"Of course, the reason you mentioned exists as well."
Old Ed's voice sounded a bit airy in his mind, frantically making excuses with the awkwardness of someone who had just been seen through.
"I admit, I was a little envious before!"
"But we can't rule out the possibility of a spiritual hijacking right now, can we?"
His voice paused, and his tone became bold and self-assured.
"After all, I wasn't some grandmaster when I was alive."
"With my level of skill, this is the most I can speculate."
"Why are you giving an old man such a hard time?"
On a rational level, the old ghost wasn't wrong.
In the supernatural world, the unknown was the greatest fear.
Old Ed might be old, but he wasn't an encyclopedia.
"Fine, fine!"
Elias waved his hand impatiently.
"I won't give you a hard time. I'll ask someone who knows their stuff later."
Over the next few days, life at sea remained tedious and damp with salt.
Aside from his daily lighthouse maintenance and enduring several more hallucinatory intrusions from the dream demon curse,
Elias devoted most of his remaining energy to practicing the nine spells he had acquired after his advancement.
As the day for his shift change drew closer, a strange sense of anticipation began to well up in Elias's heart.
He couldn't tell for a moment if it was the memories of the original body acting up, or if he, as Jiang Huan, was simply curious about the life on land in this new world.
After all, this would be the first time since transmigrating into Elias that he would truly face his "family."
To that end, he had made some small preparations.
Last night, under the dim light of a kerosene lamp, Elias had carefully taken out the white carapace of the carapace husk.
Its texture was hard, and its surface shimmered with a metallic, cold light.
He found a piece of rag to wrap it in and weighed it in his hand.
"The hardness of this thing is quite good; it's even tougher than ordinary steel."
Elias calculated in his mind.
He planned to find a skilled craftsman once he returned to Hastings Port to process it into two amulets to give to Arthur and Charlotte.
This could be considered a small token of his affection.
He couldn't exactly go home empty-handed, could he?
Coincidentally, in the original body's memories, an important holiday in the Kingdom of Velen—the Spark Festival—was also approaching.
The status of this holiday was roughly equivalent to Christmas in his previous life, only moved to the spring.
Legend had it that in the distant Dark Era, it was only when humanity lit the first fire of civilization that the eternal night and ignorance shrouding the world were dispelled.
To commemorate this great moment, the kingdom had specifically established a legal holiday.
As an industrial stronghold of the Kingdom of Velen, the celebrations in Hope County on this day were quite lively.
Images from memory surged in his mind:
Giant steam airships spewing colored smoke slowly drifted through the low sky, and the streets were filled with crowds of people wearing masks and reveling.
Steam-driven floats let out deafening whistles.
At night, brilliant fireworks would illuminate the entire night sky shrouded in smog.
It was a carnival of steam and fire.
He just wondered if the Kingdom of Velen had anything like a 'holiday rush.'
Perhaps sensing the approaching atmosphere of the Spark Festival, Old Ed had also become much more excited over the last few days.
"What?!"
Early one morning, after just a few words of conversation, a startled cry exploded in his mind, making Elias's brain throb.
"Your home is in Hope County?!"
Old Ed's voice was filled with disbelief.
"Yeah, is there a problem?" Elias replied nonchalantly while wiping his revolver.
"Why didn't you say so earlier!"
He had always thought this kid was just simple-minded.
Foolishly pinning his hopes for the curse removal on John, who would have thought this kid wasn't simple at all!
This was basically just going home to visit relatives and helping someone out along the way, while also demanding benefits.
"You didn't ask!"
Elias shrugged with an innocent look, his expression as pure and honest as could be.
Edmond felt it was obvious that the boy was getting revenge for his previous concealment that 【Mental Message】 allowed for conscious dialogue.
"It's just something I'm doing on the way, isn't it?"
Elias stood up and walked to the edge of the reef.
A silver light flickered in his right palm, and a soft yet cold moonlight instantly coiled around the barrel of the revolver.
【Moonlight Enchantment】.
This was one of the spells he had practiced most diligently over the past few days.
"I can get the method to remove the curse while going home. If that John dares to break his word or tries to pull any tricks..."
Elias narrowed his eyes, aiming at a glass bottle bobbing with the waves in the distance.
"Then the worst that happens is I don't return the transcendent item to him once I have it."
"Since the item is in my hands anyway, I hold the initiative."
"What can he, a spiritual body, do to me?"
Elias spoke dismissively, his finger resting on the trigger.
Suddenly, as if thinking of something, he paused.
"Wait, you're a spiritual body and can use spells. That John wouldn't be able to as well, would he?"
"Rest assured, this is a privilege of the Moon Lord's followers."
Edmond's voice rose again with that faint tone of superiority, making Elias roll his eyes.
"Ordinary undead can hardly interfere with the material world directly unless they were extremely powerful casters in life and transformed into something like a lich."
"But we ascetics are different; under the protection of the Moon Lord, we can still maintain a portion of our former power."
"Him? He can't."
"Fine then."
Bang!
A crisp gunshot broke the silence of the sea.
The bullet, wrapped in a silver stream of light, whistled out and accurately struck the glass bottle floating fifty meters away.
Crash!
The glass bottle instantly shattered in the water, the fragments sparkling with crystalline light under the sun.
"Oho, your aim is improving!"
Seeing Elias successfully shatter the target, Edmond gave him a rare word of praise.
"Of course!"
Elias smirked, casually spinning the revolver twice on his finger before stylishly holstering it.
He mimicked the look of a western cowboy from his previous life's movies, gently blowing on the muzzle that wasn't even smoking.
Seeing Elias's show-off behavior, Edmond's small amount of praise instantly vanished.
He began to calculate how he could find an opportunity to dampen this kid's arrogance.
Young people shouldn't have things go too smoothly.
As the saying goes, what is too rigid will easily break; he was doing this entirely for the boy's own good, to help him walk more steadily on the path of the transcendent in the future!
Yes! That was it!
Old Ed thought for a long time, preparing to speak and play the role of Elias's sternest father figure.
His train of thought was interrupted by Elias's sudden complaint.
"But then again, this spirituality doesn't last very long."
Elias rubbed his temples, his brow furrowed slightly in dissatisfaction.
"I've only been practicing for a morning and I already feel a bit tired. It seems I can't practice anymore."
"Any more and I'll really end up in Landon Asylum."
"What did you say?!"
Edmond's voice suddenly spiked an octave, making the folds of Elias's brain ache.
"I said spirituality doesn't last very long. Why are you so jumpy?"
"You're so old; can your spiritual body handle all this shouting every day?"
"How long did you say you practiced?"
Old Ed's voice carried a hint of a tremble, as if he were confirming something incredible.
"A whole morning! From when the sun just came up until now... about five hours?" Elias estimated the time.
"You were using 【Moonlight Enchantment】 the whole time?"
"Yeah, I enchanted every shot I fired. How else am I supposed to build up proficiency?" Elias said matter-of-factly.
There was a dead silence in his mind.
After a long while, Old Ed asked faintly.
"And what about at night?"
Due to the core ability of 【Moonlight Blessing】, followers of the Moon Lord would have their spirituality recovery speed and spell power greatly enhanced at night under the moonlight.
That was why Old Ed asked.
"How long can you use it for?"
"At night?"
"I use it all the time."
Rate on N.U.
