25 Hard to Communicate

The dove tilted its head and thought that Duncan did not hear what it had said. It then said its name in an even more clear and louder voice. "Ai!"

Duncan finally understood what the bird meant. "Are you saying that your name is Ai?"

The dove proudly nodded and strolled on the table happily.

Duncan could not help but rub his temple. He felt conversing with the bird would be harder than with the goat head. The hardest part was the linguistic style that the dove was using. "Do you know how you are born? Or... do you know how you come here?"

The dove thought for a while as its two eyes looked in two different directions. "Error! This page has failed to load! Please refresh!"

Duncan looked at the dove speechlessly again.

He realized that he could not understand what the dove was thinking about. He wasn't even sure if what it had just said a moment ago was tied to his question.

However, he was sure that the bird could think and was earnestly conversing with him.

The only problem was it had a unique way of "conversing."

Duncan then exchanged a few sentences with the dove that called itself "Ai," The conversation did not differ far from the previous one, where they sounded like they minded their own business. If one were to say that they were conversing with each other, others would argue that there was not a single connection between their sentences. On the other hand, the dove would always reply to Duncan's questions to the point where some answers sounded legit.

Having not made any progress after the conversation, Duncan could only frown and complain, "What the freaking heck is this..."

He felt it would take him a long time to understand the dove; in the meantime, he still had to deal with the talkative goat head.

The dove sat on the table before the captain and blinked its eyes innocently. It would occasionally tell him bout the 50% discount.

Duncan didn't mind the bird's weird way of talking and started to rub the flame between his fingers. There was one thing he had confirmed. Even though the brass compass had merged with the dove in front of him, fundamentally, it was still an "abnormal item" he could control.

As the green spirit flame on his hand grew stronger, the flame between Ai's feathers also burned brightly. The brass compass in front of its chest opened with a loud snap. Under the transparent glass, the phantom-like needle started to slow down under Duncan's will. The mysterious symbols on the compass face also began to burn with the flame.

Ai didn't even show any reaction to the process. It was as if it was bathing in the spirit flame awaiting Duncan's order.

Before the brass compass was fully activated, Duncan put out the flame.

After the short test, Duncan came to a conclusion.

"The compass is still functional. It only has a new and weird 'medium' now. I'm not sure what ability the dove has yet, or how it can help...

"I also don't fully understand the compass yet. It's best not to do a second 'travel' until I'm fully prepared... I'll have to take note of the changes happening on the dove and the compass next time...

"The dove and I are connected. The connection will deepen even further when I activate the spirit flame to the point where I can control where the dove appears... However, that's all I can do...

"It is clear that Ai has her own will. She can move wherever she wants and won't follow all my commands. That is different from the 'objects' on the Lost Home.

"She can speak, so she must have the ability to think and to judge a question... Compared to other abnormal objects, Ai is more similar to Goat Head."

Duncan concluded that all in his head with all the information he had gathered. After that, he rested his sight on the obsidian dagger.

Its hilt looked like a mummified finger, while its black blade was shiny.

That was the same dagger that the priest who wore a golden sun mask and was hosting an evil sacrificial ritual in the sewer had used. Judging from that, Duncan could tell it was a "ritual dagger."

Duncan had projected his soul to the gathering at the City State of Pland. Only his soul had returned from there, which was why he believed that everything only happened over there and nothing would follow him back. Yet, the dagger was now sitting on the table before him.

After a moment of hesitation, he reached his hand out to pick the dagger up.

He could feel the cold and hard hilt from his hand and confirmed that it was an actual object.

Duncan then let out a hint of the green flame to envelop the entire dagger. From the void he could feel, the power inside the dagger seemed to have been depleted.

Just as he had concluded at the ritual, the dagger was not a real "abnormal item" but the side product of something powerful or a temporary item that had power fused into it through a human method.

Although Duncan had yet to understand the system of "abnormal items" in the world, he was sure that the dagger wasn't rare and even thought it was a mass-produced item.

"Did you bring this back?" He raised his head to look at Ai, resting on the table, and swung the dagger in his hand. "Is it for me?"

The dove looked at him with its red eyes without moving. It wasn't reacting to his question.

Duncan was confused.

He asked the question once again, and the dove remained silent. It was as if it had suddenly become a lifeless statue.

The sudden changes made Duncan frown slightly again. Just as he was about to use the spirit flame to see if he could forcefully wake it up, the dove suddenly came "alive" again. It did a couple of hops and said, "Take the Solar Battle Ax! Take the Solar Battle Ax! Take the..."

"Fine! Fine! I get it. You don't have to reply to all the same questions, geez..." Duncan waved his hand and forced the dove to quiet down as he tried to structure his next question. "Then, do you know how you brought this dagger here? Or, more precisely, can you bring an actual object from the soul travel?"

After a short pause, the dove lowered its head to peck Duncan's finger. "Special offer! Free shipping!"

"Well... Let's just say that I understood that."

Duncan let out another sigh. He was already at his limit on conversing with the bird.

He then stood up and turned to look towards the sea chart chamber.

The friendly conversation between the goat head and Alice was still going on.

It had been a long time since the puppet last spoke, but the goat head had just begun to talk about the 17 ways to stew seaweeds.

Duncan felt that he had to go and save his only (and most normal-looking) crew.

He had also been staying inside the bed chamber for too long. He had also made some suspicious commotion too. He was sure that he had to head to the sea chart chamber so that the goat head would not get worried.

Before he left, he looked at Ai, still running around on the table.

"Do I take her out with me? How should I explain this?" he thought.

After two seconds of hesitation, he grabbed the dove and put it on his shoulder.

If he were going to move about the Lost Home for a long time, the dove would also accompany him for a long time. He had no idea what the bird's habit was, but as an "abnormal item" with the ability to think and communicate, it would be hard to hide like a lifeless object.