Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 202 Philemon's Bell
When Roger came to his senses again, he was already in a strange and alien space.

All kinds of strange and bizarre colors are constantly emerging and disappearing in this space, and these wonderful scenes seem to be completely born out of fantasy.

Here, all concepts of direction and boundaries are blurred. Here, there are whispers, thoughts and obsessions that exist and yet do not exist.

These whispers, thoughts and obsessions are as vague and illusory as some concepts. Although they can be perceived, they will eventually disappear like the colors that appear and disappear without reason.

"Is this... the spirit world?"

Roger suddenly realized that this scene had been shown in the notes and paintings of many ancestors and pioneers of the Abraham family!

Unlike the special spiritual space covered with a desert of bones that he had previously developed a mystical connection with due to his contract with the "Rat of De La Hoya", this is the normal space in the general sense that occupies a large proportion in the spiritual world!
"The source of the bell I touched just now should be 'Philemon's Bell'. It seems that thing is hung behind the door of the Bartley family warehouse.

"This must be a trap... Without a specific command or prerequisites being triggered, 'Philemon's Bell' will automatically banish intruders to the spirit world.

"If I didn't have authority related to the spiritual world, I would be completely trapped here."

On the other hand, it seems that this kind of exile is of little use to Beyonders on the "Apprentice" path or those who have mastered the corresponding seals - they should definitely be able to use the corresponding power to return to the real world.

However, in Roger's opinion, things are definitely not that simple.

After all, the Bartley family and the "Mechanical Heart" deliberately set up such a trap, and they certainly couldn't let the "victim" escape easily.

Sure enough, before Roger could take out the magical item on him, he suddenly felt something strange in the space around him.

It was a sense of existence that appeared out of nowhere in the infinite nothingness of the spiritual world.

At this moment, due to the fluctuations in the surrounding space, Roger once again had a clear sense of direction, but he also noticed an invisible pressure appearing around him.

In a very short period of time, this pressure went from a moderate state to an extremely strong state, just like a pressurized container being filled with gas, squeezing Roger's body in all directions and restricting his movements.

At this moment, Roger felt as if he had fallen into a pool of rapidly solidifying concrete. Not only was it extremely difficult for him to move, but his strength was also rapidly draining away.

"Made."

Roger cursed inwardly, now he understood everything completely.

"Philemon's Bell" is just an introduction. In this special area of the spiritual world, the "Invisible Cube" constructed by some other seal that can control the activities of intruders and squeeze them to death is the real killer!

"How sinister... But then again, I checked my fortune when I opened the door, and it didn't show any signs of getting worse."

At this moment, Roger could no longer use the "Traveler's Dice" to escape.

Not to mention that the coordinates of the Bartley family's old house are not on the "Traveler's Dice". Considering the traps set here, there is a high probability that there are other mechanisms that can affect or even confuse the "Traveler's" abilities.

"There's nothing else I can do. I can only use the power of 'Oneness of All Things' to return to reality..."

In a hurry, Roger closed his eyes and prepared to activate the extraordinary pollution power in his body.

But before he could make any further move, he suddenly felt a loosening in the space around him, as if an external object had suddenly broken into this dense and abnormal space.

The next second, Roger felt something soft and delicate brushing across his face, arms and body.

This made Roger's vision go dark, as if his face was covered by some kind of veil.

This gentle feeling suddenly became tense, and a huge force was exerted on him.

But Roger did not feel any sense of danger from it, instead he felt a sense of security.

He stopped unleashing the power of "Oneness of All Things" and instead allowed that immense force to instantly pull him out of that dangerous strangling space.

When Roger left, he even clearly heard some crisp breaking sounds, as if a crack had appeared in that space.

As the concept of direction once again switched between vague and clear, the gentleness that enveloped Roger's face also dissipated.

Roger immediately saw the familiar foggy sky and the desert made of bone fragments under his feet.

However, when he turned his head and looked in the direction where the soft feeling faded, he was suddenly stunned by the scene before him.

A terrifying "De La Hoya Rat" over 15 stories tall was seen slumped on the ground, holding a disassembled silk bag in its hand.

At its feet, there was a pile of various nuts as high as a hill.

Roger had seen some of these species before, but some were rather strange, and it was obvious that they were not from the Northern Continent, and might not even be from Earth at all.

It seemed that the nuts were scattered all over the floor because the silk bag was opened.

This made the huge "De La Hoya Rat" look depressed and aggrieved.

The man and the mouse were silent for a few seconds, and then the furry "mountain" suddenly stretched out one of its furry front paws, turned its palm up, and pointed it at Roger.

At the same time, its blood-red eyes flickered slightly, as if there was some kind of expectation.

"what?"

Roger was slightly stunned. He didn't react to the other party's intention for a moment.

The De La Hoya Rat sighed softly, then spoke with a hiss so sharp and resounding that the ground around it vibrated.
"I should have told you..."

"Told me... Ooooh!"

Roger quickly covered his ears before he reacted.

He recalled the "De La Hoya Rats" and what he had said: although all the "De La Hoya Rats" have their own uniqueness, they essentially belong to the same macro-consciousness.

It also said that Roger could not see the origin, but he was very likely to see his superior unit!

And now, it should be the time for the two parties to meet as it said.

Roger took out a bunch of nuts that he had prepared in advance, which were of a different variety from the previous ones, and tentatively made a "5" gesture to the giant pika in front of him.

The De La Hoya Giant Rat nodded slightly in confirmation.

This made Roger breathe a sigh of relief. He quickly picked out five nuts of excellent quality, presented them with both hands with great respect, and placed them in the palm of the "De La Hoya Giant Rat".

At the same time, he quickly judged the opponent's strength and status.

"Angel? Not quite... but it should be at least a Sequence 4 creature with divine power...

"But then again, does this count as asking for help from me, Big Boss?"

After delivering the nuts, Roger tried hard to suppress the chaotic thoughts in his mind and spoke again carefully:
"Could you please take me back to where I came from..."

But before he could finish his words, he saw the "De La Hoya Giant Rat" throw away the silk bag that had not yet been packed again, as if it had been prepared.

The cloth bag suddenly created a howling gale.

The strong wind blew onto Roger, picked him up, and threw him in a certain direction in an instant.

Over the next half minute, Roger felt as if he had penetrated numerous barriers and crossed numerous invisible boundaries. When his vision freed itself from the dazzling brilliance and became clear again, he found himself lying in the deepest recesses of the Bartley family's dimly lit warehouse.

"call……"

He let out a long sigh, tidied up his messy hair and clothes, and praised the "De La Hoya Giant Rat" for its friendly rescue in his mind. Then he stood up and patted the dust off his trouser legs.

The Bartley family's warehouse was very dark, but Roger could get a general idea of the surrounding environment.

There were a lot of sundries, books, antiques, and a small number of things that were suspected to be low- to medium-sequence sealed objects.

In order to avoid triggering any trap again, Roger wisely did not linger on those things. Instead, he quickly walked behind the iron gate and looked up at the golden bell above.

The bell looked like a rattle, and its material was obviously made of copper and gilt.

Its shape has a distinct Quaternary style, and the top of the crank is connected to an Abraham family crest inlaid with various small gemstones.

"Sure enough, just as I thought, Philemon should also be a member of Abraham's family..."

Roger took a deep breath, stretched out his left hand wearing the "parasitic glove", and temporarily stole the ability of "Philemon's Bell" to make sound.

After doing this, he carefully tiptoed, cut the rope connecting the bell, and took it down.

The moment the bell was taken down, the atmosphere in the entire warehouse changed, as if a seal with "Philemon's Bell" as the key node had been lifted.

"That should be fine."

Roger did not stay any longer, but put on "Benjamin's gloves", walked through the heavy metal door, and walked out.

Seeing Vivian, who was still controlled by Sharon, appear in front of them, Roger and the other party were obviously relieved.

The two nodded slightly to each other, and Vivian also lay down on the ground.

After a moment, Sharon stood up from her body and then disappeared into the darkness again.

At the same time, Roger heard the sounds of running and shouting outside. It seemed that the two guards who had been led away by Klein earlier realized that something was wrong and turned back.

He smiled faintly, and then once again transformed into a pool of black slime, quickly flowing towards the drain...

Half an hour later, Roger and Sharon met Klein Moretti again at the dock. His hair was disheveled and his back was slightly charred, as if it had been burned by flames.

"How did you get into this situation?"

Roger asked, somewhat surprised.

"I became a deacon of the Mechanical Heart, and then used your abilities recorded in John's Magic Book to influence the minds of two guards and lead them into the jungle.

"But as the magic weakened, one of them quickly recovered and attacked me."

Klein then recounted how he had used the dense forest as cover to fight two opponents at once, delaying them for quite some time. He also casually complained about the mysterious and unpredictable magical items carried by the Beyonders of the "God of Steam and Machinery" Church.

"...In the end, the forest was set on fire. While those two were putting out the fire, I took the opportunity to escape." After listening, Roger patted Klein on the shoulder.

"Thank you for your hard work. The loss of your clothes is mine."

Klein didn't refuse. The three of them each disguised themselves, blended into the crowd again, boarded a passenger ship and returned to the other side of the river. After that, they immediately arrived at the train station in Ant Town.

Although it was already night, fortunately, there was one last train from Jianhai County back to Backlund that would stop at Ant Town.

So Roger, Klein, and Sharon seized the opportunity and bought tickets back to Backlund.

The only drawback was that all the first-class and first-class tickets were sold out, so they could only squeeze into the second-class carriage.

Fortunately, the journey was not far, so Roger and Klein did not suffer much.

But considering that there were traces of burns on Klein's clothes, Roger was still considerate enough to lend Klein his coat to cover the burnt marks on his back.

By the time they returned to the door of No. 15 Minsk Street, it was almost 12 o'clock.

After thanking Ms. Sharon and saying goodbye temporarily, the two returned home.

Brothers Alister and Perseus had already returned to their rooms, leaving only Sam and Bandit, who had fallen asleep, waiting in the living room on the first floor for Roger and Crane to come home.

"Finally home."

When Bandit saw the two men coming back, he yawned, stretched himself, slowly walked up to them, and rubbed their trouser legs.

"Why, worried about us?"

Roger smiled as he took the coat Klein handed over and hung it on the hanger.

"Not really. After you left, I used the crystal ball to divine. The result showed that you would encounter some danger, but nothing would happen... As expected."

Bandit said as he glanced at the charred marks on Klein's back.

Roger smiled awkwardly and quickly changed the subject.

At this time, Sam heard the conversation between the two people and the cat, and slowly woke up.

Seeing Roger and Klein return safely, the boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cousin, Detective Moriarty, has the thing been found?"

"Ah."

Roger nodded, and then took out "Philemon's Bell" from his body.

At this time, the bell had returned to normal, but Roger had stuffed its interior with paper balls.

This is a precaution to prevent the bell from being triggered unconsciously.

"This is one of the seals of Abraham's family, Philemon's bell."

After hearing Roger's introduction, Sam was slightly stunned:
"Philemon? Philemon Abraham?"

"That should be the name."

Roger nodded, and then asked curiously:

"You know him?"

"Well, Philemon Abraham was a very famous 'recorder' at the junction of the Fourth and Fifth Ages. And according to my grandfather, Old Garlon, Philemon is our direct ancestor.

"According to records, Philemon's name was bestowed upon him by our ancestor Bethel himself... He indeed lost control and died shortly after being promoted to Sequence 5, but the records don't mention much about the Sealed Artifacts he left behind."

After listening to Sam's words, Roger nodded:
"If it's your grandfather's ancestor, then it should be mine too."

Previously, when he was in the Abraham family fortress, Roger knew that Garlon Abraham and Benjamin Abraham were cousins.

"Yes, that should be the case, our common ancestor." Sam nodded slightly, confirming Roger's statement.

"Wow, this bell is so beautiful."

Bandit was not listening to the conversation between Roger and Sam at all. It was attracted by the shiny gold bell in front of it.

But when it tried to reach out and touch the bell, it was immediately hit by Roger's paw.

"What are you doing?" The tabby cat was a little angry.

"Don't touch this thing until I figure out what's going on."

Roger's face was serious as he recounted to Klein, Bandit, and Sam all the details of the trap he encountered in the spirit world.

But he concealed the fact that he was rescued by the "De La Hoya Giant Rat".

After all, on the one hand, he was not sure whether the demigod-level creature would be willing to have his affairs leaked out, and on the other hand, Bandit had a feud with the "De La Hoya Rat" in the past.

In order to avoid adding unnecessary psychological burden to the tabby cat, Roger finally chose not to talk about it.

After hearing Roger's story, Bandit finally gave up the idea of touching the bell and even took two steps back, away from the bell.

Although it has the curious instinct of a cat, it is still very afraid of death, so it will never do anything rashly as long as its life is in danger.

Seeing Bandit's performance, Roger nodded with satisfaction.

Sam listened to this description with a frown on his face, and spoke uncertainly:
"Brother, that strange space in the spirit world you just mentioned reminds me of the abilities after the sequence of the 'Arbitrator' path.

"This path begins at Sequence 6, and one gains a judgment ability called 'Imprisonment,' which functions similarly to what you described.

"But if that's the case, considering your current strength has reached Sequence 5, I suspect the power level of the judgment space that seems to be 'imprisoning' is likely to have reached at least Sequence 4."

After hearing what Sam said, Roger agreed and replied:
"Your opinion is similar to mine, but I didn't find any seals at the scene that could indicate a high-ranking 'Arbitrator' path. So I suspect it was a trap set by the Bartley family in conjunction with some other forces, or perhaps the work of the Church of the 'God of Steam and Machinery'.

"Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that this is some legacy left by the early Tamara family. This needs further confirmation."

The marriage between the Abraham family, which controls the "Apprentice" path, and the Tamara family, which once controlled the "Arbitrator" path and finally switched to the "Apprentice" path, was common knowledge for family members like Roger and Sam who had a deep understanding of family history, so it was an instinctive reaction for Sam to think of this aspect first.

On the other hand, when Roger obtained the "Raziel's Star Compass", he saw the angel-level "Arbitrator" path seal "Law of Balance" in the Abraham family's fortress. This shows that the Abraham family's power system has indeed been highly integrated with the Tamara family's foundation.

Therefore, it is not uncommon for "Philemon's Bell" to be linked to a higher-level "imprisonment" space.

More importantly, how is this link achieved?

Roger couldn't figure it out for the time being, and he was already feeling quite tired.

Seeing that it was getting late, he found a quilt for Sam and asked him to stay in a guest bedroom at 15 Minsk Street for the night and return to Woston Gardens the next morning.

……

Time quickly came to morning.

Just after 8 o'clock, there was a knock on the door of No. 15 Minsk Street.

Roger went downstairs yawning, only to find Sam had already opened the door.

Standing at the door was Cecilia. The pale-skinned "gravedigger" breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that her brother was fine.

"Really? You stayed at your cousin's house without even telling me."

Faced with Cecilia's scolding, Sam scratched his head a little embarrassedly, explaining that he had forgotten and apologizing.

"It's my fault, it's my fault. I should have sent my messenger to bring you a message last night."

Roger, who saw this scene, was embarrassed and tried to smooth things over. In fact, if he had not been shocked too much by the superior unit of "De La Hoya's Rat" yesterday, he would not have subconsciously forgotten about it.

When she saw Roger appear, Cecilia stopped teaching Sam a lesson and greeted Roger.

"You two, do me a favor."

Roger glanced at Klein's door and whispered:
“Sam, go out and get us some breakfast, and Cecilia will join us.

"After Detective Moriarty wakes up, Cecilia, I'll take him to buy him some new clothes...

"Your clothing style is quite good. You can help me with some advice."

"Buy clothes?" Cecilia agreed at first, then asked curiously.

"Last night, Detective Moriarty accidentally set his clothes on fire because of me..."

Roger replied in a lower voice.

“…” Cecilia’s mouth twitched, but she didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, she entered No. 15 Minsk Street first.

After Klein got up and everyone finished breakfast, Cecilia followed Roger's instructions and dragged the detective out to buy clothes.

Sam followed Roger's instructions and stayed to supervise the twins' tutoring lessons.

At this time, Roger finally had time to sit down in his workshop and carefully study the "Philemon's Bell" he had just obtained yesterday.

Through the special ritual magic of the high-level "Key of the Door", Roger quickly figured out the origin of this Sequence 5 level extraordinary item.

Unlike the "Traveler's Dice", which can mark five fixed coordinates on five sides through a specific contract ritual, plus a random location in the spirit world on the sixth side, the "Philemon's Bell" can only teleport the user to one place.

And unlike the "Traveler's Dice" which has no cooldown period, the "Philemon's Bell" has a cooldown period of up to 48 hours after use.

But Roger was still pleasantly surprised to have gotten it.

Not for anything else, but simply because the place you can go to every 48 hours can be "anywhere known to the user, except the astral realm"!
(End of this chapter)