Chapter 54: Interpretation

Lu Mian rolled backward for a distance before standing up again.

That scream, which erupted instantly and stopped abruptly, made him feel much more at ease.

However, he didn't get careless either. He shouldered the hunting rifle and held the axe well before cautiously approaching the completely collapsed house.

Where the bricks, stones, and wood were stacked, dust filled the air and didn't disperse for a long time.

Standing outside, Lu Mian couldn't see the monster's body at all. This proved that the other party had been completely buried, and in the current environment, his sense of smell was also greatly weakened, and he even couldn't help but raise one hand to cover his nose, not letting it suffer the stimulation of dust.

Facing this situation, Lu Mian retreated seven or eight steps, maintained a sufficiently safe distance from the target, and waited patiently for the dust to settle.

While waiting, he continuously observed the surroundings, guarding against the shallow footprints that might appear suddenly and the various smells approaching rapidly.

Finally, the air returned to "fresh," and his line of sight was no longer interfered with.

Lu Mian approached the building again, followed the dissipating bloody scent, and found the monster that was pressed layer by layer by heavy stones.

Not in a hurry anyway, he relied on the "Hunter's" talent and, according to a specific order, moved away the stones one by one without causing secondary collapse.

At the same time, he was always guarding against the monster not being dead and waiting for an opportunity to sneak attack him.

Another heavy stone was pulled away, and Lu Mian saw the monster whose head and neck had turned into a vortex-shaped "mouthpart."

It was lying on its back, already pressed into a bloody mess, its chest pressed against its back, the "mouthpart" full of sharp teeth was stuck on the ground by a small section of a sharp stone pillar, and several of the deep black tentacles covered in meat membranes were broken.

If it weren't for the relatively obvious characteristics, Lu Mian wouldn't have been able to recognize whether this pool of semi-solid, high-viscosity meat paste was his target.

This effect was even better than he had expected!

After preliminarily confirming that the monster was completely dead, Lu Mian cast his gaze toward its chest and discovered that those three black marks were still clearly visible in this situation.

Very strange... Even in the mystical world, this shouldn't be common, right? Lu Mian, who had been crammed with half a day of knowledge by his sister, still lacked too much knowledge and could only make certain judgments based on his feelings.

He had originally planned to use the small knife he carried to peel off the pieces of skin where the black marks were located, but the trap's effect was too good, so much so that the skin on the monster's entire chest was completely damaged and pressed into the meat. He couldn't peel it off even if he wanted to.

After considering for a few seconds, he tore the inner layer of his linen shirt, pulled off a small piece of cloth, and placed it in front of him, acting as paper.

Immediately after, he got another strip of cloth, wrapped his index finger, and stained it with the monster's blood—as for whether this could completely isolate potential corruption and toxicity, he didn't care too much. If any problems really arose, he would just escape the dream. Anyway, the damage that could be brought to reality was very little, and he should be able to recover completely in a few hours or half a day.

Using the monster's blood as ink, Lu Mian copied the three black marks.

As he drew, he suddenly felt a bit dizzy, and there was a certain swelling pain in his temples.

According to the common sense taught by Aurora and the grasp of his own state, Lu Mian believed that his spirituality was almost exhausted and found the reason:

"My spirituality was almost drained just by copying these three marks?"

He was surprised at the strangeness of the black marks on one hand, and shocked that the spirituality limit of a "Hunter" was too low on the other, estimating it was only a bit stronger than an ordinary person with talent.

After resting for a while, Lu Mian continued copying, and it was only after three intermittent attempts that he finished the work, his head twitching with pain.

Bearing such a state, he couldn't do further exploration and could only put away the cloth, pick up the axe, and return to his home on the other side of the wilderness.

After walking out of the ruins and relaxing a bit, he suddenly had the feeling that the "Hunter" potion had been digested quite a bit more.

"It seems this was a successful hunt just now..." Lu Mian muttered.

His summary, which he had already experienced but hadn't organized, floated in his mind:

"Calmness is very important... Calmness is even more important when encountering prey suddenly and having no time to prepare."

"Observe the environment at all times, and think about how to utilize it."

As his thoughts turned, Lu Mian returned home, went up to the second floor, and entered the bedroom.

He forced himself to memorize those marks for a while before collapsing on the bed and falling into a deep sleep.

…………

When Lu Mian woke up the next morning, both his temples were still a bit swollen. This was a manifestation of excessive spirituality consumption in the dream ruin.

He shook his head, left the room, and went to the washroom to wash up.

When he went downstairs, he discovered that his sister had already prepared breakfast: toast with jam, sliced sausage, and rich, fragrant coffee.

"So early?" Lu Mian blurted out in surprise.

His sister rarely got up early.

Aurora retorted irritably:

"Now that you've discovered you're in a time loop, and the people around you are stranger and more terrifying than the last, can you still sleep well? Anyway, I can't."

"I can't even if I don't want to." Lu Mian comforted his sister. "At least you can sleep for real. I have to be busy in my dreams."

"That's true." Aurora picked up the coffee with half a packet of sugar and took a sip.

After waiting for her brother to sit down and eat most of the toast and sausage, she asked:

"What was the harvest from exploring the dream ruin this time?"

Lu Mian told her the whole process of his encounter with the monster, and at the end, said:

"Aurora, uh, sister, help me see what those three black marks represent. At the end of the Lent festival, the parish priest also had similar things on his body, and the quantity was even greater."

Aurora nodded gently and took out a fountain pen and a sticky note from the dark pocket of her beige waist-length dress.

Lu Mian brushed and drew, restoring those black marks not too accurately.

Soon, as he handed the sticky note to his sister, he "introduced":

"I only memorized them a few times, and I'm not sure if some parts are right or wrong, but some are definitely like this. Here, here, and here, there are no problems."

Just by restoring the marks like this, his spirituality was consumed quite a bit more.

Aurora placed the sticky note on the dining table in front of her and stared at it for a while before saying:

"These characters aren't any kind I recognize, and the corresponding symbols are also more twisted than those common in mysticism."

Lu Mian was just a bit disappointed when Aurora added:

"Judging from the influence of extraordinary characters and symbolic symbols on the surroundings and the traces of prying into natural power, I suspect this is an external manifestation of a special contract."

She pointed at the sticky note with her index finger as she spoke.

"Contract?" Lu Mian asked in return.

Aurora nodded:

"Combining your battle with that monster, each black mark should represent a special contract."

"The function of this kind of contract might be to help it obtain a type of extraordinary ability from certain Spirit Realm creatures, different-dimensional creatures, or extraterrestrial creatures. Therefore, the black mark on its left chest glowing brought invisibility, the one below the neck corresponds to the sound that makes people irritable, resentful, and lose their reason, and the one on the right chest has no performance. I suspect it's related to the 'mouthpart,' tentacles, or digestion."

"No wonder..." Lu Mian understood some details in the previous battle instantly.

He then laughed:

"The parish priest signed more than a dozen contracts with different creatures?

"What is this called? This is called everyone can be his father!"

"Strange description." Aurora muttered and said, "It seems now that the parish priest who fought you at the end of the Lent festival didn't even display one-tenth of his strength. The ability he obtained using the contract should have only used one type, and his body and spirit inexplicably lost control, leaving him at your mercy."

Lu Mian, who didn't understand in the loops before last and the last, now clearly felt the luck he had at the time.

He asked eagerly:

"Can I copy the contracts obtained from the monster and establish a connection with the corresponding creatures?"

He was very greedy for that "invisibility" ability.

"A contract is a contract, and a ritual is a ritual. Do you know how to hold a ritual?" Aurora poured cold water on him. "Even if you master the ritual, do you know what price this kind of special contract will pay? The parish priest should have completed it with the help of a hidden existence's gift..."

Speaking of this, Aurora suddenly paused for a second and said to herself:

"Why do the monsters in your dream ruin also have this kind of black mark... Did it also obtain that one's gift?"

As she spoke, Aurora cast her gaze toward Lu Mian's left chest:

"Could it be related to the black thorn symbol that locks your heart?"

"The parish priest also has it. Hmm... that dream ruin might have been created by the hidden existence represented by the thorn symbol. The key to breaking the loop might also be hidden there, or, under certain circumstances, reality and the dream ruin must do a certain thing synchronously to solve the problem..."

"It's possible." Lu Mian felt this could explain why the monster also had black marks and why that mysterious lady wanted him to explore the dream ruin and try to solve the secrets there.

He then sighed:

"Aurora, uh, sister, your imagination is indeed much richer than mine."

"This is the self-cultivation of a writer." Aurora smiled.

After breakfast, she let Lu Mian go to the study with her and taught him Hermes.

It wasn't until three or four in the afternoon that the two finished the make-up lesson, having only eaten something casually in between.

"Alright, you can go out now to find Pierre Béry for a drink." Seeing that the time was about right and wouldn't arouse suspicion, Aurora ordered Lu Mian.

Lu Mian said "Mm" and reminded her with concern:

"You must be careful."

His sister was going to take the risk to contact those three sheep to see what intelligence she could obtain.

…………

Inside that dilapidated two-story house where the shepherd Pierre Béry lived.

Lu Mian looked around and asked the old woman in front of him:

"Where's Pierre?"

The old woman was Pierre Béry's mother, named Ma Erdi. She was only in her early fifties, but because of hard work, she had many wrinkles, spots on her skin, and gray hair, looking no younger than Naroka.

"He went to the church." Ma Erdi answered.

Went to the church again? Lu Mian felt a shock in his heart.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 55 =====