Chapter 111: A Miraculous Mushroom

Chapter 111: A Miraculous Mushroom

“Sequence 0: Fool!”

After clearly making out the words on that tarot card, Klein once again felt the same sensation he had experienced when he heard Zaratul speak His name.

At that moment, an intense sense of destiny surged within his heart. He felt as though everything had already been arranged from the very beginning, just as “0-08” would have done.

He began doubting his original judgment, suspecting that the female animal trainer from the traveling circus in Tingen City who had once asked him to do a tarot divination might not have been an ordinary person.

As his thoughts flashed rapidly, Klein approached the matter from another angle and formed a new idea. His terror, fear, and dejection gradually subsided.

“Perhaps it wasn’t arranged, but a change I brought about myself.

“Because of the ritual that caused my transmigration, I formed a connection with the mysterious space above the gray fog. My fate was naturally influenced as well. More accurately, as someone from another world, I originally had no ‘fate’ here. My current trajectory was forged jointly by my own personality, the original owner’s experiences, the influence of the gray fog, and the environment around me.

“That mysterious space above the gray fog clearly has a strong connection to the Seer pathway, and Sequence 0 of that pathway is called the Fool. Reflected into reality, if I divined my current state, I would inevitably draw the Fool card!

“Similarly, that also led to me later using ‘the Fool’ as my title.”

Klein’s emotions calmed bit by bit. He believed this was the most likely explanation.

If I use the razor to shave away all the currently unknown factors and still arrive at a reasonable explanation, that means the probability is not small…

Klein forced himself to stop thinking about questions he could not yet answer with certainty and turned his attention back to what had just happened.

“That gigantic chair and that cluster of transparent maggots are exactly what I saw during divination above the gray fog.

“Judging from the various details that make one’s hair stand on end once carefully considered, that is very likely an angel of the Seer pathway—an angel who lost control and became a monster!

“Zaratul Himself?

“Or the most powerful member of the Antigonus family from the Fourth Epoch?

“If it is the former, both the Magic Mirror Arrodes and the Snake of Mercury, Will Auceptin, have confirmed that Zaratul had reached Sequence 1 and lost control, going mad and collapsing into a monster. This matches… It also explains why Zaratul only asked for the ‘door’ to be opened. Once that ‘Door of Concealment’ was opened and the two sides of Him established a connection, He could break free from His current state and recover bit by bit. The repeatedly emphasized ashes were only a cover.

“But the problem is that the environment where the Magic Mirror Arrodes showed Zaratul to be now does not resemble that ancient palace on the mountain peak. Otherwise, I would have recognized it at the time.

“If that is a barely surviving angel of the Antigonus family, one who caused Zaratul—who obtained the notebook during Roselle’s era and came to the Hornacis mountain range in search of treasure—to suffer a loss, quietly cutting away a part of Him without His awareness and causing Him to go mad during advancement, then that one should at least be a Sequence 1 Attendant of Mysteries. After all, Zaratul was already a Miracle Invoker back then…

“From that perspective, Zaratul’s goal was most likely still to open the door, allowing the history and fate of the misty town to connect with the outside world so that He would no longer remain split apart…

“No matter what, that cluster of transparent maggots is very likely an out-of-control Sequence 1. No wonder the Demoness of Despair nearly collapsed from just seeing Him and was hung up after only a slight struggle, becoming an air-drying marionette. Thankfully, I did not have many clues back then, and the scene I saw through divination was not clear enough. Otherwise, I would have suffered serious damage from witnessing a complete and insane mythical creature and undergone loss-of-control mutations…

“Wait. No matter how strong He is, can He be stronger than the Eternal Blazing Sun or the True Creator? Even if the Seer pathway’s restraint over the mysterious space above the gray fog is counted, He should at most be on the same level as Them. In other words, as long as I can endure the pain, and with enough prerequisites already satisfied, I have one chance to peek. And a complete mythical creature form contains corresponding knowledge.

“Perhaps I can use that to obtain one or two high-Sequence formulas, just like how I got Unshadowed from the Eternal Blazing Sun…”

As he thought this, an image surfaced uncontrollably in Klein’s mind:

Above the gray fog, the Fool quietly stretched out His black hand again.

Along with the sudden joy came a deep heartache, because with his current level, strength, and items, it was impossible for him to go before that ancient chair where the transparent worms were and pick up the Fool card.

To see the thing one desired most yet be unable to obtain it was always painful.

Whew… At least I obtained the Bizarro Sorcerer potion formula. I will also still have one chance to peek in the future. This adventure was not wasted. The many gold pounds I spent and the marionette I lost were not wasted either… Mm. Zaratul probably would not give me a fake formula. To Him, there is no need to disdainfully deceive a Sequence 5 with no chance of surviving. And if He lied, He would also have to guard against the possibility that I already knew the Bizarro Sorcerer potion formula and only requested it as confirmation of whether He was worth trusting… I’ll divine it above the gray fog later…

Klein breathed out. Seeing that nothing abnormal had happened outside for quite a while, he decided to immediately approach that pitch-black church and observe what had become of it.

To him, the many questions he had just thought about were not the most important matter at the moment. The most important thing was leaving this concealed world, leaving this misty town!

Exiting the house, Klein, wearing an old tricorn hat and a dark red coat, very cautiously arrived at the entrance of that ancient church. He carefully passed through the half-open door and moved inward step by step.

The corpses with different clothing and different appearances remained just as before, suspended in midair. They swayed with the wind, murmuring, “Hornacis… Flegrea…”

Klein passed beneath “them.” His eyes gradually adapted to the dim environment, allowing him to see more and more.

The half-demonic-wolf, half-human statue still stood there, undamaged. The obsidian slab and the tin-white urn had both fallen diagonally behind the statue, neither shattered.

Klein first breathed a sigh of relief. Then he examined the surroundings, and his gaze abruptly froze.

In a gloomy corner stood an enormous mushroom taller than he was.

The top of this mushroom was blood-red, mixed with white patterns. Its body was formed from one small mushroom after another, and their patterns together outlined a face—Mr. A’s face.

However, Mr. A’s “eyes” were extremely wooden. They no longer contained any light that could be called human. On both sides, mushroom after mushroom had grown out and connected into long, slender arms. On the left palm, there was also a thin human-skin glove, as if the two sides had fused into one.

…What kind of monster is this…

Klein could not help retreating one step, feeling that his mysticism knowledge was entirely insufficient at that moment.

Because he had never closed the corresponding vision and was continuously using it for self-protection, he also discovered that this terrifying mushroom had no Spirit Body Threads. It seemed to have died long ago. Its current movements were merely based on residual reactions from the body’s nerves.

In an instant, Klein suddenly formed a guess.

Mr. A, who had been planted with mushrooms, failed to dodge in time. He witnessed that cluster of transparent worms. He witnessed a complete mythical creature. His mind died on the spot, his body completely collapsed and underwent a terrifying mutation, then fused with the nearby Wraith Senor, who had disintegrated under the curse. Thus, a mushroom-shaped monster that had never appeared before was born!

Also, Creeping Hunger was swallowed too… This mushroom is so disgusting. If Frank ever mentions mushrooms again, I’m throwing him into the sea…

Klein’s eyes shifted slightly. He instinctively moved closer to the obsidian slab, preparing to ignore this “mushroom” and escape first.

At that moment, his mind suddenly went dazed, and he felt that everything around him had become slightly blurry.

In an instant, Klein understood that he had been forcefully pulled into a dream!

He immediately broke free from it, only to see that nearly two-meter-tall “mushroom” slowly sliding closer, holding a greatsword made of crimson magma and pale-blue flames.

It can use Sword of Magma…

Without hesitation, Klein opened his mouth and produced a sound.

Bang!

An air bullet with extremely strong penetrative force struck the “mushroom,” which was moving slowly because it had been manipulating the dream. The bullet drilled into its cap, tearing open a huge wound.

Inside the wound was human flesh and blood mixed with tiny filaments of fungus. They rapidly squirmed and soon repaired the “body.”

It can even do that…

An intense premonition of danger suddenly arose in Klein’s mind. He hurled himself to the side and rolled repeatedly.

The “mushroom” abruptly accelerated. The Sword of Magma in its hand dragged interwoven crimson and pale-blue flames as it slashed heavily at the spot where Klein had been standing, cracking the stone tiles and sending flames splashing in all directions.

At that moment, Klein snapped his fingers, igniting the small mushrooms that formed the monster one after another.

Then he ran toward the area diagonally behind the statue, trying to obtain the obsidian slab.

But in a moment of daze, Klein discovered that he had gone in the wrong direction.

He was rushing toward the door.

It can still Distort my will?

Klein’s heart tightened. From the corner of his eye, he saw that the huge mushroom’s surface had been covered in a layer of frost, extinguishing the rising crimson flames.

As thoughts turned rapidly, Klein went with the momentum and rushed toward the door. He snapped his fingers again, lighting the leaves of trees outside.

With limited understanding of the enemy and without having made much preparation, he believed that a qualified Magician should choose to retreat and avoid the enemy for now.

More importantly, his strongest Marionettist ability could not be used at this moment, because that huge “mushroom” had no Spirit Body Threads!

With a whoosh, crimson firelight surged upward like water, drowning Klein’s figure. He then flashed into the stream of flames outside and leapt toward the ground.

He was just about to pull away when, by his ear, he suddenly heard the sound of wind.

That huge “mushroom” capped in red and white, escorted by wild wind, had chased out from the church!

It can fly!

Klein snapped his fingers repeatedly, forcefully widening the distance with Flame Jump.

At the same time, he felt his nose itching, and he wanted to sneeze.

There’s disease too… How am I supposed to fight this? I have no mystical items, and I cannot use the strength of a Marionettist… What a miraculous mushroom!

Hiding inside a house, Klein did not know whether to cry or laugh.

Suddenly, he felt a little cool all over. In his mind, his current appearance naturally formed.

His old tricorn hat, dark red coat, white trousers, and black leather boots had all vanished. Only a pair of boxer shorts protected the last of his dignity.

This… It has been a quarter of an hour. The Senor summoned from history can no longer be maintained…

Klein instantly understood the reason and allowed his thoughts to expand.

The portion of Blood Admiral that fused with that “mushroom” should have disappeared too…

Also, in another quarter of an hour, the “fish meat” effect should be gone. It will lack its primary structural element…

The corners of Klein’s mouth uncontrollably lifted slightly. He immediately borrowed the flames and jumped outside. As expected, just as he had predicted, an exaggerated hollow had appeared in the trunk portion of the huge “mushroom,” and it was unable to repair itself. This caused its speed to slow and its movements to grow sluggish.

Come. Let’s play hide-and-seek…

Klein said silently and began circling through the various streets of the town. Using flames and houses, he maneuvered around that huge “mushroom.”

During this process, the red moon never once pierced the mist and became clear.

More than ten minutes later, the terrifying “mushroom” finally lost its ability to move. Swaying, it collapsed onto the street.

Klein breathed out, then slowly and cautiously approached it. He saw the “mushroom’s” flesh and blood gather together, while points of light contracted inward. Very quickly, only a thin human-skin glove remained.

This… Because of the mutation caused by a Sequence 1 angel, Creeping Hunger and Mr. A fused? An upgraded Creeping Hunger?

Klein bent down and carefully picked up the human-skin glove.