After wandering around the courtyard for a while longer, Eros left and headed back to the Academy.
Undine and the others should arrive at the Academy by evening, and the school would likely handle the compensation and other matters tomorrow morning. If things moved fast enough, the Academy would be on break as early as tomorrow afternoon.
A whole month of vacation—
In a great mood, Eros boarded the steam train, which carried him as its only passenger. Upon arriving at the Academy and seeing how deserted it was, Eros hummed a little tune, leisurely making his way toward his detached villa.
Halfway there, he happened to bump into Dean Como, who belonged to the Church of Reincarnation. Seeing Eros at this time, Dean Como was clearly very surprised.
"Eros, why are you here? I received word earlier that the train wasn't due to arrive until eight o'clock tonight."
Eros didn't hide anything and directly explained how he had been whisked back to Intiles through the Spirit Realm by Regexima, the Storm High Priest of the Church of the Sea. After hearing this, a look of astonishment appeared on Dean Como's face, followed by a word of praise:
"I didn't expect that His Eminence the High Priest would also hold you in such high regard."
Eros gave a modest smile. "Perhaps it was just something he did on a whim."
Dean Como smiled faintly and didn't delve further into the matter. Instead, he looked at Eros and said:
"Since you're back now, it's perfect timing. Accompany me to the Containment Room."
Eros was stunned and asked with some confusion, "What am I going to the Containment Room for?"
The smile on Dean Como's face remained unchanged as he said, "Doesn't the Academy reward the first place in the assessment with a Grade 3 Sealed Artifact? Since you're here now, you can go and pick out the Grade 3 Sealed Artifact you want."
Eros blinked. "But haven't the assessment results come out yet?"
Dean Como gave a faint smile. "Haven't the results already come out?"
Holy crap, going through the back door? Was he saying that he was actually the pre-determined winner?
Alright, alright, so that's how we're playing it?
It turned out he didn't hate going through the back door; he just hated it when the one going through the back door wasn't him. It was just a pity—he probably could have gotten the reward even without going through the back door this time. Thinking of this, the joy of "pulling strings" instantly decreased by more than half.
And so, Eros followed Dean Como to the Academy's Containment Room.
It was a secret chamber located fifty meters underground. The door of the secret chamber was brass-colored, carved with various dazzling mysterious runes. At a glance, those runes seemed to come alive, as if wanting to suck out one's soul.
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Dean Como nodded to the two old men guarding the brass door:
"Open the door!"
These two old men were the Ceremonial Officers guarding the Containment Room's door, the first line of defense for this chamber—two Sequence 6s.
Upon hearing Dean Como's words, the two old men each took out a semi-circular iron piece from their pockets. Then, they inserted the iron pieces into two corners of the brass door in front of them. With a crisp click of the lock cylinder, the brass door slowly began to rise.
By the time the brass door had risen halfway, the scene behind it entered Eros's eyes—it was still a long corridor. After the brass door had fully risen, Dean Como turned to Eros and said in a gentle tone:
"Let's go!"
After saying that, he took the lead and stepped into the corridor. After walking forward for a distance, a door cast from silver appeared in front of them, still guarded by two old men. This was the second line of defense for the Academy's Containment Room—two Sequence 5s.
The opening method for the second door was the same as before; the two old men each took out an item from their persons and inserted them into the keyholes respectively. As the lock cylinders turned, the silver door also rose before Eros, and behind the door was yet another long corridor.
Eros clicked his tongue; this was truly tight security. It was a good thing Natalia and the others hadn't rashly broken in to steal things; otherwise, with their weakling strength, they would have literally been delivering themselves for free.
Gathering his thoughts, Eros continued to walk deep into the corridor behind Dean Como. Soon, the third door appeared before Eros—a golden door.
To Eros's surprise, this door actually had no guards. However, in a short while, he knew why there were no guards for this door, because Dean Como pulled a key out from his person.
So, the guard for this third door was actually the Academy's Dean? A Transcendent?
As the golden door slowly opened, a surging wave of malice squeezed out from the crack, spreading toward the outside of the corridor. When that malice spread to Eros's side, as if sensing something, it instantly shrank back, leaving not a single trace of malice in the air.
Eros blinked; he was able to perceive that change just now, but Dean Como in front of him didn't seem to notice what had happened.
Once the golden door was fully open, Dean Como turned to Eros and said in a low voice:
"We've arrived! Inside is the Academy's Containment Room. Go in and make your choice. The items on the outermost row of shelves are all Grade 3 Sealed Artifacts."
Eros nodded and immediately stepped inside. As soon as he entered, his vision was attracted by the huge glass-sealed water tank in the very middle of the Containment Room.
There was a person in the center of that huge water tank, a person whose entire body was somewhat decayed. His decaying body floated in the middle of the tank without any movement, as if he were truly just a corpse.
But Eros had a premonition in his heart—that surging wave of malice just now was definitely emitted by that decaying corpse.
Seeing Eros's gaze fixed on the decaying corpse, Dean Como explained with a smile:
"Grade 2 Sealed Artifact—The Decaying Man. To be precise, he is not a Sealed Artifact, but another kind of lifeform."
"He can freely switch between an object and a human form. It's just a pity, he's gone mad!"
"To contain him, the Church paid a significant price. His strength is very high, and his contamination is extremely severe. Any living creature that comes within a two-hundred-meter radius of him will have their body decay and die uncontrollably."
"Even a Transcendent cannot be spared; at most, they can hold out longer than a low-sequence one. Fortunately, after paying a certain price, the Church found a way to contain him."
"And that is water. Water can block that decaying power on his body, which is how he was successfully contained."
"If he hadn't been contained in time, he likely would have advanced to become a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact before long."
By the end, Dean Como had a look of lingering fear on his face; clearly, the terror of the thing before them had left a deep impression on him.
After hearing this, Eros couldn't help but glance at the ring on his left hand. Based on Dean Como's description, if his guess was correct, this 'Decaying Man' was likely an Out-of-Control Weird Thing