Valentine entered a dark corridor without any sunlight. Right in front of him was another door while on his right there seemed to be another door at the end of the corridor. On his left, a blockade made of cupboards and wardrobes and other heavy things was preventing him from getting through. The blockade looked tough and impenetrable, and he wasn't blessed with superstrength, so he didn't think he could move them aside.

He moved closer to the door right in front of him and as he had thought, it wouldn't be that easy. His hand once again was stopped midway by a seal, but this time the color was blue.

"If red is a blood seal, what are the yellow and blue ones?" he asked somewhat annoyedly, "I doubt it is urine for yellow."

Since there was no other choice, he could only go to his right, towards the end of the corridor. Valentine walked down the corridor swiftly with light steps and reached the other door quickly. He reached out to the door and much to his surprise, it was not locked. He opened the door and entered the room with some sunlight coming through the small high windows.

The room appeared to be a bathroom with a toilet in it, that looked very dirty. There was a bathtub with strange white goo in it, but the goo didn't trigger his sense of danger this time. However, he was still not going to touch that. There was a washbasin with a mirror that was cracked, just like the other mirrors in the mansion that he had found so far. Other than the usual bathroom things, there was nothing ordinary about the room.

Valentine walked closer to the mirror because that was where he found the last clue. However, the mirror in this bathroom had no writing on it, so he was left with nothing. He seemed to have encountered a dead end, so his only option was to go upstairs.

He exited the bathroom but stopped right in his track. He heard the sound of a door being opened and heavy footsteps followed. It was not a Leyak since they didn't have feet. Valentine listened intently to the sound and it seemed to come from the other side of the blockade. He couldn't see anything, however, so he could only perk up his hears.

The sound of a bolt being unlatched then was heard. Whatever it was that unlocked the door was now going towards the main hall, and probably where Valentine currently was. He ran quickly to the door on the left at the other end of the corridor and went back to the display room. He didn't want to be caught in such a dead-end like that corridor or the display room, so he moved swiftly back to the living room.

Just as he was about to reach the door to the living room, something opened a door behind him. He quickly turned back to see what it was. It was a humanoid creature that was much taller than the door. It had long curly black hair and completely black skin all over its body. Its giant body emitted an aura of darkness. Its both hands had sharp nails that looked like it could rip Valentine to shred with ease. Its face had two bulging, bloodshot eyes that were terrifying, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth. The creature moved much more slowly than the Leyak, but it was much more menacing.

"Die!" Valentine said coldly while shooting at the thing.

Growl!

His shot was ineffective! The bullet just bounced back as it tried to penetrate the thing's tough skin, and only served to make it angry. It charged at Valentine who quickly took out a talisman and held it against the thing. A gloomy red light burst out from the talisman, stunning the creature and turning itself into a pile of ash. Valentine quickly opened the door to the living room and closed it behind him. He ran as quickly as he could and exited to the main hall.

Creak...

The sound of a door being opened could be heard. It was the creature entering the living room to search for Valentine, who was now not there anymore. In the main hall, Valentine was confused because the main entrance door was now closed. He approached it and was repelled by a black marking on the door.

"Another seal? This must be a sick joke," he said while moving towards the door on the left that now should be open.

Thump... thump...

The sounds of heavy footsteps were approaching slowly, bringing with it a sense of great dread. Valentine opened the door and closed it behind him, which lead him to a similar display room to the next room. He very quickly observed his surroundings for something that might be useful, but aside from the display items, there was nothing of use there. He quickly opened the only other door there which took him to the other side of the blockade.

Thump... thump...

The footsteps kept getting closer and closer. Valentine couldn't use the door in front of him because it was sealed by a purple marking. His only choice was to walk down the corridor to his left. Time was pressing, so he had to move quickly. At the corner of the corridor, there was a door that didn't have a seal, but it was locked. He didn't have the time to pick the lock so he ignored it for now. He turned left again and saw two more doors on his right. He tried to open the door closest to him but again, it was locked, so he moved on. The door near the end of the corridor had a red seal, so he quickly slit his wrist and broke the seal. He opened the door and entered it. After closing the door carefully, Valentine chanted.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of the sound of this gunshot no longer a secret!"

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of my presence a secret!"

The usual yellowish mist enveloped him and disappeared. Valentine, who was now in a bedroom, had had his presence concealed, so he felt slightly at ease. There was little sunlight in that room that came from the barred window, and a giant wardrobe near the door, which looked to be taller than the monster. He thought about hiding inside the wardrobe, but there was no reason the monster couldn't open the wardrobe to check, so instead, he agilely climbed up to the top while holding his briefcase and hid there. That way, even if he was found, he still could use another talisman and made an escape.

Thump... thump...

The sound of footsteps was still approaching, but it was now walking slower. The monster seemed to have lost its target, so now it didn't know where to go. It checked the doors one by one, and since they were still locked, its target couldn't have hidden inside.

Thump... thump...

The thing was now standing at the door to the room where Valentine was hiding. He controlled his heartbeat and breathing not to create a noise, although his presence was concealed.

Creak...

The door was opened slowly. A great atmosphere of danger then befell the room, which made Valentine's heart beat faster. The heavy footsteps entered the room very slowly, creating a loud thump that could paralyze people with fear. He remained motionless on top of the tall wardrobe and breathed as quietly as he could. Since his presence was concealed, the monster should not feel him there unless it looked. Its head was scanning around the room carefully for a sight of his target, when suddenly,

Growl!!

The monster let out a loud scream, which hurt Valentine's ears, especially since he was really close to the source. The little sunlight that managed to penetrate into the room seemed to hurt the monster. It left the room and the sound of footsteps could be heard moving farther and farther until suddenly it disappeared completely. Valentine, who was still stunned by the growl, remained on top of the wardrobe for some time to recover.

"I guess that wasn't a Leyak," he said deprecatingly.

With the monster gone, he now had time to see closely a piece of paper that was left on top of the bed, which he couldn't check before. He jumped down gracefully from the wardrobe and landed safely on the floor. Before checking the paper, however, he opened the wardrobe to see what was inside, but as he had expected, there was nothing. Valentine then grabbed the piece of paper and read the content.

'These seals are very annoying, and I heard from another survivor that they would refresh after a day unless we break all of them within a day. I don't think that's possible. With my power, I can only barely run away from that black thing. Anyway, the seals correspond to a spiritual material of the same color. The problem is, there is nothing in this mansion that is both spiritual and purple!'

Valentine memorized the content and left the paper there since he had no need for it. The information he got was very useful, however, so he kept it in his memory. So far, he had encountered red seals, which he could break with his blood, and yellow, blue, and purple seals which he still couldn't do anything about. Since the note said it was about the color, not the material itself, he could probably dye his blood if he found paints in the mansion.

He then remembered seeing strange white slime inside a bathtub on the other side of the blockade. He could try to mix it with his blood to create a pinkish spiritual material, but he hadn't seen any pink seal so far. As for the black seal on the main door, he was sure he could use the dangerous black liquid in the first toilet that he entered. However, he couldn't touch it with his hands since his intuition told him not to do so. He needed to find a container or switch with Graham to have him issue an Order, the latter being more dangerous since the things in the house could spawn anytime from anywhere.

With the black giant gone, Valentine could check the locked rooms in peace. He went out of the bedroom and went next door. He squatted to get on the lock level and started unlocking it with his toolset.

Click!

It didn't take long for him to do so. The door was unlocked shortly, and now he could enter. It was another bedroom, much like the previous room. The bedroom seemed to have belonged to a child, seeing from the broken toys in there. There was no journal page left on the bed this time. There was the same giant wardrobe, so Valentine opened it, and inside, he found a strange, light green liquid placed in a small container. He could mix it with his blood to create yellow, but it would probably create a strange shade of yellow. He would try it anyway, though, so he took the whole container and placed it inside his briefcase.

He was done with the child's bedroom, so he went next door to the next locked room. He picked the lock and opened it. The room was really messy. It looked like some kind of storage room with a lot of furniture and what looked like statues covered in white sheets. The whole room looked unsettling because any of those white sheets appeared like they could start moving at any time. Valentine entered the room carefully, ready to shoot anything that jumped at him.

Inside the room, he took off the white sheets one by one to unveil the things they were covering. There was a sofa with a torn seat cover, and mostly chairs and tables. The statues were all babies with two horns and a pair of bat wings, and their expressions were that of happiness. And then there was a white sheet covering a statue that was placed at the other end of the room. He couldn't see through the sheet, and the lack of sunlight didn't help either. It was as tall as Valentine was, and judging from the outline of the sheet, it might be a statue of a woman. The object was placed a distance away from other stuff inside the storage room, which made him a little wary of it.

He approached the lone standing statue at the end and slowly took the sheet covering it off. In the dead silence of the mansion, the shape of the object inside was revealed little by little.