The Shelter Game: Me, Starting with a Tenfold Drop Rate

As Nick and Irving made their way to the castle area in the shelter game, Elder Howard at the Starling City Angel Guild base was not idle.

Skilled in divination and the manipulation of mist, Elder Howard was highly sensitive to changes in the power dynamics within the base. After Irving had left, he noticed a significant decrease in the power levels at the Starling City Angel Guild base. This indicated that he could swiftly take action.

"It seems that the stronger members of the Angel Guild have all left. The remaining members in the base are quite weak. I no longer need to worry about them discovering my actions," he concluded.

After making this assessment, Elder Howard immediately set his plan in motion. He first directed the mist to infiltrate the rooms surrounding his own. Although he hadn't noticed anything unusual in those rooms before, this operation was crucial, so he had to exercise caution.

Howard spent about an hour inspecting all the rooms around him. Some of these rooms contained essential supplies, while others were filled with items that were not currently in use. After finding no anomalies, Howard felt a surge of confidence.

He then commanded the mist to enter the area where the Angel Guild members resided directly. This area was situated at the center of the Angel Guild's Starling City base. The central area was equipped with numerous surveillance cameras and was protected by powerful members sent from the Angel Guild headquarters who had set up magical formations.

Therefore, Howard was extremely careful during his reconnaissance.

Even though he was manipulating the mist, he knew that if it crossed into one of the pre-arranged magical formations, he would be detected by the Angel Guild members in the base. After cautiously navigating the central area with the mist, Howard realized he needed to take a bolder approach.

He initiated his first tentative probe, targeting Andy's office. He had entered Andy's office before, but at that time, Andy was not present. Howard was well aware that Andy was indeed in his office now. His objective was to determine whether Andy, as the head of the Angel Guild's Starling City branch, could detect the mist he was manipulating.

At that moment, Andy was in his office dealing with some routine paperwork. Although the Angel Guild's branch in Starling City wasn't particularly significant, there were still many documents that required attention. After all, the branch needed to recruit personnel as well.

While processing the documents, Andy sensed that something was amiss in his surroundings. The instant he noticed the abnormality, he lifted his head and looked around. Despite his best efforts to understand why he felt this way, he still failed to detect the mist being manipulated by Elder Howard. After all, the mist was exceptionally stealthy.

After conducting another careful scan of his surroundings, Andy sighed. "What on earth is going on? Why do I feel like there's something around me, yet I can't pinpoint what it is? Am I hallucinating?"

After muttering this to himself, Andy left his office, intending to wash his face in the restroom, hoping this would help him clear his mind.

Andy's actions reassured Elder Howard even more. "It seems that no one in the base can detect my presence. There's no need for me to be secretive anymore. I must quickly find information related to Irving."

While Howard had previously discovered some information about Irving in Andy's office, that information was quite incomplete. Defeating Irving based on that alone seemed nearly impossible. Therefore, Howard aimed to head to a more secure area of the base.

The most fortified area of the Angel Guild's Starling City base was undoubtedly the storage room for weapons and artifacts. Initially, Howard had not intended to attempt entering the weapons and artifacts storage due to the significant risks involved. However, after a series of attempts, he felt that the risks had diminished to a manageable level.

If he missed this opportunity to infiltrate the most heavily guarded area, he might never get another chance.

After contemplating for a moment, Howard commanded all the mist to advance toward the innermost part of the base. However, during the mist's advance, Howard encountered some obstacles. The innermost area of the base was protected by defensive magical formations, which interfered with the connection between the mist and Howard.

Additionally, these formations caused the mist he was controlling to thin out somewhat.

As the mist grew increasingly thin, it became more difficult for Elder Howard to manipulate it. Faced with this challenge, he did not hesitate for long. He chose to personally venture into the innermost part of the base.

Without hesitation, Howard swapped places with the mist, causing his physical form to instantly appear at the deepest part of the Starling City Angel Guild base. This action was undoubtedly risky, so upon arriving at the innermost section, he immediately prepared himself for battle.

However, what happened next made Howard realize that he might have been overly anxious. Neither his physical body nor the mist he had controlled triggered the defensive magical formations at the base's innermost section. It seemed that these defenses had been weakened.

The first thought that crossed Howard's mind was that other members of the Night Blades had taken similar actions, leading to the vulnerability of the Starling City base's innermost defenses. He didn't consider that this could be a trap. After all, if someone wanted to set a trap for him, they could have acted long before now; there was no need to wait until this moment.

Howard had underestimated Irving somewhat. Irving's patience far exceeded what Howard had imagined. Although Irving could have set a trap for Howard earlier, that would have only dealt a temporary blow and wouldn't have been enough to eliminate him completely.

Irving was looking for an opportunity to truly put Howard in a lethal situation.

With his mind finally at ease, Howard quickly advanced deeper into the Starling City base. He moved through one area after another until he finally stopped in front of a large door filled with books.

Although Howard did not enter this area, he could sense that valuable information he desperately sought was concealed within. While the interior of the door appeared to be just a mass of bookshelves, a wealth of information storage devices lay hidden behind them, containing data related to Irving.

Howard did not cross through the door immediately. He knew that the entrance to such an area must have been specially modified. If he simply walked through, it would surely trigger some sort of alarm. Therefore, he had to proceed with extreme caution and try various methods.

First, Howard took out a black orb. The moment he produced the orb, the temperature in the surrounding area dropped several degrees.

The energy in the area around Howard was completely absorbed by the black orb. Not only had ordinary energy been absorbed, but even a portion of the weapons Howard controlled was taken in by the orb.

Howard placed the black orb in front of the door. When nothing unusual happened, it indicated that there was no special energy attached to the door. After confirming that the door posed no threat, Howard finally chose to send the mist through to the other side of the door.

A stream of mist wafted into the space beyond the door. Under normal circumstances, Howard would have been able to use his ability to switch places with the mist. Once inside the data repository, he could freely read every document stored there. Additionally, he possessed a special ability that allowed him to directly search the data stored within the devices.

However, Howard opted for a more cautious approach. He simply directed the mist to continuously examine one information storage device after another. As time went by, his anxiety grew. Despite checking numerous storage devices, all the information he encountered was unrelated to Irving.

After about ten minutes of searching, an alarm clock in Howard's pocket suddenly went off. Upon hearing the sound, Howard's expression changed dramatically.

"I need to return quickly! Danger is imminent!"

Howard swiftly transformed into a cloud of mist and raced back through the ventilation system to the room he had previously occupied. The alarm clock in Howard's pocket was no ordinary timepiece; it was a device capable of predicting danger. When it rang, it signified that Howard was about to encounter some form of peril.

Although Howard was unaware of the source of the danger, he chose to return to safety immediately. Just as Howard left the data repository, Irving and Nick stepped through another door into the repository.

"I can assure you, Elder Howard was just in the data repository. Our magical formations detected his presence," Nick said firmly to Irving.

If Nick and Irving had been a bit quicker, they could have used the sealing formations within the repository to successfully trap Elder Howard. They had simply arrived a moment too late, which left Nick feeling quite regretful.

However, Irving was not particularly concerned. "Elder Howard is not so easily dealt with. So there's no need for you to feel so down. We will find a better opportunity."

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