Danitz held the copper knife and made a few gestures on the back of his left hand, hesitating to exert force.
He raised his head and forced a smile: "Although I've been injured many times, I still fear the pain."
"Get to the point." Klein replied coldly.
Danitz chuckled dryly: "Haha, I'm just a bit afraid of pain."
As soon as his voice fell, his right hand exerted force, cutting a gash on the back of his hand with the copper knife. His previous words seemed to be merely a distraction, to ease his mood.
Blood quickly oozed out. Danitz hurriedly put down the knife, dipped his right finger in the blood, and smeared it on the dark brown cover of "Groselle's Travels."
After completing this step, he held his breath and waited for a change.
Suddenly, snow the size of goose feathers appeared before his eyes, and the howling wind roared in his ears. Then, bone-piercing cold frantically drilled into his body.
Although Danitz had mentally prepared himself, at this moment he was still shocked and astonished, instinctively looking around to confirm his location.
He found that he had somehow left the captain's cabin of the "Golden Dream" and was standing on a frozen land shrouded in a blizzard. The environment was extremely harsh, and he couldn't see far, nor could he judge whether he was on a mountain or a plain.
"Really entered a strange world… Is the captain here too?" Danitz raised his hand to shield his face, afraid of being blinded by the wind and snow.
He calmed his emotions, remembered Gehrman Sparrow's instructions, quickly took out a folded square paper from his trouser pocket, and carefully unfolded it.
During this process, he was extremely afraid of an accident that would cause the paper to be torn or blown away, which would make him lose all hope. Fortunately, that did not happen. He saw what Gehrman Sparrow had written:
"Use Hermes, preferably ancient Hermes, to recite the following honorific name:
'The Fool that does not belong to this era;
'The Mysterious Ruler above the Gray Fog;
'The King of Yellow and Black who controls good fortune.'
'Burn after reading.'"
"This… This is a hidden existence at the level of a deity?" Due to the strict teachings of "Vice Admiral Iceberg" Edwina, Danitz was not illiterate in mysticism, but actually had a good foundation.
Looking at the paper in his hand, he subconsciously caught a breath, inhaling the piercing wind and cold snow, which immediately caused continuous coughing and a twisted expression.
He could now confirm a previous guess: Gehrman Sparrow indeed belongs to a very powerful and very hidden organization, and that organization worships a deity-level existence called "The Fool"!
"Indeed, such a strong and crazy guy wouldn't come from nowhere, not something that can easily sprout from the ground…" Danitz tugged at his collar, tightening his clothes. Staring at the paper fluttering wildly in the wind, his face showed obvious hesitation.
He knew very well how dangerous it was to recite the honorific name of a hidden existence whose origins and good-evil nature were unknown; this might lead to an even more terrifying outcome than death!
"The captain is also trapped here, and there's no way out…" Danitz clenched his fist against his mouth.
He suddenly shook his hand and began reciting the honorific name of "The Fool" in ancient Hermes.
…
On the "Golden Dream," inside the captain's cabin.
Klein had personally witnessed Danitz first becoming unreal for no apparent reason and then disappearing, leaving no doubt about the method of entering "Groselle's Travels."
After waiting patiently for a while, a superimposed illusory supplication suddenly sounded in his ears, clearly male.
"Huh, it seems 'Groselle's Travels' cannot block the Gray Fog. The world inside the book can still connect to that mysterious space… That way, even if I follow in, I won't be without a fallback or trump card…" Klein did not hide his sigh of relief.
To confirm, he once again walked backward four steps, recited the incantation, entered the Gray Fog, and saw the light spot representing Danitz rippling in circles around the Fool's high-backed chair.
"So the body and soul enter together… The book world is very stable, cannot be broken by pulling the spirit body… That makes sense; if it were possible, earlier divination would have given a corresponding revelation… The 'Sea God Scepter' is too dangerous; directly 'granting' it to Danitz would only cause him to quickly die…" Klein half-closed his eyes, extended his spirituality, sensed for a while, and drew many conclusions.
Without delaying, he immediately returned to the real world, picked up the copper knife, and wiped off Danitz's blood with a paper.
Folding the paper and putting it in his pocket, he began to consider what to do next:
"It seems I have to smear blood and enter directly, so I don't have to worry about an accident to my body and can quickly solve the problem.
"But also cannot be careless and negligent; I must guard against other dangers. If someone on the ship has a problem and seizes the opportunity to sneak into the captain's cabin while I'm inside 'Groselle's Travels' and sacrifice this book to the 'True Creator,' 'Primordial Demoness,' or 'Hidden Sage,' then I would be in big trouble, worse than death.
"Most of the 'Golden Dream's crew seem to admire 'Vice Admiral Iceberg.' Anderson's superficial provocation being effective earlier says a lot. So telling them that 'Vice Admiral Iceberg's' life is at stake and having them supervise each other, allowing no one to enter, can be trusted.
"The problem is Anderson. He's the strongest hunter, more powerful than any other beyonder on the ship, and is good at ambushing and sneaking. It's quite possible for him to evade others' supervision and sneak into the captain's cabin… His origins are not too clear, so I can't truly trust him.
"I need to find a way to make him enter 'Groselle's Travels' with me…"
As he mused, Klein flipped through the ancient book bound in yellowish parchment and found that no more content appeared this time, and the story also lacked traces of Danitz's existence.
"That means I must get through alive, meet the protagonist group, and truly become part of the story for the pages to increase?" Klein made a preliminary judgment, and again walked to the door and opened it.
"Did it succeed?" Yodeson the "Bow Tie" and the others asked in unison.