Jace looked at the damaged and bleeding dead body before him.
He was waiting for the Beyonder characteristic to appear.
Other than that, there was also the black cane the Marauder had; it was a Sealed Artifact, which Jace wrapped in his coat. He decided he would divine about it when he was home.
Looking at the dead body again, he sighed.
There were three "Mysteries" Pathways: Error, Door, and Fool. Each pathway was unique and bizarre in different ways.
A type of foresight power was one of the common things among the three pathways.
For the Fool Pathway, it was the Sequence 9 Seer; for the Door Pathway, it was the Sequence 7 Astrologer; and for the Error Pathway, it was the Sequence 7 Cryptologist.
A Cryptologist was different than a Seer or an Astrologer.
While others worked on the basis of divination, Cryptology worked on the basis of decrypting information.
It was in no way related to mysticism, which was one of the reasons why Jace didn't feel his intuition acting up when he first caught the eye of the Marauder.
Greed.
The Marauder likely felt the valuable Ring on Jace and approached him.
He could have just stolen the ring from Jace while he was performing, but he got greedy and thought he could even take Jace's Beyonder characteristic.
Had he just thought of stealing the Ring, Jace would have never felt the imitated Devil's 'Danger Premonition' act up, as it only reacted to direct danger to his life.
Greed—that was the Marauder's undoing.
Jace cleaned the scene of his things, picked up the Beyonder characteristic that appeared on the Marauder, and disappeared into the dark alley.
'Being greedy is fine, but being too greedy results in death—that has totally got to be the Marauder pathway's acting method,' Jace chuckled and made his way home.
He could not help but feel good, as it was really a successful battle, and he had just killed a Sequence 6 Beyonder despite being only a Sequence 7.
He felt his potion digest more.
——
In his bedroom, Jace sat at the desk. On the desk was the black cane that he had gotten off the Marauder.
The black cane looked quite ordinary; then again, most of the Sealed Artifacts out there looked ordinary.
He had just performed a few divinations on the cane, and he was surprised by the results.
It turned out to be a Sealed Artifact corresponding to Sequence 8 of the Door pathway.
'Trickmaster's Cane.' It had multiple abilities, but they were all, in the end, just tricks:
Flash: Creating a bright flash to blind people.
Fog:Releasing a fog in an area of 15 meters.
Freeze Ray: Making things cold with a touch or a ray.
Electric Shock: A shock, but not powerful enough to be lethal.
Wind: Creating small gusts of wind.
Tumble: Making the ground around the user slippery to make people slip, which was used on Jace.
Object Manipulation: Moving small objects around like telekinesis, but it was not precise enough for complex tasks.
Seven abilities, all equivalent to Sequence 8 of the Door pathway, but the powers were nothing that would truly help a person in a direct fight.
No wonder the Marauder only used it to make Jace slip, because there was little else it could do to a opponent.
While Jace was impressed with the cane, it was still a good artifact, as it preserved most of the abilities and had manageable side effects.
Jace mused that the artifact was likely made by a very good Artisan.
The side effects were that the cane would sometimes freeze or shock the hand holding it, which was fine for someone with good physical durability.
Jace kept the cane wrapped in a cloth and walked into the living room.
The cat, Nyx, was nowhere to be seen. Other than eating in the apartment, she was always out doing God knows what.
He set up a simple ritual and called Catherine's messenger.
Soon, a floating octopus appeared in the room.
Jace pointed at the envelope in the table, and the octopus stared at him for a moment with its bulbous eyes, but in the end, it took the envelope with a tentacle and disappeared into the spirit world.
———
Catherine was in her study sitting at the desk, with her hands pressed to her forehead.
Since Jace had given her the formula, she had been lost in thought as to how to proceed with it.
Her spiritual intuition suddenly triggered; she looked up only to see her messenger drop an envelope and disappear.
She picked it up. It was from Jace.
In the envelope was what seemed like a Beyonder characteristic and a letter. She kept the characteristic aside and read the letter.
"Dear Catherine,
It has been about 2 weeks since we last saw each other. After getting the formula from me, it seems like you don't want me anymore. Now I know how it feels like to be used and thrown away! But I am an understanding and mature person, so I will wait for you.
On the other hand, while I was walking in the streets of the North Boroughs, a Sequence 6 Beyonder of the Marauder pathway tried to rob me of the Polymath Ring and my own Beyonder characteristics (my life!!!). But due to my ingenuity and foresight as a Seer, and the ring you gave me, I was able to eliminate him in a dark alley without getting a single scratch on myself.
Also, I got a Sealed Artifact from his body—a black cane with certain abilities of ...
You once said that you knew a good Artisan, so I want you to make a Sealed Artifact from the sequence 6 characteristic. The abilities should be focused on..., and the appearance should be...
I will, of course, pay for it in any way you want (any way~).
I hope that you are well and are not stressed out too much. Take care.
Your secret Boy Toy,
Jace"
Catherine smiled at the letter as she took the glowing characteristic in her hand.
She could practically hear his teasing voice through the paper, and the fact that he had managed to take down a Sequence 6 was both impressive and a relief.