Next afternoon.
Jace, Catherine, and Natalie, all three of them sat at a round wooden table with tensed expressions.
The money they had gotten from the Ocean Songster's bounty and characteristics was already divided between the three of them equally.
The extra and unneeded ingredients were going to be sold off by Catherine in her Beyonder circle, and that money was going to be divided into three as well, except for Catherine's commission for selling it for them.
Now all that was left were the artifacts and the Beyonder characteristics that were all kept in the middle of the table.
Natalie was the first one to speak. "I'll take the Wind-blessed Beyonder characteristic and the... 'Magician's bow tie,'" she said as she drew the characteristic and the bow tie before her from the middle.
She looked at Catherine and said, "I might need your help to turn this into an artifact," she said as she gestured towards the Wind-blessed characteristic.
Catherine nodded, and then looked at Jace.
Jace disregarded her gaze and looked at the things in the middle of the table.
He took a flat square box which had the Rose Bishop bracelet, and the Pyromaniac Beyonder characteristic. "I'll take the bracelet and the Pyromaniac characteristic," he said as he looked at Catherine.
Catherine nodded and took the remaining things, which were the Wraith locket in a flat rectangular box, the lightning axe, and the sequence 8 Folk of Rage characteristic.
Jace looked down at the 2 things he had chosen. He could have just taken the Wraith locket instead of these two, but he had chosen the Rose Bishop bracelet and the Pyromaniac characteristic.
The Rose Bishop bracelet was a useful artifact, and Jace saw a particular usage for it when he would become a marionettist. And then there were the shadow abilities; it was just too interesting to pass on.
That was why he had chosen it, as for the Pyromaniac characteristic, he decided to sell it in Mr. A's gathering.
The only reason he wanted the Wraith locket was because of the abilities of 'Wraith transformation' and 'mirror blink'.
The reason being that he, in the future wanted to store marionettes in coins, like Klein did when he had 'Wraith Senor' as a marionette.
But he had chosen the Rose Bishop bracelet because that one had a... somewhat similar power... like 'flesh blood fusion'. With this particular power, Jace could transform his body into a blood and sticky fluid like melted wax. In this state, he could hide in a person's body!
He wanted to do this with his marionette; he would hide inside the marionette and 'possess' the marionette and control it. It was perfect.
But normally, after exiting the body through the 'flesh blood fusion' ability, the victim would die. Jace didn't want his marionettes to die like that, but he wondered if a marionette would actually die like that, as marionettes were different from a normal human or Beyonders... he would have to do some experimentation when he became a marionettist...
On the other hand, the problem of not having the 'Wraith' locket was solved!
You see, last night after Jace enjoyed his time with Catherine, rather than going to sleep like her, he decided to stay awake and experiment.
Experimenting on the 'Wraith' locket, his goal was to imitate the powers of 'Wraith transformation' and 'mirror blink' with the Polymath Ring.
He had once tried to imitate the Wraith transformation power through his knowledge alone, and he had succeeded to some degree, but the real thing was just different.
And he did it! He successfully imitated the 'Wraith transformation' and 'mirror blink'.
Of course, it was only half as effective as the original; the transformation was slow, and the speed and range of mirror blink were significantly lower as well, but it was more than enough for the purpose he needed.
Thinking of all this, he almost trembled with excitement; his future as a marionettist was going to be really great!
By now, Catherine had already left after saying her goodbyes, leaving behind only Natalie and Jace.
Sitting at the table, Jace looked at her. "So? Is your potion digested?"
"It is," Natalie replied. "I plan to take action in 4 days. Will you be there?" she asked.
Jace nodded.
"Ok... I'll see you then," Natalie said as she got up from the chair and walked out of the room.
Jace sat there for a moment, but he didn't take much time. He got up and gathered his things. Wearing the Polymath Ring, he teleported into the basement of his bungalow.
In the basement, it was dark. Jace could always turn the lamps on, but he didn't, not that he needed to, as he could see pretty well in the dark.
He kept his coat and a leather bag aside and stood in the center of the room.
It was time to check out his new artifact!
He pulled out a flat square box, opened it, and set it on the table before him.
In his left hand, he created a fireball that lit the basement up, casting long shadows.
Then he looked at the box on the table, picked up the bracelet, and inspected it closely under the light of the fireball.
At first glance, it looked like it was made out of iron, but it was not. There were complicated dark engravings of a... thorny vein, all connecting to a single rose on a bracelet. The metal had a slight dark red shade to it, like it was a touch of blood.
It was a beautiful piece...
He immediately wore it on his right hand, and he felt his vision change. Now he could see clearly in the dark, but it was different; he couldn't see any colors. Also, he couldn't see far away; the things that were too far away looked blurry to him.
But that was not to say he was blind, as he could sense the shadows of those things. It was a different type of sense altogether!
Seeing through the dark, Jace walked to a particular place and turned on the valve of the lamps, lighting the basement up.
He felt a strange aversion to the light, but he could feel that the shadows around him were now more concentrated.
The first power he wanted to check was 'shadow lurking'. So he walked near a table and looked at the shadow cast by it, then his figure turned dark like a thick fluid and flowed into the shadow.
Jace was now hidden in the shadow of a table. It was a different sensation... being a shadow, his sight was different, but he was not blind; he could sense the environment through the shadow sense.
He got out of the shadows and looked around. Everything returned to how it was; his body was now 3-dimensional like before.
Jace crouched down and looked into the shadow of the table. With his hand, he touched it and pulled out a long sword from it!
This was 'shadow shaping'. He could mold shadows and turn them into objects or weapons or even animals!
He dismissed the manifested shadow sword; it turned into a dark mist that flowed into the shadow it was formed from.
Jace didn't know much about animals, but he did know a cat, so he willed the shadow to mold into the shape of a cat. The shadows rose and formed a cat!
The cat stood there doing nothing, and what would it even do? It was not a sentient creature; it was just a manifestation of shadow.
But Jace could make it move and do what he wanted it to do, so the cat walked out of the shadow and looked around as Jace willed it to do so.
The cat moved around here and there as Jace commanded it to do, and then turned into a dark mist and disappeared into the shadow as Jace dismissed it.
The weapons and other creatures of shadows had a particular trait that made them useful: when hurt by it, the wounds would turn cold and degrade, and not only that, it also harmed a person's spirit.
There was another power Jace could use, called 'shadow manipulation'. It could be used on a target's shadow; when used, the shadow of the target would rise from the ground and bind and immobilize the target.
It was a useful ability, but Jace couldn't test it out as there was no one around to test it on.
These were all the abilities of a 'Shadow Ascetic'.
There were 'Rose Bishop' powers as well.
Ever since he wore the bracelet, he could feel it; he could now control his body down to the cellular level.
He could regenerate limbs, organs, bones, and everything. He could also throw his flesh at an enemy and it would explode like a bomb—this was called a flesh bomb. And there was the 'flesh blood fusion'.
All in all, this artifact was a banger.
Jace could also wear this artifact for long periods of time, like for 2 days maximum.
The artifact drained his blood constantly when using it, and after a usage of 2 days, the rate of blood drainage shot up drastically.
But even after removing the artifact, the blood he lost would not recover naturally, so he had to consume someone's blood to recover it every 2 days using the artifact of not then the rate of blood drainage would always be high until he dies.
Jace sighed and sat on a chair.
Fortunately, he didn't have to kill anyone for the blood; he could just take a small amount through using the artifact itself.
It was... managable.