Lord of the Mysteries

“What’s so special about Qilangos’s magical item?” Audrey asked slightly confidently.

She considered it carefully and suddenly realized that she had a decent ability to locate people in Backlund.

Firstly, her father was one of the most wealthy, connected, and reputable nobles, while she was quite popular amongst the younger generation too. Hence, in the upper-middle class of the society, she had quite a few resources to take advantage of.

Secondly, the two Beyonders that she knew had their own circles as well. Apprentice Fors was originally a clinical doctor, and was now an author. She knew quite a number of people in the literary world and publishing industry, as well as among the middle-class doctors.

Arbiter Xio Derecha had helped many middle-lower class people to coordinate and mediate disputes over a long period of time. She was also quite famous in East Backlund borough among the working class and mafia. She had a lot of hidden channels.

Plus, considering the Beyonders that they knew and their circles of influence, their ability to look for a person wasn’t to be belittled.

Towards Justice’s question, Alger answered almost straightaway without hesitation or thought.

“No one knows the real name of the magical item, but the people who have come into contact with it call it the ‘Creeping Hunger.’ Qilangos uses a living person’s soul and flesh to satisfy it every other day. Otherwise, it would consume its owner as a replacement.”

“This could be one of the most important clues to seek out Qilangos,” Audrey said, creasing her eyebrows.

She felt utter discomfort and extreme hatred towards any evil item that desired a living human’s fresh blood and soul.

“Yes, but in a big city with at least five million people, a few vagrants going missing wouldn’t be noticed,” Alger reminded her. “Ever since he got his hands on the Creeping Hunger, Qilangos has been very difficult to deal with.”

“He was originally a Wind-blessed. He possesses great Beyonder power in domains related to water, wind, and the weather. But, later on, people realized that he could drive his targets crazy, enter the dreams of others, summon light to purify a dead soul, sing to strengthen himself, and change his appearance… There’s almost nothing that he can’t do,” Alger described in detail. “We suspect that those are all effects that came from the magical item, Creeping Hunger…”

Before he finished sharing, Derrick Berg, who had been listening quietly, suddenly blurted, “Shepherd!”

Shepherd? Sequence 5 of the Secrets Suppliant and Listener pathway? Hmm, among the six-member council in the City of Silver, there is a new elder who’s a Shepherd. Sun had mentioned that she’s strong enough to fight against a Sequence 4 expert, well—an evil spirit of the same grade… Klein’s expression changed slightly, but it was covered by the gray fog. Justice wasn’t paying any attention to him either.

“Shepherd?”

“Shepherd?”

sounded completely confused while the other sounded shocked, as though they had heard the title of Shepherd elsewhere before

was staring at him, Derrick suddenly panicked a little. No matter

a stammer, “What I meant was, the traits that The Hanged Man described were like the Beyonder power of the Sequence job, Shepherd. Every Shepherd can swallow another’s soul into their body, including wraiths and evil spirits. They control these souls to do their bidding with a unique method, which allows them to make use of their abilities, just like a god

how many powers a Shepherd has. That depends on how many Beyonder souls they have swallowed, and that makes them very scary.

to the number of souls that a Shepherd can consume and let out

Aurora Order has in its control is enigmatic… No wonder they worship the True Creator, no, the Fallen Creator… Klein was suddenly

sighed inwardly. Sun, you are a boy after all. This is very important information, very important insight. You could’ve exchanged it for valuable things, but you just revealed it all! Just

Hunger is similar to a Sequence 5 Shepherd… I wonder if other Sealed Artifacts have the same powers of

to Sun’s explanation, Alger seemed to have sorted out the puzzle in his mind as he

“Which Sequence

Klein seized the opportunity to answer so as to demonstrate that he knew

a suspected

could pay in exchange for Mr. Fool to take action and rid off that disgusting fellow effortlessly. However, she couldn’t think of anything

god wouldn’t be easily moved… There aren’t many things and matters that

impulse aside, she nodded to The Sun gratefully, thanking him for giving them a new perspective on Creeping Hunger, so that they could deal with it more

guarantee if I can find Rear Admiral Hurricane, Qilangos.”

succeed, maybe I could provide you the Telepathist’s

and

created Qilangos’ portrait with Klein’s permission

broad chin, brown hair tied into a bun at the back of his head like an ancient warrior, and green eyes that seemed to hint at laughter, but were

smiled as he announced the ending of the Gathering. He saw Justice and The Hanged Man get

forward with his right hand and severed the connection, but

…

the Berg household in the City of

his familiar surroundings and glanced outside at the dark sky that had

goatskin

at it several times and was finally

wasn’t worried that possessing the Bard formula and becoming a different Beyonder would gain the suspicion of the upper echelons of the City of Silver. This was because in past exploratory expeditions, members of those elite troops would often collect some formulas, ingredients,

of the loot privately. As long as it didn’t involve anything

of the Dark surrounding