hotmtlnovel Chapter 184 Another Deal
Chapter 184 Another Deal
Chapter 184 Another Deal
After walking a distance on the street, Lorne felt his emotions, which had been somewhat agitated by his earlier experience, gradually calm down.
Was I not being followed? Or was everything just my imagination?
Lorne looked around at his surroundings but didn't find anything unusual.
He glanced at the familiar street not far away.
After hesitating for a moment, Lorne turned around and went to the "Wiz Antique Shop" again.
"Welcome, Wiz Antiques—" Caesar's familiar voice came from behind the counter, but after seeing who it was, he immediately changed his words, "Ah, it's you, sir."
Looking at Caesar's attire, which was exactly the same as before, Lorne judged that he must have been staying here the whole time.
"You've come again today, is there anything I can help you with?" Xize asked with a professional smile. "Is there something wrong with the products we sold before?"
"No, no," Lorne shook his head, speaking casually, "I just wanted to come and browse around some more, is that not allowed?"
"Of course," Xize said immediately with a smile. "In fact, many regular customers like to come here when it's not busy to sit and see if we have any new or good things."
Lorne grunted in agreement and began to stroll slowly through the store like a true antique enthusiast, examining the various items on the shelves.
Was no one following? His gaze kept drifting towards the door.
throat·-·
After recalling what happened at noon that day, he finally walked over to Xize, lowered his voice, and said, "Actually,
I've come this time to buy another magical item.
Upon hearing this, Xize's smile faded slightly. He glanced at Lorne, nodded, and led him to the inner room upstairs.
"Sir, do you have any more specific requirements?" Caesar asked.
"It should help the user stay calm," Lorne thought for a moment, then added, "and ideally, it should be portable with minimal side effects."
"I understand." Xize nodded, turned around and took out a simple wooden box from a locked cabinet.
When the wooden box was opened, a simple-looking ring made of an unknown metal lay quietly inside.
"Its name is Silence," Xize explained. "Its extraordinary ability is simple and practical. Once you wear it, it forces the wearer to maintain absolute calm. Under its influence, the user will find it very difficult to be controlled by extreme emotions such as anger, fear, and desire."
"What about the side effects?" Lorne asked the most crucial question directly. "It can't be worn for extended periods," Caesar replied. "Otherwise, it will gradually make the user cold-blooded and numb, until they completely lose their human emotions."
However, according to our tests, as long as the wearing time does not exceed a full day, there should generally be no problems.
He paused, then added:
"Furthermore, this ring has another advantage. Its spirituality is completely internalized; unless a special, extraordinary ability is used, otherwise..."
Ordinary extraordinary individuals would not even recognize it as a magical item.
"How much?" Lorne asked. "850," Caesar replied.
Lorne nodded, indicating that he could accept it.
After the transaction was completed, he asked the question that had been bothering him the most: "Any news about the weapons I wanted to buy?"
Xize shook his head, an apologetic expression on his face: "Sir, the time was still too short. Such a convenient and magical item isn't easy to find. However—"
He then changed the subject.
"Perhaps—you could ask someone else yourself."
He gestured for Lorne to wait a moment.
A few minutes later, Caesar returned with a pure white mask, the same one Lorne had worn at the party.
"Put this on."
Lorne didn't ask any questions and put on the mask. Then, Caesar led him through a corridor with heavy curtains and to a door made of dark wood that looked very heavy.
Caesar knocked gently on the door, and after receiving a calm "Come in" from inside, he pushed the door open and led Lorne inside.
This is a room that resembles a private study. A faint scent of paper fills the air. Three walls of the room are lined with bookshelves that reach the ceiling, crammed with all sorts of thick, old-looking books.
In the center of the room, beside a large desk, sat a woman also wearing a pure white mask. In front of her were several ancient books that looked very old and were not closed.
Based solely on her familiar figure and demeanor, Lorne immediately recognized her as the mysterious woman who had bought his "Wind Favorite" trait at the party.
"This lady is a regular customer here," Caesar whispered to Lorne. "She is a very knowledgeable scholar who often comes here to browse through our collection of documents or to buy some rare books."
Similar to the captain?
There were also documents and books. Lorne thought to himself, "So this place is also a library. The services are quite diverse." After Caesar left, Lorne asked, "Madam, regarding the weapons I requested earlier, you said—you've made some progress?"
Wearing a white mask, Cattleya slowly closed the ancient book in her hands. She raised her head, looked at Lorne, and said in a calm, objective tone:
"Yes. In three days, I should be able to get you a decent weapon."
She didn't keep them in suspense and introduced herself directly:
"That was a dagger, extremely sharp enough to easily cut through steel."
"It can greatly improve the user's physical fitness, especially their self-healing ability. As long as it's not a fatal wound like being hit in a vital spot or having one's head severed, it can allow the user to recover from the injury quickly in a short period of time."
"At the same time," she paused, then added, "its blade also carries an inescapable toxin. Any wound struck by it cannot heal on its own."
"And—what about its side effects?" Lorne calmly asked the most crucial question.
"The side effects are equally obvious." Cattleya's tone remained calm. "It will continuously erode the user's sanity, making the holder increasingly violent and irritable, and generating an intense thirst for blood."
Berserker and Bloodthirsty—
"I have a ring that forces me to calm down, so this side effect isn't a big problem," Lorne thought.
After chatting for a while, Lorne placed an order for the weapon, and Gadria said she could come and pick it up in three days.
However, she also said that it had to go through the antique shop's procedures and couldn't be a private transaction. This meant that Lorne would have to pay a handling fee, but since he was using their channels, Lorne didn't say much.
"It seems the talks went very smoothly," Caesar said with a smile as he approached Lorne.
"Hmm—I'll need your help to authenticate it later," Lorne said.
"certainly."
After hesitating for a moment, Lorne asked again:
"Do you know anything about leaving Bayam? Things haven't been going well in Bayam lately." "Hmm—"
"Then you should go back," Xize said.
"go back?"
"Go back and find that lady. I heard she has some influence at sea, so she should be able to help."
In the hotel room, Danitz paced anxiously, waiting for Lorne to return.
"Damn it! Brando, why does he always take so long to come back?!"
Fortunately, not long after, there was a rhythmic knocking on the door.
It was a pre-arranged code!
Danitz slightly opened the door. Seeing the figure standing outside, indeed the one wearing a top hat and trench coat, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Without saying a word, Lorne slipped into the room and closed the door behind him.
He sat down in the chair, rested for a moment, and calmed his emotions, which were somewhat turbulent due to the series of events that had occurred that day. Then he told Danitz everything he had seen and heard that day, including his purchase at Wiz's antique shop and the strange "chance encounter" in the restaurant.
However, after listening to Lorne's account, Danitz's focus was clearly somewhat off.
"What?!" He stared wide-eyed, his voice filled with disbelief. "I've been here all day, hungry and fearful, and you—you've been outside having lunch with a beautiful lady!"
"Is this all you're focused on?" Lorne looked up, his eyes behind his glasses turning somewhat cold.
Seeing Lorne's expression, Danitz realized he had misspoke. He coughed twice and quickly steered the conversation back on track.
"You mean—you feel that woman is suspicious?" he pressed. "Was she coming for us? To arrest us?"
Lorne shook his head, a hint of confusion in his eyes. "I'm not sure. After all, I've changed my appearance; logically, she shouldn't recognize me."
She wasn't following me; perhaps—it really was just a coincidence, who knows?
That's what they say, but for some reason, Lorne always felt that things weren't that simple.
"Do you know exactly how much longer it will take for the captain and the others to arrive?" Lorne asked this crucial question again.
Danitz shook his head, a hint of helplessness on his face: "I'm not sure. Last time we contacted them, they only said that they changed course to bypass the Storm Church's blockade. I estimate—it will take at least several more days."
"This is taking too long." Lorne's expression grew even more serious.
He looked at Danitz and presented a new possibility, one that he had been pondering all day on his way back.
"The lady I dealt with at the antique shop today," he said slowly, "I tried talking to her briefly. She seems to... have connections that can get us out of Bayam safely."
"Of course," he added immediately, "I didn't tell her our true identities or purpose."
He looked at Danitz and said, word by word, "I was thinking, if the captain and the others really can't come anytime soon, and taking the normal route to sea makes us vulnerable to being targeted by the 'Substitute Punishers,' perhaps we could consider asking that lady to take us away?"
Is it reliable?
Upon hearing this suggestion, Danitz immediately frowned.
For him, returning to the "Golden Dream" and to the captain's side was the only and safest option. He instinctively harbored great vigilance towards this external force of unknown origin.
"It seems like you can sign legally binding contracts at the exchange," Lorne said, not forcing him to accept. "I'm just asking for your thoughts."
Danitz hesitated for a long time.
On one side is the "Golden Dream," a ship whose launch seems far off, but which is absolutely reliable.
On the other side lies a mysterious passage filled with unknowns, but which might offer an immediate escape from danger.
"I still want to wait and see," he said. "I'll try to find another opportunity tomorrow to ask the captain about the specifics."
The next morning, Lorne and Danitz left the hotel together.
The contact point wasn't too far from the hotel where they were currently hiding. Given the need for secrecy regarding the telegram code, Danitz chose to make the contact in person.
Both of them were disguised and mingled with the bustling crowds of the early morning, heading towards the old town.
However, just halfway there, Lorne suddenly stopped, his brows furrowing slightly.
"What's wrong?" Danitz, who was also disguised, asked immediately on alert.
"I sensed a faint sense of 'disaster,'" Lorne said in a low voice, his gaze sweeping around, "but I'm not sure what it is."
"What should we do? Should we go back?" Danitz asked.
Lorne pondered for a moment before making a decision.
"Let's split up," he said to Danitz. "You go ahead as planned. I'll follow far behind, just in case." "Okay," Danitz nodded without asking any further questions. He knew very well that in times like these, he absolutely had to trust Lorne's seemingly mystical yet remarkably accurate intuition.
A moment later, Danitz arrived alone near a small bar on the outskirts of the city that didn't look very nice. Instead of going through the main door with the "Today's Special" sign, he went around to the side of the bar and came to an inconspicuous, closed door.
He raised his hand and gently knocked on the door with a peculiar rhythm of three long knocks followed by two short knocks.
The door was quickly pulled open from the inside, and he slipped inside.
And on another building directly opposite that little bar.
"The Clever Speaker" Misor was lying motionless behind the window, watching everything below.
"If you can't catch 'Flame' Danitz within a month, then you should never come back."
Don't even think about running away; you know my capabilities.
Even if you miraculously survive, you will inherit Danitz's bounty.
Tracy's "heartwarming" words echoed in his ears, making him feel uneasy all day long.
When he saw that familiar figure disappear behind the side door, his nerves, which had been tense for days, finally relaxed.
He sighed deeply in his heart.
It's finally here...
Damn "Flame".