Lord of the Mysteries

“The potion formulas for the Seer pathway.”

…

Klein leaned back in his chair and tried to communicate with the spirit via dream divination.

In a gray illusory world that didn’t seem surreal, a gas lamp suddenly lit up, illuminating the stone slabs on the ground and a desk with a goatskin scroll placed on top of it.

After the Seer and Clown formulas appeared one after the another, Rosago stood there with a fur shirt, listening to a voice of unknown origins.

“Before the advancement, I have to warn you that you’ve been too reliant on divination.

“Divination is a revelation, a result; it is unable to tell us the process. For example, you might decide to invest all your money because your divination says that a railway stock can make money. But in fact, what that revelation really means is that in the long run, in thirty years, the railway stock will make money, and before that, it will fall more than it rises. Fate isn’t so easy to master, and there are many times when it’s impossible to quantify it. Divination isn’t all-powerful.

“In addition, divination can be interfered with and cause you to be misled. There are too many things in this world that cannot be understood. If you completely rely on divination, then you’ll definitely die because of it.

“Divination is a revelation. It must be combined with one’s own carefulness, caution, and self-control.”

Rosago was unable to divine the corresponding danger because the Language of Foulness was involved with the mysterious space above the gray fog, and that led to him dying at my hands. Otherwise, with his mystical abilities, it would’ve been difficult for Miss Bodyguard and I to escape today… This is also a reminder for me. Even if I had the gray fog to isolate all interferences, I cannot afford to be careless. No matter how certain my actions are, I need to leave some leeway… From these words, it seems like they aren’t aware of the “acting method.” Otherwise, some of those words could be directly summed up as being respectful and fearful of fate… As his thoughts raced, Klein heard Rosago’s reply as he unfurled the parchment.

“Sequence 7. Magician:

“Main ingredients: One true root of a Mist Treant, all the spinal fluid of a Dark Patterned Black Panther.”

“Supplementary ingredients: 60 ml of purified water, 30 ml of Mist Treant’s juice, 3 grams of Droplet Gem powder, 4 drops of Fantasy Grass essential oil.”

Magician… This is also part of a circus. It can form the foundations of a circus with Seers and Clowns… Klein first lampooned before he recalled the suited clown that he had encountered before.

From the looks of it, he was a Magician. His abilities seemed to include firing air bullets, the ability to fire air bullets, flaming jumps, and drawing slips of paper as weapons… Not bad… Just being able to cast spells quickly can greatly increase my battle prowess…

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Klein saw the scene before him change.

This time it was a splendid room, surrounded by golden statues and ornaments.

It was the same voice from before, but it reminded Rosago of the same thing.

“According to my experience, after you consume the Faceless potion, you have to remember this point—you can disguise yourself into anyone, but you are ultimately yourself.

Faceless? Sequence 6 of the Seer pathway is Faceless Man? This should be the Beyonder power that allowed Rosago to transform into Officer Faxine… From the looks of it, the fake Detective Zreal was also played by him…

Creeping Hunger allowed Qilangos to transform into a person with different looks. This matches this Beyonder power. From the looks of it, some Faceless died at his hand… Such a power cannot augment a person in a straight-up battle, but it’s more useful than 90% of all Beyonder powers in many occasions… It’s no wonder that Rosago dared to come and attempt to kill me, and wasn’t afraid of falling into a trap… This power is of great significance to me!

At this thought, Klein’s eyes widened as he saw Rosago pick up a thin gold page with words written in Hermes.

“Sequence 6, Faceless:

“Main ingredients: Mutated pituitary gland of a Thousand-faced Hunter, Characteristic of a Human-skinned Shadow.

“Supplementary ingredients: 80 ml of a Thousand-faced Hunter’s blood, 5 drops of black Jimsonweed juice, 10 grams of Dragon Tooth Grass powder, 3 strands of hair from a Deep-sea Naga.”

Thousand-faced Hunter? That seems to be a type of dragon, but not a particularly powerful kind… It shouldn’t be a dragon of the spiritual system, but it’s still extremely rare. It’s almost extinct… Klein instantly recalled the corresponding mysticism knowledge.

At this point, the scene before him didn’t change, but Rosago’s attire and location did.

He wore a white wig, a dark tuxedo, and had a thick beard.

“This advancement is no longer as simple as before. The potions must be consumed in conjunction with a ritual. If you succeed, you’ll obtain one of the most irresistible Beyonder powers beneath that of the High-Sequence Beyonders.” The speaker’s voice had changed, turning into one that sounded even older.

Having expected that, Rosago asked, “What’s the ritual?”

“Go to the sea, find a mermaid, and drink the potion while she’s singing.” The speaking old man opened an ancient book that depicted countless mysterious symbols in it.

Suddenly, a ray of light flashed from the book’s surface as lines of ancient Hermes appeared in midair.

“Sequence 5: Nimblewright Master.”

When Klein saw this, he suddenly had a headache. It was a signal that his spirituality was closed to being drained.

In the previous battle, just the Language of Foulness charm, alone, had consumed most of his spirituality. Later on, not only did he use three more charms from the Evernight Goddess’s domain, but he had also summoned himself and responded to himself. To hold out until now showed how much progress he had made compared to before, as well as the noticeable improvement in the digestion of the Clown potion.

The scene flickered and was on the brink of shattering. Klein held on and scanned the remaining content of the formula.

“Main ingredients: Dust of ancient wraiths, core crystal of a six-winged gargoyle.

“Supplementary ingredients: 80 ml of spring water from Sonia Island’s Golden Spring, 10 grams of drago bark, remnant spirituality of ancient wraiths, 1 pair of eyes from a six-winged gargoyle.

“Advancement ritual: Consume potion in the midst of a singing mermaid’s song.”

Kacha. Klein stopped holding out any longer as he allowed the dream to shatter into countless illusory specks of light that disappeared.

He pinched his forehead, almost fainting. As the remnants of Rosago’s spirituality and the hints of madness faded away, he was pushed back into the real world by an invisible force.

The ground, stained with blood, brains, hair, and all sorts of fragments, entered Klein’s vision. He bent over and retched a little, clearing his head a little.

I’ll be sent out of the mysterious space above the gray fog when I’m out of spirituality… Klein looked around and saw that Miss Bodyguard was still asleep.

He hurriedly extinguished the candle, tidied up the items related to the ritual, and then panted heavily. After a while, he finally regained some of his spirituality.

At that moment, a gust of cold wind blew at the back of his neck, causing him to shiver as his mind froze.

Klein turned his head abruptly and looked at the oriel window again. He saw that Miss Bodyguard in her black Gothic regal dress had woken up and was floating in the air.

Her pale blonde hair and pale face seemed to have diminished a little. Her entire person seemed less corporeal, to the point of her skin appearing somewhat transparent.

Klein quickly explained according to the explanation he had thought of.

“After I blew his head off, I discovered that his body was still squirming. Because I was afraid he would come back alive, I quickly used all the charms on me. I-I was very nervous and panicked at the time. It might have affected you.”

This is probably the risk that the divination had revealed earlier… If she’s not satisfied with the explanation and thinks that I attacked her, then I’m finished…Klein thought nervously.

His true feelings made his performance even more perfect.

Miss Bodyguard lowered her head and looked at herself, then asked with an unperturbed tone, “What charm was it at the beginning?”

“I bought a black ear at the gathering for 400 pounds. I was told that I could hear the voice of a great existence, and that if I was lucky enough, I would benefit greatly. If I was unlucky, I would die on the spot. Back then, I couldn’t get a bodyguard, and since I was in such danger, I could only take the gamble. The result was pretty good,” Klein replied absolutely truthfully. “When I heard the voice of the great existence, that black ear shattered by itself and turned into such a charm.”

Miss Bodyguard’s blue eyes swept over him slowly. The room was silent, as if it was frozen.

Finally, the lady in the black regal dress nodded.

“You’d better find a psychiatrist.”

Do you mean that I’ve become a potential lunatic? Yes, she has guessed that it was a relic of a Listener, and she understands that Rosago’s spirituality must’ve been tainted by the True Creator. She wouldn’t suspect that I had deliberately made her sleep to take that opportunity to perform a mediumship… It would also explain why I had gotten rid of the effects of the ravings faster than she did. After all, I’m a potential lunatic created by the True Creator… Klein smirked.

“Let’s hurry up and clean up the scene. MI9 might come over to take a look.” He pointed at Rosago’s headless body.

As he spoke, Klein put on a pair of gloves and squatted down to look for any relics.

He quickly found more than ten pounds in cash, some essential oils and herbal powder, two crudely cut paper figurines, and a strange piece of paper.

This piece of paper was orange in color, and on it were symbols corresponding to the sun. The magic emblem formed a blank rectangle, and just by holding it in his hand, he found it very warm and sedate.

“What is this?” Klein didn’t hide his puzzlement.

Without him realizing it, Miss Bodyguard was already floating behind him. She answered simply, “A mystical object corresponding to a Notary.”

“Notary?” Klein was surprised at first, but he soon remembered that Rosago was an intelligence officer in the Intis Republic. People there believed in the Eternal Blazing Sun and the God of Steam and Machinery. Similarly, the Eternal Blazing Sun was also the God of Deeds.

This is the Sequence 6 or Sequence 5 of the Bard pathway?

“If the notarization is valid, the Beyonder powers will be temporarily enhanced. If the notarization is fake, the Beyonder powers will be forcefully dispersed.” Miss Bodyguard didn’t explain any further and gave a rough description of its use.

Klein was about to say something when he saw an eerie glow emitting out of Rosago’s headless body and bloody brain mush. They attracted each other to form a blob that transformed into a black, pupil-less eye.

“Then, what is this?” Klein asked again, feigning ignorance.

“Something worthless.” Miss Bodyguard maintained her way of speaking.

“Worthless?” Klein asked with a frown.

He actually understood what Miss Bodyguard meant. Normally, if Rosago eventually lost control, he would leave behind a strange and terrifying Sealed Artifact. If he didn’t, his Beyonder characteristic could be used as the main ingredient of a Nimblewright Master. In short, it would be of great value.

However, the problem was that he hadn’t lost control but was also tainted by the True Creator. Hence, it had become a potion’s main ingredient that was branded by an evil god. Using it to concoct a Nimblewright Master potion was equivalent to committing suicide by ingesting poison.

Miss Bodyguard looked at the entirely black eye and said in a low and ethereal voice.

“It has been contaminated by an evil god. It has no value anymore.”

If it really is of value, and one that’s very valuable, I would even worry that you’d finish me off in passing… Klein pointed at Rosago’s remains and said, “These are our common spoils of war. We’ll each pick a few. You first.”

Miss Bodyguard shot him a glance. Without a word, she floated over and took the “notary document.”

Just like I thought… In the future, I should find and learn the knowledge in mysticism to remove an evil god’s contamination… Klein took out an iron cigarette case and bent down to pick up the black eye.