Following

Perhaps the God of Knowledge and Wisdom was truly watching over Abner. His first attempt at performing a ritual to create charms had succeeded. After using up all the Manhass Monkey brain slices, he obtained another two Brass Charms!

At seven in the evening, carrying the five newly made charms, Abner followed his teacher to the gathering apartment in the back alley of Bravehearts Bar. This time, he did not need to exchange any passwords. He simply found a comfortable single sofa, sat down, and waited for the attendees to arrive.

Time passed second by second. After seven thirty, the participants gradually arrived. There was the lady who had bought his Seer formula. According to his teacher, her codename was Poison Rose. Her status was likely quite high, and she spent lavishly. There was also the lady who always sold Beyonder weapons. She had no clear codename, but everyone called her Artisan's Agent. There were others called Black Snake and Spider, all extremely dangerous people. His teacher said they could suffer Loss of Control at any time...

At exactly eight, Detective Isengard, disguised as Eye of Wisdom behind a mask, glanced around at the masked people seated in the living room and chuckled.

"Quite a full house today. We even have some new friends. Heh heh, welcome, everyone."

"Now then, let's begin."

As soon as he finished speaking, Artisan's Agent spoke first.

"I have two weapons with Beyonder effects. Both are very portable."

"One is Claw of Frost. It grants its user fairly strong regenerative abilities, slightly enhances strength and reflexes, and greatly improves agility. At the same time, when the claws strike a target, there is a fifty percent chance of inflicting an Unknown toxin on the opponent, and a fifteen percent chance of freezing the opponent in ice."

"These conclusions came from experiments and a large amount of data."

"It can still be used for one year. Four hundred and fifty pounds, or the Barbarian Potion formula."

Claw of Frost was quite good. It was probably made from materials taken from a Beyonder of the Chained Pathway. If its effects did not only last a year, it would probably cost far more than this...

As Abner silently evaluated it, someone else asked, "Does it have any negative effects?"

"Yes! Its negative effect is that, when used under a Full Moon, the user loses some rationality, though their strength also increases dramatically!" After answering, the lady continued before anyone could ask another question. "The second weapon is a Cane-Sword. Normally, it looks like an ironwood cane with gold trim, but if you recite 'Unsheathe' in Ancient Hermes, it immediately transforms into a Loen standard general's saber approximately ninety-five centimeters long. In cane form, it has almost no Beyonder Ability. It is merely very heavy, very sturdy, and difficult to destroy. But once it enters its longsword form, it enhances the user's strength and agility, allowing them to use their body to weaken some of the effects caused by supernatural forces."

"This weapon has almost no negative effects apart from being a little heavy, but in less than half a year, it will completely solidify into cane form. So it only costs one hundred and eighty pounds."

The gathering's participants clearly preferred Claw of Frost, and they began bidding one after another. In the end, Poison Rose bought it for five hundred and fifty pounds.

Abner, meanwhile, had his eye on the Cane-Sword. It was not simply because he could not afford Claw of Frost. More importantly, this weapon happened to make up for his current lack of strength, allowing him to gain some initial means of self-defense. A revolver was good, but it was useless if he could not hit anything. A longsword that enhanced strength and agility, combined with his rapidly improving combat skills, would truly be like adding wings to a tiger.

"Cane-Sword, one hundred and ninety pounds!" While Abner was still weighing the pros and cons, someone had already bid on the second weapon.

Abner's heart tightened, and he hurriedly raised the price. "Two hundred pounds."

The man who had bid earlier fell silent for a few seconds, then shrugged.

"Fine. It's yours."

Only then did Abner begin to realize something. Was that guy a shill?

But whether he was or not, the deal had already been made. Abner had no choice but to pay and take the item. Fortunately, it was the weapon he wanted, so he had not truly lost out. The other party probably feared raising the price too high and getting stuck with it, which was why he stopped while he was ahead.

Eye of Wisdom amusedly appraised the weapon's effects for his student, then nodded at him, indicating that the effects were basically genuine.

After painfully handing over two hundred pounds, Abner's assets had shrunk to two hundred and thirty-three pounds. That was only because his daily meals, lodging, and rituals were all covered at his teacher's home.

"Looks like I really need to sell a few charms and recoup some funds."

With that thought, before anyone else could speak, Abner took out three Brass Charms from his pocket. He looked around and said concisely, "Words of Confusion charms. Once activated, they can muddle an opponent's mind for one or two seconds. Even Mid-Sequence Beyonders will feel dazed. They last half a year. Thirty pounds each, three in total."

Words of Confusion was a name Abner had come up with for the charms on his way here. In his view, how could he sell them for a good price without a flashy name? Calling the effect "confusion" rather than "overload" was based on the same consideration. After all, there were illiterate Beyonders. What if some wealthy fool could not understand it?

As his teacher had expected, something capable of strongly controlling an opponent was highly attractive. People began raising the price. In the end, Poison Rose bought one for fifty pounds, Black Snake bought one for forty-five pounds, and the last was bought for fifty-five pounds by a newly arrived gentleman. Like Abner at the previous gathering, he had been brought in temporarily by Kaspars.

Having sold three charms for one hundred and fifty pounds, Abner immediately felt wealthy again. Unfortunately, several subsequent transactions involving the main ingredients for Sequence 7 Potions made him once again recognize the fact that he was poor...

After the gathering ended, Abner did not immediately return home with his teacher. Instead, he took a detour back to Bravehearts Bar. He had encountered a Wraith who was likely Miss Sharron during the day, so he wanted to ask Kaspars about it.

Kaspars was, as always, eating, drinking, and having fun. When he saw Abner approach, he seemed to have expected it and said directly, "That lady bears you no ill will. She even helped you clean up the traces you left behind. If you still have questions, you can go to Card Room No. 2 and find Maric. He and his companions are playing cards inside."

Abner opened his mouth, only to realize that Kaspars had already answered everything he wanted to ask. He could only cough as if to hide his embarrassment and quietly ask, "When did you get involved with such dangerous people?"

Kaspars stopped playing billiards and said gloomily, "My competitor recently found a new backer. I had no choice but to find someone to keep him in check."

Abner could hear the helplessness in his words and could only sigh. Nothing was easy. Unfortunately, he could barely protect himself right now and had no ability to shelter others.

As for asking Maric? Abner had never even considered it! What could he possibly ask when their strength was so unequal? Even Klein, the protagonist of the original story, had only earned the respect of the two Temperance Faction members after killing Master Luo, a Sequence 5, despite being at a lower Sequence.

After playing billiards in the bar for a while, Abner timed it carefully and arrived near Grant Clothing Store in Cherwood Borough. After waiting only five or six minutes at the corner by the intersection, he saw a figure sneak out of the clothing store.

The figure first looked around cautiously on the street before heading southeast.

"Is that Mr. Grant? Hmm, that build does look somewhat familiar..."

Abner waited a moment before following at neither too close nor too far a distance, intending to see where the man was going and what he was doing.

"He keeps looking around while walking, which means he is actually very nervous and afraid someone will see him. And he has almost no counter-surveillance awareness, to the point that he hasn't even noticed me following this closely..."

As he thought this, Abner followed the distant figure around a corner, then froze in disbelief. This was a four-way intersection, and there were no streetlights!

Under Backlund's thick smog, the moonlight was so hazy that it was almost nonexistent. Visibility was atrociously low! Under such circumstances, he had no idea which road Mr. Grant had taken...

"He has no counter-surveillance awareness, but my surveillance skills seem pretty terrible too..." After staring blankly and conducting a brief self-criticism, Abner could only randomly choose one of the branching roads and head down it.

When he still found no trace of Mr. Grant after crossing another two streets, Abner had no choice but to admit that he had lost him...

"This... that was humiliating! Fortunately, friends like Jane and Xio don't know about it." He sighed, gave up struggling, and headed toward Detective Isengard's home in Hillston District.

"What? Didn't find any clues? Or were you discovered?" Detective Isengard asked curiously when he saw his student return with his head hanging low.

"Neither... It was too dark... I lost him..." Abner answered haltingly.

"It seems you do not just need to make up for your mysticism knowledge. In a few days, we should put detective lessons on the agenda as well." Detective Isengard took a deep puff from his pipe before speaking. With skills like that, how could Abner call himself the student of the great detective Isengard?

Abner had no response, but he thought, Even if I immediately brush up on surveillance knowledge, it will probably be too late to give Jane an answer. Looks like I need to find another way!

His eyes shifted as an idea quickly came to him.

Thus, when Abner met Xio at a small restaurant in the East Borough the next morning, he made a very solemn request.

"Xio, can you do me a favor?"

"What favor?" Xio asked instinctively.

"Around eleven tonight, help me follow someone and see exactly what he goes off to do!"