The gently rising and falling waves gently slapped the outer walls of the cabin. From time to time, a slight creaking sound could be heard from deep in the deck. The ship's lights fueled by whale oil were burning quietly not far away. In the bright firelight, pairs of eyes were reflected, some curious and some expectant.
Morris spread out the book about city-state folklore in front of him, relaxed his mind little by little, weakened the protection of his own will, opened his mind to knowledge, and let the power of the book permeate his soul little by little.
He could feel that his unguarded mind was emitting an increasingly tempting "smell" on this vast ocean.
A learner, a reckless and unguarded learner, opened his heart on the sea, and the hungry shadows roaming in the depths of the world must have noticed the bait - those blind shadows could not resist the temptation, but they still hesitated. Their barely rational minds, slightly enlightened by the pursuit of knowledge, had an instinctive resistance to the environment on the Lost Homeland, which made them hesitate.
But they will not hesitate forever - those things lurking in the spirit world, the abyss, and even the warp have no real wisdom.
Morris slowly turned a page, his eyes wandering over the words.
Folk knowledge is what attracts the most attention of those shadows. Folklore embodies the fear, awe and simple understanding of nature accumulated by human beings over a long period of time. It is a roughly processed human nature, sweet emotions and solidified knowledge, which is most suitable for these hungry knowledge pursuers to feast on.
Another page of the book was turned, and tiny particles of dust rose and fell between the pages as they were turned. The light penetrated the curved paper vertically, outlining the dancing light and shadow between the paper and the text.
The cabin was very quiet. The captain stood quietly on one side, looking at the open book, and Sun Fragment stood on the other side, paying attention to the movement in the air.
The invader was approaching. A group of complete bone fragments with no details to distinguish were scattered on the ground, and green smoke was curling above the bones. Some remaining green sparks were jumping among the wreckage, devouring the last bit of power left in the real dimension of the "Knowledge Hunter".
"I... I don't know." Alice shuddered for a moment, her voice trembling. "I've never read a book before, I don't know how to read, and I didn't even have much rationality before I met Agou. I don't know why a... fellow villager suddenly appeared."
With a happy mood and some expectations for the future, she walked forward and kicked the pile of white bones on the ground that had not yet cooled down.
Morris looked at the illegible characters emerging on the paper, feeling the power emanating from these characters that tempted him to read, and whispered, "It's coming."
... In an abnormal situation, if a person reading a book at sea is attacked by a dark demon that suddenly escapes from the book, there is almost no chance of survival," Morris said with a strange expression, "In a more exciting situation, the dark demon that invades the real world through that channel will grow rapidly and go out of control, slaughtering all the people on the ship in a short period of time... Not every ship is the Lost Homeland."
A beautiful hound-like creature made of white bones.
Then Shirley looked at Duncan again: "He doesn't even know that he is a 'hound chasing knowledge'?"
Shirley frowned. This development was a little unexpected, and the speed at which it started was also a little unexpected.
The invisible knowledge hunter finally couldn't hold back any longer and came to the edge of the real world. Its tentacles sniffed Morris' mind through the pages of the book and disguised itself as text. On the pages that originally had their names on them, familiar symbols gradually emerged.
"I don't know," Alice shook her beautiful little head and said in a muffled voice, "I've already said that I was in a daze before..."
A cloud of smoke poured out from the pages of the book. The words that had left the pages quickly merged into the smoke and roared out of the book, turning into a vortex of smoke and dust that rolled into the air. Then, something black began to condense and take shape in the smoke and dust, and in the blink of an eye it turned into a structure that looked like a skeleton.
A pile of extremely chaotic, twisted, black bone fragments fell to the floor beside the dining table with a crackling sound, and in the blink of an eye, they were pieced together and combined into something that was very unfamiliar to everyone present:
She walked forward, kicked the pile of broken bones that still retained some heat with her toes, and looked up at Duncan not far away.
Shirley smiled when she saw this.
Agou, who was on full alert nearby, was stunned when he saw that scene. He looked up at the people around him and said, "I don't know it."
"It's easy if you don't recognize it." Shirley said casually, and walked towards the Deep Hound, which had just formed a shape and seemed to be still in confusion. The latter finally reacted at this time. It raised its head suddenly, and red light burst out of its empty blood-red eye sockets. Endless black flames rose into the air from the cracks in its bones, as if to resist!
What is meant to come will always come.
"Alice, clean up that mess."
Alice frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly said, "If that's the case, then the Deep Hounds are just as illiterate as Ah Gou, so why are they chasing after knowledge?"
Skillful hunters often disguise themselves as prey, and knowledge seekers often disguise themselves as "knowledge" when luring learners. Reading about them is the first step to falling into the trap.
"Alice is also studying cooking," Shirley said casually, "Maybe it's just a hobby."
My "fishing" was successful. When facing knowledge hunters, using historians to bait the bait is indeed effective.
Morris looked at the next line of text and saw that the edges of the text were shaking slightly.
At this time, Agou stood up. The old scholar's steady voice finally helped Agou out: "In theory, the 'evil spirits' attracted when reading books are random. They are usually invisible shadows from the spirit world, but in a few cases they are 'demons' running out from the depths of the abyss. The name of the Abyss Hound carries the meaning of 'hunting' and 'chasing'. In fact, they are indeed a kind of knowledge hunter... and a pretty powerful one at that."
It raised its head, looked at the atrium path under the sun, and after a long time it let out a deep sigh.
However, its resistance had not yet begun - the moment the white flames rose in the Deep Hound's body, its eyes met Shirley's gaze, and the next second, every wisp of flame burning from its body was stained with a layer of dark green.
Good hunters often present themselves as the prey—but bad hunters actually become the prey.
Nina laughed immediately: "Oh!" This is just a heartless dark demon, completely different from Agou.
"A very famous one?" Shirley raised her eyebrows and subconsciously glanced at Agou who was shivering at Duncan's feet. "Really?"
Shirley couldn't help but shake her head with a smile, and suddenly felt that with so many more people on the boat, the atmosphere was really getting better day by day - now with this pleasant daily routine, she really didn't know how quiet it would be here after Vanna got on board.
This invader from the abyss lost control of its own flames in a second and became a sacrifice under the captain's gaze. Its chaotic mind perhaps didn't have time to comprehend what was happening before it was engulfed in the blazing spiritual flames. The shrill and chaotic roar instantly broke the peace on the Lost Homeland, and the explosion sound of flames burning bones and the strange tearing sound echoed throughout the restaurant!
As she spoke, she glanced at Nina:
"Nina, you can do your winter vacation homework on the boat from now on. There will definitely be nothing that escapes. You can just beat it up yourself. Be careful not to burn anything."
These are words that do not exist, describing knowledge that does not exist.
"Okay," Shirley nodded, quickly drawing a strength formula in her mind, and said in a subtle tone, "The invaders summoned when reading the book are definitely the weakest. If it's a 'hunter' like Agou, this doesn't seem to be very safe..."
The next second, the "Hunter" hidden in the pages and words seemed to suddenly sense something. A sharp and chaotic scream suddenly reached everyone's ears. Then, the pages of this big book went crazy without a name.
Flipping through the pages frantically, the white words on the pages seemed to have independent lives, jumping up and down, struggling to turn into ink, trying to break free from the yellowed paper!
"Why a Deephound?"
Ah Gou nodded, not quite understanding, and looked down at his partner, who quietly crawled under the table next to him, holding his head with his huge paws, and said in a muffled voice: "Don't ask me, I don't know anything... This place is too damn scary..."
What happened next was too much for Tian Chun to bear. His whole body was shaking as he held his head behind Ah Gou, shivering. He looked at the flickering flames in front of him and listened to the noises around him. The red light in his eyes flickered: "Oh...oh my god...oh my god, this is burning...oh my god, this is breaking bones...oh my god, this is howling...oh my god, I can't bear to watch this anymore..."
The restaurant fell silent.
Under the dim and cool sunlight, Vanna, who was walking in the church atrium, suddenly felt a chill and shivered subconsciously.