Rumble!
Closing the right side of the double cyan doors, the tall knight returned to its former position beside it, setting its exaggerated lance—that was 4 times larger than its size—down next to it.
Mechanically in sync, the tall knight on the left side drew its broad sword from the marbled floor, and gently situated it with its two armored hands, obliterating the surroundings of light.
Incredibly, the surface of the marbled floor restored itself to its pristine state, as though it aimed to look neat to the "visitors" in front.
Staring at the two tall golem-like knights with bright orange-blue circles of light were 6 giants that resembled decaying wolves. With a size exceeding 50 feet tall, "They" are covered in messy, featherlike white fur with black viscous liquid drenched on it.
"Their" neck was as thrice as long as an average wolf's neck, with long, bird-like tails featuring a large and fluffy tail tip. Each of "Them" possessed three pairs of legs that were attached to "Their" shoulders and ribs, with two, large frog-like multi-jointed limbs as their hind legs.
"They" have three empty eyesockets that beamed with a bright orange-blue hue, too bright that it almost looks white. From "Their" orifices, bony wrists and ankles ooze out a black tar-like liquid, sliding down to all parts of "Their" body.
The 6 wolf-like creatures' very presence rots and decays a wide range of area, bringing upon the inevitable destruction and apocalypse of the land around them, but the two knights and the castle remain unscathed excluding the knights' copper armor.
However, the grasslands around those imposing giants continued to regrow over and over again, refusing to be destroyed by a mere passive putrification.
The 6 wolves and the two knights stared down at each other, neither of them moving an inch nor having the intention to strike first.
After a few seconds, the lofty canines slowly turned around and sauntered away towards the mist, rumbling heavily as decay and renewal followed them with each step.
The golem-like knights watched the giants disappear in the mist before lowering their heads. The two points of orange light inside their visors dissipated, as the faint machinery noises inside gradually stopped working.
….
Rah.. argh…. Urgh….
In the castle's foyer at noon, Märchen closed his eyes and took a few slow, long, and rhythmic breaths to clear his mind. This is a way to distract himself from the contractional pain and the tearing of his muscles that coursed through his body.
He had recently learned this meditation technique from a party member when they were exploring the second floor of the Exalted Imperial Dungeon.
This meditation technique has three steps, with the first step being to regulate your breathing to calm down your senses and to clear your mind.
Before he could proceed to the second step, he suddenly heard something. It seemed to stretch towards the infinity as it rang next to him.
The sound was chaotic and unclear but it was reminiscent of multiple illusory whispers stacking up on each other.
At that moment, Märchen felt his heart beating faster as a searing pain sprouted in his head, as though a knife had been inserted inside it while it stirred around in it.
A sudden, intense pain emerged, with his emotions surging out like torrential waves, halting his meditation abruptly.
Groaning in pain, he grasped his shoulders and hugged himself, as his body began to feel hot. His skin turns reddish as slight scorches erupt within his skin, puffing out a smoldering billow
Märchen's eyes busted open, and his wiry hair began to flare up and defy gravity. He felt that his body was on the verge of bursting out.
Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes as he heaved a few long breaths that released smoke for each. He gives more concern toward the four doses of affliction—an intense, contractional pain, tearing of the muscles and a few ligaments, a fierce headache, and a scorching discomfort—than the transformation that he is currently undergoing.
After all, Märchen lacks the knowledge to reverse or prevent himself from this sudden transformation, let alone the idea of how the transformation occurred.
"Ah… Ah… Ah…" he resumes his meditation as he takes long, shaky yet sequential breaths to ease the pain and soothe his mind, barely emptying his thoughts inside.
After about 20 seconds, though there was still an influence of shifting thoughts, he felt that his mind was clear enough to picture an object. He can now proceed to the second step of the meditation—to form one simple object in one's mind.
This is a way to divert one's attention onto the pictured object, letting the person focus on one object that they made. The object must be easy and memorable to think of; otherwise, the effect will succumb to failure.
In Märchen's mind, he outlined a red apple covering a yellow blazing sun and poured all of his thoughts and ideas into the imagined entity.
As time passed, his mind began to achieve a calmer state and his emotions were now manageable.
His body starts to cool down, and the scorches on his skin diminish softly. His swollen body gradually shrinks into that of a human, with his hair returning to its former state.
Suddenly, the image in his mind changed. The red apple had turned the burning yellow sun into a deep shade of bright red, akin to blood.
As the mental picture changed, his ears were suddenly overwhelmed by terrifying wail-like whispers that seemed incomprehensible.
He felt a sudden sharp pain that penetrated his brain to the deepest part of it, and he immediately had thoughts of destroying anything around him to vent the discomfort inside him.
Instantaneously, his meditation shattered once again, snapping his eyes open. His chest rose and fell rapidly as puffs of wind rushed through his mouth, his eyes shook and unfocused.
After almost 20 seconds, he gradually calms down and notices that his stained linen shirt has been burned and ripped apart, unveiling his right arm and some parts of his left arm and torso.
What was that even to begin with? What exactly just happened? Märchen questioned himself regarding the sudden transformation and how he managed to stop it.
Standing up with the help of his legs, he noticed that even though he was diagnosed with many kinds of pain, paired with his exhaustion, he seemed to be slightly energetic and fine.
Curious, he stretched his arm around and realized it was slightly more animatic than before. Not only that, he also felt that some of his senses had been enhanced to the point that it seemed inhumane.
Uh? Urgh… He scratched his head and rubbed his glabella. At that moment, he
sense a sudden resurging of knowledge in his head, like a rock thrown into the water.
In other words, the knowledge was foreign and different yet it was given to him casually.
Though the knowledge he unknowingly received was quite ambiguous and lacked coherent thought, he could make it out with it in his head.
First, his senses had significantly heightened.
His sense of smell had sharpened to the point that he could pick even the subtlest changes of scent within an environment. It was likely that he could track down someone's strongest odor at a considerable amount of distance.
His already-sharp sight has been further enhanced, possibly even encompassing a large distance from that of an eagle, or even surpassing it. He might even see through the dimmest areas with little light.
His hearing had also improved, though not as drastically. Compared to his heightened smell and vision, it was relatively modest.
As for his taste and touch, their refinements felt minor, though noticeable and different from others, but far from extraordinary.
Second, his sense of awareness of the environment, space, movement, observation, and tracking has reached heights that only through harsh training can achieve.
He can now "see" the whole environment or structure by merely observing his surroundings or using his enhanced sense of smell to outline them. This depends on Märchen's levels of intellect, comprehension thinking, logical reasoning skills, and experiences.
In other words, it was now impossible for him to get lost!
He can also predict or comprehend the subtle bodily movements of the target. In practical use, he can now "hear" what his target says from afar with his sharpened vision, and he can also predict his target's behavior through the subtle shifts in their actions.
Thirdly, his memorization was strengthened, enabling him to visit his childhood in full detail in his mind as if it happened yesterday. He can also recite a 3-paragraph text by reading it once or twice.
Fourthly, his reaction speed and his cognitive processing have undergone significant changes, enabling him to think and act simultaneously with great efficiency. Additionally, he had acquired an instinctive ability to sense the danger of which he wasn't aware.
Lastly, his impressive physical capabilities have seen further enhancements. Moreover, he had obtained the ability to quickly recover wounds, energy, and exhaustion, contributing more to his overall athleticism.
Rubbing his glabella with a short gasp, he finds himself slightly surprised that he was able to formulate a summary of his acquired traits and enhancements quickly.
He wasn't the type to journal out of his experiences and make summaries of some subjects, let alone the fact that he wasn't that academically intelligent.
Has my intellect also been increased? I do not feel that smart at all… Hmm, maybe I am still an illiterate knight... I only have an enhanced mind for synthesizing things… Belittling himself, he scratched his head as he observed his surroundings.
He appeared to be standing in the grand foyer of the magnificent castle. Before him rose a set of wide stairs that could hold 10 people side by side, extending an impressive 50 meters upward.
Along the ascent, intermediate floors branched out to the right and left, adding to the grandeur of the space. Resting across the half-floors were five heavy doors—two on each side with one in the middle.
Looking overhead, a large hexagonal piece of thick, curved glass casts a soft, dim glow to the whole area from the outside, displaying regal, flowery patterns as it accentuates their shadows.
Retracting his gaze, he studies the lower floor of the foyer, discerning two doors on each side of the marbled cyan walls with another two at the front, separated by the large staircase.
The foyer also features an array of paintings, exaggerated candelabrums, and an outstandingly large carpet around the space, which together combine barely occupying one-eight of the magnificently large space.
Isn't this too large for an entrance? Oh, right. This seemed to be only for giants. Wait, giants? The paintings here seemed too short, with only a few much larger than eight paintings combined… The paintings seemed to exhibit multiple, diverse races, which is odd for giants, who were known to be ruthless and chaotic in legends and some scriptures of history, to be this tolerable.
Furthermore, there are two guards outside that barely reached 4 meters… It is too short for a giant to make it as gua—Argh! Stop thinking! Inquisitively exhausted, he climbed the giant staircase with hastened speed.
After almost a minute, he eventually reached on top of the half-floor. It was bizarre and remarkable that he wasn't even the slightest exhausted at all.