Lewis fell silent again, stunned; he almost jumped out of his skin when he heard that strange, distorted voice that didn't seem to belong to a human, and realizing that it was his own voice left him even more bewildered.
"No, more importantly, what is this?"
When the murloc attacked him, he felt a strange force inside him and had simply drawn on it out of pure instinct and desperation. The last thing he knew, he was covered in black armor, his fatigue and pain were gone, and he felt like he could break through a concrete wall with a single blow.
In his surprise, Lewis noticed something else: when he killed the murloc, he could feel a strange current running through his body, as if something had fused with him, making him feel energized and stronger. He immediately thought of the experience gained from killing monsters in a video game; he believed that was a good way to explain that strange feeling.
"Is this my trick? My advantage as a transmigrator? If so, then I'm grateful; I feel like I'm invincible."
But that euphoria was quickly buried when he remembered the kind of monsters that existed in this world, such as the Red Angel Medicci, Ouroboros, and those sealed grade 0 artifacts that could easily kill him without him even realizing it. Evil gods like the True Creator and his lunatic believers, or the Cult of Demoness and their twisted and evil methods of achieving their goals. Compared to them, he was nothing more than a pebble on a mountain.
"Sigh... This is really demoralizing."
His self-pity lasted only a few seconds before his brain froze; that's because he had realized something puzzling.
"I remember... Oh, shit, I remember."
He quickly looked around, afraid that the True Creator would suddenly descend or send one of his followers to kill him, but after several tense minutes, nothing happened.
"Maybe I'm going crazy right now without realizing it."
He didn't know exactly why, but he sensed that this was a possibility, an instinct that resonated from his soul.
"The spiritual intuition that Klein often talks about?"
He hadn't recovered all his memories about the novel, but there were some things he could vaguely sense. For example, for some reason he had a rather deep fear of monocles.
"Strange, what could a monocle do to me? Is it my weakness or something? Will I die if I ever wear a monocle?"
As strange as it seemed, he felt that this was a real possibility.
"This world really is chaotic and crazy; there's a real chance I'll die if I ever wear a monocle... well, another thing to be careful about."
In addition to the physical benefits provided by the armor, he could also feel his mind calming down; all the nervousness and despair he had felt about his precarious situation disappeared, leaving only a cool, analytical mind.
"Well, let's see what I can do."
He felt that this trick not only gave him physical and mental improvements; there was something much deeper, and he had to find out if any of it could help him get off this island.
The first thing he did was focus inward; he could feel something stirring inside him, almost as if it were a tangible substance. He tried to control it and guide it outward; it wasn't that difficult, but it required concentration. Soon, a large, completely black odachi formed in his hands; its shape bordered on the line between real and incorporeal, and the sensation of grasping it was strange, as if he were grabbing a piece of solid fog. But despite that, he was fully aware of the weapon's lethality; despite its somewhat illusory structure, it was capable of inflicting very real wounds, capable of killing a person... or a monster.
"This... seems somewhat familiar to me."
It would sound strange to feel familiar with an odachi made of shadows, but something told him otherwise. Unfortunately, he was a complete novice in all this mysticism stuff, so he didn't know how to use Cogitation to search his spirituality for the source of his familiarity.
Finally, unable to remember, he "let go" of the odachi's handle, and it disappeared instantly. Then he tried another of his powers; he knew instantly what they were and what they could do; it was similar to the knowledge someone received after consuming one of the potions.
He looked down and saw his shadow, which was different from a normal one; it seemed to have an attitude... and a somewhat gloomy one at that; it seemed somewhat apathetic. He moved a few steps to face it, and surprisingly, his shadow did not move with him but simply remained in place.
"Well... hello."
He tried to be friendly with his new "companion," but he didn't seem to be the type to say hello; he just gave a slight nod and did nothing else.
Once again, he felt that sense of familiarity, as if he had seen or heard of something like this before; feeling that he was almost able to remember, he reviewed all his abilities and oddities to try to find the source of his familiarity.
"An odachi made of shadows that can change its shape at will, but only if I have a deep understanding of what I want to transform it into, an independent shadow that I can separate and see through; my presence becomes fainter when I am in darkness or shadows; it also seems that I can cover myself with it to reinforce myself and make myself stronger, and this onyx armor on my body... Oh yes, I also have a mask, and my hair seems to have become much longer and... white?"
All these elements came together to form a blurry image in his mind; he felt like he was about to remember, he just needed a little push. He tried to find something that could give him that push they needed until he had an idea.
The armor and mask covering him quickly disappeared, as if absorbed by his body. Instantly, he felt the fatigue, pain, and thirst that had been dulled by the armor return, and the memories he had regained vanished once more. He tried to ignore all of that as he concentrated on drawing on that force within him again, but this time he only wanted to extract a small part of it.
After a few attempts, he managed to form a mask in his hands, and when he saw it, his pupils shrank as he finally remembered the origin of its familiarity.
The mask was black and engraved with the expression of a demon with long protruding fangs, and above its head were three twisted horns. When he looked at it, he murmured a name unconsciously.
"Sunless."
The protagonist of Shadow Slave, a novel that had been one of his favorites before he abandoned it and started reading Lord of the Mysteries.
"Well... this is awkward."
It wasn't that he stopped reading because he had stopped liking the story, he simply paused, and then became obsessed with LOTM, completely setting it aside. But now the powers of the protagonist of that novel could be his only salvation to get out of this place alive.
"If I ever come back, I promise to read the whole novel; I'll even pay for the chapters, I won't read it for free..."
His thoughts began to wander again when he felt hunger attacking him once more. He hadn't eaten anything yet, and this body had been floating in the sea for an unknown amount of time before ending up on this island, so he urgently needed food, and better yet, some fresh water.
His gaze fell involuntarily on the headless body of the murloc he had killed, and an expression of doubt appeared on his face.
"I remember that in the novel, Klein ate a murloc when he was in his early stages as Gehrman Sparrow; it was even quite delicious, but..."
He had completely destroyed its head, and if he remembered correctly, the only edible part of the murloc suitable for eating raw was the meat from its cheek.
"I don't think it's safe to eat any other part without cooking it; I could end up with an infection or contamination; this isn't a normal creature after all. It could have some pretty nasty effects."
He felt discouraged by this fact, but then he remembered another aspect of murlocs: they usually lived in groups, so if there was one, there should be others not too far away. He could wait and use himself as bait to attract them; although they preferred to eat animal organs, he was sure they wouldn't pass up the opportunity for an "easy" meal like him.
"I guess I'll just have to wait."
He sat down on the sand and tried to fight off his fatigue and stay alert for any sign of movement. Finally, after a while, when he was reaching his limit, he managed to see two figures emerge from the water.
They were two enormous fish with four strong limbs and scales covering their slippery bodies. Lewis, upon seeing them, let a radiant smile form on his face.
The murlocs, on the other hand, upon seeing it, felt that perhaps trying to hunt this prey had been a mistake.