Chapter 2183: Chapter 2183

"The needle is only pointing in this direction... It doesn't have to be that table," Jenkins muttered, finding no sunflower among the wreckage.

He talked to himself again.

But in the direction the compass was pointing, beyond the rubbish heap of three tables, there was nothing but the refugees huddled against the ship's railing.

"No, it couldn't be on them," he reasoned. "That would mean I'd have to initiate conversation with a third refugee, and that breaks the rules. So... does that mean..." The most update n0vels are published on NovelHub(.)net

Carefully avoiding contact with the huddled figures, he found a foothold among them, gripped the ship's railing with both hands, and leaned out over the water.

The moment his head cleared the railing, before he could even glance down, a sharp premonition of extreme danger shot through him. He yanked his head back on pure instinct, just in time to see a slender tentacle burst from the water. Had he hesitated, it would have skewered his skull.

As he recoiled, his hand shot out, seizing the slender appendage. A dense fog now blanketed the world beyond the ship, and even with the tentacle right before his eyes, Jenkins couldn't make out its true form. It felt ice-cold to the touch. The thing writhed in his grasp—clearly alive—but its texture was wrong. It wasn't flesh, but something more akin to metal.

Beneath the water, hidden by the fog, a swarm of countless tentacles had emerged. They coiled around Jenkins's outstretched right arm, binding it tight.

They were locked in a stalemate for several seconds. Then, a strange, metallic groaning echoed from the ship beneath his feet. The vessel, which had been sailing forward, was now being wrenched off course by the tug-of-war between the man on its deck and the monster below.

"This is bad," Jenkins thought. "The ship can't go off course. If it runs aground, without the protection of the water, these refugees are doomed."

With that thought, his body instantly dissolved into a ball of purple light. The tentacles lost their purchase on his arm, and his greatcoat vanished back into his spirit. All they managed to snatch was his long-sleeved white shirt, which they dragged back beneath the waves.

As Jenkins transformed into light, his cat landed deftly on the deck.

A moment later, a small grey mouse landed with a soft thud in front of the cat. Thanks to the growth of the World Tree, his shapeshifting was no longer a formal ability but an innate talent, as natural as breathing or walking. He could now transform multiple times with ease.

The cat arched its back, dropping into a predatory crouch. Its amber eyes widened, fixated on the familiar mouse. But before it could even flick its tongue out, the mouse leaped nimbly into the air and, in a flash of violet-gold light, reformed into Jenkins.

"Alright," he said, a look of understanding on his face. "I think I'm starting to get the gist of this Mysterious Realm."

He mused, bending to retrieve his trousers from the deck.

Once dressed, he ignored the mischievous-looking cat for a moment and instead turned to fetch his fishing rod and line.

Clearly, the compass hadn't been wrong. The sunflower wasn't in the pile of rubbish, nor was it on any of the refugees. It had to be on the ship's exterior, perhaps lodged in the hull itself—which would still count as "on the ship."

In that brief moment he'd leaned over the side, Jenkins had felt more than just the warped spirit of the outside world and an inexplicable, profound terror. He had also sensed a faint whisper of natural spirit from below. The flower had to be down there.

The fog coiling around the hull was even thicker now; he couldn't risk leaning out again. His only option was to cast out the fishing line and gently probe for the flower's location. Once he confirmed its presence, he could fashion a tool. He rummaged through the ship's debris for some scrap metal, bending it into a makeshift clamp. With a few screws and springs, he rigged up a long-handled grappling tool. With it, he managed to pluck the sunflower from the crevice in the hull where it had been inexplicably lodged.

Thanks to his [Principle of All Machines] ability, creating such a simple contraption—barely even a machine—was no challenge at all for Jenkins. The abundance of spare mechanical parts and scrap metal littering the ship made the task even easier.

Despite his care, the retrieval was clumsy, and a few of the sunflower's leaves and petals were bruised. The flower greatly resembled a common sunflower, though in this world they were two distinct species. Jenkins could feel the rich spirit radiating from it; it was this unique energy that had allowed him to sense it through the thick fog.

With his task complete, he finally had a moment to scoop up the anxious, meowing cat from his feet and settle it on his shoulder. Then, he strode back to the little girl.

"Is this the sunflower?"

The girl took the flower from his hand. With a gentle brush of her fingers across its orange-yellow petals, she drew out a stream of golden light. The light flowed from her palm into the deck, and the strange glow emanating from the ship itself suddenly brightened.

Instantly, the thick fog around the ship receded, thinning enough for Jenkins to once again see the ghostly silhouettes of buildings on the riverbanks.

He let out a sigh of relief. This sunflower was far more effective than the extinguished lantern and looked like it would last much longer.

Its light drawn out, the sunflower withered in the girl's palm, its decay visible to the naked eye. She tossed the dead flower aside, and Jenkins seized the moment to ask a question.

"When I leaned over the side just now, I was attacked by some 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 was a functional item; it didn't count as the second flower for her.

So Jenkins performed the ritual a third time. Perhaps his luck in this Mysterious Realm was exceptionally good, because even on the third attempt, the ritual went off without a hitch.

The third flower was hidden inside the wreckage of a piano. The wreckage itself wasn't large, but it was completely encircled by refugees. They were huddled together in their tattered, filthy clothes, leaving no room for Jenkins to even set foot.

These people weren't "clean." According to the hint from the fish-loving man, they were extremely dangerous and best left undisturbed.

Jenkins considered using his stool to hover over them and descend directly onto the piano wreckage, but it was clear that flight was forbidden on this ship. The stool wouldn't work here.