The Void Pathfinder from the Demon Hunter World

(Recommended background music for this chapter: "Darkness Falls" singer: Inon Zur.)

In front of Marvin was a circular cave that had sunk more than half a meter. The bottom of the cave was full of bones, and twisted tree roots hung from the top of the cave, or perhaps they just looked like tree roots.

Ever since he first encountered the Mothman Cult at Clancy's Manor, he had no idea what those tree-like things were.

On the "tree roots" that emerged from the top of the cave, dark red light streams crisscrossed and pulsated, illuminating the surroundings in a dirty gray-red color.

A "creature", Marvin didn't know if it was a creature...

If it stood up, it should be four or five meters tall, curled up on its side at the bottom of the cave, with two thin and long legs, accounting for more than two-thirds of its height.

It had no arms, and two wooden tentacles replaced its arms, hugging itself.

Its head looked a bit like a human head, but more like a badly carved wood sculpture, with its eyes closed and a bunch of tiny tentacles covering the lower half of its face. I don't know if there was a nose and mouth underneath.

Six wooden tentacles grew from its back, stretching out wantonly, with the ends buried under the surrounding dry bones.

It had no breath, no heartbeat, and no physiological activity in the zoological sense.

But Marvin knew it was alive, emitting a heart-pounding spiritual fluctuation.

On the other side of the cave stood a stone pillar that was thin at the top and thick at the bottom, a bit like a stalactite pillar.

A skeleton was embedded in the stone pillar with its back tied, with its head down as if repenting.

The top of the stone pillar seemed to be missing something...

The cave was filled with cold and obscure magic energy, and Marvin's magic energy recovery increased by at least ten times compared to the outside...

But he was not happy at all.

Now his mental consciousness was constantly being squeezed and probed...

[Hint: Under mental attack, mental attribute determination... Mental attribute is higher than 33, determination passed. Willpower determination... Determination successful. You are immune to this mental attack. ]

[Hint: Found the mission target "Intruder". ]

[Task hint: "Mothman Cult (Fifth Ring)" has been completed. The reward will be settled after all links are completed. 】

【Task prompt: Mothman Cult (Sixth Ring). Kill the intruder and submit. Task time limit: 15 minutes. 】

When Marvin saw the last prompt, his brain worked quickly under great mental pressure and instantly decided the follow-up actions.

He pointed his left hand at the neck of the creature, and the ice-blue ray hit it instantly.

The maximum output "Frost Ray" immediately froze its slender neck and the tentacles on the lower half of its face.

"Ah~...%^u002u002?~..."

Marvin's ears immediately rang with chaotic whispers.

A huge amount of information poured into his mind, trying to crush his consciousness.

【Prompt: Under mental attack, mental attribute determination... Mental attribute is higher than 37, determination passed. Willpower determination... Determination successful. You are immune to this mental attack. 】

Although the prompt of the learning machine is exactly the same as before, the feeling is completely different. The mental attack is more aggressive now.

[Hint: Under mental attack, mental attribute determination in progress... Mental attribute is higher than 40...]

The frost ray lasted less than 3 seconds before he could no longer hold on.

Teleport.

Marvin appeared above the creature, his left hand still casting "Frost Ray" and his right hand pulling out Gus Pattern from the void.

He didn't know if he could kill the creature with just the power of the knife...

He didn't know if he could still maintain his sanity when he got closer...

He didn't know if he could keep the runes on the knife open...

So, he used free fall to add strength, so that even if he lost consciousness, the knife would still cut down...

Basic mechanics work everywhere.

The situation was not as bad as he thought.

He kept his sanity, and the Gus Pattern successfully chopped towards the monster's neck, and the runes on the blade were always at maximum power.

Click, the blade broke through the ice and chopped into the monster's neck...

It got stuck, just a little bit.

The monster's body was harder than he imagined.

The monster, which had been motionless, twitched, and the tentacles buried in the bones suddenly rose up and rolled back towards Marvin.

The bones piled up around fell down.

Crack, crack, crack, crack...

A series of shattering sounds came from the blade.

Snap!

Ice chips flew everywhere, and the monster's head and body were separated.

[The intruder has been killed. ]

Bang, crash...

The tentacles raised around fell down one after another, smashing countless bones.

The whispers in his ears disappeared instantly, and Marvin's spirit relaxed. He staggered for a while, and only stopped falling by sticking his long knife on the ground.

It's not time to relax yet.

This kind of creature that looks like it will lose SAN value, who knows if it will die if it is beheaded, who knows if it is the head that is chopped off.

Marvin tapped the monster's shoulder with his left hand.

[Hint: Found the remains of a magical creature, do you want to submit it? ] [Yes] [No]

Select [Yes].

The monster's body disappeared, and the weird atmosphere in the cave also dissipated by half.

In those few seconds, Marvin's brain seemed to be thrown into a wall-breaking machine and was spun countless times. He was still very dizzy.

Although the magic energy here was abundant, he still forced himself to climb up the stone platform and leave as soon as possible.

He had received systematic mage education and knew that some high-level beings had unreasonable abilities.

The slightest contact meant the beginning of depravity, and there was no way to escape.

Although the intruder was gone, the cave was still filled with ominousness and obscurity...

Marvin stumbled out of the narrow cave, and the sacrificial site was still dark.

He shook his head to wake himself up and lit a lighting spell...

The scene in front of him scared him so much that he broke out in a cold sweat, and a long knife appeared in his hand in an instant.

A huge moth was lying 3 meters away from him.

Marvin forced himself to prepare for the battle, but found something wrong.

A few seconds passed, and the big moth was still lying there motionless.

Marvin stood there with his body bent, forcibly suppressing the dizziness, staring at the big moth, and listening to everything around him.

The Mothman in front of him seemed, as if, might not be alive...

Marvin threw an ice arrow.

Snap, the ice arrow shot on the back of the Mothman, and the big moth did not move.

Marvin approached carefully and confirmed that the monster was really dead.

He shook his head again, and the dizziness was better, but his brain still felt like a messy egg yolk.

He couldn't go any further. If he encountered an unexpected situation in this state, it would be difficult for him to protect himself.

He could no longer feel the dark and obscure magic here. Marvin found a corner to sit cross-legged and began to meditate.

In his "meditation" ability, there is a sentence that explains "psychic trauma and mental trauma slowly heal themselves."

...

When he woke up from meditation, the dizziness was much better.

In the learning machine panel, [Status: Slight radiation residue, confusion],

has been restored to [Status: Slight radiation residue].

Although he was very tired, it did not affect the battle.

Marvin looked at the map and spent more than half an hour to get out of the lucky mine.

He looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. The originally depressing clouds seemed a little friendly.

Snap, a clear sound sounded in front.

A pure white moth man suddenly appeared 30 meters away.

Just as Marvin was about to draw his knife, a voice sounded in his mind.

"Outsider, please don't be nervous. I come with good intentions."

It's not a language, but a spiritual message.

Marvin has come into contact with this kind of consciousness transmission. On the Demon Hunter Continent, high-level warlocks who are good at mental magic also have similar means.

The compound eyes of the Mothman in front of him are not red, but blue.

The emotion Marvin felt was not indifference, but a rationality that kept people away from him, with awkward good intentions.

He relaxed a little, no longer looking like he was ready to fight at any time, and said, "It seems that you have something to do with me."

"Yes, outsider. I came to thank you, thank you for helping my fellow tribesmen to get rid of..."

The Mothman told the whole story.

Although they are not really called "Mothman", it's just that humans call it that, but we still call this group "Mothman".

Because they can't speak, have no language, and have no clear group name.

Mothmen, like humans, are indigenous inhabitants of this world.

When Mothmen were born, they themselves don't know.

They have a long lifespan, at least much longer than humans.

Mothmen live in remote places such as deep underground and deep jungles. They rarely come into contact with humans and have been watching the changes in the world as bystanders.

Watching people develop from ignorance to civilization, watching long swords and scimitars evolve into guns and ammunition, and watching cars and tanks replace livestock and horse-drawn carriages.

But when nuclear weapons were invented and about to fall on humans themselves, Mothmen could not sit still. That was the destruction of the world, and no creature could be spared.

However, everything was too late. They could only try their best to avoid it and warn the few humans with spiritual talents.

It was not because they pitied humans, but because it would be boring if there were no humans in the world.

Mothmen were already scarce in number, and nuclear destruction killed more than half of them.

However, the misfortune did not stop there. A consciousness sleeping underground was awakened by the nuclear explosion, the intruder.

Mothmen did not know when the creature came, but only knew that it was not a creature of this world.

Even the name "intruder" was told to humans by them.

The spiritual talents that Mothmen originally used to communicate with each other became the wires for intruders to capture and enslave them.

Then, the red-eyed Mothman appeared, and the name "Mothman-Avenger" also appeared. No one knew what revenge "Avenger" meant and why.

The Mothman himself didn't understand. They were not good at fighting and didn't want to take revenge on anyone.

Marvin came and killed the intruder. The Mothman who were originally enslaved died and returned to the world.

Therefore, there was this scene in front of him.

While talking to the Mothman, Marvin received a prompt from the learning machine.

He temporarily skipped a bunch of prompts that he hadn't had time to read before and went straight to the last one.

[Tip: Get the gain "Mothman's Blessing", this gain state has been classified as an ability and can be viewed in the ability interface. ]

The timing was not right, and he only took a rough look at the newly added ability.

[Mothman's Blessing: 1 (Perception attribute +1, Spiritual attribute +1. Meditation effect increased by 16%.) (Cannot be upgraded.)]

Marvin remembered the Mothman town Point Plain and the broken bridge next to it, and asked a special question.

The Mothman's answer was very interesting.

They had neither the ability to destroy the reinforced concrete bridge nor the intention to warn humans.

The Mothman was just tired of flying, and happened to land on the steel frame on the top of the bridge to rest.

Humans always like to understand the behavior of other creatures from their own perspective, which is actually ridiculous...

Back in the underground base, Marvin didn't want to move at all when he saw the bed, and fell asleep.

...

It was early morning when Marvin woke up.

He felt refreshed, but his body was sticky and uncomfortable.

Although the "cleaning technique" is convenient and practical, if he could take a hot bath...

He did it as soon as he thought of it. He moved a large bathtub down from the manor upstairs and bought 300 liters of pure water from the RP store.

He heated it up bucket by bucket and poured it all into the bathtub.

It cost 300 RP to take a bath, which was really a luxury.

Marvin lay in the clean hot water, and he was so comfortable that he almost hummed.

This is really the first time he has taken a hot bath since he came to the wasteland.

Open the learning machine and check the previous prompts.

[Tip: Submit successfully, reward strength +3, constitution +2, perception +3, spirit +6. ]

[Hint: Successfully eliminated the believers of the ancient gods, gained the favor of this world, and lifted the confinement of the first-level world. ]

[Hint: The submitted creature was detected as a believer mutant human, and it matches some existing knowledge, and will be integrated into a professional inheritance. ]

[Fusion progress 0%]

[Fusion progress 8%]

[Fusion progress 15%]

[Hint: Fusion has been completed, the completeness of the professional inheritance of the believers of the ancient gods is 15%, and this professional inheritance is judged to be high-level, and the free attribute points +9 are rewarded. ]

[Hint: The task "Mothman Cult" has been completed. Calculating the task evaluation...]

[Hint: The task "Mothman Cult" has been completed. Task evaluation: A-. Reward "Research and Exploration of Shield Magic Spells", reward free attribute points +13, reward ability points +6, reward RP +800. ]

The first one surprised him.

Just submitting a corpse, he got so many attribute points!

This also shows one thing. If the intruder is not in a deep sleep, but in a state of prime, then beating him may really be as easy as beating a full-level boss.

So what makes the "intruder" so weak that he can't wake up?

Seeing the second prompt, Marvin had some guesses, but he was not sure.

He tried to ask the learning machine: "Is it the world that restricts the intruder?"

Unexpectedly, he got a reply this time.

[In view of the fact that the temporary contractor has completed this task and has a high evaluation, he has obtained temporary authority. ]

[For unknown reasons, the world will of this world has awakened and forcibly restricted the rank to the upper limit of the first order. Therefore, the rank of this world is falling from the second order to the first order. At present, the upper limit of each attribute of the indigenous creatures in this world is 50, and all attributes of foreign creatures will be suppressed within 45. The "intruder" is a believer of the ancient god, from another world, and was originally a second-order creature. This creature encountered world suppression when it broke into this world, and failed to break through the suppression by force and fell into extreme weakness and sleep. ]

After reading this paragraph, Marvin suddenly thought of "Mothman-Avengers".

It seems that this "revenge" means that the believers of the ancient gods want to take revenge on this world.

The more he associates, the more he thinks, but the information he gets is limited. He asks in his heart: "What is the ancient god?"

[The temporary contractor has insufficient authority. ]

Marvin asks again: "What about the believers of the ancient gods?"

[The temporary contractor has insufficient authority. ]

Marvin thinks about it and changes the question: "Is it for me personally to lift the first-level world confinement?"

[Yes. ]

"Will the believers of the ancient gods harm the world?"

[Yes. ]

"How will they harm the world?"

[The temporary contractor has insufficient authority. ]

Marvin looks down again and sees the task evaluation and task reward, A-.

He asks himself that he has done well enough, why is it still A, not the highest S, and it is still A-.

He asks the learning machine in his heart: "How can I get an S-level task evaluation?"

[The task completion degree that exceeds perfection can be rated as S. ]

"Then what did I not do well this time?"

[The temporary contractor needs to explore it by himself. ]

If he asks again, the learning machine will ignore him.

After finishing his bath, Marvin lay flat on the bed and started to add some.

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