Chapter 462 - 194: Fate Divination 3

’It seems I really need to ask about the Spiritual Mystery School’s so-called fate divination system...’

Wei’en looked up at the Ghost and his other sub-bodies. If he could create a few more Origin Sub-bodies, learning the fate divination system might not be impossible.

’Sigh. All I can do is prepare for now.’

’Or I could just hire a legendary-level wizard of the fate system to cast a Destiny Barrier on me...’

Wei’en shook his head, pushing thoughts of the Dawn Church aside. If he truly couldn’t stop them when the time came, he would just hide in his theater space. At worst, he would only lose a ship.

Then, he sat down at his workbench, took out a pen and paper, and prepared to write an intelligence report on the previous night’s events.

Of course, he only intended to record the intelligence related to the Dawn Church, such as the killing of Huberto and his men, the Dawn’s Blessing ritual, and the acquisition of Pavla, the authority of kindness...

He didn’t mention a single word about the other matters, such as the Eternal Life Association and the Black Pearl.

As Wei’en wrote the intelligence report, he mused, ’To think that after more than ten days, I’m still doing the work of an Intelligence Officer...’

But musings aside, his mood actually improved, giving him a familiar feeling, as if he were back in the Caster City State.

Soon, he put away the finished parchment, addressed it to Amiditch, and placed it in the blue-and-white box to be teleported.

WHIRRR...

A minute later, the blue-and-white box whirred again, this time accompanied by a series of clinks.

’The sound of gold pounds?’

’For it to go on that long, there must be quite a few, right?’

Wei’en opened the blue-and-white box, and a golden light filled his vision.

"1,500 gold pounds?! That many?!"

As it turned out, he had underestimated the intelligence department’s generosity, and even more so, the greed of the former Liaison Officer from the Shetland Kingdom...

’Damn it, if I’d had this kind of income back in Caster, would I have even needed to join the Secret Investigation Department and go on all those adventures?’

Wei’en grimaced, an image of Liaison Officer Olivia surfacing in his mind.

’I wonder how that zombie is doing now.’

’I really hope someone forms a contract with her and uses her for some... interesting experiments!’

He then put away the gold pounds, took the small booklet from the blue-and-white box, and scanned it.

It contained the information Amiditch had mentioned: a list of the Shadow members currently in the Cordo Sea Region. It recorded only their codenames, the internal serial numbers of their special communicators, and their current locations and identities.

The first five people on the list were the members of his special intelligence team; the names that followed belonged to other Shadow members scattered throughout the Codo Sea Region.

’Only three hundred forty-two Shadow members?’

Wei’en put the list away and muttered to himself, "That’s a lot fewer than I imagined."

He had thought that given the vastness of the Cordo Sea Region, there would be at least a thousand Shadow members. He never expected there were only a little over three hundred.

’I’ll just contact them later if the need arises.’

With that, Wei’en pulled out another blank sheet of parchment and took out the exchange list to browse through it.

He was now only one step away from meeting the requirements to advance to an Advanced Mage; all he lacked was the Magic Branding. His basic attributes and Origin Power already met the criteria.

Furthermore, the survival points he had just acquired were enough to raise his newly learned magic to level three.

’If I include Soul-Devouring Magic, only the Ghost currently has enough magic to meet the requirements. The Driver, Red Heart, and Secret Master are all just one Magic Branding short...’

Soon, Wei’en had selected three Knowledge Scrolls.

The first was Puppet Frenzy Technique, from the Mechanical Puppet system. It worked by overloading a puppet’s Rune Arrays to achieve a temporary boost in power, but it came with a side effect: after each use, the puppet needed a full day to rest and accumulate Rune Energy.

The second was Shadow Step, from the flesh-and-blood enhancement system. This was a spell that increased the user’s speed.

Yesterday’s battle with Huberto had shown Wei’en the limitations of Element magic, so he desperately needed a way to increase his speed for situations where he couldn’t use his Blink Spell.

As for Element magic, this time he chose Water Elemental Spirit. After all, he was currently on the Cordo Sea, so it was necessary to learn an Element spell suited to the environment for his own protection.

Before long, a sound came from the blue-and-white box, and Wei’en retrieved three Knowledge Scrolls from within.

"A fifty percent discount on exchanges. That saved me a lot of money."

The three Scrolls were worth 1,500 gold pounds, but he had only needed to pay 750 to acquire them.

For this benefit alone, his decision to join the Feng Enliso Research Center was already paying off.

With that in mind, Wei’en opened one of the Scrolls and began reading its contents, simultaneously tracing the runic patterns in the hopes of mastering them as quickly as possible.

...

...

Just as Wei’en was working to further enhance his strength, a special meeting concerning him was being held in the distant Ice Castle on the Northern Continent.

"...Dean Josue, congratulations on acquiring another powerful researcher."

The Skeleton Mage, Josue Sexton, leaned back leisurely in his high-backed chair, his skeletal claws clasped together. "That’s a given," he said, his voice a dry rustle. "Everyone present should be well aware of the Feng Enliso Research Center’s strength, no?"

"Heh, then I wonder if you, as the director of the Feng Enliso Research Center, are aware of Wizard Wei’en Loft’s current level of strength?"

The speaker opposite him was also an Undead Mage, but unlike Josue, this one was a zombie. With a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he spoke in a stiff tone, "A Wizard capable of killing the Judgment Knight Huberto Watson... Forget a Wizard, there aren’t many Great Mages who could accomplish that!"

"So what if I don’t know the extent of his power?" Josue’s deep, crimson-glowing eyes stared at the zombie as he huffed. "That has no bearing on his evaluation as an outstanding researcher!"