Mystery: I Married the Queen of Mystery

A dozen minutes after Odis left the Elven Ruins, the seawater above the ruins suddenly parted with a "whoosh," revealing a passage from the seabed to the surface.

A hurricane blew in from the sea, quickly reaching the seabed ruins.

The hurricane dissipated, and figures appeared, led by a tall, burly middle-aged man with harsh, deep facial lines and hair twice as thick as normal, resembling small worms or tentacles.

This was none other than Cardinal Bishop of the Storm Church and Archbishop of the Rothd Sea, "Sea King" Yarn Cottonman.

He was followed by many "Punishers" and military Beyonder members, who were cautiously and expectantly surveying the surrounding environment.

Just then, they heard the Archbishop coldly snort, and the hurricane rose again, instantly bringing them to the entrance of the ruins' main hall.

Soon, the "Punishers" discovered that everything of value was gone; there were no distilled characteristics, only the enormous corpse of a sea serpent and the dried-up corpses of Sea God Church clergy.

Even the blood and skin of the "Deep Sea Blue-Eyed Electric Eel" from the ruins next to the main hall were missing, clearly systematically looted.

"Who is it?" Yarn Cottonman suppressed his anger and roared.

He had been fighting Kavetuvah for several days, and now that it was time to reap the spoils, he had gained nothing.

The Archbishop raised a hand, and a surge of seawater rushed into the hall, quickly forming a thin layer, like the surface of a tranquil lake, on the ceiling of the hall.

The lake reflected a scene that had occurred here not long ago:

An indistinct figure floated in mid-air, pulling out a white short staff inlaid with cyan gemstones.

And the characteristics of the Sea God Church members on the ground suddenly disappeared, as if swallowed by the air.

The "Punishers" realized that this must be the work of an organization, because there were two people, and they had a clear division of labor: one took Kavetuvah's characteristics.

The other person's state was rather strange, as if in a state of invisibility; even with "Sea King's" level, he couldn't see the person.

Yarn Cottonman took a deep breath and said to the crowd behind him, "Find them."

The "Punishers" immediately wore bitter smiles.

At least the person who pulled out the short staff had a human form, but they hadn't even seen a hair of the other person; how were they supposed to find them?

Of course, they didn't dare say anything at this time, lest "Sea King's" anger completely erupted.

…

Bayam, 17 Humber Road.

A illusory door suddenly appeared in the living room, and Odis walked out of the door, removing the mask he had bought in Bayam.

He wasn't worried at all about the Storm Church's search, because under the dual protection of "Blessing of the Night Goddess" and "Knowledge Moor," they wouldn't obtain any clues about him.

After resting for a while, Odis entered the "Knowledge Moor" to take stock of the spoils.

For him, this operation was a complete windfall; he hadn't taken much risk, yet he had obtained many good things.

First of all, there were considerable gains in terms of the array; with some research, Odis was confident he could build an underwater city.

Even if building an underwater city was meaningless, the "Spirit World Fusion Array" could hide ground targets.

After the target was hidden, at least demigod-level beings wouldn't be able to discover it; if the distance was too far, even angels should have a hard time.

If he was willing to spend the capital and strengthen it with demigod-level characteristics, theoretically, it could even deceive a god.

However, these arrays still needed to be carefully studied before they could be put into application; currently, this research wasn't a critical project.

Odis still needed to solve the problem of "extracting knowledge" first.

After putting the notes about the array in the "Knowledge Moor," Odis took out the loot from the electric eel.

After the "Knowledge Moor's" appraisal, the characteristic distilled from the electric eel was "Deep Sea Blue-Eyed Electric Eel's Neural Network," one of the main materials for advancing to Sequence 5 "Ocean Singer" of the "Sailor" pathway.

This stuff could easily sell for seven or eight thousand pounds in the "Berserk Sea!"

But generally, people didn't dare to sell it, because the Storm Church would definitely trace the source of the material to the end.

Unless they had the protection of kings like the "Mystic Queen" or the "King of the Five Seas."

Odis also put it on the storage shelf over there; unless he was really short of money, he would keep the main material of this level for now.

The blood and other materials collected from the "Deep Sea Blue-Eyed Electric Eel" were also very high-level spiritual materials, valuable whether sold or used to draw arrays in the future.

As for the scales hurriedly collected from Kavetuvah, they were completely demigod-level spiritual materials.

It was a pity that Kavetuvah died in pain, and his flesh and blood instantly deteriorated at the moment of his death.

His bones were still good stuff, but there wasn't enough time to dig them out of the flesh and blood, so those berserk old fellows got a bargain.

Odis then looked at the Beyonder characteristics; this time, a total of four Beyonder characteristics were seized, one of which belonged to Paine, an important figure in the Sea God Church, and was the only normal characteristic.

The other three were very abnormal because their former owners had gnawed on Kavetuvah's corpse.

To be precise, it was something like several characteristics mixed together.

For Beyonders below the angel level, these characteristics were unusable; even the current "Fool" couldn't use them.

Because if these characteristics were used as potions, the amount was too large.

If they were used to advance, there was only a very small probability of success.

Even if they succeeded, their condition would definitely be very poor.

But for Odis, this was a good thing, because after he advanced to Sequence 6, the "Knowledge Moor" had just gained the ability to shatter Beyonder characteristics.

For him, if multiple characteristics were mixed together, it would definitely be a surprise.

He couldn't wait to come to the "Central Simulator" and shatter the three Beyonder characteristics, resulting in continuous surprises.

These three characteristics were all from the "Sailor" pathway, one each from the Sequence 6, Sequence 7, and Sequence 8 levels.

The Sequence 6 characteristic came from the old man who fought Klein; after shattering it, he could obtain 2 copies of "Wind Blessed," 4 copies of "Navigator," 3 copies of "Berserk Citizen," and 4 copies of "Sailor."

Odis sighed, "This is a typical 'buy one get two free,' with a lot of freebies!"

Of course, because the old man's characteristics had become very distorted after gnawing on Kavetuvah's corpse, and they weren't quantified.

So, the amount of each of these characteristics was slightly more than normal, not as standard as advancing with potions.

But the decomposed characteristics were already within a safe range; as long as his condition was okay, there would be no problem advancing with these characteristics.

In addition to this Sequence 6 characteristic, the other two characteristics weren't as surprising as the Sequence 6 characteristic because their former owners died early or weren't as high-level as the old man; they couldn't handle eating a few bites of sea serpent meat.

However, the Sequence 7 characteristic also yielded 1 copy of "Navigator," 3 copies of "Berserk Citizen," and 2 copies of "Sailor."

After shattering the Sequence 8 characteristic, he could obtain 1 copy of "Berserk Citizen" and 2 copies of "Sailor."

Adding Paine's normal characteristic, Odis calculated that this operation had yielded a total of 2 copies of "Wind Blessed," 6 copies of "Navigator," 8 copies of "Berserk Citizen," and 9 copies of "Sailor."

These characteristics could completely form a "Punisher" team!

Odis rubbed his hands; he had only been in the Berserk Sea for a short time, yet he had such a harvest.

This was a good sign!

Finally, he looked at the 5 Sealed Artifacts he had seized, but these Sealed Artifacts were very disappointing.

First of all, their levels weren't high; just like the characteristics seized earlier, people who painfully died after eating a few bites of sea serpent meat generally weren't high-level.

So, 4 of these 5 Sealed Artifacts were targeting "low sequences," and only one was targeting Sequence 7.

Moreover, the negative effects were so great that they were unacceptable; for example, one of the Sealed Artifacts could unleash a "Berserk Strike."

But the negative effect was that after unleashing a "Berserk Strike," the holder would immediately lose their mind and then attack indiscriminately, launching continuous fierce attacks.

If they couldn't regain their sanity in time, they would die of exhaustion from continuously using "Berserk Strike."

The most appropriate use of this Sealed Artifact might be to throw it at an enemy, causing them to lose their mind and die of exhaustion.

The negative effects were so great mainly because there was a certain amount of Kavetuvah's spiritual residue in it.

Before his death, Kavetuvah had the clergy of the Sea God Church tear at his flesh and blood, hoping to transfer his spirit into their bodies and resurrect.

Of course, such an idea was a bit too naive, because unless there was a demigod in the Sea God Church, no one could withstand the characteristics and spirit in his body.

But if there was a demigod, he was more likely to take the opportunity to advance.

Considering that Kavetuvah had lost all reason in the last moments of his life, it wasn't surprising that he could come up with such a "foolish move."

Odis temporarily put these Sealed Artifacts away; in his opinion, their only use was to be shattered into Beyonder characteristics.

In fact, the 3 characteristics picked up from the hall where Kavetuvah died also contained Kavetuvah's spiritual residue, but after all, this was only the spiritual residue of a demigod, and there was basically no danger after shattering it.

In addition, these Sealed Artifacts also contained characteristics from other pathways, because not all of the Sea God Church's high-level members were Beyonders of the "Sailor" pathway.

This granted the sealed items many bizarre abilities, but also made their composition extremely complex.

Now, Audis didn't need these characteristics, so he prepared to temporarily retain them, perhaps they would be useful in the future.

After reviewing these spoils, Audis returned to the real world and decided to return to the Emerald Palace immediately to report the information he had obtained to Bernadette.

Because the news of "Sea God" Kavitua's death had a limited shelf life, its value would decrease after a couple of days.

So, Audis knocked on the door of the inner hall of the Emerald Palace in the early hours of the morning, asking Bertha to wake up the "Mysterious Queen."

A few minutes later, Bertha invited Audis to the "Queen's" living room, where Bernadette, wearing a loose sleeping robe, was already sitting on the sofa waiting: "What urgent matter requires you to wake me up so early?"

Audis said, "'Sea God' Kavitua is dead!"

"What?" Bernadette was somewhat surprised, but she quickly calmed down and smiled, "His condition was already very poor. I even suspected that he had gone mad during his advancement. It's not easy for him to have lasted until now."

Then she asked, "Why did Kavitua's condition suddenly deteriorate? Even to the point of dying?"

Audis sat on the sofa: "I received news that someone found a strange book in an ancient elven ruin.

"It is said that it was a group of scholars, and some even speculated that they were members of the 'Moses Ascetic Order' or the 'Dawn of Elements'.

"My guess is that the ruin where the book was found has some kind of inherent connection to Kavitua's hiding place. After the book was taken away, it disrupted some kind of balance in Kavitua's hiding place, making him even more insane, and ultimately leading to his death."

Bernadette admitted, "This is also the most important reason why I asked you to investigate this matter. Those people are members of the 'Moses Ascetic Order'."

Then she pondered for a moment and added, "The day before yesterday, I also had a similar guess, feeling that the people from the 'Moses Ascetic Order' must have found something in the ruins that made Kavitua's condition very poor.

"But I wasn't sure, so I hoped to conduct some investigations."

To be honest, Audis's ability to collect and analyze information surprised her somewhat, after all, this was a demigod-level investigation.

Moreover, it was only assigned the night before yesterday, and yesterday morning, Audis was still teaching the scholars. He only went to Bayam at noon, and as a result, he found such important information in just half a day and one night.

If the intelligence officers in Bayam were in charge of this matter, it's hard to say when there would be results.

It's not that they are useless, but Audis's ability in this area is too outstanding.

Thinking of this, the smile on Bernadette's face deepened: "How are you so sure that Kavitua is dead?"

Audis took out the former jade dagger: "I obtained this item from an important member of the Sea God Church.

"Well, I have to thank the guide sent by Primo, which allowed me to quickly find the key point and save the step of finding important members of the Sea God Church.

"At that time, my 'Eye of Secrets' noticed that this dagger seemed to be able to establish a certain connection with Kavitua.

"Later, I researched it and found that Pien had obtained Kavitua's oracle with the dagger before his death. Because Kavitua had lost his mind, the lives within a certain range around Pien had turned into mummies.

"Moreover, Kavitua seemed to have forgotten to disconnect the connection, allowing me to use it to observe Kavitua's state.

"Originally, it was jade, but the jade-like touch gradually disappeared. About half an hour ago, this dagger suddenly broke, and I believe this is a sign of Kavitua's death.

"In addition, I found that the demigod of the Storm Church has ended the weather struggle with Kavitua, and it can almost be assumed that Kavitua is dead.

"Combining this with some information obtained earlier, I believe this judgment is relatively accurate."

Bernadette glanced at the dagger that had lost all its luster, and said with an "Mmm", "Your judgment is well-founded and very logical."

Hearing the clues Audis had obtained, she had a similar judgment.

However, Audis said seriously: "But what's very strange is that before I came to the Emerald Palace, I heard that important members of the Sea God Church and the Resistance Army had actually received oracles from the 'Sea God' again.

"According to them, the 'Sea God' has become extremely intelligent and very benevolent."

Bernadette was surprised again, and after thinking for a few seconds, she asked Audis: "What are your thoughts on this?"

"The previous 'Sea God' is indeed dead." Audis pretended to be cautious and said, "The people of the Storm Church are impersonating the 'Sea God'. Perhaps they want to gradually turn the Sea God Church and the Resistance Army into forces that obey the Storm Church."

If he said at this time that someone had snatched the "Sea God's" characteristics, that would be the actual situation, but it would sound very unbelievable.

After all, to normal people, is there anyone on the sea who can steal the characteristics of the Storm Church?

So here, Audis chose to lie.

Bernadette nodded first, expressing her approval of Audis's guess, but soon she said: "Maybe… maybe it's not the Storm Church."

Audis was stunned: "Then who could it be?"

His stunned expression was not fake, because he didn't expect Bernadette to react so quickly.

"'Punishers' do have very strong combat power," Bernadette analyzed, "but they are better at direct combat and rarely use such roundabout methods to solve problems.

"If they obtained Kavitua's characteristics and could use those characteristics to find the main members of the Sea God Church.

"Bayam, or rather, a great purge of the entire Rosed Islands, has already begun."

Audis smiled: "Your description is really… really euphemistic."

Especially the sentence "rarely use such roundabout methods to solve problems", this description is very accurate.

For the grumpy old brother, there is no need to use brains for problems that can be solved with fists.

Of course, they are different from the madmen of the "Rose School". The "Rose School" has brains but doesn't use them, while the "Punishers" feel that there is no need to use them. They will use them when they feel the need.

Audis used his wild thoughts to pretend to be thinking, and then pretended to be convinced by Bernadette: "It's very likely that this is the case, hiss… but, who can snatch the Storm Church's things on the sea?"

Then he smiled: "If it was done by the people of the Eternal Blazing Sun Church, it would be interesting."

Bernadette followed with a slight smile: "If it's really as you guessed, the Eternal Blazing Sun Church has buried a nail in the Rosed Islands that can prick the Storm Church at any time!"

But then, the smile on her face gradually disappeared, because the probability of this happening was not high.

As Audis said, on the sea, no one can outcompete the Storm Church.

The key is that it was still a demigod-level characteristic. The Storm Church would definitely rush to the scene as soon as Kavitua died and the location was confirmed. Other forces basically had no chance and it was difficult to be faster than them.

She thought for a while before saying to Audis: "This will be your third task: to find out who took Kavitua's characteristics, and who the Sea God Church and the Resistance Army are truly serving in the future?

"If you can obtain accurate information, not only will the potion formula be cleared, but I can also promise to help you prepare the ritual."

Audis was slightly stunned: What to do? I really want to sell out "The Fool".

But then he smiled bitterly: "The difficulty of this task is too great. What if I haven't completed it even after I've digested the potion?"

Audis still doesn't plan to talk about the Tarot Club for the time being, because "The Fool" will be a very good check in the future.

Although he is working hard to get closer to the Church of the Evernight Goddess and the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, he doesn't trust these two churches that much.

Admittedly, the orthodox churches do maintain the basic order of the Extraordinary world, but they are not absolutely fair managers, and they cannot be trusted on many issues.

Especially under Audis's rather special circumstances, he can send some technology to the Church of Knowledge in exchange for a certain degree of protection.

But he doesn't plan to give up the truly core technology.

Compared to the orthodox churches, Audis is more willing to trust his "fellow villager".

When Klein has a certain position in the Extraordinary world in the future, he can use "The Fool" to check "The God of Knowledge and Wisdom", so as to prevent this old gentleman from "killing the chicken to get the eggs" and wanting to seize his core research.

"I will also assign you other tasks." Bernadette also knew the difficulty of this task: "If you complete other tasks, you can still repay the formula and get the opportunity for the ritual."

Audis nodded: "Okay."

Then he added: "I have a question I would like to ask."

Bernadette made a "you say" gesture.

"How do I seal the 'Eye of Secrets'?" Audis explained: "Today was the first time I saw something I shouldn't have seen. Although it gave me some important clues, it greatly affected my state."

Bernadette said: "There is no need to seal it at Sequence 6.

"At this time, the 'Eye of Secrets' is still under the control of your spirituality and subconscious. When there is really danger surrounding you, it will not open casually.

"Although it will bring you some harm, this is precisely when the 'Eye of Secrets' is most useful.

"By Sequence 5, you will not be able to restrain it at all, and you can consider the issue of sealing it at that time.

"And by Sequence 4, it is easy to glimpse some very dangerous things, and you may even be contaminated without knowing it."

She solemnly said: "Do as you please, but do no harm!

"Many times, it is even more important to avoid being harmed yourself."

“This path requires sufficient willpower, a love for the mysteries of the extraordinary world, and enough wariness towards those mysteries.”

Audis pondered for a moment before saying, “Thank you.”

Clearly, this was “Queen Mystic's” understanding of this path.

The living room was quiet for a moment, then Audis said, “By the way, I need a piece of ‘Star Crystal,’ about 70 grams, for teaching the scholars.”

Bernadette immediately said, “I'll have someone send it to you tomorrow.”

The two of them chatted for a few more sentences about shipbuilding, and Audis got up to leave.

On the way back to his own room after leaving Bernadette's bedroom, Audis suddenly thought: Speaking of which, it's not like I can't betray 'The Fool.' After all, now that Cattleya has joined the Tarot Club, it seems like it's no longer a secret to Bernadette who seized the characteristics of Qavitua.

Audis recalled for a moment, “Star Admiral” seems like they will join the Tarot Club at the next gathering, or the one after that.

However, Cattleya didn't dare to reveal information about the Tarot Club at first, so there's still some time.

Audis believed that this information shouldn't be told to Bernadette too quickly, otherwise, it would make “Queen Mystic” seriously overestimate his abilities.

At least wait until next week or the week after.

By the time he returned to his room, Audis already had a corresponding plan: He could tell Bernadette that he had obtained some clues from Gehrman Sparrow, and Audis also had an "opportunity" to meet this adventurer. He could lie and say that he had met him for the first time in Bansy Harbor, and then had some cooperation in Bayam.

Bernadette had witnessed the meeting in Bansy Harbor, so this guise had enough evidence.

Audis pondered for a while, yawned, and lay down on the bed to rest.

Because he hadn't slept all night, Audis didn't wake up until after ten in the morning. He used the "Travel Ring" to go to Bayam, first finding a restaurant to eat a meal that he didn't know was breakfast or lunch.

At noon, Audis came to the Wizard's Office on Kent Lane to make the final preparations for the gathering.

The batch of seats he had purchased arrived this afternoon, and Barzel also came to help set up the venue.

They both noticed that many people were craning their necks to look inside, and many people seemed to be passing by, but were actually carefully scrutinizing the place after passing.

This should be other forces, organizations, or information peddlers coming to scout the place, in order to finally determine whether or not to attend the gathering tomorrow.

In the evening, Audis treated everyone to dinner at a high-end restaurant in Bayam.

Many Loen people lived in Bayam. Although the high-end restaurants here couldn't compare to the Loen Kingdom Hotel in Backlund, such a first-class international hotel.

The Rothsted Hotel, located on Governor's Street, was also very high-end. Of course, the cost was also very beautiful, with the cheapest set meal costing a full 6 pounds and 15 soli.

Adding a bottle of red wine, the cost for the two of them was as high as about 17 pounds.

Originally, Audis felt that he had a big event to handle tomorrow, so he wanted to have a good meal today.

But the result was somewhat disappointing to him. It would have been better to eat grilled fish. It wasn't that the taste was bad, but the price-performance ratio of grilled fish was higher.

Barzel also felt a little uncomfortable in this kind of environment, but he tried to adapt.

Audis took a sip of red wine and said, “Okay, this was indeed a mistake in my choice. I spent more money and didn't eat comfortably.”

Barzel was slightly stunned, then smiled slightly, feeling much better in his heart: So Captain Alger wasn't used to this kind of environment either.

“We should be able to set sail in about ten days.” Audis said, “But I don't have candidates for the first mate and second mate yet. Please help me keep an eye out.”

If he really couldn't find anyone, Audis planned to set sail with just the two of them, and then look for suitable crew members after they were at sea.

Barzel nodded: “Okay.”

Then he said: “Does our sea… team have any guidelines?”

“Yes.” Audis said: “Fight pirates, find treasures, and strive to become the eighth pirate admiral at sea.”

The guests at the next table glanced at Audis first, and then carefully scrutinized Audis, obviously wanting to take a good look at this arrogant pirate.

After Audis felt the other party's gaze, he ate the cod and glanced at the other party. It was a man in his thirties, dining alone. His face was a bit long, as if he was born with an unhappy emotion.

The two of them looked at each other, but neither of them got angry. After all, this was a gentleman's hotel, not a place for fighting.

Seeing that the two of them weren't going to fight, Barzel said, “Captain, there are only six pirate admirals now.”

Audis withdrew his gaze: “Someone will soon replace the position of 'Vice Admiral Hurricane'.”

Barzel looked at Audis, as if asking with his eyes: Really?

“Don't look at me like that.” Audis smiled: “That person is not me. I am quite clear about my own strength. I can't be a pirate admiral yet.”

Barzel was stunned, and then realized that the captain might have obtained relevant information from somewhere.

The two of them continued to eat, but they no longer talked about going to sea, but talked about the abnormal behavior of the Church of the Sea God in recent days.

Audis just chatted casually with Barzel about the topic, and did not talk about the real reason for the abnormality of the Church of the Sea God.

As the last dish came up, Audis politely thanked the waiter, but the corner of his eye noticed that in the corner of the restaurant, an old man in a black windbreaker with silver hair was looking this way.

Although this old man was old, he was energetic and raised his glass to Audis with a smile.

Audis didn't know the other party, but out of politeness, he also raised his glass with a smile.

When leaving the restaurant, Audis sighed, seeing two strange people in the time it took to eat a meal.

The long-faced man at the table next to them was either a pirate or an adventurer, and also someone who made a living at sea.

As for the one in the corner, in Audis's experience, he should be an extraordinary person with considerable strength.

Audis remembered their faces. He had a feeling that today's meeting was an arrangement of fate, and they would meet again in the future.

Returning to his residence at 17 Humber Road, Audis considered tomorrow's gathering for a while, and then used "Meditation" to make himself fall asleep as soon as possible.

… …

On Sunday morning, Barzel came to the Wizard's Office on Kent Lane early, and used the key that the captain gave him yesterday to open the door.

First, he cleaned up a bit, and then put the prepared masks and hooded cloaks on the table at the door, waiting for the people who came to participate in the gathering to arrive.

The gathering was at eight o'clock, but it was already 7:40, and not a single person had come yet.

But Barzel was not anxious, because he noticed that there were particularly many pedestrians on Kent Lane this morning, and some people had already walked back and forth several times.

Barzel realized that they were still watching.

As a bounty hunter at sea, he was very clear about the importance of information, so he knew that many of them would come in to take a look.

After a few more minutes, Bishop Dean of the Church of Evernight entered the door, and was slightly stunned after seeing that there was no one inside.

Barzel politely asked: “Bishop, do you need a mask and cloak?”

Bishop Dean said: “I am a follower of the gods and do not need them.”

“This way, please.” Barzel led the bishop to the front row, to a black seat specially prepared for him. The colors of the other seats were all silver-gray.

After Bishop Dean took his seat, many people gradually stopped outside, and then someone who had obviously disguised himself entered the door, took the mask and cloak distributed by Dean, and found a chair to sit down.

As long as there was one, there would be a second, and a third. Soon the room was more than half full.

At exactly eight o'clock, the wall in front of everyone suddenly became illusory. Audis used a "Teleportation Array" to come to the venue, and said to the stunned crowd: "Welcome to the first Information Exchange Meeting."

The protagonist is about to go to sea, please help the author to think about the name of the pirate group and the name of the ship ( * ￣ ▽ ￣ ) Everyone should know the author's level of naming, to be honest, I dare not trust myself in this regard.

It should be noted that the name of the pirate group will also be used as the name of the extraordinary force in the future.

In addition, for the name of the ship, there are already some popular names "Nautilus", but this ship is not entirely a submarine, and the author cannot make a choice for a while.

Thank you everyone, please accept a bow from the author orz