James and Frey looked at each other with strange expressions. It was the first time they had seen a captain with such a tone.
The dim corridor began to quiet down. Under the threat of invisible leeches, the air around them seemed to freeze.
Suddenly, Charles' shoulders trembled and he laughed, first a low laugh and then a louder and louder laugh.
Lily timidly poked her head out from the pile of rats, "Mr. Charles, what's wrong with you?"
Charles tried hard to hold back his laughter and turned away. "Pfft, Sister Mouse, I thought of a joke and asked me to tell you. It's said that there was a—"
Almost at the same time he turned around, the flying leech instantly appeared on the wall on his left, opening its ferocious mouthparts and biting towards the back of Charles' head.
Everyone widened their eyes in surprise, but it was too late to remind them.
Something unexpected happened. Charles' body suddenly bent as if he had no bones, and he avoided the monster's bite.
He exerted force in his right hand holding the knife, and the sharp blade stabbed directly into the abdomen of the flying monster. "Haha! I finally caught you! You can actually walk through walls!"
Charles' feet bounced like springs and jumped onto the leech's back, stabbing the translucent back with the black knife in his hand.
The flying leech twisted violently, making a sound, and Charles seemed to have a balance device installed in his body, and he couldn't shake it off at all.
"Want to throw me off? No way!"
The injured leech quickly shrank its head, turned around and spit at the human who had seriously injured it, and the pus-yellow liquid sprayed onto Charles.
"I've had enough fun, bye big bug!"
Charles grasped the handle of the knife that was inserted into the leech's body with his backhand and turned it hard like turning a rudder. With the sound of leather tearing, the handle of the knife and he moved along the skin from the leech's back to its abdomen.
The cut that spanned half of the body almost cut the leech in half.
The leech let out a huge roar, and its broken body began to become transparent, as it tried to escape.
But as Charles exerted force in his hands and thrust the handle of the knife directly into the leech's body, the bloated leech hanging in the air fell straight to the ground.
The moment the leech landed on the ground, Charles pushed his feet hard on his skin. After rolling a few times in the air, he landed steadily and posed like a king returning. "Isn't he handsome? Isn't he awesome? Where are the applause!!"
After posing for a few seconds and finding no one paying attention to him, Charles turned around and found that his crew members were staring with their eyes wide open as if they had seen a ghost.
"Ah, you guys really don't have any tacit understanding. What are you still standing there for? Go away."
The crowd finally reacted and started running, with Charles standing behind everyone and starting to bring up the rear.
As they got closer to the exit, the crew members turned back to look at their captain from time to time.
Dipper glanced down at the captain who was humming a song while shaking his legs, and said to the second mate Krona beside him: "Should we take off the mask on the captain's face? He seems to be a little abnormal."
Charles stepped on the ground, and the snow-white mask hit Dipper's face directly. "Hey! What are you talking about? I can hear you! Who will protect you if I take off the mask?"
Dipper gritted his teeth and stretched out his hands towards the mask on the laughing face, but Charles dodged it as easily as a loach.
Then he reached out and stuffed the wine flask into Dipper's hand, grabbed his shoulders with both hands and pushed him forward. "You go first and wait for me on the boat."
Without waiting for anyone else to speak, Charles fell backwards into darkness.
"Where are you going, Mr. Charles?"
Amid the shouts of others, Charles, wearing a clown mask, walked further and further away.
In the darkness, Charles muttered to himself, "Since this place is for studying relics, there must be a lot of relics. Haha, I'm going to make a fortune this time."
Humming the vague song in his memory, Charles walked into the place he had just been to again.
This time, he knocked on each door one by one, and if any of them moved, he would use explosives to blow them up.
Behind the first door was an oil lamp in a medieval style. Just as Charles was walking out with it, with his sharp vision, he noticed the notebook hanging on the wall.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, these guys are so thoughtful. They even prepared the instruction manual."
Charles took off the notebook and rushed to the next room.
"Hahaha, I'm rich, I'm rich!"
Charles, holding a pile of relics in his clothes, happily shuttled between the rooms, looking like a farmer harvesting crops.
Just as he put a silver tentacle ring on his ring finger, a red light suddenly appeared at the door.
"Aiya, you slug actually dares to come here. If I don't show you some power today, you will know how many eyes the Horse King has!" Charles walked towards the door with a dignified manner, holding the package in one hand.
When he leaned his body out of the house, his body suddenly froze. There was not just one monster in front of him, but a dense group of them.
They were crowded together, some of them with half of their bodies appearing in the ceiling, some with half on the floor. In the distance, a group of red lights flickered, making it look like a wall covered with neon lights.
When Charles saw them, the monsters also saw him. All the flying leeches twisted their bodies and the red light quickly disappeared.
Darkness once again enveloped the empty corridor. Looking at the empty darkness, Charles could already imagine the scene in his mind of invisible leeches flying towards him.
Without saying a word, he turned around and ran away. Before he had taken two steps, a ferocious mouth appeared out of nowhere in front of him.
Charles couldn't stop himself for a moment, and half of his body was already in the mouth.
Charles mobilized all the muscles in his body and twisted hard, finally getting out before the mouth closed. Although he escaped narrowly, his clothes were cut into several strips by the sharp teeth.
"That was a close call!" Charles, still in shock, did not dare to stay. He took advantage of the leech's inability to react and slipped out by sticking to its slippery body.
But this leech was just the beginning. The invisible leeches were faster than Charles at full speed, and more and more flying leeches appeared and attacked him.
At this time, Charles turned into an acrobat, dodging the attacks by a hair's breadth each time. With his extremely agile body, he was like a dancer dancing on the edge of a knife, swinging wildly on the brink of life and death.
Just as he dodged a ball of liquid sprayed by a leech, a big mouth popped up on Charles' right side. Charles stepped aside and barely dodged it.
Before he landed, a big mouth appeared again. This time, Charles, who was unable to gain leverage in mid-air, was completely helpless. He could only watch himself fall into the monster's mouth.
(End of this chapter)