Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 310, Page 309: "The Priest"

Are these people, acting like this, considered cannibalistic?
Watching the snail-man frantically clutching its shell, one person was pulling, seemingly trying to yank the snail-man out of its shell, while the other began breaking off haphazardly growing branches from the surrounding trees to start a fire in the most primitive way.

Because of this, she couldn't help but move a little further away from these guys.

Despite her stomach protesting, Fors didn't believe her moral compass would lead her to cannibalism.

These people's thinking was clearly abnormal. Fors was unsure whether these two people still maintained basic rationality, or whether even their basic rationality had been reduced to monsters with only human shells and rotten inside due to the expansion of the "vortex" concept and the decline in their mental value.

"The whole town is not normal anymore. The thing buried in the town has polluted the entire town. This situation is very similar to the sealed objects with extremely powerful negative effects that the church possesses."

Of the three major churches in the Kingdom of Rune, apart from the "Church of Craftsmen" which has always been in a weak position for some unknown reason, the other two churches still wield considerable influence in the Kingdom of Rune.

Fors knew of several examples where entire villages and towns had to be wiped out by the church because of the influence of terrible sealing objects. These sealing objects were terrifying things that could easily destroy a town, a city, or even a country.

Clearly, all the abnormalities in this Level 3 ritual master examination room, whether it be the placentas of those pregnant women or the snail-men and vortex-men, should be products of the power leaking out from this kind of sealing object.

too frightening.

"What if this kind of thing leaks into our real world..."

Just imagining the scene gave Fors goosebumps. She didn't know what the designer of this exam room was thinking, but the person who created it was definitely someone special.

It has a wild feeling of relentlessly pursuing the exotic and never looking back.

Fors slowly turned her neck. She stopped looking at the snail and the other people and looked ahead at the road that still stretched into the distance.

Ah, speaking of which, she couldn't quite remember how long she had been walking or how long she had been here. Time and space here seemed to be in chaos. As an apprentice, Fors had a pretty good sense of space, so she wasn't so bad as to not be unable to sense whether she was on the right track.

But that was indeed the case here. As she gritted her teeth and moved forward, she could only feel her body temperature getting colder and her stomach getting hungrier, but she couldn't find the right path to leave this place.

This can't go on. If she stays stuck here, even if she isn't kicked out of the exam room because her mental strength drops below the safety threshold, she will be kicked out because her life value drops below the safety threshold due to extreme hunger.

This will only lead to a dead end.

Fors gritted her teeth and walked a little further, unwilling to give up. The rich aroma of meat that had been wafting behind her disappeared, and she could no longer hear the surprised sounds of people marveling at the quality of the meat or the ecstatic laughter of people who had obtained food. Only then did Fors walk to a few giant trees that were growing crookedly and haphazardly.

She rested for a while, then broke off a few branches from the crooked giant tree and tried to make a final struggle using ritual magic.

However, as a Sequence 9 apprentice, there was no suitable solution to this problem.

Therefore, Fors had to request some outside help.

"For example, design a ritual to directly destroy this forest."

She remembered that some books on ritual magic mentioned certain spells, which even low-sequence individuals could use to create powerful destructive effects.

However, that spell might not only be effective against her enemies, but also against her...

This brings us to the ritual incantation that Fors had seen and memorized before, which supposedly, once recited, would indiscriminately attack everything around the ritual master, including the ritual master himself.

Want to try it?

She hesitated.

After all, it's said that after reciting that incantation, everything around the ritual master, including earthworms, will be split into ten pieces. Even the ritual master himself would be lucky if he wasn't split so badly that he couldn't get out of bed for six months...

-

Klein fell into a place they had been before.

This is the town center of Black Vortex, beside Lake Swell.

While the ritual magic was still in effect and the surrounding wind was still within a range that Klein could barely control, he quickly scanned his surroundings and saw a church.

Compared to before, the church was even more dilapidated in the wind and rain, a gray and gloomy sight. Whether before or now, there were no believers here, only a priest who worshipped "Stars," and whose prototype was suspected to be from the Southern Continent, a member of the Singularity Cult who worshipped an evil god.

Before the typhoon made landfall, the priest who believed in "Stars" had already been dealt with by Anderson, and the place had also been ransacked by them, so the church should be safe.

And the lake nearby...

Klein glanced at the lake, which had been swept up by the gale and torrential rain, forming a shape that seemed to suck anyone who got too close, and whose true form was completely obscured by the rain. He took out his revolver from his holster, loaded it, and quickly slipped into the church before the ritual magic ended.

"In this kind of weather, hypothermia is a terrible thing. I wonder how the other two are doing."

In that situation, stabilizing one's own body was already extremely difficult. Even if the three of them were together at the beginning, after being disturbed for several minutes, they might land in different places, one in the east of the city and the other in the west.

Klein's clothes were completely soaked, inside and out, and he felt very uncomfortable. However, now was not the time to think about that. He didn't care about anything else. After entering the church, he quickly activated his spiritual vision and looked around to check if the place was stable.

Meanwhile, Klein held a coin in his hand, ready to bounce it.

For a fortune teller, performing divinations on a daily basis is perfectly normal.

However, before Klein could even perform a simple divination, his gaze, which had been fixed on the spot where the priest had been killed, was fixed on the dark environment where he had activated his spiritual vision.

There was nothing there; there was no priest's body, nor Anderson's severed head.

The body of the murdered priest has disappeared.

"Were they dragged away, or...?"

A gust of wind came from behind Klein. As a diviner, Klein's spiritual intuition kicked in, and almost without hesitation, he lunged forward, rolling several times on the ground. He then quickly looked back at the spot where he had just been standing. An unusually long arm slammed into the spot where Klein had been, just as he was dodging and rolling forward. The ground there cracked instantly, and the unusually long arm easily smashed a deep crater into it.

If that blow had landed on Klein, he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't have had his health points wiped out and been kicked out of the exam room.

"This is the consequence of killing someone and not destroying the body..."

Klein ground his back teeth. Why hadn't he suggested burning the priest's body?
The glowing ore above their heads, symbolizing "stars," trembled violently with the monster's attack, rattling and making a clattering sound, but this was drowned out by the raging storm outside.

After regaining his balance and seeing the monster that had attacked him, Klein quickly opened fire.

With a few crisp gunshots, the bullets from the revolver struck the monster that had been lurking behind Klein.

It was a monster with a twisted body, its head embedded in its belly, like a bizarre sea octopus, but with only four tentacles. Its body was swollen, like a bloated corpse, giving it the appearance of a giant.

Klein felt his mental energy level starting to drop; something was clearly wrong with this thing, it had a smell of mental pollution about it.

The determination of mental value in the examination room also seems to involve whether what they observe is something they cannot understand or name. This will change with the candidate's own level, unlike the exam questions, where seeing one will definitely deduct 20 mental value.

but……

In Klein's spiritual vision, the aura and color of the monster before him, and the clothing he wore which could be vaguely seen through the glowing minerals on its head that symbolized "stars," were somewhat strange.

Corresponding to it, on the head, is a strange thing, somewhat like the monocle that Leonard often wears?

"Ah."

A soft laugh came from where the monster was. Without hesitation, Klein fired two more shots at the monster before it could attack.

The bullets hit the monster, but its body was too large. Klein missed the head, but the bullets penetrated the body, not hitting any vital organs, so it was difficult to cause a fatal wound.

Moreover, the monster's weakness may not be in its head. The resurrection of the dead is actually a mutation of the spirit. The most convenient way to deal with this kind of monster is to use the sealing artifacts of the solar domain or ritual magic involving the solar domain. However, Klein did not have time to do these things. He could only weaken the enemy as much as possible and then take the opportunity to make his move.

The monster was equally fast in response to the bullets fired by Klein. It scrambled along the church wall, dodging the bullets that Klein had deliberately aimed at its head.

"Don't harbor such murderous intent so easily; it's very impolite."

A voice that Klein had heard before, belonging to the faith "Stars," possibly a priest from the Southern Singularity Cult, came from not far to Klein's left.

However, compared to the previous priest, the current priest's voice contained a strange, lowered, yet still discernible excitement.

Klein: ...Wait, what's so exciting about this?

But can this thing be used for communication?

After its first attack missed Klein, the monster calmly attached itself to the wall not too far from Klein, seemingly having no intention of continuing its attack.

"You turned into a monster after you died?"

Klein took a few steps back, remaining vigilant, but to be honest, given his physical abilities as a diviner, he knew he couldn't easily defeat the monster before him.

"No one here will die, and no one can die, not even you outsiders."

The monster was surprisingly talkative to Klein, speaking slowly and deliberately.

"Because we'll become monsters, and you, well, you'll leave this place. Even if you die, you'll only leave behind a body riddled with holes. The body may perish, but the will endures. See, isn't that a miracle? Ah, that guy has been accumulating these miracles..."

Klein couldn't hear the monster's last few words clearly, but he quickly figured out why it hadn't attacked him.

“Pedigris and the others said that in the Level 3 exam, if a Level 2 problem can be solved, after comprehensive consideration, even candidates taking the Level 3 ritual master exam may be able to directly become Level 2 ritual masters, because this involves relatively dangerous exam questions…”

The "Black Vortex Town" Level 3 Ritual Master exam venue contains Level 2, or even Level 1, questions. Are there clues here? Are they related to something buried underground?
Thinking about this possibility, Klein asked in return, "Do you know why this town became like this?"

“Of course,” the monster’s voice carried a strange, undisguised chuckle, “that’s a good question… Ah, it’s all because of the problem with the ‘Stars’.”

Klein frowned, finding the monster's attitude somewhat unusual.

He had previously received a notebook from the priest in this church, which was filled with praise and adoration for the "stars".

Logically speaking, people who die carrying such beliefs, after being contaminated by that unknown thing underground, should become even more fanatical in their faith in the so-called "stars".

But to Klein's surprise, the monster in front of him was very calm when talking about "Stars," without any fanaticism or worship.

This is clearly not something a priest who believes in an evil god should do, and it makes no sense that this priest, who was so fanatical while alive, would become like this after death.

“A long, long time ago… ah, I’m not quite sure how long ago, something appeared underground in this land.”

"what?"

Klein saw the monster before him, its slippery tentacles squeezing the swollen, giant head located on its belly, the monocle in its left eye socket, and said:

"A door."

"A door that attracts everything and connects the inside and outside."

"And there's a gatekeeper watching over it."

(End of this chapter)