The map Neil gave Damian was priceless; his life would become much more manageable with it.

He rechecked the map and noticed a passage not far from where he was. It was inside a nearby tower, one of the highest points of the castle.

Damian looked down, scanning the castle's courtyard, and barely any guards were patrolling. He firmly believed the tower would have little to no people, and sure thing, after he flew toward it, looking through one of the windows, there was no one there.

"Desert."

The mental abilities made quick work of one of the windows, opening it up for Damian, and once inside the tower, he scanned around, seeing many different paintings.

Some of these paintings were hanging on the cobblestone walls of the tower, others were still in their support, and some were lying on the ground.

"This looks like a working place of an artist. I'm curious if someone still uses this place."

There were no signs of life there, at least not at first glance, but as Damian walked around, he saw a sleeping bag and some dirty bowls in a hidden corner of the tower.

"Someone is living here!"

Damian was not dumb and quickly realized what those things meant. Then, as he was ready to move, he heard footsteps coming from outside the tower as if someone was walking straight to his location.

Adrenaline, fear, excitement, you can call it whatever you want, but those feelings came to Damian, who quickly went to one of the paintings on the tower's walls.

The map had a secret passage marked to be behind that painting -- a plain with an immense tower that looked like the tree of life.

Damian pushed the painting to the side, revealing a passage behind it! He stepped inside and moved the painting back to its original position a few moments before someone entered the tower.

There was a tunnel behind the painting, one that Damian would soon follow, but first, he wanted to see or hear anything about the mysterious person who ran toward the abandoned tower of the castle.

But it was impossible. The painting did not have any gap or something similar, and if Damian moved the painting, that person would get to know about the secret passage and perhaps find some of the other routes as well!

"No, this will take away the only advantage I have here. Let's forget about this," Damian thought.

After setting his mind on the right thing, Damian forgot about the mysterious person and turned around, facing the tunnel leading to other castle areas.

He moved forward, almost seeing nothing at all, dealing with spiders, spider webs, and many crawling bugs. Clearly, those passages were rarely used, and no one cleaned them!

Only essential people would know about these passages anyway, and it is not like the Duke would go there to clean shit.

Damian tried to use his hands to clean the spider webs and throw some bugs away, always moving forward.

"The best place for me to go is where the Duke is."

The tunnel only had one way to go, so Damian kept moving in that direction, but soon the tunnel turned into many, and that was the power of the map Neil shared with him!

It was not only a handful of passages but an entire tunnel segment that would allow Damian to walk into almost all castle rooms or at least have the means to hear the conversation through the walls.

He kept his phone at hand, not only using it for the flashlight but also to check the map, as it would not be that hard for him to get lost in there if he walked around like a headless chicken.

"The Duke's room is here," Damian thought as he stared at a specific location on the map.

That was where he wanted to go, so he did, slowly moving through the tunnels to the Duke's bedroom.

Once there, Damian stopped and focused on his hearing, and the Duke snored so loud Damian heard it from behind the walls.

"Should I try something now? No, there is no way the Duke is unprotected."

For some reason, Damian felt it could be a trap, and even if it was not, the Duke would still have someone nearby just in case something happened to him during the night.

"Think, Damian, what can you do to check?"

Damian looked around for any possibilities, and realization stroked him as he stared at a tiny spider!

With his mental abilities, talking with mutated beasts and even controlling them to some degree was possible.

Control a normal spider? That was easier for Damian, and that was what he did.

historical

The spider's mind got controlled within seconds after Damian channeled his powers into the tiny creature.

Then, it was like Damian had split his mind into two, and he had become the spider, seeing the world through its eyes and feeling everything the spider felt.

"This feels strange but useful."

He passed through one of the gaps in the walls as a spider, walking around the Duke's room, checking for any strange thing, and sure thing, there were many traps inside the bedroom, and Damian was almost certain he would have fallen into one of those if he went there using his read body.

Also, when Damian passed beneath the door, there was a guard outside, all in black, leaning on the wall with its eyes closed.

Damian knew that person was awake, ready to kill anyone close to the Duke's room, and it was not a weak person.

"I think I cannot win against it, at least not in direct combat, but why should I go into direct combat anyway?"

Damian could do nothing as a spider, only walking around to see what was inside the room.

Then, after he stopped controlling the spider, focusing all his senses on his body, Damian received a call.

It was Neil bringing some bad news.