With a satisfied smile, Jace reviewed his new powers.
He could see the spirit body threads of every living thing within a radius of 100 meters. To control them, he needed to be within 5 meters of the target.
The initial phase of controlling a target's spirit body threads required about 20 seconds, during which the target won't even notice it, unless they were from a pathway that specialized in divinations or had prophetic intuition like those from the Wheel of Fortune pathway.
In the second phase, the target's body and movement would turn rigid and the mind would become slow. Unless this process is disturbed by an external element, the target would turn into a marionette in 5 minutes.
The current number of marionettes he could control was only 1. After complete potion digestion, he would be able to control 3 marionettes all together; in the same way, all the other aspects would also improve with potion digestion.
All his previous powers also received a 50% increase in power.
Jace laughed in his mind. 'Sequence 5s truly are different,' he thought.
But his smile faded as he felt the beautiful singing of the mermaids stop.
He looked up at the stone reef, only to see the 2 exquisitely beautiful mermaids staring at him. Not knowing what to do, he raised his hand and waved to them.
The green-haired mermaid seemed startled and jumped to the other side of the rock into the water with a splash.
The mermaid with red hair still kept looking at him with her clear eyes full of curiosity and... hunger?
Then she too jumped into the water, but instead of jumping on the other side like the green-haired mermaid, she jumped to Jace's side. As she jumped, he saw her red-scaled fins disappear into the water.
But she was undoubtedly moving towards him!! He could feel and see her spirit body threads moving towards him in the dark water!
Now Jace was startled, but he kept his head composed, pulled out the Polymath Ring he had kept away, and slipped it onto his finger.
He was curious as to why the mermaid was coming towards him—to eat him? But he wasn't worried; with his new powers, improved abilities, and his artifacts, he could easily take care of a mermaid.
But he was curious nonetheless.
From what he knew, mermaids were creatures with intelligence. In fact, there was a tribe of them that prayed to the Evernight Goddess—they were easy to find, but Jace had decided to steer clear of anything related to gods, especially Evernight, so he didn't dare go there.
So they were intelligent; one example was the fact that the green-haired mermaid ran away as she saw me. Because she was a supernatural creature, she could likely tell that I was a powerful one, so she ran away rather than attacking me like she would a normal human.
But the red one seemed different as she was approaching him. Jace also realized that his 'lucky' stopwatch was on. 'Perhaps it's related to that,' he wondered, but he put his hand in his pocket and turned off the watch, as he didn't want to waste his 'luck'.
Splash!
Soon the mermaid arrived near his dinghy, got out of the water, and sat on the edge with her lower body hanging down in the water.
Seeing her up close, Jace was surprised by her beauty.
Her long red hair was slicked back due to being wet, and her features were exquisite, sharp, and delicate. Her breasts seemed high and perky, half covered by red scales.
Her clear and beautiful blue eyes, meanwhile, seemed even hungrier.
She was easily the most beautiful woman—well, creature—he had ever seen, but now that he was a Sequence 5, he was barely affected by such things.
But he decided to indulge himself in a conversation with the creature nonetheless.
He gave her a smile. 'I wonder what language she speaks... likely an ancient one... Elvish, right?'
"Hello," Jace greeted in the ancient Elvish language.
The mermaid's red little lips parted slightly, but she didn't speak.
Seeing that she was only looking at him and not speaking, Jace decided to try something. Since he had the Polymath Ring, he used an imitated 'Placate' on her.
As he used it, he saw the mermaid relax.
"You look... delicious," she said. Even her voice was beautiful.
Jace meanwhile smiled. 'Yeah bitch! I figured that part when I saw you looking me up and down like steak.'
"Why did you approach me?" he asked.
"You look delicious," she repeated again.
"Is that why you came here?" Jace asked.
Was she really that hungry to come near him, a creature stronger than her? Not only that, he was also wearing the charm that made the creatures of the sea not attack him. Of course, it wasn't that effective, but it was functional nonetheless.
The mermaid did not answer.
Jace thought of something, so he gave her a proposition. "Hmm... So why don't we do this: you tell me if a man came here like me to listen to the mermaids' singing to become... stronger, and in return, I'll give you something."
The mermaid thought for a moment. "What will you give me?" she asked.
Jace chuckled. He raised his hand, drew his sleeve down to his forearm, and showed her his hand. "I look delicious, don't I? Answer my question, and I'll give you my arm," he stated.
He could see the hunger in her eyes grow as she stared at his hand. Hell, she even drooled!
"It was a long time ago, but I heard it happened," she said without taking her eyes off his hand.
"A long time?" he asked.
"Long time," she nodded.
Ha... Jace sighed. 'What did I expect? Mermaids live underwater; they likely have no sense of time. A long time likely means years ago...'
Jace sighed once more. He pulled out the Rose Bishop bracelet and wore it on his hand.
"A deal is a deal," he said, as he used the power of the Rose Bishop, tore off his left hand from the mid-forearm, and threw it at the mermaid.
The mermaid's face turned flushed as she caught the hand and opened her mouth to an inhumane degree, revealing her disgusting, wolf-like sharp fangs and teeth with drool around them.
Pui!
Crunch!
Crack!
Gulp!
Jace's brows narrowed and his eyes widened in pure shock and disgust. The beauty literally turned into a beast as she munched on his hand.
All the attraction and appreciation he had for her—no, 'its' beauty—turned into pure, unadulterated disgust. He was literally holding back his puke.
Even Nyx, who was sitting besides Jace and watching the whole thing, also felt disgusted as she saw the creature that smelled like fish eat Jace's hand. Of course, since she was using 'Psychological Invisibility', the mermaid couldn't see her.
After devouring the whole hand, half of her face and her hands were bloody. She had a wide smile on her face, revealing her bloody teeth.
She looked up at Jace with her crazy eyes; she looked like she was going to pounce on him.
Just as she was about to, Jace raised his newly regenerated left hand. "Nope!... Just go... Just leave before I kill you," he said as he flicked his hand dismissively.
The mermaid then, again realized that the human before her was far stronger than her, so without wasting any time, she jumped into the dark water with a large splash.
Jace meanwhile sat there, with his hand rubbing his forehead.
He still felt a bit disturbed as the picture of his hand being violently devoured stayed in his mind.
'Maybe I should have killed it.' he thought.
Suddenly, a calming and pleasant feeling pressed upon his mind. Nyx the cat was using 'Placate' on him.
Jace sighed. "Let's just go."