Potion No. 17

"Tina, stop standing in the corner. Go back to your seat."

"Danger cleared."

Tina calmly returned to her seat, as if nothing had happened at all.

[You successfully resisted the Wraith Aggregate (low-level)'s mental attack and participated in killing the Wraith Aggregate (low-level). Evaluation: An assist with your eyes is still an assist. Reward: Survival Points +2.]

An assist with my eyes?

Me?

Wei En looked at the notification and felt the panel's mockery...

Bang!

Just then, the office door suddenly toppled inward.

A tall figure walked in. "Little Lacy, what the hell are you doing?"

"Minister Yegor," Lacy said, placing one fist against her chest and bowing slightly. "There was a small accident."

Marco's expression shifted slightly, and he bowed as well. "My Lord Minister."

Wei En copied them, though he was not surprised by Yegor's arrival.

With such a huge commotion here, it was already lucky that they had not drawn everyone in the entire Logistics Department over.

The newcomer was none other than Investigation Department Minister Yegor Payne. "An accident? There have been quite a few accidents in Division One lately."

"My apologies, My Lord Minister."

"Lacy, you know that isn't what I want to hear."

Lacy lowered her head as if she wanted to bury it between her pears. "I'm sorry."

Yegor glanced at the cracks on the floor, then looked at the parchment in Lacy's hand and said coldly, "The repair costs will be deducted from your Division One budget."

"Yes, Minister."

Then Yegor swept his gaze around the room before finally settling on Wei En. "Also, regarding Rogeret's matter, I don't want there to be a second time."

Hm?

Wei En looked at him with feigned confusion and thought to himself, Rogeret's matter? Is he warning me not to get contaminated?

"...I know what to do."

"You'd better."

Yegor blew out a smoke ring, returning once more to that lazy demeanor. He slowly turned around. "That's all. I'm leaving."

After he left, Lacy straightened up and let out a long breath, then gritted her teeth and said, "Marco, if there's another repair bill next time, it's coming straight out of your salary!"

"N-no, there won't be. I promise."

Marco, who had been hiding behind her, looked at her as if a great weight had been lifted. "Good thing the Minister didn't get angry this time... Otherwise, I'd have been done for."

"As long as you know."

Lacy looked at the office floor, then at the door that had been kicked down, and said through gritted teeth, "That bastard Yegor. He was clearly the one who broke the door."

"Shh."

Marco gestured for her to keep her voice down, then poked his head out for a glance before hurriedly pulling it back in. "Leave this to me. I can fix it."

With that, he swiftly picked up the door panel and propped it against the office entrance, then took a toolbox from the cabinet in the back and got to work.

Lacy ignored him and returned to her seat with the parchment.

Wei En looked left and right, then joined Marco in fixing the door. He asked, "Marco, you all seem pretty afraid of the Minister?"

"Afraid? Of course we are."

Marco gestured for him to hold the door steady. "Normally, Yegor is fine no matter what. But once he gets angry, he becomes terrifying."

"Does he beat people up?"

"Beat?" Marco hammered nails as he lowered his voice and said, "You know about Rogeret, right?"

"I just heard the Captain mention it this morning."

"After that incident came out, the Minister snapped every bone in Rogeret's body with his bare hands."

Every bone in his body?

Wei En sucked in a breath. "Every single one?"

"Every single one!"

Marco said with lingering fear, "The most terrifying part was that the Minister also used No. 4 Magic Potion on him. That scene, that feeling... It was fucking brutal!"

Wei En imagined such a scene and nodded in agreement. Snapping bones was indeed brutal.

However, "What is No. 4 Magic Potion?"

"Lacy hasn't taught you this yet?"

"No."

Marco glanced at Lacy. Seeing her attention was on the parchment, he lowered his voice and explained, "Among the standard equipment issued by the Property Management Department, aside from firearms, the most important things are those few bottles of magic potion."

"There are seven bottles in total. According to their different effects, our Investigation Department ranks them as No. 1 through No. 7 Magic Potions."

So it was an internal numbering system. He had thought someone had actually named the magic potions.

"Among them, the No. 1 Magic Potion is called the Spirit Calling Potion. It's the magic potion we use most often when carrying out missions."

There was Spirit Calling Potion in the case?

Wei En's eyes instantly lit up like a thief's. That was a magic potion worth three gold pounds.

"The No. 2 Magic Potion is Truth Serum, mainly used for interrogations."

"The No. 3 Magic Potion has a rather special function. It's used specifically for reconnaissance and tracking. After use, it forms a controllable shadow clone."

"The No. 4 Magic Potion is the bottle I just mentioned that Yegor used on Rogeret. It's Healing Potion, and it can treat wounds."

Holy shit, that ruthless?

It was actually Healing Potion!

No wonder Marco had said earlier that Yegor's methods were cruel... He had been breaking Rogeret's bones while healing his injuries at the same time...

Tsk, tsk. Who would have thought that beneath Yegor's lazy exterior, there was such a violent side hidden away?

At this point, Marco stopped and shook the door, as if checking whether it had been installed firmly.

"To be safe, let's nail in two more nails. Where was I just now?"

Wei En handed him two nails and said, "You still haven't talked about No. 5, 6, and 7 Magic Potions."

"Oh, right. The last three magic potions are specially made magic potions that can be used together with firearms."

Marco took the nails and continued, "The No. 5 Magic Potion is for dealing with out-of-control Transcendents, the No. 6 Magic Potion is used specifically to handle Blood Beasts, and the No. 7 Magic Potion is the bottle I used just now, mainly for dealing with Wraiths."

Out-of-control Transcendents, Blood Beasts, Wraiths?

Wei En thought pensively, Did this mean they were relatively common, which was why the Secret Investigation Bureau equipped them with specialized magic potions?

"But after I saw you deal with the Wraith, you didn't relax your guard?"

"That's exactly the part you need to pay special attention to—ordinary Wraiths aren't frightening. What's frightening are the ones with something added!"

"Something added?"

Before the battle just now, Lacy had mentioned that phrase.

"To put it simply, it means modifying a Wraith. For example, branding runes onto it, or injecting some strange power into it, and so on."

"So that's what 'adding something' means."

Wei En thought of the Wraith he had seen just now. That appearance was already scary enough. How else were they supposed to modify it?

By installing a few more mouths on it?

"There are people who do that kind of thing?"

"Of course there are. There are even quite a lot."

Marco patted the door. "In this city-state, there are always some people harboring malice. Some have reached the end of their lives, some have been bewitched by strange and mysterious existences, and some are simply lunatics who enjoy slaughter and disaster..."

"Once you've stayed in the Secret Investigation Bureau for a while, you'll understand just how insane they are."

After saying that, without waiting for Wei En to respond, he gestured toward Lacy. "Lacy, the door's fixed."

"Marco, you finally managed to be somewhat useful."

"There's a newcomer here. Leave me some dignity..."

Lacy ignored him. Instead, she put down the parchment, clapped her hands, and said, "Everyone sit properly. Let's first talk about the disappearance case in the slums."

"Oh."

Marco shrugged helplessly.