Chapter 56: Clay For The Clay Pot

The Withering Sentinel's description suggested that I could ask for its help or protection in some enigmatic way, but doing so would definitely activate the towering menace from its withering slumber.

"I only realized this as of late, Narcy," Verina started.

"Hmm? What's up?"

"You're scared of ghosts, are you?"

"How preposterous of you to assume so."

"You looked more terrified of the Faceless Gaze than I expected, out of all the Calamity Objects we faced."

"That is a fair assessment. Not a correct one, however."

"I find the concept funny, considering that a fairy is somewhat of a nature spirit. In a way, you're a physical manifestation of a ghost, who is afraid of ghosts."

"That is, an interesting train of thought…" I snickered. "Even though it is completely wrong."

The next hour was also filled with peace from the Ordeal's side.

The Faceless Gazes, however, still linger, and my sanity was still decreasing because of them.

Now that I think about it, my sanity was so much easier to influence than the rest.

I started reading through the massive pile of stats within my Info section of my detail screen, and I happened to find one stats that might be correlated to my current problem.

[Psychic Sensitivity: 1290%]

For reference, Verina's Psychic Sensitivity was 200%.

That was like, six times higher than the person who cast psionic reality-bending miracles through her musket!

[Psychic Sensitivity: More sensitive people suffer more from negative psychic effects, and benefit more from positive ones. Higher psychic sensitivity also increases their neural heat for ohrtending and psionic activity]

That was the description that popped up when I interacted with the status.

"I need to do something about this…"

Just before I decided to take an action, the Ordeal gifted us with a presence of a rather eccentric Calamity Object.

—

[The Whispering Clay]

[Description: The Whispering Clay is an amorphous, living substance that can be molded into any shape or structure, but it never fully solidifies. It seems to whisper faintly, as if it holds the secrets of its creations just out of reach. The Clay can form a temporary tools, bridges, or walls, offering versatile and correct solutions to any immediate needs, but it eventually crumbles to dust]

[Hint: The Whispering Clay's creations are invaluable in a pinch, allowing the bastion to solve problems quickly. However, the more the bastion relies on the Whispering Clay, the more fragile and unreliable it becomes. Tools made from it degrade rapidly, and structures built with it mysteriously vanish at critical moments, leaving the colony vulnerable]

—

"That is a living, sentient clay," Verina pointed out.

"Yup, that is definitely a living, sentient clay."

It spawned inside the perimeter of the bastion, meaning that this Calamity Object was the 'interactable' kind that would either screw you up in the long run, screw you up immediately, or offer immense assistance and benefits if one knew how to properly interact with it.

"There something lies behind the face of the Yellow King. A hole that begets secrets. A hole that is protected by the Crawling One."

The clay whispered to me, it was saying some nonsense that was slowly becoming a catalyst for enlightenment, an enlightenment that might consume me as a whole. Sёarᴄh the NôvelFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

So I tried to not think much about it.

I already had the Faceless Gaze sapping my Sanity, I didn't want a sentient eldritch clay to spout horror at my ear.

Wait, if I got whispered by the clay, then Verina should also be the same.

"Does it say anything mind-breaking to you, Verina?"

Verina's hand trembled as she tried to construct her sentence. "The clay… it is telling me…"

"What does it tell you?"

"It tells me a recipe for the concoction of a debauched potion…" Despite her shivering body, she looked me in the eyes with her eternal poker face. "The Potion of Grow Rod."

"..."

"... I'm not kidding, that thing embedded every piece of the recipe to my head, to the point that I can recite the ingredients and methods alongside its alternative to grow 'that' rod on your crotch."

Such an absurd and bizarre statement removed me from my state of confusion, allowing me to think clearly again.

"And so, why does the clay decide that it is best to tell you such knowledge outside of the many enlightenments that can be found?"

"Probably because you teased me too much back on the river." Her poker-faced gaze tried to escape me. "And that event has been living in my mind ever since."

"I'm cleansing your body and maintaining your hygiene, there are no lustful notes in any of my actions…"

"Your soft, pale, pretty, and nimble hands are all over me, Narcissus. Not a single person in this world can stay calm when you do that to someone!"

"That just accentuates your perversion."

Well, at least it wasn't dangerous knowledge that would incapacitate her.

I probably need to keep an eye on things that she is picking and taking interest in, however.

The stupid revelation aside.

This clay might be the key to my sanity salvation.

"I know that my image in your eyes is not the best right now," Verina said as she embarrassingly scratched her cheek with her index finger.

"My image of you doesn't change just because you're a pervert, so don't worry."

My image of her actually worsened after this incident.

I thought that it could never get any lower, but she always proved me wrong every single time.

Once again, Verina's perverted demeanor aside, I found the key to fix the problem that I was currently having right now.

Standing in front of the Whispering Clay, I leaned in and whispered back my wishes for the solution of the Faceless Gaze problem.

"Save us from the Faceless Gaze," I said. "Transform into something that is capable of erasing them from existence."

And before long, the clay whispered back.

"Your whisper is my promise to fulfill."

The Whispering Clay began to transform into the correct tool for the correct solution to deal with the haunting of the Faceless Gaze.

And in this case, the tool that the clay turned into was not something that was safe to be perceived by any human mind.

Crawling, spiraling—a god-shaped reliquary that was praying to the land beyond the living, it began to perform gentle cleansing to eradicate a specific entity from this land.

Its last whisper was a prayer.

Before we knew it, reality went back to normal, and we were no longer haunted by the Faceless Gaze anymore.

However, the image of the 'tool' that it was taken from in order to solve our problem would never ever go away from our mind.

Albeit still living, we felt as if something was broken ever since that encounter with the Whispering Clay.

"I'm traumatized by anything clay-related, now…"

"Me too, Verina, me too…"

"I'm still thankful for the recipe, however."

"... Thank you for always bringing me back to reality with your bizarre statement."

While we might have felt that something precious was taken away from us, our ambition to fulfill our goal and aspiration was unchanged. So, we decided to live on, taking this accursed, non-removable memory in our heart.

We also took a good hit on our Sanity.

As of now, my Sanity was 40%, and Verina's Sanity was 60%.

Because of that, since the Ordeal haven't decided to throw any threat into our bastion, we decided to make a new board game to entertain ourselves, and distract us from the horror that was inhabiting this land.