Way of the Knights

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Raven followed the staircase down and it didn't take long before he eventually arrived at the room that it leads to.

"Oh? What is this?" Raven raised a brow as he inspected his new surroundings. 

He arrived a small room which is barely as tall he was. There are lit up torches mounted on walls that illuminated the place. There is a small wooden box in the middle of the room and he also saw a lever at the far end. Judging by the size of the room, he figured that it should be located in between the floors, basically a hidden or underground room. 

Raven walked towards the box and inspected it for a bit. Not sensing any kind of trap or danger, he took it and opened it to see what it contains. 

Upon opening the box, he saw what looked like a gem fragment and a hand written letter. He frowned and decided to read the letter first:

"Greetings, whoever you are who found this letter.

If things went according to plan, then this letter must be accompanied by a sapphire gem fragment. If not, then something must've gone horribly wrong.

If it's the former, then your luck is good. You are quarter of the way through receiving a great chance to change your fate and reach new heights of cultivation that you've never thought existed before. But if it's the latter, then please do us a favor, burn this letter and forget everything that you've read so far. Trust me, it would be in your best interest to not pry into things that shouldn't be revealed to you. Leave this be, and move along. 

If you reached this part of the letter, then I can only assume that you've encountered the Sunken Ivory Castle and most likely is confused as to what's going on with this place.

It's nothing too crazy, really. The reason why this whole castle seems to be hostile against you, isn't because trespassers aren't welcome here. It's because it's testing you.

That's right. This castle is nothing more than a fancy testing grounds for disciples that are interested to join our sect - The Boundless Azure Sect, which is founded by the 4th Sea Master. You might know him, but he's one of the most powerful individuals that has ever graced the Divine Realm and he, along with many people, were born at the same plane as you. The Grand Ancestral Plane…"

***

Reading that far into the letter, Raven got bored and skimmed the rest of the letter. Majority of its contents are just information that he had read from the scrolls and books earlier. In other words, this letter was just summarizing the things that he's already aware of. 

He just searched for the information about the gem in the letter since he's more interested in that unlike the preaching of the one wrote this.

"…the sapphire gem crystal that accompanied this letter is a key fragment. There's a total of four key fragments, find them and search for the Kraken Priestess. Don't engage in any conversation with her without every gem fragment with you or else you won't get access to the Master's Chambers. 

Once you have all of them, seek her out and talk to her. She will re-forge the fragments and will take you to the Master's Chambers. Remember, the key is important so don't lose it. The priestess will only re-forge it once and once only, should it break while in your care, then you will lose this chance forever so take good care of it."

Upon reading this section, a frown appeared on his face. He couldn't help but say:

"I thought the Master's Chambers are off-limits?" Raven thought for a bit, he then remembered a certain information that he had nearly forgotten. "Oh, right! I almost forgot that the 5th Sea Master re-purposed this place. That should include the Master's Chambers as well."

"Well, this is useless to me then." Raven said, "I'm not after the inheritance and I'm not trying to join the Boundless Azure Sect. I should leave this here then."

He was about to return the letter to the box but then he caught sight of the lever in front on him. He frowned and murmured: "Does the letter has anything to say about this lever?"

Raven skimmed the letter once more and to his surprised, he actually found what the lever does. The writer of this letter included it near the end. 

"Oh, I almost forgot. The box that contains this letter and this gem fragment should be placed in a hidden room. If you find a lever nearby, pull it. It will make you life easier there."

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.

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