Scheduled Equipment

Aster bit his tongue hard to keep his expression from slipping too far out of control. "...Mr. Roland, could I trouble you to appraise how much these items are worth?"

He took three more iron boxes from his backpack. They contained, respectively, the Swindler Beyonder Characteristic and the Secrets Suppliant Beyonder Characteristic from Lanevus, as well as the Clown Beyonder Characteristic from Sergi Red of the Eternal Life Society.

Aster placed the three iron boxes sealed with Walls of Spirituality, along with the box containing the dagger that he had taken out first, on the worktable. "How much can these cover?"

Roland's gaze immediately became somewhat dangerous. Rather than looking directly at the boxes containing the Beyonder Characteristics, he stared intently at Aster's face, scrutinizing him from head to toe.

Nearly ten seconds passed before he answered, "You'd better not be some wandering Serial Killer."

"I swear none of these Beyonder Characteristics belonged to any official Beyonder." Aster took a slight step back, putting on an aggrieved expression. Roland ignored his performance and slowly opened the three iron boxes on the table. A faint white light appeared in his pupils as he examined the three Beyonder Characteristics.

Five minutes later, Roland stood after finishing the "appraisal." "Three thousand five hundred pounds."

Aster immediately frowned at Roland's offer. "Four thousand pounds would be more reasonable, wouldn't it?"

Aster had estimated the value of these Beyonder Characteristics himself. Their total value should definitely have been close to four thousand pounds.

Roland had always seemed quite mild-mannered, but his attitude suddenly turned sharp. "You can refuse, or bring Swain here in person and have him vouch for you."

He's repulsed by this kind of killing... I brought out four Beyonder Characteristics in a row, so he probably thinks I'm one of those bounty hunters who specialize in hunting Beyonders... Aster stared into Roland's eyes, and Roland did not back down in the slightest.

"Three thousand eight hundred pounds." Aster raised the price a little.

"...Fine. You're still short two hundred pounds." Seemingly unwilling to have too intense a conflict with Aster, Roland finally relented. He handed the box containing the Soul Stealing Dagger to Aster. "The rest will count as a deposit. Once I'm finished, you can pay the balance. Also, have you decided what kind of weapon you want?"

"Make it a Beyonder item capable of dealing heavy damage instantly." Having settled the dispute over the price, Aster finalized the type of Beyonder item.

He had indeed considered making a Beyonder item that enhanced his defenses, but the PvP style of Sequence Wars had always been that of glass cannons—light armor was paper, heavy armor was folded paper, and standing still to take hits was useless. As long as I have enough substitute and deflection abilities, I'll be invincible.

So Aster ultimately chose to improve his damage output and continued down the path of DPS without turning back.

Roland was not at all surprised by Aster's choice. "I'll need about half a month. Come here in half a month to collect the item."

Just then, Aster suddenly remembered something else. "By the way, Mr. Roland, can you fix a ritual for summoning Spirit World creatures onto an item?"

"A messenger?" Roland had clearly made quite a few similar items before. "How long do you need it to last?"

"Three months will be enough. How much would it cost if I wanted six of them?" After meeting Klein last time, Aster had felt that this method of communication was still not flexible enough.

In the game, players all used messengers to exchange information and items. However, the ritual for summoning a messenger was quite troublesome for certain Pathways that were not skilled in ritual magic, which created a demand for fixing the ritual for summoning a messenger onto an item.

In the game, this was reflected when two players added each other as friends: they would each give the other an item used to summon their own messenger... However, in the actual game, items used for summoning had unlimited durations, while in the game's story setting, such items often had a limited lifespan.

For example, the item Aster was commissioning now only needed to last three months. After three months, the corresponding item would lose its effect.

For Aster, a three-month duration was enough to cover the rest of his stay in Tingen.

He would give these items capable of summoning messengers to Klein, Swain, Fors, and other Beyonders connected to him. This would make their exchange of information far more convenient.

"Three hundred pounds in total. Added to the previous amount, that makes five hundred pounds altogether. What form do you want them in?" Roland seemed rather casual about this additional commission. He had made this sort of thing many times before.

"Whistles, then. I'll come collect them in half a month?" Most summoning items used by players in the game were whistles, and Aster was no exception.

Though there were indeed some particularly unconventional people who made the items for summoning their own messengers rather bizarre.

"Making something like this isn't a problem for me." Roland picked up Lanevus's Swindler Beyonder Characteristic, glanced at Aster, and asked, "What's the summoning incantation?"

"Here." Aster deftly took a sheet of paper bearing the summoning incantation from his pocket.

"The format of this incantation is somewhat different from the previous ones..." Roland narrowed his eyes. "If it accidentally summons the messenger during the crafting process, it may drain a great deal of spirituality from me... Is that one of the contract's conditions?"

"Will that help you complete the commission?" Aster asked with a smile.

Roland curled his lips, stood up, and walked toward the door with the sheet of paper in hand. "If you have nothing else to say, you may leave, Mr. Crowley."

"All right. Storms above." Aster struck his chest with his fist. He did not forget to maintain his persona, praising the Lord of Storms before leaving.

Inside the room, Roland picked up Lanevus's Beyonder Characteristic and studied the mirror-like button, sinking into thought.

"When did Swain get to know someone like this... I've never heard of him in Tingen City before..."

"Aster Crowley..."

"I need to mention this to the captain."

Aster had a certain degree of trust in Roland's reputation and skill.

The only thing that made him somewhat uneasy was Roland's attitude.

Roland showed obvious resistance and rejection toward Aster's act of killing other Beyonders—why could he tell that I had killed the former owners of these Beyonder Characteristics?

Did he learn it through some Appraiser ability, or did Roland not actually know that Aster had killed them and merely showed a general rejection toward Beyonder Characteristics? But regardless... it could not change his disgust toward "killing."

Aster's body swayed twice. He turned his head westward, where several children were playing.

Perhaps his appearance and temperament were not especially approachable, or perhaps it was the passive effect of Necromantic Body, but those children clearly did not like Aster much. In less than five minutes, they disappeared into an alley in the small village.

Farther away, a windmill turned slowly, seemingly abandoned for a long time.

The afternoon sunlight shone upon him, allowing Aster, whose body temperature had remained low year-round due to Necromantic Body, to feel a trace of warmth.

Killing. Games.

Killing monsters in games was only natural, so why was he so repulsed by it?

But were they really NPCs? In such a realistic world, could he truly treat all of them as characters in a game?

To Aster, the people passing by were merely NPCs, but to Roland and the others, everyone here truly existed. They all had their own lives and their own destinies.

The man put both hands in his pockets and lowered his gaze.

Azik Eggers sat across from Klein and touched the inconspicuous mole beneath his right ear.

"Did you find the materials you were looking for?"

"Quite a lot. Look, I took pages and pages of notes." Klein smiled and pointed at the notebook before him.

"I don't understand why you suddenly became interested in the ruins on Hornacis Main Peak." Azik casually sighed, then changed the subject. "Klein, when I attended university in Backlund, I came into contact with some knowledge related to divination and did some research in that field. Mm, I discovered that there is something discordant about your fate."

What? Divination? Talking to me about divination?

As a Seer, Klein looked at Professor Azik across from him with some amusement. "What is discordant about it?"

Azik thought for a moment. "Over the past two months, have you often encountered coincidental events?"

Coincidences...?

Klein immediately frowned. There did indeed seem to have been rather too many coincidences happening around him lately.

He did not take Azik's warning as a joke and answered seriously, "There have indeed been a few."

"Mm, Emperor Roselle once said... That really was something he said. He said that anyone might encounter a coincidence that happened only once, and two instances still fell within the normal range. But by the third time, one had to consider whether some underlying factor was guiding it." Azik nodded slightly.

"Then can you see anything?" Klein asked tentatively.

Azik laughed and shook his head. "I can only see a little discordance. I can't discover anything else. You should know that I'm not a true Seer."

Wasn't that the same as saying nothing... Mr. Azik is a little strange... Pretending to be a mystic in front of a mystic like me... Klein let out a breath. Taking the opportunity when the other man stood, he pinched the bridge of his nose and opened his Spirit Vision. At a glance, Azik's aura entered his eyes in its entirety. Everything about it was normal.

Unfortunately, I can only see the depths of someone's ether body and the surface of their astral body above the Gray Fog... Klein tapped the bridge of his nose, closed his Spirit Vision, and rose to leave.

Watching Klein's retreating figure, Azik's expression gradually became somewhat puzzled.

He tilted his head slightly, raised a hand as cover, and narrowed his eyes as though observing Klein.

Within his eye sockets, Azik's originally brown irises grew lighter and lighter until they finally turned a clear silver.