Spirit vision potion?
Obviously, this was a potion recipe.
On the yellowed paper, all the materials were hand-drawn with some kind of charcoal: dried moonlight grass, an eyeless eye (suspected to be some kind of fish eyeball), murmurs of the fallen, and three ounces of pure water.
He hadn't heard of most of them, and only a few matched the sparse memories of rural legends in Elias's mind.
Elias rubbed his chin, his fingertips brushing a bit of dust off the paper.
"It's confirmed; this world really does have some kind of supernatural power."
As for what this potion actually did, that remained unknown.
With a name like "Spirit Vision," it sounded like something used to enlighten the brain.
To find out more, Elias searched the entire basement.
The furnishings here were simple to an infuriating degree.
The bookshelves were filled with old books, mostly obscure and difficult historical records of the area around Moon Bay.
And they were full of nonsense.
In the corner was a pile of jars containing unknown objects; some held hairy lizards soaking in liquid, while others contained murky suspended matter.
He had no lead.
Based on the experience of Elias—or rather, Jiang Huan—potions usually had only two outcomes:
Either you mutated after drinking it, growing or losing some parts;
Or it had some special effect.
Connecting the name to the secret rule carved upstairs—"Do not sleep at night."
The clues were linking up.
On this small island reef, there was likely something strongly related to dreams, consciousness, or the mental plane.
And this spirit vision potion was most likely used to assist with or resist that kind of thing.
This was all Elias could deduce for now.
"Good stuff, I need to keep it."
Elias carefully folded the recipe and tucked it into his inner pocket.
If he had the chance, it would be best to gather the materials and figure out what this thing actually did.
In this hellhole, an extra trump card meant an extra life.
The next most valuable thing was the map of the Moon Bay area on the desk.
The map was crudely drawn.
Elias compared it with the view from the top of the tower but still couldn't determine which position on the map this lighthouse occupied.
Because the map didn't show Hastings Port, where he had arrived by boat.
Without a reference point, there was no way to start.
Perhaps this map was completed before Hastings Port was established.
Just as he was focused on studying the map...
Creak—
The mummified corpse behind him moved.
A purely physiological chill instantly shot up from his tailbone to the top of his head, and every hair on Elias's body stood up in a salute.
Almost instinctively, he spun around, drew his gun, and aimed in one smooth motion, looking quite like a Western cowboy.
However.
The corpse didn't pounce to bite his neck like in a zombie movie.
It simply slid slowly and weakly off the decaying chair due to an unstable center of gravity.
Thud.
It slumped onto the floor, still maintaining its stiff posture.
Elias: "..."
The revolver in his hand was held awkwardly in mid-air.
"Scared the hell out of me..."
He let out a long breath, his heart still thumping like a drum in his chest.
"Fine, consider yourself... resting in peace."
Since the corpse showed no signs of reanimating, Elias didn't bother with it further.
He quickly organized the valuable items—the recipe, the map, and a tattered book that looked like a travelogue—then swiftly left the gloomy basement.
Returning to the hut, the sky outside had turned completely dark.
The sound of waves crashing against the rocks was exceptionally clear at night, sounding like countless hands knocking on the door.
Elias rummaged through today's supplies and picked out a black, brick-like object.
A coffee brick.
A crystallization of industrialization in this era, dark-roasted—or rather, "carbonized" roasted.
He used the back of his dagger to knock a corner off the "black brick" and threw it into the iron stew pot on the fireplace that had cooked who-knows-what, adding water.
Before long, a mixed, rugged aroma with a strong burnt bitterness wafted from the pot.
The smell was incredibly domineering; before even taking a sip, Elias felt as if a crack had been pried open in his skull, clearing his mind significantly.
"What kind of coffee is this? It's clearly herbal medicine."
The kind with extremely potent effects.
Dinner consisted of biscuits as hard as bricks and jerky that could break teeth.
While gnawing on this hard-to-swallow "delicacy," Elias forced himself to stay alert with the help of the deathly bitter coffee.
Tonight, he decided to honestly stay awake.
After all, he had always been one to take advice.
Since the rule had left a warning in such an extreme way as a carving, it was definitely an experience bought with a life.
If you don't seek death, you won't die.
The dim light of the kerosene lamp cast flickering shadows on the wall.
Elias sat on the bed, holding the book he had taken from the basement, with his gun tucked under his pillow, within easy reach.
Time passed minute by minute.
The sky outside was cloudless, making the moonlight exceptionally bright; the pale radiance spilled through the hut's window, cutting out pale patches of light on the floor.
It was just past midnight.
Accompanied by the rhythmic splashing of the seawater outside, an unusual sensation descended without warning.
The air seemed to become thick.
Elias was about to put down the book and take up his gun to be on guard.
Just then.
The cabinet beside his bed moved.
The simple wooden low cabinet that had been standing there quietly suddenly split down the middle; the wooden boards flipped outward like the skin of a mollusk, and it actually grew a giant mouth full of wooden spikes, lunging at Elias!
"Holy crap!"
Elias reacted lightning-fast, rolling off the bed and raising his hand to fire a shot at the cabinet.
Bang!
A tongue of fire spat from the muzzle, and the loud gunshot echoed in the small wooden hut.
However, there were no wood chips flying, and no monster screamed.
With the gunshot, the menacing cabinet instantly returned to its original state.
Only the cup used for coffee on the nearby cabinet shattered with a "pop," splashing dark brown coffee liquid all over the floor.
My herbal medicine!
In the blink of an eye.
The cabinet was still just a cabinet, sitting honestly in its place without even a tooth mark.
Only the shattered cup proved that something had just happened.
"Damn it, it's a hallucination!"
Elias climbed up from the floor in annoyance, shaking his hand which was numb from the recoil.
It would have been fine if that shot had hit a person, but hitting the air not only wasted a bullet but also half a cup of coffee!
But this was only the beginning.
Following that, all the furniture in the room began to act strangely.
The originally square wooden table suddenly melted like wax, its four legs twisting and deforming until it finally turned into a dog that looked like a cabbage, sticking its tongue out at him.
The nearby chair turned into a snow leopard covered in cheese-like holes, elegantly licking its paws.
The fire in the fireplace wasn't to be outdone; the flames suddenly surged, turning into several matchstick-shaped little people who held hands and started dancing in the hearth, their movements even being quite standard.
This time, Elias didn't fire.
He just watched with a blank expression.
Now that he knew it was a hallucination, the sense of fear was greatly diminished.
Looking at that cabbage dog, he even felt a sense of absurdity, as if this wasn't just eldritch; it was a meme.
"Fine, you guys do your thing, I won't disturb you."
Elias sat back on the bed; as long as this group of furniture didn't come over to gnaw on his leg, he didn't want to waste bullets.
A hallucination was just a hallucination; as long as he didn't believe it, it couldn't cause any actual damage.
However, things were not that simple.
The hallucinations that hadn't appeared all afternoon seemed to have made an appointment to erupt all at once at this time.
Just as the matchstick people were dancing joyfully, Elias suddenly felt his scalp go numb.
It wasn't the chill of being startled, but a kind of pressure coming from a spiritual level.
In a daze, he seemed to see a pair of pale and iridescent arms hanging quietly above his head.
He snapped his head up to look.
It was a humanoid, though he wasn't sure if it was a living creature.
It had no specific facial features, and its body was surrounded by a very faint, constantly shifting phosphorescence of colors.
The light wasn't blinding, but it carried an indescribable, eerie beauty, like some unknown bioluminescent entity from the deep sea.
It just floated there in mid-air, looking down at Elias from above.
It looked like some kind of ghost.
Is this a hallucination?
Or... something else?!
Elias didn't hesitate for a second, raising his muzzle and aiming at the glowing humanoid object.
The thing didn't react at all, as if it didn't care about the dark muzzle.
Bang!
The trigger was pulled.
The bullet whistled out, passing straight through that illusory body and hitting the wooden wall behind it, leaving a dark bullet hole and splashing a tuft of wood chips.
Physical attacks were ineffective.
Elias's heart sank.
Just then, a voice full of arrogance and disdain abruptly rang out deep within his mind.
"This idiot! He actually expects to harm a spirit world creature?"
The voice was clear, with a strange accent, like an old aristocrat who had lived for centuries lecturing a country bumpkin.
Elias was stunned.
He whipped his head around to look at his surroundings, finally locking his gaze on the glowing entity above him.
"Who? Is it you?"
He asked tentatively.
The phosphorescent creature above him made no movement; it didn't seem to be the source of the noise.
"You can hear me?"
The voice in his mind sounded very surprised, its arrogant tone instantly turning into the wonder of seeing a rare animal.
"No kidding, I'm not deaf!"
Elias responded loudly, his hand still gripping the gun tightly.
"If you can talk, come out. What's the point of playing ghost? What exactly is this thing?"
The voice fell silent for a second, as if evaluating Elias's intelligence.
Then, the voice spoke again, with a hint of playfulness and deeper confusion:
"Before I answer you, I'm very curious, young man..."
The voice paused:
"Why the hell aren't you sleeping?"
Rate on N.U.
