Prayerbook of the Drowned (I)

The limping monster was clearly intelligent. With no one restraining it, it opened its eyes again, though only three compound eyes remained.

Its gaze swept coldly over the chaotic crowd on the deck. Then, with a shrill cry, it once again swung its fleshy tendrils covered in sharp barbs!

No one could stop it!

Crack!

A fleshy tendril lashed like a whip at the pirates guarding the prisoners at the stern. In an instant, bones shattered, tendons snapped, and flesh flew everywhere.

Amid the scalp-numbing screams, countless pirates fell into the water like torn rag dolls, only to be swallowed by the surging waves.

Crack!

Another tentacle slammed like a heavy hammer into the broken base of the mast, making the entire ship shudder.

With an ear-splitting sound of splintering wood, a radial fissure like an earthquake suddenly burst out from the mast and raced toward Xia Lun!

Xia Lun hurriedly grabbed a hanging rope beside him and hopped over the spreading crack, barely steadying himself on the rope.

Looking up, he saw the captain had already fallen headfirst into the fissure. Whether he lived or died was unknown.

The first mate on the forecastle sneered, but that faint, contemptuous laugh seemed to draw the monster's attention.

The limping monster turned around, then lashed a tendril at the first mate on the forecastle.

Boom!

The first mate's laughter vanished. The forecastle was directly smashed apart!

The first mate was buried beneath the wreckage, his fate equally uncertain.

For the second time in a short period, Xia Lun was stunned—the mutinous pirates had not made any contingency plans for dealing with the sea monster at all!

What was this, a passion-driven mutiny? he could not help but complain inwardly.

The already chaotic scene became even more chaotic. Darkness and torrential rain fed the fear lurking within the confusion, while the pirates on deck fought like headless flies.

Perhaps because it had been wounded too severely, the monster was far less agile than before. Even amid its frenzied slaughter, it exuded a sense of weakness and exhaustion.

The pirates' mutiny might have been utterly absurd, but it had pushed the situation in the direction most favorable to Xia Lun.

Whether pirates or monster, both were Xia Lun's enemies. It benefited him most if they destroyed each other.

Xia Lun did not act in haste. Staying in the shadows, he carefully observed the monster.

—Analysis was the mother of action.

The monster had already pulled the half-broken mast from its body with its fleshy tendrils, but the mast had still inflicted irreversible damage upon it.

Bloodlike mucus constantly flowed from its writhing black flesh, and amid its humming, trembling tentacles, Xia Lun suddenly caught sight of a striking milky-white gleam.

What was that?

He narrowed his eyes slightly. As he focused further, he finally made out the outline of that milky-white object.

It seemed to be a book made of white wax—like a flag, it was stuck amid the cluster of tentacles on the monster's back.

"Could it be a Grimoire?"

Xia Lun's black pupils suddenly contracted, and his heartbeat accelerated sharply!

"Thump... thump..."

For the first time, he truly saw hope of curing his illness!

—Long before officially entering the game, he had thoroughly investigated the experiences of players who had gained supernatural abilities.

While most people were extremely secretive about it, some players whose minds had shattered and whose sanity had collapsed repeatedly mentioned a way to gain supernatural power in vague, incoherent mutterings—obtaining and studying a "Grimoire."

According to those madmen, Grimoires were usually closely linked to the causes behind a scenario's formation, and most could be found near the powerful monsters within those scenarios. Studying a Grimoire would grant enlightenment and reveal the truth of the world!

Xia Lun remained skeptical of this so-called revelation of the world's truth. After all, everyone who said such things had become pitiful madmen unable to distinguish the boundary between illusion and reality...

By his understanding, if described using the terminology of the Cthulhu tabletop RPG from before his transmigration, using a "Grimoire" meant gaining supernatural abilities at the cost of one's own Sanity.

To cure the strange disease that modern medicine could do nothing about, he had to acquire supernatural abilities. Now, a path to supernatural power lay before Xia Lun!

This path might bring endless future troubles, but rather than wait calmly for death, he would rather risk everything.

At the very least, it would let him seize his own fate.

"I will get that wax book, whatever it takes!" Xia Lun's gaze suddenly deepened.

He took a deep breath. The salty, bloody taste on his tongue slightly calmed his mind.

As the saying went, greed clouded judgment. Blind action would only lead to failure; he needed to first devise a viable plan.

—Killing the monster before taking the wax book was certainly one option, but the greedy pirates might very well turn on him afterward, so that plan was not reliable.

Another plan was to exploit the blind spot created by the monster having lost half its eyes, circle behind it, and use the rope hook to quietly snag the wax book.

Which should he choose?

Xia Lun's eyes swept over the monster slaughtering at will, the panicked pirates, the crisscrossing cracks across the deck, and the revolver in his hand.

He closed his eyes, weighed his options for a moment, then made up his mind.

He was already on the verge of dying from illness and had nothing left. He should choose the high-risk, high-reward option!

He opened his eyes.

Xia Lun grabbed the rope hook beside a wooden barrel, wrapped it around his right arm, bent low, and slowly crept toward the monster's rear right along the shadows cast by the wreckage of the forecastle and mast.

Torrential rain pattered against the planks, and the clamor of the downpour along with the pirates' screams provided excellent cover for Xia Lun's movements.

Step by step...

He carefully climbed over the broken mast. The barbs on the splintered wood scraped his palm painfully, but before the pain could truly set in, adrenaline dulled it away.

Xia Lun landed softly, then continued creeping forward with utmost care.

By now, he was extremely close to the monster. He could clearly see the white wax book. In the flickering lightning, it seemed to emit a soft white glow, like a treasure hoarded by a dragon.

But if the monster turned around now, he would once again face the threat of death.

The feeling of sneaking along a knife's edge was cold and terrifying. Xia Lun felt as if every hair on his body had stood on end.

Soon, he reached a distance close enough to throw the rope hook. Beside him was a massive fissure he could use for cover in an emergency.

It was time to act...

He carefully crouched down and began unwinding the rope hook from his right arm, loop by loop. But at that moment—

Smack!

A tentacle whipped through the air, and a mangled corpse crashed down in front of Xia Lun. Warm blood splashed across his face.

Xia Lun jumped in fright, his heartbeat seemingly missing half a beat. He instinctively looked up at the massive monster, only to discover that it had not noticed him. It had merely happened to fling away a pirate.

The monster let out a shriek and continued battling the remaining pirates.

A false alarm.

Xia Lun took a deep breath and slowly rose to his feet.

He looped the end of the rope hook between his thumb and little finger, while his remaining three fingers clamped tightly against both sides of the hook. He slightly loosened his wrist and adjusted the iron hook's direction.

The next moment, he kicked off the ground, dropped his shoulder, and swung his arm!

"Clack!" The iron hook traced a beautiful arc, then flew precisely over the writhing tentacles and caught onto the wax book. The entire motion was smooth and effortless, so successful it was almost unbelievable!

Xia Lun let out a long breath, then flexed his wrist slightly, intending to pull the wax book down.

But at that moment, a blazing glow suddenly flashed in the corner of his eye, followed by a piercing sound like boiling water!

A sudden change erupted!