Chapter 69: Amulet

Chapter Sixty-Nine
Amulet

Klein’s gaze swept over and saw the person asking about tooth peony.

The man stood less than a meter away from him. He wore a black formal suit and matching half-top hat, carried a silver-inlaid cane, and had gold-rimmed glasses on his face. His bearing was quite refined.

“Yes. Do you need it? This little jar is three soli,” said the stall owner, who was draped in a dark-black robe very much in the style of mysticism.

The refined man with pale-yellow temples and spectacles considered for a moment.

“Can it be cheaper? I still need to buy other materials, such as this bottle of white-edged sunflower petals.”

The stall owner thought for several seconds, then answered with great reluctance, “Two soli and six pence. I do not believe you will find a cheaper price anywhere.”

Seeing that the gold-rimmed man not only bought the tooth peony, but also white-edged sunflower and other materials, Klein immediately felt that he might have been overthinking.

Even so, he cautiously tapped the space between his brows twice and swept the other man with spirit vision.

No problem. Your body is healthy and your mood is quite good. Sir, please keep it that way…

Klein withdrew his gaze, turned back, and once again looked at the stall selling homemade amulets.

In his pupils, those amulets appeared clearly: some made of pure silver, some iron, some cast from gold.

Yet among all those amulets, only two or three possessed faint aura colors—crimson, pale white, or golden.

That meant they had initially gained spirituality. It meant those few amulets had some effect.

Klein had examined them very carefully earlier and confirmed that the stall owner had a certain foundation in mysticism.

There was not the slightest error in the power sources he selected for different incantations, and the corresponding materials chosen for those sources were even more correct.

Of course, an ordinary mysticism enthusiast would inevitably have omissions. Klein discovered that the stall owner did not understand the incantations themselves very well. It was not enough to translate the requested content into Hermes according to its grammar and call that an incantation. A true incantation had to conform to a certain format and contain unique rules.

Another issue was that, when the stall owner chose appropriate symbolic signs for the incantations and “power sources,” he also made mistakes to varying degrees. As a result, out of dozens of amulets, only two or three were completely correct and emitted a “faint glow.”

As for how effective those two or three could actually be, Klein could only say that having something was better than having nothing.

A truly effective amulet required its maker, while carving the incantation and symbolic signs, to let their own spirituality surge out through the knife tip.

And if one wanted even better results, one needed the assistance of ritual magic.

For someone who was not a Beyonder, both requirements were nearly impossible.

Klein knocked at his glabella as though thinking, then tapped the upper-left corner of the stall twice with his black cane.

“How much for these two?”

The ones he pointed at were not the amulets that had initially developed aura colors, but half-finished products that had only their shapes and no carved incantations or symbolic signs.

For Klein, there was no need to buy those weakly effective few. What he wanted was to turn the half-finished pieces into true amulets himself.

Mm. I will make Benson and Melissa each a charm to ward off misfortune… As for my own, I can use the materials provided by the Nighthawk team… Hiss. Have I been corrupted by Old Neil? To think this way and feel not the slightest guilt…

Klein’s thoughts wandered as he watched the stall owner pick up the two half-finished silver charms.

One of those silver charms was long and narrow, hollowed out at the center, surrounded by clusters of angel-like feathers. The carving was delicate and very beautiful. The other was simple and plain, almost without extra decoration or patterns: a single vertical line symbolizing night, with a circle representing crimson inlaid upon it.

As someone who valued appearance, Klein could honestly say he had taken a liking to them at first sight.

“This one is six soli,” said the silent middle-aged stall owner, pointing at the more exquisite piece.

After a pause, he rubbed the simpler one and said, “This one is five soli and three pence.”

“That is too expensive. In truth, they are still very far from being amulets,” Klein said, having been influenced daily by Benson and Melissa until bargaining had become natural.

After a battle of words, he bought the two silver ornaments for five soli six pence and four soli nine pence respectively.

Mm. For now, they can only count as silver ornaments…

Klein thought so.

And that sum of ten soli three pence came from the Divination Club funds, the five pounds he had finally received.

Just as Klein accepted the two silver ornaments, placed them into his pocket, and prepared to visit another stall, he suddenly heard a soft, youthful voice behind him.

“Sir, why did you not buy the finished amulets?”

Klein turned and discovered that the speaker was a girl of fifteen or sixteen. She wore a tender-yellow dress with quite a bit of lace, and in her hand she held a gauze hat inlaid with ribbons.

“Because I intend to make amulets myself. You know, that is the wish of every mysticism enthusiast,” Klein answered tactfully.

He did not want the stall owner to think he had come to steal business—though he had indeed considered whether he might someday earn a little extra money with this “craft.”

The girl had naturally curled brown hair and very adorable baby fat on her face. Looking at Klein with light-blue eyes, she asked sincerely, “May I ask you how to choose an amulet?

“Mm, my friend brought me here. I have come several times and am very interested in mysticism, but I still do not understand it well enough. She—my friend—will soon turn sixteen. I want to pick an amulet as a gift for her. Since I want it to be a surprise, I did not bring her with me… I asked her about this in advance, but I cannot remember many of the key points.”

Klein smiled like a gentleman.

“Then what kind of amulet do you wish to choose? One that wards off misfortune? One that keeps illness away? One that grants fortune with money? Different requirements correspond to different sources of power—that is, different deities. Different deities correspond to different stars, and different stars correspond to different materials.

“For example, an incantation to ward off misfortune certainly belongs to the Empress of Misfortune and Horror—the Evernight Goddess. And as mysticism enthusiasts, we all know the symbol of the Evernight Goddess is the moon, while the metal corresponding to the moon is pure silver.

“Therefore, if we wish to ward off misfortune, it is best to choose a silver amulet with the corresponding incantation.”

And the language of the incantation must be correct, the format must be correct, the corresponding symbols of the Empress of Misfortune and Horror must be correct, as well as the representative spiritual number and magical signs, and their positional relationship to one another… But that is far too complicated. There is no need to explain it to you…

Klein added silently in his heart.

The girl listened until her eyes shone brightly. Then, with some confusion, she asked, “As a believer of the Goddess, may I wear an amulet of another deity?”

“There is no problem. The gods will not concern themselves with such minor matters,” Klein reassured her.

By “no problem,” he meant the wearer. The maker, however, had to be careful. If a believer of the Lord of Storms made an amulet of the Eternal Blazing Sun, he would most likely receive thick malice in return.

Of course, this applied only to the kind that required ritual magic to aid in its creation. Others did not matter.

The girl clearly relaxed.

“I hope to choose an amulet that blesses her with health. Which deity should I choose? The Eternal Blazing Sun, the Earth Mother, or the God of Knowledge and Wisdom?”

“Both the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Earth Mother are fine. The former corresponds to the sun, the latter is symbolized by the brown star,” Klein said with a smile. “The sun’s material is gold. The metal of the brown star is lead. I suggest choosing the sun, though I do not know whether you brought enough money.”

He made this recommendation because among the three amulets that had initially gained spiritual light, one belonged to the solar domain and was a health charm.

“It is not—”

The girl stopped halfway through her sentence and looked warily at the silent stall owner.

After thinking, she changed the question.

“Once the material is decided, how should one identify the incantation and symbolic signs?”

“Do you know Hermes?” Klein asked in return.

“I only started learning it recently,” the girl answered rather embarrassedly.

“Then I will help you choose.”

Klein pointed with his cane at the health amulet made of gold.

“Whether the incantation or the symbolic signs, that one has no problems.”

The girl lifted the hem of her dress and half-crouched, picking up the health amulet with sunlight patterns along its edge. She felt that its touch was warm, and her body seemed to relax just a little.

“Thank you. Thank you, sir.”

She stood again and curtsied gratefully.

Klein laughed.

“The rest is between the two of you. I have other matters.”

As he spoke, he glanced at the stall owner and discovered that the other man’s gaze had turned rather strange, as though he were hesitating over whether to give Klein a commission.

Laughing silently, Klein paid the matter no more attention. He unhurriedly walked once around the entire underground market and discovered no true extraordinary materials.

By then, Old Neil had finished paying the bill and had come out, holding a dark wooden box.

Seeing Klein’s puzzled gaze, he pointed toward the other room at the far end.

“If you want to buy or sell supernatural materials, go there. After all, no one wants others to know which supernatural items they have bought.”

“I understand.”

Klein nodded as if thinking.

He had no need to go over for the moment, so he left the underground market together with Old Neil.

“How much for these elf flowers?”

Suddenly, an inquiring voice reached Klein’s ears.

Elf flowers… That is also an ingredient in the Spectator potion formula…

Klein’s heart stirred. Turning sideways, he glanced over and once again saw the refined gentleman with gold-rimmed glasses.

“What is it?” Old Neil asked in mild confusion.

“Nothing.”

Klein withdrew his gaze.

Although he was a probationary member of the Nighthawk team, he did not believe that all Beyonders had to be absorbed or imprisoned. He felt that each case should be judged according to circumstances. Among them, Spectator was certainly the type that posed little harm to society, the Kingdom, or the world, and the possibility of a Sequence 9 losing control was also extremely low.

…

After leaving the Dragon Bar, Klein and Old Neil took a public carriage away from the docks district. Then they parted ways in the North Borough, each returning home.

The public carriage turned onto Daffodil Street and stopped by the roadside. Klein was about to get off when he suddenly saw a young lady in a gray-white dress preparing to board.

This young lady had smooth black hair, a rather round face, and slender eyes. Taken separately, her features could not be called outstanding, but when combined, they gave her a gentle, sweet charm.

Klein noticed her not because of her beauty, but because her body was trembling slightly—trembling in a way that was not normal.

“Miss, are you feeling unwell?” Klein asked with the mindset of doing a good deed.

The young lady shook her head violently.

“No. I—I am only too tired.”

At that moment, the people behind him began urging him to get off. Klein could only leave first.

Only after his feet touched the ground did he once again pay attention to the matter. He pinched the space between his brows twice with his fingers, intending to confirm that the young lady really had no problem.

If she truly had some serious illness on the verge of breaking out, he would help send her to the hospital.

Spirit vision opened. Aura colors appeared. Klein turned his body, preparing to look toward that gentle and sweet young lady.