After staring at Mr. X's corpse for a while, Klein held back the urge to personally dig through his pockets for spoils of war. He made Wraith Senor take two steps and retrieve the ruby ring.
This way, even if Mr. X carried an item with unimaginable negative effects, it would be endured by the marionette and not affect himself.
After some careful inspecting, Senor held the ruby ring, 48 pounds in cash, and an ordinary pipe filled with tobacco and walked back.
That's all? An Oracle of the Aurora Order only has this much? Klein was rather surprised at this scene as he nearly cursed "pauper" at him.
Soon, he recovered his calm and used his reasoning to convince himself that such a situation was very reasonable.
Mr. X is a Traveler. He can record the Beyonder powers of others. He's considered an all-rounder. Even if such a powerhouse were to have other mystical items, he would tend to record them and not carry them around. This way, he could enjoy the benefits of the powers without suffering from the negative effects. That can prevent himself from killing himself.
Using this line of thought, the effects of this ring was likely to be passive or triggered.
With this in mind, Klein nodded gently. He made Senor carry Mr. X's cracked and sticky head, possess him, and return above the gray fog.
Sitting behind The Fool's seat, he was no longer afraid of anything. He directly took the ruby ring and used the method of divination in order to determine the actual effects of the mystical item.
Its name is Flower of Blood...
It allows the wearer to control their body at a deeper level. As long as they don't suffer from instant death or are completely purified; hence, losing the ability to control it, they will be able to slowly recover...
This is equivalent to an instinct, a passive effect...
From the looks of it, my choice of delivering a lethal strike with Death Knell was the correct one. If I hadn't used all my might, Mr. X might not have actually died. He would then be able to use the extreme pain to awaken himself and escape the control of a Marionettist... He had also considered his weakness of being more of a spellcaster and having a body that was insufficient in strength...
This ring has flesh magic to a certain degree. It's quite useful... As Klein held the ruby ring, he rapped the edge of the mottled table and muttered silently.
He then began probing the Flower of Blood's negative effects.
Nearly a minute later, Klein opened his eyes and left the dream.
Oh, come on!? This? he muttered as he wore a twisted look.
With dream divination, he had interpreted the Flower of Blood's negative effects. It involved randomly making the wearer lose all rationale and the ability to think.
Great. This is in line with the True Creator... Klein couldn't help but grind his teeth.
A negative effect that was completely random meant that the Flower of Blood had no way to be used!
Thinking back to the scene from before, Klein muttered to himself in an amused and peeved manner, Mr. X actually dared to wear such a ring?
That's right, people who change their faith to the True Creator often don't have any facility to think. In that case, wearing such a ring wouldn't make them worse.
Hmm, losing rationale isn't losing reason. It wouldn't be as bad as suddenly hurting others. But clearly, he would be very rigid and foolish, acting only on instinct.
Phew... Klein heaved a sigh of relief. He decided to throw the Flower of Blood into the junk pile and not vex over it. From his point of view, it was a piece of crap that he couldn't use, nor was anyone willing to buy it unless he sold it to the Aurora Order. However, that would only make the True Creator very happy.
At that moment, he caught sight of Admiral of Blood Senor who was standing beside him through the corner of his eye.
Klein's heart stirred as he clapped.
Why didn't I think of that—I might not be able to use it, but I can let my marionette use it. After all, he's dead and he follows all my instructions. He doesn't need to think!
Admiral of Blood, Flower of Blood. It's destined to be a pair! Although Senor has lost his control over his body because he's dead, I can provide that...
This way, he can still be fixed even if he can't phase into a Wraith in time, or if his Zombie body isn't strong enough to withstand a blow, causing him to lose a limb or two.
Of course, to a marionette, that's not important, as it doesn't affect his intrinsic character. The main goal is to obtain the additional flesh magic.
A few seconds later, a delighted Klein made Senor pick up the ruby ring and wear it on his left index finger.
After doing this, Klein made the Wraith return to the gold coin before he raised his left palm and spread his fingers.
He wanted to release the Interrogator from Creeping Hunger!
This was a promise he had made a long time ago.
This was the last Spirit Body that had been Grazed when he received Creeping Hunger. It was time to set it free.
Amidst an indistinct cold wind, a blurry soul appeared by the side of the bronze table.
He was a man in a navy uniform. He was in his thirties and had the rank of commander. He had brown whiskers on his painful and dazed face.
"What's your name? How did Qilangos kill you?" Klein asked in a deep voice.
The man jolted from his reverie and answered, "My name is Andy Haydn. The second mate of the Enmat. I died at a battle at sea, no—I didn't die immediately. I was captured by a Feysacian before I entered that glove of yours...
"I do not know of a Qilangos, much less heard of him."
This Interrogator was already inside the glove when Qilangos obtained Creeping Hunger? As Psychic Piercing is very useful, he didn't switch it? I wonder who the previous owner of Creeping Hunger was... Klein asked with piqued interest, "Who was the Feysacian who caught you? What does he look like?"
Andy Haydn thought seriously and said, "I don't know his name. I only remember his epaulet was that of a captain. I remember that he had a big, impressionable nose. I remember his eyes were blue, and his hair was close to blond. He was almost two meters tall..."
Such people from Feysac are common... other than his identity as a captain... Klein considered for a moment and said, "Which year did you die?"
Andy Haydn's figure slowly dissipated away, and finally, it said, "1338..."
That's twelve years ago. Hmm, Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilangos got famous less than ten years ago... That captain might already be an admiral... Klein gently nodded and discovered that he had failed to ask if Andy Haydn had any last wishes.
Forget it, setting him free is already a good deed... Klein quickly threw the matter to the back of his mind as he conjured The World Gehrman Sparrow.
...
"...Please inform Miss Magician that Mr. X, Lewis Wien, is dead. Please get her to take receipt of the item and the spellbook... I'll request it from her when I need it again..."
An endless gray fog filled Fors's eyes as The World Gehrman Sparrow's words emotionlessly rang in her ears. Although she was already prepared for this piece of news, she still found it unbelievable and unacceptable.
He really succeeded? That storm in East Borough was created by him? Fors held down the upheavals in her heart. Taking advantage of the silent night, she set up a bestowment ritual in her bedroom.
Before long, the candlelight and spirituality items created an illusory door. Two items flew out and landed gently on the table.
When Fors took a careful look, she nearly screamed as she hurriedly covered her mouth. She took two steps back and kept close to the wall of spirituality.
One of the two items was her Leymano's Travels, while the other item was a hideous head covered in cracks. It was stained with blood as if they had pieced together, as it seemed to shimmer with what appeared like reflected light on glass.
As a graduate of med school, and having worked as a doctor at a well-known clinic, Fors had seen her fair share of corpses but never had she seen such a disgusting, creepy, and terrifying head.
After composing herself, Fors looked at the head again, identifying it to be Lewis Wien's.
She carefully used astromancy to make a final confirmation. Following that, she muttered with a slightly twisted expression, Mr. World shattered the target's head and then pieced them back together?
At this moment, Fors couldn't help have a scene surface in her mind.
It was of the cold Gehrman Sparrow sitting in front of a table, piecing together the bloody head fragments together, as though seriously putting a jigsaw puzzle together.
This made Fors involuntarily shiver. She had an inexplicable feeling that The World was a psychotic killer with a serious mental illness.
Moving her gaze away, she took two steps forward and picked up Leymano's Travels and casually flipped through it.
Her gaze gradually froze because there were more spells in the spellbook, most of them seemingly related to wind and lightning.
This made her recall the lightning storm that quickly passed in East Borough. She was convinced that it was created by Mr. World.
Fors hurriedly flipped to the three charred-yellow pages in Leymano's Travels and found them blank.
She immediately had a guess, believing that The World Gehrman Sparrow had likely gained Mr. Fool's help to record Beyonder powers at the demigod level.
I just realized that if I have enough money and resources, I can hire the Tarot Club members to help me record different Beyonder powers. This way, Leymano's Travels will become extremely powerful, but I don't have the money or resources... Hmm, I can request for a reward from Teacher this time. I can say that I paid quite a price to help seek revenge for him... Fors thought and first thanked Mr. Fool before asking him to pass on the message to The World.
"...I'm very sorry that my payment isn't proportionate to the difficulty of the mission. After I receive a reward, I'll provide compensation."
After the prayer, Fors ended the ritual and hurriedly hid the head.
If Xio discovers this, she'll definitely imagine a horror story... After she was done, Fors clapped her hands as she thought leisurely.
...
When Fors replied, Klein had already returned to the real world. All he heard was a vague female's voice.
But even so, he couldn't help the fear and horror he felt. This was because Death Knell had given him an additional weakness: the fear of women!
