After treating them to a sumptuous dinner, Annan sent the four of them back to Frostwater Harbor. He didn’t keep them at Roth Fort.
This was to prevent the players from causing any trouble—Annan had specifically instructed them to avoid any activity within the city for the next couple of days, and it was best for no one else to know they were here...
The players seemed to have realized that some significant plotline was probably about to unfold. Therefore, they nodded obediently one by one.
But on second thought, Annan still wasn’t quite confident about the players’ ability to stay out of trouble... So in the end, he took the players back to Frostwater Harbor, planning to bring them back the next day.
He retrieved John’s broken sword from the city lord’s mansion and entered the nightmare once more.
This time, however, the prompt upon entering the nightmare was distinctly different—
It no longer had the requirements for level and class:
[Nightmare Shard detected]
[Falling into nightmare in 10 seconds, ten, nine...]
Annan hesitated for a moment.
When he thought about it, it seemed that the "traitor" nightmare was indeed the only one that required binding. Neither the "gallery," "White Tower," nor "witch-hunting" mentioned anything about the need to bind.
Could it be because the carrier of this nightmare was somewhat special?
The key to the gallery was the phrase "skeleton lord" and the city of Frostwater Harbor.
The key to the White Tower required a fragment of Gerald’s skeleton.
The key to witch-hunting was Karni’s "scarred skin fragment."
Only the "traitor" nightmare needed to be purified multiple times, yet there was only one key.
So it was, the maximum number of people who could enter the nightmare depended on how many parts the "key" could be divided into.
—In other words, a "key" that had been used could not be used by others.
As expected, there was also a prompt for the instance to read from a saved state:
[Plummeting into the nightmare, instance generating...]
[The difficulty of the instance is easy, may be entered up to three times]
[Current purification rate is 1/3]
[Total erosion rate of the team is 8%, instance difficulty increased by 8%, probability of nightmare distortion increased by 8%]
[This instance has 1 save point, each death increases erosion rate by 1%, and you will be forced to exit the instance after three deaths]
[This instance offers plot introduction and decryption rewards]
[Instance clearance reward: Profession (Swordsman) increased by 1 level]
[Instance decryption reward: Profession (Wizard) increased by 1 level]
[Save point obtained: Tongue of the Mirror]
[Choose the entrance to the nightmare—]
[Tan Juan Geraint’s room]
[Abandoned storeroom]
...I choose, [Abandoned storeroom].
Annan silently selected the second option.
Perhaps because of his choice, the dizziness that Annan experienced was not particularly strong. Or rather... the "loading" time when entering the nightmare was reduced.
When Annan opened his eyes once again, he only smelled a slight pungent scent.
And his line of sight suddenly raised—clearly, he was back in the body of that simple-minded guard "John."
At this moment, Annan was in an empty room.
The room was extremely spacious, and a broken mirror lay steadily on the ground in the center.
Annan paused, then went to pick up the mirror.
The familiar interface floated in front of his eyes once more:
[Type: Material/Miscellaneous (Blue)]
[Description: A destroyed cursed object, has lost its original function]
[Effect: The bearer will be afflicted with Curse Binding "Inhibited Speech"]
[Inhibited Speech: If a bearer is attacked before finishing their speech, the attack ignores defense]
"...So the save point is here?"
Annan suddenly realized.
So, if he had been killed by the head of the guards, Claus, only after discovering this room for the first time... he might have been resurrected right here.
Annan then checked his equipment.
The silver pocket watch belonging to Tan Juan was on him...
Annan raised his head and looked at the door.
Memories from half a month ago rapidly surfaced in his mind.
In a little while, as soon as Claus senses that the ritual has been severed, he will rush over here.
The point is, he must not let him see that the room’s ritual had been disrupted by him—instead, he must make him believe that he had rewritten the target of the ritual.
This wasn’t difficult. He just needed to slightly alter the symbols on the tongue... After carving the corresponding symbols on his own tongue, he could switch it with the prepared cow’s tongue.
Setting up a ritual was a technical task.
But destroying or altering a ritual was much simpler.
It was as though, even if one couldn’t understand the data in a single-player game’s character document or why it had to be written that way. But finding and modifying the numbers behind words like "money," "attributes," or "item quantity" was something most players could manage.
So, Annan casually threw away the mirror—there was no need to hide it because Claus must not be allowed to enter this room in the first place. Otherwise, if he saw that the ritual was destroyed rather than rewritten, he would attack Annan all the same.
If he insisted on entering...
Then he would have to contend with the "Resonating Object."
To cover up the loophole, Annan cut his tongue lightly with a knife this time. He drew out a bit of blood to make his tongue as indistinct as possible.
That way, even if Claus grew suspicious, the sight of the blood on the tongue would dispel his wishful thinking. It would also prevent him from seeing Annan’s clean tongue.
—After all, this body belonged to John, not Tan Juan.
If he weren’t worried about the inconvenience of speaking later, Annan would have no psychological pressure to chop off the tongue, slice it up, and stir-fry it with green onions, garlic, chili, soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, sugar, and pepper...
Thus, Annan walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Claus would be coming a bit later this time—or rather, Annan, having no need to hide the mirror, came out earlier.
When Claus hurried around the last corner, he saw the strong and tall guard John, leaning against the door of the ritual chamber, looking at him with no good intentions.
A thought crossed Claus’s mind.
He put on a cold and solemn expression, his face full of murderous intent as he drew his weapon.
But John simply put his right hand to his mouth, smiling and making a hushing gesture. On that honest and simple face that belonged to John, a very satisfied and brilliant smile slowly appeared.
Neither of them moved nor spoke.
For a moment, the narrow hallway fell into a terrifying silence.
"Don’t come any closer."
With a smile, John said, "Tongueless Mirror, right?"
At these words, Claus’s expression finally changed.
His face revealed a strong reluctance, and he sighed deeply, lowering his right hand from the sword at his waist.
Claus sighed, no longer pretending to keep silent.
Annan nodded, smiling as he slightly opened his mouth.
He let Claus briefly see his blood-soaked tongue. Before Claus could get a clear look, Annan quickly closed his mouth again.
Seeing the familiar wound, Claus gave up the last bit of wishful thinking in his heart.
"...What do you want?"
Claus asked in a deep voice.
But Annan just wore an honest expression, "I know you serve the Third Prince... Can you guess whom I serve?"
"...The Eldest Princess?"
Claus ventured a guess.
Annan smiled faintly.
Annan looked at the somewhat nervous Claus with a gentle and harmless smile, "Actually, I am...
"...an agent of the Skeleton Lord."