintly itchy, but she was relieved that the fishy sweetness that was so strong that it made her sick to her stomach fade a lot.

The small storage room, whatever it had been used for, was now empty, an entire wall was clogged with rubble, and Esther couldn't see the other side through the cracks, and could only guess from the traces of the door frame that it had gone to the next room

A passage.

Fortunately, there was another wooden door in the house, and it had been smashed with an axe. The remaining pieces of wood are covered with a whitish mycelium, and it is clear that this castle is a paradise for plants.

Think about it, until now, not even a single mouse or flying insect has been seen, and there are no spiders waiting for their prey in those cobwebs.

It seems that only plants are nourished by the castle, or have they become part of it? Or is it that when the Red Moon appears, all the life that exists in reality is swallowed up?

Esther walked towards the smashed wooden door, and after a brief glance out of the frame, she realized that it was a rooftop.

The crimson moonlight fell directly on the flat rooftop, which was so high that it could overlook most of the castle.

Esther felt that the space in that corridor was probably distorted, and her body sense had always moved in parallel to each other, but now she just climbed a ladder and went directly to the rooftop of this high place, which was not normal in terms of spatial distance.

Esther left the room and stepped onto the platform, and the surroundings suddenly opened up, and there was not even a hint of wind on the rooftop, and the silence was soothing.

There was not even the sound of music in the antechamber here, and Esther remembered that when she and Benjamin were far away from the castle, they had heard the rhythm that wanted to make people dance, but now that they were in the confines of the castle, the sound from above was gone.

She walked to the edge of the rooftop, stepped over a pile of rubble, and stood at a massive chasm overlooking the densely vegetated and shadowy valley below.

There weren't even many plants near the tower, the door to the other side was blocked by rubble, and the rooftop was self-contained – meaning that Esther's quest for the castle was a dead end for the time being.

She surveyed her surroundings, trying to find other entrances to the castle's interior.

It was just a little past o'clock, and she had walked in the corridor for nearly forty minutes, and she had about four hours to explore, as she had agreed with Benjamin.

It was so calm that Esther felt incredible, and there wasn't even much vegetation on the platform

"He said he was going to use me as bait, and he wouldn't end up being bait......" Esther muttered quietly.

Eventually, she noticed a hole in the wall outside the spire tower, the entrance to which she could re-enter the castle by climbing up the outer wall.

Esther decided to wait two more minutes in place, and if nothing unusual appeared at the hole, she would climb straight up.

Just as she was thinking so, a dark shadow appeared at the edge of the hole, no bigger than a magpie, and it fell down the platform in a parabolic trajectory, stumbling and tumbling in the air.

Instead of rushing to catch the thing, Esther took two steps back, keeping her guard on the lookout.

Eventually, the mass flapped its wings twice and fell limply to the ground with a faint "squeak" of pain.

At first, Esther thought it was a mouse, but now that it had spread its wings, it was a gray-black bat.

Esther saw that the black shadow had been cowering on the ground, and her wings were fluttering diagonally on the ground, so she cautiously approached it. This was a novelty for her, as the bat was the first animal she saw after entering the castle, not a plant.

Then she saw the hole in the bat's right wing, where there was no blood, only a faint black gas constantly escaping.

The bat heard footsteps approaching, and even though it was trembling, it immediately raised its little fox-like head vigilantly, the tip of its nose shaking in the air all the time, as if trying to sniff for something.

Esther immediately stopped, bending down to make eye contact with the bat, but she also knew that with the difference in size between humans and bats, she looked very threatening, no matter how gentle she was.

The bat's small black eyes were full of confusion, and it no longer even made a mouse-like call, but stared blankly at Esther, who was approaching.

As Esther took another step, the bat screamed again, trying to prop up its pierced wings and move farther away

This act of struggling despite the injury made its voice carry a layer of piercing pain.

Esther no longer came closer, but took two steps back, her act of keeping her distance, causing the bat to stop again, just staring blankly at her.

Just as Esther decided to get away from the bat and climb the tower to take a look, she poked out half of her body through the hole in the tower. Even from a great distance, Esther could clearly see the man's appearance, his blond hair hanging down his ears, and his brow furrowed as he looked down.

When he saw Esther standing on the platform below, a smile appeared on his polite face, and his green eyes narrowed slightly.

After nodding at Esther, the figure grabbed the hole and jumped down from a height of nearly five meters, landing on the ground not far from the bat.

Seeing Benjamin here, Esther was also a little surprised: "Have you found your target?"

Benjamin shook his head helplessly: "At least so far, I have not gained anything. It's just ......."

His eyes rolled and landed on the fragile bat, the disc glasses missing, "There are some minor troubles, I'll take care of them."

A vague sense of disobedience came over Esther, and although the other party was not lying, Benjamin's tone made her wonder, "Then shall we find a passage to re-enter the castle?"

Benjamin shook his head: "The situation in the castle is very complicated, and leaving before dawn will also bring danger, so it is wisest to abandon the search."

Esther shrugged, "Well, since you said it, I have no opinion."

"Do you want to come with me, then? Shall we find a secluded place to spend the night in peace?"

Benjamin smiled and held out his right hand at Esther, waiting for her response.

It's an invitation.