“Well, this is pretty good.”
In the dimly lit room, Shade said with his head down, then ticked "Food for Satiation" with a pencil, and handed over the pencil, the note, and 11 pounds in cash. The library's transaction commission is paid by the party selling the item, which is something Shade doesn't need to consider.
There was a sound of a door opening behind the shutter, and then I waited for half an hour before the other party came back and handed over a book through the hole in the wall. The title of the book was "You Can Too: Simple Cooking of Lamb Stew".
The cookbook was thick but very light. After opening it, he found that the inside had been hollowed out, and contained specific information and materials for learning thaumaturgy. Shade carefully checked it under the light to see if there was anything wrong, and then he stood up and prepared to leave.
But the man behind the wooden screen called him again:
"Since this is your first time at the library, do you know what happened at Lakeview Manor last weekend?"
Xia De was shocked, but he remained calm on the surface:
"I heard that the masked man under the silver moon kicked down half of the Lakeview Manor mansion under the moon."
He deliberately gave wrong information, and was corrected:
"I'm afraid your information is wrong. What I heard was that the man evaporated half of Lake Schluch with one kick."
Talking about even more problematic information, the man said to Shade:
"This is your first time here, so you probably don't know that we also collect intelligence here. Information about that person is very valuable right now. If you have confirmed intelligence, you can consider selling it to us."
"Okay, I'll pay attention."
Xia De said, and was about to leave in a hurry. He didn't want to discuss this topic with others.
You don't leave through the door you came in through, but instead continue walking along the corridor and leave through the back door hidden in the alley on the other side of the library.
Xia De deliberately walked around the intricate alleys nearby for a few times, making full use of the thicker choking gray fog today. After confirming that no one was following him, he took off his vest, put on his coat properly, took off his mask and returned to the main road.
We wasted some time in the Black Raven Library, but the days are long in summer, so the sunset was just appearing from the western horizon.
Shade merged into the crowd on the street, and after the carriage galloped through the street, he crossed from one side of the street to the other, turned in front of the mailbox, and walked along the low wall on the side of the street, walking forward along with two rusty pipes.
"So, the spiritual runes devoured from the old gods are different from ordinary runes?"
He thought to himself.
Yes.
He stopped at the intersection ahead and looked around, hesitating which way to go home. In the mist, housewives in long skirts and lace hats hurried past him, while uniformed police officers looked around on the other side of the intersection.
Xia De asked in his heart:
"In other words, if I contact the old gods and devour their power, I can not only gain divinity, but also obtain powerful spiritual runes? Interesting, it's simply tempting me to contact the evil gods again."
I'm not tempting you, this is the truth.
"I know."
He chose the one on the right. Although the road on the left was closer, he had never been on the road on the right and wanted to give it a try.
After making the decision, he set off. The small building where the printing factory's office was located attracted his attention for a few seconds. He also wanted to print a batch of Detective Hamilton's business cards:
"Speaking of which, what is the method to devour the power of God? I roughly understand that I need to actively contact God. But is that all that is needed?"
This is the most important question, and I should have asked it earlier, but things have never stopped since I woke up.
This is very simple, just repeat what happened that night. This has nothing to do with the vampire ring itself. You just need to find a way to use a relic like the vampire ring to absorb the power of God, even if it is only for a moment, to recreate the scene of that night. Of course, this is also what the divine knowledge tells me.
"And then you'll show up?"
He thought of the soft body that appeared behind him that night when he was on the verge of death, and he missed that feeling very much.
He didn't get an answer, nor was he reprimanded for his impolite imagination. The woman just chuckled, and that laughter made Shade relax:
"But it doesn't matter. I already have enough divinity to cleanse the first ring of the Word of Ascension rune, and I won't waste it. So, I won't need another drop of divinity until I reach the second ring at least, which will probably take several years."
The woman did not answer, but continued to chuckle in his ear as Xia De disappeared at the intersection in the mist.
Instead of returning to St. Teresa's Square immediately, Shad went to Old John's pawn shop in the glow of sunset because of the prompt given by "another me".
Even if the city is foggy, the tragic sunset in summer can still cast a fiery red color through the shop windows and onto the floor. The doorbell rang when I opened it, but there was another customer in the pawnshop at this time, a middle-aged lady with a lace hat tilted on her head, talking to Old John at the counter.
The owner of the pawn shop gave Shad a look, telling him not to come over first. After confirming that the woman was just an ordinary person, Shad didn't care, but strolled around the pawn shop casually, and became interested in the dusty prototype of the steam engine Mark 9 placed in the corner.
"Why, are you interested in this? I can sell it to you at a lower price."
After the woman left contentedly in her high heels, Old John said to Shade, who shook his head:
"What do I need this for? I don't run a museum. Come to think of it, you have quite a few weird things here."
He came to the counter.
Out of politeness, Shade did not use the more appropriate word "garbage dump" to describe this place.
"I run a pawn shop. As long as it's not real garbage, I will accept it even if it's just a torn quilt."
The old man was somewhat proud when he talked about this. He took off his reading glasses and closed the account book.
Xia De looked at him with a little surprise:
"Can I ask why? This kind of business can't make money, right?"
A smile appeared on the old man's face, and he waited for Xia De to ask:
"What do you take me for? A miser who only cares about pounds? Well, detective, let me ask you a question. What can you tell from this pile?"
He pointed at the strange pawned items displayed in the store. There were some really valuable things among them, such as the walking stick that Shade pawned last time, but most of them were just ordinary things.
"See..."
He thought hesitantly.
"If you guess my idea correctly, I'll give you a 50% discount on this deal."
Old man John encouraged, and Shade immediately became energetic. But it is not easy to guess the right answer for such an open-ended question. After thinking for a long time, he still couldn't find the exact answer, so he could only give a relatively general answer:
“Society and life?”
Old John laughed:
"It's close, but no, it's civilization."
Xia De originally thought that his answer was exaggerated, but he didn't expect it to be even more exaggerated.