Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 169 Second Gathering
A corner of the decorated hall in the basement of the Oak Leaf Bar.

Claire, wearing a classical robe and a hood, wiped the crystal ball in front of her with a silk scarf. This crystal ball was arranged by Tessa, who said that it would be more mysterious and could coax some wealthy mystery lovers to give it more trust.

The beautiful woman in men's clothing standing by looked at the ever-changing scene in the crystal ball with curiosity. This person turned out to be Cham who was carefully dressed up. She was a girl with a good foundation. She was wearing a black and white waiter's uniform, and her posture was upright and somewhat heroic.

Before the "guests" arrived, Cham widened his eyes and whispered to Claire, "Master, is this the legendary wizard's crystal ball?"

Cham had seen Claire dressed like this at the bar before, and had even seen Claire's skillful cocktail-mixing skills, but she had never expected that this person was actually an extraordinary figure like the "East District Arbitrator"!

"It's just a trick. I'm not very proficient in using crystal balls." Claire looked at the party waiter that Tessa had chosen from the bar staff and didn't see anything special about him.

Chatting with Cham and being called "Master" repeatedly, Claire could see that Cham was also yearning for the world of Beyonders. Perhaps this was the reason why Tessa chose him.

After a while, Hugh, dressed in a sharp knight's uniform, called Cham away to work, leaving Claire alone to stare blankly at the crystal ball. Her duty was to complete the most important identification work of the night, and also to maintain her mysterious demeanor.

Every new gathering is attended by mystery lovers who are looking for any way to learn about the extraordinary world.

After being in a daze for a while, Claire saw people coming in from different secret entrances. They were all participants in this party. They were all wearing gray cloaks distributed by Xio and Cham. Some of them only wore different masks, while others carefully hid their masked faces under the hood of their cloaks.

Most people were finding seats that suited them in the hall, but there were also some people who had participated in the first gathering and recognized Claire as the appraiser from the previous gathering. Therefore, before the gathering began, they came up to Claire and wanted to have items appraised.

The appraisal fee had already been agreed upon with Xio in advance, saving Claire a lot of trouble and allowing her to directly appraise the items provided by the other party.

"Ms. Viper, this bronze mirror of mine was once a witch's collection. Can you help me see its function?"

After extending her spiritual power onto the bronze mirror, Claire didn't see any spiritual light from it. "This is just a collection item."

"Is that so..." The guest in the crow-head mask grew depressed, but remained polite. He took out a second item and said, "What about this Fourth Epoch pendant?"

Seeing no spiritual aura at first glance, Claire said, "It doesn't have any extraordinary power. Perhaps you could find an expert treasure appraiser to assess its value."

The guest wearing the crow-head mask lowered his head, and it was obvious that he had certain expectations for the two items, so much so that he was constantly calming his slightly rapid breathing.

Claire, who gave the other party the identification results, could feel the potion in her body being digested, but the progress was slow.

Claire was already satisfied that the potion could be digested by identifying non-magical items.

Subsequently, more and more people came to Claire for identification, and soon a long line formed in front of Claire's table. As a result, the reputation of "Viper" spread before the party started.

Almost every guest who came to the party had to walk past Claire.

The items requested for appraisal varied widely, but the vast majority had little to do with Beyonder items. The only valuable items were a few low-sequence Beyonder materials. Claire wasn't surprised by this; items submitted for appraisal at this time weren't high-value. Even the simplest Beyonder rookies knew the principle of not showing off one's wealth.

Only when the items are appraised in the secret room will someone take out the truly valuable and extraordinary items.

But the accumulation of these little bits and pieces had already helped Claire advance her potion consumption a little bit before the party actually started, and she also earned a considerable amount of appraisal fees.

Such gains made Claire sigh, "Building your own platform is the most profitable, and we're just getting started."

The party officially began, and the attendees who had gathered and lined up near Claire were persuaded to leave and arranged to various empty seats in the hall.

Xio, dressed in a sharp knight's uniform and a black mask, stood on the platform in the middle of the hall and repeated the rules of the party to everyone.

"Audrey should be among these people..." Claire scanned the crowd but found no clues, which proved that Audrey's disguise skills were becoming more and more sophisticated.

"Are you looking for me?" Tessa disguised herself as Christina, wearing a waiter's uniform similar to Cham's, and a pure white half-mask. She walked over and stood beside Claire, smiling with a rather "unfriendly" look.

Claire listened attentively to Xio's speech and showed no reaction to Tessa's approach.

Tessa had no complaints about this. She served Claire like a real waiter and sorted and numbered the identification applications of the participants one by one as the party began.

After Claire was transferred to the secret room for identification, Tessa took on the task of leading the participants to the secret room for identification. From the perspective of others, Tessa was just an insignificant waiter in this party.

In the hall, Audrey looked at the blackboard, which was constantly updated with the names of new items for sale and purchase. In her heart, she compared this gathering with the Beyonder gatherings she had participated in before, and found that the variety of items available for purchase was actually richer.

Extraordinary weapons, potions, materials, magic potion formulas and even magical items... they are all sold here.

Audrey, who possessed the Beyonder characteristic of "Psychologist", did not have any urgent purchases at the moment, but she discovered from the catalog that this kind of gathering actually provided a Beyonder characteristic storage service.

"Captain Galadria or one of the team members actually has the means to store Beyonder characteristics?" Audrey exclaimed in surprise. She knew very well that Beyonder characteristics were difficult to store. If Mr. Fool hadn't generously provided a storage service, Audrey would have spent a lot of money and time just on storing the Beyonder characteristics of "Psychologist".

Just as Audrey was looking at the various information on the transaction blackboard, a waiter came to her side and informed her that the appraisal application she had just submitted had been approved and it was now her turn to go to the secret room to appraise the items.

Audrey subconsciously used her abilities to examine the waiter who informed her: a charming and mature woman with the proud mentality of an extraordinary person.

Is this also a Beyonder member of the team?

Audrey was confused and stood up, following the waiter towards the secret room where the party appraiser "Viper" was.

(End of this chapter)