บท 28: Sequence 8

With the gathering proceeding, The Hanged Man looked at The Sun and asked if he had gotten anything from the locked up former team captain that was in the room at the right of his wall in the spire.

The answer he got, however, fascinated Ethan, "He's dead."

Everyone was shocked to know that a person that was alive in the spire for more than thirty years died so simply like this. Trying to get more information, The Hanged Man asked what happened.

Then, The Sun told them the details of that man's death, going as far as saying, "After the last gathering, I wanted to glean more information from the former captain using Mr. Hanged Man's suggestions, but he suddenly appeared behind me, asking me if I was looking for him."

Everyone was greatly surprised, most showed some fear about the situation, 'Interesting… Maybe I should do something similar to one of my targets someday? Ohh their faces when they realize I'm right beside them…'

Ethan's calm mind was once again tainted by some vain thoughts and ideas. He then calmly chuckled and asked The Sun, "So, who saved you?"

The Sun looked at Mr. Devil for some time with a great feeling of surprise, not knowing how he had so easily found the truth.

He then went on to explain how the Chief of the City of Silver appeared at the right time to save him and kill the former man that had already lost control and was breaking apart completely.

Out of the other members, the only one that easily understood the whole situation was Mr. Hanged Man, who didn't show any emotion during The Sun's explanation.

The Sun then explained that the reason the former team captain lost control after his return was thanks to a man named Amon, who had noticed he was pulled up by Mr. Fool above the gray fog.

He then showed the appearance of Amon to all other members: A black classic robe, a matching pointed hat, a crystal monocle, a broad forehead, a thin face, black eyes, black curly hair, and an amused smile playing on his lips.

With that, he explained his course of action and how he had been possessed by Amon after praying to Mr. Fool, who easily solved the problem.

Ethan looked at the seat of honor at the end of the mottled bronze table with some level of respect. After all, Amon was most certainly an Angel, and for the human Mr. Fool to actually solve this great threat so easily, it was unimaginable.

'Maybe this gray fog helped him in any way? I always feel there's something hidden in this dimension that is more powerful than anything I have ever come across…'

…

The rest of the gathering didn't have anything that could get Ethan's attention, only some information about the Abraham and Tamara families and a small trade between The World and The Sun, with the former lending him an item for later payment.

With the others finishing what they wanted to say and request, Ethan finally spoke with a calm smile, "I would like to buy the potion formula for Trickmaster. I am willing to trade a powerful Beyonder weapon for it."

The Magician looked at him for a second and asked with some hesitation, "What are the effects of that Beyonder weapon and how powerful is it?"

She wasn't that interested in getting the item for herself, but for selling it later for a good price.

"It's at the level of a Sequence 7 charm. Its powers allow the user to control dark-green flames that corrode and burn through a target's spirituality a total of five times." This item could be created using his Ritual of Bestowment, imbuing his own flames in it.

Hearing the description, Ms. Magician thought for some time and asked, "How much is it worth when sold?"

This question was a bit blatant to be asked like this in front of the person that was selling the item, but Ethan still answered with a gracious smile, "These kinds of items wouldn't be worth too much, but as its level is fairly high and the number of times it can be used is also big, you might be able to sell it for 1300 pounds for someone that really needs it."

When The Magician heard this, she couldn't help but have her brows furrowed, not understanding why Mr. Devil would sell such an expensive item for a 400 pound formula.

Ethan looked at her with an amused smile, as if he could read her thoughts, and promptly replied, "I can create many of these items, and I don't want just one Sequence 8 formula."

The process of creating them required him to use a third of his blood and almost all his spirituality, but he could quickly regain that spirituality sleeping as a Midnight Poet, while the blood would quickly be generated by his body after eating for a day. All in all, he could create one of them a day with ease.

All the other members showed great surprise at his words. The one to ask after a few seconds was The World, "What do you want other than the Trickmaster potion formula?"

Ethan looked at the gloomy man that moved like a puppet and gently said, "The Clown, Robot, Beast Tamer, Archaeologist, and Lunatic formulas. If you have Sequence 7 formulas I'll also trade for them."

He wasn't too concerned about them knowing these were the formulas he needed, after all, they didn't know he could instantly digest all of them.

The World thought for a second and said, "Would you trade one of them for the formulas of Briber and Clown?"

Ethan thought for a second, trying to discern The World's intention and spoke with the brisk tone of a swindler, "If you have the Magician potion formula I'll trade two of them for it and the Briber and Clown formulas."

He was trying to discern if The World was from the Seer Pathway or the Lawyer Pathway, or if he just had the formulas for them.

The World thought for some seconds before saying with some hesitation, "Very well, it's a deal."

With one deal closed, Ethan looked at The Hanged Man and noticed he really wanted to buy the charm, but didn't have the capacity to trade for it now.

The Magician also closed the deal by owing Ethan a future Astrologer formula, and with this, Ethan got to read all the formulas he wanted right away, he would pay them in the next three days.

As Ethan got the formulas he so dearly desired, he didn't say anything else.

The Magician then got a Sheriff characteristic from Mr. Fool for a page of a certain book of hers and The Fool ended the gathering.

One interesting thing was that he disclosed the meaning of some of the Chinese characters for the other members to better acquire the diary pages. The meaning he shared was about the dates of the diary entries.

Ethan absorbed this knowledge and knew he could easily decipher it when he became a Cryptologist.

…

A few days later, Ethan's residence.

He had already paid the charms to The World and The Magician. He also used the Swindler and Instigator characteristic to buy the ingredients needed for Clown and Trickmaster, having already concocted the potions.

During this period of four days, Ethan had also gotten to do three missions for the Mission Hall of The Pillar of Alchemy, things like selling information about certain people around Backlund or selling a Beyonder ingredient, this brought him a total of 120 Arcana Credits.

He had also created some simple medicine with herbs he bought in the underground market, he then sold them for close to 30 Arcana Credits.

And with these points, Ethan bought the formulas and ingredients he needed, having concocted all the Sequence 8 potions.

Clown: Ethan received a great enhancement to his sense of balance, agility, and speed. He also got a great enhancement to his spiritual intuition and could use it to easily know a person behind his door, see the appearance of someone through a wall when he can't see them, and have a great level of danger intuition. He was now able to use paper as a weapon and throw it at his enemies, even a simple sheet of paper could become a very pointy dart or sharp knife.

Trickmaster: He received a great number of simple spells and magic tricks. He could create a bout of fog to conceal things, cast simple illusions that would barely fool a common person, slightly freeze the ground or make it slippery, create a gust of wind, conjure a small flame, among many other weak spells. The powers of Apprentice also received a great boost.

Lunatic: It gave him the power to enter a berserk state where he traded his rationality for great strength. Ethan also felt a strange power contained in the characteristics that was like a curse; it would make him easily lose control thanks to it. However, the power was also expelled from his body along the characteristic after digestion.

Archaeologist: It brought him great enhancements to his body, which would allow him to survive more easily during the exploration of ruins. He also received basic ritualistic magic knowledge that he already possessed and a great deal of historical knowledge and the locations of many tombs and ruins. He was also able to see the infinite moor made from information once again, and looking at it allowed him to receive a great deal of knowledge about physics, mathematics, biology, among many other scientific fields.

Beast Tamer: Ethan could now tame beasts and understand the will of animals, he could even do so with a Beyonder creature depending on his method of trying to do that. His body was also slightly enhanced. The previous Sequence's powers were also enhanced.

Robot: His control of his body and calculation skills got explosively enhanced. He could now think of many different things at the same time and do various calculations in mere seconds. He also received a big boost to his divination and anti-divination abilities, allowing him to even pry the secrets of demigods not good at divination. The powers of Monster were enhanced too.

And with this, Ethan had finally become an All Pathway Sequence 8 Beyonder. 'I only need to act as a Serial Killer to rapidly digest the potion then.'