Mysterious: The Innate Sacred Body of Destiny

Chapter 56 The Gears of Fate Continue to Turn

circus.

After the witch incident ended, there were no new missions, and today was the circus's day off, so there were no demanding performances.

The circus crew fell into a long-lost calm.

The magician also felt a rare moment of leisure. He picked up his coffee, took a sip, and stared intently at the notes on his desk.

He had heard of this Antigonus family notebook and was well aware of the potential consequences.

He looked at it very carefully, even using a book-turning stick to turn the pages, for fear that even a trace of extra spirituality might taint it.

He plans to take these notes back and hand them in when the mission ends in a few days, and he intends to study them during this last period of time.

"Boss!"

Hearing his subordinate's voice, the magician frowned slightly, gently closed the book, and looked somewhat displeased.

He didn't like being disturbed during these rare moments of peace and quiet.

"Boss, you're reading this book again?" the clown said with a smile.

"Yes, it needs to be submitted in two days."

"Things went pretty smoothly that night, I thought there would be a fierce battle." The Joker looked on with a nostalgic expression.

The night they obtained the notebook was quite magical. None of the circus crew expected that the Night Watchers and the Secret Order would both suffer heavy losses, and they managed to snatch the notebook with almost no effort.

"However, the captain of that night watchman was actually quite capable." The magician suddenly sighed as he recalled that mission.

"Really?" The clown asked curiously, as his boss rarely praised his enemies.

"Even though he was injured, he was still able to launch an effective counterattack. If I hadn't been prepared, I would have almost been dragged into my dream."

"This is definitely not something an ordinary 'nightmare' could do."

"You didn't come here just to chat, did you?" The magician quickly changed the subject, glancing at his subordinate.

"Boss... what did the higher-ups say about that witch?"

The magician picked up his coffee, took a sip, and used those few seconds to ponder before answering.

"The assessment is not a failure."

"Then my..." The clown was somewhat delighted, but was interrupted by the magician before he could say something.

"But it can't be considered a success either."

"What? What does this mean?" The clown's smile froze instantly.

"The literal meaning." He sighed, glancing at his unruly magician subordinate.

"Although that witch named Sharon is dead, we didn't kill her."

"So the assessment was naturally unsuccessful." The magician picked up his coffee and took another sip.

"But didn't we injure her?"

"And if that team of night watchmen hadn't suddenly appeared, that witch definitely wouldn't have been able to escape."

"Forehead……"

Upon hearing this, the magician recalled that night when, after the failed sneak attack, the clown recklessly rushed forward, only to be tied up with silk threads and thrown off the building by the witch, leaving him alone to deal with her.

Seeing his subordinate's indignant face, the magician restrained himself from losing his temper, picked up his coffee, and drank it all in one gulp.

"You want to ask about the promotion, right?"

"Uh...yes." The clown was a little embarrassed that his thoughts had been seen through, but he still nodded.

"Sigh, I'm not in a hurry, why are you?"

"What, you want to stand on my head?" The magician deliberately adopted a displeased tone.

"Of course not." Upon hearing the boss's words, the clown quickly waved his hand.

"What I mean is, my 'Clown' potion has been fully digested, and..."

Even after the potion is fully digested, it still needs time to settle.

"And..." the magician sighed.

"The higher the sequence, the more trouble you'll encounter. As for you..."

Looking at his impetuous subordinate, the magician really didn't think it was a good idea for him to be promoted so quickly. This kid completely lacked the composure that a "diviner" should have.

"It won't make a difference if we stay in a couple of days."

Unlike his subordinates' eagerness, he wasn't in a hurry to be promoted to magician.

He also knew something about the Seer's Sequence 6, "Faceless Man." He knew that "Faceless Man" had the ability to change his appearance, but frankly, he wasn't particularly interested in this ability.

Moreover, if you are promoted to Sequence 6, the difficulty of the dispatch missions will definitely increase.

The ability to change one's appearance will most likely lead to being assigned to the intelligence department, where the job is either to be a spy to gather intelligence or to infiltrate other organizations as an undercover agent.

These tasks are far more dangerous than the current job of mentoring newcomers.

So after considering everything, he lost his ambition.

Unlike young people eager for promotion, the magician understood a principle long ago.

In extraordinary fields, it's incredibly fortunate to be able to emerge unscathed; anything more is simply wishful thinking.

"Boss, what are our plans when we get back?" The Joker smiled again after his initial frustration.

"He might be transferred to the special operations department, or he might continue to be deployed overseas."

Of course, there's also a chance that I'll stay in Backlund and do some auxiliary tasks, since I heard that Backlund is short-handed recently.

The magician's tone was somewhat uncertain.

"I can't say for sure about these things; I can only follow the instructions from above."

"Huh? Support missions don't award much merit..." The clown muttered under his breath upon hearing the magician's words.

Merit points are the main source of potion recipes, while merit points from side quests are pitifully small.

"Can't we just say something more?" The clown wanted to say something more.

"Captain, there's a telegram for you."

The fortune teller suddenly walked in, interrupting their conversation.

"Okay, I'm coming right away." The magician put down his coffee cup, leaned forward, and stood up.

Don't be too hasty.

Before leaving, he turned around and gave the clown a special piece of advice.

"There will be many more opportunities in the future, think about it carefully."

After his boss left, the clown's smile gradually faded.

Clearly, the long-awaited promotion fell through, which made him anything but happy.

"We don't necessarily have to wait for the recipe from above. Maybe I can..."

The clown looked at the black-covered notebook left behind by the magician.

Perhaps because he was in a hurry, the magician did not put it away.

The clown instinctively reached out and stroked the black cover.

"It's said that the Antigonus family came from the 'diviner' path, and this notebook is so mysterious, perhaps..."

……

To solve the problem of feeding both herself and her cat, Lorne ultimately decided to take the risk and go shopping.

Watching Rachi devour its food, Lorne gently crouched down and stroked its back.

"Thinking about it that way, Laki is really clever!"

"Not only can it help me fight, but it can also go to the toilet by itself, and even use the toilet seat."

The thought of toilets made Lorne's face twitch. Others might not know, but for him, toilets in this era were truly...

And the rough texture of the toilet paper, and its tendency to tear at any moment, it was just too...

"Sigh, let's not think about that anymore, let's think about important things."

Compared to the beaming Laki, his expression now looked much more melancholy.

He thought about it carefully and realized that there were too many strange things happening recently.

"This city is more dangerous than I imagined..."

"Why don't we just leave..."

"But... it's still unclear whether that voyeuristic entity has been dealt with by the authorities."

"And my notebook..."

Lorne was conflicted. If he could, he really didn't want to give up that notebook. It might contain too much value. If it really contained a higher-sequence potion recipe, then he would never have to worry about anything in the future.

"No, I have to do something."

……

Suburbs of Tinggen.

Lorne found an open space and began training himself.

He pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the wooden barrel in front of him.

After some thought, Lorne decided that he needed to improve his combat abilities, otherwise he would have no ability to fight back when faced with danger.

The "machine" has no direct combat capabilities, nor does it have any special enhancements in combat; it simply improves some physical attributes.

He also considered undergoing some so-called combat training.

However, self-learning those things is not very effective, and some special fighting techniques require a professional teacher to be effective.

As things stand, Lorne simply doesn't have the necessary conditions.

Given the current situation, practicing shooting is the only viable option. Although there is no professional guidance, with the "machine's" ability boost, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a feel for shooting.

Moreover, this special revolver doesn't require bullets to fire, saving you money on consumables.

Lorne held the gun with both hands, aimed at the target in front of him, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

The initial recoil made his hand go numb, and a burst of black flame erupted, scorching the wooden barrel not far away to ashes.

"Bang! Bang!"

"Bang!"

Next came another black flame, followed by a black ice attack.

……

After a few shots, the wooden barrels used as targets were all completely destroyed.

When ice and fire collide, a burst of scorching steam fills the surroundings.

"Five out of six... This result is better than Lorne expected."

The "machine" improved his shooting skills better than expected; even someone like him who had never practiced could achieve good accuracy.

The only shot that missed wasn't too far off; it merely grazed the target.

Through this practice, Lorne also discovered a small flaw in the gun: it needed to pause for a period of time after every 6 shots, making it unable to fire continuously at high intensity.

However, this is not entirely a bad thing. This gun consumes more spiritual energy than Lorne had imagined, and his spiritual energy would not be able to hold up if he did not stop for even a moment.

The gun practice went smoothly, but Lorne had a question.

"I could fire bullets smoothly during practice, so why couldn't I fire them at all before?"

"This time, I only failed to score once after several rounds of practice."

"Last time, when I tried to ambush that policeman, I couldn't fire two shots in a row."

"Could it be that this pistol only fails at crucial moments...?"

For a moment, Lorne had the idea of ​​selling it.

"Sigh, forget it. It is an extraordinary weapon after all. Such things are rare and hard to come by."

Unfortunately, the "machine's" combat capabilities are simply too mediocre.

In Lorne's view, the only outstanding point might be that "machines" have a higher spiritual intuition, and are estimated to be the type with higher inspiration in Sequence 8.

But this is just an estimate; he doesn't have a specific comparison to show how much higher it is.

Moreover, powerful and extraordinary weapons are not something you can just buy whenever you want.

There's one that's barely usable, so let's just make do with it.

"Let me give you a name." Lorne raised the pistol, examining its alluring silver-gray pattern.

"Hmm... let's call it Phantom."

As he looked at the pattern on the pistol, Lorne's face drew closer, his nose twitching slightly.

The smell of smoke mixed with a faint, pleasant fragrance was inexplicably intoxicating.

"Thank goodness, I almost succumbed to temptation again."

Looking at the "Phantom" in his hand, Lorne felt a little scared. The negative effect of tempting the user from time to time was indeed a bit of a rip-off.

"Looks like we still need to be careful when using it."

……

Blackthorn Security Company

Klein was sitting alone behind Charness's door, feeling utterly bored.

"I wonder how Benson and Melissa are doing. I haven't been back for a few days. Are they worried about me?"

"Although Leonard had already informed my family that I had to go on a business trip out of town due to company arrangements..."

"They'll probably complain about how inhumane the company is, not giving them any notice at all."

"Perhaps Benson will feel a little gratified, gratified that his younger brother has grown up."

Thinking of his family's faces, Klein sighed.

"If this goes on for any longer, this reason might not work."

"Besides, if the truth about my time travel is discovered, they might also be isolated and investigated..."

Thinking of some possibilities, Klein clenched his fists. He really didn't want his brother and sister to be implicated because of him.

Frye told me we should wait until the captain returned before discussing our own matters. Captain... Thinking of Dunn Smith's face, Klein felt both relieved and terrified.

He wasn't sure how he should feel when facing his captain.

Just as he was lost in thought, the basement door slowly opened.

"Klein, are you alright?"

"Leonard? What brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be off these past few days?" Klein was somewhat surprised to see the visitor. He hadn't expected the usually lazy Leonard to come to the company on his day off.

"I came to see you, how are you doing?"

"Everything is normal now after the Charness incident."

Leonard nodded and said:

"You're not a 'sleepless person,' so you might not be used to being in this kind of environment for a long time. I was a little worried, so I came to check it out."

"Actually, it's alright. After all, I'm a Sequence 8, so there's no problem." Klein smiled, finding some comfort in his teammates' concern.

"that……"

"Klein, I know you won't betray the goddess."

"Of course," Klein nodded.

"Leonard, is there something you want to say to me?" Klein asked, noticing Leonard's hesitant expression.

"It's not a big deal."

"I want to ask you something?" Leonard looked at Klein.

"you say."

Do you know Lorne Disenke?

"what?"