บท 27: More Than One

After a conclusive hunt, Ethan went back to his house in North Borough.

A few days after his appearance changed, he went to George Edwin's house and told him the man known as Ethan Edwards was his father, who inevitably passed away due to age.

He introduced himself as Liam Edwards and had already signed the contract to keep living in the same house using the money his 'father' would have already paid.

Sitting in his living room, Ethan picked his Key of Arcana and used it to send his Spirit Body to the Mystical Kingdom. The whole process took a few minutes before he finally found himself back in the mechanical doll he used to come here before.

He was still inside the office that served as his residence here. Getting out of the room using his own key instead of his Beyonder powers, Ethan went in the direction of the Mission Hall belonging to the Pillar of Alchemy.

It didn't take long for him to confirm his success in accomplishing the mission. He had just left the blood inside a certain compartment that would divine the state of the owner's blood, giving the reward depending on the result.

This specific method using divination shouldn't be too safe, as any form of divination could be interfered with. However, considering the device was connected to the core artifact that served as a main server to the whole place, its divination was at least at the Angel level.

After the confirmation of success, Ethan felt a certain energy wave hit his Key of Arcana and transfer some knowledge to his mind.

It was a thorough understanding of everything about the Arcana Credits and its uses, among many locations where they could be exchanged.

With his new 100 Arcana Credits, Ethan looked for some time for new missions he could take to get even more credits. He, however, soon noticed most missions were related to the creation of medicine, potion, scrolls, charms, among other things.

While Ethan had a great level of knowledge when it came to concocting medicine, the ones these missions required weren't present in his knowledge reserve.

With that, Ethan left the Mission Hall and walked back to the place that sold the ingredients he wanted. It didn't take long for him to trade 75 Arcana Credits for three new sets of ingredients and the fee for transferring them, while also trading the Beyonder characteristics from the ingredients he had bought before for new sets of ingredients.

He now had six sets of ingredients for different potions: Swindler, Provoker, Gravedigger, Pugilist, Doctor, Student of Ratiocination.

The people from the market looked at him with some curiosity, but didn't care that much. With this, Ethan paid the 12 credit fee for transferring everything he wanted through the Key of Arcana and didn't stay in the Mystical Kingdom for too long, quickly returning to his own house to concoct the potions.

After concocting the potions and taking them, Ethan received massive power enhancements once more.

The power of a Swindler would now allow him to create small illusions and easily mislead people's thoughts and ideas, his eloquence was now so pronounced it was possible for him to charm others with even more ease. His powers as a Marauder were also slightly enhanced.

Being a Provoker gave Ethan the power to make people lose their rationality by insulting them in different ways, making them attack him without any thought. The powers of Hunter went through slight enhancements.

A Gravedigger had the ability to command certain weak undead and spirits to do their bidding as they wished, he could also use the 'Eye of Death', which allowed him to easily determine the characteristics of different undead and spirits and easily see them. The enhancement to his Spirit vision was very high and his physical attributes also leveled slightly once again.

Pugilist gave Ethan a great level of enhancement to his body once more. He could now explode a human head with a simple punch, crack boulders after repeated punching, and even punch a bullet away if he had the reflexes and speed needed. His body was also resistant to various supernatural effects that caused afflictions or curses.

As a Doctor, Ethan could now cure most common diseases and afflictions, going as far as curing certain damages done to the soul. He could also use his spirituality to cure non-severe injuries done to the body and soul. This power, when combined with Ethan's great healing factor, turned into a nightmare to any enemies that had to face him. His powers as a Planter were also enhanced and he could now plant any herbs he wished for and have them grow up even in terrible environments.

The Student of Ratiocination was an expert of ritualistic magic. They were able to change certain aspects of a specific ritual to make it suit themselves better, like altering the target of the ritual, or even changing its essence altogether. One example of this would be Ethan's Ritual of Summoning, which he could now change the target of summoning from the Abyss to the spirit world.

With this, Ethan was now more powerful than ever. While sitting on his sofa, he picked a mathematics book to read, finishing it in less than a minute.

'The powers of Reader have also been highly amplified' Doing that, Ethan went to his kitchen and opened a bottle of wine he bought for twelve pounds.

He went back to his living room, picked a nice violin on the side of the coffee table and sat down. He decided to just appreciate his wine while playing some music and wait for the next Tarot Club's gathering that would happen tomorrow.

'I wonder if The Fool will be surprised at my grand changes… I think I should start being a bit more proactive, else he thinks I'm too much of a threat and goes against his own morals.' Ethan sipped his wine and started playing the violin like a seasoned professional.

…

Monday afternoon, above the gray fog, Tarot Club's gathering.

As the members appeared from dark red rays of light, Lady Justice got up from her seat and was just about to greet Mr. Fool when she noticed a completely different person seating at the right of Mr. World, which was the place Mr. Devil was seated before.

The other members also noticed this new person and didn't have the ability to assimilate his appearance to Mr. Devil at all.

Seeing as they were all looking at him like they didn't know who he was, Ethan politely bowed to the seat of honor at the end of the long bronze table and said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Fool. And good afternoon to the other members too."

While Ethan's appearance had changed to a point of no recognition to anyone other than Sheriffs, his voice didn't change too much, only being a bit smoother than before. His way of speaking and acting also didn't change.

With the hints Ethan gave, the other members realized he was the same Mr. Devil, one that looked far younger than before.

The different members had strange expressions of confusion as they couldn't understand how Mr. Devil could change his appearance so much.

However, the one that was truly shocked wasn't them, but the quiet and aloof Mr. Fool.

…

Klein had just called the other members up the gray fog for their gathering when he noticed a person that was completely different from the one he recalled.

He then quickly activated his Spirit vision to understand what was happening before taking any measures, and the sight that caught his Spirit vision truly terrified him.

There were countless different arcane symbols and runes engraved in The Devil's Spirit Body, looking like some kind of protection of sorts.

His whole Spirit Body had an aura of magic and arcane about it. Klein was able to tell this was a magic spell that connected his Spirit Body to something else, as that's the meaning that was transmitted to him when he looked at it, but he didn't know what was connected to the Spirit Body at all.

However, he noticed this change didn't bring any unexpected consequences. It was just a connection, one that was being slightly interfered with by the gray fog.

As the other members were shocked by the change of appearance of The Devil, Klein was still immersed in thinking what the appearance of the different arcane symbols represented, and if it would bring him any harm in the long run.

…

Ethan easily noticed The Fool's silence, seemingly wary of something. 'Did he see the Key of Arcana?'

He long knew about the symbols that now adorned his Spirit Body, and he knew they were there to connect himself to the Key of Arcana, allowing him to easily reach the Mystical Kingdom and serving as his identity there.

These symbols represented no danger, they also didn't have any kind of monitoring magic involved, they were only a form of dormant magic that would activate when he used the specific incantation.

'He might feel threatened by me if this continues, it's best to clarify things.' Ethan had just finished his greeting when he thought that, he then proceeded to say:

"I have recently joined a new organization that allowed me to become younger using certain spells and artifacts, this also allowed me to rid my Spirit Body from some problems it had after some encounters." His words seemed to be directed at the other Tarot Club members, and while they really thought so, they were actually directed at The Fool himself.

The other members attributed these changes to knowledge about mysticism they didn't yet possess and started to reevaluate Mr. Devil once more.

After the members greeted Mr. Fool and the gathering returned to its original state, Ethan noticed the tall young teen known as The Sun seemed to be very anxious about something.

'I recall the city he was in would send some team of Beyonders to explore certain ruins, did something happen about that?' He didn't have much time to think about it as The Hanged Man raised his head and humbly said, "Honorable Mr. Fool, I've acquired three pages of Roselle's diary."

Ethan and The Magician woman thought at the same time, 'Diary? Roselle's diary?'

With that, Mr. Fool asked what Mr. Hanged Man wished for and got a reply, "I would like to know what the card next to you is"

Ethan's mind worked faster than ever, and he was able to process a lot of information in a second, 'The Fool is after the diary pages of Roselle Gustav. Why is that? I heard the texts left behind by this Emperor were impossible to decipher. Wait… The Fool is a transmigrator, he certainly knows the language of his previous world… Does that mean…?'

Ethan soon came to a conclusion that truly terrified his mind, something he had already considered before when seeing the Mystical Kingdom from before, but didn't think too much about it.

'There are more… There are more of them!!!!' While thinking so, he tried his best to conceal the shock in his eyes, quickly closing them in the process.

The other members didn't notice this abnormality, as they were worried thinking about their own matters. Mr. Fool then answered the request, blocking the senses of the other members to talk to Mr. Hanged Man.

Ethan didn't care too much about the card that lay at the side of The Fool, he was far too consumed in his own thoughts and ideas to care about the probably high level mystical item.

After regaining his senses, Ethan noticed Mr. Fool was already reading the diary pages he had just acquired. After some time, Mr. Fool seemed to finish reading the diary pages and allowed them to disappear.

As he gestured for them to begin, Ethan was the first one to speak, "I have always been curious to what the symbols in the enigmatic notes left by the previous Emperor of Intis looked like. Mr. Hanged Man, what would you want for those pages?"

The Hanged Man, with lingering surprise from the answer he received from The Fool, calmly replied, "If you just want to see it, you can have it"

He then asked for Mr. Fool's help to conjure the pages again, receiving a positive answer.

And when Ethan finally saw the symbols on the pages, he was able to truly confirm his hypothesis. 'Simplified Chinese… There truly are other transmigrators…'

He couldn't understand the words written on the pages at all, but he could easily recall all of them with his insufferably good memory.

With that, the Tarot Club's gathering could finally continue.