Faint wailing drifted up from downstairs, leaving the two on the second floor looking at each other in bewilderment.
Just moments ago, the little rascal had clung to her mother, crying her heart out as she confessed all the bad deeds she had committed over the past few years. She had simply begged in tears for her mother not to abandon her to go jump into the river—if her mother was going to jump, she had to take her along. Only then did Lynch realize that he had inadvertently struck the one nerve the little rascal feared most.
Thinking it over, Martha’s motives weren't truly heinous, and her actions had actually produced results. At the very least, she had kept that group of unprincipled, immoral street urchins in line and tangibly improved the public safety of the King District.
Based on Officer Natalie's experience, even if they took her to turn herself in at the Hall of Order, no one would make things difficult for her. It would be hard to even return the stolen funds because the amount taken from each victim was minuscule, and nobody wanted to make a fuss with a bunch of children. Thus, no one had pursued the matter, and hardly anyone had ever filed a police report.
At most, she would receive a scolding and be kicked out. Since she had saved the police so much trouble, the police didn't want to deal with it at all.
All in all, no irreversible consequences had occurred yet, but her methods were far too vicious—built entirely on exploiting the inherent kindness of human nature. If this continued, a major catastrophe would inevitably occur down the line, harming both others and herself. It had to be corrected.
Maggie had never imagined in her wildest dreams that her daughter had lived through such experiences. No longer caring about fighting Lynch to the death, she had scooped her daughter up in her arms and rushed downstairs. Mother and daughter were preparing to shut their door for a long, heartfelt conversation.
Meanwhile, Lynch no longer planned to leap out the window to save his life. Looking at the complex expression Mrs. Maggie had worn, there seemed to have even been a sliver of gratitude mixed in. She was likely someone who could be reasoned with, so he probably wouldn't have to face a berserk mother after all. As long as she was reasonable, things were much easier; Lynch figured he wouldn't need to move. However, he now had to face another trouble.
A woman overflowing with intense curiosity, her eyes sparkling brightly—in the words of his old world, her soul of gossip was blazing fiercely.
This left Lynch utterly astonished. Who knew the stern and valiant Officer Natalie had a side like this? Even half-cold black tea couldn't plug her mouth as she kept firing questions at him, forcing Lynch to use something else to shut her up.
Naturally, that was the honey biscuits he had bought on the way.
And so, the tall, mature, long-haired officer cupped the honey biscuits in both hands like a little squirrel, nibbling in small bites while listening with shining eyes to Lynch's account.
By the end of the story, Lynch realized that the little rascal truly harbored no malice today. She had likely noticed her mother wasn't home, brewed some black tea of her own accord, and carried it upstairs in an attempt to butter up this disgusting adult who had promised to keep her secret. In the end, seeing the loose items on the table, her lack of boundaries led her to fiddle with them, almost playing away her own life in the process.
“I've learned my lesson too. I definitely have to buy a safe and lock up the mystery relics every single day. That was way too terrifying.”
Officer Natalie gave a faint smile. “When we first met, I told you that every single mystery relic is exceptionally dangerous to ordinary people. You understand now, don't you?”
Yeah, I understand. I'll never be so careless again. Thank you.
Thinking this in his heart, what actually came out of Lynch's mouth was, “You didn't say that when we first met. You pinned me straight to the ground and told me that if I survived, you'd agree to anything—”
“Ow.”
His toe got stomped on again. How had this woman managed to hold her biscuits with both hands, reach across the coffee table in the blink of an eye, stomp on his foot, and retreat to keep nibbling on her biscuit?
Wait, she hadn't even blinked.
Still, that reminded him of proper business. With considerable excitement, he said, “Earlier, I wasn't going to make it in time to save Martha, but then it felt as if something exploded in my head. That's the feeling of activating an authority, right? It felt like my entire body surged with power, like I was omnipotent, rushing right next to that little rascal in an instant. Just like this...”
Lynch tried to reproduce the experience from earlier, but no matter how he willed his thoughts, he couldn't capture that feeling of something bursting deep within his soul. Confused, he looked up, only to see Officer Natalie looking at him with a strange smile.
“I didn't misjudge you. To risk your life for a little girl you barely know—your character is truly worthy of trust.” The officer's smile softened remarkably as she said gently, “Don't bother trying. That was you unintentionally triggering your soul's instinct to enter the ultimate transcendent state. Aside from its massive consumption, it leaves your soul in a weakened state for at least an hour afterward. You won't be able to reproduce it right now.”
“Huh? The same state you were in last night?”
“Yes. In truth, activating a single authority to enhance your strength and speed would have been enough back then. But you have zero combat awareness as a Soul Severer, and you were in a genuine panic, so you instinctively activated your strongest state.”
It seemed that was true. Last night, after alienating his soul and drawing upon the red moon’s power, he hadn't even tested his new abilities after returning home before falling asleep.
Though excessive soul power expenditure was part of the reason, he had indeed grown somewhat lax. In this perilous occult world, no one knew what might happen next. He had to arm himself as much as possible and keep himself at peak condition; otherwise, the slightest carelessness would spell total doom.
One lesson was enough. He could never get carried away again.
“It's good that you understand. Now that you have stepped into the mysterious world, every moment of slackening means slipping deeper into the abyss of the Dreamlands.”
Even as she held the honey biscuit and nibbled on it, the female officer's tone was deeply serious:
“That is also why I came here today. It's time for you to systematically understand Soul Severers.”
Lynch's heart tightened. He knew this meant he was finally going to become a true Soul Severer in every sense of the word. Raising his hand to signal the officer to pause, he took several deep breaths to settle his nervous emotions before sitting upright and nodding.
“For anyone to maintain normal willpower, they must rely on soul power, which we call energy. After soul alienation, our souls become exceptionally powerful, and our energy far exceeds that of ordinary people, allowing us to sustain the use of abilities and arcane arts. Energy typically recovers rapidly during sleep, and certain special mystery relics can also aid recovery, though they are relatively rare. The reserve of energy gradually increases alongside our comprehension of our authorities. In general, the higher your energy, the stronger your combat prowess.”
Lynch nodded. Mana bar. Understood.
“However, soul alienation comes with severe hazards. The greatest danger is that our souls lose their barrier, constantly absorbing mystery from the environment at a slow rate. Furthermore, residing in high-concentration mystery environments or making deep contact with mysterious events causes mystery to rapidly accumulate within the soul. This is what people commonly refer to as being constantly eroded by mystery. This process is irreversible.”
“So this is a path with no way to stop?” Lynch recalled Archbishop Trinlais's prior warning. “What happens when too much accumulates?”
“When mystery saturates the soul, it can leak out at any moment, thereby contaminating our willpower and turning us into uncontrolled lunatics or twisted monsters. Therefore, we must maintain strong willpower and soul stability at all times; otherwise, we will be completely assimilated into the mystery.”
“Then can we only try our best to avoid excessive contact with mystery?”
“Unfortunately, that doesn't work either. Accumulating daily, a day will come sooner or later when it fills up completely. If you keep pouring wine into an already full, sealed wine barrel, the wine inside will naturally squeeze out from the seams in the wood. The soul operates the same way. If you cannot promptly begin the next alienation to expand your soul, the filled soul will gradually swell. The higher the degree of swelling, the greater the likelihood of mystery leaking out.”
“Then just start the next alienation as soon as possible.”
“How could it be that easy? The next alienation requires two conditions to be met. First, having holy mystery that guides our comprehension of the deity's traits. Second, having a thorough understanding of the authorities you have already alienated, with mastery over at least four abilities for each authority. The higher the rank of the authority, the fewer suitable holy mysteries and supporting materials exist, and the harder it becomes to comprehend abilities. That is why many mid-to-high-tier Soul Severers have long since had their souls filled to capacity, yet remain unable to undergo their next alienation, ultimately twisting into monsters.”
“Then if one wants to comprehend abilities...”
“There are two paths. One is mystery documents, which are essentially records left behind by predecessors that transformed into mystery documents because they carried mysterious information. Such abilities are generally very basic, foundational abilities. More powerful abilities are difficult to record in writing because ordinary Soul Severers cannot withstand that level of mystery. In here are two mystery documents.”
Officer Natalie patted the case she had brought along.
“The other path is continuous contact with mystery memories—whether from mystery relics or mysterious events—savoring and drawing reference from those memories to comprehend abilities unique to yourself.”
“No matter which path, it will actually make the mysterious contamination in the soul even more severe.”
“Yes. But in the early stages, you don't need to worry about that. After all, during the early stages, we cannot make contact with things of high mystery anyway, as we wouldn't be able to handle them. Thus, there is no need to worry about excessive mysterious contamination. That is a problem to worry about later.”
The problem is, I have to snatch Divine Authority from evil gods.
Lynch could only offer a wry smile, finally realizing just what an arduous path he had chosen.
The path of an ordinary Soul Severer was treacherous enough, yet he had to frequently interact with evil gods...
【You do not need to worry overly about mysterious filth, Lynch. Your willpower has exceptionally high resistance against filth. Evil gods will not cause the mysterious filth accumulating inside you to increase drastically, and the effects brought by mysterious filth can recover quickly. I warned you about this from the very beginning.】
Lynch thought about it. Indeed, back when he had first seen Drunken Peter's corpse, she had reminded him of this. But...
‘Why is that?’
【Your soul is special.】
‘Because I'm a transmigrator?’
【Actually... no. You will learn the reason in the future. For now, you only need to remember that unlike most people, you do not need to worry about too much filth accumulating within your soul. However, filth leaking out remains fatal to you. Be exceptionally careful.】
Well, at least that was good news.
Lynch smiled and pointed at the case in Officer Natalie's hands. “So, my path as a Soul Severer begins with this case?”
With a solemn expression, Officer Natalie opened the case.
Inside lay two book-sized wooden boxes, each topped with an envelope. A faint sensation of danger emanated from within—the warning of his mystery intuition.
“Here are two abilities subordinate to the Concealment authority. They are said to originate from a Soul Severer of the Goddess of the Night, who seemingly shares the authority over Concealment as well. Unlike comprehending abilities on your own through mystery, receiving a predecessor's comprehension from mystery documents lacks sufficient mystery, so various mysterious materials must be used as aids to guide the user in comprehending the ability. Some higher-level ones even require refining the materials into potions, but these two do not.”
Lynch nodded and picked up the first document.
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