Mysterious Hunting Ground

Chapter 343 333. Martha and the Lake Monster

"road…"

Sean's mouth opened for a moment, and then was forcibly closed by a strange force.

"Don't read it out loud," Dean stopped Sean's mouth with telekinesis and turned to Carmody, "I always thought He was just an existence in myths and legends."

"Most of the legends are derived from reality, but there are differences." Carmody said with awe, "Our Lord is not an angel who fell from heaven. He had differences with God and other so-called gods, and he was hostile and criticized by believers. Stigma.”

“The world despised Him as an evil heretic, the source of chaos, pain, and sin.”

"Not only my lord, but also the lord of beasts and the lords of multiple hells have similar experiences, so they have become enemies of God. But they have dissatisfaction with each other and it is difficult to cooperate."

"And every great being who is labeled as a sin masters different rules and can condense unique Serent runes."

Dean rubbed his temples, so except for Baphomet, Leviathan, and Lucifer, all gods representing the seven deadly sins exist? Or is it some kind of advanced creature, and the Serent rune is a symbol of their power?

"What differences do they have with God and the gods?"

Dean turned around and looked at the thick white fog, "Are you going to stay alone in the fog?"

"There is already a higher being paying attention to me (Baphomet), and I am not interested in provoking another one. Let's get back to the topic, what is the use of this Serent rune?"

"Believers, sentient beings, in this world, outside the world." Carmody said, "I don't know the specific content. You have to ask Him in person. When you worship Him devoutly, maybe He will answer your doubts."

Dean and Sean followed the ghost Barty floating in the air and left Carmody.

Dean fell silent.

Sean sighed, "I thought about it for a long time before they behaved normally. If it were me seeing a friend suddenly turn into a monster, I wouldn't be able to accept it for a while..."

Dean's God's perspective has completely recorded the rune patterns.

Dean stopped walking and turned to look at Sean calmly, "They call you a monster, reject you, and hate you. You don't mind at all?"

"My Lord lives outside reality, but he has never forced me to kill, do evil, or spread faith for Him like various evil gods in alien spaces. Nor has he promised countless empty promises like God with ridiculous scriptures, allowing believers to live forever. I wasted my whole life running around without God's favor. My Lord gave me many gifts, allowing me to live to be two hundred years old with good health, longevity, and no disease or disaster."

"Do you know how I feel now? It's like listening to the ravings of a madman." Sean's face turned green because of fear and confusion. "All kinds of gods and demons in legends actually exist."

Sean stopped arguing.

Sean's eyes twitched stiffly and he dared not speak.

"I can't do it." Dean would never be pious to a god, and lowered the hand holding the parchment. "It seems that this Serent rune is useless to me."

"Degenerate?" Carmody glared at Dean with displeasure and said sharply, "Is it natural, bright and just to believe in God? Is it degenerate to believe in other gods that are against them?"

Sean asked, "Then can this Serent rune still be used? It is risky, but if we give up like this, this operation in Qiaopier Town will be in vain."

"Then your vision and knowledge are too short-sighted."

"My Lord will bless me." Carmody lowered his head and did not look at the two of them. His chicken claw-like hands were stained with some gray blood of spider lobsters, and he began to outline a circular magic circle around the two huge meat patties. Circles of black light radiated from the array, connecting her short and fat body, and she seemed to dissolve into the darkness.

The progress of "Blood on the Lake" in the system jumped from 82% to 90%. The event originally required bringing the real murderer of Martha to Carmody in order to obtain the Serent Rune.

Carmody's eyes darkened, and after a moment of silence, he said regretfully, "But the transaction has been settled, and there will be no returns. You have nothing else to do, so please leave."

"Leave it as a backup. Carmody described arrogance as asking for nothing in return and being generous and selfless, but God is by no means a philanthropist and will not give power in vain." Dean shook his head and handed the parchment to Sean, " Borrowing the power of arrogance means being bound to it and leaving hidden dangers. Therefore, this Serent rune cannot be used unless it is absolutely necessary. I will leave this one to you."

But the Serent rune has been obtained, and the mission goal has been achieved ahead of schedule.

Dean pondered, "What about the specific method of use? Take this parchment and recite the spell?"

Sean put it away close to his body, his throat squirmed twice as if it was knotted, and he couldn't help but ask another matter, "Do the townspeople in the police station really don't care? They have no way to deal with the fog."

……

Dean's eyes were solemn, "There are many unsolved mysteries hidden in this world, and gods are one of them. If we can avoid provoking them, it's best to never have any interactions with them."

……

Dean raised his left eyebrow and said repulsively, "Does this practice have any side effects?"

"It represents a seal," Carmody looked at Dean and Sean and said sternly, "It can isolate the nocturnal species and hell monks from the connection with God, seal their power, and let their bodies and souls fall to the earth."

"You mean, if you use this rune for a long time, you will degenerate into an arrogant dependent? Just like you, racking your brains to worship Him, to the point of going insane?" Dean glanced at the pressed man. Meatloaf's Spider Lobster suddenly understood Carmody's arrangement for them.

The mist changes, as if a milky white curtain has been drawn.

And Sean suddenly spoke, "I think I understand. Your god has no obvious bias toward good or evil. Only believers who borrow his power can do evil or do good."

"The most important thing is the six-winged rune in the middle." Carmody's eyes were shining with some kind of expectation. "You only need to refer to the parchment and practice tracing the runes diligently. You will be able to understand the runes within two weeks. The spell, the projection of thoughts.”

A blush appeared on Carmody's face, as if he had overdosed on banned drugs. "Not counting the sequelae, the power of the runes comes from the gods. If you communicate with them day and night, your soul will naturally move closer to the gods. No one can resist that." A sublimated 'temptation'."

Carmody clasped his hands on his chest and looked devoutly at the misty sky, "I was born in 1778 and have lived alone for too long, so I occasionally have emotional problems. My gratitude to my Lord cannot be expressed in words. I can only occasionally offer an evil thing to Him...as a symbol of my piety. Is this the corruption you speak of?"

Dean shook his head and showed the parchment in his hand.

"Leave. When you become proficient in using the power of Serent Rune, I will welcome you on behalf of my Lord."

"You are the softest werewolf I have ever seen." Dean's eyes were filled with praise and ridicule, which made Sean feel uncomfortable. "But the monsters near the police station have been cleared away long ago, so they will not be in danger for the time being. , let’s go, they will get through the rest of the difficulties themselves.”

Carmody turned from anger to joy and nodded approvingly at him.

"You have good understanding, boy. You are a good young man. If you are willing to abandon the Lord of Midian and convert to my Lord, He will be happy to accept you."

"Are you two hundred years old?" Dean and Sean looked at the old lady's face carefully, and they couldn't tell she was more than seventy years old.

"This sounds like a deal with the devil." Dean said fearfully.

"No, our Lord will not write an agreement full of traps and let believers sell their souls." Carmody shook his head, "The only thing He needs is piety. You can deceive others, but you cannot deceive your own heart."

Seal the power inherited from the gods?

The mist lingers.

Dean and the two followed the ghost Barty in mid-air and walked through the ruins of buildings to find Martha.

During this period, I encountered several hound-like gray widow spiders on the street, but as soon as they got close to Dean, they seemed to smell the terrifying aura left over from Queen Mistweaver's death, and screamed like a baby sobbing, and their eight jointed limbs moved towards Dean. He clung to the ground and did not dare to move.

Then it was frozen into several lumps of ice.

"Proficiency gain has been significantly reduced again."

Dean shook his head regretfully. When fighting at level 5, a gray widow could provide 2 points of proficiency, but after raising it to level 6, neither of them could improve by 1 point.

The experience is reduced by at least 70% to 80%.

He simply started to improve his long-range proficiency, followed the ghost around the long lake, and entered Shiling Town near the lake shore.

Shooting lv5 (60→70/700)

Shadow lv5(280→290/700).

……

The suspended Barty suddenly stopped one meter above the ground, floating motionless like a flag.

Dean and Sean leaned over to observe. There was a whistling sound of wind blowing the curtains in their ears. There was an infighting among the Mists not far away.

More than thirty white ghosts floated in the air like flying saucers. Their thin bodies first spread out flat, and then shrank into an umbrella shape. As they bulged and shrank, they spat out wisps of fine white hair towards the bulging monster in the center of the circle. Gossamer mist. This monster is like a mutated giant octopus with a radius of more than seven or eight meters, floating in the mist. There are two moist black eyes on the oval head, the slippery body is covered with thick black soft body, and countless fat arms and legs are swinging.

There are rows of sharp little hooks inlaid on both sides of these arms and legs, and flesh-colored suckers with fangs are grinning on the bottom, like hundreds of small pouting mouths, biting the ghosts that besiege them with the waving arms and legs.

The arms and legs rotated to make a whooshing sound, easily shattering the concrete floor, plowing ravines, and pulling down cement telephone poles.

Dean, who was watching, thought that even a level 4 spider lobster would probably be able to get entangled in a twist when faced with this foggy octopus monster.

But the ghost monster's body switches between gaseous and liquid states, and is directly immune to the staggering strangulation of the fog octopus's amazingly powerful arms and legs, and it continuously spits white frost around the octopus.

The movements of the octopus's arms and legs are getting slower and slower, as if it has been stuffed into an icehouse and frozen hard.

Less than a minute.

It was frozen into a glistening ice sculpture and fell to the ground.

Then the largest ghost floated in front of its eyes, opened its body outwards like an open umbrella, and issued a huge suction force, sucking out the translucent octopus-shaped soul and sucking it into the body.

Close and digest for a moment.

It opened again and spurted out a soft, fist-sized little ghost.

Like a jellyfish giving birth to a baby.

It swung around twice, floated behind the big ghost's butt, and joined the group.

A strange light flashed in Dean's eyes, "A group of level 2 creatures actually preyed on a level 4 creature and transformed it into the same kind. The food chain in the mist world is very rich."

He muttered.

The group of ghosts noticed the movement and formed a circle like lightning, spinning in the air and rushing toward them.

The figure next to Dean raised his fingers.

The rotating ring hit an indestructible telepathy wall and was shattered into pieces, falling into the invisible telepathy shield.

Huhu——

The temperature rises rapidly.

The fog was torn apart by raging flames, and hundreds of football-sized fireballs floated outside the shield, aiming downwards like a bomb.

The ghosts felt the scorching threat of the flames. The mice shrank inwards like cats and lay on the ground without moving.

……

"Barty, go have a talk with their leader." Dean said to the ghost in front of him, "Give Martha to me. I will keep them alive for the time being, otherwise they will turn into ashes."

Barty hurriedly flew over and circled the leader several times, his body changing into several forms like plasticine, communicating in their own unique way.

The huge ghost glanced at Dean from a distance with a fearful look, and then turned around, and a petite ghost flew out of the group.

His small black eyes were full of confusion. It seemed that because he had been transformed for too short a time, his memory as a human had not yet been fully recovered?

Dean waved from a distance and moved the little ghost into his palm.

Soft, light and weighs almost nothing.

It looks and feels like a little jellyfish, just stupid.

Dean gently peeled off a piece of liquid from her body and put it into his mouth to start licking the memory. Childhood scenes about Bridgetown, Mrs. Medina, Billy, Wanda, etc. came to his mind.

"Yes, this is Martha."

One night a month ago, Martha was waiting for the lake monster by the lake. As a result, she was attacked by the mist ghost, and her soul was sucked away and transformed into the same kind.

"Don't be afraid, Martha, I will take you to meet your best friend, Dan Lan."

Dean said a few words to the shadow hovering in the mist in the distance, asking it to continue to watch over these ghosts.

Then he took Sean and Martha to open the space node in front of him and jumped out of the node leading to the lake monster two kilometers away.

……

Two figures suddenly appeared in the cold long lake. The one on the left raised his hand and released a small white ghost.

"Dianlan, I brought Martha here as promised."

A humming sound came from the bottom of the lake, and a large piece of transparent water condensed into a lake monster with a turtle's back and a snake's neck.

It moved towards the little ghost as fast as lightning and circled around a few times, staring at the other person unblinkingly.

The size is not as big as one of its eyes.

Moreover, her soft and white appearance bears no resemblance to the porcelain doll-like Martha in her memory.

But when the lake monster looks at it, that sense of familiarity and tacit understanding from the soul arises spontaneously.

Woohoo!

The lake monster screamed happily, stretched out its chubby tongue and licked the little ghost.

The latter's whole body was agitated, and his chaotic memory seemed to be revived. His black eyes the size of rice grains stared at the familiar big man in front of him, showing a look of joy, and then he spread out his body and pressed close to the lake monster's nose.

Two weird figures, one big and one small, were making a buzzing sound, and started to play in circles in the water.

The dark atmosphere of Long Lake became cheerful, and the cold lake water also gained a touch of warmth.

Dean in the telekinesis shield stared at this scene with pleased eyes, but Sean next to him had a complicated expression. He only felt that his companions were more patient and tolerant towards monsters and aliens than they were towards humans.

At this moment, the progress of blood on the lake in the system jumped to 100%.

"Danlan, I have bad news for you." Two minutes later, Dean couldn't bear to interrupt this beautiful scene. "Martha can't leave the fog for too long. She must return to the lake immediately, otherwise she will die. "

"No... don't leave..." The lake monster rushed to Dean, and arched its big, slippery head in his arms, "Help me... our companions will not be separated... and we will always be together with Martha..."

"Sorry, there's nothing I can do this time."

"Help me... please... I'll give you anything..."

Are you willing to do anything?

Dean's eyes narrowed, thinking of the scene where he just encountered the ghost group hunting the mist octopus, and he hesitated to transmit the message through his mind.

"Even if you leave your favorite Changhu Lake, enter a completely unfamiliar world, change your fragile body, and live a life of fear, are you willing?"

……

The lake monster twisted its slender neck, looked behind its butt and played with its little ghost of colorful tail feathers. His eyes were full of nostalgia, "As long as I am with Martha, I am willing..."

"Turn your body into water, become smaller, and follow me."

Dean slowly opened the space rift in front of his eyes, and returned to the ghost group with Sean, Martha's ghost, and the lake monster.

(End of this chapter)