After arriving at the south bank of the Tussock River via the Steam subway, Klein hired a horse-drawn carriage to travel to Austen Cemetery on the outskirts of the South Borough, which was under the administration of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.
In the twilight, the trees surrounding the cemetery stretched out their claws, blocking out the light, like Monster lurking in the Evernight.
After accepting the 4 Soli from Klein, the coachman glanced at the cemetery and muttered a question:
Should I wait for you here?
"No, no need. I'm here to visit a friend," Klein casually made up an excuse, only to notice the coachman's expression suddenly change.
This is a cemetery... I've come to visit a friend... It's already dark... The driver could hear his heart pounding.
Klein then came to his senses and added with a smile:
He is the caretaker of this gravesite.
The coachman breathed a sigh of relief, but dared not linger any longer. He quickly spurred the horses on and drove away.
Klein then walked around most of the cemetery until night truly fell.
After dark, the amount of smoke and dust emissions decreased significantly, and with the biting cold wind, the fog in the air thinned considerably. Although few the Star were still visible, the crimson the Moon peeked out, casting a veil of light over the ground.
Klein tapped his chest four times clockwise to draw Crimson Moon, then put on his gloves, pressed and pushed his way over the iron fence, and entered the cemetery.
He looked around warily, casually found a secluded corner, took out the Azik Copper Whistle, and held it in his palm.
Not far in front of him was a tombstone, the photograph on it was dirty, and the epitaph was very blurry in the moonlight. Klein carefully examined it for a few seconds before he could figure out what it said:
"Friends passing by, please lend me a hand, thank you!"
What a humorous gentleman... You're the one! Klein stopped and leaned against the trees that sheltered the tomb from the sun and rain, patiently waiting in the cold, dark night.
He tossed the Azik Copper Whistle high into the air, caught it steadily, tossed it high again, caught it again, and passed the time like this until twenty minutes later.
There was no sign of the zombies turning into zombies... Klein snapped his pocket watch shut, surveyed his surroundings, and confirmed the result.
"Come back in a couple of days and see if there are any additional changes. If there really aren't, it means Mr. Azik's bronze whistle can't affect the corpses that have undergone the requiem rituals of the priests and pastors." Klein muttered to himself, putting the ancient and exquisite bronze whistle back into his pocket.
In the Kingdom of Loen, burials are generally divided into three types. The first type involves a coffin and a body, suitable for the relatively well-off upper-middle class. The second type involves cremation without a body, with the ashes placed in an urn for burial. This is the choice of the lower-middle class and skilled workers who can afford cremation but feel that a coffin is too wasteful. However, sometimes religious and governmental factors play a role. For example, believers of the Eternal Blazing Sun mostly choose cremation, while poor people who receive government assistance are all cremated and only charged a small fee.
The third type belongs only to the poor, who can't afford a coffin and don't want cremation, so they are buried in whatever they can find.
Klein had already deduced from the tombstone and the structure of the grave that his experimental subject was someone with a coffin and a corpse.
If the Azik Copper Whistle could truly turn the target into a zombie, even if the target had long since decomposed into bones, it wouldn't remain completely unresponsive. Even if it couldn't lift the coffin lid covered by thick soil and stone slabs, it could at least create a dull thumping sound.
Taking a step towards the fence, Klein suddenly remembered a flaw in the experiment he had just conducted:
"Hmm, we need to categorize them. These are bodies that have been buried for a long time; we also need to find a recently buried target."
"Only in this way can we make the most accurate judgment."
Afterwards, Klein and the gravedigger, carrying the secret treasure, found a tomb where the burial ceremony had only been completed during the day.
This time, he waited for half an hour but still found nothing unusual.
"Phew, it's basically safe to say that Mr. Azik's bronze whistle can't affect a corpse that has undergone a resurrection ritual. That's a bit weak. No, that's not right. This bronze whistle isn't meant to cause a zombie transformation. Its purpose is to summon a messenger. Affecting a corpse is a negative effect!" Klein tightened his double-breasted long dress and walked towards the iron fence.
He planned to go home to change his clothes before conducting the second set of experiments.
The second group's target was a body that had not undergone a requiem ritual and had died recently.
Such targets often reside in hospital morgues!
Climbing over the fence, Klein walked step by step back towards the South Borough in the desolate and deep night. The surroundings were deathly quiet and peaceful, with only the evergreen trees covered in dust swaying gently.
This reminded him of the night he had come back from the dead, when he was walking from the cemetery into the city.
Sigh... Klein sighed, then suddenly started running, as if trying to shake off that melancholy.
About half an hour later, he hired a horse-drawn carriage in the South Borough, with his destination being the nearest Steam subway station.
The Steam subway won't stop running for about an hour, which will save him a lot of money.
In the early hours of the morning, Klein changed into a gray-blue worker's uniform, put on a baseball cap, and went to Saint Einhorn Hospital in the Backlund Bridge Area, taking a roundabout route.
This is a charitable hospital belonging to the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.
Many impoverished people die here from illness, and since they have nowhere to put their bodies at home, they have to be stored in the hospital morgue, waiting for the government to cremate them or donate them to medical schools. This phenomenon is especially common in the summer, but not so common in the cooler autumn and winter.
However, in the days before air conditioning and low-temperature devices, hospital morgues wouldn't keep bodies for too long. Those willing to donate would be quickly embalmed, and those to be buried would be cleared out the next day. Of course, this was the rule in summer; things were much more relaxed in autumn and winter. So, during this period, there were still quite a few bodies in the morgue every night.
The morgue at Saint Einhorn Hospital is located on the basement level. Even in summer, it is quite cool, but in autumn and winter, it is chilly and damp.
Using the knowledge he had gained from the Nighthawks team and relying on the Clown's agility and balance, Klein skillfully infiltrated, avoiding the Doctor and nurses on duty, and entered the underground level.
Even before he got close to the morgue, he felt a chill and eeriness in the surroundings.
Quickly passing the Gatekeeper's room, Klein took out a wire and deftly unlocked the morgue door.
This is one of the techniques for infiltration and tracking!
He slowly and silently pushed open the morgue door with his right hand, which was gloved in black. At the same time, he released his Spirituality, enveloping the Azik Copper Whistle, trying to confirm whether this method could eliminate the negative effects.
The temperature inside the morgue seemed even lower than in the corridor. Most of the deceased were in body bags, placed in different metal cabinets around the perimeter, with only a few placed on a long table in the central open space, as if awaiting inspection.
As Sequence 8 " Clown ", Klein was no longer afraid of this kind of scene, but he instinctively felt uncomfortable.
He remained cautious, carefully closing the door and circling the long tables again and again.
After more than ten minutes, Klein exhaled a cold breath, confirming that the corpse had not undergone any unusual changes.
That's about it... He took out his gold-cased pocket watch, turned it on, and glanced at it.
After making preparations, Klein withdrew his Spirituality and no longer used it to wrap the Azik Copper Whistle.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he inexplicably felt that the surroundings had become even quieter.
As Seer, he fully trusted his instincts, stopped pacing back and forth, and retreated to the vicinity of the gate.
Time ticked by, and Klein estimated that about two minutes had passed.
Just then, a corpse on the long table suddenly sat up!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A series of rapid, pounding sounds then emanated from the surrounding metal cabinets, as if something was about to hatch!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Klein, hearing the commotion and seeing the corpses sitting up, suddenly spoke in a low voice:
"Crimson!"
Immediately afterwards, he infused the " Requiem Charm " with Spirituality and threw it out.
The icy blue flames burned silently, and a peaceful, gentle blackness spread out. The corpses lay down again, and the clattering sounds coming from the iron cabinet abruptly stopped.
Having experienced a similar situation before, Klein did not let his guard down and used another " Requiem Charm ".
Because there were so many corpses here, he used a third one just to be on the safe side, using up all the ones he had on him.
"Not bad... As expected, it only affects corpses that haven't undergone a requiem ritual and have only recently died, including Living Corpse. Covering them with Spirituality can block this effect." Klein thought with a smile.
Seeing that the body showed no further unusual reaction, he prepared to pull the door open and leave.
At that moment, he suddenly heard footsteps outside and saw a faint light seeping inside.
The old gatekeeper, drawn by the clattering sounds from inside the morgue, picked up his lantern and approached.
Klein looked around, placed his hand on the door, and nimbly leaped and climbed, stopping at the gap between the door and the ceiling.
He maintained a remarkably good balance, his fingers digging into the bumps and crevices.
Squeak!
The old gatekeeper used his key to open the gate and entered the morgue.
He took a few steps forward, raised the lantern, and examined the iron cabinet and the long table, as well as the corpses.
Behind him, Klein leaped down nimbly, landing silently.
Seizing the opportunity, Klein quickly escaped from the morgue, first hiding in the Gatekeeper's small room for a few seconds before cautiously returning to the upper floor.
The old gatekeeper checked the body thoroughly but found nothing unusual. He muttered something intimidatingly about the corpse, then quickly left, locked the gate, and didn't linger.
Back in the cell, he wrapped himself in a thin blanket and it took him several minutes to calm his racing heart. He muttered a few self-deprecating words to himself:
"Those old guys always tell me about strange things that happened in the morgue, trying to scare me. That weird sound just now probably counts too, but nothing happened, and those corpses didn't come back to life!"
"Pah! There are no Living Corpse or Wraith like that!"
Meanwhile, Klein was strolling leisurely down the quiet, somber street, pleased to have eliminated a potential threat.
He glanced at the elegant gas streetlights on both sides, filled with anticipation for the upcoming gathering of Beyonder.
If he can obtain a weapon with special effects, he can acquire one of the main materials for " The Magician "!
Hmm... Although I don't have much money right now, I still have quite a few assets that I can exchange, such as the recipe for the " Mind Reader " Potion, and the recipes for " Bard " and " Light Suppliant ". As for my progress in digesting the " Clown " Potion, due to a series of events and my understanding of the essence of the Acting, it is much faster than expected and is close to completion... On the streets of Backlund at night, Klein's thoughts wandered aimlessly.