Chapter 68: The Befuddled Angela

After a wave of dizziness, Lyle regained consciousness.

Perhaps it was because he had experienced spatial teleportation once before, making his body somewhat more accustomed to it, or perhaps the distance of this teleportation was shorter, but Lyle felt much better this time.

Opening his eyes, Lyle immediately began to survey his surroundings.

Consistent with the style outside the gloomy mansion, the walls were black and gray, and the ground was covered in dust. The only unusual feature was a platform directly in front of Lyle, covered in intricate, peculiar engravings.

*Phew~* Fortunately, my memory served me right, and I didn't end up teleporting to the wrong place.

Looking at the familiar surroundings, Lyle breathed a sigh of relief.

There was no danger in this room—in a sense, at least. The only question was whether the situation here was still the same as in the game.

Lyle rubbed his wrists and walked straight toward the platform in the center of the room.

The uniqueness of the entire room—or rather, the entire gloomy mansion—lay in the very platform before him.

Upon closer inspection, one could see that the special engravings carved onto the platform were actually magic runes. They extended from the altar all the way onto the ground, though it was unclear what purpose they served.

In his past life, as a gold-farming worker for a gaming studio, Lyle never had the leisure to study these magic runes; his only job was to hack and slash his way through.

However, having just begun consolidating his learning and mastering the knowledge of magic runes, Lyle could now—even if he couldn't fully comprehend all the runes before him—recognize the combination representing "blood," "nurturing," and "death."

Still, the magic runes themselves were not the main point. Far more important was the object placed atop the platform.

A blood-red heart!

This heart was like a flawless crystal, resembling a work of art crafted by an exquisite artisan, radiating a gemstone-like, bloody glow.

It continuously emitted a thick scent of blood, and the magic rune array on the platform was designed to connect to this heart.

Yet Lyle's gaze did not linger on the blood-red heart; instead, he looked at what lay upon it.

Yes, something was perched on top of this heart—no, to be precise, a magical beast.

A tiny, snow-white bat was sprawled across the heart, fast asleep, with a snot bubble the size of its own body hanging from the tip of its tiny nose, bobbing up and down with each breath.

As for the heart placed on the platform, one could see that the vast majority of the energy it emitted was being completely absorbed into the body of this bat.

Lyle took a deep breath, then cautiously reached out toward the white bat, intending to wake it from its sweet dream.

Lyle had to be careful, for the little master before him had an extraordinary background.

This white bat was the only supernatural creature in [McGuire's Death Mausoleum] that possessed normal intelligence and could communicate with players.

Level 150 vampire, Angela!

From the perspective of a player in his past life, the moment one entered this room, they would see a red warning sign reading [Extreme Danger] hovering above the head of this sleeping white bat, highlighting its status as a Boss.

Yet now, in Lyle's eyes, this white bat seemed perhaps a bit too cute.

Unlike its filthy, pitch-black kin, beneath its snow-white fur were pink little ears and paws.

It curled up tightly, sleeping soundly and sweetly atop that heart, its little ears twitching from time to time.

If Yier were here, she certainly would have rushed forward to grab it and lavish it with crazy cuddles.

Yet who would have thought that such an adorable little creature possessed the strength of a Gold-tier Boss?

If he could help it, Lyle really didn't want to provoke this fellow. After all, no matter how cute the animal, it couldn't shake Lyle's firm resolve (cough~).

Yet the key to the second method of clearing the dungeon lay precisely with this creature.

Lyle carefully nudged the little thing with his hand, and he had to admit, the texture was really quite nice.

Cold and soft, it felt very comfortable to the touch.

Lyle quickly banished these distracting thoughts from his mind and hurried to observe the little bat's reactions.

After a good while, Lyle reached a conclusion.

This guy slept like the dead!

In his past life, players always rushed in blindly without chatting, greeting the boss the moment they met with a fireball hurled right at its face.

Who would ever wake up a Boss during a dungeon run just to ask:
"Are you awake yet? If you're awake, then I'm going to attack!"

There was no help for it; saving time for his clients was Lyle's professional ethic and a major advantage in maintaining his studio's competitiveness.

This was also why, despite knowing in his past life that this secret realm had a second way to clear it, Lyle had never tested it out and now had to fumble through it carefully.

To wake this fellow up, Lyle went from gently pushing, to patting, to lifting it up and shaking it, stopping just short of throwing it directly onto the ground.

Just as Lyle was hesitating whether to try a Awakening Spell, the little bat finally roused from its sweet slumber.

The snot bubble in front of its head burst, and a pair of small eyes blinked open in bewilderment, staring blankly at Lyle, who was holding it by its hind legs so that it hung upside down in his hand.

Lyle felt a bit awkward. After all, holding this big shot in such an ungraceful posture wasn't quite right, so he quickly and respectfully used both hands to gently place it back onto the red "bed."

The little bat's pitch-black eyes turned toward Lyle. Lyle fancied he could read from its dazed expression:
*Who am I, where am I, and what am I doing?*

"Respected Lord Angela, I am deeply sorry for disturbing your sweet dream."

Lyle said respectfully to the little bat sprawled across the heart, even giving a noble bow.

"Oh."

Angela clearly hadn't reacted yet. After all, it was far too ever-boring in the mausoleum; ever since its successful advancement and the awakening of its inherited memories, it had never encountered a single entity it could communicate with. Its sole favorite activity was lying atop this heart every day to sleep away the hours.

That headless fellow would draw his sword and hack at bats the moment he saw it; the master of this mausoleum stayed inside his lich tower and never came out, goodness knows what he was up to; and as for the other small fry, they didn't even bear mentioning.

It took a good long while for Angela—who had learned human language from her inherited memories—to process this, finally realizing that the fellow before her didn't seem to be an undead creature of the mausoleum, but rather resembled the food described in her memories.

*Coming from the outside?*

Still feeling sleepy, Angela suddenly woke up, her small eyes widening into round circles as she hurriedly spoke in her somewhat rusty human tongue:
"You're a human? Did you come from outside the mausoleum?"

Lyle looked at Angela, who was struggling to prop up her body with her two little paws, and felt a slight sense of relief in his heart.

*At least she didn't attack. Communication is indeed possible!*

Lyle chose to delete the memory of those ungraceful actions from his mind and said to Angela:
"Yes, I entered from outside this mausoleum. I didn't expect to meet you here, Lord Angela."

"Oh, oh."

Angela suddenly felt something was amiss and asked:
"How do you know my name? I haven't told anyone the name I chose for myself. Don't try to trick me, I'm very smart!"

Hearing this, Lyle turned solemn, his respectful gaze tinged with a hint of yearning:
"Because after entering the mausoleum, I received an oracle from Lord Caine, bidding me to come and lead you away from this cage!"