I'm a proper student; I only take nine kinds of potions every day.

Chapter 96 I must use ruthless methods to control you!

A roar filled with anger and grief echoed through the bedroom.

A full one hundred dollars!

What can you do with a hundred dollars in Bolton?

That's enough to buy at least three bottles of magic potions!

About three impressive new outfits!

That's three months' worth of my own food expenses!

The heartache over the money made his blood boil, and tears of grievance welled up in his eyes.

He really cares about the money!

After a few seconds of silence, Ivan wiped away his tears and sighed, "What if we look on the bright side?"

"At least the key is still there."

His never-fighting mentality allowed him to instantly change his mindset.

The key wasn't lost, and no one was injured.

"Consider it a lesson learned at a cost!"

Evan sniffed and wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

He rearranged the materials and knelt once again outside the chalk lines.

This time, he sat quietly for thirty seconds, using his 3.6 mental attribute to peel away all other distractions from his attention, one by one.

Finally, gather your thoughts into one.

Everything is ready.

He spoke again.

"Mercurius, speak truth."

"Unveil the hidden state."

call!

The incantation fell smoothly and jinglingly.

This time, his mind was completely clear, without a single distracting thought.

The offerings began to burn.

A pale white mist slowly rose from the center of the magic circle.

Evan clearly felt that his spirituality, following the mist, had made a very delicate connection with a distant being.

He held his breath, focused his will, and pulled the thread inch by inch, trying to drag the guest across from him out and press him onto the table.

On the other side, it seemed that he had also noticed his little actions.

Then a blurry outline of a soul slowly emerged from the center of the magic circle.

A hint of joy appeared on Ivan's face.

"become----"

The words hadn't even left his mouth yet —

The soul opened its mouth, and with a satisfied expression, inhaled the offering as smoke. Then, it extended a semi-transparent and rather arrogant middle finger towards him.

Immediately afterwards, there was a soft snap.

The thin thread that had just been put in place was cleanly cut off at one end by the other party.

The entire group of souls vanished into the mist without leaving a single word.

The smile that had just appeared on Ivan's face was abruptly frozen at the corner of his mouth.

He gritted his teeth, his eyes twitching as he made an exaggerated, distorted facial expression.

"You ate my offerings but won't do any work?"

"Damn it! You forced me to do this!"

He finally experienced firsthand just how important it is to have control over rituals!

After uttering these harsh words, Ivan stood up and walked into the narrow baptismal chamber.

Fifteen minutes later.

Ivan walked out of the baptismal chamber with a calm expression.

He appeared very calm, as if all the money, women, and violence in the world had nothing to do with him.

He became a sage.

A saint.

A person who has transcended vulgar interests.

He placed the fourth offering in a soap dish on the corner of the magic circle.

Next, put the silver key back in the center of the triangle.

"I refuse to believe I can't deal with you today."

He gritted his teeth, his mouth full of determination to go all out, and then arranged the other three offerings in their proper places for the third time.

Mercury, sea salt, moonstone.

Hold your breath.

He spoke for the third time.

call!

The moment the incantation was uttered, the three offerings rose up together, their rhythm steady and perfectly executed.

As the smoke rose, the fourth ingredient that Ivan had prepared beforehand also vaporized.

But unlike the previous two times, this time it was completely different.

At that moment, Evan clearly felt that what he was holding in his hand was no longer that thin, nerve-wracking hemp rope.

It's an iron chain!

As the smoke swirled, that wisp of soul resurfaced.

Just like last time, it completely disregarded this inexperienced newcomer.

It's clear that it's gotten used to being treated like this in a half-finished ceremony, where it can eat, drink, wipe its mouth, and leave at will.

This time was no exception. The soul had barely emerged halfway when it opened its grayish-white mouth and unceremoniously inhaled into the wisp of smoke formed from the material.

Ivan's spiritual power acted instantly.

The invisible iron chain was swung out and hit the vital point, pulling the soul out of the smoke in one swift motion!

The soul was suddenly startled and instinctively struggled, as if trying to slide back up the column of smoke to that unseen other shore.

Ivan wasn't about to let it go.

Along with the vast net woven from gel-like spiritual threads in his mind, it suddenly opened up, like a fisherman catching a fish in a net, completely enveloping it inside.

The soul struggled instinctively for a few moments.

Immediately afterwards, as if sensing something even more terrifying, the entire outline of the soul trembled violently from the inside out.

Evan clearly saw that the dog, which had just been barking arrogantly, now seemed to have had its ears grabbed and been slapped a few times, and its eyes instantly became clear.

It raised its two shapeless hands high, knelt in the netted mist, and begged for mercy repeatedly.

Then, with a bang, the blurry outline of the soul finally expanded and transformed into a form similar to the one Dr. Armitage had been in front of that day, indistinguishable in gender and age.

However, compared to the blue guest from last time, it had a lot more spiderweb-like stringy slime on its body, each one still slowly wriggling, like threads being pulled by some unseen hand.

It began to speak.

"It is called: One-Nineth of a Silver Spoon."

"It can open all conventional door locks, and it can grant itself an extraordinary characteristic, an additional special ability."

"In return, once activated, users must tell it an exclusive secret every Thursday that only they know."

"If there is a second person in the world who knows this secret, then it doesn't count."

"If you can't come up with an exclusive secret, it will prevent you from lying, extract the secret, and then eat your brain."

After saying that, the soul glanced at Evan, as if to say, "That's the end of today's work."

Ivan sneered, "You ate two offerings and expect to do the work of only one?"

The soul inside the net remained silent for half a second before reluctantly continuing to speak.

"It comes from a great god."

"The secret you speak will not be known to anyone else."

"You can choose to pay an extra exclusive secret to open the heart of a defenseless intelligent being and obtain a memory you wish to know from within its soul."

T

"It can only be used once a week."

A sudden thought struck Ivan.

"I thought these souls were some kind of inanimate program under some kind of extraordinary rule."

He scoffed inwardly.

"I didn't expect it. He's just like the salespeople at the shop counters, only saying half of what he means and hiding the other half."

He raised his chin.

"Anything else?"

The soul clasped its hands together and shook its head repeatedly. The large web of slime covering its body made it look quite disheveled, like a thief caught red-handed by the shopkeeper.

It was clear that it really didn't dare to say another word.

"From a great god—"

After a moment's hesitation, Evan was quite shocked.

"This thing looks quite heavy."

"However, the negative effects—"

He raised his hand and squeezed the silver key back into his palm.

"A secret known only to me in the whole world?"

As he thought about it, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably turned up.

Given how the natives of this world live, this price is by no means light.

In the lifetime of an ordinary person, how many exclusive secrets can they come up with that are known only to themselves and have no one else involved?

But he's different!

Evan couldn't help but hum a little tune.

He comes from Earth, and the exclusive secrets he knows are virtually endless.

Celebrity gossip, game guides, internet slang, online novels and comics — they're all secrets!

"Win by quantity, supply him for thirty to fifty weeks first."

Just as Evan was making these plans in his mind...

He saw that the soul was still pitifully bowing to him inside the net, pleading for his release.

Evan had a sudden thought and withdrew the large net of slime.

The moment the soul regained its freedom, it vanished from the spot.

The identification technique will be very useful in the future, so it's best not to push things too far in this cooperative relationship.

Having successfully completed the appraisal ceremony, Evan wiped all the magic circle patterns on the ground clean.

His dilapidated apartment, with its drafts coming from all sides, was hardly suitable to become a magic workshop.

Only after confirming that not even a trace of gray or white remained did he raise his head and examine the silver key under the lamp.

"One-ninth of a silver spoon."

Ivan analyzed it carefully.

"So that means there are eight more pieces scattered outside?"

He squinted and twirled the key between his fingers.

"What would happen if you managed to collect all nine pieces someday?"

"Forget it, let's not think about these unrealistic things."

He flicked his wrist, shaking that fleeting thought out of his mind.

"Let's try out the effect of this sample first."

The appraisal technique states: "It can grant oneself a special ability that makes one extraordinary."

This is what Evan truly cares about.

Now that all the effects were clearly visible to him, he felt reassured enough to integrate the silver key into his body.

[Outer God rank detected.]

"Outer Gods?"

Evan raised an eyebrow, his heart skipping a beat.

"This thing...is it something from the Outer Gods?"

That subtle excitement gradually blossomed in his spirit.

[Your extraordinary trait: Copper Plague, has been enhanced.]

[Enhancement Effect: In addition to the existing ability, you can transform copper-plated body tissue into copper-plated bullets.]

"Tsk tsk tsk, look at that, the things from the Outer Gods are really good!"

The prompt was short, but its effect made Evan's eyes light up instantly.

"Copper Plague Bullet!"

As these words appeared, he felt a new instinct surge through his mind once again.

In that instinct, his own body seemed to be kneaded into a lump of clay by an unseen hand, which could be molded into any shape he desired.

And at the moment each kneading is completed, that section of body tissue that has been altered in shape will immediately undergo some kind of extraordinary transformation.

Evan's heart skipped a beat.

His gaze fell on the back of his left hand, where the brassy skin beneath began to ripple.

The next moment, one by one, formed copper bullets were slowly pushed out from under the skin of the back of his hand.

Each one was exactly the same in appearance as the standard ammunition he described in the magazine "Police Friend".

What's even more amazing is that Ivan also felt that the moment each bullet was formed, its internal propellant and primer were already prepared.

The fine texture on the surface of the warhead is clearly of the same lineage as the tombstones, skulls, mist, and tattered flags on Ivan's body.

That lineage specifically represents plague.

He flicked the few freshly formed bullets, still warm, with his fingertips, and a slow smile crept onto his lips.

"Then I won't be short of bullets anymore, right?"

He sighed softly to himself.

"The body tissues that are consumed can be slowly replenished by the Bloodthirsty Seed's self-healing ability."

"The bullets I fire can carry my concentrated plague, and even my poisonous blood, directly into the opponent's flesh and blood."

"This move perfectly fills the gap in my mid-to-long-range attack capabilities."

What's missing now is—

He pressed the bullets back onto the back of his hand, watching his skin slowly swallow them back in.

"It's a gun."

Upon hearing this, he immediately recalled the pistols held by the official witcher and the sorceress he had seen under the moonlight a few nights ago.

Clearly, firearms are used quite frequently among extraordinary professions these days.

After all, given the choice between casting a spell from thirty meters away and firing a gun from thirty meters away, most people would choose the latter.

"Unlimited bullets!"

At this moment, Ivan could no longer suppress the smile on his face.

"Then let me show you my Thomson Plague Stew."

"The virus has a slow onset of symptoms? Then just drink lots of it."

"What's the fastest way to fill it?"

He grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, and hummed to himself, "Six festering plague bullets, three thousand six hundred revolutions per breath."

"Manual reloading is nowhere near as fast as emptying the entire magazine!"

As he read this, he could no longer suppress the corners of his mouth, grinning like a villain who had successfully pulled off a wicked scheme.

Instead of actually pulling the bullets he had just extracted from under his skin, he put them back into his flesh one by one.

After all, these things are all transformed from one's own flesh and blood.

The self-healing ability of the Bloodthirsty Seed in the first stage has a limited recovery speed.

Having taken care of his little one for tonight, he opened his thick chemistry textbook, reviewed today's lessons twice, and quickly fell asleep leaning against the headboard.

Time flies by quickly in the midst of peaceful study.

In the middle, the side effects of the Nijogda family reversed, and were completed quietly.

[The side effects of Yogda's retinue have been reversed.]

Your skin is now more resilient. Your constitution has been permanently increased by 0.05.

You like the sun more now. Sun affinity increased by 3%.

You prefer lightning now. Electric resistance increased by 3%.

Ivan stared at the lines of text, his eyes suddenly lighting up.

"This thing likes darkness, weak fire, and weak electricity."

He quickly went through the information in his mind.

"In other words, the side effect of taking it is that it will assimilate me at the habitual level."

"Then the skin becomes thinner and more prone to ulceration."

"This is good stuff!"

Evan swallowed hard. What was once a disgusting lump of mud, "a hundred times worse than rat droppings," instantly transformed into an exquisite delicacy on the dining table.

"From now on, if I see this stuff, I won't just eat it all up, I'll pack it up and take it with me."

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