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Leyton really wanted to quip, "I was just sitting and watching," but considering Klein's current mood and the setting, he suppressed the urge to joke with him and chuckled, saying, "Don't mind him. The place Mr. Sun is staying must be safe enough."
"That Former Exploration Team Captain is just a clone of Amon. His strength won't be too great, and even with an Angel-level Beyonder characteristic, he won't be too difficult to deal with."
"At most, he will expose some information. Amon won't easily make a move without sufficient certainty."
"I understand." Klein manipulated the alternate account, Mr. World, to respond, then fell silent again.
Under the gray fog, Klein silently pondered the meaning of Leyton's words. He had a feeling that Leyton's remark, "Amon won't easily make a move," was directed at him.
The Sun Derrick glanced at the silent Mr. World, then at Leyton, who had stopped speaking. He still wanted to ask more about Amon but couldn't think of what to ask at the moment.
Miss Justice Audrey's curiosity had been satisfied. Seeing that no one else seemed to want to speak for the time being, she turned her head to look at the head of the bronze long table and said with a slight smile, "Mr. Fool, I request a private exchange."
Klein could roughly guess why Miss Justice was doing this. The figure shrouded in gray fog nodded slightly, "You may."
Immediately, Leyton felt his perception of Miss Justice and Mr. Fool being blocked.
"Tsk~ Quite cautious," Leyton secretly sighed in his heart.
He could completely guess that Klein did this to prevent him and the others from communicating outside as they had before, to avoid the possible exposure of the dummy Mr. World's identity.
He leaned back in the high-backed chair, bored, and waited for some time until he heard two light taps on the table, indicating that Miss Justice's private exchange had ended.
"You may conduct your own transactions," Klein said with a smile, leaning back against the chair.
Leyton maintained his previous posture, his gaze casually sweeping over everyone present.
He had no items or tasks to trade. The matter he needed Miss Justice Audrey's help with had already been settled at the luncheon.
Hanged Man Alger looked at Magician Fors and said, "I've found a clue for the The Deep spearfish blood. I should be able to get it in the next two days. You can prepare the gold pounds."
"Okay, no problem."
Magician Fors immediately replied. She had been searching everywhere for the main ingredient of the Trickmaster potion, and this was the first time she had received definite news.
I still have 430 pounds in savings. I can afford one ingredient... The spirit eater's stomach will have to wait until Mr. Sun is released from the Round Tower Bottom... I hope Mr. Sun can be released soon. No, it's better if it's later, otherwise my savings won't be enough.
Fors felt a headache coming on when she thought that her savings weren't even enough to buy two main potion ingredients.
She touched her face, looked around, and asked with an exceptionally sincere tone, "Everyone, do you have any good ways to make money?"
As soon as her words fell, she noticed that everyone simultaneously fell silent.
Leyton's gaze swept around the group. There was the City of Silver, which didn't need money, the noble young lady who was completely unconcerned about money, and himself, who could get reimbursed by the Church. The rest were all short on money.
Thinking of this, Leyton's lips unconsciously curved into a smile. Sure enough, poverty was contagious, and the source of the infection was Mr. Fool at the very top.
Leyton shifted his posture, leaning against the other side of the seat, and raised his hand slightly, saying, "If you're strong enough, you can check the Kingdom's bounty list, or find a lucky gang and collect protection fees."
Magician Fors was silent for two seconds, then unconsciously lowered her head and said, "My strength probably isn't enough for me to do those things."
The scene fell silent again. No one spoke. After a few seconds, Klein manipulated the alternate account, Mr. World.
Mr. World raised his hand slightly and said in a deep, hoarse voice, "Help me keep an eye out for the blood of a Thousand-Faced Hunter and the hair of a The Deep Naga."
Having successfully advanced to Magician, Klein began to prepare for the next Sequence, Faceless. Fortunately, he only needed supplementary ingredients. The corresponding Beyonder characteristic had already been obtained by progressively extracting the characteristic contained within the all-black eye.
"Okay." The Sun Derrick replied first, but made no promises. He was still locked in the Round Tower Bottom and didn't know when he would be released.
"Thousand-Faced Hunter? I think I've seen its fossil."
"Hmm, I need to go back and confirm first."
Miss Justice Audrey replied, deep in thought.
Klein, manipulating Mr. World, nodded noncommittally. However, he didn't hold much hope for a Thousand-Faced Hunter that had already turned into a fossil.
"I'll help you keep an eye out."
Leyton also responded, though he had no intention of looking for these materials himself. Klein had only recently advanced to Magician, and even with the materials, he wouldn't be able to become a Faceless yet.
After a moment of silence, Hanged Man Alger spoke, "Help me keep an eye out for a person connected to the missing colonial slave incident I mentioned earlier."
"He calls himself Barron, has reddish-brown skin, and distinct Southern Continent racial features, but someone occasionally heard him speak with a Backlund accent. His third tooth on the left is missing, but it's likely been replaced."
"If you can find his whereabouts, the reward is not an issue, at least 100 pounds, or equivalent items."
Hanged Man's commission was posted, but no one immediately took it on. There was too little useful information. Apart from Leyton, who knew the plot, no one knew how to find such a person in the vast Backlund.
Mr. Fool Klein, at the head of the table, looked around and said, "Free exchange."
After the Tarot Club ended, The Sun Derrick returned to the real world, once again in the Dark room.
He cautiously sat on the edge of the bed and found no unusual changes around him, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Thinking of the information Mr. Tower had given at the Tarot Club earlier—that the person he had been communicating with was no longer the Former Exploration Team Captain, but a clone of the one who called himself Amon—Derrick felt a chill run down his spine.
Derrick stared intently at the metal wall where he had previously communicated with the other party, his breathing becoming cautious and light. He was afraid that Amon's avatar would suddenly cross the barrier of the metal wall and appear before him.
"Are you thinking of such a scene?"
An aged and ethereal voice came from the right side of Derrick.
As soon as the voice reached his ears, Derrick instantly froze, his skin tightening, and every hair on his body standing on end.
How did he get here? Where's the seal here? What about the effect of that Mystical Item? What should I do?
Cold sweat continuously seeped from Derrick's forehead. He instinctively wanted to turn his head to look, but his body's instinct prevented him from doing so.
This was from the teachings in the City of Silver's "Monster Common Sense" course:
When someone speaks behind you, do not turn around immediately.
Derrick raised his hands, clasped them in front of his chest, and summoned a holy, clear, brilliant, and pure warm light that descended from the sky.
The summoned Holy Light illuminated the small, pitch-Dark room.
With the help of the light, Derrick also clearly saw the appearance of the person he had been communicating with.
It was a complete Monster. Its head was split vertically, revealing a grayish-white, seemingly living, wriggling brain in the middle.
From the cut surface of the brain, viscous liquid dripped down in thin strands, with maggots wriggling on them.
The eyes, each on one side, were far apart. The bridge of the nose was split down the middle. The left half of the mouth was open in a grin, while the right half was tightly closed.
The Monster was naked, and its body was covered with crisscrossing dark red wounds. These wounds were all hideously split open, revealing rows of crimson teeth inside, all speaking the same sentence in unison:
"Where did you just go?"
Derrick's pupils suddenly constricted. He instinctively wanted to summon another Holy Light.
Before Derrick could complete another Holy Light summoning, he was astonished to find that the Holy Light he had previously invoked suddenly thickened, becoming so brilliant that he couldn't help but want to close his eyes.
Resisting the soreness and tearing sensation in his eyes, Derrick tried hard to see what was happening.
But he could only vaguely see that within the grand and resplendent pillar of light, something even purer and more concentrated separated, like a light-person without facial features or clothing.
This "light-person" suddenly flickered and pounced onto the Monster.
All the mouths on the Monster's body opened simultaneously, as if letting out shrill screams, yet eerily, no sound came out.
The Monster trembled violently, rapidly disintegrating and melting away in the "light-person's" burning and illumination.
When the Monster was almost transparent, a phantom figure strangely appeared where the Monster had been, a phantom figure wearing an ancient robe and a pointed soft hat!
The moment this figure appeared, The Sun immediately thought of Amon, whom Mr. Tower had mentioned at the Tarot Club. This was the appearance of Amon's true body!
As soon as Amon's figure emerged, the "light-person" suddenly exploded, and Derrick's vision instantly turned into a blank white.
When his vision returned, he found himself, at some unknown point, already outside the room, in a corridor embedded with metal lamp holders, illuminated by a dim yellow light.
Derrick turned his head in a daze, looking towards the direction of the room he had been in, and saw a tall figure.
In front of this figure, on Derrick's original bed, specks of dawn-like light rapidly condensed onto a white leg bone, transforming it into a pure white, sharp straight sword.
Next to the straight sword was a strange, translucent worm, about an inch long, with completely transparent segments in rings along its body.
The tall figure, with his back to Derrick, bent down and picked up the strange translucent worm. He then turned around and looked at Derrick, who was watching him from the side.
He sighed, "Almost..."
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