339 Box and Lever (2/2)

It was brief and didn't say much about what the lever actually does. Nevertheless, Raven didn't think that the person who wrote this had any reason to lie at this point.

He shrugged as he finished reading the letter. He then placed it back on the box along with the gem and returned it to where it belonged. He then walked towards the lever and pulled it back to see what's going to happen.

Mechanical sounds were heard in the room as he pulled the lever back. Once he's done, he noticed that his surroundings become eerily quiet.

He observed his surroundings with his senses and noticed that everything stopped moving. His eyes lit up and he finally had an idea what the lever was for.

The lever just deactivated the defense mechanism of the castle. The rooms were no longer switching around and the traps had also been disabled. The Soul Punishing Tentacles are still there but due to Raven's outburst earlier, they remained docile and didn't try to bother him anymore.

And since the rooms had stopped switching around, Raven no longer has to re-organize himself every time he exits one room. This really made his life easier since deactivating this defense mechanism saves him a lot of time. He no longer has to worry about entering the same room over and over again since the rooms constantly switches around.

He smiled and left the hidden room. He then took the staircase back to the trap room and exited.

To his surprise, he found himself in the second floor of the castle. He didn't fret since he knew that the rooms won't switch around any longer so he could really take his time to inspect each room that he will enter now.

He looked at the rooms available for him to explore and choose the one right next to the previous room he entered.

As soon as Raven entered the room, it locked behind him once again. A feeling of surprise rose up in his chest as he felt some kind of heat in his skin. His eyes adjusted and he instinctively looked up.

He then saw brightness that almost blinded him. He frowned and looked around him only to see that he's inside some sort of a garden. Fragrant scent captivated him, he felt the cool breeze of the air and vivid colors of the vegetation around him. It didn't take him long before he realized where he is…

”An artificial garden.” He murmured, ”They could even mimic sunlight. That's neat, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The one who made this came from the Divine Realm, this much should be nothing.”

Even Raven himself, almost believed that he's actually under the sun right now. It had to be known that Raven's senses are top notch in this plane, yet he was actually almost fooled by this. If it weren't for the fact that he knows that he's currently 5000 meters deep in the sea, he might've actually fall for it.

Raven saw many kinds of ingredients in this place that could be used in alchemy. He was tempted to gather all of them since it has been a while since he actually concocted something, but he remembered that his spatial rings were sealed so he dropped the idea.

All of a sudden, he caught a whiff of something that smells very familiar to him. His eyes widened as he began following the scent.

He eventually arrived at some random corner of the garden. He walked past through some bushes and saw a hill. On top of the said hill, there is a lone flower blooming in splendor. It bathed under the fake sunlight and released a fragrant scent that would captivate humans and beasts alike.

Each petals of the flower had different colors. Aside from a very fragrant scent, also radiates with a gentle presence and radiant beauty.

Raven almost couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't help but smile wryly as he said:

”The Fragrant Rainbow Flower.” He muttered under his breath, ”So this is where you were. I could've sworn that I've seen you in a different location back in the past though…

There it is, the main reason why he's here in the first place. The Fragrant Rainbow Flower is the ingredient that he's after.

Without any hesitation, Raven started walking towards the flower with the intent of harvesting it. Unfortunately, before he could even get close, an unexpected change happened.

He suddenly remembered one thing about the flower. That is the fact that it grows on the head of a massive toad.