Part 2 The Faceless Man Chapter 185 – Tantalizing Mushrooms
Dak? Darrick’s image of the other party appeared within his mind at once:
Medium-sized, slightly chubby, strength, an optimistic and cheerful teenager with a bright smile, and his own general education classmates and patrol teammates.
But after returning from his quest to explore the half-destroyed temple of the “Fallen Creator”, he has become a deeper person who just smiles at everyone.
Derek shuddered at the memory of how Dak Riggins had changed, and a chill ran through his body.
Why did he come to see me all of a sudden? I just got out of quarantine, shouldn’t I be home? After a split second, many questions flooded Derek’s mind.
In a flash, he thought of a possibility:
”Elder Lovia knew that I suspected that they had developed a mutation, so he sent Darrick over to settle me?”
Derek was first shocked, with a full-blooded fear, and then thought that this seemed like it probably wasn’t a bad thing:
Mr. Inverted Man said, “If you don’t have a suitable audience that can testify for you, then you might as well use the extraordinary people who are monitoring you”, and right now, the monitors are in that corner, and if Dak suddenly attacked me, it would definitely reveal the fact that they have a problem!
That way, even if I don’t use Mr. World’s item, I’ll be able to keep things running smoothly!
Phew, Derek turned his head and looked out the window.
At the moment, the frequency of lightning flashes was at a minimum, with only one crossing the sky in a minute or two, illuminating the sky, and the entire world of Silver City was in deep darkness for most of the day.
If he was just home alone, Derek wouldn’t rummage around to find a candle to light, preferring to lie quietly in his bed and ramble on about all sorts of things.
Of course, he knew that this was actually more dangerous, if there was no light to dispel the darkness, even in the interior of Silver City, monsters could suddenly appear, but Derek himself is a “light praying man”, comes with a certain attribute of light, so there is no need to be too afraid of similar things to happen.
Knock, knock, knock! Derek knocked three more times on the door, as if urging his master.
He wasn t like this before, he was very polite …… Derek suddenly had a strong emotion of sadness.
He took out a candle from within the wooden box and set it in the center of the table, then rubbed his fingers together to create a golden flame.
That flame ignited the candle, filling the room with a dim but warm glow, accompanied by a slight pungent scent.
–Silver City’s candles were mainly made from grease extracted from monsters, and would smell differently depending on the source.
Taking a deep breath, Derek walked over to the door with intense wariness and opened it.
”What took you so long?” Darik asked with a smile.
”Looking for candles.” Derek responded.
He didn’t dare leave his back to the other man and took the side-by-side approach, walking back to the table with the classmate and teammate and sitting down individually.
”Freshly dried Dum-dum fruit, want some?” Dak asked with a smile as he removed a small cloth bag from his waist.
Dum Fruit is one of the extremely rare snacks in Silver City, originating from a plant called “Dum Blood Vine”, this kind of creature does not need light, and grows by sucking nutrients from decaying corpses, with a certain tendency to attack, and belongs to the more common and weak monsters.
Each “Dum Blood Vine” will bear a lot of thumb-sized black fruits, which can be eaten directly, crispy and fragrant, but they can’t fill the human’s stomach, and can’t provide the necessary supplements, but can only be used as a daily pastime, and the merits obtained from one patrol can be exchanged for several large bags.
”No, no need.” Derek shook his head cautiously.
”Fine.” Darrick poured out a bunch of black fruits from a small cloth bag, picked one up, stuffed it into his mouth, and bit down on it with a popping sound.
Darrick thought for a moment and took the initiative to inquire:
”Did you guys encounter any monsters in the underground part of that temple?”
Darik stopped chewing and replied with a smile:
”There were quite a few, but none of them were very powerful, and were simply removed by us; it’s been a long time since the destruction there, and the powerful monsters should have left long ago.”
He paused for a second and tickled the corners of his mouth:
”We found some peculiar plants at the bottom of the temple, they looked like mushrooms recorded in the general studies class, they grew especially brightly and filled one’s appetite at first glance.
”It has been confirmed that they can be consumed directly, bringing about an increase in spirituality and a stronger physique, and when paired with roasted monsters, they will emit an unimaginable fragrance.”
As he spoke, he pulled out a palm-sized mushroom-like thing from within another small cloth pouch, the handle as white as jade, the cap bright red and crystalline, and dotted with a single dark golden speck.
At the mere sight of the plant, Derek couldn’t help but gulp as if he had been starving for days.
The beautiful mushroom-like thing was illuminated by the dim candlelight, all the time flowing with a tantalizing color, which was exceptionally appealing to the appetite, making it difficult to hold on to.
”Here’s one for you.” Dak smiled warmly.
”Good, good ……” Darrick almost went for it on the spot, directly picking up the mushroom-like plant and stuffing it into his mouth, but eventually relented and reluctantly opened his mouth to say, “I’ll try it tomorrow. ”
Without further ado, Dak pushed the “mushroom” in front of Derek, and continued to snap and bite at the dummy fruit himself.
It took Derek a great deal of effort to tear his eyes away from the “mushroom” and asked with difficulty:
”Did you find anything on this quest?”
”Yes!” Dak stopped snacking, took a black Dum fruit and answered very seriously, “We found many murals, coherent murals, do you remember the statue inside the temple?”
”Uh-huh.” Derek glanced at the Mushroom and nodded, “A huge cross with a naked man hanging upside down nailed to it, and it had a lot of blood deliberately smeared on its surface.”
Dak twirled the Dumgo in his hand and said:
”The newly discovered frescoes tell us that the temple builders believed that the idol represented the Lord who created all things, the all-knowing, all-powerful God, and they believed that the Lord did not abandon this land, but instead helped us carry the vast majority of our sins when the cataclysm struck, and so it went from standing upright to hanging upside down, and from walking free to being nailed to a cross, and shedding blood in our place.
”God’s grace is like the sea; we are not outcasts, but on the contrary favored dependents; without the Lord bearing our sins and shedding our blood in our place, Silver City would have been destroyed long ago, and mankind would have long ceased to exist!”
But in the outside world, in the Kingdom of Rune where Mr. Hangman and Miss Justice live, there is no curse, no extreme darkness, no monsters in the depths of the darkness… …We are not the favored ones …… Derek silently retorted in his mind.
”If that’s true, all we have to do is change some of the symbols and corresponding honorific names used in the rituals, and we’ll be able to regain the Lord’s response ……” Dak rattled off his own speculations as he described the murals at the base of the temple, and Derek found himself having more and more trouble resisting that “mushroom”. Derek found it increasingly difficult to resist the temptation of the mushroom.
No, don’t eat it! If he eats it, he will be like Dak and the others, completely contaminated by the “Fallen Creator”, and become a fanatic believer. …… Even if there are monitors, they will not find out the problem. …… Derek was frightened and felt that he had to do something. In a moment of panic, he felt he had to do something to get out of his current situation.
Get rid of Darhk and give him back the Mushroom? But that would be giving up the chance …… chance …… Derek’s eyes subconsciously went to the dim candle flame that burned silently.
”I’ll get you a glass of water.” He quickly went over the plan he had discussed with Mr. Inverted Man in his mind and stood up stoically.
Darrick nodded as he dropped the thumb-sized black Dum-dum fruit in his hand into his mouth, the sound of the snap echoing crisply.
When Derek poured the water, he deliberately slowed down his movements, lowered his head, and recited the name of Mr. “Fool”, and said at the end:
”Your faithful servant prays for your attention;”
”Pray that you will accept his offerings;”
”Pray that you will open the gates of your kingdom.”
Whoop!
A gale of wind suddenly sprang up in the room, and the forces of nature fluctuated visibly under the influence of the incantation.
At the same time, Dak, who had just picked up a black dummy fruit, jerked his head up and looked over at Derek, who was sidling up to him:
”What happened?”
Derek didn’t answer, holding down the Hurricane Axe with one hand, and reaching into a hidden pocket, he lifted the wall of spirituality on the outer layer of the metal box, and the vague murmur and the feeling of evil and depravity began to emanate outward in a vague and faint manner.
Derek’s eyes cast an unusually wary glance at Dak, only to see the classmate and teammate’s expression grow haughtily somber, the slightest hint of bright red protruding from within his blue eyes!
And the Dumfruit in his hand strangely faded from its dark and dull appearance, tinted with a slightly pale flesh color.
It wasn’t a Dumgo, it was a finger, a bloody finger, a human finger!
The pile of dumplings on the table was a human finger!
The brightly colored “mushrooms” had changed, no longer beautiful, no longer glowing with an appetizing sheen, it was a bloodstained scalp with short black hairs!
Dak stared at Derek and opened his mouth, his voice grim and drifting:
”What are you doing ……”
……
Bakerland, 15 Minsk Street.
Klein, who was already under the covers in the warmth of the world, heard what sounded like a prayer from the little “sun” and fought his way out of bed, created a spiritual wall, and then took four steps backward into the gray mist.
Sitting down in the seat of the Fool, he did not rush to examine the request of the little Sun, but had the “Black Emperor” card, the cut paper figures and other things neatly arranged on the bronze table in front of him! The “Black Emperor” card and the cut paper figures were placed neatly on the bronze table in front of him.
According to the conception of the “Hanged Man”, the scene in which the “Sun” stimulated the mutation of the members of the exploratory team would be in the sacrificial ceremony, so that, when the matter was over, it would be quite simple to let the “World” borrow that item. This way, when things are over, it will be quite simple to make the item borrowed by “The World” disappear from the scene, leaving no evidence of its death, and then blame all the problems on Amon!
Mr. Klein, the “Fool”, agreed to the request of the little “Sun” to simplify the ceremony and do only the key steps.
At that moment, he waited for the completion of the first part of the ceremony in order to respond.