Chapter 236: Characters in the Book

Chapter 236: Characters in the Book

Feeling that he was not yet too fatigued, Klein rubbed his temples and beckoned. A small metal vial flew from the junk pile and landed near him.

Inside was a small tube of blood he had previously spent great effort drawing from his own vein. He had long ago brought it above the gray fog, waiting for an opportunity to have his spirit body enter Travels of Groselle and explore the world inside the book.

After unscrewing the cap, Klein did not rush to smear the blood over the book’s dark-brown cover. Instead, he “summoned” all the items he had brought into this mysterious space before the Tarot Gathering from the junk pile and scattered them in front of him.

Considering that the Black Emperor appearance was far too eye-catching, and that he was not yet clear on the specific situation inside the world of the book, Klein decided not to carry that Card of Blasphemy. Instead, he used Azik’s copper whistle to reinforce his spirit body, so as to avoid being instantly killed by some unknown force before he could return above the gray fog.

As that ancient and delicate copper whistle fused into him, Klein’s spirit body seemed to swell slightly, while in truth becoming much denser.

Two clusters of pitch-black flame then leaped out from his eye sockets, as though possessing their own life force.

Using meditation to adjust his spirituality, Klein restrained all the coldness originating from death back into his body. The abnormality in his eyes soon vanished.

It was like an evil spirit displaying the appearance of an ordinary person to lure prey closer.

Immediately afterward, Klein put on Creeping Hunger and hid the Death Knell revolver and the Nightmare Beyonder characteristic inside his body. The latter was something he had prepared in order to explore the dreams of the living beings inside the book world and search for abnormalities.

Once all preparations were complete, he unscrewed the metal vial’s cap, poured out a few drops of blood, and smeared them over the cover of Travels of Groselle.

After a brief wait, what he saw first became blurry, as though countless transparent things were hidden within it. Then everything turned clear. There was blue sky, white clouds, gray-brown city walls, and pedestrians coming and going.

Not the previous ice-and-snow land, but a city that appears perfectly normal on the surface… Klein stood beside the tamped-earth road and examined the residents of the book world. He discovered that most of them wore linen shirts, brown short coats, and dark, loose trousers. Their overall style resembled that of the Loen Kingdom several hundred years earlier.

Looking down at the tailcoat, stiff-collared shirt, and dark-red bow tie he had manifested, Klein silently changed them all. In an instant, he became indistinguishable from the people around him.

He then walked toward the city gate, preparing to enter.

At that moment, a gate guard wearing leather armor stopped him.

“City entrance tax! One riddle.”

Do I look like someone who has money? I don’t even know what a riddle is… Klein muttered inwardly in amusement. He then used “communication” between spirits to successfully shift the gate guard’s attention to the merchant caravan entering the city behind him.

As a quasi-Wraith capable of possessing and controlling another party, exerting mental influence on a target was a normal operation. The ability was not especially strong, but against ordinary people, it was extremely useful.

After entering the city, Klein walked through the streets with inward caution and outward ease. He felt that the public sanitation here was even slightly better than Backlund’s in earlier years. It seemed to possess a mature sewer system and would not suffer situations where people upstairs dumped feces, urine, garbage, and other things downward.

“You can’t tell at all that this is a false world inside a book. Everyone has Spirit Body Threads…” Klein examined the area while walking forward. Suddenly, he spotted a stone building over ten meters tall to one side. It had only two floors, and the top of its main door stood about four meters above the ground.

A sign stood beside the building, written in words unlike any language of the outside world, yet understandable to Klein at a glance:

“Pesote Blacksmith Guild.”

There is even a blacksmith guild. As expected, this place has not yet reached the steam age… Klein had just begun sighing inwardly when the door creaked open and an abnormally long-limbed giant walked out!

The giant’s skin was gray-blue, his head bearing the iconic single vertical eye. He carried an enormous, heavy iron hammer in his hand and walked toward the other side of the street with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

The passing humans were not afraid of him at all, seemingly having seen him far too many times.

They even greeted the giant.

“Good afternoon, Groselle!”

Groselle… Klein, who was rather face-blind when it came to giants, had his pupils constrict. Only then did he feel a sense of familiarity!

He was about to chase after the giant when he discovered that Groselle had turned into another street and vanished from his sight.

Klein stood where he was, quietly gazing at the intersection of the two streets, and faint guesses emerged in his heart.

“In the world of the book, there is another Groselle?

“No. The travelogue’s ending said Groselle died in the Nation of Frost…

“Is this another story?”

All kinds of doubts appeared. Klein did not rush to look for Groselle. Instead, he turned and entered a tavern by the street.

Such places were often where news in a city was the most chaotic and most abundant, making them useful for quickly grasping the overall situation.

Inside the tavern, the light was dim, and the ventilation was not too good. The air seemed somewhat turbid. At that moment, there were not many people drinking. Most were at the bar counter, chatting happily with each other and the bartender.

Klein walked over slowly, but his gaze suddenly froze.

At the side of the bar counter sat a man wearing a pointed, hard black hat and an asymmetrical coat. He had a decent appearance, flaxen hair, dark-brown eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips. It was Viscount Mobet Zoroast of the Solomon Empire!

Seeing him, Klein immediately remembered the scene of this Dream Stealer rapidly aging, collapsing to the floor, struggling to crawl toward the elven singer Siatas, and taking hold of her hand.

All of that had been as clear as if it had happened yesterday, yet now Mobet had appeared before his eyes again.

Klein grew quiet and walked over, sitting beside that Mobet.

He did not speak. He knew Mobet would take the initiative to start a conversation.

“Outlander, first time in Pesote? I swear, I’ve never seen you before.” Mobet put down the cup filled with distilled liquor and turned his head to look at Klein.

“I come from the Nation of Frost,” Klein casually made up.

Mobet immediately burst into laughter.

“You really know how to joke. This place is the Nation of Frost. Of course, that was many years ago.

“Ever since the legendary King of the North was killed by some adventurers—no, heroes—there has been no more ice and snow here. Everyone thinks it should now be called the Nation of Neverwinter.”

Klein fell silent and did not reply.

“Why so serious? Looks like you have your own pain too.” Mobet sympathetically knocked the wooden bar counter, gulped down a mouthful of liquor, and said, “Let me tell you, men absolutely must not marry. That is the beginning of lifelong suffering! Do you know? Whenever she has even the slightest emotional fluctuation, she beats me up. She beats me when she’s happy, beats me when she’s shy, beats me when she’s angry—no matter what, she beats me! I’ve decided that from now on, I will never return home!”

He married Siatas? Klein was silent for two seconds. He examined Mobet’s face and discovered no bruising or swelling. This meant that the elven singer still knew men cared about face.

With a trace of sighing, he asked, “Then why did you marry her?”

Mobet froze briefly, then smiled bitterly.

“I came here following a merchant caravan. The first time I saw her, she was so beautiful, and her singing voice was so moving. It seemed to hide indescribable sorrow. Heh. However much I admired her then is exactly how much I fear her now! I will absolutely not go back. Hey, why do you look a little sad? Don’t feel bad for me. I’m already free!”

At that moment, the tavern door slammed open with a bang, and a clear, beautiful female voice shouted, “Mobet, get out here!

“I’ll count to ten. If you don’t come home, never come back!

“Ten, nine…”

Mobet sprang up and ran toward the door, muttering as he ran, “I know you don’t have the patience. Every time, after counting to eight, you jump straight to two!”

Klein turned his body sideways and saw Siatas’s figure, but he no longer had any desire to communicate with her as before.

The real Mobet and Siatas were already dead. Those alive here were only two characters from the book world.

Standing, Klein left the tavern and entered an unoccupied alley nearby, intending first to confirm what the spirit world here looked like.

Inside his mind, he rapidly sketched sphere after sphere of layered light. His thoughts gradually emptied, and his body and mind grew tranquil.

As his spirituality extended little by little, many indescribable illusory figures appeared around him, but high above there were not the seven pure lights of different colors that contained countless knowledge.

“No Seven Lights… The number of spirit world creatures is also not high enough… As expected, this is a false spirit world built by the book itself…” Klein took one step inside and felt the colors before him suddenly become vivid, intense to the extreme, stacked together in clearly defined layers.

He did not rush to explore this spirit world. Instead, he withdrew from it and wandered through Pesote City, chatting with people.

Before long, he found Groselle’s residence.

This giant operated a blacksmith shop, and at that moment, he was leisurely lying on the large bed on the second floor, taking an afternoon nap.

Klein directly passed through the wall and arrived beside Groselle.

He studied the giant for several seconds, then took the Nightmare Beyonder characteristic out from his spirit body and rather awkwardly used the abilities naturally contained within it.

Deep, tranquil darkness swiftly spread, enveloping both Klein and Groselle at once. In his spirit-body state, Klein directly saw an irregular, hazy ball of light.

His spirituality immediately spread toward it and touched that ball of light.

All kinds of scattered, fragmented scenes instantly appeared around him and flashed past. In the end, they froze outside a forest whose trees were enormous and towering, yet decayed and withered. On the other side, opposite the forest, mountains stood, cliffs were steep, and atop them was a magnificent, grand palace complex.

That palace complex was tall and splendid. It clearly had not been built for humans, giving people the direct impression that it came from myth. And the twilight glow falling upon it seemed almost solidified.

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

However, his current perspective was entirely different from before. His present location was behind the King’s Court!