Chapter 357 0.0003%

After Xia Nan shared his theory with the two members of the Blackwood Squad, the air inside the private room fell dead silent.

Both were seasoned Adventurers. Even if they had never experienced something like this themselves, they had at least heard the stories.

They knew exactly how disastrous and extremely dangerous it would be if something really could silently influence people's minds and alter their cognition without anyone noticing.

Having already recognized Xia Nan's strength and character, they knew he wouldn't make claims without basis.

Margaret and Thordin barely considered the possibility that he was deceiving them, immediately shifting their thoughts to countermeasures.

"If your theory is right, and the Pastel Gemstone in Horac's hands really has a special charming effect..."

"I think there's one thing we have to confirm first."

Margaret crossed her arms over her chest, taking a defensive posture. Her expression was solemn.

"Have the three of us... already been affected by the gemstone?"

The female Swordsman's reminder gave Xia Nan a sudden jolt.

She was right to consider it.

If the situation had already reached the worst-case scenario, where even they as Class Holders had had their minds and wills controlled by the gemstone, things were going to be troublesome.

After all, to some extent, the two members of the Blackwood Squad had indeed decided to stay in town with Horac to investigate the gem's origins. Xia Nan hadn't chosen to leave Sheep Horn Town immediately upon arriving either, instead taking his time to prepare supplies for his upcoming journey.

If he really thought about it, the actions of all three in Sheep Horn Town could fall within the scope of the gemstone's influence. A subconscious obsession and possessiveness toward the jewel could be gradually festering, making them want to linger in town.

Fortunately, after careful thought, Xia Nan breathed a slight sigh of relief.

First, even if the gemstone had influenced their cognition, Xia Nan had still been able to notice the strange behavior of Horac and the townsfolk. He had taken the initiative to share his findings with the Blackwood Squad, and Margaret and Thordin hadn't deliberately ignored it, instead thinking it over seriously.

This meant that even if they had suffered some sort of mental influence, it wasn't too severe.

At the very least, it hadn't reached the point of blocking their perception and forcefully altering their thoughts and will.

Second, regarding Xia Nan himself.

He felt that he had complete control over his own actions and thoughts.

If he formed the thought to "leave Sheep Horn Town immediately" right now, he felt no inner resistance at all.

He could leave whenever he wanted.

Leaving or staying was entirely up to him.

This also meant the gemstone hadn't affected him the way it had Horac.

At the same time, Margaret, who had just raised the question, realized this as soon as she finished speaking.

Her furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

"So what should we do?" Thordin asked from his seat, his expression exceptionally solemn.

Clearly, the straightforward dwarf had also grasped the severity of the situation.

"Do we abandon the quest and leave immediately?"

"Though looking at Horac's behavior, he probably wouldn't be willing to."

Naturally, they wouldn't have any reservations just because of the wealthy merchant.

No matter how much wealth he possessed, he was ultimately just an ordinary man without Transcendent Tier power—his wealth had not reached a magnitude capable of causing a qualitative change.

To put it bluntly, if this were an Adventurer Squad with lower moral standards, they wouldn't be sitting in a private room discussing how to explain the danger to their employer like this. They probably would have robbed him clean halfway through the quest and pinned the blame on a Goblin or some other monster. Who could do anything about it?

If push came to shove, they were an Adventurer Squad without family ties holding them back anyway. They could just flee to a neighboring province, and who would be able to catch them?

Although Thordin was ostensibly asking how they should give Horac an explanation, he actually just wanted to see Margaret and Xia Nan's stance on the wealthy merchant.

To this, Xia Nan would not cross his own bottom line.

Right now, he was pondering the other suspicious points he had noticed.

According to Horac and his steward Afu, rumors about a potential gem mine around Sheep Horn Town had been circulating in Nym for months.

Given the vast distance between Sheep Horn Town and Nym, there had to be people who knew about it in the intervening towns as well.

But strangely, compared to the massive wealth a gem mine represented, over those several months and hundreds of days, the only gemstone to truly flow out of Sheep Horn Town was the one in Horac's hands.

Xia Nan didn't believe that those greedy Adventurers and merchants would miss such an opportunity.

The only possibility was that when the first batch of "prospectors" arrived in the town, the townsfolk had already been deeply infected by the Pastel Gemstone. They had exhibited the same paranoid and irritable reaction they had shown Horac today, collectively concealing and avoiding any related information.

That was how they had isolated wave after wave of covetous outsiders from the treasure.

Realizing this, Xia Nan felt a subtle shift in his heart.

He seemed to have... personally experienced a case of mass cognitive influence like this before:

—The Sheep-Deer Figurine and the Nym evil god incident.

However, the current Pastel Gemstone was nowhere near the former in terms of both scale and level of influence.

To some extent, its charming and controlling capabilities only affected ordinary commoners, having no effect on Class Holders.

After all, the Adventurer Squad that had originally sold the gemstone to Horac had carried it all the way from Sheep Horn Town to Nym, and even after all that time, they had still managed to send the gemstone in their hands to the auction house.

This also meant the Pastel Gemstone's charming effect was far weaker than that of the Sheep-Deer Figurine, and much weaker than Xia Nan and the others had imagined.

He had to admit, upon reaching this thought, Xia Nan—who had just been planning to hurry up and leave the town—couldn't help but feel a stir of temptation.

If the Pastel Gemstone really was connected to an otherworldly Secret Realm as he had suspected, and its mind-controlling effects weren't that insidious...

"Let's go clear the air with Horac."

Xia Nan raised his eyes, looking at Margaret and Thordin in front of him.

"He is the initiator of this quest, after all. Regardless of how he reacts to our theory, and whether we stay in the town or leave afterward, I think he needs to know these things."

The two members of the Blackwood Squad raised no objections.

...

...

Inside a guest room on the inn's second floor.

It was afternoon. The dim glow of the setting sun spilled faintly through the window, casting their flickering shadows against the wall.

Having listened to Xia Nan and the others finish explaining their analysis, Horac sat stiffly behind the table. His expression seemed to maintain its usual placidity, but a flash of offended anger flickered in his eyes.

"Charmed?" The slightly plump, round-faced merchant instinctively clutched his chest. "Are you saying... that I, and even the residents in Sheep Horn Town, have already been controlled by this gemstone?"

"That personally leading a caravan here from Nym wasn't my own intention?"

At this point, Horac took a deep breath, as if trying to soothe his fluctuating emotions.

His chest heaving, he closed his eyes for several seconds before slowly opening them again. He spoke in a calm tone, using words carefully chosen to avoid offending them as much as possible:

"Mr. Xia Nan, and you two of the Blackwood Squad."

"The reason I was willing to hire you all at a rate far exceeding the average, and treat you with the highest standards of hospitality along the way, is because I clearly know your reputation in Rivervale Town. I know you aren't the sort of despicable scum who wear the title of 'Adventurer' while acting as 'bandits' in secret."

"And your diligence on the road proved that my judgment was correct."

"We've had a very pleasant partnership, haven't we?"

"Why destroy the trust between us at a time like this?"

At this point, as if no longer able to suppress his churning emotions, Horac's voice subconsciously rose.

"Even if you really don't want to accept my commission... it's fine. I can do it myself. After all, I deliberately brought so many people from Nym; I do have backup plans."

"But personally, I don't think you need to harbor any extra doubts about my views regarding this gemstone."

Horac's defensive reaction was entirely within Xia Nan's expectations.

He turned to exchange glances with Margaret and the dwarf, then glanced up at the steward Afu, who stood behind the wealthy merchant without saying a word from start to finish.

Without backing down in the slightest, Xia Nan fixed his dark eyes on Horac across the table, following the plan he had agreed upon with the others before coming.

Staring closely into his eyes, he spoke in a calm but unquestionable tone:

"Mr. Horac, if we really go by your words, doing this is precisely the embodiment of responsibility."

"As guards hired by the caravan, we naturally have to consider every possible dangerous situation. If a disaster truly struck and we hadn't warned you, wouldn't that be a dereliction of our duty?"

"Furthermore, if the Pastel Gemstone on your person really possesses the ability to control minds as we suspect, then the judgments you make based on it are inherently unreliable."

"You want us to help you investigate? Fine."

"But first... for the safety of everyone in the caravan, I have to confirm exactly what it is we are facing!"

Xia Nan leaned forward, the oppressive weight brought on by his chilling aura and cold posture instantly spiking to its peak.

He reached his arm forward, palm facing up.

"Take it out. We need to inspect it."

"No!"

The noise of a wooden chair tipping over suddenly rang out in the room.

Horac practically leapt to his feet. Clutching his chest with both hands, he instinctively stumbled back a few steps, his face pale.

"This is mine... you can't..."

"I have no intention of taking it away," Xia Nan said. His tone remained calm, though he spoke slightly faster to apply ample pressure on the man.

"Just an inspection, right in front of you. It won't leave this room. I'll hold it in my hand, and return it right after looking at it."

"On the honor of the Blackwood Squad."

The two behind him nodded repeatedly.

The air fell into a dead silence once more.

The flesh and muscle on Horac's round face twitched and trembled. His eyes unconsciously widened, and his breathing grew incredibly rapid.

Reason told him that the Adventurers across the table were making a perfectly logical request, and that it was indeed an embodiment of their responsibility toward the caravan and toward himself.

But deep down, an intense, almost primal possessiveness was roaring madly, refusing to hand that treasure over to anyone.

His eyes darted erratically, his gaze shifting back and forth between Xia Nan's palm and his own inner breast pocket countless times.

Finally, after who knew how long.

Horac's voice rang out in the room once more.

"...Just... just for a moment..."

His voice was hoarse, filled with an indescribable agony and struggle.

The wealthy merchant's arm shook as he pulled the small box containing the gemstone out of his coat.

He didn't even dare to open it, nor did he dare to look closely.

He simply pressed the box hard into Xia Nan's palm, instantly turning his head away.

The moment his fingertips left the box, Horac's body violently shuddered as though his very soul had been siphoned away. His eyes momentarily glazed over in confusion, and all his strength dissipated along with it, swaying so much that he nearly failed to stay on his feet.

An uneasy gurgling sound emerged from his throat. His hands instinctively rubbed together, radiating a visible anxiety and emptiness.

With things developing to this point, even the steward Afu, standing at the very back of the room, realized something was wrong with his boss.

While not possessing wealth to rival a nation, his was at least a family of immense fortune. How could he possibly display such an embarrassing reaction over a single, small gemstone?

Meanwhile, the Blackwood Squad almost instantly used Horac's reaction to verify Xia Nan's theory regarding the gemstone's charming effect.

In the entire room, Horac was likely the only one who hadn't realized just how sharply his struggling behavior contrasted with his usual self.

Xia Nan didn't rush him.

He just held his hand out calmly, and the instant Horac handed over the small box containing the gemstone, he firmly and decisively curled his fingers tight, bringing the box back to his side.

He paid no more attention to the others around him.

He focused all his mental energy and, in a posture of extreme vigilance and concentration, opened the wooden box with both hands.

Buzz—

The Pastel Gemstone, which he had caught only a fleeting glimpse of by the campfire that night, appeared before his eyes once more.

A pure, liquid-like pink radiance reflected in his dark eyes. It seemed almost alive, its gentle, twilight-refracted glow rippling and swirling through the countless tiny facets inside the gemstone.

Though no larger than a fingernail, it looked as if all the beautiful things in the world had condensed within it, lying quietly in the center of the box and drawing every gaze in the room.

"So beautiful... Why didn't I notice it before..." This came from the dwarf Thordin, his eyes somewhat glazed.

"Damn it, stubby, close your eyes!" This came from Margaret, springing up from her seat.

"Are you done looking?! Hurry! Give it back to me right now!" This came from Horac, who instinctively stepped forward, desperately wanting to snatch the gemstone back from the Adventurer.

Of course, all these external disturbances—

As Xia Nan's fingertips, guided by the Silver Ring on his right ring finger—the transformed state of the [Dream Weaving Corridor]—lightly brushed against the surface of the gemstone;

As a formless, colorless energy was silently absorbed from the gemstone into the ring;

And as a familiar mechanical voice that only he could hear rang out in his mind—

In this very moment, none of that mattered to Xia Nan anymore.

"Ding!"

"[Dream Weaving Corridor] neural terminal has detected a rechargeable substance. Auto-replenishing..."

"Recharge successful!"

"[Remaining Energy]: 2% → 2.0003%"