Finishing Touches (Seeking Over a Hundred Investments!)

Master Gu Yi was the King of Midgard, the King of Midgard, the King of Earth. This was a title The Venerable One had fought for with the magic in her hands, one recognized by most people in the universe.

That was why The Venerable One loved humanity as she would her own people and treated every life in her hands with caution. This was also what she demanded of Salomon: love humanity, examine the necessity of every sacrifice, and put an end to meaningless waste of life.

In The Venerable One's eyes, the Collins family fell within the bounds of acceptable sacrifice.

While sheltering vampires was not a capital crime, resisting the Arcanist who had come to wipe out the vampires was.

This was the law established by the Sorcerer Supreme as the King of this world. Though ordinary people knew nothing of Kamar-Taj's existence, they still had to obey Kamar-Taj's laws.

As for the pain behind such choices, The Venerable One believed she should bear it herself. Salomon would bear it in the future as well.

Salomon quickly accepted this explanation. After all, when the Collins family had attacked him in order to protect their own relatives—

He had hesitated for a moment, but he had still chosen to take out Aegis. He was not some overly softhearted person; he merely had a bit of empathy. Otherwise, the peaceful life of his previous life would have made it difficult for him to steel himself to kill someone. But he had done it anyway.

Once he had made his decision, he could not allow himself to regret it. He merely still had some cleanup work to do.

After resting for a day, he would return to Collinsport and completely eliminate the vampires and werewolves there.

After all, both vampires and werewolves could reproduce through ordinary people. Like cancer cells lurking within human society, these creatures hiding in the gutters had always been one of Kamar-Taj's targets for extermination.

Cleaning up Collinsport was the task the Sorcerer Supreme had given him.

The Venerable One believed there was no need to be so urgent in the search for the Darkhold. After all, the book Salomon had found had been written by an Italian alchemist in the Middle Ages. Even if Salomon went there, the Darkhold might very well have already been moved and hidden away.

If someone were reading the Darkhold right now, it would inevitably cause a huge mess. Kamar-Taj's Planetary Defense System could not possibly fail to detect it.

The Venerable One was not worried that Collinsport could pose any danger to Salomon, so she had him go to the town to "clear his head," while hunting a few werewolves and vampires as practical combat training.

But the Collins family had not provided any information about the other vampires in town, so Salomon could only start searching from scratch. Still, that gave him time to hone his magic. He could not improve by fighting only on the training grounds.

Over the next month, aside from going to Athena for his daily lessons, Salomon brought seafood back to Kamar-Taj every day. Besides salmon and tuna, the greatest quantity was Maine's specialty, Boston lobster. Salomon only needed to open a portal directly to the Seabed. Driven by the pressure of the seawater, the seafood would rush out through the portal. Even lobsters hidden deep within caves were no exception. Once he closed the portal, he only needed to pick the seafood up off the ground.

During this time, Kamar-Taj's Arcanist apprentices were deeply grateful for the food Salomon brought back. The Venerable One required the apprentices to cast aside desire and soothe their souls, so the main compound's cafeteria served nothing but boiled cabbage. If they wanted a proper meal, they had to go to the Hong Kong Sanctum.

Now, fresh seafood was available at Kamar-Taj's main compound every night, and The Venerable One turned a blind eye to it. In truth, the matter of the main compound serving only boiled cabbage had begun as a voluntary practice among apprentices in the past. But after several centuries, it had somehow become a tradition. The Venerable One did not know whether that was good or bad, so she could only let it continue.

Besides sending seafood to Kamar-Taj, Salomon also delivered some to the Wing Chun gym where he trained and to Athena.

"You did very well!" After hearing Salomon's explanation for his earlier leave of absence, Athena's slight dissatisfaction vanished. In her view, a young hero ought to begin showing his brilliance, killing a monster or two to create glorious deeds that bards could sing of in the future. As for the ordinary members of the Collins family, Athena did not care.

What she cared about was that Salomon had used the Aegis she had given him. That pleased Athena greatly.

What did that prove? It proved that Salomon was a hero nurtured by Athena! If Salomon could appear before everyone while riding Pegasus, she would be even more satisfied.

With her peculiar obsession satisfied, Athena specially pan-fried a serving of Atlantic salmon for Salomon. After the richly fatty fish had been deboned, marinated, and seasoned, it could be pan-fried. Salomon could often eat several pieces, until he was stuffed.

Because Athena's cooking was far better than that of the cooks at Kamar-Taj's main compound, whose skills had declined, Salomon went to Athena's place for lunch throughout the period when he hunted vampires and werewolves in Collinsport. Every noon, Athena prepared several portions of teriyaki salmon, beet-cured salmon slices, and grilled lobster to replenish the calories Salomon burned through.

In truth, the affairs in Collinsport were not complicated, merely extremely time-consuming. The town's third vampire was actually Julia Hoffman, the Collins family's physician. She had disappeared thirty-one years ago, and that was how the local police records listed her as well.

Though Salomon did not know how Barnabas had turned her into a vampire, after lying in wait for some time, he used a strand of hair she had left at the crime scene—though he had actually found it with magic—to cast the second-circle divination spell Hunting Mark. He easily picked up her trail, smoothly chopped off the young vampire's head, and left it beneath the sun until it burned to ash.

The werewolves were even more troublesome. Though the powers of both werewolves and vampires were related to the Darkhold, compared with the troublesome First Embrace required by vampires, werewolves had a far simpler way of gaining companions.

All it took was a small bite for the lycanthropy curse in their saliva to enter the human body. So long as they ate one fewer person amid their endless berserk rage, their pack could grow by one.

Salomon did not know where these werewolves had come from, nor did he know how many there were. These werewolves all had normal identities in Collinsport. Unlike vampires, they did not fear sunlight and could move about the town normally.

After Angelique Bouchard died, the werewolves scattered throughout the town. This forced Salomon to spend a long time investigating everywhere, as well as consume large quantities of honey and lotus oil ointment to cast the second-circle spell Discern Disguise, allowing him to identify the werewolves in human form.

Salomon also contacted the dark-skinned, talkative driver who had taken him to Collins Manor and had him tail those werewolves, recording their addresses. Once Salomon had fully rested and could cast all his spells again, he would return to Collinsport and hunt the werewolves when they were alone.

"Hey, brother, I noticed that the people you had me follow all died within a few days." The driver counted his money as he spoke. "What exactly do you do?"

"I'm an agent with S.H.I.E.L.D. Those people are drug dealers." Salomon held out his hand. A black ID booklet lay in his palm, but before the driver could touch it, he pulled it back. After all, it was only an illusion trick. A slight touch would expose it.

"You're not joking?" The driver's eyes widened. He was so frightened that he nearly turned and ran, but after recovering his senses, he voiced his doubts. He carefully examined Salomon, who was scribbling in a notebook, then said in an utterly ridiculous tone, "You've got to be fucking kidding me! You don't even look older than my son!"

"Because I was too smart, I went straight into S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy." Salomon put on an act and sighed. "No video games, no comics, not even being allowed to use my phone whenever I wanted. That kind of life was unbearable, so I applied for this assignment. Remember, you never saw me, and you cannot mention me to anyone. And your dashcam... why doesn't this piece of junk have a dashcam?"

"Got it, got it, I understand!" The driver made an OK gesture.

"Now go buy me a Coke. Make it cold, and don't get Pepsi!"

Good night. My heart feels a little uncomfortable, so we'll see about the second update.