Lord of Mysteries: The Cultivator - Chapter 17
“Are you ready, children!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Too quiet…”
“YES, CAPTAIN!!”
“Wooo—”
“Stop making noise!” Captain Elland leaned on the railing, turned around, and laughed, scolding them. Quinn was pulling the children along, howling and wailing, which made it impossible for him to enjoy the tranquility after their narrow escape.
“By the way, it’s good that both of you are here.” Captain Elland rummaged in his coat pocket, took out two small black wooden boxes, and handed them to Gehrman and Quinn.
“Fish bladders. They can be used to make Sealed Artifacts and are very useful at sea.”
“Oh, why are you being so formal with a gift between friends…” Quinn said, but his movements were not slow as he tucked it into his tattered bishop’s robe.
It was true that he was very rich; the hundreds of thousands of Pounds in the bank were enough for him to live off his savings until the day he died.
But gifts given to him by others, which contained genuine emotion, were different; he always regarded them as priceless treasures.
Gehrman stared at the small wooden box for one second, then said: “I didn’t save you for a reward.”
Elland chuckled: “I’m not giving you this thing for your rescue, either.”
“Ho ho ho…” Quinn had the expression of someone watching a good show. “Is this an emotion that transcends material things? I’m shipping it, I’m shipping it.” The words made a vein jump on Klein’s forehead.
“Uncle Quinn, what are you shipping?” Donna leaned on the handrail, looked up, and asked Quinn with an expression of incomprehension.
“Heh heh heh…” Quinn just smiled.
“Hahahaha…” Although Danitz didn’t know what was going on, he also opened his mouth and laughed along.
“…” Klein, who understood the pun Quinn was making, looked at the small wooden box in his hand and suddenly felt that the valuable Beyonder material was unlucky.
“Ashiba, I’m so sleepy. If I don’t get some sleep, I’m going to lose control…”
Quinn stretched, no longer posing coolly with Elland by the railing. He grabbed his long hair, which was listless on the floor and no longer wriggling, and walked toward the cabin. Klein’s eyebrow twitched again at the sound of his words.
Elland and Gehrman suddenly also felt sleepy. Gehrman politely waved his hand and walked with Danitz to their room, 312.
Donna led her younger brother, Denton, clattering along behind. She held out a hand to Gehrman, and in her hand was a stack of banknotes of different denominations.
“My Dad, Mom, and Uncle Crivis, and Uncle Dimodo and his family, asked me to give this to you, 150 Pounds!”
Donna smiled sweetly: “They said this is not enough to express their gratitude to you, just to replenish supplies. Uh… those things must be expensive, right?”
“It’s fine.” Klein put the money away, tucking it into his pocket, while signaling Danitz to open the door.
The two siblings breathed a sigh of relief, happily thinking that they had finally completed their parents’ task.
Then they remembered the purpose of their visit. They asked, both curious and afraid: “Uncle Sparrow, what kind of monsters were those yesterday? Are all the ghost stories true? Are your abilities to make the sunlight come down and Uncle Quinn’s ability to command the wooden men innate?”
Wait, I didn’t hear that clearly… Klein took off the “Sun Brooch” from his body and threw it onto the table without looking behind him.
However, he didn’t notice that Danitz’s expression looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh.
He casually replied: “These are called Beyonder powers, obtained through certain potions and rituals.”
“Most ghost stories have a prototype. Those monsters last night were created using evil rituals.”
“Ask him about the rest.” Klein glanced at Danitz.
“How amazing!” Donna and her brother Denton exclaimed together.
Immediately after, Donna asked: “Can we also become people like you through rituals and potions?”
Their eyes were filled with huge expectation.
Suddenly, Donna saw a flicker of sadness flash across Uncle Gehrman’s eyes.
He said in a low voice: “This is not something to be envied or anticipated.”
“Once you choose this path, you will be accompanied by danger and madness at all times.”
“You can beat them a hundred times, a thousand times, but if you lose just once, you will become like that fallen bishop.”
As he spoke, he leaned his cane against the wall, took off his coat, and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
One of his arms had become shriveled and wrinkled, like that of a centenarian, and the other was transparent and colorless, allowing the bl00d vessels, muscles, and fascia beneath the skin to be seen directly.
At the same time, small, dense, pale granulation tissue grew on his face, scaring Donna and Denton into recoiling in terror and bumping into the door.
Klein, his face covered in small granules, maintained the upturn of his mouth and said: “Did you see clearly?”
“This is… madness.”
No… Donna and Denton, having witnessed the scene before them, almost lost their minds. They stumbled and ran out.
Watching the figures of the two children gradually fade away, Gehrman Sparrow slowly pulled down his sleeves.
Danitz glanced at the direction the siblings had left and clicked his tongue: “Actually, you didn’t have to scare them like that. A child who sees you like that will have nightm—”
Hmm? Klein was puzzled as to why Danitz stopped talking halfway through. He cast his gaze behind him.
A strange voice that did not belong to Gehrman or Danitz sounded behind him.
“Heh heh heh… This is… madness!”
A familiar face, stained with bl00d and dirt and covered with bluish-black wiggling cracks—Quinn’s face!—occupied Klein’s entire field of vision.
What?! Quinn has lost control? Klein’s pupils suddenly constricted, and he instinctively leaped backward, quickly reaching for the gun holster under his armpit.
The tense atmosphere in the air seemed to be instantly detonated. Disbelief, sadness, confusion—all kinds of emotions ravaged Klein’s heart.
Suddenly, he seemed to realize something.
If Quinn had lost control, there shouldn’t have been no warning whatsoever.
When he entered the cabin just now, the color of his aura was only slightly unstable. How could he have turned into a monster in just a few minutes?
Moreover, my ‘Clown’ premonition failed. I didn’t even notice Quinn getting behind me, and Danitz completely ignored him. The probability of this is minuscule.
So, the most likely result is…
He abruptly cast his gaze toward Danitz and found him, sure enough, lying on the ground, twitching with laughter. Quinn was also laughing and rolling back and forth on the floor.
“Hahaha!” ×2
“Danitz.”
“Ah, ah?” The emotionless voice was like plunging Danitz into an ice cellar. He instantly sobered up.
“Clean this up.” A cane, stained with bl00d and filth, was thrown over. Danitz dared not refuse, obediently picked up the cane, and walked to one side.
Klein looked at Quinn, who was panting softly from laughing so hard, and said with a hint of annoyance: “I almost shot you.”
“Hahaha… It’s fine! My teacher told me: ‘One prank a day keeps loss of control away!’”
Quinn slowly straightened his back, which was bent from laughter, and grinned.
Then your teacher is probably Emperor Roselle… Klein internally complained, having an urge to hold his forehead and sigh, but he forcefully held back for the sake of his persona.
“This is… madness!”
“Hahaha!” ×2
Danitz’s uncontrollable laughter came from inside the tightly closed washroom door.
“Shut up!”
“Hahaha!!” ×2
The echoing laughter in the room seemed to dispel some of the gloom in the air.