The Era of Gods

Chapter 311: Assault into the Nightmare Realm

On the deck, all fifty to sixty crew members were assembled, including the sailors from below deck and the engine crew.

The old captain, holding a curved knife, looked intently at the three night patrol sailors, while the other crew members also watched them with guarded eyes. The three sailors stood there trembling, not daring to speak.

After a moment, the old captain gestured, and a sailor handed over a piece of cloth smeared with mucus. Tossing the cloth onto the deck, he said:

“Something mingled aboard just now, right among you.”

The three sailors looked terrified, and one of them immediately said:

“Someone was awake the whole time. If something had gotten aboard, I wouldn’t be alive, but here I am, still alive.”

He tore open his shirt to reveal his chest, and, subconsciously, everyone stepped back, raising their guns at them, even the two sailors beside them.

The sailor was startled and quickly looked down to see many blue-black lumps the size of fingertips under his skin wandering around. He let out a scream of terror as the small lumps stopped moving and rapidly converged into one large blue-black lump at the center.

‘Bang’

A gunshot rang out, and a sailor, in a panic, mistakenly fired. The steel pellet bullet hit the man’s chest and the blue-black lump burst open, spewing viscous black fluid and several thick, slippery, snake-like worms with the black fluid onto the ground.

These worms had no eyes on their heads but had a mouthpiece. They hit the ground, sprung up a meter or two, and lashed out at the people.

The sailors were startled and fired back, guns cracking loudly.

The old captain wielded his sword and precisely chopped three heads, while a one-eyed man standing to the captain’s left also chopped down two with his blade in a continuous motion.

At the same time, Lin Xiao, standing to the captain’s right, also cut down two with his sword in a continuous chop. The remaining creatures were killed off one by one by other nearby experts on the ship.

After killing these strange worms, everyone looked up at the other two sailors who were pale-faced and slowly looked down at their own chests. Just as they began to open their shirts, both shook simultaneously and stiffly looked up with open mouths, as worms emerged from their mouths. The worms looked around at the crowd for a moment before crawling straight out of their mouths and jumping away.

They didn’t jump towards the people, though, but towards other parts of the ship.

At the same time, the seamen uniforms over their chests swelled and rapidly blackened, and a swarm of the same worms slid out from under their clothes, spreading in all directions.

“Cut them off!”

A crowd surged forward and chased after the fleeing worms in a frenzy, ignoring the dead bodies of the two sailors.

As they chased, a few worms from the bodies slid out unnoticed, silently sliding toward the edge of the deck, blending in with the darkness, and no one noticed the few worms mingling with the black water.

Before long, the other worms were killed, and the three bodies were thrown into the sea to float with the waves. The Explorer continued on its way.

After about ten seconds, the three bodies moved slightly. Then their eyes opened, black liquid spilled from their pupils, and a sinister smile spread across their faces as they silently sank to the seabed.

The rest of the journey was smooth sailing, with no more unusual incidents, though several sailors kept making mistakes in their work.

When a stretch of bright lights finally appeared before them, everyone cheered—Pearl Island was in sight.

At sea, only islands with a Lord dared to light up on such scale. On board, it was forbidden to light lamps on the deck.

The ship docked, they sold their cargo, returned to their quarters, and after salaries were distributed, the old captain announced disbandment.

The sailors would now spend the next half-month in revelry, until their money ran out and they returned.

Lin Xiao went first to the dock, where he made a conspicuous mark. If any companion had reached the island, they would recognize it. He then went to the Adventurer’s Association Entrance, and the entrances of inns, among other places where outsiders must go, leaving a similar mark.

After that, the question was how to complete his mission.

If it was possible to do so while ensuring his own safety, he’d hunt down the Children of Nightmare that had descended.

Whether there were Children of Nightmare on this island or what they looked like and how to recognize them—these were unknowns.

Starting was the hardest part; he was clueless about how to begin.

“Let’s boost my strength first!”

When lacking direction, improving strength was never a mistake.

He checked his money, grateful that previously, before awakening, he hadn’t been wasteful. He had saved enough to buy some monster flesh and blood.

He hailed a carriage and headed to the market belonging to the Lord. The island had only two places that sold monster flesh and blood—one was the trade association, and the other the Lord’s mansion. The trade association had a wider variety, but the quality offered by the powerful Lord’s mansion was superior.

Logically, what Lin Xiao needed was variety, not quality, given that he had the Creation Rubik’s Cube for purification and enhancement, no quality could match up; he chose the Lord’s mansion mainly for safety and reliability.

After all, merchants…

The monster flesh and blood were placed inside specially-made, thickened glass boxes, which contained magic potion-infused ice to decrease their activity.

Although it was only flesh and blood, that did not mean it was not dangerous, some powerful monsters could cause death with just a glance, let alone their flesh and blood.

The glass boxes were arrayed on metal counters, each with a label detailing information about the monsters, such as size, strength, place of origin, abilities, and more, including what magic potion to use for assimilation and the method of absorption, all described clearly.

Given the danger of this world, humans needed more strong individuals to fend off danger, and in this respect, even the merchant guilds wouldn’t resort to deception.

With so many choices, Lin Xiao was in no hurry, he checked the boxes one by one.

The more he looked, the more eye-opening it was for him; these bizarre creatures had never been discovered in the Human Main World before, not to mention, in this world, the diverse, strange and evil things, Other Races, and so forth are quite valuable, especially important for Gaia Will.

If what they plundered was resources, what the gods plundered were Divine Power and rules, what the Powerful Divine Powers and the great entities plundered was the essence, while the Human Gaia Will plundered was the civilization and history from different Crystal Wall Universes.

This unknown Crystal Wall Universe was fascinating in itself, and now combined with the power from the Nightmare World, it has given rise to this magical world, which contains civilization and history from Gaia’s competitor, the Nightmare World. Should Gaia Will be able to assimilate and absorb this, it would be tantamount to absorbing a part of the competitor’s rules.

Once it has absorbed and deciphered this part of the rules, Gaia Will would have a deep understanding of Nightmare’s Will rules, and if these two powerful wills clashed again, Gaia Will, having grasped a portion of the Nightmare World’s rules, would have a huge advantage.

Correspondingly, if the Nightmare king earlier had captured and sacrificed the three Celestial Talent List Participants to Nightmare’s Will, Nightmare’s Will would have similarly gained some insight into the Gaia world.

After browsing several boxes, Lin Xiao lingered a long time in front of the sixth box.

This was a species from an aquatic Other Race with a colony consisting of countless sub-units and only one main body, like a beehive creature, looking like a slug-like soft-bodied organism. Although its body was soft, it was tough, not easily cut by a blade, but very vulnerable to fire and other energy-based attacks like strong acid.

Of course, if the weapon were imbued with energy damage, it could harm it.

What’s most valuable about this creature is its super-strong restorative ability; if one could acquire several types of Advanced Magic Medicine and fuse them with the blood of this alien species, there would be a chance to obtain one of its two most valuable traits: Body Metamorphosis or Regeneration Limb.

Regeneration Limb need not be explained—it’s a manifestation of super-strong recovery. Any part of the body that is cut off can regrow exactly as it was.

Body Metamorphosis means that like this soft-bodied organism, all the internal organs can metamorphose into flesh and blood and move freely, eliminating all physical weaknesses. Even if the heart or head is blown apart, it wouldn’t result in immediate death.

This kind of metamorphosis needs to be combined with super-strong recovery to maximize its power; if only metamorphosis occurred, even if vital parts were hit, although there might be no immediate problem, the metamorphosis would eventually end.

Even if the vital parts could be shifted, if the damage was severe and widespread, death would still occur.

However, with super-strong recovery, no matter how severe the injury, as long as the vital parts are temporarily metamorphosed to hang on to life, when the rest of the body heals, the vital parts can be restored, and everything returns to normal.

Lin Xiao purchased two portions of this creature’s blood, spending all the money he had planned for buying the blood of two monsters, and then headed back to his place.

In this world, nothing is more important than the ability to survive.

Back at his place, he threw both portions of monster blood into the Magic Cube Space for purification, then spent eight units of Creation Energy to enhance it, extracting its two strongest traits for individual enhancement, and transformed them once more into two clear jelly-like substances to consume.

As the jelly dissolved in his mouth, Lin Xiao uncontrollably swelled and turned into a small giant, and then his robust body began to soften. His firm muscles rapidly turned into fat-like softness, and soon, he was a three to four-meter big lump of soft flesh slumped on the floor, yet his will remained clear.

“Well, have I turned into a monster?”

With a thought, his bones and organs inside his body softened, turning him into a limp pile of mud. Using his hands and feet to support his body, he crawled, but not quickly.

“Next time I’ll have to fuse with a creature that has a different type of body.”

He had the ability to preserve his life in such a state but no fighting capability.

About fifteen minutes later, the meat worm reverted back into a human shape, and after Lin Xiao thoroughly experienced the two fused traits, he nodded in satisfaction.

A week later, Lin Xiao suddenly received a message from his father summoning him. He arrived at the 254th compound on Second Street to find that about half of the crew was also present.

After a while, without waiting for everyone to arrive, the old captain said:

“No need to wait anymore, the rest won’t be able to come back.”

Lin Xiao was quite surprised, but the old captain continued:

“We’ve just received a message from the Lord’s mansion that an unknown alien species has infiltrated the island through our crew. By the time they were discovered, hundreds of island residents had already died. Because of our mistake that led to such a massive loss, the Lord’s mansion has issued us a fine of two million Sol and ordered us to leave within three days.”

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