Chapter 1388: 146. Disguise

"Good, Douglas has already been lured away."

Peles slowly opened her eyes.

"Really?"

Muen was still somewhat doubtful. "He was lured away just like that?"

"We're only luring him away, not doing anything earth-shattering to him. How could it be that difficult? It just so happens that I know a little special control magic."

Peles revealed a meaningful smile. "It's just that my former disciple needs to make a tiny, insignificant sacrifice."

"So that's how it is..."

Muen slowly nodded.

He didn't care what price Huggins would have to pay, but presumably it wouldn't be anything too serious. After all, he only had to lure someone out of a room. It wasn't as though he'd have to sacrifice his chastity or anything, right?

In any case, the conditions had already been met. Next, it was their turn.

"The entire Origin Tower has thirty-three floors."

"Among them, the Tower Master's office is on the thirty-fourth floor, which is to say, a floor that doesn't exist."

"If you want to reach that place, you can only do so through a special spatial array inside the Origin Tower. Other than that, even if you crushed the entire Origin Tower into pieces, you still wouldn't find the slightest trace of it."

Peles spread her fair hand, and wisps of mist rose, rapidly condensing into a model of the Origin Tower.

Several points of light flickered within it, showing Muen the locations of the key nodes.

"That cautious?"

"After all, it's not merely an office. It's also where one of the core hubs of the entire Origin Tower is located. It's perfectly normal for the defenses to be a little stricter."

"Judging from what Senior Peles means, we have another way to get in?"

"Of course."

Peles gave a charming smi...

"Stare—"

"Cough. Although that area is heavily protected, no matter how tight the defenses are, they were still built layer by layer upon the original foundation."

Under a certain piercing gaze, Peles restrained her smile and lightly tapped with her finger. The entire model instantly enlarged, zooming in on the area at the very top.

"And as it happens, though I don't mean to boast, I was one of the people who laid that core foundation."

Countless patterns and complicated points of light moved, transformed, and converged within Peles's palm, finally arriving at an exceptionally dazzling core of light that illuminated the entire classroom.

To be honest, Muen couldn't really understand these changes. His magical attainments, which remained only at the theoretical level, were not enough for him to comprehend something this profound.

Yet at this moment, it was as though he could follow Peles's gentle and attentive guidance and truly penetrate into the most secret area of the Origin Tower, taking a glimpse into that mysterious domain which very few outsiders could ever reach.

Huh?

Strange. This was clearly something completely serious, so why did it somehow feel erotic?

"I understand."

Ariel stepped forward, inserting herself between the two of them, then crossed her arms and nodded knowingly. "Simply put, Teacher, you left a back door on the only spatial passage connecting that place to the outside world, and as long as we go through that back door, we can successfully infiltrate it?"

"As expected of my disciple. You're smart."

Peles gathered away the mist model. "Because of the core area's own security and concealment capabilities, there shouldn't be anyone guarding it other than the Tower Master. So now that Douglas has been lured away, we can go straight in without anything obstructing us along the way."

"Go straight in? Then what are we waiting for? Let's leave right now!"

Muen immediately became excited.

He had originally thought this would be an extremely difficult task, but unexpectedly, it had suddenly become so easy, even a little too easy. Muen couldn't help feeling as though he were dreaming.

In order to turn this beautiful dream into reality, he was already impatient to go straight in and squeeze Douglas dry... no, even squeeze the secrets of the Origin Tower dry!

"You're going like that?"

Ariel glanced sideways at Muen. "Although the risk of using Teacher's back door is extremely low, there's still a possibility of running straight into Douglas. If you, the current head of the Enhancement School, are discovered secretly infiltrating the place..."

"Right."

Muen slapped his face.

He had gotten too excited and almost forgotten about that.

To be cautious, he still needed to disguise his identity.

Not only was this to prevent Douglas or other people in the Origin Tower from discovering him, which would cause his identity to collapse and make it impossible to continue the work afterward, but more importantly...

By changing identities, he would be able to use his own black flame and Divine Kingdom without any restraint.

Master Enmu's "excellent magic" still seemed far too limited at present. Back in the void, if Huggins hadn't misjudged the situation, things probably wouldn't have gone nearly that smoothly.

In a place like the Origin Tower, simple "Enhancement Magic" might indeed have its limits.

So this time, I won't use Enhancement Magic!

"But what identity should I use?"

Muen rubbed his chin...

His original identity was definitely out of the question. If the son of an Imperial duke caused a disturbance in the Origin Tower and even infiltrated its core, once word got out, it would become an enormous diplomatic incident.

The identity of the Dark Emperor?

That wouldn't work either. Dark Emperor Bruce had caused one huge incident after another, and his identity had long since become a semi-open secret in the eyes of certain important figures. Even if the Origin Tower didn't know that secret for the time being, it could easily implicate those people in Belrand's Lower District and Saint Blancfazesiya in the Kingdom. After all, to them, the Origin Tower was an enormous existence they were completely incapable of opposing.

"But aside from those, I haven't prepared any other disguises. That old hag in a little girl's body rushed me too much. Even this identity was something she shoved at me..."

Muen was troubled for a moment.

He couldn't use magic himself, so even disguising himself required external items.

Under these circumstances, where was he supposed to find something that could change his identity?

This wasn't good...

"You don't know what to disguise yourself as? I have a suggestion..."

Ariel glanced at Muen, then at her own teacher beside him, and suddenly spoke.

"Hm?"

Muen turned his head in confusion. "You do?"

"Hehe. I originally asked for it only as a souvenir. I didn't expect it would actually come in handy this time. Wait a moment."

As she spoke, Ariel sank her consciousness into her bronze ring and rummaged around inside it...

"Found it!"

It was a small, crystal-clear device. Some kind of dark liquid flowed inside it, emitting a faint red glow beneath the light, like blood that had settled for a very long time.

A potion.

Without a doubt, it was some kind of potion.

Normally speaking, a potion wouldn't make Muen feel particularly frightened. After all, as the former only son of House Campbell, ever since the day he was born, who knew how many expensive potions he had drunk to strengthen his body.

But at this moment, the instant he clearly saw that bottle of potion, it was as though a bolt of lightning had struck him directly. Muen's body trembled, and a certain terrifying memory once again revived inside his mind...

"If I'm guessing correctly... this potion couldn't possibly be..."

"It's exactly what you're thinking..."

Ariel licked her lips, her expression gradually becoming wicked.

"Wait..."

Muen, meanwhile, gradually became terrified.

"Why do you have this potion? Wasn't this potion something only Senior..."

"That woman Anna is really annoying, but she's pretty generous about things like this. I casually asked her for some, and she casually gave it to me."

"Don't be so casual with something this dangerous!"

Cold sweat seeped from Muen's forehead.

Out of the corner of his eye, he swept his gaze across their surroundings and instinctively began thinking about how to escape.

"Want to run?"

Faced with Muen's little movements, Ariel did not stop him at all. Instead, she openly stepped aside and cleared the way. "If you want to run, then run. But... are you really going to give up such a good opportunity to investigate?"

"..."

Muen's body, which had just been about to slip away, immediately froze.

That's right... Such a convenient opportunity to investigate had only appeared because the timing, location, and people involved had all aligned perfectly. If he missed it this time, then trying to obtain any information from Douglas again would probably become as difficult as ascending to heaven.

In that case, progress regarding that cheap senior brother of his would also be hindered. One could even say that all the risks he'd taken to make contact before would have been completely wasted!

Was he really going to give up just like that?

Of course not!

But...

Muen's gaze moved little by little from that distant freedom toward the tiny crystal bottle that seemed to have been formed from countless darkness and malice. Every tiny movement of his eyes seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.

Muen seemed to hear his dignity letting out a mournful cry!

"Ariel!"

Peles scolded coquettishly, "How can you force someone to do something he doesn't want to do?"

"Force him?" Ariel blinked and said smugly, "How am I forcing him? I'm only letting him make the correct choice. By the way, you've already hesitated for a full minute, which means you've also wasted a full minute."

"Damn it!"

Muen was filled with grief and indignation.

He had originally thought that "she" would finally be completely buried in the deepest part of his dark history with the disappearance of the demonfolk and Ariel's fall.

He never expected...

"Th-this... this is the last time! I definitely won't do this again in the future!"

As though he had been driven into a desperate corner, Muen snatched the crystal bottle and tilted his head back, drinking it all in one gulp!

Thirty seconds later...

Ariel wiggled her ten fingers as she stared at the tall, voluptuous blonde beauty in front of her, pink hearts appearing in her eyes. "Hehehe, Miss Muse, I finally get to see you again..."

"Get lost!"

Muen... or rather, Miss Muse, who had not appeared for a long time, shoved a certain pervert away, his tone filled with grief and indignation:

"Stay away from me, you perverted lesbian... Stop getting your drool on me, hey!"

......

"Huff... huff..."

She didn't know how long she had been running.

The night had passed, and the sky was gradually brightening.

Agatha supported herself with her hands on her knees, panting heavily. Tilting her little face slightly, she looked at the eternally clear sky above the Origin Tower.

"Huff... huff... I've been training for so long... I wonder if this... is enough..."

She rested for a while before finally managing to stand up with difficulty. Every muscle in her body, which had gone without exercise for so long, was crying out in pain, yet she felt an unprecedented sense of exhilaration... Could this be the intention behind Master Enmu having her train like this?

"Speaking of Master Enmu... huh?"

Agatha blinked and looked in a certain direction. "Was that my imagination? Why did I just see Miss Alice leaving with a gorgeous blonde woman with an amazing figure?"

She rubbed her eyes, but both Miss Alice and that gorgeous blonde woman had already disappeared.

"It really was my imagination. I must be too tired from running."

Agatha completely steadied her breathing and was just about to go look for Master Enmu...

"We have some business and will be going out for the time being. Train freely on your own."

Master Enmu's gentle voice suddenly echoed beside her ear.

Agatha froze.

"Master Enmu went out?"

And he said "we"?

Then Miss Alice had gone out too?

Who else?

"Ide? Old Ide? Huh?"

Agatha looked back, only to discover that Old Ide, who had still been running together with her just now, had somehow disappeared as well.

Although the floor where the Enhancement School was located was covered in lush vegetation, it suddenly seemed extraordinarily lonely.

"How strange... everyone left?"

Agatha tilted her head, her tone bewildered:

"So... does that mean I'm the only one left here for the time being?"