Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1781 - 1780: The Ghoul in the Ruined House
"Let me rephrase, is there anything here that could possibly harm you or even cause your death?"
Shard asked, and the sheep slowly nodded:
"No, everyone here is quite friendly."
Shard thought for a moment:
"Have you ever seen any strange guys? Strange meaning, they have a serious stench, like something that belongs to a dead human?"
The sheep pondered again, its posture while chewing and thinking looked so wise:
"I’ve seen them, but they are not common. They dwell underground and occasionally bury chicken bones and duck bones nearby. Once, when I was using the bathroom at night, I encountered it. It didn’t want to harm me, probably because I’m more valuable than chickens and ducks."
The vocabulary it used became increasingly elegant.
"Really, ghouls exist? Nicholas Green turned into undead after his death?"
Shard was slightly surprised, then asked again:
"Do you know..."
"It resides in the underground temple, a place deep beneath the surface where nightmares linger, the slumbering site left by human ancestors."
This means there’s an ancient tomb beneath the village.
"How can I see..."
"It’s not difficult, it likes chicken meat, especially cooked food."
The sheep spoke slowly, and Shard, after listening for a while, even found it quite melodious. He never had this feeling when talking to people:
"So..."
"Cooked chicken in the abandoned house, if it wakes, it will surely reveal itself."
"I see, thank you so much... Speaking of which, did anyone investigate it before? Hasn’t anyone asked you about it?"
Shard asked again, and the sheep with a ring on its horns raised its head to look at him:
"Human, I’m just a sheep."
Shard grew increasingly convinced this sheep was extraordinary, but he had other matters to attend to, so this conversation ended. Besides, using the Fish Training Ring to grant animals wisdom and the ability to speak could lead to any outcome.
Before removing the ring, he asked the clever sheep one more question:
"I’m going to take away my ring. Your wisdom and speaking ability will return to how they were. Will you regret it?"
The sheep chewed on leaves, this time without looking at him:
"So, thinking brings trouble; more wisdom leads to more worries, both for humans and sheep alike."
Shard was shocked, hurriedly reached out to remove the ring from the sheep’s horn, fearing that if he talked a little longer, he would discover that this sheep’s philosophical attainment was higher than his own. Within the sheep species, he undoubtedly encountered a true Sage this time.
The warm spring breeze blew through the woodland, gently swaying the sheep’s fur. Of course, the sheep was unaware of the Outlander’s crazy thoughts. It lowered its head to eat grass, slowly chewing, seemingly slowing the pace of its life because of this.
Suddenly, a red apple rolled in front of it. The sheep leisurely raised its head to see the man’s departing figure, then lowered its head again to continue eating. Apart from the red apple, nothing else had changed here.
Shard didn’t go to the village to buy chicken; among the various supplies he carried, food was the least scarce. He rummaged through his pocket for a while and found a large box. Inside were various meats. He picked out a pre-cooked but now cold roast chicken and carried it back to the abandoned house.
Inside, there was a moldy smell, but Shard didn’t mind. He used the firewood piled up by the villagers to light a bonfire, set up a rack to re-roast the meat, and even sprinkled some cumin to enhance the flavor. This wasn’t the mainstream spice now; only people near the desert liked cumin powder, and Outlanders rarely used it in this world. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Shard patiently continued his culinary work, occasionally turning the wooden stick skewering the roast chicken, cutting small incisions with a knife to let the spices seep in. Soon, the fragrant aroma filled his nostrils, and he even thought that if the ghoul didn’t appear, he would eat the roast chicken himself, hence he roasted it with great care and patience.
Luckily, his luck was good, and after just over ten minutes, amidst the crackling sound of burning wood, "she" gently reminded him:
"There’s something outside."
Shard lowered his head, looking at the golden roast chicken:
"Outside the house? I thought it would choose to come from underground. What’s it doing?"
[Magic Potion, the wind outside the window brought vaporized magic potion. Take a deep breath.]
Shard complied.
[A potion with a slumbering effect.]
"Understood."
He answered in his heart, then yawned:
"Why do I suddenly feel so sleepy? Spring really is the season for stealing moments of leisure amidst busyness."
As he said this, he suddenly bowed his head with his eyes half-closed, then lifted it again, somewhat surprised that he almost fell asleep:
"Really, could staying up until three in the morning reading that romance novel really be so exhausting?"
Saying this, he yawned again, gradually bowing his head with eyes half-closed, and fell asleep sitting in front of the campfire.
Shard’s breathing gradually evened out, and the campfire, lacking firewood, began to extinguish, but the aroma of roasted chicken remained strong, becoming charred before long. Two to three minutes later, a large gray-black swollen hand extended from beneath the window, waved inside the house, ensuring it didn’t catch the sleeping Shard’s attention, before the clothed ghoul agilely crawled through the window into the house.
This ghoul was quite strange, although it was undead, aside from the corpse spots and slightly swollen body, it looked almost normal. If it wore very thick clothes, one might think from a distance that it was just a very obese person.
Crawling into the room on all fours, it carefully stood up, crouching close to the ember-filled fire pit, its murky yellow eyes fixed on Shard, before reaching to grab the stick skewering the roasted chicken.
Clang~
Shard opened his eyes, and from both sleeves shot out pitch-black Great Sin Chains. At such a close distance, even a supernatural being like a ghoul couldn’t dodge, but unexpectedly, just as the chain was about to touch it, holding the roasted chicken, it vanished, reappearing at the door.
"Spatial Leap!"
Shard immediately recognized the ability, but he hadn’t kept the "Spatial Stabilization Aura" on continuously, not out of negligence, but fearing the ghoul wouldn’t approach. At this moment, the ghoul, dodging Shard’s attack, turned to run out the door, and Shard got up to pursue, shouting:
"Nicholas Green!"
The ghoul paused for a moment, if only fleetingly, then vanished at the doorway. Shard quickly pursued, realizing the ghoul couldn’t perform continuous spatial movements. At this point, it had the roasted chicken in its mouth, on all fours, ready to leap over the fence into the woodland.
Pre-prepared with spellcasting materials, Shard stepped forward, pressing his hand onto the fence:
"Thorns of the Moon."
Almost the exact moment the ghoul charged at the fence, Holy Silver thorn bushes sprouted along the fence, the exorcism and undead suppression powers forcing the ghoul to abandon its aggressive approach.
It turned towards Shard with the roasted chicken in its mouth and "roared" in a peculiar way since it couldn’t open its mouth.
Intending not to harm it, Shard took this chance to introduce himself:
"I’m a friend of your children, Mr. Green, I..."
The undead vanished from sight, reappearing outside the fence, but the Thorns of the Moon’s sealing effect extended beyond mere physical space. Even though it passed through the thorns, the entire body was now covered in silver Holy Light’s thorny spikes.
With the silver moonlight’s explosion, the ghoul was nearly blasted apart on the spot, a scene Shard found somewhat pitiful:
"There’s no need to run, I’m not..."
It still ignored Shard’s words, stumbling to its feet to run, though gravely injured, as long as it wasn’t a fatal blow, the undead could keep moving.
Shard had no choice but to continue the pursuit, almost simultaneously disappearing and reappearing with the ghoul. Both entered the woods; each time they used spatial movement, the forest scenery flipped like pages of a rapidly turning book. Almost every blink revealed Shard and the ghoul in a new location, sustaining different chasing postures.
Shard’s Lagre’s Leap had a maximum range of 20 meters, with a five second casting interval. In contrast, Ghoul Green’s spatial movement had a short range of under 10 meters but a casting interval of less than three seconds.
Thus, both with flawed spatial movement but remarkable spatial perception made the chase within the forest increasingly strange.
Due to the ghoul’s rapid movement, Shard couldn’t catch up to employ the "Spatial Stabilization Aura" to prevent its escape. His attempts to explain his friendship with Helena Green and Soren Green also failed to halt the ghoul for conversation.
However, the ghoul consistently held onto the roasted chicken and didn’t loosen its grip.
Both attempts to avoid leaving the forest, maintaining restraint to avoid triggering spatial movement’s boundary, fearing creatures from the Outer Realm. However, as the chase sped up, both neared casting limits, the disruptive spatial energy combining with the chaotic space of the Green Lake Region. When both cast spatial movement simultaneously again, they sensed an uncontrollable, immense pull diverging them from the intended direction.
The woodland view instantly blurred into odd color blocks, bizarre distorted sights pieced together unfolding before their eyes. The dazzling scene caused a splitting headache, but more perilously, Shard realized he and the ghoul, might indeed have "crossed the boundary" unwittingly.
Seemingly in a fleeting instant, or perhaps a prolonged wait. Indistinguishable color blocks merged into a new scene, as feet touched the ground again. Recovering faster than the ghoul, Shard didn’t have time to recognize the place; he lay on a red carpet, flinging chains forward.
