Mystery: Big Alarm Clock Ghroth Path

Chapter 216: Outnumbered and Enemy
Roger looked at the dozens of ghosts in front of him with an extremely solemn expression.

These ghosts are either wrapped in wind and lightning, or flashing with a faint golden light. Some are not in a pure spiritual state, but are attached with strands of exposed muscles without skin.

Those exposed muscles are not in a completely static state. Instead, they are constantly wriggling and proliferating. At first glance, they seem to have independent consciousness.

There are also many spirits whose whereabouts cannot be seen from the outside, but even just a glance at them makes Roger have a premonition of great danger.

"'Sailor', 'Singer', 'Secret Prayer'... and so on."

Roger quickly identified the path that several of them were taking, but when he saw the extraordinary person who attacked him first in the light of lightning, he was slightly stunned.

Because although it was not very obvious, there was indeed a strange symbol on the handle of the knife on the middle-aged man's waist.

It was a pattern of a scimitar divided into three shadows, which seemed to symbolize the afterimage formed by the knife when it was chopped down rapidly.

And Roger had seen this pattern once before!
It was the same mark at the top of the "Wild Blade" crew rules notice that he happened to see.

Roger didn't think too much about it at the time, but now considering the name "Wild Blade", it might be a unique symbol that symbolizes this ship!

You know, when Roger used "Secret Insight" to see the past information about the crew of the "Wild Blade", he did not see similar marks on them.

Considering that the sword looked quite valuable, Roger concluded that it was most likely the sword of Borno Stone IV, the captain of the "Wild Blade"!

"It seems Borno has successfully found Obnis and been promoted to 'Ocean Singer'... If that's the case, why did he become like this?"

But Roger had no time to think about those things at this moment, because he suddenly saw Borno Stone put away the longbow that was flashing with arcs of electricity in his hand and started singing!
The song didn't sound bad at first, but it unexpectedly made him a little irritated, as if it contained some magical power that could directly affect the spirit and make people's emotions out of control.

Under the influence of this song, the spirits who originally did not show any obvious desire to attack suddenly became crazy.

One of them, the "Rose Bishop" who was surrounded by flesh and blood, took the lead in attacking. His whole body exploded and turned into a barrage of flesh and blood like a rainstorm and flew towards Roger!

Roger reacted extremely quickly, his eyes suddenly becoming as cloudy as glass.

Using the "duckling's" ability to control inanimate objects, Roger dragged the two nearest stacked wooden boxes over and placed them in front of himself.

Then, he immediately heard a sudden crash like a heavy rain on the back of the wooden box. However, before he could catch his breath, another magnificent and pure blazing beam of light descended from the sky, completely enveloping Roger.

As the light column suddenly erupted with terrifying heat, Roger's figure disappeared.

Just when the spirits thought Roger was killed, he landed lightly behind the "Priest of Light" who opened his arms as if embracing the sun, with his upper and lower jaws at a strange angle, and made a sharp explosion into his ear!

It was a "mental boost" mixed with the "high-pitched singing" technique that could directly damage the soul. With the blessing of the Sequence 5 Beyonder ability, it caused the spirit's head to explode in an instant!
With a flash of dazzling light, the "Priest of Light" disappeared.

"Kill one..."

However, when Roger was about to use his remaining spiritual power to release the "Secret Insight" and find out its source, he saw three consecutive arrows flashing with lightning flying towards him.

His eyes turned cold, and he temporarily gave up on the "secret insight" and instead used the "parasitic gloves" to steal a long distance and flashed in front of Borno Stone.

"Ability Steal!"

In an instant, he stole Borno's "Lightning Strike" ability.

The next second, with Roger as the center, a bright silver-white electric light flashed and instantly turned into countless tiny electric snakes.

These electric snakes slithered swiftly around him, instantly burning the souls of three Beyonders who seemed to be only at the Sequence 8 level and had no time to dodge.

This lightning also forced back two extraordinary spirits who were trying to use their "psychological invisibility" ability to get close to Roger and wait for an opportunity to attack.

In fact, they had tried using "Shock" and "Frenzy" on Roger earlier, but it had no effect.

"Lightning Strike" has a damage bonus to undead creatures just like "Holy Light", which is just right to use at this time.

Even Borno, who had no time to react, was struck by the lightning, but he survived thanks to his special resistance to lightning.

Roger was about to release a "mental boost" at close range, but suddenly stopped and stretched out his left hand wearing the "parasitic glove".

He "saw through" the secret of the current scene!
Sure enough, almost in the next breath, the three "Rose Bishops" quickly emerged from the darkness with the protection of the "Flesh and Blood Shield".

They transformed their arms into sharp swords and stabbed at Roger like lightning!

But before they could stab Roger, they all felt that the distance between themselves and Roger was getting farther, as if they were thrown away by some strange force.

At the same time, three explosive bombs made of flesh and blood chased up and stuck to the chests of the three "Rose Bishops".

As they watched in horror, the three flesh and blood bombs rapidly changed their shapes, and then each grew a mouth.

As three explosions intertwined in the air, the flesh and blood attached to the "Rose Bishop" with their spirits as the core also quickly collapsed and fell.

Immediately afterwards, the flesh and blood began to wriggle rapidly and crawled towards the rusty metal box.

This scene was naturally seen by Roger.

His mind moved slightly, and he quickly estimated the number of remaining extraordinary souls, and then made a move that was beyond the expectations of all his opponents.

Roger did not continue to pursue Borno Stone IV who retreated in the chaos, but pointed his right hand at the largest group of fleeing flesh and blood.

"Crackling" sounds rang out all around, and under the illumination of electric light around Roger, many inanimate objects, including pieces of wood, wine bottles and water, quickly rushed towards the mass of flesh and blood.

Borno seemed to realize what Roger was going to do. He roared and rushed towards Roger as fast as a gust of wind.

The remaining twenty or so extraordinary souls made the same move, as if Roger's pursuit of those flesh and blood seemed to have triggered some kind of defensive instinct in them.

But Roger did not give them the chance to interfere with him. He threw an enhanced version of the "Sound of the Celestial Bodies" spell towards three different angles in the air as if it were free!
"Celestial body!"

As Roger's high-pitched and distorted voice sounded, a deafening roar suddenly rang out in the huge warehouse!
This formed a triple interwoven roar that instantly killed the souls of several Beyonders of Sequence 8 and below, while temporarily making the souls of Beyonders above Sequence 8 lose their combat capabilities.

Taking advantage of this moment, Roger clenched his right fist, and a large mass of inanimate objects immediately wrapped the fleeing flesh and blood tightly into a ball, preventing it from trying to escape towards the metal box.

The sphere floated up and flew into Roger's hand like lightning.

As the shell of the inanimate matter lost the control of the "duckling" and peeled off, the ball of flesh and blood appeared in Roger's hands.

It felt the terrifying pressure from Roger, and for a moment it seemed paralyzed and dared not move.

At this moment, the souls of more than a dozen extraordinary people including Borno came back to their senses and attacked Roger at the same time.

But Roger, who had already entered the "Secret Insight" perspective with the help of the flesh and blood that seemed to come from the metal box, raised his head and looked at them indifferently.

At this moment, in the eyes of this "leaker", there was an invisible line above the heads of all the spirits connected to the strange metal box, as if they were being controlled by it.

In an instant, a light seemed to light up in the depths of Roger's originally dark pupils.

"Leak!"

As Roger silently chanted, all the spirits flying towards him screamed at the same time!
From his perspective, the moment he initiated the "leak", many of the "lines" that existed at the secret level were instantly broken, and even the relatively "thick" lines became much thinner.

The majority of the remaining spirits, those below Sequence 6, all disappeared, leaving only a few Beyonder souls, including Borno, who were holding their heads, rolling on the ground like possessed, and banging their foreheads against the ground.

"really."

Roger breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, he had basically understood the function of the strange box.

Roger once again activated the "High Voice Singing" and used the "Twilight" rules contained in the second movement of the "Dawn Quartet" to defeat the remaining extremely weak extraordinary souls.

But Roger was reserved when doing so, and did not completely eliminate these souls. Instead, he watched them turn into gray streams of light and escape into the box again.

After doing this, he quickly stepped forward, put his hand on Reeves, who looked extremely bad, and then looked at the area where the latter's back touched the box.

"It's not bad. I arrived in time. Only the clothes and some of the superficial muscles were absorbed."

Roger breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately separated a lot of his flesh and blood, gave part to Reeves, and gave the other part to the box.

During this process, Roger carefully controlled the amount of flesh and blood he separated and the details of its formation, and finally successfully pulled Reeves off the box after about half a minute.

He looked at the strange box with lingering fear and took a deep breath.

"This thing is really dangerous."

Roger used the "Box of the Old Ones" to quickly replace the space where the box was located and stored it in the first-level space.

The moment he finished this, the extremely unsettling atmosphere in the entire ship disappeared instantly, as if something extremely terrifying had left.

Roger clapped his hands, and several wickless lamps on the top of the warehouse suddenly lit up.

"It seems there is no problem."

He let out a long sigh and used the flesh and blood magic of the "Rose Bishop" to drag Reeves towards the upper cabin.

About ten minutes later, Roger and Reeves returned to the captain's room again.

The captain's cabin was in a mess, as if a battle had broken out. Thor sat behind a pile of books and notes, panting, looking frightened.

"what happened?"

Roger saw his expression and immediately asked, "John."

Thor was startled by the sound of the door opening, but when he saw that it was Roger holding Reeves, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just now, when I was reading the log, the light suddenly went out, and no matter how much I clapped my hands, it would not come on anymore.

"At the same time, I saw two eyeless people appear in the corner... This reminded me of the scene when Reeves disappeared earlier. Without hesitation, I activated the spell you gave me earlier.

“Then the spell… made a very loud roar, which scared me.

"But when I came to my senses, the lights had come back on and the two men had disappeared."

After listening to Thor's story, Roger nodded and then put Reeves on the sofa in the captain's room.

"Is he okay?"

Thor looked at Reeves with concern and asked.

"It's no big deal. Give me the logbook first, and then help me wake up Uncle Reeves."

After hearing Roger's words, Thor rummaged around and handed two parchment-covered books to Roger.

“These are both books. The one above records the most recent events.

"I think there's something here that concerns you."

Roger hummed, and began to flip through the diary quickly.

This log was written alternately in Feysac and Loen. The front part contained daily sailing events, ranging from the big things like the weather the "Wild Blade" encountered, which ships it plundered, how many people died, what spoils it obtained, etc., to the small details like which crew members had conflicts with local people due to being drunk or having fun. Everything was recorded clearly.

According to the description in this log, the pirate gang centered around Borno had not just one ship, but three, but the "Wild Blade" was the largest flagship among them.

Unlike Borno's appearance, his handwriting was neat and beautiful, which made it basically easy for Roger to read. He flipped through nearly two months' worth of content in one go.

Soon, Roger's eyes lit up and his attention was attracted by a line of words.

"On October 6th, the 'Wild Blade' finally managed to escape the encirclement of those bastard Loen people, but we also lost the 'Red Shark' in the process of escaping.

"I don't know what happened to the Tide Gyre. They seemed to be heading towards the White Whale Sea when they broke out. I have to find them later.

"These damn bastards, I will make them pay the price!
“But fortunately, I finally got a clue about Obnis, and the information I bought at the tavern in Damir Port today also confirmed this.

"I can't wait until tomorrow. I want to find Obnis as soon as possible, become the 'Ocean Singer', and then find an opportunity to take revenge on those Loen people."

October 6th...matches the time Uncle Reeves gave.

Roger nodded slightly, then flipped through a few more pages, skipped over the unimportant information, and stopped again.

“On October 20th, after nearly half a month of sailing, I finally found Obnis’s trace.

“Although this is far from the location the tavern owner mentioned…but the general direction is correct.

"Looks like I'm pretty lucky."

……

"On October 25th, I became the 'Singer of the Sea'!

“This is the best thing that has happened in the last two years.

"I feel like I've always been incredibly unlucky... ever since I was a kid, to the point where no one would believe my father was actually a viscount—one truly awarded for merit!

"After all, Qilingos, who is also a Sequence 6, had already become a pirate general, and his fleet was much larger than mine... But he's dead now. What does that mean? Did obtaining that powerful Beyonder Item use up all his luck?
"...I accidentally wrote too much. What I really want to say is that when I was in Obnis's belly, I heard some vague sounds of marine life. Among these sounds, one sound stood out.

"He said he was a powerful Sequence 4 Beyonder of the Sailor Path, but unfortunately, he died in the depths of the ocean a hundred years ago.

"Oh my god, Sequence 4, that's a demigod!

“That demigod invited me to find his remains, inherit his extraordinary characteristics, and help him avenge his death.

"Just after becoming the 'Ocean Singer', I have the opportunity to become a demigod. It seems my luck has really improved...

"I have decided to set out tomorrow to look for the remains of that Saint."

Roger frowned slightly. He had to admit that the text recorded by Borno was quite strange.

The sound he heard was indeed too strange... because as far as Roger knew, Obnis's stomach had excellent sound insulation, so even if he could hear people talking outside, he couldn't hear too much detail.

But Borno not only heard a demigod talking to him, he even heard the other party inviting him... This was most likely not a sound at all, but a communication at the soul level.

Normally, Borno would have kept his distance from this voice, after all, he knew nothing.

For a pirate captain, caution is a necessary quality, so as to ensure the survival of himself and his men.

But from the logbook, it can be seen that he was easily deceived by the so-called saint.

This may be because Borno had just lost a ship in the fleet, so his mentality was somewhat unbalanced.

Of course, it is also possible that it has been secretly contaminated.

Roger continued to flip forward and saw Borno's next words on the next page.

"On November 1st, I finally found the remains of the demigod in a shipwreck!

"It took quite a while... The weather in that sea was too terrible, but thankfully I've become the 'Ocean Singer', so I was able to bring it back safely."

“It’s contained in a rather ancient metal box that looks like a coffin… I haven’t dared to open the coffin yet, after all, it contains the remains of a saint.

“One strange thing is that the demigod said he died over a hundred years ago, but the shipwreck I found is definitely no more than fifty years old.

"Forget it, forget about it for now. At least I got it."

really……

Roger had basically confirmed his guess, and he turned to the last page of his notes.

“November 4th, it was horrible.

"I dare say there is definitely something wrong with that metal box.

“It ate Derby and Sherman!
"Not only that, the Wild Blade has started to be haunted, and many people have died in their sleep.

"Last night before I went to sleep, I encountered a Beyonder soul that I suspected to be from the 'Singer' path, who attacked me!

“I feel it calling me… No, we must return to Damir Harbor before things get out of control.

“That’s the nearest port… Considering the bad weather, I’m not sure if I can get back.

"I have never prayed for the protection of the Lord of Storms, but now I pray to you. I am willing to atone for my sins... No, no matter which god it is, anyone will do. Please save me."

When Roger saw this, he completely understood what had happened.

November 4th was only two or three days away from the time Reeves said the "Wild Blade" would return to the west coast of Damir Island.

Therefore, it can be basically confirmed that Borno forced the ship back to the west coast of Damir Island out of great fear.

However, just when he wanted to turn around from the north of the island and head south again to Port Damir, the "box" suddenly went berserk as if it had foreseen something.

A most serious extraordinary incident thus broke out, claiming the lives of all the crew members of the "Wild Blade", including Borno.

And the so-called coffin containing the saint's remains is also very unusual.

According to Roger's deduction, the original owner of the remains most likely lived in the late Quaternary Period to the early Fifth Period, and was an extraordinary person who jumped from a "shepherd" to a "disaster priest".

But either he was already quite polluted, or something went wrong during his promotion.

In short, this Beyonder eventually lost control, and his remains were considered ominous, sealed in a box and thrown into the depths of the sea.

But for some unknown reason, the seal had a problem. Over the next hundreds and thousands of years, the box continued to attract "secret prayers," "sailors," and even extraordinary people from neighboring paths to approach, salvage them, devour their flesh and blood, and enslave their souls.

Perhaps because it devoured several "shepherds" in the middle, the soul capacity of this box has increased, but it is also constantly refining and eliminating the souls of some extraordinary people from non-adjacent paths, only retaining and absorbing their flesh and blood.

This has caused the power of this box to continue to expand over the past millennia, becoming close to the level of Sequence 3. On the other hand, the "Disaster Priest" Beyonder characteristic left in this box also affects the surrounding weather, which is why thunderstorms and heavy rain occur wherever it goes.

There are two reasons why Roger was able to discover that the box seemed to be alive and might have aggregated the abilities of multiple "shepherds".

The first is that it showed the characteristics of the "Shepherd" who enslaves souls, but Roger did not see the "Shepherd" in the battle, but only saw the lower-level "Rose Bishop".

Secondly, this thing is not only centered around flesh and blood, it also seems to have an unusual obsession with flesh and blood... or in other words, it's stingy.

Otherwise, it would not have distributed the flesh and blood stored inside it to the three "Rose Bishops" and waited until they were killed before absorbing the flesh and blood back.

Even when Roger tried to stop the absorption process, it still manipulated all the spirits to stop him!

(End of this chapter)