Chapter 686: A Hard-to-complete Ritual
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After thinking for a moment, Klein, who didn’t have an answer, put away the thin blood crystal when he didn’t sense any danger from it. Then, he bent down to inspect Kircheis’s Devil form which had lost half its head.
I wonder if I can still use this to exchange for a bounty, and if so, how much can I get… I have no idea who I can contact from the military over here. Send Oz Kent a telegram? This back and forth, together with the work he has to do remotely, it’s hard to tell if it will finish in three to four days. I’ll be leaving tomorrow… Also, I can’t forget the middleman’s cut. He mumbled, walked to the side, and picked up the clearly charred half top hat and wore it.
Then, he dragged the heavy and ma.s.sive Devil’s corpse and walked to the door before reaching out to open the door.
A howling wind blew in, breaking the silence in the room.
Klein tapped his finger joint to deactivate the Spirit Body Threads vision as he continued dragging the nasty and terrifying Devil’s corpse across the corridor, down the stairs to the first floor.
At that moment, there weren’t many people left in the bar. Tables and chairs were overturned, and there were shards everywhere. It was a mess.
Klein went past the heavily damaged staircase and into the main hall. He surveyed the area and found the forlorn bar owner behind the bar counter. Few of the bouncers he hired had remained. Most had scattered off.
Tap. Tap. Tap… Klein walked over one step at a time with the Devil corpse behind him b.u.mping into the furniture.
“W-what are you planning to do?” the owner took a step back as he yelled at the top of his lungs.
His bouncers gathered over, shuddering in fear. Their eyes were darting around as their bodies revealed their own inclinations. It appeared as though they would immediately flee the moment any incident happened.
Klein stopped in his tracks, throwing Kircheis’s corpse in front of him.
Then, he said in a deep voice, “Can you claim bounty rewards?”
The owner was stunned for a second as he instinctively moved his gaze down before seeing the huge Devil’s corpse which still had some blue flames lingering around it.
He and his bouncers drew a cold gasp at the same time, many of them feeling surreal.
This was a real devil!
Apart from its lack of curled goat horns, it looked identical to the devils described in the Church’s bibles or mythical stories!
To ordinary people living in the pirates’ playground, it wasn’t rare to witness supernatural powers. Here, their horizons were clearly broader than the colonies of Oravi and the civilians of the kingdom’s native soil. However, as the owner and bouncers of a bar, they had never seen real devils before. They even suspected that it was an attempt by the Church to tarnish unofficial Beyonders.
The owner retracted his gaze with great difficulty as he looked at the stoic adventurer in tattered clothes.
“I can. Th-they should have the means to determine that this is Kircheis.
“It’s Kircheis, right?”
Klein silently heaved a sigh of relief and silently nodded.
The owner hesitated for two seconds and forced a fearful smile.
“However, it’s impossible to get everything. As you know, there will be some money spent during the process. The fees cost about 30%; otherwise, you’ll have to wait quite a while. After all, 9,500 pounds isn’t a small sum. For Toscarter’s pier, it will take at least a week. I-its because there are pirates frequenting this area, and there are often adventurers here to claim bounties. Therefore, it constantly has quite a bit of cash reserves. If you were in Oravi Island or anywhere else, it might take two weeks or even a month.”
9,500 pounds really wasn’t a small sum. Klein clearly remembered that back in Tingen City, the Nighthawks team’s monthly budget was only about 1,000 pounds. The budget was even split between the Church and the police department.
He thought for a moment and asked the bar’s boss, “Do you know me?”
“Yes.” The owner hurriedly nodded.
Klein swept his gaze across everyone and continued asking, “Can you figure out where I’m living?”
“Yes, yes.” The owner didn’t dare to lie.
Klein tersely responded before using a flat and direct tone.
“Send 6,000 pounds to me before noon tomorrow.”
6000 pounds? That’s less than 70%. That’s about 600 pounds short… The owner was taken aback, never expecting the crazy adventurer to take the initiative to lower the price.
“Can you do it?” Klein asked again.
The additional 650 pounds was his compensation for the bar. After all, he had left the bar in a mess. However, this wasn’t something the crazy adventurer would say himself. He believed that the bar’s owner wasn’t a philanthropist. There was no way he would hand over the excess to others.
The owner considered it seriously before replying, “Yes!”
Even though the official process wouldn’t be that fast, there was nothing he needed to worry about. This was because he planned on borrowing some of the money and using his savings to pay the bounty reward which Gehrman Sparrow wanted.
To be able to earn several hundred pounds at once wasn’t something he would miss out on!
Klein nodded and didn’t speak another word. He turned around and walked to the bar’s entrance.
When he came near, he took out a few yellow pennies and threw them onto a tiny round table that still stood standing.
After some clinking sounds, the pennies spun to a stop. They numbered eight pence.
While doing this action, the black-suited Klein didn’t stop walking. His figure soon disappeared from the entrance.
“W-what’s the meaning of that?” the owner said with a surprised and blank look.
Most of the bouncers shook their heads with the same expression, indicating that they didn’t know Gehrman Sparrow’s motive.
Only a bouncer who had been standing guard by the door thought with a frown. Then, he said uncertainty, “When he first entered, he took… he took someone’s cup of beer and threw it at Kircheis.
“This is the compensation for that cup of beer, as well as the cup?”
The bar fell into silence once again. Although the owner and bouncers couldn’t accept such an explanation, they had the baffling feeling that this matched the style of the crazy adventurer, Gehrman Sparrow.
…
Another set of clothes ruined. That’s nearly 9 pounds… Thankfully, I made quite a lot this time… Yes, I’ll have to make another set tomorrow… After turning into another street, Klein stopped and observed himself.
He wasn’t in a rush to return to the hotel he stayed at. He first followed the information provided by the head honcho of the Loen’s New Party, Molsona, and found a policeman who was controlled by drugs. The man helped the gangs commit several sordid deeds, to the point of creating a scheme to kill a witness. He channeled his spirit to confirm his crimes before allowing Creeping Hunger to enjoy a true feast for the day.
After doing that, Klein returned to his hotel via a carriage and entered his room.
After setting up the altar, he used a ritual to send Creeping Hunger and the thin blood crystal above the gray fog.
Sitting at the end of the long bronze table, Klein didn’t hesitate to pick up the glove and release the soul of the Priest of Light.
This Sequence 5 powerhouse had a thin face and an elegant bearing. He was an amiable elder, and he wore a simple white clergyman’s robe. He bowed to express his grat.i.tude to the mysterious existence who was concealed by the gray fog.
Klein gently nodded as a response. Then, he conjured pen and paper and wrote down the divination statement: “The potion formulas for the Sequences above the Sun pathway’s Sequence 7.”
Leaning back into his seat, he began using dream divination to communicate with the spirit.
The grayish world quickly changed. He saw the Priest of Light roll open a piece of brownish goatskin in a room filled with sunlight. On it was a formula written in ancient Feysac: “Sequence 6, Notary.
“Main ingredients: 1 set of crystallized roots of the Tree of Elders, 5 feathers of a Spirit Pact Bird.
“Supplementary ingredients: 100 ml of Radiance Spirit Pact Tree’s juice, 1 golden-rimmed sunflower, 1 white-rimmed sunflower, 5 drops of Aqua Fern juice.”
After the scene paused for a few seconds, ripples surfaced again, outlining an opulent hall filled with golden statues.
Inside the hall, a man covered in pure light that prevented one from looking straight at him said to a half-centenarian elder, “This is the potion formula for the Priest of Light. Remember, dispel the darkness and praise the sun.”
The elder received it in excitement and spread open the ancient goatskin.
“Sequence 5, Priest of Light.
“Main ingredients: red comb of a Dawn Rooster, a pure white Brilliance Rock.
“Supplementary ingredients: 5 grams of Rosemary, 7 drops of fingered citron juice, 10 ml of Rock Water, 60 ml of a King of Dawn Rooster’s blood.
“Ritual: In pure darkness, bury your entire body in ice that usually doesn’t melt, before consuming the potion.”
The scene quickly vanished without any additional content.
Klein wasn’t surprised. He knew very well that when it involved the domain of a demiG.o.d, the seven Churches would often directly provide the potions and rituals without giving them the formula.
At this moment, the Priest of Light’s figure had mostly dispersed due to the forceful spirit channeling.
His painful expression eased as he raised his head and spread out his arms as though he was embracing sunlight.
“Praise the sun!” the Priest of Light closed his eyes as he piously said.
Those were his last words as his Spirit Body rapidly disintegrated and plummeted into the gray fog before completely disappearing.
A pious believer… Klein sighed in comment. Following that, he recalled what he had seen in the dream and recorded the formula.
The main ingredient of a Notary is the root crystal of the Tree of Elders… I remember that Miss Justice’s Psychiatrist potion requires the fruit of the Tree of Elders… From the looks of it, the Spectator and Sun pathways might be interchangeable at High-Sequences… The difficulty of the Priest of Light’s ritual for most people is to find ice that usually doesn’t melt, but it’s different for Little Sun. To bury a living person in pure darkness in the Forsaken Land of the G.o.ds might lead to one’s disappearance. A method to avoid this has to be figured out… Dispel the darkness and praise the sun is the acting method? Klein considered for a moment before picking up the blood crystal produced by Kircheis’s body.
After a few seconds of consideration, he wrote down the corresponding divination statement in a serious manner: “Its origins.”
Holding up the item and the piece of paper, Klein chanted softly once more and entered a dream.
In the gray, blurry world, he saw the gigantic sailboat, the Death Announcer, with its bow and stern curving up high. He saw Kircheis climb up a soft ladder and arrive on the deck.
Just as this Desire Apostle found his footing, a sticky black fog emanated from the deck’s cracks. It was filled with a corruptive smell that enveloped Kircheis within it, corrupting and tainting all the s.h.i.+mmering objects on him, including his body.
The gas quickly contracted and entered Kircheis’s chest. The color gradually turned red, as though it was a bloodstain.
Finally, everything was restored to normal. Kircheis genuflected as he said to the deck, “Your will is my will. Great Death Announcer!”
Following that, the scene shattered as Klein opened his eyes.
He sat straight and looked at the thin and long blood crystal. In thought, he silently said, The Death Announcer is alive?
A Sealed Artifact with living traits?
This crystal is the source of its control over its crew, and it comes equipped with an intense corruptive force. Therefore, mystical items of low levels will be corrupted by it?