337 Testing Grounds (1/2)
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Raven shook his head once more and got out of trance. His gaze then returned into the bookshelves.
He just finished reading all the scrolls, now he's wondering what do the books contained. He picked one up and started reading their contents.
”The 4th Sea Master's Sunken Castle.” Raven murmured upon reading what's on the first page of the book. ”Oh, that must be the original name of this place. So it dates back all the way to the Ascendant's Era huh. Quite old.”
He flipped onto the next page and started reading. He then gradually got immersed on to the texts and finished it in no time.
”Ah, I see.” Raven murmured as he finished reading, ”The 4th Sea Master Created this castle a few years after they set foot onto the Divine Realm. He created this place to honor the memories of his late wife, who happens to be someone from the Bearded Ladies Tribe.”
The 4th Sea Master's Castle, or the Sunken Ivory Castle of the South is composed of three main parts: the wall fortresses, the main castle and the Master's Chambers.
The Wall Fortresses is where one would found the offensive controls of the castle and its also the place where the chains that binds the castle to the Kraken, is located. There are a total of six fortresses around the castle, and if someone decides to free the Kraken, the have to dislodge the chains in each fortresses at the same time or else it wouldn't work and trigger an alarm system.
The Main Castle is where the guests, servants and caretakers resided along with the master of the castle. According to what he read, there is a total of 20 guest rooms, 10 staff rooms that are shared by the servants, a library, a study room, meeting room, private rooms and five miscellaneous rooms inside this castle. Should any intruders managed to get past the walls and arrive here, a defense mechanism will be activated.
When it is triggered, not only the Soul Punishing Tentacles will be activated, the hidden trap mechanisms will turn on and the guards will be alarm that an intruder has come. Normally, one has to have an invitation from the Master or Castellan in order to be treated as guest, any other methods of entering is considered as trespassing.
Then, there's the Master's Chambers that no one else, aside from the owner of the castle could enter. It wasn't written was precisely is hidden behind those chambers but since only the Master can enter it, it must be of great importance. The way towards the Master's Chambers is of course, only visible and known to the Master of the Castle. The 4th Sea Master wrote that the Master's Chambers is the most important room in this place. Without it, the rest had no meaning.
Raven had some faint guesses on what's hidden behind those places but kept it to himself first. He still not aware if he's currently being monitored or not, so just to be safe it would be wise to remain silent.
The movements are subtle, but he could tell that the rooms are switching places bit by bit, making this map inaccurate for his current situation, so he didn't even bother memorizing it.
After reading this book, Raven placed it back on the shelf and browse another book to read.
***
After a whole day of non-stop reading, Raven is finally done reading every single book in the shelves. He massaged his temples and closed his eyes for a bit. He then summarized all the things that he had read so far.
First and foremost, he now knew the reason why this castle is in the lower plane. It turns out that it had a great purpose that Raven hadn't known before...
The Sunken Ivory Castle is one of the trial grounds for those who wanted to ascend.
Though the 4th Sea Master built this place to honor the memories of his late wife, it has been re-purposed by his descendants.