Chapter 36: Crisis

Bringing his hands close to his face, Neil blew out warm air, then stepped into the hot zone, instantly feeling warm.

“Master, this is a forbidden zone. The Carceral Citadel, I have compiled some important information about this place.” Nemo spoke seriously.

Neil walked back towards the front, as the subjects in his territory also got out and looked at the shocking sight.

Even Magnar woke up, his familiar could also sense the danger from several directions.

“Hoo…” releasing a long breath, Neil massaged his temples and asked: “Tell me the important things I should know.”

“From what I found, there are other survivors in this place. Although the information of this forbidden zone is kept secret, the lords here have been actively talking and trading with outside—”

Interrupting her, he spoke: “Wait, wait, why don’t we start from the beginning. What exactly is a forbidden zone?”

“Oh sorry, I forgot you are yet to receive basic information. Anyway, a forbidden zone is a separate realm present in various territories, escaping from which is impossible.

Inside the human territories, the location of many such forbidden zones is known, but…”

After a slight dramatic pause she continued: “But the location of Carceral Citadel is still unknown. The people stuck here are usually newly formed lords who end up teleporting here.”

“Or people like me with the shittiest luck who end up here by their second teleportation, sigh… wait, there are still other lords here?” he asked as something popped in his mind.

“Yeah?” Nemo replied in a questioning tone.

“Why didn’t they leave? Can’t they teleport back to their home settlement? Or just teleport again like I did and leave?” he asked, hoping to find a way out.

“No, there are a few special things about this place that the survivors here have reported back.” Then Nemo began to list them.

“Firstly, not a single person has ever managed to escape from here. It really is like a prison, keeping them locked up.”

“Hmm, from the known information, this place has at least two powerful beasts who control the cold and hot sides.” She added.

“Oh…” Neil listened while nodding. There was no point in sulking now, he had to make arrangements for the future.

There should certainly be an exit, it’s just that others had not yet found it.

No way he would lose hope.

“And—” just as Nemo was about to continue, Neil noticed the wall on the left catching fire suddenly.

The defences of his domain weren’t yet high enough to survive against that level of heat. There were even puddles of lava.

He rushed forward and hurriedly activated Aquamorph to put out the fire, while also activating Slipping Stone to move his domain into the cold area.

[Slipping Stone Activated!]

[Aquamorph Activation Failed!]

“Huh?” Neil was baffled as he failed to activate his skill, while at the same time his domain moved a bit to the right.

As snow pressed against the left boundary wooden wall, the fire finally died down.

In his bafflement, Neil tried to activate Aquamorph again.

[Aquamorph Activation Failed!]

[Aquamorph Activation Failed!]

[Aquamorph Activated!]

At the fourth attempt the skill activated as water finally shot out, though it froze mere moments later.

“That is what I was going to tell you. This place not only restricts communication and trading sometimes, but it can even hinder skill activation.” Nemo said in a heavy tone, leaving Neil shocked.

He tried it several more times and more than half the time the skill wouldn’t activate.

“Fuck!!” Neil cursed, but then shivered as the temperature dropped sharply upon moving a bit away from the hot side.

But then he thought of something else.

’Wait, my analyzer skill, can it also fail to activate? Wouldn’t I be dead then?’ Suddenly the level of danger increased severalfold.

Neil could only curse his luck for nerfing the one skill that helped him the most.

’So I can’t die anymore. I have to be very careful.’ He thought with a grim expression.

This was a really bad news, he needed to experiment more with Aquamorph and understand this place better.

“Lord, what’s going on?” Bob asked, rubbing his hands together, his teeth clattering.

“Haa… we are kind of stuck here.” Neil gestured for them all to come closer and explained.

“What?! Lord, wouldn’t we just freeze to death in such an environment?” Mob asked, hugging his body.

“I… is there any way to escape?” Ray asked. Thankfully, because of the wall, the snow hadn’t managed to get inside.

But looking at the sky—

“Oh!! Lord, why are there two blood moons?” Ray pointed towards the sky and spoke in disbelief.

Neil and the others looked up and were shocked. Wasn’t there only one blood moon? It was impossible to tell if it was day or night.

“Yes master, there is actually no concept of day and night here. Links often open, and you also have to be careful of many other beasts.

Uh, even connecting to the world server seems difficult here.” Nemo spoke helplessly.

The situation really felt hopeless, but calming himself down, Neil fell into deep thought.

’As Nemo mentioned, there are still survivors here, so the beasts couldn’t be too powerful. Maybe at max 2nd Origin. Anyway, first I have to connect with those survivors, they must know more.’

After a minute, he looked at everyone and ordered:

“Mob, go ahead and create warm clothes for everyone. Take the needed shards from Ray.”

“Yes lord, I will get to it immediately.” Nodding, the dwarf rushed off towards the workshop and closed the door.

“Bob, Rob, firstly think of a way to keep things warm within the domain, and also can you build some sort of alarming system so we can know if there is any danger around?” he asked.

There was no time to waste.

Thankfully he could move his domain, or he would have needed to abandon it to survive.

“Okay, we will try to find a way to create a hot environment here. As for an alarming system, hmm…” Rob spoke and fell into thought.

“Without the blueprint and materials, it isn’t possible to create anything special, but we can create a makeshift system, which should work just fine.

But to buy a few materials, we will need some shards.” Bob added, his expression solemn.

To survive in such an environment, they had to do their best and prepare properly.

“Alright, as soon as your winter clothes are ready, start working on that.” Neil said as the two builders went to the workshop.

Then he looked at Ray and Fay. After a moment, he ordered: “Go ahead and buy some extra food just in case. In such cold weather, it won’t spoil fast anyway.”

“Y… yes lord…” the two siblings were shivering because of the cold and only ran back once Neil dismissed them, locking themselves in the kitchen.

The two elf archers on each watchtower were also shivering in the cold, but stayed in their positions.

“All four of you get new equipment from Mob. Standing in this cold could make you sick.”

“Yes lord.” The archers on top of the towers nodded and quickly climbed down. Then they too went into the workshop.

Then his gaze moved to the two cloud vultures, who had come out of the barracks.

“How’s your condition in this cold?” walking closer, he patted the vulture’s neck.

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