Chapter 55 - Extraordinary Path
“Lend me your dagger and gloves for a bit; these spider webs are too sticky!”
“You can take the gloves yourself. As for the dagger, it’s probably still inside the Spider Queen’s head.”
“Oh…”
Suna took the gloves and did something he couldn’t see.
If Yang Yi hadn’t been blind, he would have noticed Suna prying at the Spider Queen’s eye socket, lowering her head to look inside, then pulling out a spiked mace entangled in spider silk.
“It’s not entirely clear, but your strike seems to have shattered her brain tissue, ultimately causing her death.”
Using the gloves, Suna retrieved the Sea Serpent’s Fang from the webbing, then used it like a pick, pounding it with a stone into the Spider Queen’s head joint to pry it loose.
About half an hour later, the Spider Queen’s head was dislodged.
It had dark red fluid oozing from the severed end.
Suna then picked up another head, shaped like a sphere.
With two heads in total, she planned to bring them both back.
“Let’s head back to the ship; we can come back for the rest next time,” Suna suggested.
Yang Yi didn’t object. Now that he was blind, everything was inconvenient, and resting to recover his sight was his top priority.
The two of them rolled the spider heads along, exiting the cave and heading towards the shore.
“You stay here and don’t move. I’ll get on the ship first and use the grappling hook to pull you up.”
“Uh…”
Yang Yi had no response to that.
Blind as he was, getting into the water and boarding the ship wasn’t easy; he couldn’t even see the ship, let alone grab onto the ladder on its side. So, using the grappling hook was the quickest and simplest method.
About ten minutes later, a clamp fastened around Yang Yi’s waist, pulling him up.
The next moment, he found himself in the hold of the Nightmare Star.
Although the boarding method was unusual, it didn’t harm his body in any way.
“Wait here for a bit,” Suna’s voice came from beside his ear.
She had just come down from the deck, picked up something from the hold, and headed to the lab.
She returned with a crude eye mask in hand; it was simply a large piece of insect shell with holes punched into it and cloth threaded through.
“Put this on. It probably won’t help much, but…”
She helped Yang Yi put it on, then ran back into the lab to get to work.
Based on his memory and sense of touch, Yang Yi climbed up to the deck, felt his way along the ship\'s edge, and returned to the captain’s cabin.
He took off his captain’s coat, lay down on the bed, and checked his status.
After facing the illusion of the Spider Queen, he had unlocked an extraordinary pathway — Corruption. His journal now had an additional interface.
Corruption Interface
Yang Yi: Corruption Level: 6% (within the human diagram, the left eye is black)
Corrupted Area: Left Eye
Distorted Organ: Third Eye
Warning: If sanity falls below 10, the player will become corrupted. Players with high mental attributes can resist and slow down the deepening of corruption.
When sanity reaches zero, the player will completely lose control and become a twisted monster.
Unlike the other pale blue interfaces, the Corruption Interface was dark red, symbolising danger.
By harnessing corruption, players could break through the limits of ordinary beings and ascend to the extraordinary.
However, the extraordinary path was like walking a tightrope — one careless step, and you would fall into an abyss, facing a mental death and transforming into a mindless monster!
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Even if they managed to survive and retain some sanity, their bodies would undergo distortions.
Yang Yi reached towards his left eye beneath the eye mask, which was slowly rotating.
For a moment, he felt the urge to gouge it out, but suppressed the feeling.
The left eye could make him stronger, and only by becoming stronger could he keep corruption at bay.
The weak had no choice and could only accept their fate!
Yang Yi continued to examine his attribute panel, discovering that the "Spider’s Kiss" status had disappeared.
His personal panel had also undergone some new changes.
Yang Yi
Extraordinary Path: Corruption [Level: 6%]
(The extraordinary path is unique. Players can discover it on their own, but a player can only have one path at a time.)
Status: Injured (in the human diagram, dark yellow near left side of waist)
Strength: 5+2 (12/200) [Madness boost: Strength +2, Agility +1, Constitution +1, Spirit -2]
Spirit: 8+1-2 (119/16000) [Iron Will boost]
Agility: 5+1 (23/200)
Constitution: 5+1 (21/200)
Perception: 5+2 (192/200) [Third Eye boost]
Sanity: 3/100
Energy: 17/100
Vitality: 51/100
Mana: 9/7 (When Spirit is below 10, each point provides one point of mana. Mana depletion results in intense headaches and loss of mobility. Full mana recovery takes 24 hours; spirit reduction lowers the mana cap but doesn’t affect the current mana level.)
Talent: Iron Will, Refusal to Die
Spells: None (Spells require mana, and may involve chanting, runes, rituals, or sacrifices.)
Abilities: Third Eye
(Abilities are physical capacities, some of which consume mana.)
Facing the illusion of the Spider Queen had rapidly increased his mental experience, pushing it up to 8 points.
Extraordinary Path, Mana, Spells, and Abilities — all these entries had appeared since unlocking the extraordinary path.
But Yang Yi didn’t know any spells and couldn’t use mana.
His only ability was a distorted left eye.
After deliberating for more than ten minutes, Yang Yi decided not to tell Suna about these details.
Who knows what crazy things the woman would do if she learnt that lowering sanity below 10 unlocked such abilities?
“Suna, keep an eye on the sea chart to prevent other players from getting close!”
“Got it!”
Suna replied quickly.
Yang Yi had wanted to ask Suna to go ashore to find the corpse of a spider. Because with just one more corpse, the Nightmare Star could be upgraded.
But as soon as she returned to the Nightmare Star, she locked herself in the lab, dissecting the Spider Queen’s head.
Yang Yi didn’t disturb her, because after all, the corpse wasn’t going to resurrect or run away.
“High price offered for fire velvet tools; serious inquiries only!”
Yang Yi left his usual message on the world channel.
He quickly received a response.
“Do you need flint?”
【Name: Flint That Sparks with a Strike】
【Type: Tool】
【Quality: Fine】
【Description: Flint that, when struck with a metal blade, releases abundant sparks capable of igniting cloth or wood fragments. Be sure to keep it dry; otherwise, it’s just an ordinary rock with a faint smell of gunpowder. 】
Yang Yi’s eyes lit up.
“How much?”
“300 units of stone.”
Yang Yi immediately checked the chat logs.
He noticed two or three players selling the same kind of flint, meaning it wasn’t limited in quantity.
It suggested they had obtained the formula to make it.
But currently, the price was inflated, with each piece selling for around 200 units of stone or over a thousand Shell Coins.
The seller was offering quite a high price at 300.
Yang Yi ignored him and wasn’t too worried.
Fire velvet tools would drop in price just like winter clothing, so there was no rush.
Plus, better tools existed, like lighters.
Flint required dry conditions; an infinite-gas lighter would be much more convenient!
Yang Yi checked the large sea chart.
The extreme winter sea was expanding southward at a slow pace, and it would still take ten days or half a month for it to meet the black fog.
Thinking about all this, Yang Yi drifted off to sleep.
He’d been tense for so long and needed some time to relax.
Bonus chapter for reaching the goal! :D