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Chapter 62: The Mask of the Cat
🕑 Added 2025-01-09 22:48:49 +0000 UTCThe Cat Detective Agency was a small operation, but clearly, they dabbled in other businesses besides investigative work.
Charlot memorized the address, casually activated Blood Glory, and crushed the wallet and paper slip into fine dust.
The dagger, however, was quite a surprise. After inspecting it, Charlot confirmed it was an Extraordinary weapon. Even more impressive, the dagger was an anti-space item, possessing two attributes: Sharpness and Durability.
Sharpness allowed the dagger to emit a short burst of energy blade when infused with battle energy, magic, or any other form of Extraordinary ability, making it sharper than steel.
Durability ensured the dagger was difficult to damage, allowing it to hold its own even against Blood Rose.
If put up for auction, this dagger could easily sell for over two hundred écus, ranking it as a top-tier Extraordinary weapon.
The alchemical pistol, on the other hand, was an ordinary weapon—not much different from Charlot's magical alchemical staff—but with superior craftsmanship compared to standard pistols, offering longer range, faster firing speed, and improved accuracy.
Charlot already had two Magnum Maulers, so he decided to replace one with this newly acquired firearm.
Finally, his greatest gain: the thin, flesh-like mask.
As he lightly touched it, a surge of awareness entered his mind:
"Mask of the Cat! Capable of transforming into six different lifeforms and randomly extracting one skill of the transformed target. Limited to beings the wearer has come into contact with. When worn, it grants a slight boost to agility and serves as proof of membership in the Orc Assassin Alliance."
Charlot was slightly surprised. The Mask of the Cat couldn’t extract targets' Extraordinary abilities—only their skills. It was indeed a limitation, but if it could draw even foundational Extraordinary abilities, this artifact would have been far too powerful. Even so, the value of this mask likely surpassed that of the assassin's dagger—though as a non-specialist, Charlot found it hard to estimate its worth.
He did know about the Orc Assassin Alliance!
The Old Continent had five major assassin organizations, and the Orc Assassin Alliance was one of them.
Rumor had it that the alliance's members were descendants of the ancient Orc Kingdom, inheriting numerous bloodline-based Extraordinary abilities. They primarily operated in the southern continent and rarely ventured into the Fars Empire.
Charlot Mecklenburg, as an ordinary government employee, had never come into contact with any assassin organizations—he had only read about them in university texts.
Charlot wondered why Aubrey Tildon Atwood had sought an orc assassin from the south to kill him when the Blood Brotherhood was active within Fars itself.
"I’ve heard the Orc Assassin Alliance never fails to fulfill a contract. If an assassin dies, they simply send another—and another—until the target is dead."
"Aubrey Tildon Atwood knows this! If that bastard leaks information, I’ll never have peace."
The thought sent a cold resolve through Charlot.
If not for the difficulty of execution, he would have summoned an evil god right outside the Fierce Horse Detective Agency to handle the matter.
Putting away the spoils, Charlot decided to stop dwelling on the issue. Thinking about it served no purpose.
Silently activating Blood Glory, he began his daily training.
Ever since returning to Strasbourg, Charlot had felt an urgency to cultivate.
Facing evil gods twice had elevated his spirituality to an extraordinary level, accelerating his training progress tremendously.
For most Extraordinary beings, increasing energy intensity was straightforward, but improving spirituality was notoriously difficult. It required constant tempering of the mind, with only minuscule gains after much effort.
Charlot, however, was the opposite. His spirituality had already reached a level comparable to high-level Extraordinary beings, yet his energy intensity lagged behind.
Practitioners of Blood Glory typically condensed seven or eight Blood Vortices before starting the Bloodfeast Meditation. Many spent their entire lives without successfully meditating even a single rune.
Charlot, however, had nearly achieved both simultaneously. Whenever he opened a Blood Vortex, he also condensed a corresponding Blood Rune. At present, only the Agility Rune on his left leg was slightly lacking. The Insight Rune at his brow, the Bloodfire Qi rune on his chest, and the Angel’s Thorn Rune on his left hand had all been cultivated to impressive levels. As a result, his actual combat strength far exceeded that of a typical fourth-rank Extraordinary.
The reason Charlot repeatedly overcame stronger enemies in battle was due to this advantage.
Blood Glory was known as the nemesis of vampires for two key reasons. The first was its versatility: it allowed practitioners to transcend clans and master multiple secret techniques. The second—and the most fundamental—was the Bloodfeast Meditation itself!
Without the Protagoras Breathing Technique, Blood Glory would remain unremarkable, offering only minor improvements in speed. But combined with Bloodfeast Meditation, Blood Glory became incredibly domineering.
Charlot, unaware of his true strength, always attributed his victories to cunning and strategy.
Charlot wasn’t sure how long he had been cultivating when suddenly, his heart began to pound wildly. Panic crept in—he had no idea if this world had something akin to Qi Deviation. Though anxious, he knew such emotions were dangerous and forced himself to remain calm.
"What’s going on?"
"It’s the Bloodfire Qi rune acting up."
"Could it be that I’ve been training incorrectly? But I’ve been following the Vampiric Scroll II. This shouldn’t be happening!"
Charlot wasn’t a vampire. Blood Glory was already an obscure Extraordinary path, and even at Sheffield University, few scholars specialized in it. Training alone naturally led to unexpected challenges.
At this moment, Charlot could only steady himself, circulating Blood Glory repeatedly to suppress the rune’s turmoil.
However, the tiny, heart-like Blood Rune grew increasingly restless. In a moment of distraction, the rune exploded, its energy flowing through his bloodstream to every corner of his body.
Charlot felt as though his body was on the brink of mutation. Panic returned—should he suppress the energy or attempt to redirect it?
The next second, his entire being burst into flames...
A mass of bloodfire replaced Charlot’s body.
After a dozen breaths, Charlot regained awareness, drifting around the room in his fiery form. He marveled at the change.
"I’m a mass of bloodfire now?"
"Wait... This isn’t a problem at all. I’ve actually mastered Bloodfire Transfiguration?!"
Reversing the Protagoras Breathing Technique, countless fragments of golden runes reassembled into a small golden heart, and Charlot reverted from his fiery state to his flesh-and-blood form.
Raising his hands, he inspected his body. It appeared no different from before. He couldn’t help but marvel at the profundity of this world’s magic.
Charlot had long sought to open his fifth Blood Vortex or, at the very least, complete the Agility Rune. Unexpectedly, his Bloodfire Qi had broken through first, allowing him to master the advanced technique, Bloodfire Transfiguration.
Once more circulating the Protagoras Breathing Technique, Charlot transformed into bloodfire, drifting lazily around 58 Elysée Avenue. The sensation was utterly novel.
Although he had possessed Extraordinary abilities before, this was the first time he truly felt that he was no longer an ordinary human being.
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