“Oh dang. Big-shot, turns out you’re an insider.” The rat spirit perched on Eli’s neck and patted his cheek like drizzling rain.

Eli lifted a brow, amusement flickering like foxfire. “He’s the guy who taught you those messy tricks? He looks… kinda funny.”

The crystal-headed monster smiled at Eli, a shine like lamp-light. Then the glow inside its head faded like a dying candle and revealed a face sealed in the crystal sphere.

Eli raised a brow, grin curling like a hook. “Oh-ho. You’re… canned octopus?”

The octopus face stayed unreadable, smooth as wet clay. But it pushed a ripple of confusion into Eli’s mind, light as a wave.

“Dear Hero, what does ‘canned octopus’ mean?” it asked, voice flat as slate.

Eli’s mouth twitched; humor bubbled like soda. He covered his lips, stifled the laugh, and waved fast. “Ahem, nothing. Pretend I said nothing.”

The octopus nodded, steady as a bobbing buoy, and let silence settle like dust.

Eli glanced around, hesitation misting like dawn fog. “Uh… Mr. Octopus?”

“Ah? Hero, do you need something?” Its blank stare lay on Eli’s face like still water.

“Earlier, a girl rushed in. How is she now?” Worry pooled in his chest like a stone in a stream.

Liqianyu was a whole person; she had just vanished like a swallowed star. He couldn’t face her brother; guilt gnawed like ants.

The octopus slid a tentacle from under its cloak and tapped its crystal jar, a tiny knock like on a fishbowl.

“Oh! I almost forgot. Hero, if you wish to rescue that young lady and obtain the last Memory Crystal no one has collected, please pass the test.” Its tone was courteous, thin as incense smoke.

Eli’s brow tightened, his gaze weighing the creature like a smith judging a blade.

This strange being had no energy ripple, just a low-tier lifeform with a peculiar look, like driftwood on a tide.

Yet it could talk, which stung like a thorn under skin.

Worse, he saw no residue of teleport magic or trap channels, only clean stone like untouched sand.

But Liqianyu, strong as she was, had vanished into thin air, a star blinked out of the night. What was this unknown?

It knew he was the Hero, which meant ties to Birand, threads woven like a hidden loom.

But…

Eli narrowed his eyes; identities and guesses flickered through his head like lanterns in fog.

The octopus waited with ocean patience, face blank as a mask, gaze steady as a tide.

It held still, waiting for Eli to move, coiled like a spring under cloth.

At last Eli looked up and sighed, breath fogging like winter glass. “You mentioned the last Memory Crystal hasn’t been taken. So the others are already collected?”

The octopus smiled, a seam opening in the crystal like a crack in ice. “You know. It’s obvious. I don’t need to repeat it.”

Eli’s brow rose, interest sparking like flint on steel.

“Then tell me who took the remaining shards,” he said, voice cool as tempered metal.

The octopus seemed to smile, no mockery, just a mouth splitting like a shell. It made Eli’s skin crawl like cold rain.

“Sorry. I don’t know where the other Memory Crystals are. That’s not my duty, Hero.”

Eli’s eyes sharpened to blades. He held his tongue, thoughts circling like hawks over a field.

Liqianyu’s location was unknown, a blank on the map. Yet his senses said the missing crystal sat in this creature’s grasp like a pearl.

Then—

The octopus-head smiled again. “Hero, please don’t think about killing me.”

It suddenly sprawled on the stone; its cloak fell open like a wave, revealing several octopus legs.

Only then did Eli see it lay on a raised stone pillar, cloaked to look upright, a scarecrow of the sea.

So this thing was just an octopus, a marine critter draped in cloth like stage dressing.

Combined with its words, it was a prop, a puppet on a stick, not the hand behind the strings.

Someone had played him, and that someone might still be nearby, watching from the shadows like a fox at dusk.

Thinking that, Eli smiled and shook his head, humor cooling his temper like rain on embers. It wouldn’t be that easy.

“Alright, friend. I accept the trial. Anything else I should know?”

“Heh. Hero, you catch on. First, learn about the Miter Empire.” Its voice moved slow as the tide.

Eli fell silent, thoughts knotting like creeping vines in a ruined temple.

…

“How meaty is this thing?” Liqianyu eyed the massive crab before her, a mountain of bronze shell, and sighed like wind over waves.

No matter how she punched, it did nothing; her strikes skittered off like pebbles on armor.

Since it barely attacked her, Liqianyu of the Abyss sprawled on the crab’s back, sunbathing like a lazy cat on warm stone.

“Seriously. I’m gonna explode,” she muttered, anger fizzing like boiling tea.

The monsters floated along the shore and did nothing else, machines frozen mid-gesture like statues.

Liqianyu stared at the sky, mind blank as a white page, drifting like a stray cloud.

She had no clue what Eli was doing; he hadn’t come for her; the absence pricked like thorns under skin.

She rolled over and sighed, regret pooling like rain in a hollow.

“Okay, okay. I was wrong. I won’t rush in again. Seriously. Where is this place? I’m starving!” Her voice cracked like dry wood.

“Help! Anyone! I can’t hold on!” Her shout flew into the wind like a gull’s cry.

Only the sea breeze answered, a lonely whistle across blue glass.

A few monsters kept drifting on the surface, dead leaves on a dark pond.

“Argh! I’m gonna blow!” She grabbed a shard of crab shell she’d broken earlier and smacked it against the crab’s back like a tossed stone.

“Drop dead, you damn thing!” Her words thumped off the shell like drumbeats.

Not far away, Edlyn stepped from a portal and squinted around, her gaze sweeping like a slicing blade.

Angela tugged lightly at her clothes, fingers fluttering like sparrows. “Sis, why are we here? Weren’t we going to find Brother Eli? Will he be here?”

Edlyn pressed a finger to her lips, a hush like moonlight on water. “Shh. Little sis, your big sis is doing a little thieving. We’ll find your Eli once we’re rich. Don’t fuss.”

Angela puffed her cheeks and trailed behind, steps small as raindrops on stone.

Earlier, Edlyn had blown the Beastkin soldiers away with demonic aura like a storm, then rushed into the Elf Forest again, quick as lightning.

But the Elf Forest turned the Demonic Lord around, paths folding like a wartime maze of thorns.

Edlyn relied on her sense for treasure, a nose like a hound sniffing gold beneath earth.

She came to the Beastkin army’s camp, tents strewn like sand dunes after wind.

There wasn’t much worth grabbing, but a pricey-looking portal gleamed there like a polished mirror.

For some reason, the Beastkin lands had no high-tier guardians; Edlyn led Angela through the defenses with ease, a stroll through morning fog.

Neither Hyeok nor Orek could imagine it. With the Elf Race’s top brass, they hunted the Demon King across the land like hounds.

Yet she was in their home, probably drooling at their vault like a cat before cream.

Meanwhile, a purple-haired girl in a tent nodded off, head bobbing like a woodpecker tapping bark.

She seemed linked to Edlyn by a thin thread of fate, a tug like tide in a moon’s pull.

When Edlyn drew near, the girl’s drowsiness swelled like warm milk in winter.

When Edlyn drifted away, the girl perked up, fresh as spring shoots after rain.

The purple-haired girl rubbed her chin. “Eh? What’s up with me?” Her voice was cotton-soft, drifting like fluff.

After getting lost more than once, the Demonic Lord finally found a two-way portal from the Beastkin homeland, a doorway humming like a beehive.

Edlyn’s eyes rolled slyly, a glint like foxfire in brush, and she pulled Angela through.

Once in the Beastkin lands, Edlyn secretly twisted the portal’s direction, a river bend turned with a finger, so no one would chase her.

She kept Angela close and wandered the empty territory, footsteps whispering like sand under moonlight.

“Hmm… My sense says more good stuff over there,” Edlyn said, pointing toward a distant glow, the very place where Liqianyu sat among sea monsters like a queen on shells.

“Sis, what about the Elf Race? Aren’t we helping them?” Angela asked, worry pooling like shadowed rainwater.

She had a hunch her scatterbrained sister would soon get in trouble, a cloud darkening the horizon.

“You’re so naggy. Just follow me.” Edlyn pinched Angela’s cheek, a playful touch like a cat’s paw on silk.

“Be good. Ha.” Her smile flickered like candlelight in a draft.

“Oh…” Angela sighed, unable to pull her sister back, her heart heavy as a river stone.

…

“You said what?!” Eli’s eyes widened at the octopus sprawled on the floor, shock sparking like lightning in a summer storm.

“Yes. You heard right. Miter Empire’s royal house carries Birand’s blood, your past life’s line,” it said, voice flat as a drumbeat rolling.

“Miter Empire doesn’t obey the Holy Court Church, partly for that reason,” it continued, steady as a river that knows its bed.

“You’re saying Birand had a son?” Suspicion cut in Eli’s tone like a knife’s edge.

“Yes.” The simple answer fell like a pebble into a well.

“What use is this to me?” Eli cooled, eyes slitting like shutters; he weighed it all like a merchant counting coin.

“I only wish to say this: when the time comes, don’t lay hands on them.” The pause hung like smoke, then the plea settled like ash.

“Huh? Why would I?” Confusion rose like a thin mist.

It didn’t answer. After a long beat, it said, “Hero, will you begin your trial?”

Eli shrugged, shoulders loose as rope on a dock. “I’ve listened to you ramble long enough. Of course I want to know.”

“Good,” it said, satisfaction dim as embers behind glass.

A strange energy gathered into a round light, a small moon, and drifted to Eli like a floating lantern.

“Hero, this is your last Memory Crystal, the one still unclaimed. Consider whether to merge,” it said, tone cool as stone on a riverbed.

“Huh? I thought you said trial,” Eli muttered, a wary chill like frost across glass.

“Relax. Answer, and the trial begins,” the creature said, calm as winter skies.

Eli narrowed his eyes; his face went rigid like a carved mask. The trial wouldn’t be simple, a path twisting like a mountain road in fog.