As she pondered, she looked at Leyton and asked in a deep voice, "Can you tell what caused this mutation?"
Leyton turned to look at Frank, his eyes flickering and becoming extremely deep. He was using 'Clairvoyant' methods to restore what had happened on the Future before.
A moment later, he asked with a strange expression, "What materials did you use to cultivate these mushrooms besides Vampire?"
Frank recalled for a moment, then skillfully described the raw materials he used to cultivate those mushrooms, "Some Vampire blood, some Rose Bishop flesh and blood, and, well, something called a Scrooge's tongue."
"The Vampire blood makes the mushrooms' vitality tenacious and allows them to adapt to a darkness environment. The Rose Bishop's flesh and blood give the mushrooms the ability to absorb nutrients from Monster corpses, and also give them the taste and nutrition of meat."
"The Scrooge's tongue can magnify appetite and digestion, allowing those mushrooms to continuously absorb nutrients and produce foods like starch, milk, and alcohol."
"Scrooge," Leyton murmured softly, his spiritual perception stirred.
Immediately, his eyes became extremely deep, like the sea before a storm, his gaze unfocused and vast.
By peeking into the River of Fate, he obtained some information, some hidden secrets.
Cattleya looked at Frank with some curiosity and asked, "I've never heard of a creature called a Scrooge. Where did you get the materials?"
Frank immediately replied,
"When we docked at the Gargas Archipelago before, there happened to be a gathering organized by a group of 'Apothecary' and 'Doctor.' I attended that gathering, and I also bought the Vampire blood there."
"A gathering of 'Apothecary' and 'Doctor'." Leyton felt he had grasped something. Relying on the 'Knowledge Emperor's' control over information, he quickly deduced the possible development of events.
A moment later, he calculated a possibility, turned to Frank, and calmly said,
"That gathering most likely had followers of the 'Primordial Moon' and 'Mother Tree of Desire,' perhaps even organized by them, just like that Vampire who bled himself, the original owner of that tongue."
"'Scrooge' belongs to the power of the 'Mother Tree of Desire,' representing greed and appetite. But the tongue you bought shouldn't belong to a 'Scrooge'; it's clearly related to sexual desire and the desire to reproduce."
Frank pondered in silence for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands, realizing, "Moonlight, it's moonlight."
"Those mushrooms were stimulated by moonlight, enhancing their activity and reproductive instincts. This enhancement happened to stimulate that kind of desire, which then evolved into a desire for reproduction, causing them to frantically mate and reproduce with all surrounding living creatures."
"When their desires are not satisfied, they will continuously accumulate, and at the same time begin to self-split, madly pursuing all living creatures for an endless reproduction."
"Because there's no moonlight in a darkness environment, I overlooked this factor."
Frank annoyedly patted his head, then sighed, "Thankfully, I had already removed the ability of these mushrooms to secrete toxins and cause hallucinations. Although they re-evolved these abilities, they are not yet fatal, and their instinct is to reproduce, not directly kill captured life. Otherwise, there might have been bloodshed today."
Cattleya looked at Frank with a complex expression. "I seem to have underestimated his resilience. He doesn't seem to be disheartened by what just happened, nor has he learned any lessons from it."
Everyone around them looked at Frank with terrified eyes. They probably thought that dying directly might be better than being violated by mushrooms. The only comfort they had was that they weren't the only ones who had such an encounter, so no one could laugh at anyone else.
Leyton took in the expressions of the surrounding crew members, shook his head, and looked at Frank, saying,
"The frantic reproduction of these mushrooms requires energy and material replenishment. Excluding the possibility that someone among you fed these mushrooms, it can only be that the 'Future' passed through an area with abnormally vigorous life force, and they were subtly corrupted by the aura of the life domain."
After a pause, he added, "Frank, I'll make you some teleportation scrolls. You should move your laboratory to the Southern Continent later, for, for better communication regarding experimental progress."
And also for the 'Future' to safely navigate the sea.
"Alright."
Frank was about to say that as the first mate of the 'Future,' he couldn't be away from the ship for too long, but Cattleya didn't give him a chance to speak and directly agreed for him.
Leyton nodded slightly. He was about to ask Cattleya which sea areas the 'Future' had passed through in the past few days when a mechanical roar suddenly came from the sky outside the cabin.
He looked up in surprise, peering through the cabin ceiling, and saw a neatly arranged squadron of airships flying from the Northern State of Sonia Sea, seemingly heading towards the Ancient Forest.
On the outer coating of the airships, there was a totem of spears and blades surrounded by storms and lightning, which is the emblem of the Einhorn family, the royal family of the Feysac Empire.
"Feysac? Have they formed an alliance with Intis?" Cattleya asked in surprise.
She also saw the airships passing through the sky and the emblem of the Einhorn family on them.
After a moment of thought, she turned to Leyton and asked with some uncertainty,
"The War of the Gods anomaly that appeared over the Northern State last time, from what I observed, it seems that the 'God of Combat' stood against the 'God of Steam and Machinery.' Why did Feysac change its stance so quickly?"
"Gods have no factions, only interests, and perhaps, hatred, the hatred of the destruction of the Giant King's Court."
Leyton shook his head calmly, not too surprised by the 'God of Combat' changing sides. The 'Ancient Sun God' was equally disliked by every existence that survived from ancient times.
Cattleya slightly furrowed her brows, nodded gently, agreeing with Leyton's point of view, and then asked with some concern,
"If that's the case, the enemies we need to face in the Southern Continent will be too many."
"Currently, that seems to be the case." Leyton nodded slightly, not dwelling on the topic. He turned to Frank and asked, "Do you still have any mushrooms? I'm going to send some gifts to those airships in the sky."
Frank shook his head and said,
"Uh, you should have cleared them all out. The lab materials were also destroyed. Otherwise, I could cultivate some more."
At Frank's words, the pirates around him instinctively shuddered, recalling the unpleasant memories from before.
Nina glared at Frank and shouted, "Don't let me see another mushroom, or I'll throw you into the sea to clear your head!"
Leyton shook his head with some regret, then looked back at Cattleya and calmly said,
"I have an extra 'Clairvoyant' characteristic. If you need it, you can trade with me after you've digested the 'Mysticologist' potion."
Cattleya nodded, not refusing, and casually asked, "What kind of reward do you need?"
Leyton nodded slightly, stating the plan he had already thought of:
"After the war breaks out, intercept some fleets from Intis and Feysac in the Sonia Sea. This is a commission for all pirates and adventurers; you can help me spread the word."
"If you encounter danger or problems you can't solve, you can directly pray to the 'Hidden Sage'; he will respond to you."
"I will give you some knowledge that can help you digest the 'Mysticologist' potion. You don't need to wait until the war ends; as soon as you've digested the potion, you can directly ask me for the 'Clairvoyant' characteristic."
As he spoke, Leyton raised his hand and pressed lightly on the void beside him. Ripples of faint blue light spread out, forming a Door leading to an unknown place.
Leyton reached his hand into the Door and took out a stack of pre-prepared parchment bound into a book, handing it to Cattleya.
These were stories and legends he had compiled that could draw power and create magic or witchcraft, along with some more profound or niche Mysticologist knowledge.
After doing this, he gave up on his plan to investigate the sea areas the 'Future' had passed through and decided to first deal with the Feysac airships.
He took Bugs Bunny, who was standing at his feet, and the bodies of the man and rabbit quickly dematerialized, breaking down into streams of complex knowledge that surged away out of the cabin.
Cattleya's gaze swept around the crew members, then she calmly said,
"Clean up the cabin, then depart. Dock at the nearest port before nightfall. We need some necessary supplies."
"No problem, Captain. I think we also need to throw some dangerous items off the Future."
The Navigator, Ottolov, nodded in agreement. In the end, he also glared at Frank. Those mushrooms made him deeply understand what it meant to be middle-aged and unable to control oneself.
In the Spirit World, countless complex streams of information rapidly converged and reassembled into the figures of Leyton and Bugs Bunny.
Bugs Bunny tugged at Leyton's clothes, chuckled twice, and reached into his fluffy belly to pull out a thumb-sized light green glass bottle, handing it to Leyton and saying,
"I collected some of the spores those mushrooms spewed out on the deck earlier. I can use my spirituality to catalyze their growth rate, allowing these spores to quickly take root on the airships."
Leyton's gaze swept over Bugs Bunny, noticing that there were many things Concealment under its gray fur, neatly categorized and arranged.
He reached out and rubbed Bugs Bunny's head, saying with a wry smile,
"Where did you learn that trick? Using 'Biologist's' control over your own fur to directly hide small items in your fluff."