Таамаглал

With a crackle, branched lightning lit up the early-winter night with a silvery-white flash.

It didn’t smite the ground, but instead, it tore through the air, illuminating the spot where Klein stood, as if it was daytime, making him stand out.

Spellsinger of God, Ace Snake, retracted his gaze, his face was gloomy as he whispered, "Rose School of Thought?

"It’s not a wraith, nor is it an undead creature..."

The mature middle-aged man with a pair of golden eyes turned his head to the side to look at Capim’s corpse and said, "Covering the target’s corpse with tarot cards...

"This is the second time something like this has happened in the past two months."

"When was the first instance?" Cardinal Snake asked in a deep voice.

The mature middle-aged man in the well-ironed formal suit coughed lightly and said, "The time when the True Creator attempted to descend into this world with the help of a swindler."

"Then it’s not the Rose School of Thought." Cardinal Snake made a definite judgment.

Although those organizations that worshiped evil gods weren’t fond of anyone, they wouldn’t deliberately foil the plans of their counterparts; instead, they wished to see their counterparts succeed, waiting for them to make a mess of the situation.

"I think so too. Perhaps it’s the appearance of a new secret organization. Their characteristic feature is to scatter tarot cards all over the target’s body." The middle-aged man smiled. "And the different appearance of the tarot cards imply different meanings... This corpse has two cards over his face. One is ‘Judgment,’ and the other is ‘The Emperor."Judgment’ is the motive and goal, while ‘The Emperor’ is the organization’s code name? Of course, this might also be a type of ritual.”

Cardinal Snake didn’t respond as he surveyed the area.

"Let’s see what exactly happened here."

It was only at this point in time that the first batch of Mandated Punishers arrived at Capim’s villa.

...

Above the gray fog, having only used Paper Figurine Substitutes thrice and not being pushed to his limits, Klein was about to use divination to confirm Daisy’s safety afterward.

"Daisy will successfully return home." Holding the spirit pendulum in his left hand, he closed his eyes and silently chanted the sentence.

After repeating it seven times, Klein opened his eyes and saw the topaz pendant turning counterclockwise, but it moved with a very slow frequency and a tiny amplitude.

This means that Daisy’s journey home will be quite a bumpy one but almost negligible... After interpreting the revelation, Klein was relieved of his final concerns.

He then looked at the two items in front of him, both of which were radiating with a strong spiritual luster.

One of them was a light blue, translucent hexagonal pillar. There were traces of light flashing through it, as though it was lightning that came from the depths of one’s consciousness. This was the Beyonder characteristic left behind by Ma’am Katy.

The other belonged to Parker, who hadn’t been able to play a role in the battle. His Beyonder characteristic had condensed into a ball, like a child’s fist.

This "fist" was made up of three colors, iron-black and dark red colors intertwined with a large swath of silver.

Klein didn’t hesitate to conjure a pen and paper. He was ready to use these two Beyonder characteristics to divine the corresponding potion formulas.

Before he advanced to Sequence 7, because of the additional influences that had been left on the Beyonder characteristics he had, it was almost impossible to use divination to determine the formulas. Even if this mysterious space could help him eliminate the interference and increase his divination ability to a certain extent, it still wasn’t enough.

Therefore, the only method Klein could use, in the past, was mediumship.

After he became a Magician, he was preliminarily able to determine it using the Beyonder characteristic for a divination above the gray fog; however, there was a high probability of him failing.

This time, without exception, Klein had shamelessly failed.

However, he also had some gains, and that was to be able to find out the corresponding Sequence names of the two Beyonder characteristics.

Parker is a Sequence 8 Sheriff and Katy is a Sequence 7 Interrogator... Aren’t these from the Arbiter pathway? This pathway is controlled by the royal family, the military, and a small number of ancient aristocratic families in Loen. Any leaks of formulas and Beyonder ingredients are dealt with harshly... Could a number of the girls abducted by Capim be sent to the estate of some aristocrat?

But there’s no need for them to send four Beyonders to help Capim just to enjoy themselves. It obviously doesn’t make sense... Harras is much more powerful than Katy, so perhaps he’s a Sequence 6 of this pathway. After wearing that glove, he might even be as strong as a Sequence 5... Could it be that they’re involved in some bloody heretic sacrifice, and the target they seek cannot be exposed?

Apart from those on the inside of the Kingdom, Feynapotter’s Castiya family also possesses this Beyonder pathway, which is then transmitted to their army and intelligence system... Could this be another espionage case of some unknown nature?

Klein tried to divine a few of his conjectures, but he failed again.

He temporarily put this matter to the back of his mind and lightly tapped the edge of the long bronze table as he muttered to himself, As long as I have the formula, with the corresponding supplementary ingredients, these two Beyonder characteristics will be able to turn a person into a Sequence 8 Sheriff and Sequence 7 Interrogator... Miss Magician’s friend who’s called Xio seems to be lacking the Beyonder ingredients for Sheriff...

I can sell Parker’s Beyonder characteristic to Miss Magician through The World so that I can quickly amass the money needed for the ingredients of the Faceless Sequence potion... However, always doing it through The World doesn’t seem rather appropriate. I deliberately left the tarot cards this time. If Miss Justice were to hear of this matter, then she would definitely believe that it was done by my adorer... I’ll let Mr. Fool do the selling on his behalf...

Klein quickly finalized a plan and made the Sheriff and Interrogator Beyonder characteristics fly to the corner and hid it among the junk pile.

I wonder what the names are for the Arbiter pathway’s Sequence 6 and 5... It seems like something that uses order and laws... Judge? Klein put away those thoughts and closed his eyes midway to carefully observe his current state.

Once again, he felt his spirituality become lively as the potion stirred. He felt that his digestion of the potion had sped up.

This time, he had confidence, based on his intuition, that he had concluded most of the "Magician rules." The remaining minutiae were good to have, but it didn’t really matter if he lacked them. It didn’t significantly affect his digestion process.

Conjuring a fountain pen and goatskin, Klein enhanced his memory by writing:

"The Magician’s Rules:

"1. Never perform unprepared.

"2. Challenge the impossible, even if the final outcome is nothing but an illusion."

Klein believed that these were the two core tenets of the "Magician’s Rules." Grasping them would be key, and the rest were supplementary for perfection.

"3. Take the initiative to perform.

"4. Try to get applause from the audience.

"5. Wield control of the target’s attention."

...

Putting down the dark red fountain pen, Klein skimmed through it and judged them by himself.

Daily "acting," together with three or four proactive "acting" instances would be enough to allow me to digest the Magician potion before new year’s. If I were to challenge an impossible performance during this period, then my progress would be even faster... This is roughly at the speed I wish to achieve.

There were still about two months till 1 January 1350.

After doing all this, Klein rubbed his temples, prepared to return to the real world.

After putting away the Dark Emperor card, the Biological Poison Bottle, and other items, he suddenly laughed and said self-deprecatingly, "Challenge the impossible... Isn’t that equivalent to courting death?"

As his voice echoed, Klein’s figure disappeared from the space above the gray fog.

In the cheap hotel in the Backlund Bridge area, he suddenly opened his eyes and saw the candlelight of his summoning ritual.

After quickly clearing up everything, Klein put on a thick worker’s jacket he’d bought for 4 soli and went to the window.

He picked up the sweet iced tea that he had bought earlier and looked at his blurry figure which was reflected in the window. There was a heartfelt smile on his face as he whispered, "Cheers."

Just as he finished his sentence, he touched the glass with his cup, then lifted his chin and downed it in one gulp.

Then, he sauntered out of the hotel. The nearby gas lamps were already fully lit up, and pedestrians and carts were bustling about, oblivious to the explosion at the border between the Cherwood Borough and West Borough.

Klein strolled around the Bravehearts Bar for a while, and at 7:58, he knocked on the door of the Beyonder gathering organized by Eye of Wisdom.

He wore an iron mask and a hooded robe, acting completely ordinary.

...

Meanwhile, Xio, who went to various places every night to check on her contacts, saw a sign that had never appeared before.

It belonged to the golden-masked man who had sold the Sheriff’s formula to her at the gathering organized by Mr. A.

It was the sign of an emergency meeting!

He hasn’t come looking for me all this time, and I’ve been pretending that it had never happened. Why would he suddenly... Xio thought for a moment before deciding to take a look.

The golden-masked man had promised to give her some missions, allowing her to save enough money and exchange it for the corresponding Beyonder ingredients.

Therefore, Xio switched areas and marked the time and place of the meeting.

Half an hour later, Xio walked out of her hiding place after secretly observing a remote alley that also extended in all directions. She walked towards the golden-masked man.

The man was still wearing his black tuxedo. His light brown eyes swept over Xio’s head.

"There’s a mission for you."

"Difficulty and compensation?" Xio asked like clockwork.

The man nudged his mask which was forged from gold.

"It’s not dangerous, but it can be very dangerous. It all depends on what you do.

"The initial compensation is thirty pounds. If you can acquire useful information, I can even directly give you a Beyonder ingredient corresponding to Sheriff."

"What’s the mission," Xio said with a frown.

The golden-masked man’s gaze turned heavy as he said, "Through the channels available to you, figure out who has been recently been keeping tabs on Capim."

"Capim? That human trafficker?" Xio returned with a question.

The man nodded.

"Yes."

"I reject this mission. I hate him!" Xio immediately refused.

The man opposite her chuckled.

"You aren’t working for Capim.

"Because he’s dead."

"Dead?" Xio was instantly stunned.

"He died at home, and his body was covered with tarot cards. There were two cards on his face, one ‘Judgment,’ and the other ‘The Emperor.’ By the way, pay attention to matters in the past few years which have involved tarot cards but were not reported to the police," the man added.