Chapter 211: Attempts

Chapter 211: Attempts

After putting down the fountain pen in his hand, Klein unfastened the pendulum hidden inside the cuff of his left wrist. Holding it with one hand, he suspended it directly over the paper, so close that it nearly touched.

“Edwina is inside this book’s story.”

Klein then closed his eyes and silently recited the divination statement.

After seven repetitions, he opened his eyes and saw the yellow crystal pendant rotating clockwise.

That meant affirmation. It meant Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina truly was inside Travels of Groselle!

So it really is a world inside the book… And the state inside should be rather special. If no new person joins, the story cannot turn to the next page… Klein nodded almost imperceptibly. He wound up the silver chain holding the yellow crystal pendant again, picked up the deep-red round-bellied fountain pen nearby, and wrote a new divination statement:

“The method of entering Travels of Groselle.”

This time, he used dream divination. In the gray, foggy world, he saw one blurry figure after another.

Some of those figures were enormous, others slender. Their shared trait was that each held a book bound in yellow-brown parchment.

What followed split into two different developments. Some figures who carried Travels of Groselle with them all the time vanished silently, while other figures, who sometimes picked up the book and sometimes set it aside, suddenly disappeared after blood, whether accidental or intentional, dripped onto its cover!

The image shattered. Klein opened his eyes and looked at the mottled long table before him, frowning slightly as he began interpreting it.

“To enter or activate Travels of Groselle, one either has to remain in long-term contact with it until a certain threshold is reached, or drip one’s own blood onto the cover?

“Isn’t that a bit too simple? Perhaps… it really is that simple. When the Loen soldier in the story first ‘appeared,’ he was only an ordinary person. He didn’t even understand mysticism. It was only with the help of his companions that he gradually grew into a Punishment Knight… Therefore, the activation method wouldn’t be complicated. Ordinary people can complete it too.

“The small number of previous researchers, including Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina, were all Beyonders with sufficient mysticism knowledge. They knew very clearly that they couldn’t casually drip their own blood onto random objects. Otherwise, they might not even know how they died. That’s similar to ordinary people using the effective ‘magic mirror divination method’—it makes it extremely easy to provoke powerful, unknown, hidden existences. That is why they didn’t run into trouble…

“On top of that, Edwina kept Travels of Groselle in the collection room most of the time and only came into contact with it occasionally. That means it wasn’t until she recently developed a new research approach and touched it for an extended time that the book finally reached the activation condition?

“Mm. Even Magic Mirror Arrodes only knew that the book was strange, that many of its former owners went missing, and that it was suspected of being connected to the dragon race and the City of Miracles, Liveseyd. This indicates that when Travels of Groselle activates, it interferes with the surrounding environment and erases corresponding clues. That’s why the vast majority of its former collectors never knew it had a problem, much less developed any urge to research it.

“The missing owners should number more than the few people in the story. The rest may have died for various reasons and failed to leave their names in the travelogue…”

Klein withdrew his thoughts and performed another divination, hoping to obtain the method for leaving Travels of Groselle.

This time, in the gray, foggy dream world, he saw an even more violent blizzard. He saw a gigantic figure standing atop an icy peak.

It was a nearly transparent dragon, close to five meters tall even when standing on all fours. It resembled a close relative of a lizard, with an ugly face, deep-blue eyes, and a thick, powerful tail. A pair of huge membranous wings grew from its back. Merely unfurling them gave the impression that they could cover the sky.

Its scales were like ice crystals, flowing with transparent, faint light. They were the most beautiful and dreamlike part of its entire body.

Suddenly, this frost-carved dragon raised its neck and body, releasing a terrifying roar that pierced through the blizzard.

At that moment, rearing upright, it exceeded ten meters.

The King of the North… that frost dragon… Klein left the dream and lightly tapped the armrest of the high-backed chair with his finger.

His interpretation of the divination revelation was:

The key to leaving Travels of Groselle lay with the King of the North!

Klein initially suspected that they would have to kill that frost dragon and allow the protagonist, Groselle, to fulfill his goal before the story could reach a complete “ending” and open the passage out of the book.

However, I can also try to see whether I can forcibly break the barrier between the world inside the book and the real world… With his rich experience, Klein quickly thought of an attempt.

He first picked up the Black Emperor card lying covered to his right and merged it into his spirit body.

All at once, Klein’s surface was covered in black full-body armor. A heavy crown appeared atop his head, while his aura became noble and majestic, making others not dare look directly at him.

Next, he leveraged the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog to the greatest degree possible, making it flow like water, surging toward him.

Seeing this, Klein did not hesitate. He beckoned, drawing the Sea God Scepter from the junk pile, then poured his own spirituality into it.

At the tip of the short bone scepter, one blue-green gem after another lit up, blooming with dazzling radiance.

Countless silver-white lightning bolts appeared, hissing and circling within the grand palace, as if forming an ocean of thunder.

Finally, using the status of the Black Emperor card to suppress and balance it, Klein poured all the power he had leveraged into that storm of lightning.

Rumble!

Thunder rolled above the gray fog and rushed into the distance. Thick, brilliant bolts of lightning either fell simultaneously or one after another, striking the book Travels of Groselle.

Blinding light enveloped the entire palace for a full twenty seconds.

When everything subsided, Klein looked toward the target again and discovered that the mottled long table was already battered and broken, while the deep-brown-covered book remained completely intact. Only its corners had curled slightly.

Even more impressive than I imagined… But that makes sense. How could an item capable of creating a world inside a book be simple… Heh. Buying it for 8,000 pounds back then definitely wasn’t a loss. It can absolutely be used as a shield. It can definitely block at least Saint-level attacks. The only problem is that it’s too small and doesn’t cover enough area… As Klein’s thoughts turned, the bronze long table rapidly returned to its original state.

Since he could not forcibly pierce through the “barrier” between the world inside the book and the real world, he could only begin considering how to enter through the normal method.

“I could first draw a little blood, bring it here, smear it on the cover, then use my spirit body along with the Black Emperor card and the Sea God Scepter to enter? That way, I wouldn’t need to worry about encountering Nast, the King of the Five Seas, because he wouldn’t be able to sense it at all, nor could he enter the world inside the book. But the problem is that after rescuing Vice Admiral Iceberg, she would be able to confirm that Gehrman Sparrow is the Hero Bandit ‘Black Emperor’…

“Mm. There’s another, more important issue. Entering with my spirit body means my physical body remains outside, inside the Golden Dream’s captain’s cabin. And I have no idea how time flows inside the world of the book. I might easily be gone for several days. In that case, my body might encounter an accident if I’m careless. After all, it lacks protection and is in a strange place. If I rescue Edwina only to discover that ‘I’ have disappeared, that joke would be far too big.” Klein quickly rejected the idea of entering in spirit-body form.

He did not trust most of the people aboard the Golden Dream too much, and he was also wary of the Strongest Hunter, Anderson.

After trying a divination on whether entering the book to save someone would be dangerous, only to fail, Klein pondered for a while, then returned to the real world. He retrieved Travels of Groselle and calmly removed all traces left by the ritual.

After glancing at the sky outside the window, which was close to dusk, he walked to the captain’s cabin door, unlocked it, and opened it.

Gourmet Bru Walls, Singer Orpheus, and the others were all outside. Not a single person had left. Even at the stairway entrance, crew members were craning their heads to look over.

“Do you have a clue?” Bru Walls blurted out, but he failed to hear his own voice because everyone crowded at the door was asking the same thing.

Klein swept his gaze over them and nodded.

In an instant, he heard overlapping sighs of relief and saw all kinds of delighted, excited expressions.

If one day I vanished like this, who would be like them… Klein’s thoughts shifted. He looked toward Danitz and said, “I need an assistant.”

After saying that, he turned and walked back toward the desk.

“All right!” Danitz hurried inside and skillfully locked the door behind him.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked eagerly, as though he could already see the scene in which the captain was finally rescued thanks to his efforts.

Klein stood beside the desk and said with a serious expression, “What happens next will be extremely dangerous.”

“Extremely dangerous?” Danitz instinctively bared his teeth.

“You may disappear forever, or even die on the spot,” Klein stated the worst possible outcome.

Seeing the madman Gehrman Sparrow become so solemn, Danitz immediately understood the gravity of the matter. His heart sank, and he subconsciously grew flustered.

“Wh-what does that have to do with saving the captain?”

“A direct relationship,” Klein answered succinctly.

Danitz’s expression twisted slightly. He fell silent for two seconds, then said, “What happens if I don’t do it?”

“Your captain may remain there forever, or she may die in the next second,” Klein said truthfully.

Danitz opened his mouth, then closed it again without speaking.

His gaze drifted for several seconds before finally landing once more on Gehrman Sparrow’s face. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Let’s begin.”

“Shit!” he then cursed himself in a low voice.

Klein picked up the paper and pen on the desk and swiftly wrote a note. He folded it into a square and handed it to Danitz.

“Put it in your pocket. Read it only after you enter.”

“Enter?” Danitz asked back, somewhat blank and confused.

As he spoke, he had already automatically accepted the note and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.

Klein did not answer. He pointed at Travels of Groselle on the desk.

“Draw a little of your own blood and smear it onto this book’s cover.”

This… Danitz vaguely formed a few guesses. He picked up the copper dagger nearby and nodded heavily.

“All right!”