The ingredients used for Desi's pies are much more generous than in Backlund. However, they prefer adding some local spices. It felt a little odd when taking the first few bites, but after getting used to it, it's quite a different style... Klein sat inside his hotel and swapped between taking a mouthful of the oily pie and drinking a mouthful of cool, refreshing sweet ice tea. He was living quite an idyllic life.
After he had his fill, he didn't immediately pack up. He picked up the top hat on the chair beside him and wore it.
Meanwhile, his left palm suddenly turned transparent as his entire body faded away.
Klein had entered the spirit world and was planning on Traveling to the Poto Harbor in the Berserk Sea. He was there to seek out food for Creeping Hunger.
Eskelson, where he was, did belong to Desi Bay, but it was nowhere along the coast since it was an island. This was the southernmost island of Desi Bay, and going past it meant one's entry into the Berserk Sea.
Therefore, the second Klein headed for the predetermined coordinates, an abnormal sight appeared before his eyes.
The spirit world's air flows seemed to be materialized as they spun into a wind. They howled as they enveloped a huge region that seemed boundless. It was dim inside, with layers of dark clouds. Bolts of lightning tainted with the deep gloom kept flashing, illuminating the surrounding area like it was the apocalypse.
At that moment, Klein felt as though he had arrived in a sea that was eternally ravaged by storms. However, he knew with certainty that this was the spirit world.
Indeed, it's just like what many books on mysticism mention. The power involved with the perishing of Death has not only changed the atmospheric weather of the sea between the Northern Continent and Southern Continent, but it also filled it with disaster and danger. It's how its name was derived. Furthermore, it also broke the barrier between reality and the illusory, tainting and damaging the corresponding spirit world and causing them to affect one another... In the Berserk Sea, if one holds a ritual that involves the spirit world, using powers related to the spirit world, there will be a high probability of an accident occurring, causing unimaginable developments... Klein reflected poignantly as he used his eyes to verify what the books wrote.
From his point of view, if it weren't because of this, the various countries in the Northern Continent wouldn't have waited for Emperor Roselle to find the safe sea route before they had a chance of invading the Southern Continent. After all, to most High-Sequence Beyonders, they could easily traverse normal kinds of natural barriers.
Roselle's safe sea route wasn't simply geological in nature, but also mysticism in nature!
This also meant that since the Berserk Sea and spirit world were influencing each other and overlapped, Klein could directly use the local sea maps to traverse the spirit world's calamities.
Recalling the content he had read before, Klein found the correct location and entered the dark spirit world.
The howling of the gales sounded from every direction. Even the secondary gusts of wind left a chill running deep down from Klein's soul or spine. This made him believe that if he had traveled in a Spirit Body state without the use of the Black Emperor card, Tyrant card, and Azik's copper whistle to augment himself, there was quite a good chance of him suffering a serious injury.
And if this wasn't the "safe sea route," he believed that there was a chance his physical body couldn't withstand the black storms that were filled with death.
Compared to the gales, the dark lightning bolts were far more dangerous. Klein suspected that he couldn't even withstand being smote by one of them. As for the hidden maelstrom and the wandering creatures, they were another form of danger.
This is a place without any material seawater. I wonder what's at the end of the maelstrom... Klein followed the safe sea route and traversed the land at an adequate speed. From time to time, he would survey his surroundings to broaden his horizons.
Suddenly, he saw a strange creature.
It was dragging a huge sickle and was situated inside a black hurricane. As it was formed by individual skulls, it was swollen and massive.
The skulls were either grayish-white or grayish-black of varying sizes. They were also from different species, and all of them were stacked into one, forming its torso, limbs, and head.
Almost at the same moment that Klein saw this strange creature, it also discovered Klein. All the skulls turned their heads in unison, producing a grinding sound that couldn't be concealed.
The dark eye sockets were countless in number as they followed and overlapped one another.
Klein's forehead throbbed as he used Traveling to pass through the area, entering the next safe sea route.
And on the nearby illusory sea, bloody arms and illusory greenish-black tentacles extended out from the sea surface.
...
Outside the City of Silver, a black mausoleum stood inverted over the ground like an inverted pyramid.
At that moment, there were all kinds of dense black plants that grew out from the cracks in the mausoleum's bricks. Even the heavy door by the entrance was covered with them.
Colin Iliad had two swords slung across his back as he stood with two other Elders of the six-member council. They were observing the passage that diagonally led them deep underground.
Lovia with her silver, curly hair watched silently for a moment before saying, "It should be possible already."
Unlike how she usually switched randomly between two mental states, this Shepherd Elder was now staid and calm. She didn't show any signs of abnormalities as her pale-gray eyes were deep and placid.
Colin gently nodded and took out a bottle of medicine from two different compartments on his belt. Unscrewing the lids, he downed them.
His light-blue eyes rapidly brightened. His unwrinkled skin had blood vessels protrude as they got tinted with silver.
Right on the heels of that, the Chief drew a sword and smeared a silver-gray ointment across its surface.
As he took steps to prepare, another six-member council Elder, Waite Chirmont, did something similar.
This bald man who had a tattooed symbol on his head stood nearly 2.5 meters tall. He didn't look a day over 45. But in fact, he was nearly 80. He was also a Sequence 4 Demon Hunter, a demigod that was one of the main pillars of support for the City of Silver.
In the City of Silver, due to the lack of main ingredients, and with the citizens being aware of the acting method and having sufficient combat experience, they advanced from Low- to Mid-Sequences rather easily. Sequence 6 Beyonders were the majority, but from Sequence 5 onwards, due to the rituals required and other reasons, the number of Beyonders drastically fell. At Sequence 4 where there was a qualitative change, an entire generation might not even produce one.
Waite Chirmont didn't dual wield like an orthodox Demon Hunter. This allowed him to use different ointments to produce different effects so as to handle more complicated situations. He wielded an iron-gray hammer, and on his back was a huge bow that was equally as massive as his body. He was like a miniaturized giant that walked out of an oil painting.
The bow was a mystical item, one that didn't have overly severe side effects. In the historical records of the City of Silver, it received its name from killing a dragon at the demigod level. Its name was: "Dragon Slaying Bow"!
After finishing their preparations, Waite slammed his hammer in front of him loudly, drew his bow, and slowly pulled it back.
Sizzling bolts of lightning suddenly emerged as they condensed into one, and as it grew longer from the pull, it formed a blinding and radiant arrow between the bowstring and the back of the bow.
Just as Waite's fingers released the bowstring, the lightning arrow shot straight to the mausoleum's door which was overrun with human hair-like weeds.
Silently, the heavy door appeared to have long rotten. It exploded into pieces along with the electric bolt's explosion, revealing a deep passageway.
This passageway shimmered with pale white lights. It extended far beyond what one's eyes could see, giving off a creepy and cold feeling.
Colin's eyes suddenly flashed with two complex, dark green symbols, and he reflected the mausoleum's entrance in them.
A few seconds later, he held his sword diagonally and walked into the mausoleum. Waite slung his Dragon Slaying Bow, picked up his hammer, and followed closely behind.
The purple-robed Lovia's expression remained the same as she followed through the shattered door at a decent pace with her hands empty.
As they descended via sections of passageways and staircases, the three members of the six-member council didn't show any unrest or anxiety in the completely silent environment. They allowed their footsteps to echo in their surroundings.
After descending one level, they suddenly saw a river before them. It was an illusory and jet-black river.
Under the river's surface were blood-colored arms that had been skinned. Green baby-faced veins and slippery tentacles with eyes were densely entwined together. They kept flailing upwards in a bid to grab whatever passed them.
The river was close to the side of the entrance. There were figures of different heights wearing old clothes with their backs facing the three Elders. They kept walking back and forth as though they were vexed over the crossing of the river.
Suddenly, one of them sensed the trio approaching them. He slowly turned his body to look at Colin, Waite, and Lovia.
It was an elder with his hair being completely white. His forehead and the corners of his mouth were deeply wrinkled. His eyes were light blue and hollow. His expression was numb and blank.
Colin Iliad's pupils shrank, as he recognized the man.
It was his brother, the brother that had been possessed by Amon. He had personally ended his life!
At this moment, the other figures turned around, revealing faces that Colin, Waite, and Lovia found extremely familiar. But they were all abnormally numbed faces.
Lovia's expression remained unperturbed, but behind her, an illusory knight more than five meters tall had appeared at some point in time.
This knight wore ancient silver full-body armor. Its eyes were red like blood as they burned akin to flames.
...
After traversing the "safe sea route," for about ten seconds, Klein arrived at the Berserk Sea's Poto Harbor. This place deviated from the main sea route and didn't belong to any country. It was a free city for pirates.
When his feet hit solid rock, he randomly produced a face, but he wasn't in a rush to enter the port city which had buildings randomly laid out. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an iron cigar case.
While passing through the Berserk Sea's spirit world, he had sensed Azik's copper whistle trembling slightly.
Removing the wall of spirituality, Klein opened the cigar case and took out the ancient and exquisite copper whistle.
This copper whistle had lost its usual coldness and mildness, and it was now burning hot. However, this anomaly was rapidly dissipating.
