Glazed Pouch

After storing Professor Beshe's Residual Flame in the Heart of the Furnace, Lude finally let out a long breath.

Once the tension in his mind eased, excruciating pain followed. The tongue was one of the areas richest in sensory nerves; biting off his own tongue required extraordinary willpower, and the pain afterward was even more intense. Fortunately, Lude could still endure it.

After all, he had died in a car accident in his previous life, burned alive by gasoline leaking from the vehicle. That had hurt far more than this.

Lude walked over to Professor Beshe, took away the professor's Remnant Fire, then smashed his head apart with a punch. He picked up his own tongue, rinsed away the remaining filth with alcohol, and walked over to the gas lamp.

He crushed the lamp's glass shade in one grip, aligned the severed end of his tongue, and then brought it close to the gas lamp's flame.

The instant it touched the flame, he felt his entire body become refreshed, and even his mind brightened. The anesthetic and Radiance Sorcery had previously dulled Lude's thoughts, but their Influence seemed to vanish at that moment.

Seconds ticked by as Lude maintained that posture.

A few minutes later, he flicked his tongue to confirm that the nerves had reconnected, then bit the tip to ensure he could still feel pain. Only then did Lude straighten up and step away from the kerosene lamp. He drew a deep breath, then—

"Do re mi fa sol la ti—phew. Good, good. No lasting damage!"

Clearly, Lude's tongue had fully recovered. The reason he had bitten it off so cleanly and decisively was because his body could heal through the heat of flames. Otherwise, he would have hesitated for at least a few seconds.

Well, only a few seconds. After all, Lude could still tell which mattered more: his tongue or his life.

If a person wanted to accomplish great things, they first had to learn to make decisive trade-offs and act without hesitation when necessary. Those who put on a fierce front while being timid at heart, who loved schemes but could not make decisions, who cherished their own safety when pursuing great matters yet risked their lives for petty gains—no matter how capable they were, they would achieve nothing.

After successfully reattaching his tongue, Lude immediately began looting the spoils of battle.

His first move was to snatch the spatial Vessel into his hands. Only now did he get a clear look at it. It was a small square leather waist pouch, made of some sort of hide-like membrane and covered with a layer of fine black-gold scales.

A line of Isu Language was inscribed on the bottom of the pouch. It was said to be the language of the gods, and it meant [Glazed Pouch].

Come to think of it, after transmigrating, Lude had noticed that he seemed capable of understanding and using any language in this world. As long as he saw a language, he would even instinctively know its name. He could not figure out whether this ability was some transmigrator's cheat.

Lude hung the Glazed Pouch from the belt around his waist, then began thoroughly stripping Professor Beshe's residence clean.

Lude's first target was Professor Beshe's collection of books and research notes. For an old scholar at the pinnacle of the world like Professor Beshe, the most valuable things in his home were undoubtedly these documents and classics. Even when Lude had gone mad and smashed things earlier, he had deliberately avoided the study.

Only after gathering all the documents and materials did Lude begin picking through the other items.

By now, a hubbub of onlookers had risen from downstairs. The explosion had clearly drawn the attention of nearby neighbors. Crisp hoofbeats came from the distance; it was impossible to tell whether they belonged to city peacekeepers or members of the Black Tide Society coming to investigate.

Lude knew he could not delay any longer. If he did, the Black Tide Society would soon have him cornered in the toilet and kick him around in a circle.

But he could not simply jump out like this either. His only pair of pants had been blown to tatters by the explosion. Running naked through the streets in the middle of the night would have drawn crowds treating him as performance art even in his previous era.

Professor Beshe was far smaller than Lude, so the only clothes Lude could wear were Aleppo's uniform.

Then again, Aleppo really did have excellent taste in clothing.

The pure white fitted shirt could not conceal Lude's full muscles, while the open-collared cowhide vest with several belts outlined his figure even more sharply.

The double-breasted coat cinched at the waist, and the dark gray military trousers looked slim and crisp. Paired with a belt bearing a silver buckle carved with a sky eagle, it made him look energetic and capable, while the dark brown military boots reaching his knees added a measure of authority.

More importantly, this near-military uniform possessed considerable elasticity.

Lude was one meter ninety-five, while Aleppo was only one meter eighty-five. Their difference in build was roughly comparable to Henry Cavill and Tom Cruise, yet this uniform could perfectly accommodate Lude's body... well, except that it was a little tight around the crotch.

The technology of this era probably could not produce a material with better stretch than nylon, so there was only one answer.

This clothing was a mystical creation, most likely related to Alchemy.

Alchemy creations might have been precious to ordinary spellcasters, but they were certainly nothing unusual for that bastard Aleppo.

In fact, the sword at Aleppo's waist was the Dragon Tooth Sword Professor Beshe had forged from the teeth of a Dragon Beast. It could easily pierce the protection of Lude's muscles. The only reason Aleppo had not used it against Lude was that the blade had not been coated with anesthetic.

Perhaps even at the very end, Aleppo had still been thinking of subduing Lude so that his grandfather could be reborn in this body.

This fellow had certainly gone to great lengths for his grandfather. Unfortunately, Lude had no intention of being that fish.

Besides that, Aleppo had quite a few miscellaneous items on him. Unlike Professor Beshe, Aleppo carried nothing but weapons and equipment.

A finely crafted .38-caliber Iron Sparrow revolver, two boxes of ordinary brass cartridges, and a complete set of pistol maintenance tools; a military trench knife, three small detonators, a dozen specially made small smoke bombs, two tubes of deep-blue alchemical anesthetic, and a heap of assorted tools.

Yet among all that clutter, what caught Lude's eye most was the ring of Master Keys.

This ring of Master Keys was clearly a supernatural product. It did not even have a single groove carved into it, yet it could open locks it obviously should not have fit into. Still, considering Aleppo had carried five of them at once, Lude guessed these things were probably single-use consumables.

The hoofbeats drew closer and closer. Lude knew it was time to leave, or he would soon be trapped inside the city.

According to the memories Siana had implanted in him, the Black Tide Society had already infiltrated multiple government departments within the Rhine Kingdom. If Lude wanted to be safe, he could only leave the Rhine Kingdom's borders as quickly as possible by train.

Just as Lude rose to his feet, a small, exquisite badge suddenly fell from the shoulder of the coat onto the floor.

The badge bore the sheen of obsidian. Two copper rings formed an interlocking pattern, enclosing a violin and a rapier. Lude stared at the badge in slight surprise as information surged through his mind, until he finally found the relevant knowledge among the memories Siana had implanted in him.

Wasn't this the badge of the Obsidian Hall?!