In the vast office, Alistair sat in the boss's chair in front of the desk, where a delicately exteriorized pocket watch lay.
After returning, Alistair organized and confirmed his situation again. Overall, it wasn't all bad news.
Although his 'Mystery' was completely taken, the abilities obtained by absorbing strange items during the process remained and did not disappear with the loss of his 'Mystery.'
However, these abilities were unusable. After all, even the partially 'localized' Talismans had their effects weakened, and the Ox Talisman, since it hadn't been 'solidified,' was completely useless.
[Golden Rule] involves a higher-level fate attribute and is likely unaffected. [Acquisition] is also a very high-level ability, as it can even generate a fate attribute, so it definitely wouldn't be affected. More importantly, it wasn't grayed out on Alistair's 'Personal Panel.'
Furthermore, the ring on Alistair's finger was not taken.
Logically, this ring was the medium that put Alistair on the path of the Extraordinary. Why didn't the entity take it? Could it be that she plans to come back and harvest more?
Alistair reached out and stroked the Mystic Eye Ring on his left middle finger. He had a bad suspicion. If the entity truly intended to do this, then Alistair might not be able to continue developing slowly.
Speaking of which, Alistair discovered that since his existing abilities hadn't disappeared, he could restart his path to the Extraordinary by absorbing a new strange item. Furthermore, the new strange item would not overwrite the old abilities or add to the subsequent nodes; instead, it would be equivalent to opening a new branch, and the effect of this branch would be the same as the original.
In layman's terms, the 'experience bar' was reset to zero, but the 'skills' already learned were retained and could be enhanced together.
And the only usable item Alistair currently had to restart the path of the Extraordinary was the [Pocket Watch] in front of him.
So, should he restart now?
Alistair counted on his fingers, somewhat hesitant. Since that unknown entity could absorb his 'Mystery' once, it could do it a second time. And [The World] couldn't resist, indicating that the entity wasn't just slightly stronger than him; exaggeratedly speaking, they might not even be on the same dimension.
The reason why such a powerful entity would plunder Alistair's 'Mystery' was unknown. However, since the entity didn't go around plundering others, it suggested that Alistair's 'Mystery' might be special, different from ordinary people's, and useful to that entity.
Another point was that with a ninety percent chance of returning, the entity would definitely leave some 'mark' on Alistair, such as a certain aura, or directly modifying his soul, adding memories without making him feel unnatural, or, modifying the memory of the process of being plundered into something else.
Modified into a memory that wouldn't make him notice anything abnormal...
"Right, Hisae, you still have the documentation for the little black cat here, don't you? Bring it for me to see."
Although Alistair felt that memory modification was more likely, since the entity possessed such power, it was definitely capable of adding a hypnotic spell that Alistair couldn't detect as abnormal. Alistair currently couldn't find anything unusual, so he decided to ask the waiting Hisae for the clue he had noticed earlier.
"Understood."
Hisae quickly walked to Alistair's left, pulled open a drawer, searched briefly, and pulled out a folder, placing it in front of Alistair.
Perhaps he could find some clues about the entity from this file. After all, the entity was too strong, and he couldn't possibly find anything wrong in his own memory... Wait a minute. The entity was strong enough to modify memory; hypnosis should be something easily added. Why would she leave such an obvious clue?
Alistair's hand, flipping through the file, slowly stopped. There must be a flaw in the logic here.
In the morning, Alistair felt groggy and physically weak, as if hollowed out, and it took him a whole morning to recover. His memory was a mess. The effect this evening was more like the grogginess from sleeping too long; a cold drink was enough to wake him up relatively well. Although his mind was a little chaotic, he was generally conscious and could clearly perceive that a piece of his memory was missing.
The difference in effect between the two incidents was huge. The former was like a novice, or perhaps the entity's 'Mystery' was similar to his, resulting in poor effects. The latter was far too strong, making resistance impossible.
And the latter was completely different from the former; they were not the same 'person' or the same batch of 'people,' so the latter entity completely disregarded the clue that might expose the former, because they were not the same 'people'!
Now, let's speculate further. The former made him feel like his body was hollowed out, and he woke up with his pants thrown on the bed, not wearing them. Also, the former was an Extraordinary Being, not an ordinary person who happened to have a tiny bit of 'Mystery' due to existing in this world; it was a genuine Extraordinary Being.
Secondly, the entity's 'Mystery' wasn't very powerful. It could deal with ordinary people, but Alistair's 'Mystery,' with its multiple boosts, had basically reached the level of a common Demi-Human, though it was 'falsely inflated' in the eyes of a professional. Even if he reached the level of a common Extraordinary Being, he was full of flaws.
In this situation, the entity still allowed Alistair to break free from some conscious constraint and notice something was wrong, indicating that the entity was indeed not very powerful.
In the inner world, 'Mystery' is not considered very powerful. An Extraordinary Being that attacks at night, possesses mental abilities, and removes men's pants to obtain 'life essence'—the identity is obvious. It is the Succubus that Alistair heard Hikaru Hyakkiya mention when he was in the Demi-Human District.
Although Alistair recalled very powerful Succubi in his memory, 'Mystery' is thin in this world, so a weaker one is to be expected.
In that case, the first attacker can basically be confirmed as a Succubus. He just doesn't know if it was one or multiple Succubi. But he probably doesn't need to worry about the Succubus now. No hunter likes to share the prey they have specifically 'kept' to themselves.
The Succubus likely left her mark or aura on him to warn others that Alistair was 'claimed.' Although it wasn't very powerful, based on Alistair's deduction, she should be one of the strong individuals in the area. It's likely no one will try to take Alistair's claim, as in this world where strength is respected in the shadows, no one would dare to touch a powerful entity's 'property.'