Chapter 60: Journal

The wooden cabin didn’t have much furniture. Miss Vilyric and Little Dragon Daughter separated to search for a bit, and the former soon discovered a clue in the cupboard.

In fact, Priestess had nearly found it earlier, but she got interrupted by Xiao Guang, which caused her to waste some time explaining.

It was a porcelain bowl stacked at the very bottom, which, at first glance, appeared no different from the other tableware. However, after Vilyric removed the bowls on top, she found she couldn’t lift it.

After a slight forceful test, she determined that this bowl was made of refined iron and was somehow connected to the cupboard, or rather, something beneath it, functioning as a hidden mechanism.

Priestess had seen similar things in several decryption tasks and quickly figured out the mechanics.

She grabbed one edge of the iron bowl and tried to rotate it clockwise.

Nothing happened; it shouldn’t have been due to insufficient strength. Rather, the strained creaking sound coming from above indicated that if she forced it further, she might directly twist it off.

Miss Vilyric quickly tried rotating it in the opposite direction.

“Creak creak creak…”

This time, it went smoothly. With a subtle sound of gears, a part that seemed to meld with the floor beside the stove gradually flipped up, revealing the space beneath.

That sound…

Vilyric nodded to herself.

Yes, it was the same kind she vaguely heard when Bangs knocked at the door earlier.

“Let’s go take a look.”

Together with Little Dragon Daughter, Vilyric bent down to look inside. It wasn’t a rough-hewn tunnel but rather a delicately constructed stone staircase, likely leading to a kind of basement.

Descending the stone steps, after about ten or so paces, they reached the secret room that Aileen had deliberately hidden.

There were no complicated or bizarre objects as imagined; the furnishings remained very simple. In a space of about fifty to sixty square meters, there was only a desk and a chair, and nearby was a bookshelf filled with thick, stacked books.

The light from the basement’s magic lamp was quite sufficient. In the wooden cup beside the desk remained a small amount of black-brown liquid that had not been finished. Vilyric picked it up and sniffed it lightly. Although she couldn’t identify what exactly it was, it was probably some kind of drug that at least had a stimulating effect.

This was all the items in the basement.

Did Aileen go through all this trouble just to read?

Moreover… not to mention the cost of digging the basement itself, just these hundreds of various books clearly weren’t something a girl living alone in a slum could afford.

It should be noted that books, especially those containing important knowledge and techniques, held significant value in this world. Many people, even if wealthy, might not be able to find a way to purchase them, let alone a poor, helpless girl like Aileen.

Vilyric approached the bookshelf, casually flipped through, and found that most of the books had already been read and were laden with numerous bookmarks.

If all these marks were made by Aileen as…

Priestess recalled clearly; when Aileen previously interacted with them, she always displayed an image of a poor girl with little knowledge or insight, even explicitly stating she didn’t recognize the emblem representing the United Kingdom royal family.

However, in this bookshelf, quite a portion consisted of classics detailing the cultural and various aspects of the United Kingdom.

In other words, much of what Aileen had portrayed earlier was all an act for them.

Thinking this, the black-haired girl picked up something on the desk, old and worn, clearly handwritten by someone rather than printed, likely a notebook.

It had an especially high number of bookmarks.

“?!”

Flipping it open, Vilyric was taken aback, her expression suddenly lighting up.

The text was neither in the royal tongue nor in the skies’ language or any commonly used dialect, nor was it the mysterious script she had seen on the stele in the Omoland spirit chamber.

This was a notebook written in the language from Blue Star!

“Impossible…?!”

Even someone as composed as Priestess couldn’t help but feel a surge of anxiety and excitement, her steady hands trembling slightly.

A traverser, also from Blue Star, a different one from Vilyric, this was a traverser’s notebook!

“Master? Are you okay?”

“No… no, Xiao Guang, don’t speak yet, let me gather myself…”

“…Okay.”

Taking a few deep breaths, managing to calm the turbulent emotions, Vilyric looked down at the contents of the notebook again.

The handwriting was somewhat wild and sloppy, probably written by a male, but that was unimportant.

【Adventure Log — Mirage Realm】

【Day 1: Haha, it’s happening, it’s happening! It’s been a full three years since we got that news. Everyone dropped their own matters and pooled all resources and energy into searching, and we finally found the entrance to the Mirage Realm today, right in the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons!

After waiting for so long, the gate is about to open! I can’t wait to see what’s inside!】

【Day 2: Phew, finally some downtime. How should I put it… this place is indeed perilous. If it were the standard of most world natives, they’d probably get torn to shreds by those monsters the moment they entered. And this is just the early-stage small monsters.

But for us, it’s manageable; we haven’t lost our coordination despite being separated for so long. After all, we are all comrades who came from the same place.

Hehe, it’s quite thrilling. Since arriving in this world, apart from a few encounters, I hardly faced such powerful opponents, it feels a bit like pioneering new territory?】

【Day 3: We’re in a bit of trouble. Clearly, the magical element concentration in the Mirage Realm is off the charts, yet we truly can’t absorb it; the recovery speed of MP is painfully slow, and everyone can only rely on potions for sustenance.

But there are simply too many monsters here and they are densely packed. Almost every segment we traverse results in a battle. If it weren’t for Tiyelu’s reminders and the rough map of the Mirage Realm she provided before coming here, things would probably be worse.】

“Mirage Realm, yet another Mirage Realm…”

After just glancing through three days of notes, Vilyric’s curiosity was piqued. She could now basically confirm that the author of this notebook was a traverser player from a game world, just like her, and there should be more than one of them.

Leaving aside how this batch of players made it here, they certainly had their reasons for exploring this world that Vilyric had hardly heard of aside from that one time. Plus, it explicitly mentioned Tiyelu’s name.

If we discount the minuscule probability of a name coincidence, it meant Tiyelu had already had previous contact with traversers.

No wonder…

Almost unable to wait, Vilyric continued to read on.

The notebook contained a lengthy part detailing various occurrences from the traverser’s perspective about their team in the Mirage Realm, such as the assorted bizarre monsters encountered, along with an increasing amount of rants and complaints.

It seemed that as they pressed onward, the pressure facing the team intensified day by day.

【Day 52: I can’t take it anymore; our potion reserves are dwindling. The high-efficiency recovery potions we brought from the game are almost all gone, surpassing our usage from the last decade within this month alone. Now we can only barely manage with the magical potions produced in this world.

We’re doing okay, as we don’t rely solely on skills to fight, but our Priest, Mofuman, is nearly at her limit. Even though the Spirit race has a high intelligence boost, that can’t withstand such fierce battles. She’s gone through MP completely every day and has been drinking potions to the point of almost vomiting.

Watching her force down large amounts of magical potions that nearly seem to burst her stomach while crouched on the ground, looking like she’s about to retch, everyone who usually likes to throw jabs at each other has a heavy expression, and I feel the same.

Should we give up?

The resources we brought from the game are non-renewable. The magical potions in this world have inferior effects and obvious side effects; there’s no way to support us as we retrace our steps. Everyone’s strength has maxed out, and if we fail this time, we might never reach the center of the Mirage Realm again.

What… should I do?】

   

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