novelraw Chapter 220: Another Easter Egg (Two-in-One)
Chapter 220: Another Easter Egg (Two-in-One)
"Mhm, it seems we're already very far from them, it's about time to return from the Crevice."
Fisher's group advanced within the Crevice of the Spirit World for roughly several tens of minutes. The moment they were further and further away from the warships surrounding Saint-Nazareth, Laya standing at the bow sized up the situation beneath the boat, and then abruptly stopped brandishing the purple scythe in her hands.
At the instant that purple scythe stopped brandishing, the entire boat seemed to be jammed in place, no longer advancing a single meter.
Simultaneously, the indistinct stars of the Spirit World around them also became increasingly illusory, as if constantly distancing themselves within their field of vision. Obviously the hull didn't advance a single pace, yet the hull intensely swayed up, causing the passengers upon the boat to rigidly hold onto the hull beside them for fear of being flung off by this swaying.
"Ah! Sir Book is going to fly away! Help!"
Fisher grabbed that out of control flying Sir Book with one hand, while simultaneously lowering his head looking at the water surface beneath the hull.
His own soul, having undergone the enhancement of the Soul Completion Handbook, thereby became quite sensitive. Right at this moment he distinctly felt Reality currently producing constant pullling force dragging them to return from within the Crevice, just as if resisting their departure, impatiently wanting to grab the entire boat back together.
"Pfft!"
That intense swaying didn't last long. A few seconds later, the wooden boat seemed like having flipped an entire circle beneath the water surface returning anew to the ocean of Reality.
Fresh sea breeze blew over. The group hurriedly turned their heads gazing towards the direction they came from, only to see the massive blockade magic shield beneath the distant sky vault had already become so small within their field of vision it couldn't be seen.They had successfully escaped the encirclement ring fleeing Saint-Nazareth. All the guests couldn't help but breathe out a long sigh of relief.
"The ferrying service ends here. I cannot leave the door leaf too far away, only sending you this far. Niya should have spoken with you all about this matter... The rest depends entirely on yourselves, wishing you good luck."
Right at this moment, Laya spun the scythe behind her back, yet herself walked to the stern, incidentally using barefoot to stomp the wooden boards beneath her feet to remind,
"This boat will itself help you look for islands or ships around able to dock, however near Naris' offshore it seems there are no islands able to dock, therefore you all still better pray there are ships passing by..."
"Quickly leave quickly leave, I... mph mph!"
Sir Book was still shouting here and there. Deeming him too noisy Fisher again grabbed him in hand with one handful, forcefully closing his mouth.
Only to be seen Eimhart's mouth twitched for a bit, nobody knew whether he wanted to bite Fisher a mouthful. However, having struggled for a long time in the end he still chose to drop it, merely becoming somewhat displeasedly back to the appearance of an ordinary book.
A great book wouldn't bicker with a petty person!
Old Jack at the back cast a glance around, raising his eyes to gaze far away, yet only able to see the bottomless deep ocean around them. He again turned his head to cast a glance at the blockade shield erected by warships near Saint-Nazareth behind them, and then inquired,
"Wait, what if no merchant ships pass by? A problem occurred with Saint-Nazareth, people upon the sea should all know Naris' Navy is over here, how could they still approach towards this side?"
"Mhm... this is indeed a problem..."
Carrying the scythe on her back, Laya put on an act using a finger to tap her own chin making a contemplative posture, seemingly currently helping them consider a way out. But this contemplative posture merely lasted for a single second, her expression turning into a nonchalant smile.
She was seen spreading her hands, looking at the guests upon the boat and saying,
"But what does this have to do with me? I am only responsible for ferrying service, but not responsible for after-sales service okay? Requiring me to solve everything, could it be I still have to provide for your retirement? If there's truly no other way just pray a little, begging that whatever... Mother Goddess of yours to help you out."
After speaking these words, Laya subsequently waved her hand towards the people upon the boat, and then spun the scythe behind her back anew opening the Crevice of the Spirit World,
"Then that's it, transacting with you all was very pleasant oh, farewell."
Having finished speaking, her entire person smilingly fell backwards towards the ocean, yet didn't stir up a bit of water splash, just like completely vanishing upon the sea surface, leaving here from the Crevice of the Spirit World.
"You..."
Old Jack somewhat anxiously reached out, yet couldn't stop the departure of that Demon, whilst the three squirrel girls in his embrace were still foolishly waving hands to bid farewell towards Laya, adopting an appearance of understanding nothing.
Old Jack hurriedly looked towards the Fisher sitting at the bow of the boat, inquiring,
"Fisher, what do we do now? The boat has no food and fresh water, if we can't find merchant ships..."
Fisher didn't reply, merely looking at the sun above his head to confirm their approximate current position and heading. The orientation of Saint-Nazareth port was South. If they sailed following the opposite direction of the warships, then they would advance towards the depths of the Southern Ocean, but that would be relying too much on luck. They must sail to suitable shipping lanes within the Southern Ocean only then would there be a relatively higher probability of encountering merchant ships.
"Don't panic, Old Jack. The shipping lanes merchant ships sail upon the ocean are fixed, the risk of merchant ships taking unfamiliar shipping lanes is too enormous. Moreover right now Saint-Nazareth's warships are implementing military martial law, voyages near Saint-Nazareth generally will all be cancelled. Even if we encounter ones uncancelled they definitely are returning to Saint-Nazareth, we also fundamentally cannot catch a free ride..."
Fisher's excellent memory replicated a roughly precise nautical chart within his mind. He rubbed his chin, while confirming the direction, constantly adjusting the direction of the bow,
"Currently the maritime territorial rights of various countries are extremely blurred, therefore some shipping lanes won't be very far away from Naris' mainland. We have to turn a direction, sailing towards the southeast direction we can arrive upon a shipping lane of Schwari heading out to sea. Upon that shipping lane is it only possible to luckily bump into Schwari merchant ships returning from the Southern Continent... Of course, it's also possible to bump into pirates. However even if we didn't bump into a single ship it also doesn't matter, heading from this position there are still several archipelagos we can dock at, upon them are Schwari's supply stations..."
Old Jack cast a glance at the empty sea area around them, then cast a glance anew at that Fisher still turning the direction continuously popping out conclusions. He truly wasn't clear how he arrived at the conclusion,
"...As long as you know what you're doing, if we die upon the sea it wouldn't be fun."
Fisher smiled, pointing at his own head and saying,
"I've studied nautical charts in 'Military Geography' at the military academy of the Royal Academy, won't take the wrong path..."
But as he spoke, the confident expression on his face slowly faded. Because right at this moment he abruptly recalled the reason he had read this book was still because at the time Elizabeth's military final examination needed to test this subject.
At the time he had already finished reading the content of his own examination, having no other matters to do. But in order to accompany Elizabeth soaking in the library together, thus Fisher also borrowed a copy to read together with her, incidentally memorizing the content of her examination, this way what she didn't know she could still ask him.
Only Fisher hadn't expected, the knowledge he learned at the time merely for the sake of accompanying Elizabeth was now unexpectedly used upon the matter of escaping Elizabeth. This couldn't not be said to be fate mocking men...
Temporarily throwing aside the thoughts within his mind, Fisher actually wasn't worried whether his group could go ashore or not, because the sailing speed of this boat, don't look at it lacking a steam engine or other propulsive force, in reality wasn't slow in the slightest.
This wooden boat should be like the scythe in Laya's hands, also one of the treasures cherished by these two familiar misses.
Food could be caught going into the sea, fresh water could also use magic to filter seawater. They merely needed to sail roughly a day and a night to arrive at Schwari's shipping lane... the specific time Fisher wasn't too certain, because he had no way of estimating exactly how fast their current speed was.
What truly made Fisher ponder right now wasn't how to safely go ashore, but rather after going ashore what should they go do.
He sat at the bow replacing Laya's position, simultaneously looking toward the two ladies sitting at the stern of the boat.
Isabel seemed to have received a very heavy blow, pale little face not uttering a single word, merely hugging her own knees, just like a little hedgehog erecting sharp thorns. Even with her former good friend Jasmine beside her she also didn't say many words.
While Jasmine to the side cast a glance at Isabel, and then turned her head away anew looking towards the boundless ocean beside them, unknown what exactly she was thinking about.
But when she discovered Fisher was looking at her, she anew turned her head giving Fisher a compelled smile. The arc of that smile was extremely shallow, unable to cover the profound blackness within her eyes.
Fisher silently withdrew his line of sight, also sitting down leaning against the front of the bow, incidentally pulling out the Demi-Human Completion Handbook from his own trouser pocket. But this time he wasn't in a hurry to open this handbook, but meticulously looked at the book title upon the book speechless for a long time.
From the numerous matters in Saint-Nazareth, Fisher for the first time caught a glimpse of a corner of the organization behind Pherone and Erwind, the [Creator's Society].
First sorting out the basic clues of this organization. Currently the specific members of this organization are unknown, but the quantity shouldn't be very many, because according to Erwind's speech, once possessors of the Completion Handbook approach they will inevitably produce conflict, therefore between members they should maximumly demarcate clear scopes of activity to avoid producing losses.
Even more likely scope of demarcation was taking a nation as one member, or even more broad, letting a continent serve as the scope of activity for a member.
Next is, the structure of this organization is exceedingly loose, between each other basically no binding force to speak of. For example even if Pherone was killed by him, they could also let bygones be bygones and invite him to join anew.
In Fisher's view, actually they didn't care who possessed the handbook, but rather cared whether that person could obtain the knowledge inside...
Fisher furrowed his brows, again taking out the other Soul Completion Handbook, incidentally glancing at the Eimhart beside still lying there like a salted fish.
Speaking of which it's interesting, Sir Book wanted to read the content upon his two copies of Completion Handbooks, but Fisher discovered, even he could only vaguely feel the existence of this thing upon his body. Right now Fisher magnanimously took them all out yet Eimhart still hadn't discovered or rather couldn't see their true forms.
Besides the Demi-Human Completion Handbook, within every copy of the Completion Handbook collected a kind of exceptionally profound knowledge. This kind of knowledge had a theme; Pherone was "Lord of Souls", therefore possessed the Soul Completion Handbook, then Erwind should possess a copy of the [Life Completion Manual] in theory.
The members of the Creator's Society should be precisely pursuing the knowledge inside. They firmly believed through the knowledge inside it could lead them to arrive at the shore of truth, therefore all members took this as a goal crazily absorbing the content within...
But Fisher who had read the Soul Completion Handbook had already discovered the knowledge inside carried an exceedingly terrifying bewitching power, just like taboos unable to be accommodated by humanity. In the pursuit of these knowledges it was extremely easy to head towards the extremes of madness. The Creator's Society couldn't possibly not know this point. They deeply understood learning these knowledges possessed side effects, otherwise they would have long shared the knowledge inside together.
Fisher surmised, the Creator's Society definitely prohibited members from mutually sharing the knowledge within their respective handbooks. Because merely a person possessing a single copy was almost bewitched out of human shape by the knowledge inside, if one more copy was added ghosts knew what kind of shape they would turn into.
But the problem was, if Fisher wanted to oppose Erwind and ultimately kill him, relying solely on Eliog's "Death Rune" was entirely insufficient. His abilities were extremely bizarre. Purely relying on conventional methods was hard to cope with. Wantonly charging up like this was highly possible to anew sink into passivity just like when in Saint-Nazareth, even though it was impossible to have an Elizabeth understanding him so well to construct plans anew...
Could it be he also had to rely on studying the knowledge within the Soul Completion Handbook to grow his own strength, relying on madness to defeat madness?
Fisher pondered, yet slowly shifted his gaze onto the Demi-Human Completion Handbook beside him.
Since it too is a Completion Handbook, then it also definitely possesses its own special points. In the past it had once brought Fisher substantial enhancements, but quite obviously still lacking...
Or rather, it's not that it's lacking, but rather Fisher hasn't utilized it correctly, hasn't mastered its mysteries?
Thinking up to this point, Fisher's expression was somewhat bizarre, because no matter how you looked this Completion Handbook seemed like it was bewitching him to have relations with more different races of Demi-Human Girls. Placing it together with other Completion Handbooks for comparison was just like an ass mingling within a row of fine steeds, that awkward and lacking prestige.
But holding a mindset of researching, Fisher still resolved to meticulously observe anew this wondrous item constantly accompanying him.
He gently flipped open the Demi-Human Completion Handbook in his hands. Stroke after stroke of familiar illusory text once again emerged within Fisher's lone field of vision,
【Whale-kin biological research progress: 41%】
【Whale-kin societal research progress: 29%】
【Next stage research unlock reward progress: 50%】
That basically could be said to be yielding no progress research progress wasn't out of Fisher's expectations in the slightest. When previously researching Raphaela and Eliog it was precisely like this, just as if not producing deep communication with them wouldn't let your progress bar rise, and without rising to 50% it wouldn't bestow upon you the rewards of the second stage. And the rewards of the second stage were vastly more bountiful than the first stage...
And this was also currently the only method Fisher could obtain progress after obtaining the Demi-Human Completion Handbook. Every time contracting a new Demi-Human Girl thereafter he could also only obtain 20% of reward sweetener. And if demanding to rely on that method to expand the quantity of Demi-Human Girls reaching 50%... not knowing why, merely with Fisher just thinking like this, his spine felt somewhat cold.
Intuition told Fisher, continuing on like this he definitely would meet the outcome of a miserable death, moreover this fundamentally wasn't realistic...
Then, are there other methods able to obtain rewards?
Fisher continuously flipped the book pages within, reading the content of Demi-human Races already recorded above.
Recorded above wasn't the knowledge of the Completion Handbook itself, but conclusions obtained after Fisher's meticulous research within his mind. In other words, the content recorded on these required Fisher to gather himself, and then attaining the standard the Completion Handbook would give feedback...
Then if he attained other standards would it also grant rewards?
Following this new line of thought, Fisher began continuously reading the book pages within, reviewing anew the knowledge he had recorded once. But following the entire book being flipped through completely by him, he nonetheless obtained nothing.
Doubtful, Fisher once again opened the book pages from the beginning. The action of flipping pages stopped abruptly at the title page after opening the cover. His gaze fell upon it, meticulously sizing up the four lines of World-Ending Prophecy he thoroughly knew by heart recorded above.
Besides the book title and these four lines of prophecy, the remaining things the Demi-Human Completion Handbook didn't record a single thing.
But right at this moment, within the corner of Fisher's eye, he suddenly saw that line of squared text falling at the bottom right corner of the title page. That seemed to be the autograph left behind by the author of the Demi-Human Completion Handbook,
【Contributor: First of all I am not a Demi-Human Girl Con】
This line of text seemed as if having stimulated Fisher's inspiration, bringing a broadening of his line of thoughts anew.
Fisher abruptly remembered, originally this thing was non-existent, rather it was content unlocked within his own inadvertent groping.
Then reasoning by analogy, could there be that the Demi-Human Completion Handbook still has other hidden portions it's merely oneself hasn't discovered until now, and within those hidden portions are exactly other methods to obtain rewards?
Thinking up to here, Fisher hurriedly reached out meticulously groping every spot upon the book pages of the Completion Handbook, for fear spanning somewhere concealed some invisible button.
But having groped through several pages of records it responded not at all, making Fisher somewhat disappointed.
Could it be there isn't any?
Fisher's train of thought immediately sank into a predicament. Just amidst this constant swaying of the vessel, disbelieving the heresy he flipped open the book pages within for the third time.
Having confirmed there was no hidden content on the title page, he anew flipped to the next page. The content recorded on the next page was the first Demi-human he recorded, 【Witch】.
He looked at the golden text top justified left on the uppermost end of the 【Witch】 page. The font of that golden text was quite large, serving to lead the opening. But right at this time, Fisher abruptly discovered within there were some abrupt places.
That golden text occupied the left space of a line. However at the right side of the text "Witch" there was completely nothing, leaving blank a very long distance.
Could this represent the blank spaces left behind after the Demi-human species are for recording other things?
Fisher abruptly thought like this. Merely at the instant this thought had just popped up, the Demi-Human Completion Handbook also seemed to have simultaneously sensed it. The pages of the entire handbook began rippling with continuous streams of golden radiance.
Within Fisher's surprised gaze, that golden light once again constructed a line of sentence he was quite familiar with within his field of vision.
【Congratulations, discovered an Easter Egg!】
Within Fisher's "as expected" complaining line of sight, streams of golden splendor continued to flow, extending several distinct golden vocabulary words subsequent to 【Witch】, respectively being,
【West Continent Species】, 【One in Ten Thousand】, 【Beautiful Treasure】, 【Derivative Species】.
These abruptly arriving appended tags flickered with golden awn. Not only the Witch Species, the Demi-human species Fisher recorded subsequently also simultaneously began shooting forth golden radiance.
Fisher first ignored the implications within these tags, hurriedly flipping to the 【Dragon-kin】 column at the back. As expected alongside also appeared several tags,
【Southern Continent Species】, 【Beast Species】, 【Royal Choice Sequence】, 【Derivative Species】.
Flipping page anew, the tags alongside the Whale-kin behind were then,
【Ocean Species】, 【Beast Species】, 【Royal Choice Sequence】, 【Long-Lived Species】.
And among these few tags, the brightness of the text behind the Demon Species was the brightest, not only appending a line of explanatory text, moreover even the tag was somewhat different from other races,
【Only tallying true Demon Species, familiars and little Demons are all not within this list】
【Mythical Species】, 【World Destroying】, 【Royal Choice Sequence】, 【Long-Lived Species】.
Fisher looked at the many tags already recorded within the Completion Handbook. Waiting for him to reach out to stroke that tag, that tag then abruptly transformed into golden illusory text floating up. Not only did it introduce the implication of this tag above, moreover also recorded all the Demi-human Species categories similarly possessing this tag,
【Royal Choice Sequence: They formerly grasped the primacy within the disputes of the regions they belonged to, thereby crowned with a noble name】
【Contained species groups: Dragon-kin, Whale-kin, Demon-kin, Phoenix Race, Chaos-kin】
【Research all Demi-humans Races within this column to unlock higher rewards】
Higher rewards?
As expected, the Demi-Human Completion Handbook concealed other methods to obtain rewards. Fisher could through researching more different categories of Demi-humans to pool together a complete tag, and subsequently obtain rewards.
But the Demi-Human Completion Handbook doesn't provide the classification of all columns. Which means, only when you newly research a kind of Demi-human will it display the corresponding tag.
The quantity of Demi-humans inside some tags is extremely few. Such as inside 【Royal Choice Sequence】 there are only five Demi-human Races, whereas inside 【Southern Continent Species】 they reach a whopping over a hundred Demi-human Races. Comparing the two, naturally columns with fewer are easier to pool together.
But Fisher also simultaneously discovered, the fewer Demi-human Races contained within the column, the more bizarre the Demi-human Races inside are.
Like Demi-human Races such as 【Chaos-kin】 Fisher also merely heard it once from Eliog's mouth, completely oblivious as to where to search for them, much less an existence unheard of completely like 【Phoenix Race】...
Although there were still many obstacles, looking at that constantly expanding column before his eyes, Fisher's inner heart however enlightened broadly.
If they could obtain the Completion Handbook's enhancements through this additional method, added together with the 20% stage rewards when researching these races, then compared to the previous singular reward the extra wouldn't be just a little bit...
Simultaneously, this matter also anew reminded Fisher, the author of the Demi-Human Completion Handbook must be someone with an extremely bizarre personality, therefore only then could they come up with this kind of operation to tease the possessor...
Fisher, having obtained new discoveries, made some minor planning within his mind. He decided to first test pooling together the Demi-human Races of a tag to look at what the "Advanced Rewards" spoken by the Demi-Human Completion Handbook was.