In Odis's view, the advantage of extraordinary weapons lies in their ability to surprise, which is something that ordinary weapons cannot match.
For example, his "Flaming Arrow" cost more to manufacture than a submachine gun, but people would still buy the "Flaming Arrow" instead of the submachine gun.
The reason is simple: an extraordinary being can carry a "Flaming Arrow" and walk the streets of Backlund.
But no one dared to go out carrying a submachine gun!
If you actually do that, you'll be arrested before you can walk two blocks.
Even in battle in the wild, the "Flaming Arrow" can better conceal its power, and the person carrying the submachine gun is likely to be the first to be killed.
This is where the true value of extraordinary weapons lies.
For the other members, the Hermit's weapons are very powerful and have a wide range of uses.
Upon hearing the Hermit mention the extraordinary weapon shaped like a javelin, Alger the Hanged Man was about to ask a question when Audrey the Justice spoke first: "I've seen someone use such a weapon!"
The Hermit Odis smiled and said, "It's Lelouch, the one you mentioned before, isn't it?"
Audrey paused for a moment, then said, "Yes, yes."
Even the "magician" Fors was confused: Was the "Hermit" the "leader"? Or Lelouch? Or both?
Odis smiled generously and said, "I have several regular clients in Backlund, and Lelouch is one of them."
Audrey immediately asked, "Where is Lelouch now? Has he been captured by the official Extraordinary Ones?"
Odis said, "All I know is that he was not captured by the official extraordinary beings."
This is the truth, and I'm not afraid of Audrey's observation.
However, to Audrey and the other members, it sounded like the Hermit was saying: I only sold extraordinary weapons to Lelouch, and I don't know his whereabouts.
Audrey responded with a somewhat disappointed "Oh".
Fors recalled: I remember the "leader" saying that he had just "acquired" a new weapon called "Thunderstorm Bomb," not that it had just been made. It seems the "leader" was one of the "Hermit's" buyers.
She was so certain of this belief because the "leader" was not a craftsman and, theoretically, did not possess the ability to manufacture extraordinary weapons.
But "The Fool" Klein was not fooled by "The Hermit's" answer. His confidence came from "The Diviner's" inspiration, and he always felt very familiar with Mr. Garr when he was in contact with him.
Only in the last few days did he realize that this sense of familiarity might have come from the Tarot Club.
After the conversation about Lelouch ended, Alger asked, "How much do you plan to sell the javelin for?"
"Also 50 pounds," Odis replied.
Alger nodded; the price was within an acceptable range. "I'll order from you when I need it."
"It would be best to order in advance," Odis said. "It takes time to make."
"Okay, I understand," Alger replied.
Odis then mentioned extraordinary weapons such as the "Extraordinary Incendiary Bomb" and the "Flame Bomb," which everyone found very novel. However, only "Sun" Derrick ordered a "Thunderstorm Bomb" and an "Ice Bomb."
Odis wasn't in a hurry, after all, these weapons were too powerful, and he himself didn't dare to use them recklessly in Backlund. At present, his only target customers were Alger and Derrick.
Once Klein also goes to sea, we'll have another target customer.
Having completed the transaction of the extraordinary weapon, the trading phase of this Tarot gathering has come to an end, and we are now in the free exchange phase.
"Little Sun" said first: "I've been assigned another exploration mission, and I'll be setting off in four days."
He paused and then said, "We will still explore the temple of the half-destroyed 'Fallen Creator,' and this time the chief will personally lead the team."
"The Hanged Man," Alger, said, "This way, the danger level is much lower than last time. We can give it a try."
Derrick nodded, then asked, "What should I be careful about during this exploration?"
The "Fool" at the head of the bronze table suddenly spoke: "Flesh and blood, delirium."
Klein only gave two words; the rest was left for the Tarot Club members to figure out on their own.
After thinking for a few seconds, Alger said to the "Sun" who had thanked Mr. Fool, "To be specific, don't look at what you shouldn't see, don't listen to what you shouldn't hear, don't eat what you shouldn't eat, and don't come into contact with what you shouldn't come into contact with."
Odis slowly nodded: "The 'Down with the Political Commissar' has indeed lived up to expectations. I wonder how he came to understand that 'The Fool' had these meanings?"
Derrick took careful notes and thanked him, saying, "'The Hanged Man,' thank you for your interpretation."
After exchanging ideas for a while, Klein announced the end of the tarot session.
...
No. 66, Rose Street.
Odis returned to the real world and, as usual, stared at the ceiling for a while before getting up to prepare for the bestowal ceremony.
He soon received 800 pounds in cash, as well as a simple, antique-looking belt ring covered in patina and moss, as a token of Silver City's gratitude to the "Hermit".
Odis waited a while before putting the cash and belt ring into the "Wilderness of Knowledge" and entering the "Wilderness of Knowledge" through "meditation".
Arriving at the "Central Simulator," Odis picked up the belt ring with one hand and placed the other on the spherical "Central Simulator," instantly learning its abilities and negative effects.
It is aligned with Sequence 6 "Biologist" of the "Cultivator" pathway, and its abilities include: healing various wounds and sudden illnesses; understanding various characteristics of organisms by using the sealed object; and hybridizing organisms.
Odis smiled and said, "This is a good thing."
Now, with enough experimental fields, he can cultivate all kinds of excellent seeds.
The specific method involves using this sealed object for hybridization, followed by scientific seedling cultivation and pollination to stabilize the biological genes.
Relatively speaking, the negative effects of this sealed item are not significant: each use will cause signs of poisoning, including nausea, retching, and dizziness; in severe cases, incontinence may occur. The severity of poisoning depends on the duration of use. These symptoms will gradually lessen after discontinuation; a single use should not exceed 20 minutes, otherwise death from poisoning will occur; there is no antidote to alleviate the symptoms of poisoning.
Odis believed that as long as he wore it for only a short time each time, he could avoid the negative effects of the seal.
Since this sealed artifact will definitely be used in the future, the next step is the naming process, which is the most troublesome for Odis.
After racking his brains for a long time, he finally decided to call it "Biological Waist Ring"!
Back in the real world, as evening fell, Odis received another batch of "gifts," extraordinary materials of Sequence 9 provided by "The Sun" Derrick.
Odis provided two extraordinary weapons and owed Derrick £880.
Now that we have the extraordinary materials, we should definitely hold a occult research conference, since it has been more than a week since we last convened a gathering.
Odis wrote a letter to Kainer, asking him to publish GG in the Backlund Post, and as for the GG fee, he could get it from the counter of the herbalist's shop.
Odis asked the coachman to deliver the letter, and it will arrive tonight. It will be published in GG tomorrow, and there will be a gathering the day after tomorrow.
After finishing all this, Odis ate dinner early and then entered the "Wilderness of Knowledge" to study the magic array recorded from the ruins of the Terensost Empire.
The knowledge he gained gave him some new ideas about magic arrays. After organizing these ideas, he completed his research for the week.
After a good night's sleep, Odis, as usual, studied witchcraft while waiting for new clients to come to her door early the next morning.
Ding-a-ling~
Around 10 a.m., the doorbell rang.
Odis picked up her wooden staff to open the door. Outside stood a man in his thirties, dressed cleanly but somewhat worn, holding his hat in both hands and looking a little uneasy.
Upon seeing Odis, he immediately bowed slightly and said, "Hello, wizard, I... I need your help with something."
"Come in and talk," Odis said.
He sat down on the sofa first, and after the other person was also seated, he asked, "What is it?"
The other person seemed to be either nervous or finding it difficult to speak, as if they didn't know where to begin.
Odis then asked, "What strange thing have you encountered?"
"Yes, yes, something very, very strange happened," the man said. "But please keep it a secret."
Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!
Odis hummed in response.
"My name is Darren," the other person introduced himself. "I own a bakery, and business is pretty good."
"I usually make the bread, and my wife, Hena, sells it at the store."
"But just three days ago, Hena felt unwell after selling bread to a customer."
He spoke more and more fluently: "At the time, I didn't take it too seriously. I just told Haina to go and rest first, and I went to sell bread myself."
"But in the evening, my daughter ran to me and said that her mother was acting very strangely."
"I rushed back to check..."
Darren took a deep breath before saying this, "Henna...Henna's skin has become somewhat ethereal! I can even see her muscles and blood vessels!"
Odis was taken aback: "Your skin is becoming ethereal? Is your wife feeling unwell?"
"She just felt a little dizzy and dry heaving!" Darren said. "She was terrified and trembling uncontrollably!"
Odis stroked his long beard: "This happened three days ago, so have the dizziness and other discomforts gotten worse in the last two days?"
Darren replied, "Although I still feel dizzy and nauseous, it's not serious."
He gave a wry smile: "But in the last two days, her skin has completely disappeared, and then her muscles became illusory. Now her muscles are almost gone."
Odis remained silent, searching his mind for relevant information, but in the end, he found that he could not explain what was happening either.
After Darren finished speaking, he was no longer nervous and awkward. He continued, "These past few days I haven't dared to let Haina go out, and I've made her wrap herself in clothes, gloves, and a hood to avoid scaring the child."
"But... but this can't go on forever. What if Hina disappears completely?"
"In the past two years, business has just started to pick up, and our lives are getting better and better..."
Darren, whose eyes had reddened, realized he seemed to have gone off-topic. After a pause, he said, "I live on Longster Street and have heard of your deeds, so I've come to ask for your help."
Odis nodded slowly. The sister of the vendor who sold Dipsy pies on the street lived on Longster Street. Darren must have heard the story of the wizard saving the little boy.
This made him lament: I've already become famous in some places, I wonder if the official extraordinary beings outside of "Mechanical Heart" will be eyeing me?
Then Odis asked, "Didn't you go to the church to ask for help?"
Darren paused for a moment before saying, "No, I'm afraid they won't really help us."
Odis nodded, understanding that the other person meant he was afraid of taking his wife away as a monster.
At this moment, Odis somewhat understood the helplessness of ordinary people when faced with extraordinary events. They did not know anything about the extraordinary, and they must have been both afraid and dared not ask for help.
At this point, wizards without official status would become the ones they sought help from.
But this time it stumped Odis, because he didn't know what was going on either.
He thought for a moment and then asked, "Can your wife eat and defecate normally?"
"Okay," Darren said. "She's probably eating less because she was frightened."
Odis hummed in agreement. So it wasn't a curse after all.
He paused and then asked, "Tell me in detail about the customer your wife served before."
"It was a woman," Darren said. "Henna said she was a very beautiful and elegant woman."
"She had her own carriage and a personal maid, who always bought bread and paid for it. She just looked around with some curiosity."
Odis then asked, "Is there anything unusual about her clothing, jewelry, or anything else?"
"I...I'm not quite sure."
Odis remained silent for a moment before saying, "There are some issues I need to ask your wife in person and try some methods to see if we can resolve them."
"If I can't solve the problem, be sure to notify the church; it might be your last chance to save your wife."
In the end, he decided to go and see for himself, hoping to use his knowledge and experience to solve the problem.
"Okay...okay." Although Darren seemed a little reluctant, he still agreed.
"Go outside and wait for me. I'll make some preparations."
Darren immediately got up and went outside.
Odis prepared some spiritual materials, then hailed a horse-drawn carriage and went with Darren to Longster Street.
As Darren paid the fare, Odis glanced at the house in front of her.
The surrounding area is a residential area, with buildings ranging from two to five stories evenly distributed, and they look somewhat dilapidated.
On the way here, Odis had already learned that most of the residents here were people who could solve their basic needs for food and clothing, and were close to being middle class, but still a little short.
Led by Darren, Odis entered a small alley, passed several playing children, and arrived at the second floor of a residential building, where she met Hena.
At this point, not only had Henna's skin disappeared, but her muscles had also vanished.
Before Odis was a skeleton!