After delivering lunch and filling his stomach, Klein only rested for a little over half an hour before rushing off to the shooting club to practice firearms, not daring to relax for even a moment.
After firing thousands of rounds and persisting day after day, his shooting level has finally reached Dunn Smith considers the passing grade, especially on stationary targets.
After practicing mechanically again and again, he put away his revolver, took a public tram to the vicinity of his martial arts instructor Gawain's residence, and walked to the front door in ten minutes.
Next, he changed into his freshly dried cycling practice clothes and practiced everything from running, skipping rope, weightlifting, and squats to footwork and punching, until he was drenched in sweat and exhausted.
"Take a fifteen-minute break." Gawain, with blond hair, white Gawain, and a weathered face, took out his pocket watch, snapped it open, and glanced at it.
From the Original until now, he has remained silent, only speaking up to offer a few words of advice when changing training methods or when Klein's movements are not performed correctly.
Klein, panting heavily, didn't dare to rest immediately and started walking back and forth slowly—the most obvious effect of his recent combat training was that his skin had darkened considerably, turning into what is known as a wheat color.
Gawain put away his pocket watch, stood by the rugged training ground behind the house, crossed his arms, and watched Klein relax, as quiet as a marble statue.
"Teacher, besides hand-to-hand combat, will you also teach me how to use a straight sword, greatsword, rapier, and spear?" Klein had just finished digesting the " Potion " Seer, was in a good mood and asked the question.
He had seen straight swords, rapiers, breastplates, and full body armor in Gawain's collection room, and knew that the other man was not only skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
Bathed in sunlight, Gawain glanced at him and said in a low voice:
"Learning these things is useless to you; they're all outdated and will only exist in museums and private collections in the future..."
He paused for a few seconds, then added in a weary tone, "They're obsolete... You should focus on firearms; even in hand-to-hand combat, they're just supplementary."
Klein glanced at the listless-looking martial arts instructor and chuckled.
I don't think so.
"All the ministers, all the members of parliament, all the generals think so," Gawain said through gritted teeth.
Klein stopped in his tracks, pretending to be typing, and spoke fluently like a true keyboard master:
"No, they've only withdrawn from the main battlefield; they still have other uses."
"Why must hand-to-hand combat and firearms be seen as opposites? They can absolutely be combined. I believe that more agile, quicker-witted individuals can better utilize firearms."
Seeing Gawain's eyes sharpen from their silence, Klein continued with a hint of smugness:
Other weapons haven't been phased out either, they just need some improvements to make them easier to carry...
"... We can organize a highly mobile force to bypass the main battlefield and strike directly at the enemy's rear, their core... In such small-scale raids, Warrior with excellent hand-to-hand combat skills and proficiency in various weapons can play a crucial role; you can imagine the scenario..."
He used his jack-of-all-trades knowledge to haphazardly describe the combat methods of special forces on Earth.
Gawain's breathing had become heavy at some point. He stood there, motionless, seemingly unwilling to break the scene he had imagined.
Klein glanced at the other person's reaction, chuckled to himself, cleared his throat, and said with feigned composure:
"Teacher, what do you think of my idea? Is it possible for it to be realized?"
Gawain's body visibly trembled, as if he had finally woken from a dream. He gave Klein a deep look and spoke in a low voice:
"Your rest was very effective. Now, redo all ten sets of the previous exercises."
"Huh?" Klein looked bewildered.
Soon, as he started running again, he came to his senses and shouted wildly in his heart:
Ten groups? Teacher, no!
I don't want to celebrate completely digesting the " Seer " Potion in this way!
Hey, didn't you feel anything?
Watching Klein run to the other side of the training field, Gawain suddenly loosened his arms and covered his face with one hand.
His eyes were tightly closed, and the wrinkles on his face were deep and striking.
Klein, who was almost exhausted to the point of vomiting again, took a shower, changed his clothes, said goodbye to the still silent martial arts instructor Gawain, and left his residence by public carriage.
Instead of going straight home, he headed to the Evil Dragon Bar in the Dock Borough, intending to check the prices of extraordinary materials in the underground trading market and buy items to make talismans.
Along the way, Klein, mindful of the little vault he carried with him, forced himself to stay awake and barely made it to his destination.
"I need to leave 4 pounds as a final payment for the commission; I only have 3 pounds 5 Soli at my disposal..." He touched the banknotes in his pocket, picked up his cane, and stepped out of the carriage.
By this time, the Sun had begun to set, and the Twilight glow bathed all the houses. Inside the Evil Dragon Bar, the "boxing" and "dog-and-mouse" matches were warming up.
After passing through the billiards room and through a series of rooms, Klein entered the underground trading market.
He glanced around but didn't spot the " Monster " Admisol, who was always active there.
"Didn't Old Neil say that the ' Monster ' only survived Swain, the owner of the Evil Dragon Bar, took him in and gave him food?" Klein muttered to himself, slightly puzzled.
As a Nighthawks, he was wary of such things, so he approached the burly man guarding the door and asked:
Where is Admisol?
The burly man replied without a smile, "I don't know where he's hiding and sleeping. He's been like this lately, always lying there trembling, constantly yelling, 'Dead, dead, all corpses, everyone's going to die.'"
What scene did he see? What trauma did he experience? Klein frowned slightly and asked a few questions, trying to find out where Admisol was sleeping, but the guard didn't know either.
"Once I'm done with this, I'll use Divination to find him and see what happened to him..." Klein noted this down and walked towards one of the two rooms at the end of the trading market.
According to Old Neil, the room on the left was used for lending and repayment, while the room on the right was where valuable items, including extraordinary materials, were sold and acquired.
Klein knocked on the door of the room on the right and found that it was divided into two rooms, with three customers waiting in the outer room.
He lowered his half-high silk hat, sat down in order behind the three customers, leaned forward, rested his hand on his cane, and waited in silence.
Not long after, the partition door opened, and a customer dressed in a blue-gray dockworker's uniform came out. He lowered his head and left in a hurry without lingering.
Klein tapped his left teeth together twice, used his " Spirit Vision " to look at him, and glanced at the other three customers. Nothing too unusual happened, although some minor ailments were still present.
After another ten minutes or so, it was finally his turn.
He opened the partition door and went into the inner room, where a kerosene lamp was lit.
He locked the door, sat down in the customer's chair, and looked at the elderly man wearing a black soft hat opposite him, saying:
"I'd like to know what extraordinary materials you have, and what their prices are."
The old man had sagging cheek muscles and deep wrinkles around his eyes, but he was quite burly. He wasn't surprised by Klein's request, because many customers didn't want to know what they wanted to buy until they were certain they had a special material; they usually wanted a full description.
The old man flipped to the latest pages of his notebook, glanced at Klein, picked up the mead in front of him, took a sip, and said:
" Water Ghost brain tissue, depending on its completeness, ranges from 3 to 15 pounds; Star Crystal, 150 pounds per 50 grams; Queen Bee Grass, 200 pounds per plant; adult Black-spotted Frog, 170 pounds each... Human-faced Rose, 280 pounds, only one bloom..."
Klein controlled his emotions and listened quietly to the old man's explanation, only to discover that this underground trade involved fewer than thirty extraordinary materials.
Klein touched the 7-pound note in his pocket, then thought about Miss Justice's attitude towards 1000 pounds, Klein stood up, sighing:
"I'm sorry, I don't have what I'm looking for."
Before the old man could ask any questions, he quickly turned around, opened the partition door, and went out.
Back in the underground trading market, Klein stared ahead for a few seconds, then silently sighed with a wry smile:
"I'm probably the poorest boss of Concealment organization..."
This further solidified his idea of obtaining materials from within the Nighthawks or exchanging them with Justice or the Hanged Man.
After circling the underground market twice, Klein selected and purchased materials for making talismans, such as semi-finished silver sheets, herbal powders and natural minerals needed for the corresponding rituals, spending a total of 1 pound 15 Soli.
He had a total of Soli 5.10 in savings left. After deducting the remaining balance from the entrusted payment, he was left with Soli 1.10... Klein calculated his financial situation, feeling a sense of helplessness.
Of course, he was well aware that this was only because he had been working for a little over a month. If he extended the timeframe to a year, he could still save up more than a hundred pounds.
"In two weeks, I'll have to tell Benson and Melissa that I've earned an extra 3 pounds, enough to hire a maid... that way I won't have any savings..." Klein thought to himself as he walked toward the main entrance of the underground market.
Just then, he saw Old Neil, dressed in a black classic robe, slowly walk in.
"Have you bought everything?" Old Neil greeted him with a smile.
"Yes," Klein answered readily.
Old Neil clicked his tongue and said, "You're here really early."
"That's because I'm still hungry, while you've already had dinner," Klein said casually to Old Neil.
After a while, Swain, the owner of the Evil Dragon Bar, dressed in a naval officer's uniform, came in from outside, approached the two with a serious expression, and lowered his voice:
"I need your help."
"What happened?" Old Neil suddenly became serious, and Klein's heart involuntarily tightened.
Swain, with his disheveled brown hair and a strong smell of alcohol, replied in a deep voice:
"A member of the ' Mandated Punishers ' squad has gone out of control nearby. We must take him down before he harms ordinary people!"