Chapter 185: The Tempting Mushroom

Chapter 185: The Tempting Mushroom

Dark?

Derrick immediately pictured him in his mind.

He was of average height and slightly plump. His strength was his strong suit. He was optimistic and cheerful, a youth with a brilliant smile. He had been Derrick’s classmate in general education and his teammate in the patrol squad.

But after returning from the exploration of the half-destroyed temple of the Fallen Creator, Dark had become gloomy and reserved. No matter who he faced, he only smiled.

The moment Derrick recalled the change in Dark Regence, a chill ran through him and cold spread over his entire body.

Why did he suddenly come looking for me? The quarantine was just lifted. Shouldn’t he have gone home? In an instant, many questions rose in Derrick’s mind.

All of a sudden, he thought of a possibility.

Elder Lovia knows that I suspect something has changed in them, so she sent Dark to deal with me?

Derrick was first startled, his heart filled with fear. Then, immediately afterward, he felt that, perhaps, possibly, maybe, this was not such a bad thing.

Mr. Hanged Man said, “If you don’t have suitable spectators who can testify for you, you may as well make use of the Beyonder monitoring you.” And right now, the monitor is in that corner. If Dark suddenly attacks me, it will inevitably expose the fact that something is wrong with them!

That way, even without using Mr. World’s item, the matter can proceed smoothly!

Derrick exhaled and turned to look out the window.

At that moment, the frequency of lightning had dropped to its lowest. Only once every minute or two would a bolt cut across the horizon and illuminate the sky. Most of the time, the entire world, the entire City of Silver, was steeped in deep darkness.

If he were home alone, Derrick would not have dug out a candle to light it. He preferred lying quietly on his bed, letting his thoughts drift without aim.

Of course, he knew that this was actually rather dangerous. Without light to slightly dispel the darkness, monsters might suddenly appear even within the City of Silver. However, Derrick himself was a Light Suppliant, carrying a certain attribute of light, so he was not especially afraid of such things happening.

Knock, knock, knock! Dark knocked on the door three more times, as though urging the owner to hurry.

He wasn’t like this before. He was very polite… Derrick was suddenly seized by a strong sadness.

He took a candle from a wooden box and placed it at the center of the table. Then he rubbed his fingers together, producing a golden flame.

The flame lit the candle, filling the room with dim yet warm radiance, accompanied by a faint, pungent smell.

The candles of the City of Silver were mainly made from grease extracted from monsters. Depending on their source, they produced different scents.

Drawing a deep breath, Derrick walked to the door with intense vigilance and opened it.

“Why were you so slow?” Dark asked with a smile.

“Looking for a candle,” Derrick answered.

He did not dare leave his back to the other party. Instead, he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with this classmate and teammate back to the table, and the two sat down across from each other.

“Freshly dried Doom fruits. Want some?” Dark asked with a smile, taking a small cloth bag from his waist.

Doom fruits were one of the very few snacks available in the City of Silver. They came from a plant called the Doom Bloodvine. This creature did not need light, growing by drawing nutrients from rotting corpses. It possessed a certain tendency to attack and was considered a relatively common, weak monster.

Each Doom Bloodvine produced many thumb-sized black fruits. They could be eaten directly, crisp and fragrant, but could not fill a human stomach or provide essential nourishment. They were only a daily pastime. The merit earned from a single patrol could be exchanged for several large bags.

“N-no,” Derrick said, shaking his head cautiously.

“All right.” Dark poured a pile of black fruits from the small cloth bag, picked one up, tossed it into his mouth, and bit down with loud, crisp cracks.

After thinking for a moment, Derrick asked on his own initiative, “Did you encounter monsters in the underground part of that temple?”

Dark stopped chewing and answered with a smile, “Quite a few, but none were especially formidable. We cleared them out very easily. That place has been destroyed for a very long time. The powerful monsters probably left long ago.”

He paused for a second, the corners of his mouth curling.

“We discovered some peculiar plants at the bottom of the temple. They looked like the mushrooms recorded in general education class. They were especially bright and colorful. The moment you saw them, they filled you with appetite.

“After confirmation, they can be eaten directly. They can improve one’s spirituality and strengthen one’s physique. If paired with roasted monster meat, they give off a fragrance beyond imagination.”

As he spoke, he took a mushroom-like object the size of a palm from another small cloth bag. Its stem was white as jade, while its cap was a crystalline, vivid red, dotted with dark golden specks.

Just by seeing the plant, Derrick could not help swallowing, as though he had already been hungry for several days.

Under the dim yellow candlelight, the beautiful mushroom-like object constantly shimmered with an enticing luster. It stirred the appetite extraordinarily, making it difficult for anyone to resist.

“Here, one for you.” Dark smiled warmly.

“All, all right…” Derrick nearly reached out on the spot, picked up the mushroom-like plant, and stuffed it into his mouth. In the end, however, he endured it and barely managed to open his mouth. “I’ll try it tomorrow.”

Dark said nothing more. He pushed the “mushroom” in front of Derrick and continued crunching on Doom fruits.

Derrick had to use enormous effort to move his eyes away from the “mushroom.” With difficulty, he asked, “Did you discover anything during this exploration?”

“Yes!” Dark stopped eating his snack. Holding a black Doom fruit, he answered with great seriousness, “We discovered many murals—connected murals. Do you remember the statue inside the temple?”

“Mm.” Derrick glanced at the “mushroom,” then nodded. “A huge cross, with a naked man hanging upside down and nailed to it. Its surface had deliberately been smeared with many bloodstains.”

Dark turned the Doom fruit in his hand and said, “The newly discovered murals tell us that the builders of the temple believed that statue represented the Lord who created everything, the omniscient and omnipotent God. They believed that the Lord had not abandoned this land. Rather, when the Cataclysm arrived, He bore the vast majority of our sins for us. That is why He changed from upright to upside down, from walking freely to being nailed upon the cross, and shed His blood in our place.

“The grace of God is as vast as the sea. We are not the abandoned. On the contrary, we are His beloved. Without the Lord bearing our sins and shedding blood in our stead, the City of Silver would have been destroyed long ago. Humanity would no longer exist!”

But in the outside world, in the Loen Kingdom where Mr. Hanged Man and Miss Justice live, there is no curse, no extreme darkness, no monsters deep in the dark… We are not the ones favored by God… Derrick silently refuted him in his heart.

“If that is true, then as long as we change certain symbols and the corresponding honorific name during sacrifices, we can once again receive the Lord’s response…” Dark began describing the murals beneath the temple without pause, speaking of his own conjectures, while Derrick realized that he was finding it harder and harder to resist the temptation of the “mushroom.”

No. I can’t eat it! If I eat it, I might become like Dark and the others, completely corrupted by the Fallen Creator and turned into a fanatical believer… Even if there is someone watching, they won’t discover anything… Derrick felt a surge of panic and knew that he had to do something to escape his current situation.

Drive Dark away and return the “mushroom” to him? But that means giving up this chance… This chance… Derrick’s eyes instinctively moved toward the dim yellow candle quietly burning on the table.

“I’ll pour you a cup of water,” he said after swiftly reviewing the plan he had discussed with Mr. Hanged Man. Calmly, he stood up.

Dark nodded while tossing the thumb-sized black Doom fruit into his mouth. The crisp crunch echoed clearly.

As Derrick poured water, he deliberately slowed his movements, lowered his head, and recited Mr. Fool’s honorific name. At the end, he said,

“Your faithful servant prays for Your gaze;

“He prays for You to accept his offering;

“He prays for You to open the gates of Your kingdom.”

Whoosh!

A gust of violent wind suddenly swept through the room. Under the influence of the incantation, natural forces produced an obvious fluctuation.

At the same time, Dark, who had just picked up a black Doom fruit, abruptly raised his head and looked at Derrick from the side.

“What happened?”

Derrick did not answer. One hand pressed against the Hurricane Axe, while the other reached into his hidden pocket and dispelled the wall of spirituality surrounding the iron box. The faint, indistinct ravings, the evil and depraved sensation, began to seep out in a vague, weak manner.

Derrick looked at Dark with exceptional vigilance and saw that his classmate and teammate’s expression had suddenly darkened. Threads of crimson were emerging within his blue eyes.

And in Dark’s hand, the Doom fruit strangely lost its black outer shell, turning a slightly pale, fleshy color.

That was not a Doom fruit. It was a finger—a bloody finger, a human finger!

The pile of Doom fruits on the table were sections of human fingers!

The brilliant “mushroom” had also changed. It was no longer beautiful, no longer shimmered with that appetizing luster. It was a piece of bloodstained scalp, still bearing short black hair.

Dark stared at Derrick, opened his mouth, and spoke in a cold, drifting voice.

“What are you doing…”

…

Backlund. 15 Minsk Street.

Klein had already slipped beneath his blankets and entered that warm little world. The moment he heard what seemed to be Little Sun’s prayer, he struggled out of bed, created a wall of spirituality, then took four steps counterclockwise and entered the world above the gray fog.

After sitting in the position belonging to the Fool, he did not hurry to examine Little Sun’s request. Instead, he neatly placed the Black Emperor card, the cut-out paper figurines, and other items before him on the long bronze table.

According to The Hanged Man’s plan, the scene in which the Sun stimulated those exploration team members into revealing their abnormality would take place within a sacrificial ritual. This way, when the matter ended, it would be very simple for the item borrowed from the World to vanish from the scene, leaving no evidence behind. Afterward, all problems could be pushed onto Amon.

At the time, Mr. Fool, Klein, had rather noncommittally agreed to Little Sun’s request to “simplify the ritual and perform only the key steps.”

Now, he waited for the preliminary part of the ritual to be completed, so that he could respond.