Chapter 92: Try Again (Asking for monthly tickets)

"Sure enough, no matter where I fall asleep, I will wake up here." Lu Mian turned over and got out of bed, looked at the "Fate Hunter Blade"—no, "Fallen Mercury"—and walked to the window in the faint gray mist.

He rested his hands on the desk and cast his gaze toward that blood-colored "Mountain."

On top of the "Mountain," the mist was thick, layered, completely covering the "Giant" with three heads and six arms.

"I only took one look last time and it almost made me lose control. If I have to face it later, I really don't know what to do..." Lu Mian sighed with quite a bit of annoyance.

He didn't fall into such emotions for too long and soon broke free, because he still had many things to do.

Lu Mian performed that dance to lure strange creatures in the bedroom, letting his spirituality spread out amidst the manic and twisted posture and rhythm, combined with the pried natural force, and started "broadcasting" in non-specific directions.

Not long after, he sensed the approach of some things and saw the transparent and blurry figures of the mouthpart monster, the hunting rifle monster, and the skinless monster reflected on the glass window.

Lu Mian wasn't eager. Following the dance movements, he pulled out the ritual silver dagger and stabbed the back of his left hand.

A drop of bright red blood quickly overflowed, pulled by spirituality and natural force, and condensed into a round bead, embedded on the surface of his skin.

Those three figures all had movements, but none dared to enter Lu Mian's house and possess his body.

Lu Mian turned half a circle, raised his left hand, stepped, and shouted:

"I!"

He used Ancient Hermes, and the whole room seemed to have a slight shake, and the faint gray mist filling here rippled slightly.

Lu Mian used the ritual silver dagger to pick up that drop of blood and pointed it at the mouthpart monster:

"Command you!

"Come to my body!"

This was still Ancient Hermes, and the formless wind blew faintly.

The transparent and blurry figure of the mouthpart monster trembled significantly, seemingly lifted by an invisible person and shaken hard.

Just when Lu Mian danced the last movement and thought there wouldn't be any effect, the mouthpart monster flew into the house, landed on the ritual silver dagger, and swallowed that drop of bright red blood.

Then, it trembled violently and drilled into Lu Mian's body along the silver dagger.

Lu Mian couldn't help but open his mouth, and his mind was filled with thoughts like "So hungry, so hungry, I'm so hungry."

He hurriedly turned his body and looked at the full-length mirror on the wardrobe, only to see his face pale, stained with a greenish tint, and his mouth wide open, looking more like a dead corpse than a human.

It succeeded... Lu Mian was overjoyed, looking at himself in the mirror as if looking at a stranger.

Really a bit strange.

He endured the strong hunger and tried to sense the mouthpart monster possessing him.

It was like he had an extra brain, with the vast majority of the area filled with intentions of hunger, bloodthirst, and madness, while a few places had some instincts of using his own traits remaining.

And Lu Mian could amplify one of the instincts by relying on his will and spirituality, which was equivalent to using some trait or ability of the mouthpart monster.

Without hesitation, Lu Mian chose "Invisibility."

The next second, he saw that he had disappeared from the full-length mirror.

From his body to his clothing to that ritual silver dagger, everything disappeared.

Lu Mian walked back and forth a few steps, not finding any traces on the mirror and glass.

Of course, his footprints and his scent didn't disappear along with it.

Lu Mian inserted the silver dagger Aurora gave him and raised his arms, throwing a few punches forward.

Amidst the *bang bang* sound, the full-length mirror still didn't reflect him, until Lu Mian truly swung his fist at the mirror surface.

When his fist fell toward the mirror surface, his figure was instantly outlined, his face white with a greenish tint, and his eyes quite fierce.

"Magical... No matter how I toss myself, the 'Invisibility' effect is there, just that it can't be silent. But as long as I launch an attack on the mirror, 'Invisibility' can't be maintained... I thought it was optical invisibility Aurora mentioned before, but now it seems there should be occult factors involved..." Lu Mian let his swung right fist hang on the mirror surface.

After confirming the effect and limitations of "Invisibility," he could no longer overcome that strong hunger, *thump thump* went downstairs, entered the cellar, and turned over two steaks.

If his reason hadn't been there, seeing the dark flesh, he definitely would have bitten into it directly.

Thinking that he hadn't started a fire yet and had to fry the steak to at least medium-rare, Lu Mian gave up on this ingredient and turned to choose the cheese stored at home.

He didn't care about whether it was clean or whether it tasted good, constantly stuffing food into his mouth like a ghost who died of hunger.

After eating several pieces of cut cheese, Lu Mian finally suppressed that strong hunger a bit.

"It seems this is the negative effect brought by the mouthpart monster..." he evaluated seriously, "Fortunately, I can still control my body and haven't completely lost my reason... That guy does have an obsession for revenge, but it's tightly suppressed by an even more exaggerated fear... If I say 'leave' in Ancient Hermes now, it will definitely run faster than anything..."

At this point, Lu Mian completely confirmed that the negative effect brought by the mouthpart monster's possession belonged to an acceptable category, and "Invisibility" would become a sharp weapon for his exploration and combat in the dream ruins later.

This, combined with "Fallen Mercury," made him feel that his combat ability had more than doubled.

Lu Mian returned to the side of the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down, waiting patiently for the end of the possession.

Not long after, his spirituality was almost exhausted.

He didn't squeeze himself and stood up, dancing a few movements that looked very manic.

This was a set with the dance to lure monsters, and its function was to let the possessed thing leave.

Without needing Lu Mian to command in Ancient Hermes, the blurry and transparent figure of the mouthpart monster flew out *whoosh* and disappeared on the first-floor glass window without looking back.

"Don't run so fast, you're acting as if there's a cesspit on me." Lu Mian couldn't help but mock himself.

He initially confirmed that his spirituality could maintain the possession state for about three minutes, and once "Invisibility" was used, the consumption speed would be twice as fast.

Of course, this was only a normal situation. When encountering danger, Lu Mian could also squeeze his own potential to make the possession state last longer, but that was also easy to lead to loss of control, so it was better to do it as little as possible.

Although the mouthpart monster had already left, Lu Mian still had that hunger remaining, so he lit the stove and fried the steak he had just turned over to medium-rare.

Then, he picked up the knife and fork, cut, forked, and put it into his mouth with fast movements, only feeling that the juice locked in the meat was so delicious.

In less than ten minutes, Lu Mian finished two steaks and finally didn't feel hungry anymore.

Looking at the empty dining plate in front of him, he exhaled and said:

"Three minutes of possession, it takes at least two hours to recover..."

This didn't just refer to the elimination of hunger, but also included the recovery of spirituality.

Seeing that his current state wasn't suitable for exploration, Lu Mian found flour, sugar, and other things and used the oven at home to make cookies.

This, along with cheese, would become his main source of energy replenishment in the ruins.

If there hadn't been enough time, he would have planned to make some meat jerky.

—This was also food that shepherds often carried, and being in Cordu village, he naturally knew how to make it.

While busy, Lu Mian thought about what to do when going to the dream ruins later:

"Hmm, one is to go around that circle of 'City Wall', and two is to consider hunting the fire monster...

"Only by improving my own strength can I better explore and uncover the secrets of the dream..."

The fire monster showed strength of at least Sequence 7, and it was highly likely the "Hunter" pathway, with all aspects of abilities perfectly suppressing Lu Mian. He hadn't planned to deal with that guy recently, wanting to try to find a weaker prey equivalent to a "Provoker" first, but now, the acquisition of "Fallen Mercury" and the "Invisibility" ability made him feel he had a certain hope.

After his spirituality recovered almost enough, Lu Mian put the baked cookies and cut cheese into a cloth bag and hung it on his waist.

Then, he seriously wrapped his left hand with layers of white bandages and picked up the evil short blade named "Fallen Mercury."

After carrying the hunting rifle, tucking the axe, and bringing other items that needed to be used, Lu Mian walked toward the first-floor main door.

Suddenly, he had a feeling that he was a fully armed hunter, preparing to conduct a dangerous hunt.

Many thoughts floated into his mind:

"The preliminary plan is to figure out the activity pattern of the fire monster, then rely on 'Invisibility' to quietly approach it and use 'Fallen Mercury' to stab a wound.

"Before this, hunt a weak monster, strip away a portion of its bad fate, and wait to exchange with the fire monster.

"Under the possession state, I can't dance the sacrificial dance or half-trigger the black thorn symbol; otherwise, the mouthpart monster will immediately leave my body. So, how to pull away from the fire monster after wounding it and wait for the fate exchange to complete is the most difficult part of the whole plan. Relying solely on 'Invisibility' makes it easy for it to lock onto me through traces..."

Lu Mian hadn't found the answer to the latter problem yet, which depended on the collection of preliminary information.

Pulling open the main door and walking into the wilderness, he had an inexplicable premonition with these thoughts:

"If I can successfully hunt the fire monster, my 'Hunter' potion will be completely digested."

In the area where he encountered the fire monster last time, Lu Mian held the silver-black short blade in his left hand, carefully searching for various traces that might exist, and was on guard against sudden attacks at all times.

After turning carefully for nearly ten minutes, he finally discovered traces suspected to be left by the fire monster:

In the corner of a collapsed house, there were burn marks on a stone, and none of its kind around it were like this.

With one, there were two. Lu Mian soon locked onto the fire monster's tracks and followed slowly and cautiously.

When those traces became fresh, he stopped and started dancing.

PS: Asking for monthly tickets~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 98 =====