It had been close to a month since the trio had arrived at Hannes City. With the city's curfew starting at sunset and the increased nighttime patrol, the disappearances had lowered significantly.
However, this didn't mean progress. After all, the Magi were still unable to locate where the captives were being held.
Adam's life in the city had become monotonous. The entire night, he'd be out with Edward and Lisa, patrolling the streets. Then, he would return to the rented manor in the wee hours of the morning.
After sleeping for six hours only, he would begin practicing mindfulness and then bury himself in studying herbalism and experimenting with potions.
During such times, oh how much he wished that practicing mindfulness could substitute for his sleep. But unfortunately, it didn't.
In the past few weeks, after repeated failures and subsequent learning from said failures, Adam had already mastered brewing the Potion of Aqua Breathing.
Furthermore, he had also begun experimenting on other potion recipes that he'd acquired from the expert's memories. Of course, the potions he could experiment on were restricted to his rank. He wouldn't even try experimenting on those high-level potions that he had memories of.
Currently, Adam was inside his temporary lab and was thoughtfully looking at a pile of dust on the table. He rubbed his chin and mumbled, "What exactly is missing…"
The dust in front of him was an accidental byproduct of one of his experiments. When he learned that it could be further improved upon, he established a clear-cut goal of how he could use this dust in his battles.
Although the dust that he envisioned wouldn't have any attack power, it would greatly aid him nevertheless. Especially right now when he knew that the criminal that he was searching for had a great chance of being an undead.
After thinking for a long time, he still couldn't understand how to proceed. In the end, he grabbed a blank piece of paper and a quill and then began writing a correspondence.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})A few minutes later, he rolled the parchment paper and slid it inside a small cylindrical compartment. Then, he took out a bronze whistle from within his robes and looked at it with anticipation.
"Let's see how this thing works," he muttered and then blew the whistle.
Much to his surprise, the whistle didn't produce any sound. No matter how hard he blew into it no sound came out.
"What the?" Adam frowned as he examined the whistle. "Does this not work? Or am I doing something wrong?"
He was about to blow on it again, when all of a sudden, the space in front of him distorted and the colors around it began to saturate. Then, the space was torn open!
Adam's eyes lit up. "Blac—Ackk!"
Before he could finish what he was about to say, something bolted out of the tear in the void and slammed right into his face. The youth fell off his stool and landed on the ground.
"Blackie!"
"Woof!" Blackie, who was sitting on Adam's face, continued to lick him without stopping. It took Adam a lot of effort to get the little fellow off of his face.
He sat up and placed Blackie on his lap. Then, he rubbed the spirit creature's head fondly. "How've you been? Did you miss me?"
Blackie nodded his little head, his tongue sticking out, and his tail wagging intensely.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Hahaha!" Adam gave him a hug and warmly said, "Well, I missed you too, buddy."
Adam played with Blackie for a while and then waved the compartment that contained the letter in front of his face. "Can you deliver this to the old man?"
Blackie snorted and looked away. At the same time, he relayed something to Adam mentally.
Hearing Blackie's mental transmission, Adam's eyebrows twitched. He repeated, "Can you please deliver this to the old man, Lord Blackie?"
"Woof!" Blackie immediately swallowed the small compartment.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Adam got to his feet and then put a bit of his experimental dust inside a leather pouch. Then, he handed it to Blackie. "Here, give this too."
Once again, Blackie swallowed the pouch. Following that, he looked at Adam with narrowed eyes, seemingly waiting for something else. "Woof?"
"I know, I know." Adam chuckled. "I haven't forgotten."
He took out a small purple crystal from his satchel and gave it to Blackie. "Here you go."
Blackie was ecstatic seeing this crystal. His eyes shone brightly and he began drooling. He bit on the crystal and slowly ate it, savoring the flavor. Seeing Blackie's intoxicated look, Adam couldn't help but chuckle.
This small purple crystal was an ore that could be found only in the Spirit World.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Berger had given some to Adam for one reason and one reason only. It seemed that this little fellow, Blackie, would refuse to deliver mail for Adam if the latter didn't give him some type of incentive.
Recalling the time when Berger had instructed him to use the crystals as if they were some sort of transportation fee, Adam found it very amusing.
After Blackie had finished eating the crystal, he waved his paw and tore the space open once again. Then, he bade Adam farewell and stepped inside the Spirit World.
The space mended itself back and everything returned to normal. Adam stood in the same spot and marveled. "To be able to open a direct portal to the Spirit World so effortlessly… Blackie, man, what a guy!"
Adam tidied up the lab and got rid of all the waste. Then, he went to his bedroom and got changed into his black Magus outfit that he had purchased in Moon City. After he had put on his pointy hat, he went downstairs and saw that Edward and Lisa were already waiting.
The sun had already set and the city-wide curfew had begun. The trio left the manor and were greeted by six city guards sent by the Count.
Adam, Edward, and Lisa each went their own ways with two city guards accompanying them. This was much more efficient than the three of them patrolling together.
As Adam greeted the two city guards who were stationed with him, suddenly he had this strange premonition that tonight wasn't going to be a quiet one.
Ever since his soul had strengthened after absorbing the bright motes inside the white lotus, Adam felt that his sixth sense had developed immensely. And right now, his sixth sense was faintly giving him warning signals.
The youth was unsure if his 'intuition' was a result of his strengthened soul or if it was something directly related to the white lotus. Nevertheless, he chose to trust it.
He looked at the two guards behind him and solemnly said, "Be on guard at all times."
"Yes, Lord Adam!" The guards respectfully complied.
Adam looked at the night sky. The twin moons, Selene and Luna, had hidden themselves behind dark clouds.
Is the criminal finally going to show up tonight?
