Arcane Academy: The Divine Extraction Legacy

As Clovis waited for the scouts to finish their tasks, he remembered the information about the Vampires.

Apparently, the existence of the Vampires wasn't as uncommon as he thought. Vampires could actually be summoned from a different realm, and as long as they met certain conditions, they could live in this human realm as long as they could.

As for the specific conditions, he had no clue about them since he had limited information...

In fact, the existence of Vampires wasn't taught in the four years of his study. He only learned about them because of how he absorbed a lot of information on the second floor of their Academy's library.

That second floor of the library allowed him to absorb information just by opening the book and accepting its mysterious knowledge transfer. He'd really like to return to that place if possible.

Clovis sighed as he looked at the gloomy castle.

"I don't think it's a good idea to bother the Vampire living there..." Clovis muttered as he didn't like the fact that they would just invade the Vampire's territory because of a request from the Ruri Kingdom's Arcanist Guild.

The Vampire wasn't even in a nearby city and was causing trouble. It was just in the middle of a forest, far away from human civilization.

"I heard from the villagers that we passed by that the Vampire or the person living there was even regulating the beasts and creatures roaming in the forest... They don't have a bad relationship with the owner of the castle. However, I also heard that the governor of this region sent some emissaries to the castle and came back with injuries. It seems they were trying to recruit the Vampire to join their army." Pearl suddenly said after hearing Clovis while she was waiting for her scouts to return.

"Is that so? Then this must be a trap... They probably wanted our squads to measure the strength of the Vampire." Clovis muttered as his eyes started scanning around.

"This means that the Arcanists from their guild must be observing us from afar. Did you detect their presence?" He softly muttered.

"I don't feel their presence. But if that's their plan, they must be the ones who summoned that Evil Entity you destroyed with the Divine Lightning." Pearl suggested as she leaned on a nearby tree.

Clovis eyes brightened after hearing this. That would indeed make sense! They had probably summoned that mysterious entity to test their strength to verify whether they had the skills to fight against the Vampire!

As he thought of this, some of the scouts that were sent finally came back after some time...

To their surprise, all the scouts managed to return. They had expected that many of them would die, but it seemed that something was wrong in the castle.

"What happened?" Clovis asked the people who were controlling their scouts. If not for the mysterious formation art that was blocking his Divine Sense and other detection Spells, he would just enter this castle on his own.

For now, however, he had to rely on the scouts' report.

"It's weird… My lizard didn't find anything after searching the places it could enter." Pearl said.

"It's the same with my Spirits…"

"My rats didn't find anything suspicious aside from the places with metal doors."

"How come none of our scouts found anything when we can feel how threatening this castle is?" Drake muttered as he gravely looked at the castle. There was no way this castle was empty.

However, all the scouts reported what they had seen inside the castle. They all confirmed that the castle was empty and quiet. There were no signs of life or movement.

There weren't even any traps or threats that were triggered while they were searching... Furthermore, a couple of treasure-seeking rats couldn't sense any treasures in the castle either.

There was only dust and darkness.

"What's going on here?"

"Did we make a mistake? Is this not the castle we're looking for." Roy muttered.

"This is definitely the castle. However, the owner must've escaped as soon as he noticed my presence…" Drake suddenly said as he felt that his reputation had probably spread far and wide.

Of course, the people from Kirkham City just ignored these words.

They were still puzzled and disappointed by what they had seen.

All of them started wondering why the castle was so barren and silent.

In the end, Roland, the veteran Arcanist, made a suggestion.

"This must be a trick… The owner of the castle might have arranged something to show nothing to the scouts entering his castle. Perhaps we'll find something if we enter the castle instead."

No one objected to this idea since they were already here. Even if there was no enemy inside the castle, it was still better to check it personally.

Soon, they decided to enter the castle and investigate further.

Since they didn't know whether this could be a trap, they maintained a formation while entering to ensure everyone's safety.

The entrance hall was large and empty, with a high ceiling and a grand staircase.

The walls were decorated with paintings and tapestries, but they were faded and torn. The floor was covered with carpets and rugs, but they were dusty and stained.

As for the pieces of furniture, they were elegant and antique, but they were broken and rotten.

Then, as soon as everyone entered the castle, Roland's intuition was confirmed!

Bang!

The thick and heavy iron door of the castle had abruptly shut as soon as they entered.

Formation Art was activated to prevent it from being opened by any Mystic Art like Unlock Spell or Gate Crash Spells.

Then, the several orbs in the pillars and walls started lighting up the surroundings. Even the dusty chandelier suddenly lit up the whole area.

They hadn't seen their enemy yet, but they knew that they were about to face them.

"I knew it! This is a trap!" One of them remarked.

"Everyone, get ready!"

"We will dominate this!" Drake said as he activated his Mystical Artifacts.