Chapter 89: The Spell Turret

“Midsummer, which traps do spellcasters consider the most formidable?” The Poet Frog asked Zhao Xu, as if attempting to ease his own anxiety.

“Traps? Do semi-traps, semi-constructs count?” Zhao Xu, who kept scanning his surroundings with his rudimentary detection skills, replied upon hearing the question.

“Tell us about them,” said Antarctic Frog, realizing that Zhao Xu’s knowledge operated on another level entirely.

The entire party, previously on alert, now perked up and listened intently.

Most rumors and tales in Arthur were picked up during such adventures, then spread by word of mouth among the guilds.

“The Spell Turret,” said Zhao Xu.

“Spell? Turret?” Yoyo hadn’t expected these two unrelated words to be linked.

“Spell Turrets are generally installed where entry is forbidden. They can recognize specific targets—if you’re not on the approved list, the turret activates and casts spells,” Zhao Xu recalled.

“Isn’t that just like the curse trap we encountered?” Warrior Maple, cautiously clutching his sword beside Roya, finally found his voice after a brief pause.

Zhao Xu smiled. He had thought the same when he first saw the Floating City’s spell turrets.

“A turret stores four spells of the same level, releasing one each round. On the fifth round, it recharges and repairs, then resumes firing four spells in sequence, and so on,” Zhao Xu explained.

At his words, everyone nearly stopped in their tracks.

A single curse almost killed Maple—if four spells were unleashed without mercy, they’d already be preparing his funeral.

“What’s the range?” Roya, ever pragmatic, got right to the heart of the matter.

If the triggering distance was only a meter or two, as with the previous curse trap, they might manage to avoid it if need be.

“That’s the terrifying part. Spell Turrets have a nearly forty-meter activation radius. Normally, they’re hidden—only appearing when an unidentified target is detected,” Zhao Xu explained.

“Don’t spellcasters have invisibility spells?” The expert Locke, silent until now, finally spoke.

Zhao Xu only just noticed Locke, likely the scholarly backbone of Roya’s team. With both a mage and a cleric in one party—such a luxurious configuration—Locke hadn’t had much chance to speak.

“Turrets possess true-seeing capabilities,” Zhao Xu said quietly.

A hush fell over the group.

“What’s true-seeing?” After a moment, the Rogue Rainbow asked.

Zhao Xu realized he’d been vague.

“True Seeing is a sixth-level spell that pierces all illusions, including invisibility,” Zhao Xu explained directly.

Who knew why a mere turret could acquire true-seeing so cheaply.

At last, Zhao Xu’s explanation made it clear to everyone.

Illusions might be unfamiliar, but the iconic “Invisibility” spell was well-known. Even in towns where magic wasn’t common, most had heard of the mage’s second-level spell, “Invisibility.” It was this spell that gave mages a fighting chance to survive. So, countering invisible spellcasters became common knowledge across all professions.

“Ah, even the simplest traps become impossibly tricky once magic gets involved,” grumbled the Rogue Hill at the front.

The tunnel was narrow, but their passage so far had been uneventful, easing their nerves.

Zhao Xu agreed wholeheartedly with the rogue’s complaint.

When he first arrived at the Floating City, the black-robed mage had warned him not to wander, fearing he’d trigger the city’s countless spell turrets. He’d just handed over his letter of recommendation, and his name hadn’t yet been entered into the records.

Floating City’s turrets were linked to intricate locks—sometimes, even authorized individuals could be blasted if they entered at the wrong time. After the spells, magical guardians detained intruders. He couldn’t speak for other places, but around the base of the Final Scroll’s Obelisk, there were hundreds of ninth-level spell turrets. Anyone daring to trespass would be hammered by energy drain, imprisonment, vortex spells, and the ninth-level monster summoning—without restraint.

“Wait a moment.” Suddenly, Rainbow raised his hand, signaling everyone to halt.

“That was close. Thankfully, I didn’t step on it,” Rainbow said, his face flushed with tension.

“Something’s definitely off,” Hill, the other rogue, squatted beside him to confirm Rainbow’s suspicion.

Everyone stopped completely, and the martial artist Gale, who had been silent, turned his back to the group.

The two rogues knelt, examining the tunnel floor ahead, while the others guarded them.

“Nothing looks strange,” Yoyo tiptoed forward, peering ahead.

The entire tunnel surface was perfectly smooth, without the slightest oddity.

“It could be a trapdoor,” suggested Zhao Xu, who had explored many dungeons in his past life.

Outdoor pit traps usually had spikes below—ordinary folk would die falling in, and adventurers wouldn’t fare much better. But they weren’t fools; no one would step forward knowing there was a pit, so outdoors, traps were often covered with branches or grass to disguise them as one-time hazards.

But in dungeons, scattering grass would be a dead giveaway—might as well put up a sign saying “trap here.” Even a carpet would look suspicious, so dungeon pit traps often used self-resetting trapdoors. With enough weight, the trapdoor would trigger and open; if you failed to dodge, you’d fall.

“Roya, would you help me press it?” Rainbow had determined the trap wasn’t an arrow or projectile type, but likely a pitfall.

Roya, understanding, assisted the rogue in pressing the suspected trapdoor.

The floor, previously seamless, suddenly sank like a hollow box—two trapdoors, each two to three meters long, dropped down, making everyone tense.

Once the pressure was released, the trapdoors, aided by their mechanism, reset, creaking as they closed.

Zhao Xu found it odd—the trapdoor was so long, it seemed designed to prevent them from jumping across.

But there was little point in that—once exposed, they could always find a way over.

“This mechanism is impressively sturdy after all these years,” Rainbow remarked.

“It’s tough. We’d better climb along the wall,” Roya decided, realizing that, like the curse trap, this wasn’t something two first-level rogues could disarm.

After some planning, Hill, with the best climbing skills, began driving iron spikes into the wall for handholds. Everyone crossed step by step, using the spikes.

They tied ropes around themselves—if anyone slipped, the others would haul them back.

After ten minutes, they all made it across, leaving the spikes embedded in the wall.

“Let’s move on,” Roya said once everyone had rested.

The rogues hadn’t yet checked the path ahead. They’d stayed just over a meter from the trapdoor, wary of advancing further without inspection.

Everyone nodded—if the dungeon’s traps were all of this difficulty, victory was within reach.

Rainbow resumed scouting at the front, his confidence boosted by the earlier discovery.

Now, the tunnel’s end and its corner were only a few dozen meters away.

But after only a few steps, he noticed at the tunnel’s end, the once smooth wall suddenly shifted, revealing a demonic face with two horns. Light began to glow from its mouth.

“Is that… a spell turret?”

Everyone turned to Zhao Xu, exchanging anxious glances.