Chapter 182: Klein the Wanderer

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Two
Klein the Wanderer

In early September, Tingen’s weather had already turned from cool to faintly cold, yet the sunlight between three and four in the afternoon still felt warm.

Klein passed through the wall of spirituality and the oriel window, floating in midair outside his bedroom and looking down at the pedestrians and carriages moving back and forth along Daffodil Street.

Just then, a man in gray-blue worker’s clothing suddenly lifted his head and looked over.

Klein was startled. He wanted to hide where he was, but for a moment he could not find any suitable cover.

After turning once and seeing no better option, he tried to slip back into the house. Yet from the corner of his eye, he realized that the man’s gaze had only swept past the second-floor window. It had been following a sparrow the entire time, and finally lost it with regret.

In Tingen City, birds could still occasionally be seen.

Hoo… I actually forgot that ordinary people cannot see me at all…

Klein relaxed, feeling that he had not fully adapted to his current state.

With more confidence in his heart, he lowered his flying height and approached the fairly broad street, floating just above the heads of the passersby.

Once the distance closed, Klein immediately discovered that his current “vision” was almost equivalent to spirit vision. He did not need to activate it separately, though there was a range limit.

In addition, beyond aura colors and emotional colors, he could now vaguely sense the soul of every pedestrian. They were hazy, unreal, and translucent.

In my current state, I seem able to pass directly through the physical body and attack the soul…

Klein nodded thoughtfully.

He circled once, preparing to test his maximum speed. Then he flew with all his strength toward Iron Cross Street.

Before long, he stopped. He had already returned outside the apartment building where he had originally lived.

It should be about the speed of an ordinary car from my previous life, the kind of speed used on highways… What a pity. I still cannot freely enter and leave the spirit world. Otherwise, it would be perfect… Then again, if I got lost in the spirit world, the consequences are said to be extremely serious…

Just as Klein completed his self-assessment, he suddenly felt his emotions turn low, gray, and indescribably oppressive.

He looked around and saw that the place was shrouded in a darkness normal people could not see and sunlight could hardly dispel. The lingering numbness, despair, pain, and other emotions overlapped layer by layer until they were nearly tangible.

“It is the same as what I sensed through inspiration after I advanced to Seer last time. Iron Cross Street’s Middle Street and Lower Street have never changed… I wonder how many years are needed to accumulate this much oppression and gloom…”

Remembering the past, Klein sighed and raised his figure until he floated at the height of a three-story building.

Only there did he finally feel the sunlight and break free from that low mood.

Klein flew along Lower Street, often seeing residents in tattered clothing, with numb expressions and malnourished bodies. He even encountered two natural deaths. Both were the type caused by long-term hunger, poor physical condition, and sudden illness.

Who knows how many people die here in pain every month. Yet bankrupt farmers and former slaves flooding in from the Southern Continent will soon fill their places…

Klein breathed out soundlessly, changed direction, and flew toward the South Borough.

That area was Tingen City’s industrial zone. Steelworks, lead-white factories, porcelain factories, printing factories, metalworks, machinery factories, and many others pressed against one another.

As he flew, Klein saw tall chimney-like iron furnaces. He saw spreading dust. He saw a dense grayness only slightly better than Lower Street’s.

Exhaustion, pain, pessimism, numbness, and similar emotions filled the area. Workers in their thirties were already a minority.

Just as Klein was about to lower his altitude and carefully observe that district, he abruptly felt weak—weak from the inside out.

“My spirituality can no longer support this state…”

Alarmed, Klein’s first instinct was to hurry home. But immediately afterward, he thought of a better possibility.

I was “summoned” out. Ending the “summoning” should naturally return me!

He calmed his mind, carefully sensed his own state and the surrounding environment, and unsurprisingly discovered that somewhere infinitely high yet infinitely near had a subtle connection to him.

Following that connection, Klein tightly wrapped the Sunflame Charm and gave an intense intention to end the “summoning.”

A vast, terrifying suction arrived. His transparent, nearly formless figure leapt with it and vanished from the material world.

…

The boundless gray-white fog quietly spread. The illusory, unmoving crimson stars did not flicker. Klein appeared once more inside the towering palace like a giant’s residence, at the very head of the ancient, mottled bronze long table.

So this is the entire process…

And also…

Delight appeared in Klein’s eyes as he looked at his Spirit Body. Wrapped within it was a thin gold sheet, warm and pure.

“The Sunflame Charm!”

I really used the method of “summoning” myself to bring a real-world material object above the gray fog!

Unable to conceal his smile, he took out the charm and played with it repeatedly, confirming that it was not an illusory product he had manifested.

Klein stood and paced several steps with high spirits, full of anticipation as he thought:

“As expected, materials and objects can also enter this mysterious space!”

“As long as the right method is found!”

“However, this method is relatively complicated and requires a roundabout process. Besides, being ‘summoned’ by members all the time would damage the Fool’s image. Only I can use it for myself. Or, after I understand more, I can design an incantation for summoning the Fool’s blessed one that also points to me…”

“…Am I naturally born for hard labor? Why must the incantation point to me? When the time comes, I can create something similar to a messenger, only more special—a ‘blessed one’ that receives and bestows materials…”

Thoughts poured one after another into Klein’s mind. He gained idea after idea, but because of limits in strength and knowledge, none could be realized for the time being.

The weakness became increasingly severe. Not daring to stay, Klein wrapped himself in spirituality and simulated the sensation of falling into the gray fog.

In the blink of an eye, he returned to his bedroom and saw brilliant sunlight streaming in through the gap in the curtains.

He examined himself and confirmed that the Sunflame Charm had not been brought out, but had instead been left above the gray fog.

“After I get a good rest, I will repeat the earlier summoning ritual in the early morning and bring the Sunflame Charm back into the real world… Sigh. If that state could last a little longer, I could use it to check red-chimney houses much faster. Unfortunately, not for now. After flying for a while and checking a few houses, I would probably have to return above the gray fog and rest for half a day. The efficiency is still low.”

Klein walked to his desk and extinguished the quietly burning candle.

After putting away the items, he did not remove the wall of spirituality immediately. Instead, he sat down, took out pen and paper, and began writing a letter—a letter to Mr. Azik!

After writing the opening address, “Honored sir,” he considered for several minutes before setting pen to paper:

“…I recently received a piece of intelligence. Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilangos, one of the seven pirate admirals, has infiltrated Backlund. He carries a magical item called Creeping Hunger. It can provide abilities similar to a Shepherd’s, while a Shepherd is a Sequence 5 Beyonder who devours and enslaves different souls, obtaining one corresponding ability from each. It is said that the number of souls they can herd at the same time is limited, but they may replace them…”

“…Qilangos possesses many different Beyonder abilities. I do not know what he intends to do in Backlund… Intelligence suggests that this may involve a very important and very miraculous item, one sufficient to make Qilangos become a high-Sequence powerhouse, or an item that can rival a high-Sequence powerhouse…”

Using a fabricated source of intelligence, Klein roughly described Qilangos’s situation. In any case, he believed Mr. Azik would not go searching for someone at the level of a Nighthawk captain to verify it.

Here, he did not directly request help. He mentioned it as though in passing, merely reminding the other party to be careful.

Regardless of whether I later ask Mr. Azik for help, laying the groundwork first cannot be wrong. If that day truly comes, this way it will not seem abrupt!

Klein slowly exhaled and began writing the main content of the letter:

“The mastermind behind the scenes has not taken further action. I still have not found any related clues.

“My presumptuous reason for contacting you is mainly that I wish to consult you regarding knowledge of sacrificial rituals. In a recent mission, I encountered something similar…”

With the Sun’s description and Mr. Azik’s answer as comparison, I should be able to attempt a sacrificial ritual. And reversed, that should be bestowal… It will be more suitable for exchanging materials and objects than the ritual of summoning myself… Mm, I hope Mr. Azik has remembered knowledge in this area…

Klein nodded slightly, set down the fountain pen, and left no signature.

There was only one copper whistle. He was certain Mr. Azik would not mistake who had sent the letter.

So Klein chose caution and left no name behind.

After folding the letter paper, he glanced at the room’s roughly three-meter height. Hesitating slightly, he picked up the copper whistle from the bed.

Good. Let it crouch while receiving the letter!

Klein emphasized this to himself inwardly, raised his right hand, placed the copper whistle to his lips, puffed out his cheeks, and blew hard.

The copper whistle made no sound, but Klein keenly sensed the surroundings instantly turn cold and gloomy.

He activated spirit vision and saw one hazy, luminous white bone after another gush from the surface of the desk like a fountain, rising higher and higher.

Those white bones quickly gathered into an illusory, massive monster. Its head pierced into the wall of spirituality, stretching who knew where.

Looking at the white-bone thigh and torso before him, looking at the dangling arm and open right palm, Klein’s mouth twitched. He tossed the folded letter upward.

The white-bone giant palm swept across and steadily caught the letter.

At that moment, Klein did not hesitate. He immediately picked up the copper whistle again and blew once more.

The monster disintegrated in an instant, turning into bone after bone that fell upon the desk, then drilled through it illusorily and vanished.

After finishing all this, Klein removed the wall of spirituality. In the sudden gust of wind, he staggered toward the coat rack and put the copper whistle back where it belonged.

Then he rushed to the bed and threw himself forward.

The moment his body touched the soft bedding, he had already fallen into deep sleep.