16 The entire life!

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“Strange. How did this place end up like this?”

“I remember that when I came here with the archbishop last time, it wasn’t nearly this dark.”

Holding an ancient lantern, Herbert peered into the darkness ahead, where visibility extended less than a yard, and raised an eyebrow in bewilderment.

After attempting to win over Freime, he had passed through the Deepwater Prison in the Second Zone and arrived at the Third Zone of the Nonhuman Prison.

The Prison of Lightlessness.

Within this space, utterly devoid of light, were two dangerous monsters: a dark elf archmage and a vampire prince.

Incidentally, Herbert had not seen either of these monster girls the last time.

For some unknown reason, the archbishop had taken him straight through this place without greeting its prisoners, proceeding directly into the Lava Hell of the Fourth Zone.

Herbert had not dared to ask.

This was his first time seriously exploring the area, and he soon discovered that matters might not be as simple as he had imagined.

He raised the lantern above his head. Its feeble glow barely dispelled the darkness within a radius of one yard. Beyond that range, the thick darkness swallowed everything.

He could see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing—he could sense nothing at all.

“Who turned off the lights? Someone get a holy knight to turn them back on… Oh, right. I’m the holy knight.”

Where the hell was the holy light?

Herbert tried every method he could think of. In the end, he found that only the glow emitted by his holy mark could disperse the darkness, and even that merely expanded the illuminated area by another circle.

His field of vision reached the astonishing distance of—

Two yards.

It was completely useless!

If this place had merely been dark, Herbert would not have felt so lost.

But the problem he now faced was getting lost.

Not only had Herbert failed to find even the shadows of the two monster girls, he could not even locate the road leading to the Fourth Zone!

He had been walking quietly with his lantern for more than ten minutes, yet he still had not reached the end of the road.

That alone would not have been a problem. At worst, he could keep going. Eventually, he would reach the end.

The problem was that he might never get there.

Because whenever he turned around, he could see the road by which he had come.

He had been walking in place the entire time!

Tsk. First the Pen Fairy and the God of Comedy, and now a ghostly wall?

After being sent back to the same spot for the third time, Herbert finally gave up on blindly trudging forward and began seriously considering the situation.

“The laws here… seem to have been altered?”

In the Realm of Lightlessness, the eyes could not see.

One could only retreat, never advance.

Every prison in Mist Monastery was actually a specially severed demiplane. Though each appeared to provide everything its prisoner needed to live, all of them were governed by unique restrictive laws.

The Deepwater Prison, for example, placed extremely harsh restrictions on Freime. Under normal circumstances, it nearly stripped the prison of every water element within it, leaving even a legendary siren barely able to maintain a sphere of water large enough to contain herself.

But now, it seemed that the restrictions here had been turned against him.

Was that really fair?

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The hierarchy had been completely turned upside down.

Herbert narrowed his eyes as several thoughts flashed through his mind.

If his guess was correct, something had probably gone wrong here.

But at least matters had not yet reached their worst.

If the other party truly possessed the ability to manipulate the laws, Herbert would already have been sent back to the beginning.

The other party had not shown themselves or attempted to communicate with him. It was as though nothing had happened at all.

“Do you not want to alert me, and intend to make me retreat because I know my limits?”

As long as the other party remained hidden, he would assume the problem lay with him?

That was… fairly reasonable.

If Herbert were truly nothing more than a noble youth who had just become a holy knight, then after encountering such a situation, he would not force his way forward. He would certainly assume that he was too weak and withdraw.

Herbert pondered for a moment, then nodded and turned away without hesitation.

When in doubt, retreat first!

It was not as though he were in any hurry. For now, he could focus on winning over the dragon and the mermaid lady.

He could explore the areas ahead in the future!

Yet just as Herbert was about to pass through the barrier and return to the Deepwater Prison, his steps gradually slowed before coming to a complete halt.

“…Tsk.”

He was a little annoyed.

Though his current strategy was to be weak, helpless, and yet capable of eating a lot, and though he truly could not defeat the other party at present—

But still!

“I’m the warden. You’re the prisoner.”

Herbert turned around and looked toward the impenetrable darkness, curling his lips in displeasure.

“How could I possibly let you climb all over me?”

No.

Even if his protest was unlikely to accomplish anything, he felt that leaving meekly like this would leave him dissatisfied.

Even street thugs knew to throw out a couple of harsh words before departing.

He was a prison warden, after all. He had to put on some kind of show before leaving.

But what kind of show?

“Surely I’m not supposed to bite down on a lighter? I don’t even have one here… Hm?”

Herbert turned back and continued examining the darkness before him. Suddenly, he seemed to sense something.

He placed the lantern on the ground and slowly approached the boundary between light and darkness, narrowing his eyes at its unnaturally smooth edge.

After a moment of thought, Herbert tentatively extended one finger and gently touched the boundary of the light.

Nothing happened.

His finger felt perfectly normal, and when he pulled it back, it had not turned into a white bone.

“…”

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After a brief silence, he turned around and extinguished the lantern. After hesitating, he even shut down his holy mark.

In an instant, he felt himself passively merging into the darkness.

Drowning in nothingness.

Devoured by loneliness.

Strangely, however, apart from those sensations, Herbert felt no discomfort whatsoever.

This place was, in fact, no different from the outside world.

Within the darkness, Herbert’s eyes shone brightly, faintly veiled in golden light.

He still could not see anything, yet he could vaguely “sense” the road ahead.

That was not all. He also had the faint feeling that someone was watching him.

Someone in the darkness had been observing his every move.

Buzz—

The holy mark instantly flared with light, and the feeling of being watched vanished without a trace, as though what had just happened had merely been an illusion.

But Herbert was not that naïve.

So when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you as well—is that it?

“I understand now.”

The corners of his mouth lifted. He gave the darkness a cheerful smile, waved his hand, and called out loudly:

“I’ll be back!”

With that, without waiting to see whether the other party would respond, he picked up his lantern and strode away.

Soon after he left, the darkness once again returned to tranquility.

Only after a long while did a soft chuckle drift out from within it.

“He actually left so decisively.”

“Heh heh… What an interesting fellow.”

.

.

What did he understand?

To be honest, Herbert understood nothing at all.

He could not possibly comprehend the details behind the changes in the Third Zone at his current level, but that was unimportant.

He did not need to figure out the reason behind them. It was enough to confirm that something was indeed wrong.

Therefore, what he needed to do next was perfectly clear…

“Report it! I absolutely have to report this!”

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