Deep inside a mine, enormous figures in ill-fitting black robes stood beside a pile of minerals, waving their limbs and loudly chanting Cthulhu's divine name.
When Ke Meng's consciousness descended, the black-robed figures all fell to their knees and kowtowed toward the large pool inside the mine.
These concealing black robes were not their usual clothes. They might have been strange outfits prepared to lend the ceremony a sense of ritual.
Then a black-robed figure with the title "Stone Man Monster" above his head wriggled forward, holding a steel fork high in both hands.
"Great Cthulhu, we are the Stone Man Tribe, your faithful servants!"
"We have been trapped in this mine for years. We wish to leave this mine and gain our freedom!"
"We humbly beseech you to accept this insignificant offering."
They belonged to the Stone Man Tribe and had only recently begun worshipping the great evil god Cthulhu after being beguiled by the Black Ghosts.
With the adventurers all logged out, the ghosts had no missions, so they could only infiltrate the local mobs. Stone Man Mountain Village had become a new gathering place for fanatical believers.
The Stone Man Tribe alone occupied the mine, which was rich in mineral resources and came with its own spacetime stone powder. Their very first summoning ritual had successfully drawn Great Cthulhu's attention.
The Stone Man Monster felt uneasy. In truth, he had no treasures here, only glittering ore.
But ore was far too unimpressive. It was everywhere in the mine and nowhere near rare enough.
Afraid that Great Cthulhu would have no interest in it, they instead offered the only Trident in the Stone in the cave.
This steel fork had been embedded in spacetime stone long ago. Its head had three prongs, and it was lodged so firmly that the stone men could not pull it out.
Fortunately, the Stone Man Tribe could gnaw through minerals. Although spacetime stone was the hardest ore in the mine to chew, years of gnawing had ground away the spacetime stone beneath the trident, leaving the weapon completely intact.
At first, the stone men had no idea how to use it. But whenever a warrior from the tribe fought with it, the trident would inexplicably impale some creature from an unknown place.
Sometimes it skewered an insect, sometimes an enormous crocodile, and sometimes a young stone man from their own tribe.
The child had been killed by a single thrust. After that, the tribe sealed away this bizarre, unpredictable weapon and never wanted to use it again.
The Stone Man Monster's mind raced with wild thoughts. Perhaps a rare weapon like this would catch Great Cthulhu's attention?
He placed the strange steel fork into the pool. It was so heavy that it sank straight to the bottom.
There were many pools like this in the mine. Every rainy season, torrential rain flooded the mine, and that was where these pools came from.
R'lyeh.
Upon hearing the fanatical believers' request, Ke Meng quietly opened his skill list and searched for an available skill.
They wanted to live outside the mine?
It sounded simple enough. He just had to toss them outside.
But that was precisely the problem. They had not realized that they were mobs restricted to a specific area, locked firmly within the mine by the game's rules. The moment they took even half a step outside, they would snap back into the mine, unable to escape.
Ke Meng could ignore their request and simply give them a random group buff.
But Great Cthulhu was curious about the stone men and wanted to know whether they could use an evil god's power to break out of the mine.
Which was stronger, an evil god's power or the game mechanics?
According to the laws of games, the game mechanics were naturally stronger than a boss.
But without trying, he had no right to say. Ke Meng wanted to challenge that rule once.
Before long, he found a spatial skill.
"Water: Mirror Traversal"
This was a spatial skill that relied on an aquatic environment. It allowed Great Cthulhu to pass through a water surface, which led to the surface of another body of water.
For example, Great Cthulhu could plunge headfirst into one ocean and emerge on the surface of another.
The water's surface was a spatial gateway connecting two different bodies of water.
However, he could not use this skill. The ancient god seal had sealed off all movement skills.
Unable to use the skill on the spot, Great Cthulhu quickly thought of another way.
If they didn't know the skill, they could learn it from scratch!
No one knew everything from the beginning. Ordinary people all built their foundations from nothing, learning step by step until they accumulated a wealth of knowledge.
Great Cthulhu himself embodied a vast store of knowledge, but Ke Meng had never deliberately transmitted that knowledge to anyone else. He was afraid that receiving too much would make their brains explode.
After all, in the Cthulhu Mythos, those investigators went mad because they knew too much and could not bear it.
Having made up his mind, Ke Meng stirred his consciousness into action and transmitted the knowledge of "Water: Mirror Traversal."
His skill list included a knowledge transfer skill. It had little explanation and was used solely to transmit knowledge.
A few seconds later, Ke Meng saw large numbers of black-robed stone men screaming inside the mine.
"I saw it! I saw it!"
"Great Lord!"
Countless stone men clutched their heads as illusory murmurs sounded in their ears. Though masks covered their eyes, they saw layer upon layer of hallucinations.
They saw one expanse of water after another: lakes surrounded by green forests, lakes swept by bleak autumn winds, and vast, boundless seas.
These water surfaces had originally rippled, but under the influence of some unknown force, the ripples vanished.
The water became as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the sky with perfect fidelity.
A voice lingered in their minds, repeating endlessly, "Traverse... water surface... mirror..."
The voice kept speaking, switching between languages and explaining in different ways how to smooth the surface, buzzing on and on.
Yet not a single one of them could hear the full explanation!
The Stone Man Monster's mind was filled with jumbled images. Knowing how terrifying the evil god was, he clung desperately to his sanity and memorized the few images that had left the deepest impression on him.
Perhaps this was the path Great Cthulhu had given their tribe.
Smooth the water's surface and cross into another world.
But some stone men went mad, shouting over and over, "Traverse! Traverse! Traverse!"
Others shouted, "Water! Water! Water! I want water!"
They had gone mad. Almost all of them had gone mad.
Above the pool, within the indescribable mist.
Seeing that almost all their responses were crazed babbling, with not one of them explaining how to actually use the skill, Great Cthulhu felt deeply disappointed.
They were far too weak. These NPCs couldn't withstand the infusion of knowledge at all. They weren't even qualified to serve as test subjects.
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