I Got A Title: Lord Of The Time!-Chapter 47: Lake with blue mushrooms

Walking up to the lake, Lin slowly assessed its size. The lake itself wasn’t large; it was about the size of a volleyball court, with severe distortions in the corners, creating uneven terrain. Lin paid no attention to that—he simply knelt and touched the water.

"It feels pretty normal..." Lin scooped some into his hand and brought it to his nose to check for any strange odor.

There was no unusual smell coming from the water. Lin nodded and took a small sip to test the taste. Though it was quite dangerous, what choice did he have? He didn’t have any other supplies, and thirst was slowly catching up to him — if he didn’t try the water now, he might not get another chance later.

After taking a sip, Lin slowly closed his eyes and felt the fresh, cold, clean water spread through his mouth. The once dry and coarse areas of his mouth, caused by dehydration, were quickly refreshed and revitalized.

With a smile, Lin sighed and began scooping more water to drink until he felt his stomach completely full.

"Phew." Lin lay down on the ground and looked up at the ceiling, which was covered in thousands of blue plants, illuminating everything in the cave.

"I should try taking some of them... maybe they’ll retain their glowing properties?"

Lin stayed for a while and looked at the lake, wondering whether there were any underground fish or creatures inside he could kill and eat. But then he remembered he had nothing to cook them with.

"Alright, there’s no point in staying here for too long," Lin got up and was about to turn away when he noticed a bright light inside the lake.

"Light? What’s it doing there? And it’s more white than blue, like these plants..."

Lin tensed up and stepped back a little from the lake. He immediately checked his status:

[Status:

— Physical health: 68%

— Mental health: 89%

— Distortion: 20%]

Looking at the blue screen, Lin realized he could only use one skill if necessary — but that should be enough, if he found the right opportunity.

As the white light in the lake grew bigger, Lin drew his katana from its sheath and stood ready.

Suddenly, a strange fish shot out of the lake, the size of a large barrel!

Its huge, stake-like teeth were aimed at Lin’s head, ready to bite it off!

Lin coldly snorted and slashed with his katana — he didn’t even need to use a skill to hit the strange fish, as its speed was much slower than Lin’s perception.

Whoosh!

The katana cut through the air and reached the fish, slicing it cleanly into two equal parts without any trouble. The halves quickly fell back down, and Lin curiously looked at them and tried to activate the Title System to check if the fish was a Distorted creature.

But there was no response.

That meant it was an ordinary fish, untouched by distortion.

"Those are pretty rare in the world."

Back when he traveled with Yulan through the Magic World, they had encountered animals the Title System didn’t respond to — but that was probably because those animals were infected by distortion, just at such a low level that they couldn’t be properly categorized as Distorted. But this was different.

The Title System didn’t react at all when Lin tried to check the fish’s stats, meaning there was no distortion in it at all.

"So I’m in such an unknown place that even Distortion hasn’t reached here? Then how did those insects infect me? Or was I infected by something else?" Obvious questions appeared in Lin’s mind.

"If that’s the case, it’s not very comforting. If even Distortion hasn’t reached this place, then how am I supposed to get out?" He sighed and lifted one side of the fish. Though he had no fire to cook it, if the situation became critical, he would have to eat it raw.

He also quickly washed his katana and filled the sheath with water to use it as a canteen. After all, he didn’t know when he would come across water again.

Lin approached one of the strange blue plants and realized it was a blue mushroom, emitting a soft blue glow from within its cap. He picked several and discovered they continued to glow even when detached from any surface.

He put a few mushrooms into the pockets of his academy uniform and held a few more in his right hand to light his way through the dark cave.

"I ended up in some kind of water area, but it’s not suitable for Contact with the katana. I need something brighter and lighter — not this," he slowly exited the chamber with the lake and went further into the pitch-black cave.

...

Lin continued through the dark caves, no longer blindly like when he first began, but now with minimal light to guide him and offer him limited choices — where to go, how to walk, whether to go that way? — and more. Along the way, he paid little attention to his surroundings and focused on his own thoughts while conducting small experiments.

He discovered that 1% of Distortion took about one minute to clear. That meant, from the moment he woke up in the cave and killed the strange lake fish, forty-seven minutes had passed!

And now, his wandering had taken about twenty minutes, since the Distortion had completely disappeared. But now that the Distortion was entirely gone from his body, he could no longer track the passage of time in this place.

Of course, he could try estimating time based on Physical health and Mental health, but that was highly situational and not very practical. Still, what else could Lin do without a proper clock?

He simply accepted it and kept observing.

Unfortunately, these cave catacombs were truly complex and endless — there were so many of them that Lin started wondering whether he had ended up in the Magic World at all, or maybe in some kind of Cave World instead?

Even if he had ended up in a Cave World, there had to be some kind of world surface, right? In any case, he had to keep searching for an answer.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin was extremely tired and wanted to get some sleep. He had experienced a lot that day and needed proper rest. He sat down, drank some water from the sheath, then slowly closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep without even realizing it.

He dreamed of his family — how they spent time happily together at the table, played, learned, discovered... All those beautiful false scenes played out in his mind, drawing him deeply into them...

Suddenly, Lin’s eyes snapped open and he looked around, realizing he was in a completely different world and time than in his dream.

He sighed and slowly stood up.

"We all want to live in an illusory world, refusing to see the truth..."

Lin walked on through the cave.

He had a goal, and he had to reach it.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss