Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 597: Family fishing talent
Now, Shirley once again embarks on the road to the legendary "Wall of Silence" - together with Lucretia, and still under the guidance of an elf girl named "Shireen".

They walked through the dense forest where light and shadow alternated, walking on forest paths covered with dead branches and fallen leaves, and crossing thorns and bushes. The calls of unknown small animals and birds came from the depths of the forest from time to time, but they only reflected the forest. She became increasingly lonely and cold - looking at the back of "Shireen" walking in front, Shirley even had an illusion in a trance, feeling that time had reversed, and that she had returned to the place where she followed her while trekking in the forest not long ago. when.

Because nothing seems to have changed, the forest always looks the same, the surrounding movements are the same, and the appearance of the two "Shireen" is exactly the same.

Only the witch lady walking next to her, who turned into pieces of colored paper from time to time, reminded Shirley that things had changed.

Now, Shirley has told Lucretia everything that happened before without the elf girl being aware of it, and also shared it with everyone who fell into the dream together, including the captain who was active outside the dream—the captain was here The preparations before entering the dream were quite effective. The power of the flames connected everyone together. This connection worked better than Shirley imagined.

After learning what happened to "the other Shireen", Lucretia couldn't help but feel something different when she looked at the elf girl walking in front.

The "Shireen" who acted with Shirley turned into a tree in the end... and before she was completely transformed, she seemed to have something else she wanted to tell Shirley...

So will this "Shireen" suddenly turn into a tree now?
Nina and Maurice also met a guide who called himself "Shireen". Where was the "Shireen" over there?Will this change happen too?

After all, what is going on with these "Shireen" who appear in the Dream of the Nameless One?

At first, Lucretia only thought that "Shireen" was a mental entity chaotically reorganized from the bottom consciousness of this dream, but now various clues show that the other party has something special beyond imagination. This self-proclaimed There seems to be an extremely complex connection between the elves of "Shireen", this forest, and the entire "Dream of the Nameless One", and it is by no means just a simple connection between "dream" and "mental entity".

Her "transformation process" into a tree may reveal the nature of this connection.

The elf girl walking in front suddenly slowed down. She turned around and looked at Lucretia and Shirley, who were already lagging far behind. She waved her hands vigorously: "Let's go faster, the forest is too dangerous now - —You can rest naturally when you reach the Wall of Silence."

Lucretia glanced back at Shirley and Agou next to her, and then they both quickened their pace.

Shirley murmured in a low voice while quickly following up: "Can that big rag doll really find those hiding cultists? I always feel that it is not very reliable..."

"Rabbi is indeed dishonest sometimes, but as long as I give clear orders, it will still have no problems," Lucretia said softly, "Hunting in dreams is what it is best at, and it will Track them all the way into the real world, and then we can find out where those cultists are hiding."

"...So what on earth is that big rabbit?" Agou muttered at the side, "I smell...a human smell on it. It is definitely not a simple magical creation, or even in the ordinary sense. It’s an evil spirit or demon-like creature, and not only it, but other things on your ship also have this feeling, which makes me feel weird.”

"Human flavor?" Lucrecia glanced at Agou, with a smile on her face, "Ah, I can only say that you are indeed a deep hound, and your perception is indeed very keen... Yes, it is human flavor. , it’s the ‘human smell’ that a part of my soul exudes.”

Agou was stunned for a moment: "...Huh?"

"It's not a big deal. When I first encountered Rabbi, he bit out a piece of my soul, but he probably didn't expect that the bit of soul he bit off would deprive him of his freedom forever - Brilliant Star A lot of the stuff on there was like that, they were dangerous things from the frontier or the spirit world, and at one point they thought of themselves as hunters and saw me as prey... which was a huge convenience to me.”

Lucretia spoke calmly, with a faint smile on her face.

"I use souls as bait, looking for slaves at the border. The souls cursed by subspace are the best poisons and binding ropes. Those who mistakenly think they are hunters are eventually bound by my soul, sewn into cloth, and poured into bottles. , carved into the wood, became part of the Brilliant Star - these slaves are necessary, because I need assistants for my frontier expeditions, and the human... mortality rate is too high."

After the sea witch finished explaining, she looked down at Agou: "Your perception is very accurate. There are tiny bits of 'human flavor' everywhere on that ship. You don't need to make such a fuss."

Agou and Shirley listened blankly, seemingly shocked by the things Lucretia described, and neither of them spoke for a while.

Lucretia just smiled when she saw this. She was satisfied with the silence of Shirley and Agou, so she turned her head and continued to follow Shireen.

Seeing the "Sea Witch" walking forward for a certain distance, Shirley shook the chain in her hand. Even though she was speaking in a spiritual connection, she couldn't help but lower her voice: "Agou Agou, is this what the captain said? What's that...making a nest? She makes a nest by herself?"

"It sounds very similar," Agou also muttered quietly in his mental connection, "The captain mentioned this when he introduced fishing techniques to me."

"As expected of the captain's daughter..." Shirley couldn't help but sigh, "The whole family seems to be good at fishing..."

"Tirion doesn't seem to be good at it, does he?"

"He caught so many submersibles from the sea back then! Although he didn't catch them himself, he was still one of the people in charge..." "Does that count?"

"Just tell me if it came from the sea!"

"..."

……

Duncan silently turned off the "monitoring" of Shirley and Lucretia.

He sat on a "chair" outlined by disordered lines and stacked colors. He couldn't help but think about the words "making a nest" and "fishing" in his mind. After a while, he turned his gaze slightly. , glanced at the "mirror" outlined by irregular lines not far away, and muttered to Agatha emerging in the mirror: "I can't remember serious knowledge, but telling her something else will help her understand it better - - Normally, if Shirley can devote one-tenth of her attention to memorizing words, she won't be able to compete with Alice's solid head for points."

Agatha didn't speak for a while, and hesitated for several seconds before breaking the silence: "To be honest, I also think Miss Lucretia has excellent 'fishing skills'..."

Duncan waved his hand: "Anyway, there is no need to worry about Shirley and Lucretia for the time being. It is much safer to join together than to act alone, and maybe the rabbit named Rabbi can really catch those elusive ones." Cultists. What’s more important now…is this ship.”

He stood up from the chair and glanced at the chaotically stacked colors and lines around him, distinguishing the outlines of various parts of the room in the lines - after initially adapting to the dizzying chaotic environment here, he had already identified the outlines from here. Lots of familiar stuff.

Basic furnishings such as beds, tables and chairs are all available, and they generally correspond to the "correct" positions in the real world, but when it comes to specific details, such as the things currently placed on the table or the decorations on the wall, there are only Blurred and confusing color blocks.

Just as Duncan judged: the goat head in the real world did not dare to pry into the real situation in the captain's dormitory. At most, it accidentally caught a glimpse of the general appearance when the captain opened the door. Those vague impressions constituted this room. The chaotically stacked lines and color blocks in the room;

Outside of this room, the Lost Home was almost perfectly restored one-to-one - that's because the goat head in the real world knew all the places on the Lost Home except the captain's quarters.

This "Homeless Ship" with a strange atmosphere is transformed from the "shadow" of the Lost Homeship in the real world, but the two are not a simple conversion. In this conversion process, the "goat-headed ship" plays a key role. Cognition” and “memory”.

It was already obvious that this ship was his "first mate's" dream - even though Goathead had no idea he was dreaming.

But this is also Selendis’ dream—at least, there is some kind of “link” between here and Selendis’ dream.

Duncan raised his hand, and a small flame appeared in the air in front of him. The flame rippled like water waves, spreading rapidly in all directions, but stopped when it touched the edge of the "chaotic room" , reflected back with ripples.

This is the result of Duncan's "testing" here in the past period of time.

In this "room that the goat head cannot recognize", he can summon his own flames at will without worrying about waking up Silantis like last time, but outside the room, he can only mobilize the advance "mapping" "To those fires on this ship, any additional flames could awaken Silantis and cause the Dream of the Nameless One to end prematurely.

So... is there a safe way that allows me to take full control of the ship while further establishing a connection with Silantis without "scaring" Silantis like last time? , to avoid causing "resistance" from Silantes?
In deep thought, Duncan raised his head and looked towards the exit of the room.

I may be thinking too complicated - this may be a very simple thing.

After a moment of hesitation, he told Agatha to stay in the "safe house" for the time being, and then left the room.

The confused "goat head" was still in a daze at the edge of the navigation table and had no reaction to Duncan's appearance - Duncan went straight over it, crossed the chart room, walked out of the captain's cabin door, and then followed the familiar route in his memory. , he walked up the stairs behind the captain's cabin and came to the stern deck.

In the boundless darkness and slowly drifting mist, something appeared in Duncan's field of vision, as if it was waiting for him quietly, and had been waiting for a long time.

That's the rudder of the Lost Home.

"...it is necessary to take the helm again."

(End of this chapter)