Inside the Cave.
Before the gray-black runic pattern.
Yu Hong gently pressed his palm against the cold, dry stone wall.
At the same time, he silently chanted in his heart.
"Enhance the Glowstone runic pattern. Direction: strengthen the effect of dispersing Ghost Shadows."
Hiss.
In an instant, a strand of black light shot out from the Black Mark on the back of his hand and burrowed into the stone wall.
A second later.
Feedback rang out.
"Enhance the Glowstone runic pattern?" a cold mechanical voice asked.
Yu Hong was stunned at first, then the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.
"It worked! Just as I thought!" he rejoiced inwardly.
This proved his guess. This combination really could achieve the effect of dispersing Ghost Shadows. That meant that after a piece of Glowstone was ground down, this runic pattern could be attached and engraved onto any place or surface.
With the Black Mark replenishing it, these large runic patterns were no longer disposable items. Instead, they could perfectly protect any area around them!
At that moment, a black number appeared at the center of the runic engraving on the wall.
"One hour and twelve minutes."
"Is it because the amount being enhanced is smaller, so it doesn't need more time?" Yu Hong guessed.
After all, he had only used a third of the ink made by grinding down a piece of Glowstone by the time he finished drawing the runic engraving. Enhancing this amount of material definitely wouldn't take long.
"It can be enhanced in just over an hour. I'll give it a try and see how effective it is."
He felt a faint sense of anticipation and immediately replied yes in his mind.
The number on the runic engraving began slowly counting down.
While the countdown began, he found a stool and sat to the side, idly playing with another Pistol that had no bullets.
He picked it up, aimed, pulled the trigger with a hollow click, and put it back down.
He repeated the exercise, practicing drawing and firing the gun from different angles.
Since there were no bullets, the practice was completely safe.
The United Army had come to capture him twice in succession, trying to force him into labor. It had left Yu Hong feeling deeply insecure.
Although the United Army should have already moved away together with the people from the town.
He couldn't be sure when they might return.
As for the two people who had attacked him last time, he had gone to check the place where they had collapsed while gathering firewood earlier. Only two sets of tattered underwear remained.
Clearly, the Blood Tide's Black Worms had devoured them completely, flesh and bones alike.
This gave Yu Hong an even deeper understanding of how dangerous the night was.
"Right. If I can practice shooting on my own, train my marksmanship, and then summarize my own insights into gunfighting and shooting before using the Black Mark to enhance them, would that work? Could I obtain a better firearms training manual?"
After pondering for a moment, Yu Hong quickly came up with a unique new enhancement idea.
"I also need to prepare some means of reconnaissance. If I place traps, bells, or something similar around the area, perhaps they'll provide some warning."
He stroked his chin as he spoke.
The Mountain Cave Safe House had been painstakingly built by him with great difficulty. He couldn't afford to lose it, so he had to ensure its basic safety.
As the maker of the Large Glowstone, the appearance of Evil Shadows would inevitably greatly increase the importance of Large Glowstones. It was highly likely that more people would come looking for trouble later, so he had to prepare for trouble before it arose.
***Post Office settlement.
Several underground chambers stood close together, forming a small settlement.
The largest and most solid one was undoubtedly the stone basement beneath the Post Office.
Calling it a basement was inaccurate. It was more like an emergency shelter built in the past to prepare for war.
It was enormous, roughly the size of the entire White Mound Village. It lay more than ten meters underground.
Ever since the Black Calamity erupted, these war shelters had become refuges for people everywhere.
Whenever an especially troublesome Black Calamity invasion struck, those who couldn't survive would hide inside, seeking temporary shelter.
At that moment, the dark emergency shelter was filled with corridors that were gloomy and constricted.
Narrow lounges lined both sides of the corridors.
The greenish Atomic Lamps overhead cast the corridors in a murky green glow.
Damp, chilly air spun and surged through the corridors from the vents.
Lao Yu stuck out his belly and kept glancing back and forth as he cautiously approached a room.
The edges of the gray-black iron door were covered in rust. He reached out and gently gripped the handle.
Click.
The handle was twisted downward.
The door was slowly pushed inward.
Lao Yu was about to enter and close the door behind him.
Suddenly, the skin on his left side prickled. From his left cheek to his left leg, the skin over his entire left side broke out in gooseflesh.
A strange yet familiar sense of terror surged into his heart.
"..." Lao Yu's throat bobbed. He felt that something was on his left.
From the corner of his eye, he vaguely saw what seemed to be a person standing in the darkness of the corridor to his left.
Gulp.
He swallowed and slowly turned his head toward it.
His entire body trembled. As his shaking right forearm moved, his sleeve slipped down, revealing rough, yellowish-black skin.
A small black handprint was clearly visible on it.
Whoosh! He suddenly whipped his head around and looked to the left.
There was nothing in the darkness. The corridor was empty, and only the sound of his breathing remained.
At that moment, he was the only person in the Underground Shelter. The others would move in tomorrow after packing up their belongings.
He had originally thought he could endure this day. It was only one day.
But... now it seemed...
Sweat ran down his forehead to the tip of his nose, then dripped off.
Lao Yu stared nervously at the corridor to his left. Only after repeatedly confirming that no one was there did he turn back, gently push open the door, and enter his bedroom.
He quickly grabbed a sack of Glowstones from the corner, hugged it to his chest, and sat down on the bed.
The faint light of a candle was lit, illuminating the eyes around him.
The light gave him some sense of security.
Sitting on the bed and trembling all over, he buried his head in the blankets and began to cry silently.
He actually hadn't escaped back on his own at all. After they discovered his Black Handprint, he had been forcibly driven out.
There had been no matter of confiscating half his supplies. It was simply because he had been infected with the Black Handprint.
"Why... Why are you treating me like this?" Lao Yu looked at the candle before him. Unable to hold back, he covered his face with both hands. Tears streamed down his face like a broken string, soaking even his palms.
"I was only greedy for a moment... I returned everything! I returned it all!!"
With tear-blurred eyes, he sat alone in the pitch-black bedroom, curled up on the bed, not daring to move at all.
Click.
Suddenly.
The bedroom door handle was twisted from outside.
The clear sound was especially jarring in the dead silence.
Lao Yu shuddered and raised his head, staring at the door in terror.
He had locked that door from the inside!
How... how could someone possibly twist it open!?
But the truth was that the bedroom door, which had been locked and secured with a metal chain, had opened a crack.
Creak.
The door slowly opened.
Beyond it was a stretch of absolute darkness.
Lao Yu stared fixedly at the darkness and the gap, not daring to blink.
The door to the Underground Shelter had been locked, with a sack of Glowstones hanging from it. The corridor leading down was also covered with Glowstones.
He had exchanged all his savings for a huge amount of Glowstones. Sack after sack hung everywhere, and some ordinary Glowstones even had Large Glowstone runic patterns drawn on them.
No person could get in. No Ghost Shadow could either.
Yet now, blood vessels spread across Lao Yu's eyes. Since he had gone so long without blinking, tears trickled down from the corners of his eyes.
But intense fear and a sense of crisis kept him completely motionless as he stared at the crack in the door.
Fortunately, the crack stopped moving.
It seemed to have merely been blown open by the wind.
A trace of doubt slowly rose in Lao Yu's heart.
"Perhaps I was too frightened just now and forgot to lock the door after entering."
With this guess in mind, he picked up a Glowstone and glanced at it. All the Glowstones in the sack were fine, and none had been consumed.
This eased the fear in his heart considerably.
He raised his head, picked up the candle, and used its light to stand. He intended to go and lock the door again.
Whoosh! Suddenly, a breath of air blew out the candle.
Someone—he didn't know who—had suddenly crept up behind him and blown out the candle in one breath!
Lao Yu's entire body froze with terror.
At the instant the flames went out.
He vaguely saw a blurred figure with long hair beside him.
Darkness completely swallowed everything.
***Inside the Cave.
Yu Hong stared expectantly at the large runic pattern on the stone wall as it counted down.
If this test succeeded, it would mean that he could rapidly create anti-Ghost Shadow runic arrays anywhere, at any time.
Yes, he had named this large runic pattern a runic array.
"If I repeatedly layer and interlock these runic arrays, or even directly arrange Large Glowstones into such an array, its power will absolutely far exceed that of ordinary Large Glowstones!"
Yu Hong pondered inwardly.
Of course, such a combined runic array would also require an extremely long enhancement time.
For now, what he mainly wanted to know was what the large runic array before him could be enhanced into.
Soon, the countdown entered its final thirty seconds.
He silently waited, watching the runic array on the wall.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1. Whoosh! In an instant, the runic array blurred for a moment before becoming clear again.
After it clarified, the originally rough lines of the runic array had become smoother and more complete.
The Glowstone Ink used within it had also darkened, as if its concentration had increased.
Most importantly, the entire runic array now faintly possessed a jade-like texture. It had clearly transformed completely into the material of a Large Glowstone.
"It worked!!" Yu Hong was overjoyed.
It had succeeded in just over an hour.
This meant that he could greatly shorten the production cycle of Large Glowstones.
The prerequisite was that the runic array's effect could not be inferior to that of a Large Glowstone.
"Even if the runic array is a little weaker than a Large Glowstone, it'll still be worthwhile as long as it's stronger than an ordinary Glowstone!" Yu Hong calculated inwardly.
Looking at the runic array before him, he thought about where he could find a Ghost Shadow to test it on.
With that thought, he quickly crouched down again and began looking for an empty space on the back of the main door to draw another runic array.
In less than ten minutes, Yu Hong, who had long since become extremely proficient at drawing it, quickly created another basin-sized runic array on the back of the door.
Then he reached out and pressed his hand against it, preparing to enhance it.
"Wait." A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Since I can guide the direction of the enhancement, why not enhance it further and make its effect even stronger? Perhaps I should test the upper limit of the Black Mark's enhancement."
At this thought, Yu Hong's heart stirred.
The Black Mark's enhancement naturally had its own limit.
Otherwise, why would one piece of Glowstone only become a Large Glowstone instead of a Giant Glowstone?
Could this default enhancement magnitude be adjusted? And what determined it?
Before you continue