I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

It was so soft that Lu Yuan almost thought he was talking to himself.

But Lu Yuan definitely heard it.

He didn't pick up on that topic.

Klaus knew himself far better than he made it out to be.

Lu Yuan had always been aware of this.

But he chose to pretend he didn't hear it.

"Oh, right."

Lu Yuan changed direction.

"How about I get a batch of ghoul materials?"

Klaus paused as he was about to drink his tea.

"...You need this to make medicine???"

Lu Yuan sighed.

He took three ghoul brain cores out of his pocket and placed them side by side on Klaus's table.

Three small, grayish-white pebbles, about the size of a fingernail.

The strange inscriptions on the surface are clearly visible, with rounded lines and engravings that reflect a faint reddish undertone under light.

The two inscription lines connecting the three brain nuclei are embedded between the stones like tiny blood vessels.

"I've mastered the basics of inscription studies."

Lu Yuan's tone was very calm.

"This is a little gadget that I made by accident."

Klaus shifted his gaze from the teacup to the table.

He stared at the three brain cores for two seconds.

Then he reached out and picked it up.

He held it in his palm, turned it over, and then looked closely at the inscriptions and engravings on it.

"Strange inscriptions?"

Klaus's tone carried a hint of hesitation.

"Did you carve this yourself?"

"Um."

Klaus didn't ask how he learned it.

He did one thing directly.

A flash of blue light appeared on his body.

Three brain nuclei lit up in his palm.

A dark red glow seeped from the inscription marks and spread along the lines of Klaus's palm.

Almost at the same moment...

A layer of pale blue keratin began to spread upwards from Klaus's wrist.

Cover the back of your hand.

Cover the forearm.

It spreads along the neck.

Klaus's skin was covered with dense, keratinous scales, the color of a ghoul's characteristic grayish-white, but with a faint bluish tinge.

His facial contours also underwent subtle changes.

Her cheekbones are higher, and her eye sockets are deeper.

The aura it emitted was almost indistinguishable from that of a ghoul.

[Target for detection: Klaus () (Ghoul-like transformation)]

[Why does a human exude the aura of a ghoul? Is this some new race? (Just kidding)]

Lu Yuan ignored the gray text and watched Klaus's changes.

"it works."

really.

About a minute later, the stratum corneum began to crack.

The pale blue scales fell off one by one, turning into grayish-white powder that drifted into the air.

At the same time, a crack appeared on the surface of the leftmost of the three brain nuclei in Klaus's hand.

Click.

Broken.

The brain core was broken in two, and the inscription marks had completely faded.

Grayish-white powder seeped out from the cut surface and fell onto the table in a soft patter.

The remaining two are intact.

But the dark red background light on top also went out completely, turning back into two ordinary grayish-white pebbles.

Klaus's breathing returned to normal.

He looked down at his hands.

There were still a few pieces of callus remaining on the back of my hand that hadn't completely broken off.

He brushed it away with his other hand, and the grayish-white powder fell onto the table in a flurry.

Then he looked up.

Looking at Lu Yuan.

There was a two-second silence.

"Give!!"

Klaus slammed his hand on the table.

"The warehouse currently has over a thousand brain cores; I'll allocate half to you!!"

His voice suddenly became much louder.

"Do you also want some ghoul bones and teeth? I can order you a few hundred."

"want."

Lu Yuan didn't stand on ceremony and immediately started talking.

"Five hundred brain nuclei. Two hundred bones and two hundred teeth. Is that enough?"

"enough."

Klaus pulled a blank transfer form from his drawer, quickly filled in the numbers, signed it, stamped it, and pushed it in front of Lu Yuan.

"Take it and get it from the logistics department."

Lu Yuan took the transfer order, folded it, and stuffed it into his pocket.

He stood up, ready to leave.

He paused when he reached the door.

"How is Burren doing?"

Klaus's voice came from behind.

"He's still unconscious. The medical staff said the psychological trauma is more severe than expected, but it hasn't worsened."

He paused for a moment.

"She will wake up."

Lu Yuan nodded.

Push the door open and go out.

The door closed behind him.

Walking down the branch corridor, sunlight streamed in through the windows, casting dappled patterns of light and shadow on the floor.

Lu Yuan took the transfer slip out of his pocket and glanced at it.

Five hundred brain cores, two hundred ghoul bones, and two hundred ghoul teeth.

"It'll last a long time."

Lu Yuan put away the allocation order and walked towards the logistics warehouse.

The door to the logistics warehouse was made of sheet metal covered with wood, and it made a dull thud when pushed open.

Lu Yuan walked in and was almost bumped into by a logistics staff member who was carrying boxes.

"Oh... I'm so sorry, Captain Lu!"

The man stepped aside, carrying a wooden box about half his height, his forehead covered in sweat.

The warehouse was much more lively than Lu Yuan had imagined.

At least seven or eight support staff were moving supplies back and forth.

Wooden crates, iron barrels, and cloth bags were piled up on both sides of the aisle. Some people were checking off items against a list, while others were loading goods onto carts.

At the end of the corridor, there were two handcarts, already full, waiting to be hauled out.

Lu Yuan found the logistics window among the busy crowd, took out the allocation form and handed it over.

Behind the window sat a man in his forties, with a sallow complexion and a pair of brass-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

He took the transfer order, glanced at the numbers on it, his eyes behind his glasses widened slightly, and after confirming it several times, he finally nodded.

"Five hundred brain cores, two hundred ghoul bones, two hundred ghoul fangs?"

He looked up at Lu Yuan, then looked down at the signature and seal in the lower right corner of the transfer order.

"Vice Chief of Staff Klaus signed it... Okay, wait, I'll arrange for someone to count it."

He leaned halfway out of the window and shouted inside.

"Old Tang! 500 brain cores, 200 bones, 200 teeth! Urgent!"

A muffled response came from inside.

Lu Yuan took two steps back and leaned against a pillar to wait.

People carrying goods came and went past him. Some pushed carts that creaked and groaned as they rolled over the threshold, while others carried large iron barrels out in pairs.

Lu Yuan asked casually.

Why are there so many people today?

A young logistics worker next to him, who was checking a list, glanced at him.

"This is an order from Deputy Chief of Staff Klaus. The branch's supplies need to be reallocated for future use."

Lu Yuan didn't press the matter.

But he already understood that this was a preemptive transfer of supplies. It seemed a group of people would soon be heading to Duskwood. Klaus had mentioned this before.

I waited for about twenty minutes.

"Old Tang" led three logistics personnel out from the depths of the warehouse, each carrying a box in their hands, with two other boxes placed on a cart.

There were five boxes in total, reinforced with sheet metal, with numbers painted in black on the sides.

"Come on, click it."

Old Tang opened the first box.

It is the brain nucleus.

Nearly a hundred grayish-white pebbles, each about the size of a fingernail, were densely packed into the hay stuffing, arranged neatly.

Lu Yuan glanced at them but didn't count them one by one.

"OK."

"These guys will help you carry it back." Old Tang patted a young man on the shoulder behind him. "Xiao Kai, you take two men and go with Captain Lu."

Xiao Kai responded and gestured to the other two people to lift the box.

The move wasn't finished in one trip.

Five boxes, containing five hundred brain nuclei, four hundred bones, and teeth—the weight was not light.

Xiao Kai and his friends carried three boxes and left, then came back to carry the remaining two boxes.

Lu Yuan waited at his residence, watching the three young men, their foreheads covered in sweat, stack the last two boxes onto the table.

Thanks.

"You're welcome, Captain Lu."

Xiao Kai wiped his sweat and left with his men.

The door closed.

The room fell silent.

Lu Yuan squatted down and opened the five boxes one by one.

Five boxes of brain cores, grayish-white pebbles that had no luster in the sunlight, piled one by one in the hay.

Two boxes of ghoul bones, grayish-black in color, each about the length of a finger, with slight signs of corrosion at the broken ends.

A box of ghoul teeth, sharp, slightly curved, and yellowish in color; clearly, these were the sharpest teeth of ghouls.

This much material is enough.

Lu Yuan straightened up and cleared the lab table.

Open the toolbox and take out the tools you need.

Then, he picked out a brain nucleus, pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, and placed it in the fixed slot on the experimental table.

Take a deep breath.

Pick up the copper needle.

The first one.

When the copper needle landed on the surface of the brain nucleus, the brain nucleus actually trembled slightly.

He noticed this during the last seal carving session: the moment the copper needle touched the brain nucleus, the strange inscription symbols would spontaneously "float" up from inside the brain nucleus.

The copper needle is merely a guide.

What it truly depicts is the eerie aura lingering in the brain core.

With focused attention, the first symbol quickly took shape.

It's still rough and hasn't made much progress.

As the engraving of this brain core was completed, a series of gray characters appeared.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.4...5.8/50]

[Sanity: -1...80/120]

[Basic Eerie Inscription: Ghoul Brain Core (Rough)]

Lu Yuan put the completed brain core aside and picked up the second one.

The same process.

The speed was about ten seconds faster than the first one, and Lu Yuan's feel for the ball had improved significantly.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.3...6.1/50]

[Sanity: -1...79/120]

The third one.

This time, Lu Yuan didn't pause. The angle at which the copper needle fell was more precise, and the dark red patterns appeared faster—as if his brain core was cooperating with him.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.3...6.4/50]

[Sanity: -1...78/120]

The fourth one. +0.2.

The fifth one. +0.2.

The gray text is still jumping, but the increase is getting smaller each time.

The experience gained from repeating the same symbol diminishes, and this seems to be the same for all experience bars.

Lu Yuan was not in a hurry.

He never expected to gain much experience in a single session.

The seventh one. +0.1.

The eighth one. +0.1.

……

By the twelfth stone, the increase in Inscription stat had completely changed to +0.1. Each stone was +0.1.

That's about it.

Lu Yuan put down the copper needles and flexed his fingers.

There are twelve engraved brain nuclei arranged on the table.

The dark red symbols on the surface glowed slightly warm in the afternoon light.

Each engraving is clearer than the previous one—the progress is visible to the naked eye.

But that's about it.

The single-carving technique has reached a bottleneck.

'Let's try stringing them together.'

Lu Yuan selected three stones from the twelve with the clearest engravings.

After all, making brain nuclei resonate is not simply about putting brain nuclei together.

The three brain nuclei need to be arranged according to the "flow" of the symbols, so that the dark red lines connect with each other.

Like a jigsaw puzzle.

Lu Yuan arranged the three brain nuclei in a straight line according to the direction of the symbols.

The spacing is about two fingers wide.

Then he picked up a copper needle and drew a connecting line in the gap between the three brain nuclei.

The moment the connection was completed—

The three brain nuclei emitted faint fluctuations simultaneously.

Then the light began to appear on the brain nucleus, and then stabilized after a period of time.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +0.8...8.0/50]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.2...39.1/100]

[Sanity: -2...76/120]

Taboo subjects were also skipped.

Lu Yuan took a deep breath.

'Three stones in a group, the experience gained from three stones together is two to three times that of a single stone, and it also triggers forbidden knowledge.'

Without hesitation, Lu Yuan immediately picked three more and continued his work of gaining experience.

This set feels better to the touch, and the curve of the connecting wire is smoother.

By the time Lu Yuan finished the five sets, a thin layer of sweat had formed on his forehead.

Fifteen brain cores were laid out on the table: twelve that had been individually engraved, plus three that had been taken out to supplement them.

The fifteen were divided into five groups of three.

Looking at the gray text in front of him, Lu Yuan had 72 points of sanity left, enough for him to continue. So Lu Yuan continued to bury himself in his work.

It continued until it started to get dark.

The light outside the window changed from warm yellow to dark orange.

Lu Yuan finally put down the copper needles and leaned back in his chair.

Rationality: 58 points

That's enough for today. If we keep going down like this, I might start hallucinating again.

Lu Yuan stood up and walked to the window.

It was completely dark by then.

The view from the window is of the branch's courtyard.

A few gas lamps were lit, their dim yellow light illuminating a small patch of gravel.

In the distance, the faint sound of footsteps could be heard as the patrol team changed shifts.

In the distance, within the inner city, dreamlike colors slowly surged across the night sky, but were clearly no longer violent.

Lu Yuan watched for a while.

Then he closed the curtains, picked up a piece of bread that had been delivered, ate a couple of bites, washed up quickly, and went to bed.

Before I closed my eyes, the gray text flashed again.

[Rationality: 56/120]

'An extra 2 points were deducted at night??'

Lu Yuan frowned, wondering what was going on. He quickly checked the previous prompts, but everything seemed normal.

Could it be because of the ocean of knowledge?

Lu Yuan had no clue whatsoever. He had no choice but to put it aside for the time being, as he would have to continue trying tomorrow.

The next day, early in the morning.

When Lu Yuan opened his eyes, light was already filtering through the gap in the curtains.

[Sanity: +12...68/120]

Looking at the number, Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then picked up a bottle of excellent sanity restoration potion from the bedside table and gulped it down.

A few seconds later, the gray text jumped.

[Sanity: +7...75/120]

'That should be just enough.'

Lu Yuan got dressed, went downstairs to wash up, ate something, and returned to the second floor.

Sitting in front of the lab bench.

The table looks exactly the same as it did yesterday.

More than twenty carved brain nuclei were arranged in a row, but the dark red glow on the brain nuclei had dimmed considerably, leaving only a trace of the remaining light.

'Don't rush to carve a new one.'

Lu Yuan prepared to rearrange the nine brain nuclei according to the direction of the symbols.

Lu Yuan wasn't sure if the nine could be connected together.

But he wanted to give it a try.

The nine brain nuclei are arranged in a triangular-like structure.

Lu Yuan picked up the copper needle.

At the intersection of the three connecting lines, a connector was drawn.

The copper needle had just fallen...

Nine brain nuclei were pulsating simultaneously.

Dark red light surged from the starting point of the first brain nucleus, rushing along the connecting lines at a speed several times faster than before.

The tabletop began to tremble slightly.

'Stay calm.'

Lu Yuan pressed down on the copper needle.

The tremor lasted for several seconds.

Then...

All the beams of light began to contract.

The dark red turned into a deep red.

The symbols on all nine brain nuclei were glowing, as if nine hearts were beating in sync.

At this moment, a long string of gray and white text also appeared.

[Inscription Arts (Advanced - Mysterious Inscriptions): +2.0...13.1/50]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.5...40.4/100]

[Sanity: -3...72/120]

[Ghoul Transformation (1/1)]

[A bizarre artifact crafted using nine ghoul brain cores; this is not a known structure within any human inscription system. You have recreated the natural ability of a bizarre species using unorthodox human inscription methods.]

[Note: From quantitative change to qualitative change, you have found a path that no one has ever walked before.]