Part 2 The Faceless Man Chapter 38 The Harvest
”The magic potion formula for the ‘Diviner’ pathway.”
……
Klein leaned back in his chair and attempted a séance using the technique of “dream divination”.
In the gray, unreal world that was not real enough, a gas lamp suddenly lit up, illuminating the stone floor and the desk with a roll of parchment.
After the formulas of “The Diviner” and “The Joker” flashed into existence, Rosago stood next to it in a shirt with puffy cuffs, listening to a voice that came from nowhere:
”Before you get promoted, I should warn you that you’ve been relying too much on divination lately.”
”Divination is revelation, it’s the result, it can’t tell us the process; for example, you divined whether a railroad stock would make money, and got the answer in the affirmative, and put all your money in, but in reality, the real meaning of that revelation was that in the long run, in thirty years’ time, the railroad stock would make money, and until then, down beats up. Fate is not so well grasped, and in many cases there is no way to qualify and quantify it; divination is not a panacea.”
”In addition, divination can be interfered with and misdirected, there are too many things in this world that cannot be understood, if you rely entirely on divination, then you will inevitably die in the future as a result.”
”Divination is revelation, and must be coupled with its own caution, prudence, and restraint.”
Rossago died in my hands because the “Tainted Words” involved this mysterious space above the gray mist and was unable to divine the corresponding dangers, otherwise with his bizarre ability, it would have been difficult for Miss Bodyguard and I to be spared today……. This is likewise a reminder for me. Reminder, even if I have a gray mist to isolate the interference, but also can not be careless, and then sure of the action should also leave a little leeway …… From these words, they did not seem to know at that time “play the law”, or some words can be directly summarized as reverence for destiny! …… In the midst of his thoughts, Klein heard Rosago reply and unfold the parchment:
”Sequence 7, ‘Magician’:”
”Primary Material: a piece of the true root of the Misty Treeman, all of the spinal fluid of the Evil Striped Panther.”
”Auxiliary materials: 60 milliliters of pure water, 30 milliliters of Misty Treeman’s sap, 3 grams of water-shaped gemstone powder, 4 drops of psychedelic grass essential oil.”
”Magician”…… This is also a circus ah, it can form a circus triumvirate with Diviner and Clown …… Klein first spat out a sentence, then remembered the previous encounter with That tuxedo clown:
He seems to be the “magician”, the ability seems to have snapped his fingers to send air bombs, flame jumps, draw paper as soldiers …… quite good well …… only can quickly cast spells this point, can greatly enhance my power …… The ability to cast spells quickly will greatly increase my combat power ……
In the midst of flickering thoughts, Klein saw the scene change:
This time it was an opulent room, surrounded by various golden sculptures and decorations.
The same voice from before, the same certain mention:
”Based on my experience, after taking this ‘Faceless Man’ magic potion, you must remember one thing, you can pretend to be anyone, but you can only be yourself.”
The Faceless Man? “Sequence 6 of the Diviner pathway is “Faceless”? That would be the extraordinary ability that allows Rosago to change into Sheriff Farthing …… So it seems that the fake Detective Zerrill is also played by him ……
”Creeping Hunger” allows Zirngus to change into different people, which matches with this extraordinary ability, so it seems that a certain “Faceless Man” died at his hands. …… This ability doesn’t improve the level of head-to-head combat, but it is a good idea to use it. Will not enhance the level of frontal combat, but in many occasions, more useful than 90% of the extraordinary ability …… No wonder Rosago dared to come over to kill, not afraid to fall into the trap …… This ability is very significant to me!
Thinking of this, Klein subconsciously opened his eyes wide and saw Rosago picking up a thin golden page with numerous Hermes words written on it:
”Sequence 6, ‘Faceless Man’:”
”Primary Material: the mutated pituitary gland of the Thousand-Faced Hunter, the properties of a human-skinned Phantom.”
”Secondary materials: 80 milliliters of the Thousand-Faced Hunter’s blood, 5 drops of black mandala juice, 10 grams of dragon’s tooth grass powder, 3 hairs of a deep-sea naga.”
Thousand Faces Hunter? This seems to be a type of gargoyle, not a particularly powerful type …… It shouldn’t be a psychic gargoyle, but it’s also very rare and close to extinction …… Klein instantly recalled the corresponding occult knowledge.
At this time, the scene in front of him remained unchanged, but Rosago s dress and position changed.
He wore a white wig set, a deep black tuxedo, and a thick beard on his face.
”This promotion is no longer as simple as before, the magic potion must be taken in conjunction with a ritual, and once successful, you will gain one of the most difficult to restrain extraordinary abilities below the High Sequence.” The speaker had changed, his voice even older.
Rosago asked with some anticipation:
”What ritual.”
”Go to the sea, find a mermaid, and take a magic potion to her song.” The old man who spoke opened an ancient tome depicting countless mystical symbols.
A light suddenly leapt up on the surface of this booklet, outlining lines of ancient Hermetic language in midair:
”Sequence 5, Secret Puppet Master:”
Just seeing this, Klein suddenly had a headache, this was a sign that his spirituality was close to exhaustion.
In the previous battle, the “Filthy Words” spell alone consumed most of his spirituality, and then he not only used three more charms from the Goddess of the Night’s domain, but also summoned and responded to himself, and being able to support himself up to this point already showed that he had made great progress compared to the past, and that his digestion of the “Joker” magic potion was not as good as it used to be. He has made great strides in the digestion of the “Joker” magic potion.
As the screen flickered and shook and was about to shatter, Klein forced himself to hold on and swept the rest of the recipe into his eyes:
”Primary materials: dust of ancient spirits, core crystals of six-winged gargoyles.”
”Auxiliary materials: 80 milliliters of spring water from the Golden Spring on Sunia Island, 10 grams of bark from the Dragon Tree, residual spirituality from the Ancient Grievance Spirit, 1 pair of eyes from the Six-Winged Gneiss.”
”Promotion Ritual: Take the magic potion to the song of the mermaid.”
Clicking his tongue, Klein stopped bracing himself and let the dream disappear into countless illusory points of light.
He pinched his forehead, almost passing out, and was pushed back into the real world by an invisible force at the same time that the remnants of Rosago’s spirituality and a slight feeling of madness died out in unison.
The blood-, brain-, hair-, and assorted debris-stained ground came into Klein’s eyes, and he bent over and dry-heaved twice, clearing his head slightly.
No spirituality will directly exit that mysterious space …… above the gray fog Klein looked around and found that Miss Bodyguard was still asleep.
He hurriedly extinguished the candles and packed up the things related to the ceremony, and then gasped for breath and slowed down for a moment, finally letting the spiritual nourishment recover a little.
Just then, a chilly wind blew on his neck, causing him to shiver and freeze in his thoughts.
Crane jerked his head around and looked once again at the convex belly window location to see that Miss Bodyguard, dressed in a long black gothic court dress, had awakened and floated up.
Her pale blonde hair and pale face seemed to have dulled a bit, and her whole body became more and more illusory, her skin vaguely somewhat transparent.
Klein explained in a panic according to what he had already thought of saying:
”After I blew out his head, I found that his body was still writhing, and because I was afraid that he would turn necrotic, I hurriedly used all the charms on my body, and I, I was so tense and panicked that it might have rippled through you.”
This is probably the risk that was signaled in the divination before …… If she is not satisfied and thinks that I attacked her, then I will be finished …… Klein thought slightly apprehensively.
This real mood made his performance more perfect.
The bodyguard lady looked down at herself and spoke in a fluttering tone with little rise and fall:
”What was the charm that started it all?”
”I bought a black ear at a party for 400 pounds, it said I could hear the voice of the Great Being, if I was lucky enough to get a lot of benefits, if I was unlucky, it would kill me on the spot, I wasn’t able to hire a bodyguard at the time, and there was such a danger, I had to gamble on it, and it turned out to be pretty good.” Klein replied with the absolute truth, “After I heard the voice of the Great Being, that black ear shattered on its own and turned into such a charm.”
The azure eyes of the bouncer lady swept over him slowly, and the room was quiet with a frozen composure.
Finally, the lady in the long black court dress nodded:
”You’d better find a psychiatrist.”
Meaning, I’ve become potentially insane? Well, she guessed that it was a relic of The Listener, and realized that Rosago’s spirituality must have been contaminated by The Real Creator, so she wouldn’t suspect that I’d deliberately put her to sleep to take advantage of the séance. …… This also explains why I’m more of a psychic than her. It also explains why I got rid of the effects of the ravings faster than she did, after all, I am a potential madman made by the “Real Creator”…… Klein hooked the corner of his mouth.
”Let’s clean up the scene quickly, maybe someone from MI9 will come and take a look.” He pointed at Rosago’s headless body.
As he spoke, Klein put on his gloves and leaned over, crouching down and quickly searching for the remains.
He quickly located a dozen pounds in cash, some essential oils and powdered herbs, two crudely cut paper figures, and a strange piece of paper.
The paper was orange in color, with a blank rectangle circled with symbols corresponding to the sun, magical signs, and just holding it in his hand made it feel warm and restful.
”What is this?” Klein didn’t hide his confusion.
Ms. Bodyguard, who had somehow floated up to his back, answered simply:
”A magical item corresponding to a notary.”
”Notary?” Klein was stunned at first, then thought that Rosago was an intelligence officer of the Republic of Intis, and that side believed in the Eternal Sun, the God of Steam and Mechanics, who was also the God of Contracts.
Is this Sequence 6 or Sequence 5 of the “Glorifier” pathway?
”Notarized, extraordinary ability briefly increased, notarized, extraordinary ability forcibly dispersed.” The bodyguard didn’t explain much, but gave a rough description of the effect.
Klein was about to speak when he suddenly saw spots of ethereal light precipitating out from within Rosago’s headless body and blood brain plasma, attracting each other and condensing into a ball, transforming into an all-black eye with no pupils.
”This, again?” Klein asked again, feigning ignorance.
”A thing of no value.” Ms. Bodyguard maintained her characteristic way of speaking.
”Worthless?” Klein asked rhetorically with a frown.
He actually understood what Ms. Bodyguard meant. Normally, if Rossago eventually lost control, he would leave behind a bizarre and terrifying seal, if not, his extraordinary characteristics could be used as the main ingredient for the Sequence 5 “Master of Secret Puppets” magic potion, and in short, it would be of high value.
But the problem is that he is not out of control, but also tainted by the real Creator, so it becomes the main material of the magic potion with the brand of the evil god, using it to mix the “Master of the Secret Puppet”, Klein believes that it is taking poison to commit suicide.
The bodyguard lady looked at the all-black eye and said in a low, drifting voice:
”Tainted by the evil gods, it has no value.”
Really valuable, and if it is valuable, I have to worry about whether you will solve me …… in passing, Klein said, pointing to Rosago s relics:
”This is our shared loot, one of us will pick some, you first.”
The bodyguard lady glanced sideways at him, said nothing, and floated over to take the “official certificate”.
As I thought …… I will have to find and learn the knowledge of the mystical field of removing the pollution of the evil god …… Klein took out the iron cigarette case and bent down to pick up the all black eye.