The Master of the Strange Realm

"A mouse can actually spit out soul fire? This is really strange."

He straightened up and muttered to himself, and then sighed that the mouse's skin was actually harder than those fish just now.

"Is this also a manifestation of disaster? But the mutation of animals does not seem to be a strange thing."

Of course, he did not forget to pat Chocolate's little head to reward it for its timely reminder just now:

"Speaking of which, this seems to be the first time you take the initiative to find a mouse, right?"

Jenkins once threw a white mouse in front of Chocolate. At that time, Chocolate ignored it. He was really annoyed by Jenkins and kicked the white mouse off the table. This happened when Jenkins wanted to test Chocolate's attitude towards mice after he turned into a mouse for the first time.

"Meow~"

Because he really couldn't figure out Jenkins's thoughts, the cat could only call weakly.

In addition to cat-sized mice and mouse-sized flying cockroaches that like to pounce on the face, there are actually many good things in the sundries on the deck. Of course, there are no ready-made numbered items waiting for Jenkins to pick up, but there are some ready-made alchemy and potion materials, which are placed together with the sundries.

According to the rules of this strange place, the things on this ship should belong to the refugees huddled around. But no matter what Jenkins took, no one objected.

It happened that Jenkins had used up a lot of materials in the first seven strange places, and he got a little supplement here. Therefore, he had a new idea. He didn't know how long it would take to search by hand, and the fog around was about to gather. Since the compass didn't work, then using the compass with a special ritual of finding things might work.

Chapter 2176 Sunflowers and Cockroaches

"Finding things and finding people" rituals are not uncommon. Whether it is divination or non-divination, there are many similar rituals.

Jenkins didn't count on divination. His divination talent was really poor, and divination in the strange place usually only got absurd conclusions. As for non-divination methods of finding things, my father taught a lot. Although these methods are not very useful for spiritual objects, they are enough for the current situation.

The ritual of finding objects requires a compass or a guide as the core material of the ritual. After all, the results of the ritual must be displayed in some way.

However, the compass with numbered items cannot be simply substituted into the original ritual. The ritual needs to be modified. Although Jenkins is not a professional ritualist like Miss Magic, he is not completely ignorant.

So while searching for materials in his backpack, he was thinking about how to modify the content of the ritual.

First, use chalk to draw a standard circle on the flat deck, and then draw four small circles that are circumscribed to each other but inscribed to the big circle. The sizes of the small circles are not the same.

Then, put some dandelion specimens into the wide-mouthed bottle, add some vinegar as a solution, and finally add the wing dust of the lost butterfly and the nail powder of the alien treasure-hunting mouse. Close the bottle stopper and shake it a few times. Open the bottle stopper, stir clockwise with a glass rod, and recite the spell to bless the traveler in a low voice. Wait until the potion in the bottle turns brown, then use a feather pen to carefully dip some of it and write runes in the gaps between the small circles.

In fact, it is best to use a wolf hair brush, especially a white wolf hair brush, but Jenkins does not have this thing in his backpack, and it is a bit too troublesome to draw a pen, so a feather pen is actually a good substitute.

After the runes are drawn, the compass is placed inside the four circles of different sizes to point to the target; the flower specimens are used to illustrate the items to be found; there is a small pendant with the holy emblem of the sage. The pendant is not important, the holy emblem is important to ensure that the ceremony will not be inexplicably offset; the last circle must have no items, symbolizing the items that have not yet been obtained.

After these preparations are made, pour some clean water in the palm of your hand, and then carefully flick the water to the outside of the ritual base.

Jenkins then held the Star Demon Sword with both hands, the sword was vertically above the compass, counted five numbers in his mind, and then suddenly stabbed the tip of the sword into the compass, but stopped immediately before touching the pointer.

Obviously, nothing touched the compass, but as the tip of the sword pointed down, the compass needle automatically and slowly turned until it turned about 90 degrees and stopped.

Jenkins looked at the broken and lying cabinet that the needle pointed to, and knew that his idea was indeed successful.

The cabinet was made of wood. It looked like it had been soaked in water and chopped by weapons such as axes, but it still maintained its basic appearance. The outside of the wood had basically been soaked and rotten, but the volume was still quite large, with a total of four layers. Because it was upside down, Jenkins did not expect that there were so many things inside before he took the trouble to move it.

But the fire-breathing rat was not seen in the cabinet, otherwise Jenkins would definitely take revenge.

The cabinet had no glass windows, but exquisite carved wooden doors. The doors on each layer were not connected, and Jenkins was too lazy to use skills to open the doors that were stuck because of the deformation of the cabinet itself, so he destroyed the locked doors on each layer. Immediately, the smell of rotten wood rushed out.

The first layer, which is the bottom layer, is basically porcelain plates. Although they are all broken, it can still be seen that they were originally valuable.

The second layer is gold and silver knives and forks. Although they have turned black and dark due to contact with wood dust, and some have even been deformed due to being hacked, they are very valuable as long as they are treated by goldsmiths and silversmiths.

Even low-ranking nobles find it difficult to get a complete set of silver tableware. This can often be used as a family heirloom for nobles, and the plots often described in knight and adventure novels include the maids of noble families who like to steal and sell the silver tableware from their masters' homes when they elope with their mistresses, as living expenses for their future "happy life".

After opening the third layer, I finally saw the lying flower pot, the fallen fragments of the flower pot, and the cracked wet soil. It was a daisy that had already wilted a little but was still rooted in the largest mass of soil. The head inflorescence was yellow, and the leaves and petals on it were white.

It still felt alive, and the flower was still alive.

This was the first thing that went well since I boarded this ship. Jenkins tapped the soil carefully to prevent the daisy from getting into trouble when he moved it.

But he was curious about what was on the fourth floor of the cupboard, which was most likely from the kitchen, so he didn't move the flower first, but reached out and broke the door of the fourth floor.

"Huh?"

There was nothing dangerous on the fourth floor of the cupboard, but it was full of old books. Because of the water and the external force, most of the words and pictures on the books were unrecognizable. It could only be seen that most of them were chefs' recipes and a few account books.

Jenkins lowered his head to find something valuable among the rotten papers. Seeing this, the cat immediately stepped on Jenkins' shoulders, stretched his head and moved his nose, and then stretched out his little paw to point out what he smelled.

It was a diary fragment sandwiched between a few beef cooking notes. The person who wrote the diary was obviously not well educated. Among the few sentences that could be distinguished, almost one out of every three words was misspelled, and the correct ones were mostly simple prepositions and auxiliary words.

Because it was the common language of the eighteenth century, it was also possible to barely understand what the owner of the diary wrote. The general meaning is that the disaster has come, and humans and other creatures have been transformed into monsters. The most effective means to deal with those monsters is water.

"So, these refugees will appear on the ship?"

Jenkins said to himself, flipping through the pages of paper again and again, but unfortunately he did not read more useful information.

"So it is safe here for the time being, but there is no guarantee that the so-called monsters will not fly... Unspeakable things descend from the sky, corrode civilization, alienate creatures, and finally realize the doomsday. This is really a classic plot."

After putting away the pages of the diary, he carefully moved the daisy growing on the moist soil to the girl.

The girl did not eat the flower like the man who asked for the fish just now. She carefully used a metal blade that she didn't know where to take out, cut the flower branch in the middle, and then pinned the small flower on her collar. Then she ignored Jenkins, but lowered her head, fiddled with the flower with her right hand, and giggled to herself.

Jenkins did not disturb the girl's self-entertainment. He knew that there could be no normal people here. So he left quietly and continued the second ceremony.

At this time, the weak light of the broken lantern was almost completely extinguished. The terrible fog around the ship also had a tendency to surge back. It was too risky to find another flower now, so he could only choose to find the sunflower. But the sunflower didn't sound like an ordinary plant, and Jenkins was not sure whether his modified ritual would work.

Putting down the magic sword temporarily, he waved his right hand, and with the emergence of firelight, the spiral sword appeared in his hand. This time, the sword on the compass was the spiral sword, because the attributes of the sunflower were closer to light and fire, so it was more appropriate to change this sword for the ceremony.

The pointer turned and pointed to the pile of things on the right side near the edge of the ship. These were three tables buckled together. The largest one was about the same size as the desk in Miss Befanna's office. Although the other two were not that big, they were not comparable to ordinary desks or coffee tables. The common feature of the three tables was that there were many drawers, and because he had to be careful not to destroy the sunflowers that might be hidden in them, Jenkins spent a lot of effort to separate the tables with the sword.

There were a lot of messy things in the three tables. Jenkins even found a half-broken bird's nest and rotten eggs of unknown birds inside.

In addition, he was attacked by two cockroaches as big as ordinary mice again. But because he was prepared, he was prepared for the encounter before opening the drawer. When the cockroaches really came, flames spewed out of their mouths and wrapped the two big insects in it.

But the consequence of doing so was that an extremely disgusting burnt smell spread all around. Even if there was wind on the deck, the smell of burning cockroaches would not dissipate for a long time.

And after the cockroaches were burned, a pool of yellow-green liquid fell. The smell of that liquid was even stronger, and Jenkins could not compare it with any similar smell in his memory.

If he could not escape from the strange world, he would definitely not want to stay on this ship for even a second.

But unfortunately, there were no sunflowers in the drawers of the three tables. Jenkins, who refused to give up, even used his sword to break the table into small pieces, but he only found a love letter and a bunch of cockroach eggs wriggling like black sesame paste in the mezzanine.

The feeling of loss from not finding the flower was far less severe than the horror that the cockroach eggs brought to Jenkins. After he finally confirmed that there was really nothing in the wood blocks, he immediately kicked all the wood under the boat. He even threw his boots under the boat, and he didn't want to wear these boots anyway.

Hearing the sound of the last boots falling into the water, the tingling feeling of his scalp was slightly relieved, but he still felt itchy all over his body, as if something was crawling on his back.

He touched the chocolate several times to temporarily get rid of this strange feeling. But the sunflower was still not found, and the fog was already surrounding.

Chapter 2177 Weirdness in the River

"The pointer only points to this direction, not necessarily the table just now..."

Seeing that there was no sunflower in the table, Jenkins muttered to himself again.

However, in the direction pointed by the pointer, apart from the garbage piled up by three tables, there were only the refugees leaning against the railing behind the table.

"No, it can't be on them, otherwise it would be like me taking the initiative to talk to the third refugee, which is unreasonable. So, could it be that..."

He carefully avoided contact with the huddled refugees, found a place to stand among the refugees, then grabbed the railing with both hands and leaned out of the boat.

Just as his head passed over the railing, before he had time to look down, an extremely dangerous intuition rushed into his mind. Without thinking, he immediately retracted his head, and then he saw the slender tentacles piercing out of the water. If Jenkins had continued to stick his head out, the tentacles would most likely have pierced his head directly.

"What is it?"

After retracting his head, he immediately reached out and grabbed the slender tentacle. At this time, there was already a thick fog outside the boat. Even if the tentacle was almost in front of him, Jenkins could not see its specific appearance. But after grabbing it, he immediately felt cold. Although it was squirming and he could feel that it was a living thing, the material after touching it did not look like meat, but like metal.

Under the water surface that could not be seen in the fog, countless dense tentacles had already stretched out, tightly binding Jenkins' right hand that was stretched out of the boat.

A huge force came from under the water, trying to pull Jenkins into the water. His left hand grabbed the railing of the boat, but his body inevitably tilted to the right front, and the railing was about to be twisted by the power of his left hand.

The two wrestled with each other for a few seconds, and then with the strange metal twisting creaking sound of the ship under their feet, the original forward course was actually deviated from the correct direction because of the fight between the people on the boat and the monsters under the boat.

"No, this ship cannot deviate from the route. Once it docks without the protection of water, the refugees here will be finished."

Thinking in his heart, his body immediately turned into a ball of purple light. The tentacles lost Jenkins' right hand, and the coat was also taken back into his spirit, so he could only roll up the long-sleeved white shirt and retract it back to the surface of the water.

Because Jenkins turned into light, the cat could only land lightly on the deck.

Then, the gray little mouse smashed in front of it. Because of the growth of the World Tree, although Transfiguration is no longer an ability, it has become a talent like raising hands and walking, so it can transform multiple times.

The cat bent its waist, the front of its body fell on the deck, and its hind paws supported its body. Its amber eyes widened and looked at the familiar little mouse in front of it. But before it could stick out its tongue, the mouse jumped lightly into the air, turned into a purple-gold ball of light again, and returned to Jenkins' appearance:

"In this way, I almost understand this strange place."

He thought while picking up the pants on the ground.

After quickly putting on his clothes, he did not immediately bend down to pick up the cat who had obviously had bad intentions just now, but turned around to get the fishing rod and fishing line.

Obviously, the direction pointed by the compass needle was probably correct, but the sunflower was neither in the garbage dump nor on the refugee on the edge of the deck. The flower should be on the outside of the hull, inserted in the hull, so it is also considered on the ship.

The moment he stretched his head out of the ship, Jenkins felt not only the extremely distorted spirits of the outside world and an inexplicable great terror, but also the weak natural spirits from below, which meant that the flower was below.

The fog outside the hull was now thicker than before, and he could not risk sticking his head or arms out again. Therefore, he could only throw out the fishing line and slowly test the location of the flower. After confirming that what he was looking for really existed, he found some scrap iron on the ship and bent it into a clip, and used screws and springs to make a long-handled hook clip that could be manipulated, and clipped up the sunflower that was inserted into the gap of the hull for some reason.

With the ability of [Theory of All Machines], it was not difficult for Jenkins to make these simple machines, or even small items that were not considered machines. However, the mechanical metal parts that could be seen almost everywhere on the ship greatly facilitated his production.

Even if he was careful, the sunflower was roughly clamped up, and some branches and leaves were inevitably damaged. Sunflowers look like sunflowers, but they are indeed two different plants in this world. Jenkins could feel the rich spirit in this flower. It was this unique spirit that resonated with Jenkins outside the foggy boat.

After doing all this, he had time to bend down, pick up the cat that was meowing anxiously at the hem of his pants, put it on his shoulder, and then quickly walked back to the little girl:

"Is this a sunflower?"

"Yes."

The girl took the flower from Jenkins and just gently stroked the orange-yellow petals. A series of golden lights were drawn out along with her palm. The series of lights entered the deck, making the inexplicable light of the ship suddenly brighter.

The fog around the ship immediately retreated and returned to a level that allowed Jenkins to see the shadows of buildings on both sides of the river.

He relaxed a little. This sunflower was much more useful than the extinguished lantern. It seemed that it could last longer.

The sunflower that was drawn out of the light had withered in the girl's palm at a speed visible to the naked eye. The girl threw it aside casually, and Jenkins took the opportunity to ask:

"When I stuck my head out of the boat just now, I was attacked by an unknown monster. Do you know what's in the river?"

"Give me the second flower and I'll tell you."

The little girl said timidly. The sunflower is a functional flower and cannot be considered the second flower given to her.

So Jenkins used the ritual for the third time. I don't know if it was because of his good luck in this strange place, but the third time he used the ritual, there was no mistake.

The third flower was hidden in the wreckage of a piano. The wreckage was not big, but the problem was that the wreckage was surrounded by refugees. They were wearing tattered and dirty clothes and huddled together, leaving no place for Jenkins to step.

These people were not clean. According to the tips given by the guy who liked fish, these were extremely dangerous people and should not be easily provoked.

Jenkins wanted to sit on a high stool and land directly on the wreckage of the piano from above to search slowly, but this ship obviously prohibited anyone from taking off, and the high stool could not fly here.

Chapter 2178 Boatswain

"That's right. If a ship of this nature of a refuge ship does not have some special abilities, it is impossible to carry so many people to escape. After all, it is a disaster background, so it is right to be cautious."

Not being able to directly contact does not mean that you can't search for targets in the wreckage of the piano. Finding a bamboo pole and reaching over the heads of the refugees can also have the same effect.

Jenkins finally did this, but this method was extremely time-consuming. And the fire-breathing mouse that attacked Jenkins was actually in the wreckage of the piano. It suddenly appeared again and again to interfere with Jenkins, and burned the bamboo pole that he had finally found.

The mouse was quite agile and quite annoying. Unable to bear it any longer, Jenkins let the bamboo pole in his hand take root and sprout again, breaking through the growth limit of his own species. The top of the bamboo pole turned into a root-like object and entangled the mouse, and then wrapped it in it.

Jenkins didn't plan to do anything to the mouse, because his cat didn't have the habit of eating mice, so Jenkins threw it into the river, which was also a way to let it live. After all, he remembered that mice can swim.

So, after dealing with the unfriendly mouse, he finally found the target this time. It was a very beautiful and gorgeous blood-red rose, which was inserted in a glass water bottle. Maybe the water bottle was placed on the piano that had turned into wreckage before, so it came here with the piano.

After giving the rose to the little girl, the girl also proposed the information she could provide. Jenkins could only choose two of them:

"You can ask me why I am here; you can ask me about my understanding of the end of the world; you can ask where this ship will go; you can ask how to get more information."

The man who likes fish can choose two out of three, while the girl can choose two out of four. Just like before, Jenkins wanted to know every piece of information, especially where the ship was going. He was even more curious.

Before the girl mentioned this, he thought that this ship was just the place where the story of the strange world took place, but he didn't expect that this was also part of the background of the world.

But he had to restrain his curiosity and choose more favorable information. Without much consideration, he chose the first and fourth ones, partly because he believed in his intuition, and partly because when Jenkins was thinking, the girl who was still a little afraid of him quietly gestured one and four with her fingers.

[The Guardian of the Flower Girl] Although the scope of authority of the priesthood is narrow, it is definitely not completely useless.

"I can't remember the first memory of this disaster. After all, I was not old when the indescribable thing that descended from the sky appeared."

This means that the source of the disaster appeared several years ago, and the destruction of civilization was not without any resistance.

"He is very powerful. Not only is he powerful himself, but he can also transform life into his claws and transform non-living things into his tools. I have traveled to many places with the adults, and people around me have died one by one. Until not long ago, someone told us that civilization is about to end. The great thing that descended from the sky will completely take over our world and become the world he wants to see. The yellow light will cover everything, and the only way to survive is to board the 'Ark of the Last Survivor' and welcome the savior who also comes from the outside world."

"The background of this strange world is really interesting."