Chapter 10: The Trait "Breath of the Lake"

Li Nanke turned and asked, “Sir, is there still any way for us to contact the Church?”

The man was silent for a long time, then pulled out a metallic object and tossed it to him.

Li Nanke caught it and saw that it was a palm-sized device, wound with dense magnetic coils, its lamp at the top long extinguished.

It was an electromagnetic communicator issued to armed monks, but the nearest Church electromagnetic tower was over a hundred miles from Arbes Town—here, the communicator was no better than scrap metal.

When the team of armed monks entered the town, they were assaulted by large numbers of indigenous monsters. Reinhold ignored the monk apprentices, focusing solely on guarding the steam wagon, while Liliana did her utmost to protect the apprentices. As a result, the two groups were scattered by the monsters and lost contact.

He cared so much about the steam wagon because it carried a large radio transceiver.

With the electromagnetic communicator useless, only the radio transceiver could reach the Church.

After the heretical monsters seized the wagon, they seemed to treat it as an offering and took it directly to the town’s southern port.

Reinhold tried to reclaim the wagon, but the port was teeming with monsters. He was surrounded, and only managed to break out after suffering a broken leg and a damaged arc gun.

After escaping, he tried to leave the town, but the road he had entered by had vanished in a mysterious fashion—no matter how far he walked, he couldn’t get out.

In the end, he had no choice but to hide in the church and wait for Liliana’s support.

But Liliana was ambushed by a high-ranking Deep One, and ended up in a far worse state than he.

“It seems this nightmare has completely sealed off the town. Unless we complete a series of key events, there’s no escape…”

After sorting through the available information, Li Nanke looked around the church.

The aisle of the prayer hall was carpeted, with benches neatly arranged on both sides. Deep within the hall, the left held the altar, the right a confessional, and in the center stood the main altar bearing the tabernacle.

The tabernacle, used to hold the white host during Mass, here took the shape of a gold-edged, ornate box, engraved with intricate patterns.

On the box was the same “Seven Trident” symbol as on the earlier statues.

To Li Nanke’s eyes, the tabernacle shimmered with a faint glow, which Reinhold seemed entirely unaware of.

He understood: so the so-called node reward was granted and claimed in this form?

Li Nanke didn’t head straight for the tabernacle, but instead pretended to search the altar and confessional first. “Sir, do you know anything else about the heresy in this town? Does the church keep any records or documents detailing those heretical faiths?”

The man slumped in a corner of the church, head bowed, long silent.

Only when Li Nanke opened the tabernacle did a hoarse voice drift from afar: “I’ve searched everywhere. There’s nothing.”

Inside the tabernacle, as expected, there was nothing but a few dried bloodstains.

Li Nanke tilted his head in thought, as though guided by some mysterious intuition, grasped the tabernacle fixed to the altar, and twisted it with both hands.

The sound of gears grinding echoed.

The floor beside the main altar trembled and parted, revealing a dark passage leading to an underground vault.

With a feigned gasp of surprise, Li Nanke showed no fear of traps and descended the steps.

The underground vault was narrow, just large enough for a replica of the main altar.

But instead of a tabernacle, the altar here bore a thick, black tome.

On its cover was the “Seven Trident” symbol and ancient cuneiform script. The Church’s monasteries offered a dozen courses on ancient scripts; William had chosen this one, though his grasp was poor, and he could only roughly interpret the text.

The cuneiform, roughly translated, read: The Book of the Black Sea.

Li Nanke’s ears twitched. Just as he was about to open the book, acting nonchalant, a large hand pressed down on his wrist.

Reinhold had appeared beside him without a sound, moving swiftly despite his broken leg.

“Don’t touch it. There’s a runic power in that book.”

The burly man furrowed his brow, controlling his emotions, and, leaning on his cane, pointed at the “Seven Trident” symbol on the cover. “This is a secret ancient rune, not even recorded in the Church’s Comprehensive Book of Runes.”

Runes are divine boons, manifestations of supernatural power.

Novice monks must undergo long spiritual training; only when their will is strong enough can they absorb the Church’s runes, mastering powers far beyond mortals and becoming true armed monks.

Reinhold suspected the town’s indigenous people had forcibly taken in such runic powers, causing their bodies to mutate and lose themselves entirely.

Another possibility was that this unknown rune came from some evil god, inherently containing a corrupting power so foul that no will, however strong, could withstand its pollution.

Between the two, the latter seemed more likely.

Runes, traits… perhaps different power systems’ names for the same thing, Li Nanke mused.

In artificial dreams, supernatural powers aren’t rare. In fact, years ago, there was a craze for supernatural dreamscapes.

In these dreams, users could learn and wield supernatural powers—magic, battle aura, sorcery, holy arts, vampires, werewolves, and so on.

However, although these supernatural systems seemed well-designed, they were ultimately fictional, artificial constructs based on fantasy. Users quickly found the powers felt hollow, unconvincing in use.

Unlike realistic simulations, no one could bring dream powers into the real world, no matter how hard they tried. A dream archmage could cast world-ending spells, but in reality couldn’t even conjure a tiny fireball. The letdown was immense.

Once the novelty wore off, the popularity of such fantasy dreamworlds waned.

Because of illness, Li Nanke had mastered many combat skills, but could never fully unleash them. If he could grasp the supernatural power given as a reward, even if it only worked in this nightmare, his chances of survival would greatly improve.

As for whether such powers carried risks… in his current tubercular state, survival itself was uncertain. What did risk matter to him now?

Li Nanke raised his head and stared into the man’s eyes, retorting, “Then why don’t you read this book, sir?”

Reinhold slowly shook his head. “I can’t read the script. What I mean is, you’d better not get close to it—unless you’re unafraid of death or becoming one of those heretical monsters.”

Li Nanke chuckled, ignoring the monk’s warning. “Sir, we don’t have enough information, and this book is obviously the heretics’ scripture.”

“If we can’t fully understand these heretics—their faith, their secrets—then even if we recover the teacher’s body, we’ll never leave this town.”

“I’ve never lacked the courage to fight for survival… Since you dare not read the heretics’ scripture, let me do it!”

He shook off the man’s grasp and reached for the tome. Reinhold made an abortive gesture but did not stop him.

The instant Li Nanke touched the book—

A myriad of fragmented whispers erupted in his mind: some hysterical, some mad, some shrill, some hoarse and beguiling.

His vision blurred; the vault swam with dazzling, shifting colors, overlapping and dreamlike, as if endless dyes had been stirred into water, or as if he had eaten poisonous mushrooms and was hallucinating.

In his daze, he seemed to sink into a bottomless lake; water engulfed and drowned him in an instant.

At first, in the shallows, he could glimpse the last glimmer of sunlight, but as he sank deeper, the light faded…

In the inky blackness of the lake, all was devoured by endless darkness.

Despair and terror swelled within him, boiling over; suffocation seized him, and he could only let himself be dragged to the depths.

In a trance, Li Nanke sensed a monstrous presence at the lakebed.

That horror was beyond all comprehension. Merely glimpsing a fraction of its vast form shattered his sanity; he sank, screaming in madness.

It was then that countless strands of obscure knowledge flooded his mind; evil, cryptic powers corroded his spirit.

These unknown strands of knowledge and power wove themselves into a mysterious symbol.

It was not the “Seven Trident” he had seen before, but a simplified version—a “Three Trident.”

[You have received the node reward: Trait “Breath of the Lake”!]

With a synchronized chime, Li Nanke snapped awake!

He bent double, gasping greedily, like a drowning man hauled ashore.

He could sense the mysterious runic power on a spiritual level—unmistakably real, utterly distinct from the false supernatural powers of artificial dreams. It was so real that he almost believed such power had always existed in the world, but people were simply too blind to see it.

Was this just a side effect of high synchronization immersion? No! It could not be that simple…

He came to, noticing a large hand still pressed firmly on his shoulder.

Reinhold’s face was grave, thick with wariness.

Li Nanke knew that had he lost himself to terror and despair, those hands would have closed around his neck instead.

“It seems I was mistaken,” Reinhold said, withdrawing his hand. “You were able to absorb the rune with your own will, which means its power isn’t entirely evil.”

No, you’re right, Li Nanke thought silently. This rune must belong to an utterly evil power. I could absorb it not because of my will, but because it was a “reward.”

He quickly composed himself.

His willingness to shoulder the risk seemed to have improved Reinhold’s attitude toward him.

The armed monk picked up the now powerless Book of the Black Sea, leafed through a few pages, and tossed it back, clearly unable to read its ancient script.

The man warned, “Runes contain knowledge and power given by the gods. Even if the gods themselves mean no harm, when mortals glimpse things they shouldn’t see, they pay a terrible price.”

“The rune’s brand is now etched deep in your soul. Whether you took it willingly or received it passively, that spiritual corrosion will follow you for life—and only grow stronger.”

“All you can do is keep moving forward on the path of the supernatural, until you lose yourself along the way or reach its end.”

“The path of the extraordinary is one of no return…”

Li Nanke thought, If I don’t quickly become stronger, I may not even survive this nightmare. As for spiritual erosion—damn it!

If he really showed only “dead weight” potential, then once his value was exhausted, Reinhold would no doubt utter some righteous-sounding words and abandon him without hesitation.

Following Reinhold’s guidance, Li Nanke explored the power brought by the Breath of the Lake rune—or rather, the Breath of the Lake trait.

From the moment the trait was etched into his mind, five symbol marks appeared in his mental world, arranged in a cross: up, down, left, right, and center.

These five marks felt innate, yet were absent from the rune system known to apprentices and armed monks—an extra framework, independent of the nightmare world.

Focusing his mind on each symbol, he gained information: they were “Bestiality,” “Humanity,” “Spirituality,” “Divinity,” each linked by invisible threads to the central “Self.”

The mark named “Bestiality” was connected outward by another thread to a smaller three-pronged trident rune—the Breath of the Lake trait.

He focused on the Breath of the Lake, and soon a line of blood-red text appeared before him:

[Trait: Breath of the Lake]
[Affiliation: Bestiality]
[Rank: 0]
[Level: 0/10]
[Description: This trait strengthens parts of the respiratory system—trachea, bronchi, lung lobes, alveoli, etc. You can finely control all respiratory organs by will, increasing lung capacity and blood oxygen, thereby improving physical performance. You can also, when needed, completely cease breathing for a time without becoming hypoxic.]
[As this trait levels up, your respiratory system will be further enhanced. Besides strengthening your organs, you will be able to heal and immunize against respiratory diseases, and may even gain the ability to breathe underwater…]
[Note: Would you like to become a mermaid? Would you prefer a fish head and human body, or a human head and fish body…?]

Bestiality, respiratory enhancement, tiered advancement, underwater breathing…

At that moment, Li Nanke realized with a jolt that his long-tormenting lung infection had greatly subsided.

Given the severity of his infection, the hallucination-induced suffocation would normally have triggered violent coughing, even blood.

Yet upon waking, aside from deep inhaling, he felt no severe tightness in his chest. On the contrary, his lungs seemed to tingle with a cool sensation.

Though the muscle weakness from numbness remained, his most troubling lung problem had already been largely alleviated.

And this was before the Breath of the Lake trait had even leveled up. For Li Nanke, this supernatural power seemed tailor-made!

But as for the so-called underwater breathing… Could it mean turning into those indigenous monsters—a “mermaid” like them?