Becoming a God Starts with Acting-Chapter 99: [Fish] - Nerio’s Part (11)

Inside the castle, Benjamin’s group quickly made their way to the second floor after parting ways with Cocona’s group. From their observations, it seemed the second floor was where William’s family resided. This was evident because the air here was several times colder than on the first floor, with buckets of cold stones placed everywhere.

These cold stones were truly special—they melted extremely slowly, continuously releasing a chilling aura.

"With how things are, there’s no way the William family can claim they just hate the heat. These monsters prefer cold weather!" Cyril said confidently while rubbing his hands together as if that would warm his body.

They looked down the corridor. There was no decorative item in the castle—no picture frames, objects indicating the castle’s origin, or anything that depicted its owner. The place was practically barren.

"Maybe we’ll only find clues if we enter the monsters’ private rooms," Vale said, then looked toward Benjamin.

Benjamin shook his head. "Let’s check out the third floor first, then we’ll go from there."

With that, he led the way forward, and the others quickly followed. However, just as they were about to step onto the stairs leading to the third floor, the emotionless voice of the butler suddenly sounded from behind them:

"Dear guests, the third floor has been abandoned. Not even the cleaners are allowed to go up there."

Benjamin turned back to look at the butler and slowly said, "But Mr William told us we could freely search the castle for traces of the demon. Who knows, the demon might be on the third floor."

The butler pressed his lips together as if hesitating about something. Ultimately, he seemed to give up and said, "That’s true. That area became off-limits because it has become the monster’s territory. No one has ever returned after going up there. I hope you will proceed with caution."

With that, he stepped aside as if giving up on stopping Benjamin’s group. His actions were odd—if he gave up so easily, this "forbidden area" wasn’t truly forbidden. It was as though he had appeared only to deliver a warning, like a narrator in a story.

But Benjamin’s group had no time to care about the butler. In a dungeon, danger lurked everywhere. As long as there were clues, they had no choice but to take the risk.

No cold stones were on the third floor, yet it was even colder than the second floor. Some areas were even covered in a thin layer of frost.

Just as the butler had said, this place hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time. The entire corridor was shrouded in spiderwebs and thick dust, making it hard to see anything.

The moment Benjamin’s group set foot on the third floor, the door to the stairwell they had just climbed slammed shut with unbelievable speed, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Stay alert," Benjamin said coldly. At the same time, light emerged from his hand, floating in the air like a miniature sun.

Dark shadows appeared before them, flitting rapidly between the rooms. They moved so quickly that they left only after hours. Suddenly, one of the shadows lunged straight at Benjamin!

Benjamin didn’t even move, nor did he make any defensive action. All they heard was a sound like something slamming into a solid shield—the monster was stopped right in front of him. Surrounding Benjamin was a translucent golden circle of light, firmly blocking any attack!

Only now did Benjamin’s group have a chance to observe the strange, pitch-black creature.

Its body was thin and bony, with flesh oozing a foul, black, muddy liquid that smelled like rotting fish, constantly dripping onto the ground. Its body was only the size of a child, with a deformed fish head, bulging eyes, and a profoundly split lower jaw, its mouth constantly gaping open as it let out ferocious screams.

It used its four limbs to retreat, gathering momentum to lunge at Benjamin again. But before it could do anything, an arrow of light pierced its body. The monster curled up in pain, writhing nonstop.

"AAAAAAA!" it uttered a piercing scream before disintegrating into smoke and dust, disappearing instantly.

Cyril said coldly, "This thing is a creature of darkness!"

Vale chuckled. "Well, at least now we know—we’re its natural enemy." freewebnσvel.cøm

"Uuu... huuu..." Just as Vale finished speaking, eerie sounds echoed around them, like wind whistling through cracks or the wails of someone crying.

Creak...

Then, all the doors in the hallway suddenly creaked open in unison, slowly. The darkness and dust thickened like never before, making it nearly impossible to see anything.

Shadows began to poke their heads out from behind the open doors slowly. At first glance, they looked like large monsters. But as they opened their eyes—eyes filled with clusters of bulging red pupils—it became clear that wasn’t the case. There weren’t a few large monsters... there were many, many small ones!

"Aaaaa! Aaaaa!" the creatures screamed in unison before charging Benjamin’s group. However, they couldn’t get very close—despite their numbers, they were far too weak and vanished instantly when they came into contact with the light emanating from Benjamin’s group.

"There are too many of them!" Cyril shouted.

"But they’re no threat... This is strange..." Vale murmured.

At that moment, Benjamin furrowed his brows as if sensing something was wrong. He spoke coldly: "Vale, check on Eryon’s current condition!"

Vale seemed to realize something as well. She closed her eyes tightly, enveloped in a divine light. A moment later, her eyes shot open. Cold sweat had formed on her forehead—from using her power and the urgency of what they were now facing.

"I can’t see Eryon’s current state—but I saw he was with Lucian just before!" Vale called out.

Benjamin’s gaze turned icy. "So the monsters are targeting Eryon. We’re heading back—now!"

With that, arrows of light wrapped around them all, launching them forward at incredible speed. A dense, powerful rain of arrows blasted through the monsters, instantly reducing them to smoke and dust. And yet, more monsters poured out from the doors, hurling themselves at Benjamin’s group wave after wave, throwing their lives away.

By this point, they fully understood the monsters’ objective—they were only trying to stall them.

Now, flashing back to a few minutes earlier—right after Benjamin and Cocona’s groups left their room to investigate the castle, Eryon hadn’t even had a chance to lazily flop back into bed when a knock came at the door.

He sat up immediately, brows furrowed, his face annoyed. "The door’s not locked. Come in yourself! Why are you back so soon?!"

Knock, knock, knock!

The only reply Eryon got was a series of relentless knocks.

Eryon rubbed his head roughly in frustration, then walked toward the door.

[Please, Eryon, can you be more cautious? With that face of yours, has the world taught you nothing?]

[Is he seriously confident enough to open the door while being just a normal person and alone? Doesn’t he realize how strange and creepy it is to hear knocking at athistime ]

[We’re screwed, really screwed this time—no one’s going to save him. Cocona’s and Benjamin’s groups are all being held back by the monsters!]

[Lucian is the favoured child of the William family. His family would do anything to help him take Eryon’s face]

[Eryon is just a regular person—there’s no saving him this time...]

[Please let Nerio or the Prophet show up, huhuhuhu...]

[Haha, the gods would never show up just because of the death of some idiot. Eryon is a textbook fool]

[Other than being a little self-absorbed, can we say Eryon’s an idiot?]

[Ok, ok, ok, can’t wait to see all your faces when Eryon dies lol]

[Haha, what a bunch of pathetic fans]

At that moment, Eryon opened the door. Outside, Lucian still had his hand raised, about to knock again. When he saw Eryon, the excitement in his eyes practically spilt out.

Eryon frowned, already moving to close the door.

But Lucian quickly blocked it with his hand. Regaining his composure, he smiled and said, "Do you want to come to my room? We could have a little talk..."

[Please don’t say yes!!!]

[As long as Eryon says no, Lucian wouldn’t dare senterthis room even if it killed him, haha!]

[Please, please, please!!!!]

But of course, Eryon couldn’t hear the desperate prayers from the comment section.

Going to Lucian’s room—that place held more clues.

"Alright, let’s go," Eryon said, then stepped out of the room without hesitation, following behind Lucian.

The moment Lucian turned to lead the way, his entire face contorted with glee and elation. That twisted grin, the eyes squinting so tightly they nearly vanished, and his sagging skin made him look like an actual demon.

He quickly adjusted his expression and picked up the pace.

[It’s over. I take it back—Eryon is an idiot]

Lucian swiftly led Eryon into his room.

Whether by design or not, the door slamming shut echoed loudly—almost like a warning Lucian intentionally delivered to the foolish prey who had stepped into the wolf’s den.

But Eryon didn’t even notice. He glanced around the room, noting that it was luxuriously decorated. However, something was odd: no mirror was in sight. Not even any reflective surfaces. That felt... wrong.

On the wall was a large frame, like a painting or a photo, but it had been covered by a grey-white cloth.

Just as Eryon reached out to pull the cloth down, Lucian’s strange voice rang out behind him:

"With a face more beautiful than a mermaid’s... that must feel pretty wonderful, huh?"