From the Ship of Fools to Earl of Wugang

Edmund's appearance once again gave him an advantage, and after successfully hitchhiking several times, he arrived at his destination—Eagle Harbor City.

The city, located north of Flamingo, had a rather respectable name, but once Edmund arrived, he quickly discovered that it was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

The impressive Bayview City boasts a beautiful seaside promenade, while the warm Flamingo City shops keep their windows spotless.

Even in Liugang Town, people try their best to maintain a semblance of decorum with signs, streetlights, and newspaper stands.

Eagle Harbor doesn't have that kind of leisure; it prefers to be a hodgepodge of warehouses, fishing inns, laborers' taverns, and low-rise inns crammed together.

This is exactly where Edmund needs it.

At this moment, he deliberately messed up his hair, dragged his travel bag into a small inn near the dock, and casually gave the name "Aaron Grey" to stay.

The proprietress, who had her head covered with a blue cloth, didn't even ask him to repeat the spelling of his name. She simply wrote a line on the ledger, clearly used to this kind of customer.

After closing the door, Edmund checked the area under the bed, the window frame, and the door lock of the room, which faced a flooded alley. Only after confirming that everything was in order did he put down his travel bag.

He reorganized the important documents and stuffed them into a gap between the bed frame and the wall that was not easily noticed.

After packing his luggage, he clipped the M10 revolver to the inside of his jacket.

After doing all this, Edmund sat on the edge of the bed and went over the post from "The Alchemist's Cauldron" in his memory again.

It was an inconspicuous comment in the materials market section. The poster only used the words, "[Eagle Harbor Tidal Night, the tide knows when the goods will arrive on shore.]" and a string of deliberately mysterious phrases.

Edmund waited in his room until the sun was slightly lower in the sky before changing into an even more inconspicuous old coat and leaving the inn.

He first went to two labor taverns.

As soon as he pushed open the door of the first tavern, he could see that it was too crowded. Sailors and dockworkers were crammed around wooden tables drinking cheap beer, and no one wanted to talk to a young man from out of town.

The second tavern seemed more suitable. Edmund ordered a drink from the bartender, whose arm muscles were almost bursting out of his sleeves, and left an extra bill.

With a coded message, he successfully obtained more information.

After finishing his awful beer, Edmund circled the harbor a few more times, observing who began to quietly move northwards from the city after dusk.

They were relatively easy to recognize; they weren't as noisy as ordinary sailors, nor as tired as dockworkers.

Edmund noted the direction these lone men, carrying ordinary-looking boxes or canvas bags, were heading, and then circled around to higher ground from another street.

As evening fell, he stood beside an abandoned clock tower, looking out over the warehouse district on the edge of the city.

The tide is receding, revealing black reefs emerging from beneath the grey-blue sea, like the forgotten skeletons of a civilization older than the city.

The lights in the warehouse area twinkled, and the distant whistles of cargo ships were quickly dispersed by the wind.

As night fell completely, Edmund circled around to the outskirts of the warehouse district.

Most of the streetlights there were broken, and the few remaining ones barely emitted a dim yellow light. Near an iron gate close to the rocky beach, two people wearing waterproof cloaks leaned against the wall smoking.

Edmund slowed his pace, and one of them looked up: "We've taken the wrong turn."

"Excuse me, I'd like to ask about the tide line."

The man exhaled smoke: "Where will the tide recede tonight?"

Edmund answered without hesitation: "Two cables."

The other gatekeeper chuckled and, with the elegance of a sailor, gestured for him to come in.

Edmund went through the iron gate and walked forward along a narrow passage.

Stepping out from behind the warehouse, the scene before me changed abruptly. The rocky beach after the tide receded and several abandoned shipyards were connected by temporary wooden planks, with tarpaulins, old fishing nets, and canvas hanging on iron frames, creating makeshift stalls.

The kerosene lamps and covered electric lamps hung high up, the light just enough to illuminate everyone's face.

The transactions here are clearly more direct and extensive than those at the Natural History Club.

Ore in lead boxes, materials wrapped in oiled paper, amulets without provenance, all sorts of junk... haggling and disputes took place here briefly, quickly, and continuously. Everyone understood that those who could enter this place were not necessarily reliable, and those who could sell things were not necessarily willing to keep their promises.

Edmund walked slowly along the stall, his gaze lingering on objects that might trigger his informational horizons.

Soon, glowing text began to appear.

[Red Brilliant Copper Ore Residue: Mineral residue left after red brilliant copper ore has been quenched. This material, often used by alchemists for heating arrays, is now extremely rare...]

[Damaged Amulet: Once belonged to a sailor who frequently sailed the Heartbreak Sea route. The protective runes on the surface are broken, but the remaining parts can still interfere with the approach of low-level Nightmares...]

……

Edmondo glanced at the counterfeit document stall located between the two materials shops, but didn't approach it for the time being.

His main objective tonight was the identification documents, but he couldn't reveal his intentions too easily. Besides, the market offered a wide variety of choices, and although he didn't have much money, it wouldn't stop him from broadening his horizons.

Besides, didn't the protagonists in novels in my previous life always manage to snag some classic gems?

He continued walking and soon stopped in front of a strange stall.

The stall displayed more than a dozen enormous seashells, each four or five times the size of an adult's palm. The seashells were bound with black waxed thread and had numbered tags attached.

The stall owner was a short man wearing a felt hat, and the pipe in his mouth made his words sound somewhat strained: "Picking up shells?"

"What's inside?"

"Good stuff," the stall owner replied readily.

Edmund thought this person would be perfect for working at a tourist attraction from his previous life: "How perfect?"

"It depends on luck. Some people have gotten Siren Scales, while others have gotten junk. Just so you know, no refunds or exchanges, and no smashing things up on the spot."

Edmund casually touched a seashell and quickly discovered that his spiritual perception could not penetrate the shell's interior.

[Closed-shell clams: Special clams salvaged from the seabed, whose contents have been removed and refilled. The shell can conceal the spiritual energy of the contents within a certain range; this concealment effect dissipates quickly after the shell is opened.]

This stuff doesn't necessarily yield good items, but the shells themselves do have an exceptional concealing effect. The vendor is probably using this to make a blind-selection business.

Edmund picked and chose, finally selecting two shells that elicited slightly different responses in the information flow.

The stall owner quoted a rather high price. Edmund cut it down by a third, and the stall owner cursed him as a "poor out-of-towner" before taking the money.

The latter carried two seashells and went around to the shadows behind an abandoned warehouse, where he used the knife the stall owner had given him to pry open the waxed thread.

The first shell contained a ring with teeth set into its face and irregular symbols engraved on its edges.

【Tooth-swallowing ring】

[Some low-grade amulets in coastal folk witchcraft require the use of the teeth of the deceased during their creation, so that the wearer will temporarily possess a spiritual aura as if "tasted by the dead."]

[It can mislead lower-level undead and nightmares to some extent, but long-term use can lead to recurring tooth loss in dreams and severe gum bleeding.]

Side effects may be waived.

Edmund raised an eyebrow and wrapped the ring in his handkerchief.

This thing sounds disgusting, but it's actually useful. At least in the hands of someone who frequently deals with things like the Dream Realm, Sea Corpse Spirits, and the Undead, its value should be higher than the stall owner expects.

The second shell contained a dagger.

The dagger's hilt was plated with gold, and the inlaid glass beads were rather cloudy, giving it an overall cheap appearance. It was more like a ceremonial item for a small group than a weapon actually suitable for combat.

[Inferior Ritual Dagger]

[It has been used in rituals by some peripheral members of the Abyss Cult, and has a mild stimulating and slowing effect on lower spiritual beings. Its decorative value outweighs its practical value.]