Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 307 The "Missed Calls" from the "Tarot Club"

The area Roger chose was a river valley with very stable geological conditions, abundant water resources, and very fertile soil.

Most importantly, the latitude and climate here are very close to the homeland of the "blue-skinned people," so they should adapt very quickly.

This made Roger very glad that Butak was not a tidally locked planet; it had a clear and distinct day-night cycle, which made migration within the same latitude possible.

The only problem is that Roger doesn't know if there are other intelligent races here—even though he has already researched the surrounding hundreds of kilometers and confirmed that there are no settlements of suspected intelligent beings nearby, he still can't be sure if there are similar "blue-skinned" beings further away.

Although many "blue-skinned people" were unwilling to relocate before leaving and were only forced to leave due to the decision of the elders, when they finally saw a safe land free from decay and pollution, many still shed tears of excitement and exhilaration.

Because a large amount of crops, food and livestock were brought over during the previous city migration, there was no need to worry too much about food security in the early stages, and the number of extraordinary individuals from Sequence 9 to Sequence 7 was sufficient to protect the early safety of the "Blue-skinned" race.

Seeing that the "blue-skinned people" who had finally stopped worshipping him had resumed building the city on the ground, Roger finally had time to study the "Guidance of Amra," a level 0 sealed artifact.

Since both "Amur's Guidance" and "The Box of the Old Days" correspond to the Sequence 2 "Planeswalker" in the "Gate" pathway, they are essentially the same. The only difference is that "Amur's Guidance" has a different focus on ability compared to "The Box of the Old Days".

It has three main functions:
The first is "Self-Symbol," a function that allows the holder to transform themselves into a symbol and travel faster than light through symbolic connections. This makes it easy to travel to different planets and different worlds behind doors, while avoiding many material dangers.

The second is "teleportation." "Amra's Guide" can store more than 30 coordinates. With these coordinates, Roger can instantly reach the corresponding location by "opening the door."

These coordinates can be located in the spirit world, the astral world, or the real world. Overall, this can be considered a superior manifestation of the "traveler's" spatial authority.

The third is "reproduction," where "Amra's Guidance" can reproduce scenes, creatures, and extraordinary abilities that the holder has seen.

Through his "reproduction" ability, Roger can directly transfer himself and living beings within a certain range into scenes in his mind, or bring the corresponding scenes to the area around the target, as long as the scene still exists.

Moreover, he can recreate the creatures and extraordinary abilities he has seen. The former can launch an attack, while the recreated high-level extraordinary abilities are quite different from the originals. The deeper one's understanding of the recreated abilities, the better the effect of casting them.

However, the side effects of "Amra's Guidance" are also very strong, with two main side effects.

The first side effect is that it frequently blurs the holder's memory and reality. Once the holder has used it, it will randomly transport the locations in the holder's memory to the real world within a 100-kilometer radius of the holder within a 24-hour period.

This arrival is completely uncontrollable, and there may be many terrifying locations involved, such as the starry sky gazed upon by the ancients, the wasteland on the planet Butak that has been contaminated by the "decaying" angels, and some scenes in the abyss, all of which will be "pulled" into reality.

Most importantly, this descent is not a manifestation of illusion, so the ability to suppress illusions is ineffective against it. Even "demon hunters" at the angel level cannot resist the descent of the corresponding scene.

The second side effect is that because "Amra's Guidance" is contaminated by the "Fallen Mother Goddess," this contamination makes "Amra's Guidance" indestructible and its extraordinary properties impossible to purify. Furthermore, if it exists in reality for more than 5 minutes, all inanimate matter may undergo unpredictable activation within the next 5 days, while living matter may mutate, become violent, and become uncontrollable.

This pollution also has a range of 100 kilometers, and it possesses a certain immortal authority of "immortal beings," so unless the source of the pollution, Mr. "Door," dies in a mystical sense, the pollution in "Amra's Guidance" will not disappear.

Fortunately, Roger had a clever trick: after using "Amra's Guidance," he could immediately throw it into the "Original Core" sealed with the "Key of the Gate" to contain it. This way, he could avoid the first side effect and minimize the impact of the second side effect.

Currently, the coordinates of Earth and Butak are stored in "Amra's Guidance," while the coordinates of the rest seem to have been consciously deleted by Amra for unknown reasons.

It is possible that in the eyes of this angel of the Abraham family, those coordinates either posed varying degrees of danger, or He could not provide for the successors of the Abraham family by providing the coordinates of the nine legends required for the complete Sequence 2 ascension ceremony.

This is a matter of both willingness and ability.

Considering that Amra was in very poor condition in the final stages of his life, it was already quite remarkable that He was able to leave a legacy on Butak. Roger did not ask for much in return, after all, his ancestor had already done enough.

After confirming that the "blue-skinned" race had nothing further to do with, Roger bid farewell to them for the time being.

Before leaving, Roger told the "Blue-skinned" his name, reminded them to pray often, and promised to bring them a batch of supplementary materials needed for their advancement through the "Apprentice" route when they met again.

This name is very similar to the one Roger used for the "Hercules School," except that the last two sentences were slightly modified to suit the situation on Planet Butak.

"A wanderer from ancient times, a blood-red star behind a veil of shadows, the current protector of Butak's life, the great Roger Abraham."

The reason for making this change is twofold: firstly, to reinforce Roger's status as the successor to Amra, and secondly, to strengthen the overall direction.

Rather than emphasizing that he is a descendant of Mr. "The Door," the name Roger Abraham is undoubtedly more precise in a mystical sense, and on an alien planet, Roger wouldn't have to worry about his identity being exposed.

After passing through the "door" opened by "Amra's guidance," Roger transformed into a somewhat abstract symbol, then into a torrent of starlight leading to the astral plane, and disappeared.

This scene once again prompted the "blue-skinned people" to kowtow and kneel, because it was very similar to the myths and legends left behind when Amra arrived a thousand years ago.

Moreover, they constantly chanted Roger's name, conveying the power of faith to him and making a very important contribution to the stability of Roger's humanity.

The moment Roger returned to Earth, he immediately sensed an indescribable turmoil in the starry sky, and countless great wills within the barrier were simultaneously directed at him.

Roger immediately realized what was happening and casually tossed "Amra's Guidance" into the "Original Core".

This once again blocked the great being in the astral plane who was trying to project his power into the barrier through the symbol of "opening the door," and at the same time, He let out a painful roar, as if He had heard some extremely noisy and disturbing sound.

This caused the great will that had been binding Roger to vanish as if it had never existed, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Through this incident, he once again directly felt that the barrier above the Earth had truly reached its later stages and its strength was extremely worrying.

Even the return of a single angel through the "Door" pathway, corrupted by the "Fallen Mother Goddess," would cause unrest within the "Fallen Mother Goddess." In the original work, the return of Mr. "Door" leading to the symbolic opening of "Doors" throughout the world would inevitably be even more perilous.

This also served as a reminder to Roger that he must be extra careful when using "Amra's Guidance" to travel to the Astral Plane.

He stretched and looked at the azure Sunia Sea and the distorting force field that still existed outside.

Because "Amra's guidance" is sealed, this distorted force field is rapidly dissipating, indicating that the barrier left by Amra is about to disappear.

Upon discovering this, Roger immediately "exiled" the island, along with a large area of ​​the surrounding sea, into the second level of the "Old Box" and threw it into the starry sky.

There are many benefits to doing this. In addition to the leakage of the pollution and monsters from the "space behind the door," it can also throw a large part of the pollution of the "Fallen Mother Goddess" into the starry sky and return it to Her side.

This is equivalent to having an electrical circuit that connects the barrier, Mr. "Door", Amra's "space behind the door", and the fallen Mother Goddess in the starry sky.

The reason why the "Fallen Mother" was stirring when Roger returned was largely due to this contaminated circuit related to Amra.

However, now that part of the circuit has been thrown outside the barrier, the real part of the circuit inside the barrier has been removed.

In a mystical sense, this would isolate a large portion of the contamination, which can be likened to "electric current," from the barrier. As long as Roger manages the risks of the "Old Box" well, the risks he faces when using "Amra's Guidance" to travel between Earth and space again will be greatly reduced.

At this point, Amra's problem has been largely resolved, and Roger's fourth side of the "Traveler's Dice" is now free.

"Okay, so here's the question."

Floating on the sea, Roger took a deep breath and looked up at the sky:

"How many days have I been gone?"

Just as he was about to use the power of the "living star chart" to pinpoint the exact date, Roger suddenly heard a familiar voice.

Rather than a single voice, it was more like many voices, echoing in Roger's heart in layers, as if from multiple sources.

Roger closed his eyes and listened carefully, only to discover that it was Mr. Fool reminding him of the meeting, as well as concerned greetings from other participants of the Tarot Club.

Miss Justice, Mr. Hanged Man, Mr. Sun, Miss Magician, Mr. Moon, Ms. Hermit, and Mr. World.

These people all expressed their concern about Roger's absence from the "Tarot Meeting".

This immediately made Roger nervous. He quickly used the power of the "Living Star Chart" to confirm the current time's position in the stellar calendar, thus confirming that he had been away for three days.

Roger originally expected that he would be able to explore Amra's tomb thoroughly and return to participate in the "Tarot Meeting" in time, but who knew that three days would pass in the blink of an eye.

This finally confirmed to him that the 16 days he spent floating in the starry sky were an illusion created by Amra using the "space behind the door." Roger wasn't quite sure how this was actually achieved.

However, Roger's experiences in the first "behind-the-door space" and on Butak should be real, as this process took three days.

This relieved him greatly. His biggest fear was that he would delay important matters, but if it was only for three days, it would be insignificant.

Roger used the "Traveler's Dice" to return to the "Star Lord," greeted the crew members who remained behind, and then went straight back to his captain's cabin to begin praying to Mr. "Fool."

“Dear Mr. Fool, I am very grateful for your and my fellow Tarot Club members’ concern for me. I also sincerely apologize for missing the last meeting without prior notice and hope for your forgiveness.”

"I previously went to the Astral Plane to fulfill the last wish of a deceased angel on Earth, and now I have safely returned to my fleet."

"Please share this news with my friends who care about me. Praise be to you, Mr. Fool."

After Roger finished speaking, he ended the prayer ceremony and went to the galley of the "Fear" to order a large seafood paella with cured ham, a garlic bread, and a large glass of light beer. He then began to feast in his captain's cabin.

Although he was only experiencing an illusion, the hunger Roger felt during that time was incredibly real.

Although Luo Jie brought a lot of food and water just to be on the safe side, those things were just the most ordinary dry rations, which were not only not tasty, but eating them for 16 days was driving him crazy.

He was finally able to eat proper food and was quite satisfied.

Just after he finished eating, another long string of messages came from "Source Castle".

Mr. Fool remained very calm in this message, simply forwarding other people's messages, but he added a few words of concern through Mr. World.

As for Alger the Hanged Man and his companions, they expressed their relief and greeted Roger the Wheel of Fortune, looking forward to meeting him at next week's meeting.

At this very moment, in the captain's cabin of the "Future", the "Hermit" Cattleya is silently twirling a pen, lost in thought.

"If I heard correctly, Mr. 'Wheel of Fortune' said he went to the starry sky, right?"

In fact, as an "astrologer", Cattleya has always been very sensitive to questions about the starry sky.

She once asked her mother if it was possible for extraordinary individuals to travel to the stars.

Bernadette, the "mysterious queen," replied:
"It used to be possible, but that path is now almost completely cut off."

When she pressed Bernadette for the reason why the star path was cut off, she became evasive and unwilling to say more.

But now that Mr. "Wheel of Fortune" has said that he has gone to the stars, it has aroused her great interest.

Cattleya really wanted to ask Mr. Wheel of Fortune how he did it, but considering that the saint had just returned and must have a lot to do, it would be somewhat impolite to contact him directly through Mr. Fool.

Ultimately, Cattleya decided to suppress her doubts for the time being and ask at the "Tarot Meeting" a few days later.

In fact, she was not the only member of the "Tarot Club" who was as confused as Cattleya. It's just that the others were not as sensitive to these things as Cattleya because of the different knowledge they possessed and the extraordinary paths they took.

"In any case, let's talk to Mother about this first."

Cattleya breathed a slight sigh of relief and sent a letter to the "mysterious queen" Bernadette through her messenger, telling her what she had just learned.

However, not long after the letter was sent, Cattleya sensed a strange fluctuation in her captain's cabin.

The next second, the "mysterious queen" Bernadette appeared directly in her captain's cabin. She stopped Cattleya from speaking and pressed her down into her seat with one hand.

Immediately afterwards, a purple light flashed in Bernadette's eyes, and many strange symbols appeared within them, as if she were scrutinizing and examining her daughter with extreme tension.

After a long while, she finally released Cattleya and let out a long sigh of relief.

Cattleya was caught off guard by all of this, because she couldn't remember the last time Bernadette had been so out of control. Cattleya stretched her shoulders, which were a little sore from her mother's massage, and slowly began to speak:

"Mother, what happened?"

"It's not certain yet. I think it's not, but we need to observe further."

To everyone's surprise, Bernadette shook her head and gave an ambiguous answer.

At that moment, she also realized the confusion in her daughter's eyes, and began to explain:

"You should have asked me before whether there are any extraordinary means to travel to the stars in this world?"
“I didn’t explain it very clearly to you at the time; this confusion was necessary to protect you.”

"However, now that you've gotten involved in this area, I think it's best to make things clear to you."

Seeing her mother's cautious demeanor, Cattleya simply nodded without interrupting her.

“I believe you should know that among the 22 paths of God, there is a very famous path called the ‘Apprentice’ path.”

Cattleya nodded. There were indeed many extraordinary individuals on the "Apprentice" path; she herself had met several.

Not to mention anything far away, just within the "Tarot Club," there is a member who is highly suspected to be a member of the "Apprentice" path, the "Magician."

She even knew that this path had long been controlled by the Abrahamic family in history, but in modern times the family declined rapidly for unknown reasons, so much so that no famous extraordinary people had emerged in recent centuries.

"The Galactic Admiral you've been talking about all this time is a member of the Abraham family, who has long been in charge of the 'Apprentice' pathway."

Bernadette's words took Cattleya by surprise.

She originally thought that the relationship between Mr. Wheel of Fortune and the Abraham family was simply that of a protector and a protected person, but she never expected that this man was actually a member of the Abraham family himself.

But in fact, this is quite reasonable.

Gadriya had considered this possibility before, but she hadn't paid much attention to it because she lacked direct evidence.

"You mean that those at the highest level of the 'Apprentice' path hold the power to access the stars? But that gentleman doesn't seem to be an extraordinary person of this path; rather, he seems more like a 'Mystic' at the demigod level."

In fact, this perception of Cattleya is consistent with the long-held belief of the vast majority of members of the Tarot Club.

This is not only from Roger's own account, but can also be corroborated by the words of other members of the Tarot Club.

At least Cattleya was certain that Roger possessed the abilities of the "Shepherd" and the "Black Knight," and that these abilities did not seem to be manifested through the sealed artifacts, but rather seemed to be extraordinary abilities inherent to Roger himself.

Thinking about this, Cattleya suddenly realized a possibility.

"You mean, he might possess some kind of high-level 'Apprentice' pathway seal?"

Upon hearing Cattleya's guess, Bernadette nodded:

"This possibility is very high."

Then, she shook her head again:
"But that's not the point I want to make to you today."

"What I want to emphasize is that there may be something extremely terrifying in the starry sky... I have met people who have had occult connections with the starry sky, and without exception, they all went mad, committed suicide, or lost control."

“In one case, the contamination exhibited characteristics of secondary transmission… It was an ‘astrologer’ in the ‘Morse’s Penitentiary’ who had caused them a great deal of trouble in the past.”

"In fact, before my father, Emperor Roselle, became eccentric, he had repeatedly hinted at his interest in the starry sky in his words."

"And that's why I was examining you so carefully just now."

Hearing this, Cattleya finally understood why her mother had seemed so flustered earlier.

She paused, carefully considered her words, and then said:
"By the way, Mother, should we put aside for now the proposal from that gentleman to jointly explore the 'Forsaken Land'?"

Previously, Cattleya had told her mother about Roger's proposal to explore the "Forsaken Lands" together.

Bernadette showed strong interest in the matter at the time and instructed Cattleya to follow up promptly, but not to agree immediately.

The latter had originally hoped to meet Mr. "Wheel of Fortune" at this week's Tarot meeting and get further information, but unexpectedly, Mr. Fortune did not attend.

But then Bernadette mentioned that Mr. Wheel of Fortune might have been corrupted by the stars, which naturally made Cattleya hesitate.

"No need for that. Just proceed as planned."

After Bernadette finished speaking, she added:
"He will most likely come into contact with the extraordinary members of the Church of the Night. If he does not disappear or die in the next few days, then it can be basically concluded that he is fine."

"Next, you need to keep a close eye on his movements. If everything goes as planned, I will find an opportunity to meet with him."

"Of course, you can rest assured that I will not mention anything related to you."

Bernadette's meaning was clear: if Roger had indeed been contaminated by the stars, the extraordinary beings of the Church of the Night would have been able to detect it and take timely action.

It should be noted that the Church of the Night is always cautious and possesses multiple level 0 sealed artifacts. If they all believe there are no problems, then we can put our minds at ease for the time being.

Seeing her mother say this, Cattleya nodded:
"Ok."

...

That evening, in a tavern near Indoport, Roger, with a typical Intis face and speaking Fusak with a slight Intis accent, was ordering food for himself.

To Roger's surprise, despite the fact that Indoport had been subjected to several saturation bombings in the past, many taverns were still open, and there were plenty of tall Fussacks drinking distilled spirits with an alcohol content of no more than 50%.

Because the Fusak Empire is at war with the Kingdom of Rune, the people here are generally very hostile to the Rune people, which is why he had to change his appearance to resemble an Intis.

After the distilled spirits and food were served, Roger ate while glancing at the Dawn Daily in his hand.

This is a newspaper popular in parts of Fussac, similar in style to the Tasok newspaper in Ruen, and is generally considered a serious print media.

Just as Roger had predicted, the newspaper did not mention much of the difficulties that the Fussack army encountered on the main battlefield. Instead, it exaggerated the advantages they had gained in some minor conflicts to lull the local population into a false sense of security.

Even the fact that Rune's ground forces had already entered the territory of Fusak was glorified in the newspaper as "the valiant Fusak army thwarted the despicable Rune's sneak attack across the Hornach Mountains," which is utter nonsense.

"I didn't expect the people of Fusak to also like to report good news and not bad news."

Roger shook his head, somewhat helplessly.

He originally thought he could analyze the progress of the battle on the home front in Fussack through the local newspapers, but he did not expect that the newspapers were completely incompetent and contained no truth throughout.

However, at that moment, Roger suddenly heard a drunken man from the bar next door shouting at his companions:
"Have you heard? The Runes landed in the west a while ago, and then several waves of reinforcements came. It is said that the garrison has already engaged in several battles with them at the fortress southwest of Saint Milon."

Hearing the drunkard's words, his companion beside him retorted somewhat doubtfully in Fussac:
“Makarich, are you talking nonsense? The newspapers say we still have the advantage, after all, the number of Rune airships bombing Indoport has decreased these past two days.”

Upon hearing this, the drunkard named Makarich slammed his fist on the table:
"You'd better not question me... My brother is in the Fifth Army, and just a few days ago he sent back a letter saying that they were temporarily integrated with the Third Army and transferred to St. Milon."

"Although he didn't say it explicitly, he had already made all the arrangements for his funeral in the letter... If it was just preparations, why was he in such a panic?"

"My poor little brother Mano is so pitiful... He just became a father, and I don't even know if he'll make it back alive this time."

Upon hearing Makarich's words, some Fusak people looked over curiously, while others, incredulous, pressed him for details about what he knew.

However, the drunken giant shook his head:

"I don't know much more... but if you don't believe me, you can ask around. How many of those guys who violated the fishing ban and secretly went out to fish in the west recently still dare to go out?"
"Putting everything else aside, can't you tell how many times the price of seafood in this restaurant has increased, and how many ingredients have been discontinued?"

Roger was quite surprised by what the drunkard said.

It must be said that although this person is obviously a long-time alcoholic, his observation and reasoning abilities far surpass those of ordinary people.

Roger's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately asked in Fursac, which had a slight Intis accent:
"Mr. Makarich, are you saying that it's not safe to go to St. Milon now?"

After hearing Roger's words, Makarich turned his head with some confusion:

"Intis people? With the fighting so intense, what are you doing in Indoport?"

"Is such that."

Roger scratched his head:

“My brother runs a liquor wholesale business in San Mirón, and I come to Fussac twice a year to sell the distilled spirits here to Intis.”

"As you should know, many Fussac people in Trier don't like our wine, and Trier's distilled spirits are awful, so we sell our delicious distilled spirits from Fussac to Intis."

"I had just arrived in Fusak when I was told I couldn't leave the country. I've been thinking that Port Indo is not peaceful these days, so I was wondering if I could go to St. Milon to see my brother. If we go together, we can look after each other."

"But after hearing what you just said, I don't know whether I should go over there now."

Upon hearing Roger's words, Macaric's expression softened slightly.

This is mainly because Roger's words are consistent with the actual situation. There are indeed many Fussac people in Trier, and they are indeed the main consumers of distilled spirits sold by Fussac to Intis every year.

On the other hand, ordinary people in the various countries of the Northern Continent often have a mysterious confidence in their own country's liquor. Now, Roger, who is a "Trier person", took the initiative to step on Intis's liquor, which immediately won the favor of Makarich, a drunkard.

The drunkard approached Roger and whispered:
“Young man, if you must enter San Mirón, you can go north from Indoport for about 200 kilometers and enter the San Mirón territory through White Stone Valley.”

"As far as I know, there shouldn't be any trace of the Runes there, but you need to prepare some money in advance and bribe the guards at the Saint Milon checkpoint, otherwise you, as a foreigner, will easily be questioned... Don't blame me for not warning you in advance."

"Very few people know this news. I only know a little bit because someone in my family is in the military."

Upon hearing Makarich's words, Roger immediately nodded in understanding:

"Thank you, Mr. Makarich."

He then looked at the bartender behind the counter:

"I'll treat Mr. Makarich and his friends to drinks."

Upon hearing this, Makarich immediately raised his glass excitedly, appearing very satisfied:
"May the God of War protect you, young man!"

Roger also raised his glass, the two clinked glasses, and then each downed their drink.

Ignoring the envious and jealous looks from the others in the tavern, Roger quickly finished his food and drank his wine, then paid the bill and headed towards White Rock Harbor, north of Indo Harbor.

Roger's primary consideration in establishing a route into Saint Milon that would not lead to the Rune army was safety.

Because the western side of St. Milon is the headquarters of the Church of the God of War and the site of the "Twilight Palace," the former earthly kingdom of the God of War.

If nothing unexpected happens, there will most likely be an angel-level battle between churches there!

(End of this chapter)