Chapter 116: Chapter 69: Preparations (2)
After half an hour of walking, I finally arrived at the market for supernatural goods. In front of me stood a row of tightly packed stalls, each overflowing with strange items copper plates, glass jars filled with vividly colored liquids, and even gemstones displayed neatly on the shelves.
Where do they even get all this stuff?
I wandered through the crowd, looking for a specific list of items. Unfortunately, the original Jevan hadn’t left me any directions or the exact locations of the stalls that sold these things. He left me to figure it out on my own. I needed animal blood, a set of playing cards, and several small knives items that, on the surface, seemed meaningless, yet were extremely important to me.
After a while, I stopped in front of a stall filled with bottles of blood in different sizes and colors. I wanted to ask the vendor where he got them, but I ignored that thought for now. I bought two vials of rabbit blood, then moved to another stall and purchased several packs of playing cards, followed by a set of small knives.
When I finished buying everything, I counted my money and was surprised to find that I still had plenty left, even though the things I bought weren’t cheap at all. It seemed Corvin had been far more generous than I expected.
A strange man, really but he had a small heart of silver. Maybe I’d return the extra money to him... or maybe I wouldn’t. I mean, I still needed to prepare anyway, but whatever it wasn’t a big deal. I’d pay him back eventually.
I hurried back to the inn, and when I arrived, I entered my room. I quickly removed the mask and placed it on the table, then pulled the notebook from my coat pocket and began searching for the section I wanted—the section about crafting low quality System pieces.
There were specific symbols for each Authority, and by engraving these symbols onto objects and then charging them with Authority energy, one could create a low quality System piece. The efficiency of the piece depended on the quality of the material used, the precision of the engraving, and the accuracy of execution.
If the conditions weren’t met properly or if you charged it with too much Authority power it could explode right in your face.
On the other hand, if you charged it with a small amount of Authority power, you’d get weak tools that could only perform small tricks before their energy ran out.
These pieces were rarely used by anyone because they were hard to make and mostly useless in general.
But the original Jevan had found a clever way to make use of them by drawing the symbols on anything, literally anything, without charging them with Authority energy. Those pieces acted as amplifiers for high quality System pieces. This method didn’t work for all System pieces, though; it only worked with certain ones.
I set the notebook aside, then began organizing the tools in front of me on the table the blood vial, the playing cards, and even the glove. After that, I reopened the notebook and flipped quickly through the pages until I found the ones containing the symbols of the different Authorities. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much information about the Madness Authority or the Law Authority, just scattered explanations and incomplete symbols.
And that made perfect sense. If the original Jevan had managed to gather every detailed piece of information about these Authorities, I’d probably be more afraid for my own life. That would’ve meant he’d lived a far more dangerous life than I thought.
I just hope he didn’t make enemies with insane power like that demonic being who enjoys toying with people.
I removed the glove from my hand, opened a blank page in another notebook, and began copying the symbols. At first, my attempts were disastrous. The symbols looked like they’d been drawn by a blind child raised in the woods by bears. I tore the page and tried again several times, each time getting closer to reproducing the symbols accurately. Finally, I looked at my work and smiled proudly.
"There we go a perfect copy. Or at least, it doesn’t look like a blind child’s scribbles."
I opened the vial of blood, dipped a short stick I had pulled from my pocket into it, then picked up one of the playing cards and began painting the symbols on it with blood. When I finished, I made sure all the lines were connected, then put the glove back on and muttered:
"The first rule: cheating is forbidden here."
In the next moment, a red thread emerged from the glove. It connected to the card and turned into a red chain. I looked at it and said:
"It worked on the first try? What a genius this Jevan was."
I deactivated the Law Authority, and the chain vanished. Then I picked up a small dagger and repeated the same process I had done on the playing card, and the same result happened again.
When I tried applying it to the mask that held the Madness Authority, however, nothing happened at all. I removed the mask, set it down on the floor in front of me, and tried several more times on different playing cards but to no avail.
"Well, looks like the Madness Authority doesn’t work with this method."
I sighed, fiddling with one of the daggers that had the Law Authority symbols engraved on it. Then a thought crossed my mind:
"Can I make a System piece that holds the Miracles Authority?"
The idea sounded strange which made it worth trying. The problem was, I didn’t know the symbols for that Authority, nor did I possess any System piece linked to it. I wish I... I mean, I hoped I had a System piece containing the Miracles Authority it would make things so much easier.
When I thought about it, I remembered that the younger Jevan used to wear a silver necklace. I had a theory that it held the Miracles Authority. And when I looked down at my chest, there it was a silver necklace hanging there.
I reached out and grabbed it. I remembered that I’d been wearing it ever since the very first day I took over Jevan’s body.
"Well... looks like I’ve had a System piece of the Miracles Authority from the very start."
But how the hell did I forget about this necklace?