Chapter Thirty-Three Harvest

  Under the fluorescent light, this shiny thing flickered with a faint pale blue glow in the ash-gray water. Lucien walked over and carefully picked it out with his dagger, finding that it was a silver-white ring.

  Its ring has a simple hollow flower pattern, with a metallic color in simplicity. The front is inlaid with a shallow blue unknown gemstone the size of half a small finger head.

  "Is this the ring that Water Ghost wore on his finger?" Lucien speculated, bending down to pick up the ring and rubbing the inner layer with his fingers.

  A chill metallic sensation came through, and the inner ring of the ring unexpectedly had a circle of text engraved on it. Lucien carefully distinguished it and found that it was in Common Language:

  "Human hearts can be even colder than ice and snow."

  This ring looks ordinary at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the pale blue glow seems to reveal a mysterious and profound color.

  Lucien held a try-it-out attitude, calmed down the soul that was damaged by the magic backlash, and slowly extended his restored spiritual power.

  As soon as Lucien came into contact with the pale blue gemstone on the ring, his already slightly wounded soul was shaken violently, and he felt that there were winds and snow swirling within the gemstone, and hidden within the winds and snow was a magical structure far more complex than informal magic.

  Lucien let out a soft sigh, filled with delight and slight relaxation: "It's really a magic ring, I don't know what level it is, but it feels like it's even more complicated than Benjamin's Truth Holy Emblem, maybe that's why this water ghost mutated?"

  While speaking to himself, Lucien withdrew the nearly depleted spiritual force. In this state, he couldn't analyze the rough magical structure of the ring and was unable to leave his mark on the core of the magic array to control it, so he could only wait for his spiritual force to recover before analyzing it again.

  If Lucien had become a formal magician and learned the first ring of magic, "Appraisal", he could directly appraise all level one magical items. If his knowledge accumulated a bit more, he could even appraise level two or three magical items. This way, without having to slowly analyze their magical structure, he could easily cast the spell to understand its information and also directly imprint his own spiritual power mark in situations where no spiritual power mark was left behind.

  In most magical items, there is often also a seal of information left by the creator, which helps the user understand the purpose and creation reason of this magical item.

  Of course, as Lucien's rank grows, "Appraisal" will also become stronger.

  According to the witch's records, the magician is very lazy in categorizing items, directly referring to the classification of magic, simply dividing magical items into apprentice-level magic items, level 1-9 magic items, and legendary magic items.

  The classification standard is the effect it produces, which is equivalent to a certain level of magic or the ability of a certain level knight. Within the same level of magic items, there are also four levels of distinction: low, medium, high, and perfect. For example, if a ring seals a third-level magic "Lightning Technique" that can be used once a day, it is a low-level third-level magic item. If it seals a "Lightning Technique" that can be used three times a day, it is a mid-level item. If it also has some additional auxiliary attributes, such as effectively reducing lightning damage by 5-10%, then it becomes a high-level third-level magic item.

  If a constant has some magical effect, it is elevated one level from its original level. For example, if a magic item had a constant that duplicated the effect of an 8th-level spell "Mind Blank", then it would be a 9th-level perfect-tier magic item.

  As for the grading of magic long swords and helmets, etc., it is roughly equivalent to the attack power or defense power of a knight of the same level.

  Because he hadn't figured out the ring's general structure and information, Lucien didn't dare to put it on rashly, but only put it in his pocket, because if it was that kind of item that produced magical effects as soon as you wore it, it would be troublesome! Such magical effects were often curses!

  Receiving the first magical item in his life, Lucien was overjoyed and lifted his head, only to see a corridor filled with corpses and bloodstains. His face immediately turned sour as he realized he still had to clean up and process the scene. Most importantly, he needed to extract the brain tissue of this variant water ghost.

  "I haven't even learned the informal magic of 'organ preservation' yet, but I've already obtained a water ghost's brain tissue. Fortunately, water ghosts are undead creatures, so their brain tissue can probably be stored for three to five days. Within this time frame, I should be able to learn 'organ preservation'."

  The informal name of this magic is "Preservation Organ", but in fact, it can keep most items fresh for twenty-four hours each time the spell takes effect, without the need for spellcasting materials.

  Lucien used a dagger to cut open the crispy skull of the Water Ghost, and saw that inside its deep black brain tissue was slowly crawling like countless insects.

  Ignoring the eerie atmosphere that sent chills down his spine, Lucien took out the bag of ice crystals and carefully placed the Water Ghost's brain tissue inside. They would undoubtedly have a certain preservative effect for casting Frost Ray.

  Then, realizing that magic costs a lot of money, the greedy Lucien rummaged through all the corpses' pouches, including those two disgusting and terrifying ones in the Dark River whose brains had been licked clean, and got thirty-three silver nails and fifty-two copper ferls.

  The old missionary contributed the most, with one person contributing twenty-five silver nails and several copper ferules. Jackson, the little ringleader of the gang, had four silver nails and six copper ferules.

  Lucien couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth as he saw the glittering coins filling his pouch to bursting.

  However, in the process of searching for the money bag, Lucien found that he often had blurred vision when looking at things, his ears had symptoms of tinnitus, his head was slightly dizzy and aching, and he felt like walking on thick carpets. It wasn't until then that he realized that his soul had been damaged by the backlash of the forced interruption spell, and except for those few potions, all the witch's magic potions were at the apprentice level, none of which could heal soul wounds. He was probably going to take some time to recover, during which his ability to cast spells would definitely be affected.

  After collecting the coins, Lucien exchanged them for a slightly cleaner dagger and began doing heavy physical labor, throwing the corpses one by one into the dark river, and using a long pole to send them all out of the large hole under the iron wire mesh, sending them into the Beren River, just like Jackson and Ska had handled those few corpses before.

  As for Scatha's fallen heart, intestines, liver and other organs, Lucien endured the nausea and dry heaving, wrapped them in a tattered cloth, and sent them into the River Belen as well. Their bloody smell would soon attract the sharp-mouthed fish, similar to piranhas.

  In the end, Lucien got used to it and even played with Scar's kidney a bit, feeling like he had a kind of dark magician style.

  The blood on the road was wiped clean by Lucien with a damp rag, and then he found a broken pot to fill with water and rinse it off.

  After confirming that there were no obvious traces left behind, Lucien washed his hands, tore off a strip of cloth from the torn clothes, bandaged the place on his right hand that was scorched by the flames, and then walked towards the corner of the sewer. The current sewer can't stay for long now.

  "The emergence of the water ghosts doesn't seem to be due to the cult, although they 'provided' the corpses, but what's the reason for that?" Lucien thought to himself as he walked cautiously, his hand on the pocket containing the water ghost brain tissue. "Right, is there a connection between the appearance of those red-eyed rats and the cult, or is it related to the same reason why the water ghosts emerged?"

  The origin of Red-Eyed Mouse, the witch had never figured out, Lucien now recalls, and can't help but think in the direction of evil cult.

  "Tomorrow, rise early, before going to the Music Association, first go out of town to Lord Vien's estate to find John and tell him about the encounter with someone spreading the teachings." After a while, Lucien pondered what he should do tomorrow while cautiously exiting the sewer.

  Then Lucien took the sulfur powder in his hand and sprinkled it on himself and around him, which not only covered up his other smells with the strong smell of sulfur but also made it impossible for any cult or gang investigators who might come to track him down by the smell of sulfur.

  Due to his identity as a magical apprentice and the fact that the iron fence outside the Belen River was filled with water ghosts, Lucien could not directly go to the church to report, nor could he leave the city from the Belen River to go near Lord Vienne's manor. He could only try to erase and confuse the traces, pretending to be an innocent passerby in his own house, while recovering his spiritual power and waiting for dawn with high vigilance.

  …………

  Inside the sewer, a dark river flows through the iron mesh and sends part of the garbage into a bay of the Beren River. Every three days, several apprentice pastors from the church come here with divine objects to cast spells, bury garbage, and clean up the river water.

  But after Lucien left, it became quiet and deep, with only the moss glowing softly on the path, when a black shadow suddenly separated from some shadows without warning.

  He covered his mouth, chuckling with a mixture of disgust and amusement: "Hmph, Silver White Lord, eternal silence, don't think that changing your title will make people unrecognizable. It seems that the other one has been bewitched by him, this is his specialty. This time, things are getting interesting. However, if he wants to project over, it's too loud, and Altor, this Cardinal, is not unfamiliar with him, and his strength won't be inferior to his projection."

  "Or did the ancient magic empire leave behind other legacies deep within Alto that he could draw upon?"

  However, with this destruction, when the church starts searching the sewers carefully, his plan will probably not succeed, perhaps he has other preparations.

  "My plan has changed a bit, no need to attract hatred to myself, as long as things can be done."

  "Haha, this little guy has actually learned ancient magic and can even cast the 'Sulfur Fire Wall' spell on his own, a novice-level flame magic that was only recently created over 300 years ago. Looks like he's got quite the magical talent, what an interesting little fellow."

  In a low laugh, the black shadow twisted and split into countless small black shadows that disappeared into the sewer.