Thorne began to describe the kind of extraordinary item he wanted to customize, saying, “Like this, like that... and then like this...”
But halfway through, he suddenly hesitated, a doubtful look appearing on his face, and said, “My apologies, Miss Euphemia. I've had a new idea. Could we start over?”
“Fine.” Euphemia pursed her lips, put away the envelope she had only half-written, and took out a fresh sheet of paper. After writing down Thorne's new requirements, she summoned her messenger right in front of him and sent the letter off.
Seeing this, Thorne patted his chest and said, “Great. Leave the Mind Research Association's end to me. I guarantee I'll get the remaining Rank Two to Rank Four potions for you as quickly as possible. Oh, right, you only need one bottle of each from Rank Two to Rank Four, correct?”
Euphemia nodded, glanced at Freya, and said, “Yes, only she'll be drinking them. I'm already on the Scholar Pathway, so I can't drink Mind potions anyway. Should I return this bottle in my hand to you?”
Thorne said, “No need. It's just a Rank One potion. It's a welcoming gift that everyone gets upon joining. Keep it; you can decide what to do with it.”
Once the transaction was complete, seeing that they were preparing to leave, Thorne offered a piece of advice. “Even though you're only nominal members, Miss Freya, if you have nothing to do, you can still hang around the Mind Research Association. If there are patients, you can help treat them. 【Frequent use of abilities】 itself can accelerate the rate of potion digestion.”
“Furthermore, once you discover what the deepest desire of your heart is, you can also come to the Mind Research Association. We can provide you with a safe enough environment to act on that desire.”
Freya nodded, indicating she understood, and then left with Euphemia. Once they were outside the 【Mind Research Association】, Euphy couldn't wait to ask, “It wasn't convenient to ask just now, so, Fufu, did your Mind Pathway potion melt instantly in your mouth? How many ranks can you advance directly?”
“Well...” Since they were currently in a simulation, Freya couldn't summon her clone, Life Freya, which meant she couldn't check her status. She said, “I'm not quite sure yet. In any case, let's get the remaining potions first.”
“Huh?” Euphemia wore a surprised expression. In her understanding, Fufu's strange ability always worked precisely at critical moments, but it had actually failed this time?
As for Freya, she was considering that if she exited the simulation now, she could have Life Freya check her digestion progress in reality. But truth be told, regardless of whether she could instantly digest the Mind potions, she would have to walk down the Mind Pathway for a bit anyway to investigate ‘Countless Blessings’ and ‘Countless Resentments’.
Therefore, it was better to keep letting time run in the simulation and secure the Rank Two, Rank Three, and Rank Four potions first.
With time running short, Freya and Euphemia immediately headed to the location they had agreed upon with Victor. A moment later, Victor walked toward them while waving. “Freya, Euphemia! I've found out where the Mind Research Association is!”
Euphemia wore a helpless expression. “Thanks for the hard work, but... the two of us actually just came out of the Mind Research Association.”
Right then, looking at Victor in front of her, Freya had a sudden whim to test her newly acquired extraordinary abilities. First, Mind Reading.
As the ability activated, she could clearly perceive some of the surface thoughts in Victor's mind: That glass of Red Ducat just now was really good. As expected of an Imperial specialty. When I return home, I must bring a few bottles back to enjoy slowly.
Perhaps because her rank was too low, Freya couldn't perceive any deeper thoughts at all. Next, she tried using her Hypnosis ability.
As for the specific effect of the hypnosis, Freya thought about it and decided to make Victor temporarily forget that he had met her and Euphy.
As the ability took effect, Victor visibly froze. He looked around in a daze, then stared at Freya and Euphemia in front of him, instantly saying, “Freya, Euphemia! I've found out where the Mind Research Association is!”
A question mark practically popped up over Euphemia's head. “Wait, what... what do you mean? Why are you repeating that sentence?”
Victor was equally puzzled. “What do you mean, repeating it?”
Right then, Freya stealthily used her Hypnosis ability again in the exact same manner, making Victor briefly forget what had happened in the last few seconds.
Thus, Victor froze once more, then said, “Freya, Euphemia! I've found out where the Mind Research Association is!”
Euphemia: “?”
After a brief pause, Euphemia couldn't help but snap, “Are you sick in the head?”
“Pfft—” Freya couldn't help but burst out laughing, then said, “Sorry, sorry! My bad. It was me. I just wanted to test my abilities a bit, but I didn't expect it to be this funny...”
As Freya broke character and laughed, the effect of her Hypnosis began to fade. Victor immediately recalled what had just happened, his lips twitching slightly.
Freya clasped her hands together, bowed her head slightly, and said very sincerely, “I'm really sorry!”
After these two tests, Freya had a basic grasp of how the Hypnosis ability worked. It was similar to the hypnosis of a hypnotist in her understanding, except hers was an extraordinary ability—it required no startup time and took effect much faster.
Another thing was that after using Hypnosis only twice, Freya could feel that nearly half of her spirituality was already depleted. She didn't know if her mana pool was too small or if this extraordinary ability was too mana-hungry, but this was her first time experiencing the feeling of running low on mana.
Victor, however, didn't seem angry at all. Or rather, his skin was simply too thick. Euphemia's scolding felt like a mere tickle to him. Instead of making him feel bad, he actually found it rather cute.
What Victor cared more about was: “Was that a Mind Pathway ability just now? You've already drunk the Mind Pathway potion?”
Freya nodded. “Yes. Not long after we split up—just as you went to gather information—Euphemia and I were strolling around when we saw the sign for the Mind Research Association. We went in, hung out for a bit, made a simple trade with the branch president there, and got our hands on the Mind Pathway potions from Rank One to Rank Four.”
It had to be said that the amount of information packed into Freya's seemingly simple sentence was absurdly massive. Victor's lips twitched slightly as he said, “Is this what luck is? The information I worked so hard to dig up, you just picked up while taking a casual stroll.”
“Wait, no, what do you mean by getting Rank One to Rank Four Mind Pathway potions? What kind of trade did you even make with that branch president?!”
Freya waved her hand. “That's not the point. The point is, weren't you looking for that noble young master? Why don't we go back to the Mind Research Association with you to ask about him? After all, you didn't tell us his name or what he looked like earlier, so we couldn't ask for you then.”
This was a lie; in reality, Freya had completely forgotten about it.
Euphemia was taken aback. “Huh? There was such a thing?”
In any case, after meeting up, the three of them headed back toward the Mind Research Association. On the way, Victor intentionally leaned closer to Freya, a move that made Euphemia's eyebrows twitch. “What are you doing?”
Victor said, “An accident happened while I was investigating earlier, and I used up some luck. I'm just topping it up now.”
Freya asked in confusion, “What happened?”
Victor said, “Let me tell you, it was absolutely ridiculous. I was chatting happily with some people in a tavern when a crazed extraordinary suddenly barged in, shouting, 【This desert is way too hot!】 and then grabbed a cup of wine from the neighboring table and poured it over his own head.”
“The people at the neighboring table cursed at him for it, and then that extraordinary literally ripped them in half with his bare hands! Holy crap, I was completely stunned. I immediately gave myself a boost of luck and ran without looking back...”
Then, by sheer coincidence, the very second the words left Victor's mouth, the sound of crashing and smashing suddenly erupted from the second floor of a nearby building. Immediately after, a flowerpot flew out, landing squarely on top of Victor's head.
Smash!
Victor froze violently, several distinct streams of blood appearing on his forehead. He swayed slightly before steadying himself. This was a heavy blow; if it had been someone with a weaker constitution, they probably would have passed out on the spot.
Without even brushing off the dirt and plant debris on his head, Victor muttered, “This... isn't right...”
Sure enough, within five seconds, an iron pot flew out from the exact same spot, once again hurtling toward Victor.
This time, Victor was prepared. He immediately took a step back to create some distance, swiftly dodging the strike.
Clang!
But ridiculously, after the pot hit the ground, it actually bounced, and as if guided by fate, it bounced right toward Victor, its edge striking his knee with precision.
Thud!!!
Freya and Euphemia, who witnessed this entire scene firsthand, both wore expressions of lingering fear and phantom pain. For the former, it was because the flowerpot and the pot had also been extremely close to them, nearly hitting them as well.
For the latter, whether it was the flowerpot smashing his head or the iron pot striking his knee, it looked incredibly painful, making them feel a wave of sympathy.
“Hiss!” Victor inhaled a sharp breath of cold air and immediately stopped his 【Luck Storage】 ability. Sure enough, the misfortune stopped as well. A furious-looking woman poked her head out of the window from the room where the flowerpot and iron pot had flown out. After glaring down, she didn't say a word and simply slammed the window shut with a loud bang.
Euphemia frowned deeply. “Seriously, what is wrong with her manners?”
But Victor's attention was clearly not on the woman upstairs. He looked at Freya and muttered, “Miss Freya, your constant luck... seems to have disappeared.”
“Huh?” Freya was taken aback, then turned to Euphemia and asked, “Euphy, do you have a die?”
Euphemia said helplessly, “Who would carry something like that around with them?!”
Just as the words left her mouth, Victor pulled a colorful die out of his pocket and handed it to Freya. “I do.”
Euphemia: “...”
After handing over the die, Victor pulled a roll of bandages from his inner coat pocket and began to clean the dirt from his head before wrapping it up.
As for Freya, she tossed the die high into the air. When it landed on the ground, the number facing up was a three. This was a very ordinary roll, seemingly nothing strange, but for Freya, it was highly unusual. She should have rolled a five or a six.
Freya rolled a few more times: two, four, five, one. Every kind of number came up. Her luck had truly returned to 'normal.' She immediately realized that this was likely because she had drunk the Mind Pathway potion, causing her good luck to vanish directly.
Both Victor and Euphemia saw the results of Freya's rolls. As Victor wrapped the bandage around his head, he said, “It seems the entity that bestowed this good luck upon you wanted you to walk the Destiny Pathway. But since you chose a different pathway, Their attention on you vanished, and so did your luck.”
“Sigh, I told you so. Why didn't you choose the Destiny Pathway? This is such a waste!”
However, Freya herself didn't feel any sense of gain or loss. Since she was currently in a simulation, the disappearance of this luck was merely 【a piece of information】 to her.
【What actions lead to what consequences】.
“Sigh.” Victor sighed again, but just as he was about to say more, Freya said, “Now that we've proven the luck is gone, let's go. We should head back to the Mind Research Association.”
Seeing this, Victor was completely stunned. How should he put it? This constant luck was an incredible thing for both ordinary people and extraordinaries alike, akin to an unlimited black card that allowed one to swipe and buy anything at will. Normally, if someone found out their black card had suddenly been canceled, they would surely feel incredibly sad and distressed.
Especially in Freya's case, where she had actively done something that caused the 'black card' to be voided. She should have felt regret, frustration, or similar emotions. Yet the truth was... there were none!
Freya was exceptionally calm and highly rational, as if she didn't care about this luck at all. This suddenly reminded Victor of the words Freya had spoken before.
“Do I look like a fool to you?” and “So just leave it be. I have my own judgment, just trust me.”
At this moment, Victor suddenly realized that Freya's confidence had never stemmed from this constant luck, but rather from something else entirely. He was quickly infected by her rationality. Shaking off his previous dejection, he said blankly, “Uh... oh. Let's go then.”
......
Rate on N.U.
