Chapter 523

Chapter 390: Humidity

“Huu… It seems no alarms have been triggered yet. Looks like I haven’t been discovered…”

Dorothea breathed a slight sigh of relief, thinking to herself. She had encountered many instances where her use of zombie puppets was discovered before. Sometimes they were found due to stepping on extraordinary spider silk, sometimes by spiritual perception, and other times by bl**d mist… Hence, Dorothea had developed an extremely cautious habit when using zombie puppets for reconnaissance, immediately becoming alert even at the slightest abnormality like increased humidity in the air.

After noticing the increase in air humidity on the path leading to the captain’s cabin, Dorothea did not continue forward immediately. Instead, she conducted experiments and trials, sending more mosquito zombie puppets from different directions and paths toward the captain’s room. Sure enough, whenever the puppets approached the captain’s cabin to a certain extent, they all experienced heavy wings.

Although the air humidity on the ship was generally higher than on land, during Dorothea’s reconnaissance, the humidity around the captain’s cabin was even higher than other parts of the ship. Flying insects were very sensitive to changes in air humidity, and Dorothea, who could manipulate flying insect puppets, could clearly feel this change.

The humidity around the captain’s cabin was higher than other parts of the ship, but the location of the captain’s cabin was not particularly prone to dampness. Therefore, the increase in humidity around the captain’s cabin was considered an anomaly.

In this world, almost any anomaly was equivalent to interference by an extraordinary being. The environment around the captain’s cabin might have been affected by some extraordinary factor.

“Heh… Looks like even traveling isn’t so peaceful…”

During the journey, Dorothea encountered another extraordinary phenomenon, causing her to sigh with a hint of helplessness. Soon after, she quickly regained her spirits and began to consider the current issue.

“The cruise ship’s heading is abnormal, and the captain might be connected to some hidden extraordinary matter. It seems I need to figure out what’s really going on to feel at ease. However, the unusual increase in humidity makes it risky to approach the captain’s cabin hastily.”

Frowning slightly, Dorothea thought to herself. Afterward, she began to seriously consider the abnormally high humidity near the captain’s cabin.

To avoid being seen by lights like the Radiance Lamp, all of Dorothea’s zombie puppets operated with spiritual vision. Although the humidity around the captain’s cabin was abnormally high and dense with moisture, Dorothea saw no unusual spiritual phenomena.

Since there were no abnormal spiritual elements, this meant that these water vapors were ordinary water vapors, lacking any extraordinary power. They were not spider silk from human-faced spiders or bl**d mist from Spider Fang Priests; even if her puppets came into contact with them, they would not be detected.

However, even ordinary water vapor, such a concentrated presence still warranted caution. To understand the role of these water vapors, Dorothea planned to conduct some verifications.

First, Dorothea left her cabin and found a corner to release a well-dressed human-form zombie puppet. Then, she made this puppet move through the vast cruise ship, eventually reaching the ship’s bar.

After Dorothea’s puppet pushed open the bar door, a slightly noisy scene greeted the eyes. Many passengers gathered in small groups, drinking and competing in toasts. After getting drunk, they made a ruckus. Some drunk passengers huddled in corners and fell asleep.

Dorothea made her puppet silently approach a bearded male passenger who was drunk and sleeping in a corner. Then, she took out a feather pen from her pocket and, after a quick glance around, drew an inverted pentagram combined with a cup symbol on the drunk man’s palm. That was precisely the Living Puppet Mark!

After drawing the symbol, Dorothea activated the feather pen’s ability, transforming the drawn content into “General Language,” setting it so only she could read it.

Thus, to others, the obvious mystical mark on the drunk man’s hand turned into a messy scribble, as if he had accidentally smeared it while drunk.

In a stealthy manner, Dorothea marked the drunk man with the Living Puppet Mark. Then, she made her puppet quickly leave the bar. Using the Living Puppet Mark, she controlled the heavily intoxicated bearded man to stagger upright, belch a few times, grab a bottle of liquor, and stagger out of the bar.

Dorothea manipulated her carefully selected drunk puppet, moving unsteadily toward the captain’s cabin, occasionally taking sips of alcohol and cursing under his breath, perfectly mimicking a drunkard returning home.

Dorothea made the drunk puppet walk directly to the vicinity of the captain’s cabin, entering the area with abnormally high humidity. He then repeatedly walked back and forth around the cabin, sometimes moving one way, sometimes the other, accumulating a large amount of moisture on his body.

After the drunk puppet had been active around the captain’s cabin for a while, Dorothea’s small zombie puppet observed remotely. Suddenly, the captain’s cabin door opened, and a sailor in uniform stepped out. With a frown, he briskly turned several corners and accurately found the drunk puppet lingering behind the captain’s cabin.

“Sir… This is the crew rest area, not the passenger area. What are you doing here?”

With a serious expression, the sailor spoke to the drunk puppet. The drunk puppet, reeking of alcohol, shook his head and looked blankly at the sailor, speaking in an unclear tone.

“Ahh… Crew… What crew… A bunch of cr*p! I want to go back to my room… My room is right here! Just now, it was right here… I don’t know where it went…”

The drunk puppet loudly said to the sailor. The sailor, overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol, frowned and replied.

“Sir, you’re drunk. Do you remember your name and which cabin you live in?”

“Drunk? You’re kidding! I’m not drunk?! How dare you say I’m drunk?!”

As he spoke, the drunk puppet started to act drunk. Seeing this, the sailor immediately grabbed the drunk puppet’s hand with great strength, firmly restraining the burly drunk. For a moment, the drunk puppet was completely unable to resist.

“Sir, you’re quite drunk. Let’s talk somewhere else. Don’t worry, we’ll figure out your identity and send you back.”

“Let me go! You punk, I’m not drunk! I can walk back myself!”

Thus, the sailor restrained the drunk puppet and led him away from the captain’s cabin. Witnessing this entire scene, Dorothea thought to herself:

“This water vapor without spirituality… If you get too much of it, it can actually be sensed…

“So, what kind of extraordinary power can sense ordinary natural moisture so strongly?”

Dorothea pondered internally and soon found the answer.

Some extraordinary beings could sense thin, non-spiritual natural objects to a certain extent. This was an elementalist, like Dorothea who simulated a Thunder Summoner, capable of sensing normal natural discharges. If there was natural lightning nearby, she could predict it.

Then, considering it differently, could ordinary water vapor, if exposed to too much, be sensed by extraordinary beings in the Water Elementalist lineage?