Chapter 15 Extraordinary Ring: Noble Red
After both parties tacitly demonstrated their abilities, goals, and intentions, Aiwass and Shadow Fiend reached a temporary agreement.
As the Shadow Fiend dived back into Aiwas's shadow again, the shadow that spread like mud throughout the bar was sucked back into the shadow under Aiwass.
Just like a swimming pool with the drain opened, the shallow lake of shadows soon became "dry".
The warm winter sun shone in again, filling the bar room.
It seemed as if the damp shadow just now was just an illusion.
--very good.
Aiwass breathed a sigh of relief.
Now, the four most important things have been done.
He completed his revenge, killed the "friend" who betrayed him; successfully destroyed the evidence of his crime; obtained the next clue for investigation; awakened and appeased the Shadow Demon.
Now, it’s time to happily open the treasure chest!
Aiwas listened carefully and found that Haina was still searching downstairs and had not gone upstairs.
——It’s time to loot!
He rubbed his hands impatiently and began to search for his spoils.
Aiwass quickly found a small, round box the size of a thumb. It looked like a cooling ointment. Etched on it was a crescent moon with a human face, and underneath it was a line of small characters: "1886-03-071, Living Silver Workshop."
This thing looks very familiar to him.
This is a Dream-Inducing Tincture, a specialty of the Star Antimony Kingdom.
"Good stuff. A good start."
Aiwass raised the corner of his mouth slightly and put it into his pocket.
Dream-Intoxicating Tincture is a potion that stabilizes dreams and anesthetizes the body, making it less susceptible to awakening. It's an alchemical product of the Path of Balance. It can also be used as an anesthetic during surgery, but its primary use is as a supplementary drug to increase the success rate during advancement.
In Xianxia novels, it's roughly equivalent to something like a foundation-building pill. At low levels, the added success rate of breakthrough is quite impressive.
Drunken Dream Tincture is known among players as the "little promotion potion," which increases the success rate of promotion rituals. It's similar to the potions in classic MMORPGs that enhance and craft equipment and increase the success rate of enhancements.
In the setting, advancing a class requires entering a dream and performing a complex ritual with a high failure rate. However, in the game, it is determined by a cold, fixed success rate, and preparing certain special rituals or materials can increase the success rate.
If you succeed, you'll advance successfully after a burst of special effects, raising your class level cap by ten levels. Then three options will pop up for you to choose one from.
This is the path characteristic obtained when the promotion is successful.
If you fail, you'll be relegated to level 19. Players, if they run out of materials, can simply prepare the ritual again to advance; for NPCs, if they fail to advance, they'll have to wait for a cooldown that gets longer and longer as their level increases, taking at least two weeks.
Veronica is now a level 19 demonologist and is about to advance to the next level; or maybe she has failed several times, so she prepared a Drunken Dream Tincture for herself.
Judging from the number of ritual spells she mastered, she must have stayed at the second level for quite some time - with the level cap locked, her skill level could still be upgraded as usual, but her profession would not receive any further levels.
Aiwass's current promotion from the first energy level to the second energy level is not difficult, and he is almost certain to succeed. He does not need it for the time being.
It can be used when he is promoted from level 19 to level 20.
And because Aiwass is taking two paths at the same time, he has to eat two servings.
Dream-Intoxicating Tincture itself isn't a particularly rare potion, so there's no need to treasure it. Its price in Star Antimony isn't high, at just forty-six White Crown coins. However, since it's handcrafted by alchemists, supply is limited, requiring reservations and limited purchases.
And most importantly, this medicine will be difficult to buy in Avalon for the time being.
Because since two years ago, the Star Antimony Kingdom has become an enemy of Avalon.
All alchemical products of the Star Antimony Kingdom are restricted from export to Avalon; correspondingly, Avalon does not allow the import of alchemical products from the Star Antimony Kingdom, and also does not allow the export of its own minerals and timber to Star Antimony.
Currently, apart from a few remaining pieces of Drunken Dream Tincture on the Avalon market... the only ones left are probably scalpers who stock up and place orders at ten times the price.
Five hundred white coins is just the starting price.
This was a price Haina couldn't even imagine. It was about ten years' salary for an ordinary worker.
It’s not that Aiwass can’t afford it.
He just doesn't want scalpers to make so much money so easily.
He also didn't intend to leave it to the Supervisory Bureau. Even if the Supervisory Bureau got it, they would only resell it at a high price. There was a high probability that they would even sell it to the Moriarty family.
Because everyone knows that Master Aiwass has recently embarked on the path of transcendence and become a priest. He also needs to stock up on Drunken Dream Tincture in advance.
——Then there is no need to let the middlemen make a profit from the price difference.
But unfortunately, after finding the Drunken Dream Tincture, Aiwass couldn't find anything good anymore.
He only found some ritual materials.
But those were all human materials, like the placenta or the baby's scalp. Not only were they worthless, but he also had no use for them.
Aiwass had sworn not to use materials from his own race in rituals—and he truly disliked such cruelty. So he didn't take them away. Instead, he left them on Veronica as evidence of her guilt.
The red robe she is wearing is actually valuable.
...But Aiwass felt that he would not be able to take it off.
Putting aside the fact that this was women's clothing, Aiwass couldn't wear it; and Veronica wasn't wearing anything underneath, so just stripping her clothes off was a bit perverted...
Of course, it was actually useless for him to get the red robe.
In the game, players have no identity, so they can only enter the society by wearing red robes. But now he is Aiwas Moriarty, and he cannot pass the review of the noble Red Society at all.
If he succeeded in joining, he would be threatened by the society. If his actions were exposed, Aiwass would have no chance of surviving in the Kingdom of Avalon. Even his adoptive father, eldest brother, and Yulia would suffer.
“…Huh?”
Aiwass suddenly pulled out a brass ring that gleamed with golden light.
It depicts a scarred fist, clenched tightly, blood dripping from between the fingers. The glittering "blood" is actually ground ruby powder. In the sunlight, it reflects a dark red, sticky sheen, just like real blood.
The next moment, a light curtain popped up:
【Noble Red】
【Extraordinary Accessories (Light Purple)】
【Jewelry-Ring】
[Features: Weak Resistance to Law (Triggered only by the Path of Transcendence)]
[Spell: Severe Coughing (once a day, 1/1)]
[Required: Dark 2]
【Gesture, medium distance, immediate effect】
[“—We are all wounded fists, bloody hands, and scaleless blades.”]
Yay, it’s shipped!
Aiwass's eyes lit up.
This is the best stuff that Da Zi can produce!
Weak resistance to law can invalidate the interference and control effects of first-level law spells, law tactics-rebuke, and other authoritarian paths, and weaken the control effects below the third level by one level.
The Path of Authority is the most common Path ability in Avalon. If Aiwass wears it, he will be incapable of the control abilities unleashed by Transcendents below level 10; control abilities below level 30 will also be reduced by approximately 10 levels. The only drawback is that it's too conspicuous, and wearing it regularly could easily be mistaken for belonging to the Noble Red Order by discerning observers.
But it's certainly effective, especially in the early stages... Plus, Aiwass is a transcendent path, triggering passive effects. It's perfect for carrying around in your pocket, ready to wear when needed.
The spell that comes with the ring, "Severe Coughing", although it sounds a bit stupid, is actually a very practical spell.
Just the fact that it uses the ring as a medium to cast spells and requires two points of dark mana to release it shows that it is not a low-end thing.
"Coughing" is a first-level Transcendental Path spell that causes a person to choke on water. If Aiwass had the corresponding occult book now, he could learn this spell.
"Severe Choking Technique" is an upgraded version of the second level. Its effect is to cause a person to immediately experience a severe coughing fit. In literal terms, it's like having an irritating liquid like red oil or seawater poured down the nose, resulting in uncontrollable coughing for several seconds before recovery.
If a person keeps coughing violently, then he actually has difficulty exerting force.
Because he can't breathe properly, his strength is weakened. The in-game effect is "Damage -10%, Hit Rate Decreased by 10%, Attack and Movement Speed Decreased by 10% for three seconds," but Aiwass feels that these values are definitely conservative.
If this really happened in reality, it would be very likely that someone would be caught off guard by this move and expose a fatal flaw.
Similarly, people who are in a state of severe choking and coughing cannot speak, let alone yell at others.
Even after the effects wear off, you may not be able to speak clearly for a while. The mucous membranes have been damaged, and it is easy to continue coughing if you are not careful.
The Law-Speaking abilities of the Path of Authoritarianism all need to be shouted out loud.
From this perspective, this equipment is specifically designed to target the Supervisory Bureau's capabilities. Once discovered, it can be used to block the enemy and immediately escape.
Aiwass couldn't help but feel fortunate.
——Fortunately, I revealed a flaw and seduced Veronica to choose Haina as a breakthrough point.
She must have thought her shot was too weak to penetrate her defenses. So, she might as well take the shot and immediately feign death, then take advantage of Haina's moment of letdown to unleash her magic and instantly kill her.
So she didn't want to appear too threatening - because what she needed was Haena to underestimate her.
This kind of academic school is very likely to reveal flaws in its mentality.
But Veronica knew this... and of course Aiwass knew it too.
He knew that Veronica must look down on Ha Yina, so he deliberately laid the groundwork and pretended to shoot her, so that Veronica would have the opportunity to successfully carry out her plan. When Veronica saw that her plan was gradually approaching success, she had already relaxed her guard.
Fortunately, I dug a hole and chose a righteous sneak attack!
Otherwise, if they really started fighting, even if Veronica's continuously channeled spells missed, she could still backhand and use the "violent coughing technique" to weaken Haina.
Moreover, this ring itself is the identity certificate of the "Noble Red" association. And only official members can obtain it, and peripheral members like the evil bartender cannot get it.
Although it is just an equipment in the game...
But Aiwass thought.
In reality, it may have other uses.
Just like how Aiwass didn't dare to wear it on weekdays for fear of being misunderstood as to his identity - perhaps the same is true in reverse.
I haven't adjusted yet, so I thought I'd write less, but these two chapters ended up being over 6,000 words...
Please recommend it and read it~
(End of this chapter)
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