Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 166 Shuttle
As the night grew darker, Claire arrived at the Oak Leaf Bar in the guise of Galadilla.

There are already guests in the newly decorated bar. As the resident singers sing, they gather around the tables in groups of three or four, discussing various recent hot topics.

Claire heard various voices. Some were discussing "the traitor's head with a 'justice' sign stuck on it," while others were shouting, "The bigwigs are finally determined to control the smog enveloping Backlund."

These guests were simply dressed. They were employees of small companies in the East District who could barely make ends meet, workers off-duty in nearby factories, and students from technical schools.

In their busy lives, they heard that the Oak Leaf Bar was having a renovation and offering discounts, so they all rushed over to join in the fun. Most of the drinks on the tables were called "Half and Half", an alcoholic drink made from malt beer and fortified wine.

No one here recognized Claire's appearance. Claire came to the bar alone and ordered a glass of the well-known wine "Olmir", which attracted some people's attention.

Whether it is the beautiful appearance or the fine wine on the table, it is enough to make some drinkers excited.

But before these people could strike up a conversation, the real owner of the bar, Ms. Christina, had already sat down next to Claire.

These drinkers all knew that the new manager of the Oak Leaf Bar was the "East District Arbitrator" Hugh Dilcher, and they were afraid of the consequences, so naturally they didn't want to cause trouble.

Tessa sat at the bar, looking at Claire with disdain and chuckled, "It's so rare to see you out in public. I thought you'd just left the exchange business to Quinn and Flora and left it alone."

Claire took a sip of her wine and said, "It's my own property, so I definitely have to come and take a look. Where are Xio and Flora?"

The industry here is naturally not referring to this bar, but to the gathering of extraordinary people hidden in the Oak Leaf Bar.

Tessa rolled her eyes. "You're asking me about your people?"

Claire shrugged, not caring at all. She looked around the bar, silently memorizing various details.

In Claire's opinion, the current Oak Leaf Bar lacks real competitiveness and is merely relying on reward activities to attract customers, which is not a long-term solution.

The style and location of the Oak Leaf Bar are destined not to attract aristocrats and wealthy people. There is no fighting ring with gambling nature in the bar, so it cannot attract drinkers who are looking for excitement.

Even the female singer they invited had no special features, and her ability to liven up the crowd was far inferior to Nadia, whom Claire had met before.

If this continued, the bar's business would struggle to improve. However, these things were nothing to worry about. For Claire, as long as the bar survived, the most important thing was the gathering of Beyonders hidden here.

Claire looked around every exposed corner and saw no sign of a hidden door, so she said to Tessa, "Take me to see the venue."

The gathering place was located in the basement of the bar. After passing through a secret door hidden in a private room and walking through a fairly long tunnel, Claire saw a simply decorated hall.

The Oak Leaf Bar that Tessa bought has a spacious underground space. Tessa simply separated part of it to form this hall. Surrounding this hall are several complex secret passages that extend to different places on the ground.

"Due to the lack of sufficient manpower, we've only set up a hall like this initially. Different dark rooms have been separated in the hall for secret transactions..." Claire inspected the venue as Tessa introduced it. This space could be used not only for gatherings but even a small exchange could be established.

Tessa is really rich. I wonder where all the money comes from... Claire complained in her heart.

During her inspection, Claire suddenly saw a locker in one of the compartments that was glowing with spiritual light.

This locker is not made of ordinary wood or metal, but seems to be carved from minerals, with a simple and elegant appearance.

"What is this?" Claire asked.

Although the spiritual light could only be seen by "appraisers", this mysterious locker was conspicuous enough to be placed here, so Claire asked directly, not afraid that Tessa would suspect her connection with Flora.

"This is an extraordinary item that I want Flora to appraise. Although I have roughly figured out its effects and side effects through use."

Tessa opened the cabinet door carved with complex runes. The cabinet was divided into several exquisite small grids. Each grid was partitioned with a transparent, crystal-like material, making the items inside clearly visible.

Claire recognized at a glance that these were all extraordinary characteristics stripped from extraordinary people!
Tessa introduced the cabinet door, "The function of this cabinet is to 'isolate Extraordinary'. It can be used to store active Extraordinary characteristics. I believe it was made using the Extraordinary characteristics of a certain sequence of the 'Arbitrator'."

Tessa opened a transparent partition, and a piece of jelly-like object with a dark surface in the small grid trembled slightly as if it had come alive.

Claire's spiritual power reached forward and identified this as the extraordinary characteristic of the "Listener". Claire remembered that according to the intelligence from the Goddess Church, Tessa had hunted down members of the Aurora Society. This might be one of the unlucky ones that Tessa had targeted.

Even if it was the same Beyonder characteristic, the condensed shapes would be different due to the different "organs" that were enriched and gathered from the corpse.

There are many extraordinary characteristics in this cabinet, some of which shine brightly, while others emit a profound aura.

If these were all hunted by Tessa, then the blood of Beyonders on Tessa's hands was far beyond Claire's imagination.

The world of Extraordinary People is an even more blatant world of cannibalism.

Claire, ambitious and driven to pursue greater power, understood this all too well and had long since adapted to it. The docile exterior she'd cultivated in Earth's environment had long since shattered and faded, leaving only the unwavering commitment of not harassing ordinary people.

As for his attitude towards Extraordinary People... he had no psychological burden when taking action, and basically treated people and things according to his own wishes and preferences.

Of course, doing whatever you want does not mean being bloodthirsty.

Regardless of whether the Fool was a true god or not, Claire agreed with what he said at the gathering: "If you constantly go against your true inner thoughts and your own principles, you're probably not far from losing control."

After gaining a certain understanding of divinity, Claire knew that the best way to prevent divinity from getting out of control was to maintain her humanity.

Turning her gaze away from these Beyonder traits, Claire looked at Tessa and said, "I also have two Beyonder traits. Can I keep them with you?"

Tessa smiled playfully and said, "Oh? I used to work as a clerk in the Nighthawks. Don't you official Beyonders all turn in all the Beyonder traits you capture?"

Claire glanced at Tessa and said:
"The two pieces I have in my hand were obtained by Flora, but they are just left with me."

"In fact, ordinary Nighthawks don't know that the Beyonder's corpses will be enriched with condensed Beyonder specialties and can be used to replace potions. Therefore, the bodies of killed Beyonders are handled by special personnel in the church."

"But when these Beyonder Characteristics are handed in, the Church will allocate the corresponding Merits to the team leader. Captains at this level are all aware of the existence and function of Beyonder Characteristics... In fact, the Merits allocated are generally slightly higher than the market value. The Goddess Church is very generous in its rewards."

Tessa said, "Then why didn't you hand it over? Instead, you kept it for yourself."

Claire said calmly, "Flora wants to stay. How can I know what she's thinking?"

Tessa was silent for a moment, then suddenly looked directly into Claire's eyes and asked, "Is Flora the same as Claire?"

Claire's eyes were calm, and she responded without a trace of emotion: "No. I should have told you that Claire Meazza's current condition is not suitable for being too far away from Chanis Gate."

Tessa said nothing more.

But Claire knew this guy definitely hadn't given up, so she deliberately frowned and warned him, "Flora is my teammate. You'd better not have any inappropriate thoughts. If you turn against us, you should know what you will lose."

Tessa stroked her disguised brown hair, maintaining a smile on her face, her tone becoming gentler. "Captain Galadria, I hate being warned. You have to understand that Daly is not with you right now." Seeing the madness faintly revealed in the corners of Tessa's eyes, Claire was stunned. She suddenly realized that she was not interacting with this crazy woman as "Claire"...

Talking like this will only arouse the woman's ferocity.

Although she believed she had the means to protect herself, if this happened, all her disguised identities would be exposed.

As her thoughts turned, Claire decided to appropriately abandon the identity of "Flora" and said, "Why do you think Flora is related to Claire Meazza?"

"I was always by her side, and I witnessed her learning and mastering various fighting styles... Now that I think about it, even the Nighthawks wouldn't be so focused on fighting..." When talking about the name "Claire" and her past with "Claire", the madness in Tessa's eyes was replaced by a touch of tenderness.

This touch of tenderness caused a momentary ripple in Claire's heart, who had remained calm.

Tessa looked up at Claire and said calmly, "Claire actually follows the path of a 'mystery peeper,' right? That's why she's so proficient in various ritual magics. She studied combat styles in order to play the role of a 'combat scholar.'"

This guy is really good at association...

Is this a woman's keen sixth sense?

Claire grumbled inwardly, unwilling to dwell on this topic any further. Worst case scenario, she'd just abandon her pseudonym. So, she said, "I just hope your paranoia doesn't harm my team members or disrupt my business! Daly isn't here, but you should understand that I'm the captain of this Red Gloves team."

Faced with this second warning, Tessa didn't show any anger or madness. Instead, she genuinely laughed: "Captain Galadilla, if possible, I would also like to join your team?"

Claire politely declined, "Sorry, my team is currently not short of people."

Afterwards, Tessa took the initiative to talk to Claire about the storage of Beyonder characteristics, as if the previous conflict was all an illusion.

But Claire was certain that Tessa was harboring some evil intentions.

While discussing the storage of Beyonder characteristics with Tessa, Claire suddenly felt a spirit invading her consciousness through the dream world.

This familiar nightmare power... is Lord Cecima.

The moment Claire relaxed her resistance, a pure white dream space replaced the empty underground hall. The voice of Lord Cecima echoed in this dream space:
"East District, Cardinton Street, serial killer, giant black dog."

As Her Excellency Cecima's voice echoed, the pure white dream space quickly faded. To the outside world, it looked as if Claire had simply been distracted.

But while they were distracted, the nightmares had already completed the exchange of information over a long distance.

"What's wrong?" Tessa noticed Claire's abnormality.

Claire raised an eyebrow and said, "I remember there's a mission. I have to leave here."

"Do you need me to give you a piece?" Tessa asked casually.

She was about to say "No thanks," but when the words came to her lips, Claire thought of Tessa's suspected ability to travel through the spirit world, so she changed her words and said, "You should be able to take me to Caditon Street, right?"

It is clearly a question sentence, but the tone is affirmative.

Tessa was silent for a moment before she said, "You're really not polite at all."

As she spoke, a small white bone appeared out of thin air in Tessa's hand. The bone was crystal clear, like a leg bone, or a slightly larger key.

Tessa infused her spirituality into the bones and asked Claire, "Claire, did you mention that I have the ability to travel through the spiritual world?"

"Of course." Claire said matter-of-factly. "There's a thick stack of your various ability analyses on my desk. Do you want me to lend it to you to look through?"

"I'll give you a ride, but you have to pay... Come and catch..." Tessa stopped talking halfway.

In order to carry others through the spirit world, there must be close physical contact, and Tessa is unwilling to have any contact with others.

This body belongs to her alone!
No one is allowed to touch!

Tessa then pushed half of the bone in her hand to Claire with disdain, saying, "Hold this half and don't touch me. Otherwise, don't blame me for kicking you off halfway."

Claire raised her eyebrows and couldn't help but sigh that this guy has become a germaphobe?
Claire silently grasped the other half of the transparent bone, but secretly observed how Tessa intended to activate her "spiritual travel" ability.

But before she could see anything wrong, Claire found herself surrounded by illusory transparent objects of indescribable shapes.

Tessa has activated the ability of "spiritual travel"!

Are all these creatures from the spiritual world around here?!
This experience is completely different from dream travel.

Claire was like stepping into a world of vibrant colors!

All the colors became bright and distinct, yet strangely overlapped, and the whole person seemed to be walking through an oil painting mixed with various pigments.

Amidst the indescribable chaos, only the half-broken bone in her hand and Tessa's familiar aura in front of her gave Claire a sense of reality.

No... there's still the familiar gray fog...

Claire saw a light, gray mist shrouding the surroundings!
This is the spirit world?!
Claire was shocked.

These gray mists are very similar to the gray fog world, but only lighter.

Could it be that the gray fog world is in the spiritual world?

Claire had a guess in her mind.

However, Claire's first experience of traveling through the spirit world made it difficult for her to concentrate. Without time to think more deeply, Claire, who was holding the half-bone tightly, felt "flying dizziness".

After adjusting to her surroundings, Claire's vision barely penetrated the chaotic array of vibrant colors. She wanted to observe the mysterious spiritual world more clearly.

All around her, indescribable, half-hidden spiritual creatures flashed by like broken lenses... If she hadn't been protected and guided by the bones in her hands, the consequences of getting lost here would have been disastrous.

After becoming more accustomed to this sense of chaos, Claire vaguely saw seven bright lights of different colors spanning the entire spiritual world. Those seven lights seemed to have life and seemed to contain endless knowledge.

Claire couldn't help but release her spiritual power to see more clearly.

Suddenly, a sharp and vague headache hit her, and Claire felt the memory library, which had been silent for a long time, tremble again!
(End of this chapter)