Chapter 183: Attic Moonlight and Attribute Specialty

Not footsteps,

And it was probably not any language he had ever heard.

The sound coming from the end of the street was more like the movement made when hard objects rubbed and collided, carved and knocked.

Xia Nan stood in place, carefully feeling the details in it.

It had to be said that in such a cold and dead silent environment where even bird chirps and dog barks could not be heard.

Suddenly doing this, it really made people feel creepy in their hearts.

On the other hand, as an adventurer who had experienced several missions, Xia Nan also knew very well.

In an unfamiliar environment he was not familiar with, it was best not to be too curious about the weird movements coming from unknown places.

Leaving the team alone to find the source of the sound was even a strictly prohibited matter.

But the situation was special right now, and along the way, except for this sound, Xia Nan didn't find any useful clues that could help him get out of trouble.

Even the Adventurer Association in his plan... he had already searched it once, and the results were all seen.

That was, his body's ability to act was restored, including 【Gravity Control】, his various combat skills could still be used normally, and he could freely summon the attribute panel.

Giving him a bit more confidence.

If it were an ordinary person, not to mention the blonde elf with a creepy appearance and weird power before, suddenly being teleported to this kind of place, not to mention collapsing on the spot, it would definitely be headless, panicked, and flustered.

How could he be like him now, calmly analyzing his own situation and looking for a way to get out of trouble.

A flash of thought flashed in his eyes.

Xia Nan tightened his sword hilt, his gaze looking toward the end of the street, the direction the sound came from, and he had already made a decision in his heart.

Still maintaining vigilance and defense, his body tensed, and he moved his steps.

Hegu Town could not be counted as a large town, its area was even smaller than one city district of Niumu.

The area where the Adventurer Association was located was even closer to the core position of the small town.

But even so, from the front of the Association to the square in the center of the town, Xia Nan, whose attention was highly concentrated and always maintained vigilance, still walked for several dozen minutes.

"Clatter... tap..."

The weird noise in the air became increasingly clear.

Pitch-black eyes followed the direction the sound came from.

What came into view was a dark brown wooden climbing ladder.

There was nothing special about its appearance, and it even appeared somewhat simple.

There was no carving decoration, it was simply composed of hard rods, and if one looked carefully, one could even see the wood grain on its surface and the small wood thorns that had not been cleaned up.

One could find a similar style in any ordinary family on the roadside, and it might even look more exquisite.

But strangely.

At this moment, this ladder, clearly without any support in front, back, left, or right, was standing abruptly as if it were placed in the air.

Even the base that should have been resting on the ground was separated from the stone bricks on the square by a gap of several centimeters.

Xia Nan could clearly hear the sound of hard objects colliding and knocking, coming from the air above the ladder.

His eyebrows frowned slightly, and his heart felt increasingly weird.

This ladder, standing in the center of the square, abrupt and extremely eye-catching,

was like a huge, unlabeled red button on the desktop, with even an arrow-shaped mark next to it saying "Do not touch".

Even if you knew it was wrong, you couldn't help but cast your gaze toward the other party, and an inexplicable impulse surged in your heart.

Forward, move your steps gently.

And suddenly stopped, fiercely retreating three steps backward.

Xia Nan let out a long breath, almost forcibly turning his gaze to the buildings on the side of the square.

To be safe,

Don't rush, just treat it as an alternative, wait until I have visited the whole small town, if there is still no useful discovery, it is not too late to come back.

Thinking like this in his heart, his body had already bypassed the ladder opposite and walked toward the other side of the square.

One hour, maybe two hours.

I don't know how much time had passed.

When Xia Nan returned to the square in the center of the town, the dark brown ladder was still standing quietly in place.

Casually flipping through a thin book taken from the bookstore shelf.

The yellowish-brown cover was clear and real, and one could feel the rough texture on its surface when rubbing with fingertips.

But the title of the book was like ink smudged in water, blurry and unclear.

The pages inside were turned into pieces of illusory abstract black shadows, and not a single word could be seen clearly.

Casually throwing it away, Xia Nan's expression was clear.

After such a circle, it further confirmed his previous judgment.

The place he was in right now was not the real Hegu Town, nor was it a complete reproduction of the real world.

But a special secret realm constructed with his subjective memory as the main body.

In the town, as long as it was a place he had been to, even if it was a bit blurry when recalling, he could see the texture on the surface of every stone brick clearly.

And the rest of the unknown places were left with only pitch-black.

Theoretically, Xia Nan could even follow the route he had taken and walk all the way to Kalanfur, or even Niumu.

But presumably the situation there would not be any different from Hegu Town.

Right now, wanting to escape from this illusory world.

He seemed to have only one choice left.

Pitch-black deep eyes stared at the ladder standing alone in the air ahead.

If everything in this world came from his memory... Xia Nan didn't remember when there was such a ladder in the center of the square.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward directly.

His right hand gripped the 【Green Pine】 wooden sword that was more convenient to exert force, and his left hand gently gripped the horizontal bar of the ladder upward.

His waist and abdomen were tensed, ready to jump away from the ladder at any time.

His right knee bent, his thigh lifted, and the sole of his leather boot landed firmly on the ladder bar.

His lower leg muscles exerted force, and he was about to bring his whole person up.

And just at the very bottom, the moment his left foot toe left the ground, which was the support leg for his whole body.

The encounter after coming to this secret realm from the Niumu slums appeared again.

Without any precursor.

The open square around his body disappeared in an instant.

Replacing it were multi-layered silk curtains pulled tightly, not leaking a bit of light from outside, and marble walls decorated with cold lamps on both sides.

A small room.

The clock hands hanging on the wall stopped in place;

Fine stone powder scattered like early snow on the surface of the dark teak floor, the unfinished plaster statue could not see the specific shape, and under the dim shroud, only its human-like limbs could be vaguely distinguished;

Triangle files, round-mouth axes, steel carving knives, tools with strong directionality were messily pressed on a few rolls of sandpaper stained with paint, and a small iron bucket was falling next to it, where one could see the brushes placed diagonally inside.

"A studio for carving."

This was Xia Nan's first impression after coming to this room from the Hegu Town illusion.

He subconsciously wanted to leave the ladder and search carefully.

But the thought had just arisen, and before it could be transmitted along the nerves to drive the flesh,

Xia Nan suddenly discovered.

He, seemed to have lost control of his body again.

Just like when he faced the blonde elf before.

"Clatter, tap, clatter..."

The sound of hard objects colliding rang out above his head again, as if urging him.

And the body that was invisibly restricted and unable to break away, as if by instinct, climbed up along the ladder.

One step, two steps, three steps...

His footsteps landing on the ladder bar were like the hands of a clock turning.

The time in the room began to flow.

The multi-layered curtains that were tightly closed transmitted flickering faint light;

The stone powder on the surface of the teak floor became more and more, as if snow had gradually covered the entire room;

On the wooden table, various tools for carving swayed back and forth, and every time they swayed a slight arc, the traces of use on them became more;

The sandpaper surface was outlined and smeared with scarlet paint, and then crumpled into balls one by one and thrown under the table;

The cold light swayed violently, and the statue shrouded in mottled shadows changed silently, the originally blurry outline became increasingly clear, and the texture symbolizing hair grew on it, the narrow and long head could not see the face, only two fork-shaped protrusions on the top of the head extended and lengthened.

Everything, when Xia Nan took the last step upward, returned to silence.

The carved stone statue, reflecting the pale stone powder scattered all over the ground and the scarlet paint with strange colors, was covered with a thick white cloth.

And at the same time, Xia Nan finally climbed to the very top of the ladder.

Both feet landed.

What appeared in his line of sight was a narrow and dim attic.

There was no flame light used for illumination, and everything in front of him was hidden in the darkness, unable to see clearly.

The only thing clear was the friction sound coming from behind him, close at hand.

Turned around.

Soft moonlight shone down obliquely from the only small window in the attic, dark green powder scattered down, gently floating slowly, as if to dissolve under the moonlight;

The fair back of his hand stood out with veins when exerting force, and his thumb pushed steadily along the knife spine, leaving a smooth and natural line on the surface of the wooden carving.

The moonlight was only a small pinch, barely illuminating the gradually taking shape wooden carving and the hands that were carving.

As if some kind of natural spotlight, Xia Nan instinctively focused his gaze on it.

"It's the 【Sheep-Deer Statue】."

Even though it was not completed itself, the strange appearance of the human body, sheep head, and deer horns, and the rich exotic style that was simple, natural, and extremely harmonious, still made Xia Nan recognize the other party at first glance.

"So, those statues in Niumu City were all carved by him?"

Recalling the workshop that changed with time during the ladder climbing process, Xia Nan guessed in his heart.

His gaze subconsciously looked upward along the fair and slender hands under the moonlight.

Forearm, shoulder, neck... to the final cheek.

The light in the attic was already dark, plus the sitting posture of the other party facing away from the side, made him only see a few blurry virtual shadow outlines.

Xia Nan tried hard to widen his eyes, as if wanting to see the other party's appearance under the shroud of shadow.

But the next second, as if noticing his gaze.

That pitch-black figure suddenly turned his head!

Buzz—

His brain went blank in an instant, and the consciousness that had already dissipated during the ladder climbing process was instantly washed away.

The buzzing sound echoed continuously in the cranial cavity, and the intertwined thoughts were straightened and thrown into the void.

Xia Nan didn't see the other party's appearance clearly.

The moment the black shadow turned his head, all his cognition was distorted and deformed in countless bizarre scenes, turning into indescribable nothingness.

The perspective was infinitely magnified, passing through the moonlight and powder, and thrown into the depths of the folds in the finest part of the wooden wall.

Mold spots grew in reverse in the shadows of the attic, turning into annual rings like whirlpools, impacting and swallowing his spirit.

Sink, sink.

Absurd and illusory fragmented images were rolled and wrapped by the annual rings, brought out from the depths of memory.

The deep shadows swimming past the bottom of the water pool, the slender antennae of the grasshopper, the soft call of the hazy dream...

Xia Nan only felt that his soul and consciousness were driven by these long-forgotten weird memory fragments, like a tide, pushed toward somewhere.

He didn't know what he was facing, and he could no longer realize the situation right now.

Under the invisible and huge impact, his completely shattered spirit made him unable to concentrate at all to think.

In this case, what remained was only the biological instinct to survive.

Just like a small boat lost in a storm, rising and falling in the surging waves, as if it would be swallowed by the sea in the next second, but it was stubbornly floating on the water surface.

Protecting the little flame symbolizing "True Self" in the deepest part of the heart.

It could be a hundred years, perhaps not even half a second.

The perception of time and space had completely dissipated in the scattered consciousness.

Not fainting, but not awake either.

Xia Nan just stood there quietly, like a reef on the shore, enduring the impact of wave after wave.

I don't know how long it had passed.

When those fragmented images rolled out by the annual rings returned to the depths of memory;

When the sea waves that kept washing his consciousness retreated slowly.

Everything returned to nothingness.

In the deep, lightless darkness, only a little flame that was the most fragile and the most tenacious remained, swaying silently.

Whoosh—

What woke Xia Nan up was a cold wind that blew past abruptly.

Like starlight condensing into points, the shattered consciousness stuck together and gathered again, and became more tenacious;

The spirit that guarded the heart under the boundless wind and waves also became increasingly solid in the invisible.

His chest heaved, breathing, and what poured into his nasal cavity was air that was slightly smelly but exceptionally real;

The surface of his skin felt the icy coldness of the night airflow, and in his ears was the whistling sound of the night wind from an unknown place in the distance.

His senses gradually recovered.

Xia Nan opened his eyes slowly, his expression dazed.

As if he had a dream.

What came into view was not the cramped attic shrouded in shadows, nor the Hegu Town that was revealed to be illusory everywhere.

But the crowded and dilapidated slum old houses, the barren abandoned open space with traces of battle left, and the stout bear skeleton lying on the open space, clean and pale.

In his line of sight, translucent characters jumped and flashed past.

"Charisma +1"

"Perception +3"

"Specialty 【Directly Facing the Abyss】 unlocked."

"..."

Xia Nan stared at the darkness in front of him.

There was no sadness or joy on his face, and no emotional ups and downs could be seen.

Just standing like this.

For a long time, he let out a deep breath.

Raised his head slowly.

His gaze crossed the beast bones on the ground, crossed the dilapidated houses in front, crossed the blurry outlines of the buildings in the distance.

Upward.

Stayed in the very center of the firmament,

That full and flawless, emitting gentle clear radiance,

——The quiet and bright silver moon.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 184 =====