Whispering Verse

"Well, this is pretty good."

In the dimly lit room, Shade suddenly said with his head lowered, then put a tick behind "Satisfying Food" with a pencil, and handed over the pencil, paper and 11 pounds in cash. The library's transaction commission is paid by the party selling the items, which Shade doesn't need to think about.

The sound of the door opening came from behind the shutter, and then he waited for half an hour before he came back and handed a book through the hole in the wall. The title is "You Can Too: Simple Cooking of Lamb Stew".

This cookbook is thick but very light. When I opened it, I found that the inside had been hollowed out and contained specific information and materials for learning thaumaturgy. Shade carefully checked under the light that there was no problem, then stood up and prepared to leave.

But the man behind the wooden shield stopped him again:

"Since this is your first time in the library, do you know what happened at Lakeview Manor last weekend?"

Xia De was shocked, but remained calm on the surface:

"I heard that the masked man under the silver moon kicked down half of the mansion in Lakeview Manor under the moon."

He deliberately gave out wrong information and was corrected:

"I'm afraid there's something wrong with your news. What I heard is that the man evaporated half of Schluch Lake with one kick."

Speaking of more problematic information, the man said to Shade:

"This is your first time here, so you probably don't know that we also collect information here. The information about that person is very valuable now. If you have certain information, you can consider selling it to us."

"Okay, I'll pay attention."

Shade said, and was about to leave in a hurry. He didn't want to talk about this topic with others.

To leave is not through the door you came from, but to continue along the corridor and leave through the back door hidden in the alley on the other side of the library.

Shade deliberately walked around the complicated alleys nearby a few times, taking full advantage of the fact that today's choking gray fog was thicker. After confirming that no one was following him, he took off his vest, put on his coat, took off his mask and returned to the main building. On the way.

I spent some time in the Black Raven Library, but the summer days are very long, so the sunset is just emerging from the western horizon at this time.

Shade merged into the crowd on the street. After the carriage rushed across the street, he crossed from one side of the street to the other, turned in front of the mailbox, and walked forward along the low wall along the street with two rusty pipes.

"So, the spiritual runes devoured from the old gods are different from ordinary runes?"

He thought to himself.

【Yes. 】

Stopping at the intersection ahead, looking left and right, hesitant about which way to go home. In the mist, a housewife wearing a long skirt and a lace hat hurried past him, while uniformed police officers looked around on the other side of the intersection.

Shade asked in his heart:

"In other words, if I contact the old gods and devour their power, not only can I gain divinity, but also powerful spiritual runes? It's interesting. It's almost tempting me to contact the evil gods again."

[This is not me trying to seduce you, this is the truth. 】

"I know."

He chose the one on the right. Although the road on the left would be closer, he had never walked on the road on the right and wanted to try it.

After making a decision, he took steps forward. The small building where the printing factory's office was located next to him caught his eye for a few seconds. Detective Hamilton also wanted to print a batch of business cards:

"Speaking of which, what is the way to devour the power of gods? I can probably figure it out, and we have to take the initiative to contact the gods. But is this all we need?"

This is the most important question. I should have asked it earlier, but things haven't stopped since I woke up.

[This is very simple, just repeat the situation that night. This is not necessarily related to the blood-sucking ring itself. You just need to find a way. A relic like a blood-sucking ring can absorb the power of God, and you can recreate the scene that night even for just a moment. Of course, this is also what divine knowledge tells me. 】

"And you'll show up?"

He thought of the soft body that appeared behind him that night when he was on the verge of death, and he missed that feeling.

He didn't get an answer, nor was he reprimanded for his impolite imagination. The woman just chuckled, and that laughter made Shade relax:

"But it doesn't matter. I already have the divinity to wash away the first-level Word of Ascension rune, and I won't waste it. So, I won't need the next drop of divinity until at least the second level, which will probably take several years."

The woman didn't answer. When Shade disappeared at the intersection facing the mist, she still chuckled in his ear.

He did not return to St. Teresa's Square immediately because of the prompt given by his "other self". In the glow of the setting sun, Shade went to Old John's pawn shop.

Even if the city is foggy, the brutal summer sunset can still project fiery red colors through the shop windows and onto the floor. The bell rang when the door was opened, but there was another customer at the pawn shop at this time, a middle-aged lady with a lace hat tilted sideways, who was talking to Old John at the counter.

The owner of the pawn shop gave Shade a look and told him not to come over first. After confirming that the woman was just an ordinary person, Shade didn't care. Instead, he strolled around the pawn shop and looked at the corner of the wall. He became interested in the dusty prototype of the Mark 9 steam engine.

"What, are you interested in this? I can sell it to you cheaper."

After the woman left with satisfaction on her high heels, Old John said to Shade. Shade shook his head:

"What do I want with this thing? I'm not a museum owner. Speaking of which, you have quite a lot of weird things here."

He came to the counter.

Out of politeness, Shade did not use the more appropriate word "garbage dump" to describe this place.

"I run a pawn shop. As long as it's not real garbage, I will collect it even if it's just a tattered quilt."

The old man was still a little proud when he talked about this. He took off his reading glasses and closed the ledger.

Shade looked at him in surprise:

"Can I ask why this is? This kind of business is not profitable, is it?"

A smile appeared on the old man's face, and he waited for Shade to ask:

"What do you think of me? A miser who only cares about gold pounds? Well, detective, let me ask you a question. What can you tell from this pile?"

He pointed to the strange pawned objects displayed in the store, some of which were truly valuable, such as the cane that Shade pawned last time, but most of them were just ordinary objects.

"see......"

He thought hesitantly.

"If you guess my idea correctly, I'll give you a 50% discount on this business."

Old man John encouraged, and Shade immediately became energetic. But for such an open-ended question, it’s not easy to guess right. After thinking for a while, I couldn't find the exact answer, so I can only give a relatively broad answer:

"Society and life?"

Old John laughed:

"Close, but no, civilized."

Shade originally thought his answer was exaggerated, but he didn't expect that he was even more exaggerated.