Shattered Glass

The moment the "Communication" ended, the gaze from Skull No. 1 interrupted Hope's "Uncertainty."

Hope glanced at Skull No. 1:

Agility: 0, Constitution: 0, Vision: 1.56, Mana: 1.71

These are reassuring numbers, indicating that its soul has returned to where it belongs.

Hope raised her hand and threw the Skull No. 1 out. Before she could hear it hit the ground, she ran toward the dazed Elizabeth.

The first incantation for Skull No. 1 had been recited, but Hope did not sense any change, leading Hope to deduce that the incantation was acting on the skull itself.

He pulled Elizabeth down to squat, covered her eyes, and used the display case to conceal their bodies.

At the same time, Hope herself closed her eyes and activated "Uncertainty," targeting the area outside the Cultist Skull Museum.

Being closer allows "Uncertainty" to be resolved in the shortest amount of time.

Hope will use that place as a transit point to send the message to Professor Armitage's office.

But the moment the "Uncertainty" began, it was interrupted as syllables resembling incantations rang in Hope's ears...

Elizabeth reacted faster Hope; she pounced on Hope, holding a shard of glass in her hand, and smashed it against the Skull No. 1 that was floating in the air.

Without any protection, her hand bled from gripping the glass too tightly.

The long glass slid in an arc like a dagger, but ultimately did not land on the Skull No. 1.

The Skull No. 1 moved back a few centimeters, barely avoiding the glass, and the incantation continued.

1.68--1.66

Hope suddenly felt a tightness in her chest, difficulty breathing, a distinct blockage in her mouth and nose, a fishy smell, and a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Cough... cough..."

He couldn't help but cough twice, a salty, fishy smell rising from his lungs.

seawater?

How could there be seawater?

Hope took the glass from Elizabeth and threw the shards at Skull No. 1 like throwing knives.

The glass shards grazed the eye socket of Skull No. 1.

At the same time, Elizabeth climbed off Hope and lunged at the skull.

"So cool," Hope thought.

Since Elizabeth returned to her body, she hasn't said a word, but she has acted so reliably.

Her movements resembled catching a butterfly; she knelt on one knee, her hands clasped in front of her chest.

Skull No. 1 was focused on dodging the glass Hope threw, but ended up being caught by Elizabeth and couldn't fly away.

The incantation sounded again, Hope was curious about its vocal organs. The voice seemed to appear out of thin air, and the skull did not change at all.

Elizabeth lifted the Skull No. 1 slightly, then slammed it hard to the ground, forcing the spell to stop.

But Elizabeth's movements also stopped at the same time; just before her skull made contact with the ground, her movements suddenly slowed down.

Elizabeth froze for a moment, her grip on the skull loosened, and Skull No. 1 took the opportunity to escape.

Having suffered a loss, it was unwilling to continue approaching, so it flew upwards in an instant, ascended to the rooftop, and then quickly retreated several meters.

"Cough... What's wrong?" Hope exhaled a salty, metallic breath and asked Elizabeth.

"I don't know," Elizabeth said. "I think I just forgot what I was supposed to do."

"It's its magic," Hope said.

The Skull No. 1 likely used "disappearance" to make Elizabeth forget the action she was about to take.

It seems to take only a very short time for it to do this.

"Are you alright?" Elizabeth asked.

Hope stood up and coughed a few more times. "Not good... I'm having some difficulty breathing... but it's bearable."

Elizabeth grabbed Hope and ran towards the door.

But Skull No. 1 began casting new spells, and this guy had more spells than Hope had anticipated.

They were too far from Skull No. 1. After escaping from Elizabeth's grasp, Skull No. 1 had been floating under the ceiling and had stopped falling. They had no way to stop it.

Elizabeth gripped the doorknob.

She shook her head at Hope.

"The door won't open," she said.

At this moment, Skull No. 1 had completed its incantation, and it calmly flew to the top of the two people's heads.

Even if it didn't say anything, the two could guess that it had used a spell to tamper with the door.

The culprit was perched high above Hope's head, Hope stretched out her arms, certain that she couldn't touch it even if she jumped.

"We... cough cough..." Hope said, starting to feel like he was drowning. "We can still... reconcile... how about I give the 'exchange' back to you?"

The skull made no sound and floated silently in the air.

"This guy's gone mad," Hope thought.

Enraged and ashamed. A fit of impotent rage.

Hope didn't dare to utter the curse.

Hope wanted to "exchange" his drowning situation with Skull No. 1, but he regretfully discovered that the "exchange" could only be used on the soul, not on the physical situation.

1.49--1.46

The mana value of Skull No. 1 is still decreasing.

But it did not recite any incantations.

Lasting effect.

Hope began to understand. Whether it was the increasingly severe feeling of drowning in his body, the Skull No. 1 flying in the air, or the strange phenomenon of the room being unable to be opened, all of them were spells that required a continuous drain on mana.

1.46--1.43

"The consumption isn't low," Hope thought.

He initiated the "Exchange," setting the exchange targets as his own eyesight and the mana value of Skull No. 1.

He originally wanted to exchange his physical constitution or agility for the other party, but it seems that because the skull is only a vessel for the soul and cannot be considered a real body, the other party could not obtain it.

"Exchange" is a wonderful feeling. The moment she connected with the other person, Hope sensed all the exchangeable options in them and could vaguely perceive the differences—but compared to Hope's own "Memorandum," this feeling was not precise enough.

Hope could sense that Wilbur, whom she had swapped with, also had a kill count that made him a viable trade partner.

Skull No. 1: Vision: 1.56-1.61, Mana: 1.40-1.35

Hope: Vision: 0.67-0.62, Mana: 0.01-0.07

Hope's eyesight had worsened, and perhaps it was just his imagination, but the salty, fishy taste of the seawater in his mouth seemed to have faded a bit.

Skull No. 1 seemed to sense something and tried to retreat while flying.

Elizabeth was still unaware of what had happened, but she saw Hope smiling slightly, ignoring her wounds, grabbing a handful of glass shards and throwing them at Skull No. 1.

These glass shards caused no harm whatsoever; the Skull No. 1 had flown too high for Skull No. 1 shards to even leave a scratch, but they did somewhat slow its departure.

Skull No. 1: Vision: 1.61-1.66, Mana: 1.35-1.30

Hope: Vision: 0.62-0.57, Mana: 0.07-0.12

1.30--1.27

The taste in Hope's mouth became a little bland.

Skull No. 1 seemed more panicked than he had anticipated; it wobbled in the air, completely disregarding the fact that Hope would use "Uncertainty" to escape once he looked away.

Hope suddenly felt a little dizzy.

A strong sense of unease welled up in his mind: the "exchange" could not continue.

It was almost as if a voice was screaming: Stop!

Hope felt something flowing from his nose. He touched it, but before he could see what it was, all he could see was darkness.

Hope fainted.

In his last moments of consciousness, he heard the door open and a gust of wind blow in.