After both parties tacitly demonstrated their abilities, goals and intentions, Aiwass and Shadow Fiend reached a temporary agreement.
As the Shadow Fiend dived back into Aiwas's shadow again, the shadow that was spreading like mud throughout the bar was sucked back into the shadow under Aiwas.
Just like a swimming pool with the drain opened, the shallow lake of shadow soon became "dry".
The warm winter sun shone in again, filling the bar room.
It was as if the damp shadow just now was just an illusion.
-very good.
Aiwass breathed a sigh of relief.
Now, the four most important things have been done.
He completed revenge for Aiwass and killed the "friend" who betrayed him; successfully destroyed the evidence of his own crime; obtained clues for the next investigation; awakened and appeased the Shadow Fiend.
Now, it’s time to happily open the treasure chest!
Aiwas listened carefully and found that Haina was still searching downstairs and had not gone upstairs.
—It’s time to loot the bag!
He rubbed his hands impatiently and began to search for his spoils.
Aiwass quickly found a thumb-sized round box that looked like a cooling oil. On it was etched a crescent moon with a human face, and below it was a line of small words "1886-03-071, Living Silver Workshop".
This thing looks very familiar to him.
This is a dose of Dream Intoxication Tincture, a specialty of the Xingtan Kingdom.
"Good stuff. A good start."
Aiwass raised the corner of his mouth slightly and put it into his pocket.
Dream Intoxication Tincture is a potion that can stabilize dreams and anesthetize the body so that it is not easy to wake up. It is an alchemical product of the Path of Balance. It can also be used as an anesthetic for surgery, but its main use is to be used as an auxiliary drug to increase the success rate when advancing.
In Xianxia novels, it is roughly equivalent to something like a foundation-building pill. At low levels, the added success rate of breakthrough is quite impressive.
The Dream Drunken Tincture is known as the "small promotion potion" among players. It can increase the success rate of the promotion ceremony. It is probably similar to the potion in the classic MM that can enhance and build equipment and increase the success rate of enhancement.
In the setting, to advance to a higher class level, one must enter a dream and perform a complex ritual with a very high failure rate. But in the game, it is determined by a cold success percentage of advancement, and preparing some special rituals or materials can increase the success rate.
If you succeed, you will be promoted successfully after a special effect, and the upper limit of the occupation level will be increased by 10 levels. Then three entries will pop up for you to choose one.
This is the path characteristic obtained when the promotion is successful this time.
If you fail, you will be relegated to level 19. Players just need to prepare the ritual again to advance if they have run out of materials; for NPCs, if they fail to advance, they will have to wait for a cooldown that gets longer and longer as their level increases, which will take at least half a month.
Veronica is now a level 19 demonologist and is about to advance to the next level; or maybe she has failed several times, so she prepared a Dream Intoxicant for herself.
Judging from the number of ritual spells she mastered, she must have stayed at the second level for quite some time - with the level cap locked, her skill level could still be improved as usual, but her profession would not receive any more levels.
It is not difficult for Aiwas to upgrade from the first energy level to the second energy level, and he will basically succeed. He does not need it for the time being.
It can be used when he is promoted from level 19 to level 20.
And because Aiwass is taking two paths at the same time, he has to eat two servings.
Dream Intoxication Tincture itself is not a particularly rare potion, so there is no need to cherish it. Its price in Star Antimony is not high, only forty-six White Crown coins. However, it is purely handmade by alchemists, so the supply is insufficient, so it needs to be reserved and limited to purchase.
And the most important thing is that this medicine will be difficult to buy in Avalon for the time being.
Because since two years ago, the Xingti Kingdom has become an enemy of Avalon.
All alchemical products of the Star Antimony Kingdom are restricted from export to Avalon; correspondingly, Avalon does not allow the import of alchemical products from the Star Antimony Kingdom, and also does not allow the export of its own minerals and timber to Star Antimony.
Currently, apart from a few remaining pieces of Drunken Dream Tincture on the Avalon market... there should only be scalpers who are hoarding the product and are willing to place orders at ten times the price.
Five hundred white coins is just the starting price.
This was a price that Haina could not even imagine. It was about ten years' salary for an ordinary worker.
It’s not that Aiwass can’t afford it.
He just doesn't want scalpers to make so much money so easily.
He also didn't plan to leave this thing to the Supervisory Bureau. Even if the Supervisory Bureau got it, they would only resell it at a high price. There was a high probability that they would even sell it to the Moriarty family.
Because everyone knows that Master Aiwass has recently embarked on the path of transcendence and became a priest. He also needs to stock up on Drunken Dream Tincture in advance.
—Then there is no need to let the middlemen make a profit from the price difference.
But unfortunately, after finding the Dream-Intoxicating Tincture, Aiwass couldn't find anything good anymore.
He only found some ritual materials.
But those were all human materials, such as the placenta or the baby's scalp. Not only were they worthless, but he couldn't use them either.
Aiwass had sworn not to use materials of his own race for rituals—and he really didn't like such cruel acts. So he didn't take them away. Instead, he left them on Veronica as evidence of her guilt.
The red robe she is wearing is actually valuable.
... But Aiwass felt that he would not be able to take it off.
Let’s not talk about the fact that this is women’s clothing, and Aiwass can’t wear it; and Veronica wasn’t wearing anything underneath, so it was a bit perverted to just take her clothes off…
Of course, there was actually no use for him getting the red robe.
In the game, players have no identity, so they can enter the association by wearing red robes. But now he is Aiwas Moriarty, and he can't pass the review of the noble red association.
If he succeeded in joining, he would be threatened by the association in turn. Because once the matter was exposed, Aiwass would not be able to survive in the Kingdom of Avalon. Even his adoptive father, eldest brother and Yulia would be harmed.
"… Huh?"
Aiwass suddenly pulled out a brass ring that sparkled with golden light.
It is engraved with a scarred fist, which is tightly clenched and blood is dripping from the fingers. The glittering "blood" is actually ground ruby powder. In the sun, it reflects a dark red sticky luster like real blood.
The next moment, a light curtain popped up:
Noble Red
Extraordinary accessories (light purple)
Jewelry-Rings
Features: Weak Law Resistance (triggered only by Transcendent Path)
Spell: Severe cough (once per day, 1/1)
Necessary: Dark 2
Hand gesture, medium distance, immediate effect
"—We are all wounded fists, bloody hands, and scaleless blades."
Yay, it’s shipped!
Aiwass's eyes lit up.
This is the best stuff that Da Zi can produce!
Weak resistance to law can invalidate the interference and control effects of first-level law spells, law tactics-rebuke, and other authoritarian paths, and weaken the control effects below the third level by one level.
The Path of Authority is the most common path ability in Avalon. If Aiwass wears it, the control skills released by extraordinary people within level 10 will not be able to stop him; the control skills within level 30 will also be reduced by about 10 levels. The only disadvantage is that this thing is too conspicuous. If you wear it normally, people who know the goods will easily mistake it for the Noble Red Society.
But its effect is really good, and it is very practical in the early stage... And Aiwass is beyond the path, which can trigger passive effects. It is suitable for carrying it in your pocket and wearing it when needed.
The spell that comes with the ring, "Severe Coughing", may sound a bit stupid, but it is actually a very practical spell.
The fact that the ring is used as a medium to cast spells and that two points of dark mana are required to release the spell shows that it is not a low-end item.
The "choking cough" is a first-level transcendental path spell that causes a person to choke on water. If Aiwass had the corresponding occult book now, he could learn this spell.
"Severe choking coughing" is an upgraded version of the second level. Its effect is to make a person immediately fall into a state of severe choking coughing. From the text description, it is equivalent to pouring irritating liquids such as red oil or sea water into the nose, and it will probably take several seconds of uncontrolled coughing to recover.
If a person keeps coughing violently, then he actually has difficulty exerting force.
Because he can't breathe normally, his strength will be weakened. The effect in the game is "Damage -10%, Hit rate decreased by 10%, Attack and movement speed decreased by 10%, lasting for three seconds", but Aiwass thinks this value is definitely conservative.
If this really happened in reality, it is very likely that someone would be caught off guard by this move and expose a fatal flaw.
Similarly, a person who is in a state of severe choking and coughing cannot speak, let alone yell at others.
Even after the effect ends, you may not be able to speak clearly for a while. The mucous membrane has been damaged, and it is easy to continue coughing if you are not careful.
The Law-Speaking abilities of the Path of Authority all need to be shouted out loud.
From this perspective, this equipment is specifically designed to target the Supervisory Bureau's capabilities. Once discovered, it can be used to block the enemy and then escape immediately.
Aiwass couldn't help but feel fortunate.
—Fortunately, I revealed a flaw and seduced Veronica to choose Haina as a breakthrough point.
She must have thought that her shot was too weak to penetrate her defense. So she might as well take the shot and pretend to be dead immediately, and take advantage of the moment when Haina relaxed her vigilance to cast a spell to kill her instantly.
So she didn't want to appear too threatening - because what she needed was Haena's underestimation.
This kind of academic school is very likely to reveal flaws in its mentality.
But Veronica knew this... and of course Aiwass knew it too.
He knew that Veronica must look down on Haina, so he deliberately laid the groundwork and pretended to shoot her, so that Veronica would have a chance to succeed in her plan. When Veronica saw that her plan was gradually approaching success, she had already relaxed her vigilance.
Fortunately, I dug a hole and chose to attack it with justice!
Otherwise, if they really started a fight, even if Veronica's continuously channeled spells missed, she could still backhand and use the "severe choking technique" to weaken Haina.
Moreover, this ring itself is the identity certificate of the "Noble Red" association. And only formal members can get it, and peripheral members like the evil bartender cannot get it.
Although it is just an equipment in the game...
But Aiwass thought.
In reality, it may have other uses.
Just like Aiwass didn't dare to wear it on weekdays for fear of being misunderstood as to his identity - the opposite may also be true.