Payment

Aosta forced a smile:

"I'm not lying to you, there really is Samaritan Woman Spring!"

"Is that so?" Lumian approached Aosta step by step, smiling as he said, "You'll have to take a sip first and see. If it works, you'll forget I haven't paid you yet; if it doesn't, why should I pay you?"

Aosta didn't know how to answer for a moment, so he could only force a smile and nod, saying, "Trust me, trust me..."

Suddenly, he looked behind Lumian, his eyes widening as if he had seen something terrifying.

Lumian "subconsciously" turned around and looked towards the doorway, but there was no one there.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Aosta ducked down, passed by him, and ran towards the open door.

Thump!

Aosta was tripped by Lumian's right foot, which had been extended out of nowhere, and fell straight to the ground. His high nose bridge turned blue, and his thin face swelled up.

Lumian slowly closed the door, pulled up a chair and sat down, looking down at Aosta was lying on the floor pretending to be dead, and said, "You don't want to tell me that you have a high level of intuition and just 'saw' some kind of strange creature behind me, and that you rushed to the door to help me deal with it?"

Aosta paused for a moment, then stood up and nodded repeatedly:

"Yes, yes, that's it!"

Lumian smiled and turned his gaze to the rectangular Wooden Table against the wall.

There were silver Dagger, white Candle, several small bottles containing different liquids or empty, two Imitation Sheepskin Paper, and cardboard boxes that smelled of herbs.

He has some knowledge of the Mysticism... Lumian withdrew his gaze and asked the uneasy Aosta, "Who was that guy with the Pipe just now?"

"Baron Brignais!" Aosta replied hastily, "He's the head of the Savoie Gang in the Market District."

Savoie is the name of an inland province in the Republic of Intis, bordering the provinces of Upper Hornacis Province and Lower Hornacis Province. It is rich in mineral resources and its people are known for their fierce and rugged character.

"Baron? There are still Baron now?" Lumian asked, amused.

Since the death of Emperor Roselle and the establishment of the Republic, Nobles titles have disappeared from daily life.

Aosta said with some fear, "That's a nickname he gave himself; perhaps his ancestors held such a title."

Lumian leaned back in his chair, looking quite relaxed, and asked, "Why is he looking for you? Do you owe them money?"

Seeing Lumian's harmless demeanor as he chatted casually with a friend, Aosta, though still frightened, felt a little more at ease.

He said bitterly, "I borrowed 3,000 Felkine from a moneylender to buy, buy, buy one item, and later that moneylender sold the debt to Brignais."

"I've already Felkine, but he's telling me there's still 2,000 in interest!"

"If you drag this out for another two or three months, the debt won't be 2,000, it'll be 4,000." Lumian successfully saw Aosta's expression collapse, his previous eccentric demeanor completely gone.

He then lowered his voice and said in Temptation tone, "If it were me, I would find a way to lure Brignais and the others underground, to some empty Quarry Cavern, and then collapse the top layer of stone, so that they Slumber there forever."

"Without creditors, there are no debts."

Aosta grew increasingly terrified as he listened, looking at Lumian as if he were a Devil.

He suspected that the other party had already planned to do this, only the target name in the plan was not Brignais, but Aosta Roul!

"This is murder! This is a crime!" Aosta cried out in terror.

"Keep your voice down, you don't want to lose the ability to speak forever, do you?" Lumian reminded the other person with a smile, "You know this is a crime, huh? Have the detectives told you that fraud is also a crime?"

Aosta couldn't find the right Vocabulary to respond.

Lumian stood up and dusted off his Gloves:

"Just kidding, I was just testing your character."

"What?" Aosta looked bewildered.

Lumian, of course, wouldn't tell him that the real reason he said those things was to establish a cold-blooded and terrifying image in his mind, which would be helpful for their later "communication."

Being forced to trust is still trust!

"Congratulations, you've passed my test. This proves you're not the kind of criminal who has no bottom line." Lumian smiled and stretched out his arms.

He abruptly steered the conversation back on track:

"What are you borrowing so much money for?"

He then looked around, adding as he examined the area, "There doesn't seem to be anything valuable here..."

Aosta instinctively opened his mouth, wanting to make up a Lie on the spot, but instantly remembered what the other person had just said.

He shuddered and said, "You... you know about Potion?"

"You really are Beyonder," Lumian laughed.

Seeing that he knew about Beyonder and Potion, Aosta secretly breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he hadn't lied earlier.

The story he tried to fabricate was full of holes and could be easily exposed by a true Beyonder, and in that case, he might have to "Slumber" in some corner of Underground Trier tonight.

Aosta took two deep breaths and said, "A few months ago, in order to buy the Main Ingredient for Potion, I borrowed 3,000 Felkine from a moneylender. Combined with the 4,000 Felkine I had saved, I successfully transformed from Ordinary Person into Beyonder."

"Which Sequence are you in? How come you can't even handle a few Gang Thug?" Lumian asked deliberately with a suspicious tone.

Aosta looked helpless:

"I am Sequence 9 ' Secret Supplicant '."

"Sounds pretty strong." Lumian made his judgment based solely on the Potion's name.

Aosta said with a mixture of grief and frustration, "I also think the ' Secret Supplicant ' must be very powerful. The seller even said it would allow me to see the true nature of the world."

"As a result, besides enhancing my inspiration, it also gave me some impractical sacrificial knowledge and Ritual Magic. Now, apart from occasionally sensing the presence of mysterious things and scaring myself half to death, I can't even beat a Gang member!"

"Ritual Magic should be very useful," Lumian said with the air of someone who had been through it all.

Aosta looked like he was about to cry.

"I have basic knowledge of Mysticism. I am a believer in the ' Eternal Blazing Sun. ' How can I pray to an unknown entity? That's dangerous!"

"Alas, the knowledge that comes with Potion does contain some Honorific Name, but they are all Hidden Being, and just hearing them is terrifying—things like ' Fallen Nature,' 'true familiars,' and ' the Gaze of Fate.' I dare not even pray for them!"

He glanced furtively at Lumian, feigning a gritted-teeth expression:

"But I've thought it through. If Baron Brignais and his ilk try to pressure me again, I'll pray to Hidden Being for power!"

He was referring to Baron Brignais, but in reality, he was warning Lumian not to push himself into a corner.

Looking at his anxious face, Lumian agreed, "That's a good choice."

"Baron Brignais and his ilk greatly underestimate an Beyonder. If it were me, I wouldn't have given you the chance to go down a dead end."

At this point, he smiled at Aosta:

"You were already dead before that."

Aosta opened his mouth and then closed it again, his expression even more unsightly than if he were crying.

Lumian walked to the Wooden Table, fiddled with the small bottles, some full and some empty, and casually said, "You seem to have moved several times, only to be found by Baron Brignais each time. I suspect he or the Savoie Gang have a real Beyonder."

Aosta was startled by what he heard.

Lumian picked up the silver Dagger on the table, and while playing with it, said to Aosta, "I can give you 100 Felkine as a reward."

"Huh?" Aosta felt bewildered once again.

He found himself constantly unable to keep up with the other person's train of thought.

"You... you still want the water from the Samaritan Woman Spring?" he asked tentatively.

Lumian smiled:

Tell me, is it really true?

Seeing the smile in the other person's eyes, Aosta hesitated for a few seconds before saying, "I'm not sure."

Lumian nodded in satisfaction:

"What I want is to take me to that party you just mentioned, the one where you buy the Main Ingredient Potion. The reward is 100 Felkine."

Lumian made this request for two reasons: firstly, Lady "Magician's" mission might be related to the gathering involving extraordinary materials; secondly, he himself needed a similar gathering to collect weapons, materials, Sealed Artifact, and Mysticism knowledge.

Aosta swallowed hard.

"I can try, but it has to be with the organizer's permission."

"No problem." Lumian took out a Gold Coin and gestured for Aosta to come over. "This Gold Louis is your reward for helping me inquire. I'll give you the remaining 80 Felkine when I can attend the party."

Aosta was momentarily stunned, not expecting that being brutally beaten would turn into a paid Commission.

After a few seconds, he cautiously approached the Wooden Table, took the Gold Louis worth 20 Felk, and said to Lumian, "I'm not sure when he'll give me an answer, but no later than next Wednesday."

"I spend my days near the Catacombs and sleep here at night. You can come find me anytime."

Lumian nodded with a smile, then raised the silver Dagger he had been playing with and plunged it into Aosta's shoulder with a swift motion.

Blood gushed out, and Aosta took two steps back in terror, leaning against the wall, and cried out urgently, "Don't kill me!"

I didn't lie!

Lumian picked up a Glass Vial from the Wooden Table and walked towards Aosta with a smile:

"Don't worry, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already."

"This is called swearing an oath in blood. I'm terrified of being deceived or betrayed."

As Lumian spoke, he brought the empty Glass Vial to Aosta's wound, letting the blood seep in drop by drop.

During this conversation, he smiled at Aosta and said, "You have enough knowledge of the Mysticism to know what blood on someone else's hands means. Don't lie to me."

"Curse..." Aosta was momentarily at a loss, unsure whether to be thankful for not dying on the spot or to Despair that his blood had fallen into the hands of this man who was even more dangerous Baron Brignais.

Lumian didn't say much. He tightened the bottle cap, grabbed a strip of cloth from the room, and tossed it to Aosta, saying, "Bandage your wound yourself."

He lacked the extraordinary skill in using Curse, but he could try to see if expired blood could trigger the "Fallen Mercury's " ability to Exchange Destiny.

It doesn't matter if he can't, as long as Aosta believes he can Curse.

Looking at Aosta, who was struggling to stop the bleeding, Lumian casually asked, "What are you planning to do about Baron Brignais?"

"With this Gold Louis, plus the little money I've saved myself, they should behave themselves for a week," Aosta said with a wry smile. "Even if they drive the debtors to their deaths, they won't get a single Kopek."