Chapter 366 0.0017%

The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard.

Fortunately, Afu and Horac maintained enough control over the caravan. With Xia Nan and the Blackwood Squad providing three Class Holders to hold the line, the group experienced only a brief initial commotion and did not descend into chaos.

Not daring to waste time, they held a hurried discussion in the inn for a few minutes. Once they formulated a rough plan, the group sprang into action.

Manpower was limited. Although the caravan had hired plenty of guards, only the three of them, Xia Nan included, truly possessed Class Grade combat strength.

Given the unknown external environment, they could not scatter throughout the caravan and weaken their active combat strength.

They adopted a standard three-person Adventurer Squad formation. The dwarf Thordin, a [Shield Warrior] with outstanding defensive capabilities, took the vanguard with his shield raised. Xia Nan and Margaret followed two paces behind, standing shoulder to shoulder on the left and right.

The overall formation was arranged in a triangle.

Fortunately, the squad contained no mages or archers who required heavy protection. All three belonged to melee classes with a certain margin for error, allowing their formation to remain relatively flexible.

As for the rest of the caravan, after a detailed discussion, they decided it was safest for them to remain on standby in the inn for now.

Otherwise, dozens of people moving together would cause too much of a disturbance, and if they encountered real danger, Xia Nan and the others would be hard-pressed to protect everyone.

If the enemies proved slightly more numerous or difficult to deal with, the group would likely suffer heavy casualties.

Therefore, they decided to have Xia Nan and the Blackwood Squad investigate the town first and return to the inn to confer if they made any significant discoveries.

Meanwhile, the original caravan members would use the time to prepare the carriages and supplies as quickly as possible while reinforcing the inn's doors and windows against potential attacks.

"Whoosh..."

A bitter, mournful wind howled past.

It was the transition between summer and autumn. The air, already carrying a trace of a chill, felt indescribably more sinister against the backdrop of the unusually empty streets.

Carriages, merchants, bustling crowds... The core streets of the small town, which should have been incredibly lively, were now so desolate that not even a stray dog could be seen.

Completely empty.

At a glance, aside from Xia Nan's group of three, they could not find a single living creature.

Glancing up at the pink light curtain in the sky, Margaret turned and silently met the black-haired young man's eyes.

With a slight nod, they had Thordin take the lead and walked toward a residential-looking building by the street.

It must have belonged to a wealthy family. Its prime location in such a core area was one reason, but another was the exceptionally neat and exquisite exterior of the three-story house before them.

The mini garden by the front door was even decorated with a few clusters of nameless flowers swaying in the wind.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Margaret held her sword in her right hand in a defensive posture; with her left palm facing inward and knuckles bent, she gently knocked on the door.

Standing right beside the entrance, Thordin gripped his shield with both hands. His round, copper-coin-like eyes bulged wide as he unconsciously held his breath in concentration.

Standing behind them, Xia Nan used his acute Perception to alert his teammates to any potential surrounding dangers; he could even see the dwarf's solid muscles bulging against the shirt beneath his armor across his shoulders and back.

The knocks echoed leisurely through the dead air, quickly vanishing into the cold wind.

There was no response.

Margaret raised her wrist again, intending to knock one more time.

But before it could land, it froze in midair.

She seemed to feel there was no need for further testing.

Holding her sword, she turned and stepped back a few paces, yielding the space at the side of the door.

Having communicated with her beforehand, no words were needed now; Xia Nan perfectly understood what the swordswoman meant.

He stepped forward, letting Margaret keep watch for him as he took his place in front of the door.

It was just an ordinary house. For the Adventurers of this world, there were ten thousand ways to get inside.

Those who mastered rogue-class skills did not need specialized tools; a single iron wire was enough to easily pick the lock. For hot-tempered Barbarians who hated wasting time and energy on such delicate work, smashing the door open with brute force was also an option.

Xia Nan, however, fell somewhere in between.

He could, of course, rely on his own Strength to force his way in, but that would cause too much commotion. [Gravity Control] might be able to open the door silently in a manner more exquisite than lockpicking, but he did not understand the internal structure of this world's locks, and his combat technique proficiency was not high enough for such micromanagement.

So he could only take a relatively simpler approach, combining Strength with technique.

With the Snake-Scale Arm Shield on his left arm guarding his front, he drew the Short Dagger from his waist with his right hand.

Swish—

A sharp, cold glint flashed through the air, and in the next second, the dagger's blade plunged deep into the door seam.

He shifted it gently, carefully feeling the resistance against the blade to locate the latch mechanism.

"Click."

A crisp sound, distinct from the friction of the blade, reached his ears. Gripping the dagger's hilt with one hand, Xia Nan seamlessly applied force and pressed downward.

Then, accompanied by an even clearer sound, the resistance against the blade's tip suddenly gave way.

Knowing the lock was open, Xia Nan signaled to the dwarf braced at the main entrance with a look.

After receiving confirmation that Thordin was ready, Xia Nan suddenly leaned forward, driving his shoulder into the wooden door with a forceful shove. He immediately pushed off with his feet, using the momentum to retract the dagger from the seam.

In the blink of an eye, without his primary weapon in hand, he retreated behind the two members of the Blackwood Squad.

At the same time, Thordin charged several steps into the house following the door Xia Nan had pushed open. Faint metallic glints could be seen flashing across the surface of his skin, showing he was clearly prepared for an enemy ambush.

Except... the trio's overly cautious display seemed to have been in vain.

There was indeed someone in the room.

He was even sitting right at the dining table facing the door.

Yet the person showed no reaction whatsoever to the group breaking in right before his eyes.

It must have been the male owner of the house. He had just returned home from work and was dining alone. His hair was neatly groomed, but he had not yet changed out of his dust-stained linen work clothes.

From the outside, the vast majority of his body looked no different from an ordinary person's.

Only his eyes had lost their original luster.

Like a walking corpse, he stared blankly into the empty space ahead.

The group cautiously approached.

"Hey, can you still speak?" Thordin asked carefully, raising his sturdy round shield—one capable of withstanding an Armored Lurker's attack head-on.

There was no reaction.

He then gently prodded the man's shoulder with the Faceted Hammer in his hand.

Still no reaction.

"What's going on?" Margaret frowned deeply. "Could the current situation in Sheep Horn Town be some devil's or demon's conspiracy? This guy feels like he's just a flesh shell with no soul."

Xia Nan stared intently at the man before him. Suddenly, as if noticing something, he thought back to the innkeeper's corpse from earlier.

A flash of insight involuntarily crossed his mind.

"Strip off his shirt," he said to his two teammates beside him.

Hearing this, Margaret also seemed to realize something. She swung her longsword through the air, and a soft whistle swept through the room.

The man's shirt fell away in two halves like rags, revealing a patch of pink on his chest.

"As I thought." Xia Nan's gaze narrowed involuntarily.

Right in the center of the man's chest, just like the innkeeper earlier, a palm-sized Pastel Gemstone was deeply embedded.

Faint, intermittent strands of pink energy could be seen flowing beneath his skin, radiating outward from the gemstone like blood to spread throughout his entire body.

But for some unknown reason, unlike the innkeeper, this man lacked normal mobility; even his consciousness seemed to have completely dissipated.

As he pondered this, the [Dream Weaving Corridor] Silver Ring on his right ring finger vibrated slightly, stirring Xia Nan's heart.

"Keep an eye on him for me," he told the two Blackwood Squad members beside him. He stepped forward, maintaining his guard as he reached out his right hand and gently tapped the Pastel Gemstone on the man's chest.

The next second, the familiar mechanical voice chimed in his mind.

"Ding!"

"Charging substance detected. [Dream Weaving Corridor] automatically replenishing..."

"Recharge successful!"

"[Remaining Energy]: 2.0004% → 2.0009%"

'Five millionths?' Xia Nan thought, his face remaining impassive.

It was a bit more than the fingernail-sized Pastel Gemstone in Horac's hands.

'But...'

Before he could think further, the man before him—who had just been like a soulless walking corpse—suddenly convulsed after Xia Nan absorbed the energy.

His eyes regained their focus, but his entire body instantly curled up as if suffering a panic attack.

Meaningless guttural sounds tore from his throat. He hugged his chest, drew his knees up, and curled into a tight ball on the floor. His fingernails dug deeply into the skin of his arms, as if trying to crush himself into his own body.

Without prying into how Xia Nan had freed the man from the gemstone's control, the dwarf Thordin looked vigilant. Holding his round shield to block Xia Nan and Margaret behind him, he barked at the trembling man on the floor, "Hey, can you hear me?"

"What happened here? What's wrong with you?"

Although Xia Nan had snapped the man out of his hollow daze, he did not seem to have regained his sanity; instead, he had become like a hysterical madman.

Faced with the dwarf's interrogation, he only muttered, "I don't know... I don't know..." and could not say anything more.

The group checked the residents in several adjacent houses and found their reactions were exactly the same as the man's. Even though they appeared to break free from the Pastel Gemstone's charming effect, they all seemed to suffer from some kind of aftereffect, completely unable to communicate.

It was not appropriate to just leave them there.

After a brief discussion, Xia Nan and the others bound these awakened civilians with the strongest hemp ropes they had and escorted them to the Woolen Rusty Nail Inn. They handed them over to the caravan members for supervision, hoping someone would regain their senses soon enough to explain what exactly had happened in Sheep Horn Town.

Leaving the inn once again, the trio's target was the pink light barrier enclosing them from above.

Speaking of which, after consecutively helping several civilians break free from the gemstones' control, the remaining energy in his [Dream Weaving Corridor] had reached 2.0017%.

He had gained a cumulative charge of 0.0017 percent.

It did not look like much.

But considering Sheep Horn Town had a population of two to three thousand, if everyone could provide him with 0.0003% to 0.0005% energy, it could add up to a maximum of 1.5% charge.

It was worth noting that the dream which directly raised [Fang Hunt] to the max level of lv5—a spike of nearly fifty proficiency points—had only consumed 3% energy in total.

If he really managed to collect 1.5%, combined with the [Dream Weaving Corridor]'s original 2% energy from the Ash Valley Secret Realm, it would be entirely enough for him to open the dreamscape again and elevate another lv4 combat technique to the max level.

This temptation... he had to admit, was very enticing.

But as they walked, Xia Nan thought it over again.

Considering the time required to break into and search every single house, as well as the travel time in between, even at his highest efficiency, absorbing one person's gemstone every forty seconds on average would be his absolute limit.

If there were three thousand people in the town, it would add up to 120,000 seconds—2,000 minutes, or over 30 hours.

Given the current situation in the town, even if he worked without sleep or rest, would he really have the luxury of forcibly searching for a day and a night straight?

The answer was undoubtedly no.

Right now, it was far more important to find a way out of Sheep Horn Town and uncover the truth behind what was happening.

Later on, if he truly gained the ability to freely pass through the town's light barrier, and determined that the things inside posed no threat to him, it would not be too late to come back and replenish his energy.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, the trio followed the empty streets and arrived at the wilderness on the town's edge.

The Orange Orchard they had visited during the day was similarly enveloped by the pink energy barrier; through the translucent curtain of light, they could see the flat Wilderness beyond.

"Boom!"

The Faceted Hammer, flashing with a metallic luster, smashed fiercely against the barrier's surface. The resulting recoil transmitted through the grip, making Thordin's entire right arm tremble.

He had used seventy percent of his strength in this strike.

Yet the light curtain before them did not budge an inch, standing quietly like a solid wall before the group.

Slash—

It came from Margaret—a [Charged Slash] trained to the "Mastery" tier and filled with her maximum power.

The effect looked much better than the dwarf's.

But when that crescent slash landed on the barrier's surface, it only stirred up a faint, ripple-like energy fluctuation before quickly dissipating into nothingness.

They knew in their hearts that simple physical attacks could not possibly break through the barrier before them.

After careful consideration, Xia Nan finally decided to expend a charge of [Gravity Etching] here as a test.

"Boom!"

Ochre-red energy, like bursting fireworks, suddenly exploded from the blade's surface as the [Ember Fall] longsword swung out in a fierce crescent arc.

[Spinning Slash] + [Gravity Etching]

The forcefield energy clashed violently against the pastel light.

The ochre-red energy—which had always been unstoppable against flesh, blood, and iron armor—now seemed to have met its match.

After a brief stalemate, it likewise faded into the air.

Xia Nan could feel that if he had released a bit more forcefield energy, or if its quality had been slightly higher, he might have genuinely managed to temporarily cleave a gap in the barrier's surface.

But right now, facing the pink energy shield blanketing the entire town, his remaining two charges of [Gravity Etching] were clearly insufficient to meet that requirement.

The plan had failed.

And to leave the town, it seemed they only had one final option left.

As if by prior agreement, all three turned around simultaneously, their gazes fixed on the depths of Sheep Horn Town.

There, a massive beam of light stood like a pillar connecting heaven and earth, brazenly radiating a dazzling brilliance.