Chapter 32: Small Breakthrough
In the meantime, Charles and others met Emilia in the reception hall and planned their next move to find more clues about the three [Historians]'s disappearance. After pondering for a long time, Emilia finally made a decision and spoke solemnly.
"Andrew, your job is to do disguise yourself as a tailor and go to the Gold Street. After that, use your tailoring skill and act as a tailor for the next few weeks." She paused for a moment and then added,
"While doing so, your job is to monitor John Wayne and report it to me every evening."
Saying so, Emilia adjusted her curly grey hair and turned her gaze towards Luke,
"Luke, your job is to go to the slum street before disguising yourself as a normal thief and becoming a member of Slitherers' Rowdy gang. After that, you have to monitor Jimmy Holmes and report it to me using a secret letter." She said.
Upon hearing her words, Luke raised his eyebrows for a moment and soon shook his head.
"I don't like that guy. Team Leader, give this job to Charles." He said while pointing his fingers at Charles.
Emilia paused in surprise as she heard Luke's words and soon nodded her head.
'It seems he didn't like Jimmy. What's gotten into him lately?' She stared at him for a moment and soon asked,
"Charles Miller, can you do it? If you complete this mission successfully, I will take you as our Aces Team member."
Charles raised his eyebrows a little as he heard her words, placed his hand on his chin, and started pondering.
It's not hard for Charles to act as a thief, so he didn't put much thought into it. But if he wanted to become a member of Slitherers' Rowdy gang, he had to disguise himself as another person.
"Team Leader, can you give me some disguising materials? It will be easier for me if you give some wigs, mustaches, and facemasks." Charles made a request.
Emilia became startled by his words and soon stared at him in wonder. During their previous covert missions, they usually used normal wigs and other disguising materials to make a disguise. So, this question caught them off guard.
Although disguising facemasks and wigs weren't rare items, the people in this magical world wouldn't prefer those things. No, they would avoid using those facemasks at all costs. Unlike the Earth, this world's technology hadn't improved much, and the inhabitants always relied on mysterious skills and magic spells.
Except for the very rare [Deceiver] class, there was no class available in this world that could be suitable for disguising. Well, Charles's unique [Trickster] class was a special one, though.
So, the [Artisans] used this opportunity and started making facemasks using an unorthodox method a few decades ago. At first, many assassins, thieves, and even merchants brought these products and used them for various purposes. But that soon ended when a [Artisan] revealed how the [Artisan] class Mystics created those disguising facemasks.
"A-Are you sure about using the face masks?" Even Andrew stared at him with wide eyes and asked in an uncomfortable tone.
In that instant, Charles knew that he had asked something he shouldn't have and soon questioned.
"Why do you guys find it uncomfortable to use facemasks?"
"It seems you didn't know about that subject." Emilia heaved a heavy sigh and continued after a short deliberation.
"Everyone finds it uncomfortable in using those facemasks because they were created by skinning the dead human's faces. The [Artisans] made some alterations and stored them in a rare liquid as preservation for years before taking it to the market for selling. That's how the disguising face masks are made."
A look of realization appeared on Charles's face as he heard her words. Now, he understood why they stared at him weirdly earlier. He coughed twice to clear the awkwardness and then asked,
"Team Leader, then can you give me wigs, mustaches, and face coloring powders? Also, I want the wigs of both genders."
"I can arrange it for you." Upon hearing his request, Emilia tersely nodded, took out a few skin coloring potions, a voice changing artifact, wigs of men and women, woman's breast pads, beards, and even some sharp blades for shaving hairs, put them in a black-colored suitcase and gave it to him.
Once she passed those things, Emilia took a deep breath and spoke.
"All that left now is Willy Pickton. Luke, he is yours now. Although I don't know his real rank, I can tell you that he is a powerful mystic. Don't take him lightly and get caught." Saying so, she turned around and went near the study room.
"You guys can go back to your go and prepare for this covert mission." She stopped her footsteps as she thought of something and soon added,
"Charles, you don't have to do your morning work from now on. I already discussed it with our Branch Leader Russell."
A smile appeared on Charles's face as he nodded his head and thanked her. After that, he also bid his farewell to the other two companions, walked out of the Withering Shadows department, and moved towards the left side road.
While walking, he stealthily stored his Runal Language Book's copy inside his void pouch and then continued to move towards 45 El Street. He didn't even stop near the Life Church and soon reached his house within a few minutes.
After that, he greeted his mother in the reception room and went to his study through the spiral staircase.
He then sat on the wooden chair, took out the Runal Language Book, and placed it on the wooden table. After that, he took a deep breath and opened the black-covered book.
To his surprise, he saw only black pages inside and frowned.
'An empty book?' Just as he was about to use his [Inspect] skill, he suddenly felt strange invisible energy coming out of that book. Upon sensing the foreign energy, he got more curious and focused his attention on the invisible power.
A heartbeat later, he saw that the book started to tremble and soon turned into a ball of green light!
Before he could even blink, the ball of green light floated up in front of his face and directly entered inside his head.
"What the hell?" He jolted up in surprise and soon felt a sharp pain in his head. Simultaneously, he noticed that the information about Runal Language entered his mind like floodwater and soon engraved deep into his consciousness.
Charles leaned back on the wooden chair for a whole minute and soon widened his eyes in surprise.
'So, this is the holy language of Magic, huh.' He muttered inwardly and soon shifted his attention towards the spell model in his mind.
He sat in the same posture and studied the spell model for hours like a statue. Whenever he looked at the runal characters in the spell model and tried to understand its meaning, he noticed that his understanding of that particular [Fire Wings] spell increased steadily!
After five hours, he comprehended the meaning behind those letters and then noticed that something was happening inside the 'Fire Wings' spell model. Without even glancing at the fire spell model, he knew that he had already made a breakthrough in understanding the 'Fire Wings' spell model!
Unlike all these times, the 'Fire Wings' spell began to shine brilliantly in his mind and gave him a warm feeling.
'If I decipher all those Runal Words in the fire spell model, I will be able to completely master the Fire Wings spell in a week or two!' A look of astonishment and awe appeared on his face.
He then stood up from his seat, went to the balcony, and opened both his hands while closing his jade-like eyes.
Two crimson wings conjured behind his back and spread out a second later. But this time, a change occurred in those crimson wings. Crimson-colored feathers started to appear in those wings, and soon it looked more like a real bird's wings!
"Interesting." Charles opened his eyes and glanced at those wings in amazement.
'So, this language really did help the mages to master their spells models real quick, huh. But, why did the Churches hide it from the masses and current era mages?' He froze for a second and soon noticed a huge problem.
'Spell models. The churches might not have any spell models at all. Even if they have, I'm pretty sure that there must be some restrictions to construct these spell models. And, there is also another problem finding the Fire-Mage class gems.' He muttered inwardly and then noticed that it was already dusk.
'It's time for me to construct new spell models.' Charles went inside his study first and lit the room with magic candles. Then, instead of sitting on the wooden chair, he moved towards the center of the room and sat on the tiled floor.
After that, he opened the game-Interface and glanced at his remaining Exp.
'I have 1198 Experience Points.' He nodded inwardly and shifted his gaze towards the spellbook option.
[Available Fire Spell models for the Host: Fire Orb (430 Exp), Fire Arrow (250 Exp), Fire Breath (250 Exp), Fire Shield (320 Exp), Flame Body (350 Exp), Flame Jump (540 Exp), Fire Wisp (240 Exp), Fire Blade (459 Exp), Fire Prism (310 Exp), etc.,]
'Which one should I choose now?' He furrowed his brows and chose [Flame Body] spell model to construct it in his mind.
Like the last time, multiple weird Runal characters appeared inside his mind from somewhere and soon formed into another hexagonal-like structure.
After a minute, he opened his eyes and then shifted his gaze towards the spellbook once again.
Although he didn't know how many spell models could he construct in his mind, Charles vaguely felt that he could build more than six spell models.
'Hmm, what I lack is defensive spell and long-range offensive spell. Although I got the Ember Pistol now, the cooldown is too long. It is better to keep this Pistol hidden and use it only when my life is in danger. It's more like a trump card for me.' He nodded thoughtfully and started searching for a suitable offensive spell.
'Fire Orb, Fire Arrow, Flame Bolt, Incinerate,...' He glanced at those spell models one by one and soon locked his gaze on the [Incinerate] spell.
[Spell name: Incinerate
Rank: Rank-1 spell
Effects: When casting this spell, you will be able to release a pure ray of fire and incinerate your enemy in a second. You can even kill or severely injure a Rank-2 Mystic if you master this spell model completely.
Cooldown: Due to less fire-elemental power in this world, it will take 30 minutes to resupply the 'fire elemental energy' into the spell model.]
'Now that I think about it, I didn't use the [Fire Wings] spell continuously and didn't even notice that. But man, these magic spells seem to be powerful enough to kill above Ranked Mystics.' He nodded thoughtfully and then turned his gaze towards other fire spell models for a while.
'Although [Fire Bolt] spell looks awesome, I have a feeling that [Incinerate] spell will more suitable for me.' He thought inwardly and soon checked the number of Experience points to buy the spell model.
'650 Exp. A little bit expensive spell model indeed,' He hesitated for a moment and finally chose to construct it. A second later, another wave of weird Runal characters appeared out of nowhere and started constructing another hexagonal spell model in his mind.
He closed his eyes as he studied the mysterious construction of the spell model by the system for another minute and soon opened his eyes.
He then curled his lips upward and stood up from the tiled floor.
After that, he glanced at the interface and soon checked his status window.
[Name: Charles Nightwind
Health Status: Normal (Afflicted by Amber's Curse)
Race: Human
Rank: 1 (Common)
Class: Level 4 Apprentice Fire Mage (0/337)
Sub-class: Level 5 Trickster (0/506)
Title: Serial Killer (- 20 Percent favourability of Riverdale Citizens)
Health Points: 111/111
Exp: 198 Exp
Attributes:
Strength- 14
Dexterity- 15
Constitution- 13
Wisdom-15
Charisma- 12
SP (Skill Points): 0
AP (Attribute points): 0
Class spells:
Fire Wings- 23
Incinerate
Flame Body
Sub-class skills:
Magician's Hand- 50
Clown- 50
Sixth Sense- 50
Unique skills:
Conceal- 50
Dark Vision- 44
Intermediate Dagger Arts- 50
Inspect- 40
Sharpshooting- 30]
...
'My subclass skills have already reached their peak stages. As for the Main Class spells, I need to concentrate on them. Although I managed to come this far due to my unique skills, I can't rely on those too much... Moreover, the [Intermediate Dagger arts] won't be much of use for me in the future. Fire Mage Helen also mentioned in his book that magic spells are more powerful than normal skills. If what he said is true, I don't need to rely too much on daggers and shortswords. In the future, Conceal and Inspect skills will be the ones that I need to pay more attention to.' Charles glanced at the stats window and thought deeply.
He then took out the silver pocket watch from his void pouch and flipped it open to see the time.
'6.30.' He nodded his head, walked out of his study, and went downstairs.