Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 1013

The knocking continued. Here, in this Mysterious Realm, ordinary divination was useless. Not that it mattered; even if it worked, Jenkins had little faith in his own divinatory abilities. He wanted to ask the professor for his opinion, but the man had fainted again, leaving Jenkins to shout out on his own:

But there was no response.

After a long moment of deliberation, the knocking grew faint, as if the visitor was about to leave. Jenkins glanced at the wardrobe in the corner, then at the alarm clock with its nauseating expression. Finally, he ascended the basement steps, took a deep breath, and pulled the door open just a crack.

The scene outside was horrific. Just half an hour ago, it had been an ordinary apartment, but now the walls and floor were covered in a thick, pink, fleshy membrane. Black tentacles sprouted from every surface, writhing in the air.

A black spiritual aura permeated every corner, and even the person who had been knocking emanated the same dark glow. He was a portly, middle-aged man dressed like a merchant, but it was the hat on his head—a hat with a human face on it—that spoke, not the expressionless man beneath it.

"Hello. I'm a merchant who buys water. Are you interested in a trade?"

The voice had such a thick accent that Jenkins had to strain to understand what it was saying.

"What kind of water are you looking for?"

"I only deal in water with extraordinary power, or the blood of the living."

A long, slender tongue shot out from the mouth on the hat's face, as if to lick Jenkins, but a burst of flame from his pores halted its advance.

"So, how about it? Your blood, or your companion's, will do."

The hat spoke, its tone shifting to one of temptation as it added:

"Any amount will do. You can give me just enough to leave you with your strength for battle. And no matter how much blood you trade, that alarm clock will reduce the time..."

"You know what we're doing?"

Jenkins cut in abruptly.

The hat's tone grew strangely animated.

"I want to know what's really going on in this Mysterious Realm."

The sense of strangeness intensified. Something was definitely wrong with this Mysterious Realm.

"I can tell you, but you must trade with me."

Jenkins was stunned that the hat didn't refuse.

He hesitated for a moment, then took out the fountain pen he had brought down from the second floor. Unscrewing the back, he gestured for the hat to look at the ink reservoir.

"Does this liquid satisfy your requirements?"

The pen's spiritual aura came from the ink. Jenkins had originally planned to try and merge it with his [Creation Pencil] if he made it out of here, but that seemed impossible now.

The hat on the man's head wore an expression of disdain; this was clearly not what it had been expecting. But still, every little bit counted. After a moment's thought, the hat controlled the body's arm, pulling a hand from its pocket to take the pen.

It wasn't a hand at all, but something more like a claw.

Perhaps he had kept the door open too long, because Jenkins noticed the fleshy membrane outside was now trying to creep into the basement. Flames spread from the candle in his hand, enveloping the doorframe. It should be enough to incinerate any flesh that tried to cross the threshold, at least for a while.

Just staring at the scene outside for so long brought back the same wave of nausea and revulsion. He wanted to finish this transaction quickly, and it seemed the man outside felt the same.

"You're quite the miser. Very well."

The hat seemed to lose all interest in Jenkins. "This is the end of the world..."

"I know that. But is this a fictional apocalypse, or is it something that actually happened in the past?"

Even knowing that Mysterious Realms were just fragmented worlds, this one was beyond anything he'd expected. Jenkins was certain this so-called "end of the world" wasn't so simple. For one thing, he had never encountered a Mysterious Realm this complex.

"An interesting question. A pity I cannot answer it for you."

The figure outside shook his head regretfully, but to Jenkins, the fact that it couldn't answer was an answer in itself. It strongly suggested this Mysterious Realm was, in fact, a fragment of the past.

"But how could the world of a powerful being preserve a complete fragment of the past?"

As he mulled this over, the man, who had yet to leave, spoke again:

"But since I've taken your payment, I suppose I should offer a hint... If you truly wish to peer into the truth of this realm, you should consider what it is that's guiding you..."

With that, he turned to leave. A few of the tentacles on the pink membrane, seemingly not knowing any better, tried to reach for the hatted man, only to be instantly severed by an unseen blade.

As he struggled to shut the door, he heard the alarm clock announce another reduction in time. It was then that Jenkins realized what had been guiding them all since entering the Mysterious Realm: the clock.

"The clock... time... Could this Mysterious Realm have been created by some powerful being who governs the domain of time?"

It wasn't impossible. In fact, that would perfectly explain the origin of this particular fragment.

"A world where time is twisted could certainly preserve fragments of the past. This Mysterious Realm is a piece of some great past disaster, but whether it was an ordinary calamity during an Epoch or a cataclysm at the very end of one, I can't be sure."

Though he had no proof, Jenkins was already convinced of his theory. He sniffled, scooped up the cat that was guarding the miner's lamp, and prepared to face the next trial.

In truth, this Mysterious Realm was a little less difficult than Jenkins had anticipated, especially since he and the cat had brought down a great number of items from the second floor. In the time that followed, Jenkins discovered that each item was the key to solving a specific event. As long as he had the right object on hand, the danger was manageable. Google seaʀᴄh noᴠelfire.net

The male corpse in the corner cabinet, for instance, required the small statuette of the armless woman—a connection Jenkins only made after discovering an eye peering through a hole in the wall and promptly blinding it with a fire poker.

Once he adopted this way of thinking, the subsequent events became much easier to handle. Even when he and the cat hadn't brought down the necessary item from upstairs, his own strength was usually enough to resolve any incidents he couldn't otherwise manage.

Three hours passed in the blink of an eye. Thanks to the repeated time reductions, only half an hour remained before they could leave the Mysterious Realm.

Lying on the floor and panting heavily, a belated fear washed over him. If not for that extra black chess piece he had used to cheat, how would he ever have dealt with the chess-playing fiend that had crawled out of the sewer?