Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"Do you know that a fleet has appeared at the dock?" Shiller asked.

"Isn't it normal for a fleet to appear at the dock? Could it possibly be a caravan?"

"Really? A three-masted frigate?"

Old Silterk's eyes widened as he said, "What?"

"I don't believe Spain has any state visits recently. So where do you think those three 'Holy Trinity' ships at the dock come from?"

Old Silterk was stunned at first, then he roared, "It's Jeff!! It must be him!!! He…"

"What happened to him?"

"He… he might know the spell."

"What?" Shiller frowned.

"He might know the spell used by the person he framed. I can't be sure, but he said some crazy things to threaten me. He might feel that if I didn't give him what he wanted, he could use that thing to curse me."

Shiller took a deep breath and said, "Are you suggesting he used the spell before he died?"

"I can't be certain," Old Silterk said. "Anyone who uses that spell goes insane. Did you see him insane?"

Shiller recalled the first time they saw Jeff sitting on the ground; his mental state seemed fairly normal, but by the time Jeff had rushed into their room, he was already somewhat delirious.

So Jeff cast the spell at that time? Shiller thought it was indeed possible.

Jeff certainly didn't cast the spell for no reason. He had been tortured by Joker to the brink of insanity and even killed his own family. This must have been his act of revenge against Joker.

And this could imply that Joker didn't torment Jeff without reason either. Although it was to disgust Batman, he was more likely wanting to force Jeff to cast the spell to bring about a disaster.

That means Joker might also know the truth about that maritime disaster or even made up the story that got merged into Batman's fabricated tale of the Hoff family.

"What are the requirements to cast the spell?"

"I don't know, but I think you at least need to know the spell," Old Silterk said. "Besides, such a thing must be evil and filthy. Just touching it will drive you into madness. I advise you to stay away from it."

"Thanks for your kind warning." After thinking for a bit, Shiller left Old Silterk where he was and said, "For various reasons, you can't die yet. Stay here honestly; I need to investigate some things."

"Wait! Did you come across my son? He should be active in the village now."

"You're too optimistic. He probably can't move anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"He's dead. The details are complicated; I won't go into it." Shiller turned to leave, but Old Silterk called out again, "Wait! He had two laboratories. I can…"

"There's no need. Haven't you understood yet? Ordinary resources can't solve problems now."

"We've operated in the village for a long time. I have cameras installed in many places. Just take me to the lab, and at the very least I can help you monitor the situation."

"And then have you hold a gun to my head? I'm not that foolish. Forget it."

"No, there's a secret compartment in my bedroom closet. Behind it is a safe. The safe contains the laboratory's pass card; you can take that to the lab's monitoring room."

"Why would you want to help me? You don't even seem to want to survive."

"I want to know the truth," Old Silterk said. "I've spent most of my life studying strange events. I'm about to succeed. I'm about to find out what's inside Pandora's Box."

"Tell me the safe's combination."

Old Silterk told him a series of numbers.

Shiller wasn't worried about deceit, as his clairvoyance could detect any dangerous items in the safe. Currently, all his skills were off cooldown. As long as it was not a fatal blow, he could recover using the first aid skill. Betting on it was worth it.

After obtaining two very useful pieces of information, Shiller didn't stay in the underground freezer any longer. He returned the gas mask to Old Silterk and dumped him back beside his wife just as he had before, then backtracked to his home garage.

The moment he emerged, Shiller sensed something was amiss. The air's humidity had increased by at least 30%.

It was snowing now, and nowhere should be both snowing and humid at the same time; the two are mutually exclusive. But the village was now filled with a cold dampness.

Shiller took a deep breath and found his vision blur for a moment, a sign that his mental health value was dropping.

Carefully, Shiller walked to the window and took a peek outside. He didn't see any peculiar figures, but it was already dark, and no one knew what might happen in this night.

Shiller moved quickly to the second-floor bedroom. Behind the closet, he found the secret compartment mentioned by Old Silterk. After a cautious inspection, he decided to open the safe.

There indeed was a pass, a handgun with several bullets, two gold bars, and a sapphire cross necklace in the middle.

As soon as Shiller touched the cross necklace, the voice of the Transcendent echoed in his ears, "Myth-related item discovered, one Mythical Skill Point gained."

A myth-related item?

Shiller picked up the cross and turned it over, only to discover that it wasn't Jesus nailed to it, but rather three tentacles entwined around the cross.

The cross was silver overall, but where the tentacles lay, there was a black stain. Shiller took a quick look at the composition and realized that there seemed to be room for one more tentacle.

Shiller suspected that this cross could be an artifact used to ward off spiritual contamination, which had been used three times already, and now had only one chance left.

But that was to be expected. After Old Sirteck, a man of wealth, had learned about this, he wouldn't have come unprepared. Although money can't buy everything, with enough to spend, getting one or two of these artifacts wasn't an issue.

Shiller hung the cross around his neck, which made him look even more like a priest. Now all he needed was a Bible.

He picked up the new handgun, loaded the bullets, took the inspection card, and prepared to return to the lighthouse.

However, Shiller didn't know how to get back to the lighthouse entrance from this garage entrance, so he couldn't take the underground path and had to return the same way he came, across the surface to the lighthouse.

But the surface at this time probably wasn't going to be easy to traverse.

The battery life of the night vision goggles was too precious to waste. After a thorough search of the house yielded no flashlight, Shiller reluctantly made a makeshift torch from a piece of wood taken from a nearby house.

The good news was that the sudden humidity had made the temperature less cold, allowing Shiller to move freely just in his uniform. The bad news was that breathing in the damp air sapped his mental health value, and by walking back to the lighthouse this way, his Sanity surely wouldn't be preserved.

Still, Shiller had to go back, now hoping his Soothing Skill would pull him through when his Sanity reached rock bottom.

Unlike the Morbid and the other Shillers, as an agent, he particularly loathed losing his sanity. Although, like the other Shillers, the lower his Sanity, the stronger his Spiritual Analysis, for an agent, losing control was the worst fear. He detested madness.

Shiller took up the torch and glanced around the village. Hearing no strange noises, he started walking towards the direction of the lighthouse.

Mud squished under his feet; it seemed the snow was starting to melt. The light was too dim, and Shiller couldn't see clearly, only feeling like water was seeping from everywhere.

He walked on, his vision blurring every few seconds, and by the time he almost reached the edge of the village, his sight was shaking continuously.

Shiller sighed. He felt he could hold on for about two more kilometers before using his Soothing Skill.

But as he was preparing to move on, a scream suddenly came from a side street.

Shiller instinctively looked over and saw several people rushing towards him, with the last one running backward and shooting at the same time.

Shiller cursed silently at their stupidity but was relieved to see a house to his right. He dashed over, aiming to vault the fence.

The dice flashed before his eyes, landing on Dexterity 1520, a successful check. Shiller barely skirted past the group's clothing as he vaulted into the yard.

The group, scrambling to follow, obviously lacked Shiller's agility and couldn't make the climb.

"Save us, save us! There's a Monster chasing us!"

Some people ran half a circle and came to the back door of the house. Because the back door had iron bars, they could see Shiller; they shook the door noisily, much to Shiller's annoyance.

He walked over with the torch and said, "Can you see my clothes? Are you sure you want me to save you?"

The two men at the forefront, covered in blood, caught sight of Shiller's attire—a priest robe with golden embroidery—by the light of the torch.

They turned and ran.

Through their reaction, Shiller realized just how infamous the Court he resided in was.

But that was for the best, sparing him trouble from the group.

In fact, of all the Shillers, the agent was most likely to save them, for having survived the Wandering and witnessed the Monster, they must have valuable information.

But it was evident from their actions that their survival to this point was completely a matter of luck.

Not to mention what they were doing out of the shelter at this time of night, since they'd encountered a Monster, they had only two choices: resist or run.

Wisely, they chose both, running and resisting simultaneously—a group crazily screaming ahead, another turning back to shoot, like a mobile megaphone, as if afraid the Monster's companions wouldn't know there was trouble here.

Running towards a light source was understandable, but chasing after someone who clearly didn't want to engage, while Monsters pursued and still taking the time to shake a metal door for over a dozen seconds, was just foolhardy.

Shiller had no doubt that if he'd opened the door, they would have caused a commotion in their panic, luring the Monster over and possibly killing him too.

Nevertheless, Shiller still planned to go out and take a look. If he could rescue them, great; if not, just to see what the Monster looked like. And if all else failed, the shotgun that the gun-shooting individual carried was also a fine piece.