Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 130: The Ghoul's Advance

Inside the church, the atmosphere was heavy, with Silvia and Jigu facing each other in silence.

Liu Xing and the others quietly moved behind Silvia, ready to support her.

After all, drawing the magic circle required a significant amount of blood, depending on the size of the circle. Liu Xing estimated that without at least 1000 milliliters of blood, it would be impossible to complete the magic circle.

Generally speaking, blood makes up about seven percent of a person's body weight. In other words, an average person has around 4000 milliliters of blood. Losing 1000 milliliters of blood at once might not cause immediate unconsciousness, but it would lead to overall weakness, mental fog, and other symptoms. Recovery would also require an extended period of rest.

Following the standards of the Cthulhu RPG Game, losing 1000 milliliters of blood would result in a direct decrease in HP, temporary reductions in various attributes, and a decreased success rate for skills. Recovery would necessitate the use of Interlude Growth. In simple terms, the player would be considered incapacitated in this tabletop game.

At this moment, Jigu's right-hand man, Caesar, stepped forward and proposed a compromise, "How about each of us donating a small amount of blood to complete the magic circle?"

However, Ji Wu immediately voiced his opposition, "From an Occultist perspective, I believe that's not a reliable solution. In rituals like this, the blood used to draw the magic circle must come from the sacrificial offering. Especially in ceremonies to summon an Eldritch God, I'm over ninety percent certain that if we use the blood from all of us to complete the circle, the summoned Eldritch God will choose to devour all of us. After all, there's a saying that goes, 'Like begets like.'"

Liu Xing found himself agreeing with Ji Wu's assessment. He had heard a similar explanation before: summoning an Eldritch God was akin to fishing. The blood-drawn magic circle served as bait, while the sacrificial offering acted as the lure. The bait attracted the Eldritch God from another plane, and due to the dimensional gap, the Eldritch God would rely on the scent of the bait to find the lure. Therefore, Eldritch Gods generally only devoured the sacrificial offering and did not randomly attack those conducting the ritual.

As Ji Wu was the only "professional" in the room, his words carried weight. According to his suggestion, if they wanted to reactivate the magic circle, they needed to find a sacrificial offering and use its blood to draw the circle. However, if they did so, the sacrificial offering would almost certainly not survive.

So, who would volunteer to be the sacrificial offering this time? Probably no one wanted to be devoured by an Eldritch God.

But then again, Liu Xing suddenly remembered that he had Qingming Sacrificial Offerings in his backpack. Could they be used here?

While Liu Xing was contemplating whether to offer the Qingming Sacrificial Offerings, Silvia spoke up, "Mr. Jigu, how about we temporarily leave this place and search elsewhere for the item you need? If we don't find it elsewhere, we can return here tomorrow and figure out how to activate the magic circle. What do you think?"

Ji Wu's expression remained grim, but he nodded and replied, "Miss Silvia, your suggestion is quite reasonable. After all, our arrival here was rather hasty, and we didn't make proper preparations. Let's leave the church for now and explore other locations tomorrow. If we come up empty-handed, we can return to this church tomorrow night, and by then, I'll have the sacrificial offering prepared."

With that decision made, the group planned to leave the church. However, at that moment, a series of piercing screams echoed from outside the church.

"Damn it, it seems that we'll need to put in some effort if we want to leave Graveyard today," Jigu's expression changed, and he said helplessly.

Clearly, a large group of Ghouls had already surrounded the church.

"I knew it, we should have killed that Ghoul earlier," Liu Xing couldn't help but complain.

In Liu Xing's view, these Ghouls were all summoned by the one that had escaped. If they had taken action to kill that Ghoul when they had the chance, they might not be facing so much trouble now.

However, Ji Wu shook his head and whispered, "It's not necessarily the case. Ghouls, as intelligent mythical creatures that live in groups, sometimes engage in collective activities to hunt humans. But this is usually because they believe they have a significant advantage and can reap great rewards at minimal cost. However, as long as that Ghoul isn't completely irrational, it should recognize that we're a tough nut to crack and shouldn't harbor any bold ideas. So, I think these Ghouls surrounding the church have a different purpose."

While Ji Wu spoke, he directed his gaze towards Jigu, and the implication was clear.

Seeing this, Liu Xing silently nodded. After all, Jigu had already been cursed by the Ghoul Elder, so being besieged by Ghouls was a perfectly normal occurrence. It was no wonder Jigu had issued the commission and offered substantial rewards to gather so many people to escort him. Apparently, Jigu had foreseen what would happen when they entered Graveyard.

But with things having come to this point, Liu Xing had nothing more to say. It seemed that this time he would finally confront the Ghouls directly.

The church's entrance was only about three meters wide, and since the church had no windows, it was impossible to form a formation and utilize their firepower advantage. Therefore, Jigu and Silvia decided to extend their defense line outside the church. The graveyard outside the church had many tombstones, making it a suitable place to construct a defensive line.

So, the group filed out of the church and quickly set up a small defensive circle using the tombstones. Liu Xing remained with Ji Wu and the others, responsible for defending the right flank.

"Everyone, stay alert, watch out for Ghoul ambushes. As soon as the Ghouls come within range, open fire. Remember to report the number of enemies so I can send reinforcements!" Caesar, still cosplaying as a Roman emperor with his short sword in hand, issued orders. It appeared that Caesar genuinely had the air of a Roman general.

Thinking about this, Liu Xing was quite interested and asked Luo Cong, "Luo Cong, this Caesar guy doesn't really intend to fight with that short sword, does he?"

Luo Cong glanced at Caesar and nodded, saying, "It seems that way. Caesar is quite extravagant most of the time and tends to use his short sword in battle. I heard that Caesar's short sword provides a damage bonus against Monsters, but I'm not sure if that's true."

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