Lord of the Mysteries

Not finding himself overly exhausted, Klein rubbed his temples and beckoned over a tiny metallic bottle from the junk pile.

Inside it was a tiny tube of blood that he went through great effort to extract from his vein, and he had long brought it above the gray fog. It was only waiting for the opportunity when Klein would use his Spirit Body to enter Groselle’s Travels to explore the book world.

After opening the cap, Klein wasn’t in a hurry to smear the blood over the book’s dark brown cover. Instead, he summoned all the items from the junk pile that he had brought to the mysterious space before the Tarot Gathering, and he spread them out in front of him.

In consideration of how the Black Emperor’s form was too eye-catching, and with him not too certain of the exact situation in the book world, Klein decided against bringing the Card of Blasphemy. Instead, he used Azik’s copper whistle to fortify his Spirit Body to prevent himself from failing to return above the gray fog before being instantly killed by some unknown power.

As the ancient and exquisite copper whistle fused into his body, Klein’s Spirit Body swelled up and became more corporeal.

Two pitch-black flames flared out from his eye sockets as though they possessed a life of their own.

With the help of Cogitation, he adjusted his spirituality, converging the iciness that stemmed from the aspect of Death within his body. Soon, his eyes returned to normal.

This was like an evil spirit taking on an ordinary form to lure prey into its proximity.

Right on the heels of that, Klein wore Creeping Hunger and held Death Knell while he hid the Nightmare Beyonder characteristic in his body. The latter was prepared for him to seek out any abnormalities when exploring the dreams of the living entities in the book world.

After completing all his preparations, he poured a few drops of blood and smeared it over the cover of Groselle’s Travels.

After a brief wait, his vision turned blurry, as though countless translucent objects were hidden within it. Following that, it turned clear—there were blue skies, white clouds, grayish-brown city walls, and passersby.

This is no longer the land of ice and snow from before, but a city that looks very normal on the surface… Klein stood by the side of the dirt road as he observed the residents of the book world. He discovered that most of them wore linen shirts, a short brown coat, and loose dark-colored trousers. Their overall style was akin to that of the Loen Kingdom centuries ago.

He looked down at the format of the tailcoat, starched shirt, and damaged dark-red bow tie as he silently changed it all out. Instantly, he was no different from the people around him.

He then walked to the city gates in preparation to enter.

At that moment, a leather-vested soldier at the gate stopped him.

“Entrance fees! One liddle.”

Do I look rich? I don’t even know what a liddle is… Klein mumbled inwardly, amused. He then “communicated” with him at a spiritual level, successfully transferring the soldier’s attention onto a merchant caravan behind him.

As a quasi-wraith who could possess anyone and control them, exerting a psychological influence on others was nothing extraordinary. It wasn’t a particularly potent ability, but it was extremely useful against ordinary people.

When Klein entered the city, he walked through the streets in a seemingly relaxed manner, but he inwardly remained wary. He felt that public hygiene was slightly better than Backlund a few years ago. It appeared to have a mature sewage system, preventing the situation of any waste and trash being dumped.

I couldn’t tell that this is an illusory world inside a book at all. Everyone has Spirit Body Threads… Klein proceeded forward as he observed. Suddenly, he noticed a stone building that was more than ten meters tall to his side. It only had two stories, and the top of the door was about four meters tall.

Beside the building was a signboard. It was written in a language that was completely different from any of the outside world’s languages, but Klein instantly understood what it meant: “Pessote Blacksmith Guild.”

There’s a blacksmith guild. This place really hasn’t entered the Age of Steam… Just as Klein was feeling poignant, he saw the door creak open, and out walked a giant with four long limbs!

The giant’s skin was grayish blue, and his head had the trademark single vertical eye. In his hand was a huge and heavy sledgehammer. He walked across the street with his lips curled.

The humans walking past him didn’t show any fear, as though it was a common sight.

They even greeted the giant.

“Good afternoon, Groselle!”

Groselle… Klein, who was rather face-blind to giants, had his pupils constrict. Only then did he realize the familiarity!

He was just about to chase after them when he discovered that the giant had turned into another street, vanishing from his sights.

Klein stood on the spot, silently observing the intersection as he came up with a few guesses.

There’s another Groselle in the book world?

No, the ending of the travels is that Groselle died in battle in the Nation of Frost…

This is another story?

Filled with all kinds of questions, Klein wasn’t in a rush to find Groselle. He turned and entered a bar by the side of the street.

Such places were often the places with the most messy and multifarious information in a city. It aided him in quickly gaining a grasp of the entire situation.

The bar’s lighting was dim, and the ventilation wasn’t the best, making the air appear somewhat turbid. At that moment, there weren’t many customers drinking. Most of the people were by the bar counter, chatting happily with each other or the bartender.

Klein slowly walked over when his gaze froze.

He saw a man wearing a black pointed hat and an asymmetrical coat by the side of the bar counter. He looked pretty handsome with his flaxen-colored hair, deep brown eyes, a high nose, and thin lips. He was none other than the Solomon Empire viscount, Mobet Zoroast!

Upon seeing him, Klein recalled the scene of the Dream Stealer’s rapid aging before he collapsed onto the ground as he struggled to crawl towards Elvish Songster Siatas and grabbed her hand.

All of that remained clear as day, as though it had just happened yesterday; yet, Mobet had once again appeared before his eyes.

Klein’s expression grew heavy as he walked over and sat beside Mobet.

He didn’t say a word, as he knew that Mobet was one to start a conversation.

“Outsider, first time in Pessote? I swear I’ve never met you before.” Mobet put down a cup of distilled liquor as he turned his head to the side.

“I come from the Nation of Frost.” Klein randomly cooked up a story.

Mobet immediately laughed loudly.

“You’re a funny one. This is the Nation of Frost, but of course, that was many years ago.

“Ever since the King of the North was killed by a bunch of adventurers, no—heroes, this place is no longer plagued by ice and snow. Everyone believes that it should be called the Nation of Neverwinter.”

Klein fell silent without responding.

“Why so serious? It looks like you have your own troubles.” Mobet rapped on the wooden bar counter, showing signs of sympathy. He downed a mouthful of spirits and said, “I’m telling you. Men should absolutely not get married. It’s the beginning of suffering! Do you know? When she gets worked up a little, she would beat me up. When she’s happy, she beats me up. Same when she’s embarrassed or angry! Anyway, she beats me up for any reason! From this very moment, I’ve decided not to return home again!”

Does this mean you got married to Siatas? Klein kept silent for two seconds as he sized up Mobet’s face. He discovered that there were no signs of bruises and swelling on his face. This meant that the Elvish Songster knew that men needed to put on appearances.

He asked with a sigh, “Then why did you marry her?”

Mobet was taken aback as he smiled wryly.

“I came here with a merchant caravan. When I first saw her, she was just that beautiful. Her singing was moving and seemed to hide indescribable sorrow. Heh, I’m as afraid of her now as I was infatuated over her back then! I definitely won’t return. Hey, why do you seem a little sad? You don’t have to be sad for me. I’m already free!”

At that moment, the door to the bar suddenly opened as a beautiful female voice shouted.

“Mobet, come out here!

“I’m counting from ten. Never come back if you don’t come home!

“Ten, nine…”

Mobet immediately jumped up and ran to the door. As he ran, he muttered, “I know you don’t have any patience. You always jump to two after counting to eight!”

Klein turned his body and saw Siatas’s figure, but he no longer had the intention of communicating with her.

The real Mobet and Siatas were already dead. The ones living in the book world were just two characters.

Standing up and leaving the bar, Klein came to a nearby deserted alley. He planned on confirming the kind of spirit world this world had.

He quickly outlined spherical lights in his mind as his thoughts gradually emptied out and his body and mind became tranquil.

As his spirituality spread out bit by bit, several indescribable illusory figures appeared around him. However, up high in the sky, it lacked the seven lustrous brilliances of different colors that contained endless knowledge.

The seven lights don’t exist here… The number of spirit world creatures here are lacking… This place is indeed a fake spirit world created by the book… Klein took a step forward and found the colors in his vision saturate to the extreme as it overlapped with the obvious differences.

He wasn’t in a rush to explore the spirit world. He exited it and began window shopping through Pessote and chatted with others.

Before long, he found Groselle’s residence.

The giant ran a blacksmith shop. He was taking an afternoon nap on a huge bed on the second story.

Klein directly entered by passing through the wall and came to Groselle’s side.

He observed the giant for a few seconds and took out the Nightmare Beyonder characteristic from his Spirit Body. With some difficulty, he used some of its powers that it came naturally equipped with.

Deep, serene darkness quickly spread as it instantly enveloped Klein and Groselle. And in a Spirit Body state, Klein directly saw a blob of irregular hazy spherical light.

His spirituality immediately emanated over and touched the spherical light.

All sorts of scattered scenes instantly flashed past around him before fixating on a forest with towering but withered trees. On the other side of the forest was a mountain and steep cliffs. At the top of it was a magnificent palace.

The palace was huge and opulent, and it didn’t seem suitable for humans. It gave him the impression like it was from a myth as the light of dusk that scattered above it seemed frozen.

Klein had seen this palace before. It was the Giant King’s Court that had appeared in the dream world of the battlefield of the gods!

However, this angle was completely different from before. He was situated behind the king’s court!