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"I thought you weren't interested in this topic."
"It is indeed related. Adjacent Pathways that can be interchanged are different manifestations of a systematic authority."
Bernadette listened quietly, neither expressing an opinion nor asking further questions. The scene fell silent for a moment. After several seconds of quiet, she mused, "You know a lot. Aren't you worried that I'll doubt your identity because of it?"
"These were originally things I was going to tell you after you became an Angel."
Leyton waved his hand indifferently.
At this moment, all the invisible servants Bernadette had sent out returned. Each of them carried multiple Beyonder characteristics, Mystical Items, and many materials.
With just a quick glance, Leyton already saw three cursed items from Ancient Wraiths, two Human-skin Shadow characteristics, two portions of Ancient Wraith dust, and many Meteorite Crystals and Psychedelic Wind Chime Tree Fruits.
There was even a lost Worm of Time. There were also many Beyonder characteristics and Mystical Items, totaling more than ten.
"Let's leave."
Bernadette made a beckoning gesture, and a pumpkin carriage drove out from the illusory. The invisible servants placed the collected items onto it one by one. After Leyton and Bernadette also stepped onto the carriage, the pumpkin carriage quickly drove into the Spirit World and headed into the distance.
Cherwood Borough, Minsk Street.
A pumpkin carriage emerged from the Spirit World and stopped in Leyton's living room.
"What a huge pumpkin! I want to grow a pumpkin that big too!"
In the living room, Bugs Bunny said excitedly, looking at the pumpkin carriage.
"You're a rabbit, you should grow carrots," the crow interjected with a somewhat sharp voice.
"Only children make choices. I'm already a mature rabbit… I can grow both."
Leyton stepped off the carriage and patted the crow's head beside him, saying, "Call your Natural Spirits and take the things off the carriage."
"Okay, Boss."
A faint, eerie glow reflected in the crow's dark eyes. Inside the house, Natural Spirits, invisible in form, emerged from every corner.
They swarmed into the carriage, taking out the items one by one and arranging them neatly on the coffee table.
Several Natural Spirits holding Ancient Wraith dust and cursed items reluctantly put down the items in their hands, as if these items from Ancient Wraiths had an instinctive pull on them.
Thump-thump! Two short knocks on the door sounded.
Bugs Bunny hopped over to open the door.
Klein took off his semi-tall silk top hat, politely greeted Bugs Bunny, and then walked into the living room.
The first thing he saw was the pile of Beyonder materials and characteristics, and many Mystical Items, placed on the coffee table.
The light he saw through his Spirit Vision was even a bit dazzling. Klein paused for a moment, quietly closed his Spirit Vision, and clicked his tongue slightly, saying, "...So many?"
"The Beyonder characteristics and Mystical Items came from the Beyonders who entered to explore before us. None of them managed to successfully leave that mausoleum."
Leyton said with a hint of emotion in his voice.
He then turned his gaze to Bernadette, pointed at her, then at himself and Klein, and tentatively asked, "How about we split it? You get half, and the two of us get the other half."
"Alright." Bernadette nodded lightly.
Phew~ Leyton breathed a sigh of relief, pointed at the gains on the table, and chuckled, "Ladies first."
Bernadette didn't stand on ceremony. She walked straight to the grayish-white amber that enveloped the Ghost Painting Frame, slowly picked it up, and handed it to an invisible servant following behind her.
Indeed, compared to Amon's portrait, the Ghost Painting Frame was her first choice.
Sighing inwardly, Leyton also stepped forward and picked up the portrait that was sealed by a black, viscous, liquid-like curtain.
Having obtained the item he most desired, Leyton relaxed considerably. He turned to Klein beside him and said, "You take the next one."
"No problem." Klein nodded lightly in response.
Picking and choosing, the three quickly divided all the gains.
Bernadette summoned several invisible servants to move her share of the gains onto the pumpkin carriage.
As she left, she didn't forget to say, "You can call me again next time."
"Certainly… The Aurora Order's time to summon the True Creator is approaching. You'd best not leave Backlund recently."
Leyton nodded slightly, casually reminding her. Their agreed cooperation was about to begin.
As Bernadette's pumpkin carriage departed, the pressure in the living room significantly decreased.
Bugs Bunny quickly pounced on a light green, plant-root-like object in front of Klein:
"I want this! This one!"
"This is a Biologist's Beyonder characteristic. How about I exchange it with you?"
Leyton turned to Klein, explained the reason for Bugs Bunny's excitement, and proposed exchanging this characteristic.
"No problem."
Klein nodded lightly. He had noticed Bugs Bunny's excited expression earlier and was worried that Bernadette might also need this characteristic, which was why he had taken it in advance. Anyway, there was nothing he urgently needed among these gains.
After a series of exchanges, Leyton ended up with three Mystical Items and one Biologist's Beyonder characteristic. The remaining Beyonder materials and characteristics went to Klein.
Klein pointed at a Mystical Item casually placed on the coffee table and asked, "What does that semi-mechanical glove do? You seemed very keen on getting it just now."
"I don't know the effect yet, I haven't had time to check, but it corresponds to the Artisan characteristic, which is what people commonly call a Artisan."
Who in their right mind would let a Artisan explore a clearly dangerous mausoleum!
Klein couldn't help but grumble inwardly, then he guessed with some doubt, "The Church of the God of Steam and Machinery? Unlikely. If someone from the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery had explored that mausoleum and died inside, the Church would have discovered it long ago."
"This should be a Mystical Item that was brought in. Among the people who explored the mausoleum before, there was an Appraiser of this Pathway. That characteristic was taken by Bernadette."
After stating his guess, Leyton reached for the semi-mechanical glove on the coffee table, closed his eyes slightly, and performed a simple divination.
The glove's effect was very simple: it could create mechanical marvels and not-so-powerful Beyonder items.
It had two negative side effects:
One was that the user's body would gradually become stiff and slow, like rusted machinery, progressively worsening with increased use until body parts would fall apart like decaying mechanical components.
The other was that the user would develop narcolepsy, requiring two hours of deep sleep for every hour of use.
Opening his eyes, he directly threw the semi-mechanical glove back onto the coffee table, then picked up the other two Mystical Items and performed divinations on them separately.
A grayish-brown leather glove, whose corresponding characteristic was the Weapon Master of the Warrior Pathway:
It could grant the user super strength, super physique, super agility, and weapon usage techniques, including Beyonder weapons.
The negative effect was making one reckless, impulsive, and unwilling to actively think about problems.
Another Mystical Item was a somewhat exaggerated and distorted whistle, like a Clown's exaggerated smile, whose corresponding characteristic was the Briber:
Its usage method was to give the target a certain item in advance, then blow hard into it, which would randomly apply one of several effects to the target: weakening, charm, arrogance, or correlation. The specific effect was completely random, and its intensity depended on the value of the item given to the target.
Its influence was bidirectional. If the user also received an item given by someone else before blowing it, they would similarly fall into the negative effects it imposed.
Having obtained the information on the remaining two Mystical Items, Leyton sighed helplessly:
"These Mystical Items are more outrageous than the last… One turns people into numb narcoleptics, one is a brainless brute's glove, and the last one doesn't distinguish between friend and foe."
"Good thing I didn't choose Mystical Items. I don't have the ability to craft Mystical Items, so it would be terrible if I couldn't even sell them."
Silently congratulating himself, Klein then cleared his throat and offered a feasible solution:
"You can find someone to crush them and recycle the characteristics, then use that Artisan glove to re-craft them."
"That's the only way."
"If only I had a mechanical puppet, it could perfectly avoid the negative effects of that glove."
Leyton shook his head helplessly and shifted the topic to the Worm of Time that Bernadette had taken:
"It's a shame about that Worm of Time. That's a rare high-level charm material!"
Klein also felt a bit of a pity, but he wasn't too concerned. He wasn't sure what effects a charm made from a Worm of Time would have… A high-level charm would definitely be either powerful or strange, or both.
"Apparently, Bernadette couldn't possibly not recognize a Worm of Time. I just don't know how she'll use the Worm of Time's corpse."
"How was your exploration of that mausoleum?"
Klein asked with great curiosity.
"Wait a moment."
Leyton got up and went to the kitchen to get a metal basin, which he filled with water.
After placing the basin on the coffee table, he magically pulled out a handful of colorful powder from a hidden pocket inside his jacket. The powder sprinkled into the water, and as the water rippled, a scene emerged.
The scene showed Leyton and Bernadette beginning their exploration of the mausoleum, all the way to the final main tomb chamber.
Klein's gaze was fixed on the mural in the scene. He said with a puzzled voice, "Is He the Ancient Sun God? The Lord Who Created Everything, the Omnipotent and Omniscient God that the City of Silver believes in?"
"Bound dragons and giants… Is He reclaiming authority? Which Pathway did the former Giant King control?"
"...It should be the Warrior and Planter Pathways."
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