Chapter 224: Talisman of Serendipity.

Without wasting any more time, Kael opened his inventory.

He had already gone through it earlier when he was pulling out the healing potions, but at the time, his injuries had been far more important than anything else. Now that his condition had stabilized somewhat, he could finally pay attention to the unfamiliar items that had appeared inside.

Kael narrowed his eyes.

These had to be the rewards for fending off the floor invasion.

"I better have gotten something good."

Considering how close he had come to dying, Kael felt he had every right to be disappointed if the Tower had decided to reward him with some mediocre junk.

He had nearly died against that monk, lost consciousness, somehow ended up in a strange void, encountered two beings that could probably erase him without effort, and nearly got himself killed again while trying to escape.

The reward better be worth it.

Kael reached into his inventory and pulled out the first item.

The moment it appeared in his hand, his eyes widened.

He recognized it immediately.

"The Talisman of Serendipity?"

For a moment, Kael simply stared at the paper-thin talisman resting between his fingers.

This was the very same Talisman the monk had been bragging about earlier.

Yet recognizing it wasn’t what surprised Kael.

The fact that it was here did.

His brows slowly furrowed as he turned the talisman over in his hand.

By the end of his battle with the monk, the man’s body had been completely shredded when the Null Seed bloomed, and there had been nothing left of him afterward. His talisman had been on him at the time, which raised an obvious question.

Kael tugged lightly at one corner.

Despite being thin enough to resemble a piece of ordinary paper, the talisman was surprisingly durable. Still, there was no way something like this should have survived being caught directly within the blast produced by the Null Seed.

Kael sighed.

"Whatever."

There was no point wasting more brainpower on it.

This was the Tower, after all.

What even made sense in this mysterious hellhole?

Instead, Kael focused his attention on the talisman itself.

The information surfaced within his mind, and his expression shifted at once, brows lifting as disbelief slowly crept across his face.

"The Way of the Buddha, my ass."

Kael stared at the talisman with an expression that could only be described as disgust.

"This thing is extremely evil."

The monk had described the Talisman of Serendipity as some kind of sacred object that could enhance the fortune of its wearer. And technically, that wasn’t a lie.

The talisman really could enhance someone’s fortune.

The problem was how it accomplished that.

It didn’t simply increase fortune out of nowhere.

The first step required the creation of another specific talisman that was connected to the Talisman of Serendipity. That secondary talisman could then be placed on another entity, but there was an important restriction.

The target had to be a Sapien creature.

It wouldn’t work on an ordinary beast or some mindless monster. The target needed to possess intelligence.

Once the secondary talisman was attached, the Talisman of Serendipity would begin draining the target’s fortune.

This process would continue until every bit of fortune the individual possessed had been gradually siphoned away, leaving nothing behind.

That stolen fortune would then be accumulated within the Talisman of Serendipity, allowing the wearer to use it to enhance their own fortune.

And the process could be repeated.

The more people subjected to the process, the more fortune could be accumulated. Naturally, the amount of fortune the wearer could gain depended entirely on how much had been collected within the talisman.

Kael’s expression became increasingly strange as he processed the information.

He could already imagine how the temple had operated.

People arriving from all over the place, believers seeking salvation, cures for illnesses, blessings, protection, or simply hoping to improve their lives. They would enter the temple believing that they were receiving some kind of sacred blessing, only to happily place the secondary talisman upon themselves because of their faith.

Meanwhile, their fortune was slowly being drained.

Every lucky encounter.

Every fortunate opportunity.

Every bit of natural luck they possessed.

All of it would eventually flow toward the Talisman of Serendipity.

And someone else would reap the benefits.

Kael couldn’t help but sigh.

"That’s one hell of a scam."

He could already imagine countless believers wearing the talisman proudly while believing they were receiving the blessing of some benevolent Buddha, completely unaware that their fortune was being harvested and transferred to someone else.

It was twisted.

Extremely twisted.

Thankfully, according to what the monk had said, the temple seemed to be going down.

At least, that was what the monk had claimed.

Kael wasn’t entirely convinced.

For all he knew, the monk had simply been trying to make himself appear morally superior after invading his floor and nearly getting him killed.

Still, that wasn’t something Kael needed to worry about right now.

He shifted his attention back to the Talisman of Serendipity.

There was another ability attached to it besides the enhancement of fortune.

The fortune accumulated within the talisman could also be used for other purposes, including concealing one’s fate and karma.

Kael stared at the description for a moment.

"Whatever the hell that means."

He didn’t understand the intricacies of fate and karma well enough to determine exactly how useful that ability was, but there was one thing he did understand.

It explained something.

The monk.

Kael had used the Eye of Judgment on that man, yet he had been unable to pry out as much information as he should have been able to.

The monk’s fate and karma had been hidden.

The Talisman of Serendipity was most likely the reason.

Kael looked down at the talisman again.

His feelings toward it were complicated.

On one hand, the method of obtaining fortune was disgustingly twisted.

On the other hand, the actual ability itself was extremely useful.

Fortune was something Kael wouldn’t mind having more of.

And Kael wasn’t exactly someone with an exceptionally high moral ground. He wasn’t going to pretend that stealing fortune from someone was automatically unacceptable simply because the process sounded evil.

If the targets were plunderers, villains, or people who had actively chosen to become his enemies, Kael couldn’t say he would lose sleep over taking their fortune.

The problem was that he couldn’t actually use the talisman.

To make it function, he needed to create the secondary talisman that could be linked to it.

And Kael had absolutely no idea how to do that.

He didn’t possess the knowledge, the skill, or even the means necessary to create such a thing.

"Useless for now."

With a sigh, Kael returned the Talisman of Serendipity to his inventory.

Perhaps someday he would figure out how it worked or obtain the necessary knowledge to create the secondary talisman. Until then, there wasn’t much point dwelling on it.

Kael reached into his inventory again.

He pulled out the next item

# #

Hey guys, it’s a new month! I wasn’t able to write much last month because of my job, hopefully that changes this month. Anyway, I hope you all have an amazing month ahead of you. Don’t forget to support the book, and please don’t hesitate to drop any ideas you have on how to improve the story. Also, remember to join the Discord, it’s currently lacking members to really do anything in it.