Chapter 231: Locates Xiao Tao

Does Mochi really process this enormous amount of information all the time?

Mochi always behaved like a child, so discovering that its abilities were practically on the level of a high-performance AI left Qiu Nuoya utterly astonished.

"Mochi, sorry, but could you show me only the one that’s with Xiao Tao?"

[ Got it~ ]

The countless screens filling Qiu Nuoya’s field of vision disappeared in an instant. Three screens remained.

The first showed a dark room. Something was looking around restlessly, trying to take in its surroundings.

Unlike the first, the second showed a brightly lit room. The view remained fixed on the ceiling without moving.

The third was probably the same bright room as the second, but the view showed Warren pacing restlessly around the room with an irritated expression.

"Warren! There he is!"

"Oh, nice work! Do they both look all right?"

"Warren doesn’t seem to be injured, but I can’t see Xiao Tao."

It was frustrating to be able to see them but have no way to call out to them.

Mochi’s fragments were all moving around freely as they pleased. Qiu Nuoya could not control their vision at will, so he could not tell exactly where each one was.

"Nuoya, let’s focus on the magic circle first. Can you see it?"

"Um... Ah, I think it’s this one!"

It was the view of the fragment in the dark room. As it looked around restlessly, the edge of its vision caught sight of what appeared to be a magic circle.

"Mochi, can you ask the one in the dark room to get a better view of the magic circle?"

[ Got it~ ]

The restless field of vision suddenly bounced upward. The fragment must have climbed onto something so that the entire magic circle was visible. A teleportation magic circle now appeared clearly in front of Qiu Nuoya, and he stared at it intently.

"Viktor, I can see it."

"Nuoya, can you read the magic circle?"

"Uh, um..."

Recently, Qiu Nuoya had been studying magic circles using the instructional book he had obtained from the mysterious room. Teleportation magic circles were more complicated than magic circles for the four elemental attributes, but their basic construction was still the same.

"Calm down and observe it carefully. There must be something different from the teleportation magic circles you have seen before."

Something different. Something different...

There!

"I found it!"

"Excellent. That’s the security code. Tell me what it is."

Qiu Nuoya opened his eyes and copied the string of symbols onto the ground.

The characters formed a meaningless sequence of hieroglyphic-like symbols, probably written in this world’s script. Qiu Nuoya had an automatic translation ability, so he could normally understand basic written text. Magic circles, however, were different. Their symbols resembled written characters, but they were much more difficult to interpret.

Thank goodness he had actually studied magic circles.

Who would have thought that all that studying would prove useful here?

If Qiu Nuoya had not taken his studies seriously, he probably would have been completely unable to understand what he was looking at right now.

Thank you, past Qiu Nuoya. And thank you to the mysterious owner of that room for giving him the instructional book!

"Can we use this to get inside the mansion!?"

"Yes, we can. But, Nuoya, are you all right? Can you keep this up a little longer?"

"Yeah, I’m fine, but..."

Now that Qiu Nuoya had finally begun to get somewhat accustomed to the fragmented views from Mochi’s companions, he nodded.

"Then I would like you to identify the room where the two of them are being held."

"I’ll try!"

Qiu Nuoya had Mochi direct its fragment, and he attempted to locate the room.

The slime slipped through the gap beneath a door with its flexible body, climbed a staircase, and emerged into a brightly lit hallway.

It headed to the right. It passed the first door, then the second, but there were no rooms beyond them. Just as Qiu Nuoya began wondering where it was going, the hallway turned a corner, revealing another staircase farther ahead.

The fragment began bouncing up the stairs.

"That’s unexpected. It isn’t a dungeon. Since it is heading upstairs, it probably isn’t a storage room or servants’ quarters either. Are they simply being kept in an ordinary guest room...?"

After climbing the staircase, which had a landing where it turned back on itself, the fragment continued down the hallway to the right. It then squeezed its body through the gap beneath the third door.

While the fragment was squeezing its way through, its field of vision went completely dark for a moment. When its vision cleared again, the fragment was inside a room, looking around at its surroundings.

[ The slime is back! ]

[ Good. Come here... ]

The fragment whose vision had remained completely motionless until now, showing nothing but the ceiling, finally moved for the first time.

Apparently, that fragment had been sitting on top of Xiao Tao’s head the entire time, staring at the ceiling. When Xiao Tao moved, the edge of its vision finally caught sight of Warren and the fragment that had returned to the room.

So that’s why we couldn’t see Xiao Tao until now.

Xiao Tao, with one of Mochi’s fragments perched on his head, reached out his arm. The fragment that had been sharing its vision with Qiu Nuoya bounced into Xiao Tao’s arms.

[ Did you find somewhere we can get out? Huh? You’re watching? Who is? Qiu Nuoya? He’s still watching us? ]

Qiu Nuoya could hear their conversation one-sidedly.

If I can hear them, then maybe there is some way to send my voice to them too.

"Mochi, can you tell them we’re going to rescue them now?"

[ Yep, I can~ ]

Qiu Nuoya’s words were conveyed to them through Mochi.

If Xiao Tao can learn to share his senses too, he probably wouldn’t even need Mochi to relay the message.

Qiu Nuoya thought it might be worth trying that with Xiao Tao sometime in the future. As a means of communication, this was incredibly convenient.