Chapter 109: Line of Thought

Chapter 109: Line of Thought

Completely digested? That makes sense. She hypnotized a demigod, after all. Although part of the credit goes to the Luck Stealer charm, that only helped open the door to the Mind Body. The subsequent modifications and implantation of consciousness still had to be handled by herself. One careless mistake would have triggered fierce rejection and led to failure… Extreme acting naturally accelerates digestion… Klein gave a slight nod and spoke with a hint of approval:

“That is a good thing. In the present situation, even more so.”

Audrey understood what Mr. World meant. Under the storm that originated from the Angel of Imagination, Adam, and King George III, even though she stood only at the edge of it, she had already felt her own fragility and powerlessness. She was eager to improve herself.

She gave a soft “Mm” and said,

“I will urge The Sun to state his conditions, complete the transaction, and advance to Sequence 5 as quickly as possible. When the time comes, I hope to receive Mr. Fool’s protection and maintain clarity inside dreams.”

Klein had long since prepared for this. He smiled.

“In truth, you need not wait that long. Tomorrow at the earliest, Friday at the latest, I can sell you a Dreamwalker Beyonder characteristic.”

Because this was a private exchange, Klein did not deliberately act as The World by making his voice hoarse. He merely sounded a little restrained.

“Really?” Audrey’s eyes widened slightly, unable to conceal her joy.

Klein nodded.

“It actually comes from Hvin Rambis.

“The cross Mr. Fool recently obtained can make Beyonder characteristics separate out level by level.”

He said it very briefly, not explaining the concrete steps or too many details, retaining some of Gehrman Sparrow’s distinctive cold severity.

“So that is how…” Audrey suddenly curled the corners of her mouth and blossomed into a smile. Pressing a hand to her chest, she said, “Praise Mr. Fool~! And thank you, Mr. World.”

Two thanks at once… Klein chuckled twice inwardly, yet his surface remained calm.

“This is only a transaction.”

One that costs money… he silently added to himself.

Audrey’s smile did not fade. She asked,

“What do you need?”

“One Sequence 5 Beyonder characteristic, and 8,000 pounds,” Klein answered, choosing something Miss Justice could gather in the shortest time.

Audrey did not care much about the price. Her eyes shifted slightly as she thought, then she asked,

“Can you also sell me the Hypnotist characteristic that separates out?”

At this point, she smiled somewhat sheepishly.

“That is for Susie. I truly owe her a lot this time.

“Mm, the higher her level, the more help she can provide. And I will help her in turn as well.”

“No problem. 4,000 pounds.” Klein had expected this and directly quoted the price.

In his plan, separating the characteristic down to Hypnotist was enough. There was no need to continue dividing it. Afterward, he would place the Unshadowed Cross against the remaining characteristics for a long time and let them separate and take shape all at once.

“Twelve thousand pounds in total?” Audrey asked for confirmation, not feeling too much pressure.

Because she had not had any major expenditures over the past few months, she already had nearly ten thousand pounds in cash saved. With a little effort, she could meet the requirement.

Seeing The World, Gehrman Sparrow, nod, she breathed out in relief.

“I will pay before Friday.”

After settling that matter, Audrey, whose mood had already eased considerably because Hvin Rambis had been resolved, felt even better. She spoke casually:

“I will also purchase the complete adult Mind Dragon brain from The Sun, but I will not be in such a hurry. Susie cannot digest the Hypnotist potion that quickly…”

At this point, Audrey stole a glance at Mr. World with slight embarrassment.

“What would be required in exchange for Hvin Rambis’s demigod characteristic?”

Klein smiled.

“I do not yet know what I will be lacking.

“In truth, apart from Hvin Rambis’s Manipulator Beyonder characteristic, I also possess the corresponding potion formula. During the process of digesting your Dreamwalker potion, I will slowly think about what I need and occasionally have you do certain things or collect certain materials. We will strive to let you accumulate enough contribution to exchange for them as early as possible.”

Audrey’s emerald eyes glowed faintly as she listened.

“All right!”

After answering, she continued with great interest,

“So it is just like Xio accumulating contribution in MI9?”

“Yes. The major Churches use this method internally as well,” Klein confirmed.

Audrey nodded again and again. Finally, curiosity made her ask,

“Mr. World, do you know the names of the high-sequence potions of the Spectator pathway?”

Klein answered simply,

“Manipulator, Dream Weaver, Discerner, Author, and Sequence 0, Visionary.”

…Even the names sound so worth anticipating… especially Author and Visionary… Audrey let her imagination wander for a few seconds before guiding the topic back.

“Did Hvin Rambis say what the king’s secret is? And why are they helping the king?”

On one hand, she was asking on Xio’s behalf. On the other, she herself cared deeply about it.

“The king’s secret? He wants to bypass the three great contracts signed in ancient times between the orthodox Churches and the various royal families and become a demigod. To that end, he needs to grasp an extremely important item within the Blood Emperor’s ruin through a large number of sacrificial rituals. Heh. This is Hvin Rambis’s answer, but it may not be the whole truth. It is very likely only one part of it.” Klein gave his answer while adding his own judgment. “As for the Psychology Alchemists—or rather, the Twilight Hermit Order—what they need is a war that sweeps across the entire world. That is the trend of the era they are striving to push forward and hope to see.”

“A war that sweeps across the entire world…” Audrey repeated in a low voice. Her beautiful brows furrowed slightly, and the pleasant mood she had just recovered sank once more.

With her status and position, she had not yet truly experienced the cruelty of war, but she was no longer a flower raised in a greenhouse. She could already imagine some of it.

After a short silence, Audrey inhaled almost imperceptibly and tried hard to smile.

“I hope we can stop all of this.”

After exchanging a few more words, she left the space above the gray fog and returned to the real world. Klein busied himself with clear water, tree sap, herbal powder, Thousand-faced Hunter blood, Spirit World Plunderer dust, and other materials, “dissolving” Hvin Rambis’s Beyonder characteristic and mixing it into a potion that he did not know how to name but which was undoubtedly full of problems.

Then he found an ordinary glass bottle, poured the potion into it, and waited to see what sort of Sealed Artifact would be derived.

This would require a fairly long period of time. Klein mobilized the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog and constructed a spherical isolation barrier around that glass bottle, preventing the product after mutation from affecting the entire place.

Only after finishing this did he return to 160 Böklund Street, preparing to summon the Magic Mirror, Arrodes, and ask about the extraordinary creatures known as Fregara’s Hounds and Demonic Wolves of Fog.

By then, as time passed, the clouds high in the sky had thickened. The sun was once again hidden, and all of Backlund became as cold, gloomy, and dim as it had been in the morning.

Klein stood before the desk and looked out at the weather outside the window. For some reason, he had the illusion that he and the Church of Evernight had overlooked a certain important problem.

Their investigations during this period had been relatively smooth, and the intelligence they had obtained was gradually deepening. Yet for some unknown reason, this always made him vaguely uneasy.

This is not the result of being influenced or misled. It is something I truly cannot think of. Even going above the gray fog would be useless. Divination would most likely point toward… hmm… Klein hurriedly restrained his thoughts, spread out a sheet of paper, picked up his fountain pen, and drew the complicated symbol that combined Concealment and Peering.

One second, two seconds… A full seven or eight seconds later, the surface of the full-length mirror in the room finally became deep and dark. Watery light floated across it, condensing into silver words one after another:

“Supreme, great, and merciful master, Your loyal, humble, and modest servant Arrodes has come at Your summons.

“I-I seem to be late. I already count as a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, and bypassing isolation takes a certain amount of time. I ask the great master for Your understanding.”

“You are a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact now?” Klein asked in considerable surprise.

His mind could already imagine the rumor recently circulating within the Church of Steam:

That mirror that likes playing question-and-answer games has suddenly gone mad!

On the surface of the full-length mirror, the silver words squirmed and reassembled, forming new text:

“Great master, does this count as a question?”

Klein had originally intended to answer “no,” but for the sake of maintaining his image, he still nodded.

“It counts.”

The Magic Mirror Arrodes immediately manifested line after line of words:

“I am not yet a true Grade 1 Sealed Artifact. I am merely enjoying Grade 1 Sealed Artifact treatment in advance. This is mainly because Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts must be reported to the other Churches and receive a newly arranged serial number. The Church of Steam does not wish to do that.”

So that is how it is. Understandable… Klein nodded lightly.

“I understand.”

On the surface of the full-length mirror, watery light floated once more, and new silver words took shape:

“Supreme master, what question would You like to use this time to test Your faithful servant Arrodes?”

“What do you know about Fregara’s Hounds and Demonic Wolves of Fog?” Klein asked without the slightest politeness, showing no awareness that this actually counted as two questions.

On the mirror surface, the silver words squirmed as though they possessed life, changing their shape:

“Fregara’s Hounds are a unique kind of spirit-world creature. They survive in the gaps of history. Even the Seven Lights only know of them and cannot truly come into contact with them unless they leave the gaps of history on their own and attempt a hunt. Even then, what is seen might only be a projection of them from the past…

“Demonic Wolves of Fog are a kind of high-level demonic wolf. After enduring the fall of ancient gods, the Cataclysm, and the hunting campaigns of the Zaratul family, the Antigonus family, and the Church of Evernight, the ones that still exist are extremely rare. All of them are skilled in anti-divination and deception techniques, so they are not easy to find…”

In other words, the Church of Evernight most likely has materials or items related to Demonic Wolves of Fog? And with that, one can go to the spirit world, relying on the law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics and the instinct of extraordinary creatures to complete themselves, in order to “fish” for Fregara’s Hounds? As Klein read, a certain line of thought gradually took shape.