Eldritch Horror Theatre

”So in my current state, I’m prompting the recovery of a higher entity?”

She truly didn’t disappoint. After only a brief hesitation, Claudora hurried to catch up, living up to Fu Qian’s high appraisal.

The logic was simple: if she didn’t follow him, what else could she do?

Keep wandering aimlessly around such an unfamiliar place?

Whether he was telling the truth or not, Professor Fu was at least talking, offering information she could parse.

”But what’s the logic behind that? To be honest, I don’t think I have the qualifications to cause that kind of impact.”

So the moment Claudora caught up, she questioned Fu Qian’s previous statement.

”Good question. I’d like to know too. Why don’t you tell me what you were doing before you got here?”

Fu Qian mentally gave the question an instant thumbs-up, swiftly firing back one of his own.

Screech—There wasn’t actually any such sound; Fu Qian simply supplied the sound effect in his head.

Claudora didn’t answer right away. Instead, a peculiar disturbance flared on a mental level.

To put it simply, it felt like taking a spring outing on a beautiful day, eyes full of bright flowers and green willows, a gentle breeze soothing the mind—except hidden within that breeze were invisible needles of ice.

The contrast was so sharp and distinct that it almost transferred to the physical level.

Even as a Tier 2 participant, Fu Qian felt as though a cluster of ice needles were maneuvering with sweeping control inside his head, darting back and forth through its most vulnerable spots.

It couldn’t cause any substantial damage, but it was certainly a mood-ruiner.

Even so, Fu Qian didn’t break his stride; he merely glanced to the side.

Clearly stunned for a moment, it was actually Claudora who stopped in her tracks.

”I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would be like that.”

The pause lasted only a second. Growing cold all over beneath Fu Qian’s gaze, Claudora quickly snapped out of it, apologized forthrightly, and after a brief hesitation, hurried to catch up again.

...

”Oh?”

Seeing Claudora catch up to walk beside him, Fu Qian withdrew his gaze and responded with a single syllable.

Who else could it be? The situation just now was obviously Claudora’s doing.

As for her motive, it wasn’t too hard to guess.

”I just wanted to test Your Excellency’s Rank, because I haven’t been able to gauge it at all since earlier.”

Sure enough, Claudora quickly offered an explanation, even going so far as to use a respectful honorific.

”Mainly, the things you mentioned just now were too bizarre, making them genuinely hard to believe.

”But I’ve now confirmed that Your Excellency’s Rank is far higher than mine. There’s absolutely no need for you to lie.”

As expected, her line of thought was perfectly clear.

Faced with Claudora’s explanation, Fu Qian didn’t question her.

It was an incredibly normal reaction, and an excellent option for quickly dealing with this kind of predicament.

Putting himself in Claudora’s shoes: she was in an unfamiliar place with a weird person spouting utter nonsense, which made it seem like she was being duped for some ulterior motive.

But if there was a qualitative gap in Rank between the speaker and herself, that was a different story entirely.

Someone who could manipulate her at will without needing to deceive her would undoubtedly have a much higher degree of credibility.

Therefore, directly testing the Academy’s rising star to see exactly how much weight he carried was clearly a good choice.

The only problem was that this method of testing was far too prone to causing misunderstandings.

”Also, please believe that what just happened was an accident. My ability is meant to soothe emotions to a certain extent, and even soothe flesh and blood... I have no idea why it suddenly took on such an offensive nature.”

Claudora proactively cleared up Fu Qian’s confusion in the next breath.

...

Now that made sense.

When Claudora still had the courage to follow him after pulling a stunt like that, it was practically guaranteed that there was a reason behind it.

Not to mention, Fu Qian could roughly guess where the problem lay—divinity.

How could such a symbol of a High-Tier Transcendent be so easily obtained?

The step into the Demigod Realm was a true qualitative change.

Even if the title of Tier 4 had ”peak” tacked onto it, it was still nothing more than a flowery compliment for such ambition.

Regardless, this sliver of divinity must have had an extraordinary origin, and Claudora found it difficult to control, ultimately resulting in the mutation of her abilities.

”It might have to do with the changes within your body. Did you only feel yourself become different after arriving in this place?”

Under Claudora’s cautious gaze, Fu Qian displayed a considerable amount of understanding.

”Also, just calling me Fu Qian is fine.”

...

”Thank you for understanding... Fu Qian.”

Clearly still somewhat shocked that he was so easy to talk to, Claudora didn’t let her emotions run wild and quickly complied with his request.

She even made an effort to consider the question Fu Qian had posed.

”That should indeed be the case, but this special change didn’t just appear after I got here.”

After a brief thought, she shook her head, offering a somewhat unexpected answer.

”Before meeting you, I’d only been here for a short while, and I couldn’t figure out the situation at all.

”But even earlier than that, I was following a team exploring a dangerous area. Then, for reasons that are still uncertain, that kind of change appeared on my body—and I wasn’t the only one.”

Aha, opportunity truly favored the prepared mind.

Even though Claudora’s explanation wasn’t very detailed yet, Fu Qian still praised it inwardly, deeply feeling like he had gotten his money’s worth.

Exploration of a dangerous area, a team operation, Claudora participating, and encountering a special situation that they couldn’t understand... Combining these few elements, it was simply far too representative—

of that special operation from years ago that severely damaged the Academy’s vitality.

There had been very few survivors in the end. The woman before him had returned at the risk of her life, leaving behind precious testing materials for future generations...

To think she was actually pulled over from that final period of time?

”So what exactly were you all exploring?”

Fu Qian didn’t hide his interest in that Academy secret, asking the follow-up question quite naturally.

”...You don’t know?”

Claudora had already begun to faintly confirm that what Fu Qian said was true—that she really had been dragged into an incident many years in the future. As she looked over, her expression was somewhat complicated, yet she also felt a bit of lament.

However, Fu Qian’s question took her by surprise.

It wasn’t strange. For a junior of the Academy to not know about such a severe incident was indeed somewhat illogical.

”Then I’m very sorry, but due to the operation’s requirements, I can’t tell you.”

After a moment of hesitation, Claudora ultimately gave a firm shake of her head.

Even though her logic seemed to fall into chaos, she still decided to stick to certain principles.

”Understandable. So, how about describing the abnormal changes that uniformly appeared in all of you?”

Fu Qian, however, displayed an astonishing level of easygoingness. He didn’t mind at all and directly swapped to another question.