The Reader

The moment Arthur arrived, he quickly crawled forward, hiding beneath the leaf of a wild blade of grass.

He poked his head out to survey his surroundings.

Suddenly hearing a "quack-quack" sound not far away, he pulled his head back and waited in silence.

Before long, through the gaps in the grass, he saw a Big Gray Duck flapping its wings as it dove from mid-air into the sea.

Rising from the water again, it held a large yellow croaker in its beak.

At the edge of the beach, the Big Gray Duck stepped on the yellow croaker with one foot and began tearing away the fish scales and sashimi-like meat.

Taking advantage of the Big Gray Duck's mealtime, Arthur set off toward the depths of the island.

He named this stretch of beach the Big Gray Duck's beach, or "Gray Duck Beach" for short.

For a caterpillar, Gray Duck Beach was fraught with danger; he could not linger here.

Moving through the grass, Arthur exhausted all his strength, crawling from night until the break of dawn just to cover a hundred meters.

Fortunately, he had moved far from Gray Duck Beach and reached the wooded area of the island.

"Hiss~ Hiss~"

A rustling sound rang in his ears. A sense of foreboding rose in Arthur's heart, and as he looked up, a round, beady-eyed sea snake was staring at him.

The red and white striped scales signaled the sea snake's toxicity, something no caterpillar could withstand.

Ignoring the caterpillar on the ground, the sea snake continued slithering through the grass, its target seemingly the Big Gray Duck.

Just as Arthur breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he had escaped a catastrophe, a massive force suddenly struck him.

The sea snake whipped its tail against the caterpillar, sending Arthur tumbling in a pathetic sprawl onto the beach outside the grass.

His head slammed into the sand, and after rolling three times, he felt dizzy and disoriented.

The commotion drew the attention of the Big Gray Duck, which tilted its head to look at Arthur, seemingly curious.

It had just eaten a caterpillar not long ago, and now another similar one had appeared.

Could there be a caterpillar nest nearby?

"Quack!"

Seeming tired of sea fish and wanting to improve the flavor of its breakfast, the Big Gray Duck walked toward Arthur with elegant, swaying steps.

The moment the Big Gray Duck lowered its head, the sea snake hidden in the grass suddenly lunged.

Like the fastest of muskets, it struck the Big Gray Duck's neck with precision, and venom surged out in that instant, shooting entirely into the duck's bloodstream.

The toxin traveled up the neck to the head, and the Big Gray Duck, acting as if it were drunk, began to perform a joyful hornpipe dance on the ground.

Arthur watched the Big Gray Duck collapse; the gust of wind it kicked up knocked him over, and he rolled across the ground.

The Big Gray Duck has been successfully hunted by the sea snake; the location is officially renamed Sea Snake Beach.

Waiting a moment, he changed direction and wiggled toward the interior of the island, just in case the sea snake got tired of its meal and wanted a change of pace.

He was, after all, far too delicious!

Taking advantage of the sea snake savoring the Big Gray Duck, Arthur once again embarked on his journey and successfully reached the woods.

Arthur looked around, confirmed there was no danger, and walked under a blade of grass to nibble on the leaves.

He was hungry.

In the process of gnawing on the leaf, he suddenly felt a murderous aura.

Before he could turn back, a scythe-like phantom flashed past, Arthur's mind went blank, and he found himself floating above his own corpse.

He saw a Green Mantis waving its dual blades, eating the caterpillar's remains.

Arthur watched the entire process as the Green Mantis cruelly devoured the caterpillar, and once the caterpillar had completely vanished, a thought emerged in his mind: control this Green Mantis.

His consciousness locked onto the Green Mantis, and soon he sensed another consciousness—chaotic, natural, and weak.

Gradually grinding away the weak consciousness, Arthur took over this shell.

Opening his eyes again, Arthur's hands had become mantis-like, and the insect wings on his back rustled slightly.

You have acquired the "Mantis" form.

He provided the sound effects for his own transformation; in his current state, it really felt like a role-playing game.

Why didn't he gain the form of the Big Gray Duck when it ate him?

Arthur pondered this question: was his consciousness not strong enough to kill the Big Gray Duck, or did the Big Gray Duck not belong to the insect category?

He currently believed it was the latter; consciousness replacement could only work on insects that fit the characteristics of the [Moth].

"Cuckoo! Cuckoo!"

The sound of birds echoed in the woods, and Arthur, controlling the mantis, hid in the grass and curled up.

Relying on his natural mimetic camouflage, he hid there temporarily.

His mental state felt somewhat hazy, forcing him to exit the control state; his consciousness returned to his body, and he lay on the bed, resting in silence.

It was a truly miraculous state; he could clearly perceive the outside world, yet his "consciousness" told him it was best to simply lie still.

Like a fetus returning to the womb, quiet and comfortable.

It felt as though a long time had passed, yet also as if no time had passed at all, with Arthur hovering at the critical threshold between wakefulness and drowsiness.

Suddenly, the countdown for [Research] acted like an alarm clock, jolting him awake from this state.

Bolting upright from the bed, Arthur heard a whisper, as if someone were murmuring right beside his ear.

[Research on "Reader Potion" has concluded.]

[Research result: Reader Potion + Formula.]

The corners of his mouth curled upward; the goose that laid the golden eggs had appeared—the Sequence 9 potion formula for the Scholar Path.

The formula for the "Reader Potion":

Main ingredients: 1 blood-stained feather from a Transcendental Bird, 3 large eyeballs of a Four-Eyed Fish.

Supplementary ingredients: 1 Golden Oak Fruit, 3 stalks of Star Grass, 100 milliliters of calf hind-leg blood, and 2 drops of goat tears.

Arthur studied the "Reader Formula," finding the recorded ingredients unexpectedly peculiar.

"A blood-stained feather, required to be plucked from a Transcendental Bird; the three eyes of the 'Four-Eyed Fish,' a flatfish unique to the Mist Sea;

The Golden Oak Fruit comes from the oak trees inside the Church of Light, the Star Grass only grows where nights outnumber days, and cow blood and goat tears?"

Had he not deciphered the Reader potion himself, Arthur would have found it hard to imagine that the materials for such a precious transcendental potion were not as expensive as he had envisioned.

The main ingredients involved the transcendental, with the Four-Eyed Fish found in the Mist Sea, but the other materials were quite common.

If a regular believer went to the church to donate a silver coin and grabbed some oak fruits or Star Grass while they were at it, no one would stop them.

The calf's hind-leg blood and the two drops of goat tears were worth less than a single gold coin.

"After being blended together, it sells for 20,000 gold coins at auction—it's just too... exorbitant!"

Arthur put the formula away and opened the "Reader" potion, which was a black, jelly-like viscous substance.

He gulped it down in one go; the potion melted the moment it touched his tongue, spreading throughout his body.

Thump-thump!

It felt like an out-of-body experience, as if his body and soul were peeling apart, and the harmony between his consciousness and nature was increasing.

In this wondrous state, he could see many things that were previously invisible to him.

The flintlock in his hand was coated in a gray current of air, and the moment he saw it, the word "fear" surfaced in Arthur's mind.

Parrot Gro on the tabletop appeared like a vortex, its transcendental power impossible to discern clearly.

Parrot Gro was no ordinary contraband; according to Arthur's deduction, it should be a second-tier "Legendary-grade" contraband.

The kind that could be passed down through the songs of bards.

There was also the ship trailing behind the Great White Shark, its black, flowing transcendental power trying its best to hide itself.

In a split second, it vanished from Arthur's field of vision.

The moment he consumed the [Reader] potion, Arthur understood the abilities and taboos of this sequence.