Chapter 2126: Chapter 2126
"Poisoned wine? No, I'm immune to all poisons," Jenkins stressed.
"So even if you drink it, you will not die. You will only lose a card. Please, make your choice."
"Fine, then," Jenkins conceded. "However, since you said that if this card is guessed correctly, it gets removed from the round without taking effect, it must be a card that benefits us."
The living statue nodded and flipped over the card—[Path to Victory]. The card's effect was an instant win for Jenkins and the elf's side, and it was unique within the deck.
"He must have done that on purpose," Miss Silf fumed, turning to Jenkins.
"If I get the chance," Jenkins whispered in response, "before we leave this Mysterious Realm, I'll make sure that card-cheating bastard learns the consequences of his actions."
After the fifth year, the situation had become much simpler. The Kingdom's influences were [Steam Kingdom], [High Noble], and [Marriage Alliance], while its hidden dangers were [Pus of Man], [Doomsday Theory], and [Hallucinogen Trend].
Among these, apart from [High Noble] and [Pus of Man], the other three would all generate new cards during the year-end summary. The new cards were [Infrastructure Upgrade (Steam)], [Unexpected Steam Tech Inspiration], [Maintain Stability] (two cards), and [Out of Control].
The first four required little explanation, but the last one was a card that had to be played in the following year. If it remained in their hand, it would add a new hidden danger to the kingdom in the seventh year.
The card's effect, before the game concluded, was to drastically increase the probability of a [Kingdom Riot] event. After a brief discussion, Jenkins and Miss Silf decided to play it in the fourth season of the sixth year.
The end of the fifth year's summary meant that black dust once again drifted from the table, settling on the many wax statues surrounding them. Yet, it was less like the dust was settling on them and more like the statues were absorbing it, as their surfaces remained spotless, showing no black traces.
"Can we pause the game? I'd like to take a break," Jenkins asked suddenly after the summary. Judging by its expression, the living statue was reluctant to agree, but bound by the fundamental rules of the place, it had no choice but to grant his request.
The two of them didn't dare stray from the light of the floating candelabra on the table. Instead, they approached the nearest wax figure, and Jenkins pointed to its neck.
Forcing herself to overcome her instinctual fear of the statues, Miss Silf leaned in and, with some effort, spotted a faint crack on its neck.
"The wax figure is damaged?"
"No, it's not that simple. Look closely inside the crack. Do you see something writhing in there?"
Since Jenkins had asked, she leaned in even closer to observe. The crack itself was incredibly fine, and it was nearly impossible to discern anything within it with the naked eye. Even with her elven sight, Miss Silf had to strain to make out the details.
There was indeed something inside the tiny fissure on the statue's neck. It looked like a black, viscous liquid, squirming ceaselessly within the crack, trying to ooze out but seemingly held back by some constraint.
The longer Miss Silf stared at the black liquid in the tiny crack, the more she found her gaze locked upon it. It didn't look terrifying or horrifying; it wasn't even particularly alluring. And yet, the elf felt as though she was looking at the one thing that most perfectly suited her heart's desire.
Her mind was calm, her thoughts perfectly normal, yet she felt an urge to touch it, to merge with it. But just as she reached out her hand, Jenkins grabbed her wrist.
"Look at me," he commanded.
The elf turned her head quite naturally and met his eyes, which held a faint trace of purple. A few seconds later, she gasped.
"Oh, what was I about to do? That black thing is..."
"Pus of Man," Jenkins finished grimly. "I'm afraid it won't be long before it erupts."
Like most Mysterious Realms, this one, themed around a card game in a wax museum, was not particularly large. Although the densely packed wax figures offered plenty to observe, a cursory look could be completed in a matter of minutes.
If one considered the direction Jenkins and Miss Silf faced while playing as forward, then the museum had tangible boundaries to the front and back—solid walls. To the left and right, however, it extended into an unseen darkness.
This phenomenon surely represented the boundary of the Mysterious Realm. To date, Jenkins had never tried to investigate such a border. The Church's records made no mention of what lay within that impenetrable darkness, because anyone who had ever tried to uncover the truth had never returned.
This particular Mysterious Realm, set in a wax museum, was intended to have participants use the power of the statues to enrich their decks while simultaneously increasing the game's difficulty. But both Jenkins and the ancient elf possessed decks rich enough to handle forty rounds, so they still had no idea what wondrous cards the statues might hold.
Before their break ended, Jenkins studied the statue of the flower girl. Among all the figures here, some looked as if they wouldn't possess much power—miners, flower sellers, newsboys, and other professions easily identifiable at a glance. In theory, very few would willingly choose such a statue as an assistant, yet now, it was these very statues that had absorbed the most Pus of Man.
Because of the World Tree, elven society was structured very differently from human society, which was why Miss Silf posed the question.
"Perhaps it's because these people live at the very bottom of society. They've seen the most, so their hearts are the most..."
He didn't finish, but the elf understood.
"When the Pus of Man truly erupts, these statues will probably be our most dangerous enemies, won't they?" she asked, a note of worry in her voice.
Jenkins nodded. "I won't let it erupt."
In truth, he wasn't so sure.
Due to the peculiar nature of the Calamity Beast known as the Pus of Man, this monster, born in some unknown epoch, had indeed left traces in history.
Before Jenkins entered the metal tower, the Church had given him all the information they had collected, including the story of the Pus of Man. Generally speaking, for those who had never witnessed its power, the manifestation of the Pus of Man was no different from a plague.
The Pus of Man would first appear in a single individual. When the evil of humanity fully materialized as a black, purulent substance and seeped out, it would spread through air, water, blood, and any other medium, eventually wiping out the world. The source of thɪs content is novｅlfire.net
People could never determine the cause of a Pus of Man outbreak, because once it began, there were almost no survivors. It was a complete mystery why it appeared in the first individual.
The only known rule was that once the signs of a Pus of Man outbreak appeared on a body, there was no cure short of direct divine intervention. It was an irreversible process, utterly terrifying and incredibly difficult to handle.
The seeping black pus would combine with intelligent life itself, mutating it into completely unpredictable monsters. In the later stages of an outbreak, even non-sentient plants and lifeless stones would become infected.
It was more accurate to call the Pus of Man a "Calamity Plague" rather than a "Calamity Beast." While a single infected individual might be easy for a Benefactor of the sixth level or higher to defeat, the characteristic of infection upon contact, with each infected person becoming a new source, made it no less dangerous than any other calamity.
And all of this was merely the surface of what the Pus of Man was. Jenkins hadn't even had a chance to carefully read the more terrifying data. This thing was distortion, it was malice, a disaster for all order in the world.
The game continued into its sixth year, marking the beginning of the latter half of the ten-year match.
This year, even with their best efforts, Jenkins and Miss Silf were unable to eliminate the influence of [Steam Kingdom] or the hidden danger of [Pus of Man]. The only thing they managed to do was minimize the number of casualties among the kingdom's populace during the four events, thereby reducing the amount of black ash that flew from the table at the year-end summary.
The four events of that year were [Parched Earth], [Kingdom's Legitimacy], [Falling Starstone], and [Forest Disaster].
[Parched Earth] and [Forest Disaster] were both natural disasters. The former was a drought during the spring planting season, while the latter was an event of excessive deforestation in the winter, driven by the development of steam industries.
Neither event was difficult to resolve. The elf's expertise in managing nature and the knowledge Jenkins had gained from the princess were more than enough to handle these problems. At the same time, the platinum influence [Noble Bloodline] flickered when Miss Silf played the [Nature's Faith] card. Although it didn't change the card's properties, it did increase its power.
Furthermore, after playing the card, Miss Silf suddenly looked up. This Mysterious Realm had a physical upper boundary—a white, spotless ceiling.
Jenkins didn't know what had happened to his companion, but he didn't interrupt her. Only after she returned to normal did he ask, and the answer he received was somewhat strange.
"I heard a sound," she explained. "A voice told me that three powerful symbols are needed to call upon the power of the elves."
"Whose voice was it?"
Thinking of [Nature's Faith], Jenkins froze for a moment, then pointed upward. "The Lord of Blossoms... or the World Tree..."
"No, that's not it," she said, shaking her head. "Although it was a female voice, I've never heard it before. It wasn't either of them, or I would have surely sensed it."
Jenkins guessed that someone outside the Mysterious Realm was trying to help him. But even if they had three symbols—a leaf from the World Tree, the ancient elf beside him, and his own cane, for example—it would be useless without the corresponding ritual.