1325 More than Half a Year Later (1/2)

City of Generosity, Bayam, in a rented apartment lit up with gas lamps.

Verdu Abraham, who was wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, held a thick stack of information. He was reading seriously under the dim light, drawing a symbol and recording what he deemed useful information from time to time.

He left Loen and came to the Rorsted Archipelago mainly to avoid being watched by Dorian and his other family members, and focus on studying mysticism. He wanted to find an effective way to save Ancestor Bethel Abraham, or rather, reduce the difficulty of the known ritual.

However, he hadn't made any headway after half a year. It was as though he had no other choice other than hunting a Bizarro Sorcerer, a Parasite, and a Secrets Sorcerer.

This made Verdu rather depressed, but he was clear about how dangerous a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact was. Even if he was willing to sacrifice himself, he was unable to truly control it. He was unable to guarantee the final outcome.

And the most important thing was that he couldn't find any Bizarro Sorcerers or Parasites. They were all saints that were hard to track, with styles that were known for being strange and bizarre.

Phew… Verdu put down the stack of documents in his hand and muttered silently, Don't tell me I can only place my hopes on The Fool like Dorian and the others?

Upon thinking of The Fool, Verdu couldn't help but frown. This was because there were more and more half-giants promoting The Fool's faith in Bayam City, so much so that even he, who rarely went out, heard of it.

This made him suspect if he had arrived near the headquarters of the Church of The Fool.

If it wasn't for the mysterious knowledge that was spread in secret in the Rorsted Archipelago was far beyond Verdu's expectations—many of them were things that the Abraham family didn't know of, and were extremely useful—he would've left Bayam last month and headed for the Southern Continent.

I can't stay here any longer. I need to buy ship tickets to East Balam as soon as possible… Just as Verdu made a decision, he began to waver. Dorian and The Fool probably wouldn't expect me to hide in the area that's under their headquarters' jurisdiction. Emperor Roselle once said that the most dangerous place is the safest place…

After some hesitation, Verdu put down the documents and switched off the lights. With the moonlight from the window, he walked towards the bedroom.

At the corner of the balcony in his room, a figure suddenly jumped out of the darkness and jumped over the railings.

The figure was like a feather, light and weightless. It landed from a height ten meters above the ground, without making a single sound.

Right on the heels of that, the figure moved through the shadows to the vicinity of the Church of the Sea God and went up the bell tower.

Then, ”he” took out a pen and paper and wrote the report on tonight's surveillance before stuffing it into a crack.

After the figure left, a howling wind suddenly sounded above the bell tower about fifteen minutes later.

The report was pulled out from the crack by an invisible hand. As it swept through the wind, it rose and fell into the distance like a bat spreading its wings in the dark night.

Not long after, the report plummeted like it had been bound to a rock, landing on a hand that extended out in a hidden corner of the garden.

This hand belonged to the cardinal of the Church of Storms, Alger Wilson.

He then unfolded the report and began to read it in the darkness. He was completely unaffected by the lack of light.

Even in the dark sea, Alger could see everything around him clearly.

Verdu is becoming more resolute in his intention of leaving Bayam… Alger nodded indiscernibly as he came to a conclusion.

Over the past half a year, he had been monitoring this member of the Abraham family according to Mr. Fool's instructions, but he hadn't noticed anything abnormal about him.

After Verdu left the Rorsted Archipelago, his mission would be completed.

However, Alger didn't wish for it to end just like that. He believed that he hadn't made enough contributions. All he did was simply monitor a Sequence 7 Beyonder without any special characteristics.

The Hermit had already obtained a Sequence 3 Beyonder characteristic from Queen Mystic, and had gathered the corresponding supplementary ingredients and was busy preparing the ritual. This made Alger deeply stressed. Of course, he had also done many things according to Mr. Fool's intentions, but even he felt that there was a huge difference from doing those tasks, with the identity, status, and strength of Sea God.

For a moment, Alger wanted to use all sorts of methods to force Verdu Abraham to expose himself, but in the end, he gave up on the idea. This was because he couldn't be sure of Mr. Fool's attitude towards the target.

Previously, when the City of Silver and Moon City sold Beyonder characteristics and potion formulas, Alger had purchased some from the Tarot Club. He had used it to secretly nurture a team of Beyonders who were loyal to him. This was how he had people monitoring Verdu.

Currently, this less-than-ten-member team was mostly at Sequence 9, while only a small number of them had been promoted to Sequence 8.

As for where Alger had obtained the money for purchasing Beyonder characteristics and potion formulas, the answer was very simple:

As a cardinal of the Church diocese, Alger could easily ”save” a sum of money for himself. And during that period of time, the minerals, farms, spice plantations, and factories in the Rorsted Archipelago were sold at below intrinsic value. As long as one had the funds to buy them, they could earn a lot after a short period of time.

More importantly, the Church of Storms's headquarters was quite interested in the Beyonder characteristics and potion formulas sold by the City of Silver and Moon City. They provided a large sum of money for their purchase. The go-between was without a doubt the cardinal of the Rorsted diocese, Alger Wilson. It was understandable that some losses were inevitable during such situations.

Reining in his thoughts, Alger decided to sell some mysticism knowledge in Bayam's Beyonder circles through his Shadow Guards. He wanted to bait Verdu Abraham and keep him in the vicinity for as long as possible.

The main reason is that the City of Silver's preaching has frightened that gentleman… Alger shook his head and muttered inwardly.