Although Old Ed didn't seem to appreciate the compliment much, Elias had to praise the old man's quick thinking in this moment of crisis.
He quickly scanned the room, looking for anything useful.
This was like a bandit from the old days going to kidnap a rich lord; you had to mask your face first and prevent yourself from being recognized.
Who knew if the Seventh Agency investigators or the experts from the Ascetic Society had some way of extracting information from the deceased?
He wasn't worried about Firth's remains on the beach; after all, when people died normally, they didn't just turn into spiritual bodies like Old Ed or John.
Besides, that corpse was heavily damaged. Even if there were a spell that could make a corpse speak, it probably wouldn't work anymore.
But right now, if there really was a person in this room...
Even if he killed the other party, he certainly couldn't bring himself to desecrate the corpse further.
His encounter with that beast Firth had been a result of acting on impulse, but at this moment, Elias was certain he had calmed down.
His gaze shifted, locking onto a wool blanket hanging at the foot of the bed.
He walked over, tore off the blanket, and wrapped it directly around his head, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed.
Although this blanket gave off a strange smell—god knows what a cultist would do with a blanket in their room.
After wrapping himself up into the look of an Arabian assassin, Elias finally felt a slight sense of security.
Next was resolving the fear of insufficient firepower.
He couldn't go back to his own room to get ammunition.
Returning to his room now would be like leading the secret police straight to his own front door.
That would be a true death wish.
Left with no choice, Elias had to make do with what was on hand.
He began to rummage through the boxes and cabinets.
Drawers, cupboards, and even the wastepaper basket under the desk were turned upside down.
A letter opener on the desk? Take it!
A few steak knives and silver forks in the cabinet?
Even though they weren't sharpened, he stuffed them all into his pockets!
He didn't even pass over a sharpened pencil.
At this moment, Elias perfectly illustrated what a poor man's field of fire looked like.
He planned to immediately activate 【Moonlight Enchantment】 and hurl these knives and forks like throwing knives or hidden weapons the moment that inner door showed any sign of movement.
Although the physical damage might be limited, the holy burning effect after the enchantment would be exceptionally effective against evil entities.
There was no other way; a poor man's ambitions are short, so he had to improvise.
Fortunately, the thing behind that door didn't make another sound.
Perhaps it wasn't a living thing?
This thought settled his mind completely, and his scavenging grew even bolder.
Finally.
From under the bed, he dragged out a heavy cowhide travel suitcase.
The suitcase was unlocked, the leather was of excellent quality with brass-reinforced corners, and it looked very personal.
'I hope there's something valuable in here, like gold bars or something,' Elias thought with anticipation as he lifted the lid.
However, the contents left him deeply disappointed, even dumbfounded.
There were no gold coins, nor were there any peerless secret manuals.
Inside were nothing but various styles of clothing.
There were decent formal suits and comfortable casual wear, which was normal.
But...
Why were there tight corsets and women's dresses with complex panniers?!
Elias picked up a silk petticoat with a pink bow, falling into a long silence.
Involuntarily, an image of the mystic he had killed surfaced in his mind.
That burly, perverted man who was at least six-foot-one, had a gloomy face, and a disgusting tentacle tattoo on his wrist... if he were squeezed into this dress...
"Hiss—!"
Elias sucked in a cold breath, goosebumps breaking out all over his body.
He simply couldn't imagine how nauseating it would be to see that Firth fellow wearing this women's clothing.
"Eww."
Inside his mind, Old Ed had clearly seen this scene as well, letting out a sound of extreme disgust in perfect coordination.
Elias quickly threw the dress aside, feeling as if his eyes had been severely contaminated.
These clothes were worthless to Elias, and taking them would only be a burden.
But he didn't give up.
Experience told him that important things were often hidden in the most obscure corners.
Using the letter opener he had just acquired, he began to check the lining of the suitcase.
Sure enough.
In a hidden compartment at the bottom of the suitcase, the tip of the blade touched something hard.
"Found something!"
Elias's spirits lifted. He sliced open the leather of the compartment and pulled out a heavy weapon.
A handgun.
An old-model revolver with an entirely black body.
It was well-protected and looked brand new.
The design of this gun was extremely elegant and vintage. The barrel was a good deal longer than the revolver he was currently using, and the frame was covered in complex and mysterious silver engravings.
The grip seemed to be made of precious walnut wood, feeling warm and solid in his hand.
At the base of the wooden grip, there were also patterns carved into it.
With the enhancement of his 【Darkvision】, Elias clearly saw that it was an owl motif.
What was most peculiar was that only the eyes of the owl facing inward were inlaid with two tiny gemstones.
One was blood-red, the other a venomous dark green.
In the darkness, these two gems even emitted an extremely faint fluorescence.
"Good stuff!"
Elias's eyes lit up.
A gun? This was exactly what he needed!
He immediately and skillfully flipped open the cylinder to check the capacity.
Clack.
The cylinder opened.
It was completely empty.
The six chambers were clean. Forget bullets, there wasn't even a trace of gunpowder residue.
"What the hell?"
Elias's smile froze on his face.
Refusing to give up, he felt around the compartment for a long time and even shook out all the women's clothing.
Nothing.
Not a single bullet.
"A gun with no bullets? Are you freaking kidding me!"
Elias cursed out loud in frustration.
"You deserved to be controlled by a siren! If you didn't die, who would?!"
He had thought he'd picked up a legendary artifact, only for it to be a glorified club. This psychological drop-off drove Elias crazy.
"This gun... doesn't look ordinary."
In his mind, Old Ed's voice wasn't as agitated as Elias's; instead, it carried the steady tone of someone who had found something intriguing.
"Although it's not a model from when I was alive, this material, these carved runes..."
"It might be a transcendent weapon," the old ghost concluded.
"What's the use of a transcendent weapon without bullets?"
"Am I supposed to use it as a blunt object to bash people with?!" Elias retorted irritably.
Old Ed was stumped by the question and had no answer.
A clever cook cannot make a meal without rice; a gun without bullets was indeed no better than a fire poker.
"Look again," Edmond suggested.
"A Scale Two cultist wouldn't just carry a useless weapon like this."
"A consumable like bullets would definitely be kept somewhere easy to reach."
"Fine."
Elias shook his head in disdain.
He casually picked up the black revolver, intending to toss it onto the table and continue searching the wardrobe.
However.
The moment his right hand fully gripped the handle of the revolver and his fingers pressed against the owl's eyes inlaid with red and green gems...
A sudden change occurred!
Whoosh—
Without warning.
A predatory suction suddenly erupted from the grip of the pistol!
This was a hijacking of his spirituality!
Elias didn't even have time to let go.
He felt his abundant spirituality, which had been recovering under the Moonlight Blessing, suddenly torn open.
A massive amount of spirituality, like a flood bursting through a dam, surged wildly through his arm and was forcefully swallowed by the black pistol!
In just one second of contact!
The vast amount of spirituality within him—which was equivalent to or even higher than a normal Scale Two—had a full tenth of its total capacity sucked away!
A tenth!
It might not sound like much.
But if this were converted to a normal Scale One transcendent, it would be equivalent to almost half of their entire spiritual reserve!
No wonder Firth looked so drained.
It turned out he wasn't spiritually exhausted from being controlled by the siren; he had likely been drained by using this gun.
The suction came fast and left just as quickly.
Once it had absorbed enough spirituality, the domineering suction vanished instantly, and the pistol became cold and heavy once more.
"Shit! What the hell is this thing?!"
Elias's face was pale.
He looked at the black gun in his hand with terror, as if he were looking at a monster.
Immediately after.
The owl's eyes on the pistol grip began to undergo a strange transformation.
The originally dim red and green gems now seemed to be injected with life, flashing frantically.
The light shifted.
In an instant, they changed from red and green to green and yellow.
Another flash, and they turned yellow and blue.
Finally, the light stabilized. One gem became a deep ice-blue, and the other became a blazing fiery-red.
"Good luck, you little brat! You've hit the jackpot!"
Edmond's voice suddenly boomed in his mind.
"This is definitely a transcendent weapon! And a top-tier one at that!"
Clearly, Old Ed, staying within the spiritual space, couldn't feel the pain of having his spirituality drained like Elias just had.
He only saw the result.
"It certainly is something."
Elias gritted his teeth, enduring the feeling of weakness as he stared intently at the gun.
He could feel that the state of this gun was now completely different from before.
It was as if it had come to life.
In the darkness, it emitted an extremely dangerous yet fascinating ripple.
With trembling fingers, Elias clicked open the cylinder.
Suddenly.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
The cylinder that had been completely empty just moments ago was now fully loaded with bullets!
They weren't brass metal bullets.
They were translucent ammunition emitting a faint glow.
Elias reached out and touched one.
It had an extremely realistic physical texture; he could even feel the grooves on the bullet head clearly.
But strangely, there was no temperature.
It was neither cold nor warm, like touching a piece of solidified light.
"These should be bullets composed of pure spirituality," Old Ed reminded him in a timely manner, his voice unable to hide his excitement.
"This gun automatically generates special spiritual bullets by absorbing the holder's spirituality! This is incredible!"
Elias didn't respond; he gently flicked the rotating cylinder.
Clack, clack.
As the cylinder spun, he discovered an even more startling detail.
While the cylinder was full, the colors of the six spiritual bullets were all different!
Crimson, ice-white, golden-yellow, dark-green, azure-blue, and pale-red!
These colors seemed to correspond perfectly with the colors that had flashed and changed on the grip's gemstones earlier!
"I see!"
Looking at these multicolored bullets, Old Ed seemed to have a moment of realization. He spoke again, his voice filled with the certainty of an epiphany.
"Elemental bullets!"
"The red one is fire, the white is ice, the green is necrotic, the blue is lightning..."
"It can convert pure, non-attributed spirituality into elemental attacks of different attributes!"
"As expected, this is equipment meant for a mystic!"
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