"This skill of yours to make friends is also not simple." Lola complimented as she ate her appetiser, "Such a high-class restaurant, no need to make a reservation, just come when you say so."
Sitting at one of the best tables in the privacy of a fine restaurant in Cologne, Shaun was swallowing heavily.
"This restaurant last time I came to eat after pointing out a few words to the chef, at that time he was still unconvinced, and then rated Michelin star, but also specially wrote me a respectful email to thank me. He was very respectful when he saw me just now. I'm a food hunter of sorts, and I'm always on the lookout for the best local food, or at the very least, the most speciality food. I'm sorry, but I've been hungry all day and couldn't be bothered to chew." Shaun's mouth was stuffed with food and he said somewhat slurred.
"It's a shame to eat these dishes if you're so hungry." Lola said as she gracefully ate her appetiser.
"That said, top quality western food is a synthesis of setting, tableware, sight, taste and sound, and the sense of ceremony is part of eating. But I'm really hungry today. I'll cook for you once in a while sometime in the future to show you that Chinese food can cover it all on taste alone." Shaun gabbled as he ate.
"Let's get down to business, do you have a clue as to where Father Giovanni told Mr Hoffman about that hidden sword?" Lola asked as she finished her appetiser and slowly sipped her red wine.
"No clue yet, need to look at the various ruins. But I think if we can't find it, the other side can't find it even more. At that time, when that murderer said ''a magician who picks up things from space'', did he mean his own special ability?" Shaun, who ordered two appetisers, asked as he ate. Since it was a chef he knew well, he also simplified the process of eating, choosing only three meals, but asking for two appetisers.
"It should be. If you hadn't been enhanced by the secret stone, and if his ability hadn't reached instantaneous, you wouldn't have lasted long enough for me to come and save you." Lola said.
"Yes, at the time I felt the heart being clutched tightly by him and being pulled a little towards the body. Now I understand that he flayed Father Giovanni with this same magician-like ability to pull the body out of its skin, it just must have taken a long time to pull off such a large magic trick." Shaun said.
"What a lunatic." Lola said coldly.
"A dangerous madman." Shaun added heartily, "How did you know he was going to blow himself up?"
"His body is full of plants that I control, and I can sense the abnormalities that appear in his body." Lola said.
"Your ability is so cool, I can already think of what happened to those drug dealers." Shaun praised.
"That grey wolf gang boss really does have some tricks up his sleeve, being able to strengthen his hands and his finger power is very strong, if you go it's going to take some trouble." Lola said lightly.
Shaun nodded his head greatly: "Sure enough, you've got it right. It seems like getting stronger is really important if you want to carry out a decent mission."
"If any secret stones appear on this mission, you can take all of them except the Secret Stone of Force." Lola said, "The agent assigned by the Imperium in the composite mission is the main executor and has the right to distribute the Secret Stones. This is the consensus among the agents. Of course whether or not you can get the secret stone depends more on luck, for example, if I found the secret stone and wanted you to trigger it, but I was triggered by the secret stone passively, and the secret stone thus disappeared, it can only be counted as your bad luck."
Shaun, who had eaten his first meal, asked, "You need the Secret Stone of Force yourself? And what ability do you advance to if you find it?"
Lola said, "If I could find the Secret Stone of Force, my current 'Botanist' could be advanced to," here Lola paused for a moment, her face a little stiff as she continued, "Magic Bean Magic Bean. You heard right, the new ability is called Magic Bean Magic Bean."
Shaun staggered for a moment, then buried his face in his hands to avoid laughing out loud.
"Laugh again and that pot of flowers next to you will bloom into your brain." Lola said coldly, but couldn't help the corners of her mouth from rising a little.
Shaun held back a laugh and said, "That's a cute name, who gave it to you?"
Lola said: "The abilities that have been explored so far have all been named by the former agents. That's it, there's nothing I can do about it. Unless I explore a new ability on my own, I can name it myself."
Shaun asked, "What about abilities? Magic Bean Magic Bean's ability?"
Lola said: "It can giganticise plants for a short period of time. In a vegetation-rich environment like Europe, this ability is quite strong. This ability is sort of an advancement path with continuity with Botanist."
Shaun smiled and said, "Ah, so this ability is still aptly called Magic Bean Magic Bean. That ability of yours to control plants would be terrifying if the plants were even more gigantic."
Lola said, "It's not that simple. Finding the secret stone and obtaining the ability is something that requires a lot of chance, besides the difficulty of finding the secret stone itself, whether or not you can find the right one is also dependent on luck."
"If sometimes the secret stones found have opposite attributes or don't stack on top of each other, it's possible to advance into a rather strange ability. There's a certain current agent who found the Secret Stone of Swiftness and the Secret Stone of Earth separately, and as a result, his ability stacked up to become a dance master, and he's often on some TV shows, and he's very popular."
"There's also the order in which you get the Secret Stones that's more important, there are some Secret Stones that you find two of and they don't stack up to any powerful abilities. But if you find the right third piece, it will advance into a very powerful ability."
"For example, there was a legendary senior who found the secret stone of earth and then the secret stone of fire, and as a result, advanced into a master potter. If he couldn't find any other Secret Stones, then that would be all he could do with his abilities, apart from doing Tier 1 quests, he could also make a pottery to sell."
"But he got lucky and found a third secret stone - the Secret Stone of Wind - and instantly advanced into the 'Gun God' with superb attack power!"
"Gun God? What a cool name!" Taking a sip of red wine, Shaun said enviously.
"Yes, the ability is also very strong, compressing air to form a cylinder as a barrel, compressing earth and stones to become a high-density bullet, inspired by fire, the barrel can be extended by three metres, and the bullet can be struck out for ten kilometres." Lola described, and a look of envy appeared in her eyes.
"Wow, then this ability is considered the king of killers!" Shaun watched as the waiter came over to clean up the dishes they had used.
"No, the name 'King of Killers' belongs to an ability that is advanced by stacking the abilities of several other Secret Stones, and requires four Secret Stones to reach the advancement." Lola said.
Shaun was dumbfounded, and after a while he let out a breath and asked: "Is there anything more powerful?"
Lola shook her head: "Apart from the original secret stone, the most number of secret stones an agent is known to have received is only four, that is, a level five agent, as far as I know since the establishment of the Yingling world there have only been two level five agents, namely the 'King of Killers', which is made of the stacking of the four secret stones of Shadow, Swiftness, Wind, and Power, and the 'Sea God', which is made of the stacking of Water, Thunderbolt, Wind, and Power. '."
Shaun froze halfway through listening again, full of fascination, then thought of another question: "What would happen if all eight were found?"
"No one knows, and I'm afraid the Guardians of the Spirit World who made the pact with the God of Nature in the first place don't know either." Lola shrugged.
Shaun took the red wine glass and shook it, and asked again: "There is another question again, after getting the second secret stone, one will get the relative ability, if one finds the third secret stone, after being able to stack with the second secret stone ability to advance to a new ability, is the ability granted by the second secret stone still there?"
Lola said: "Not anymore, for example, after I found the secret stone of earth I got the ability to control the earth element within a certain degree, but after I found the secret stone of water I advanced to botanist and gained the corresponding new ability, but at the same time the ability to control the earth element disappeared, in fact, it was fused into the botanist's ability."
Shaun asked again, "So the ability is still there when the agent of the Spirit World retires?"
Lola glanced at Shaun and said, "That's a question the Gatekeeper should tell you. The agent's ability remains after retirement, but he has to return the original secret stone and can no longer use it as a key to enter and exit the spirit world."
Shaun froze for another moment and asked, "How much do you know about those three Secret Stones of God?"
"Not much more than you, it's not like anyone has ever found them." Lola said, "Most of the active agents are mainly second or third level agents, not to mention the Secret Stone of God, there are not many fourth level ones. Of course, some level 3 agents are already very strong."
At that moment the waiter brought up the main course, a raw beef tartare that the chef had recommended to Shaun today, and Lola's own single order of charcoal grilled veal ribs.
"Hmm, wanted me to try another of his handiwork." Shaun was intrigued and scooped a spoonful of the raw ground beef mixed with raw egg into his mouth, "Nice beef, regular seasoning in good proportions and mixed with his own blend of spices, bonus points. It's this thin layer of truffle on top that's too unoriginal, minus points."
After judging the main course, Shaun then asked, "Is that killer today a magic spirit agent?"
"Something feels fishy about that guy today." At this point, Lola stopped her knife and fork and stared in thought.
"How so?" Shaun asked as he chewed.
"Magic Spirit Agents, as you can tell from their name, are an existence similar to ours, only with the opposite meaning of existence. The channel for them to obtain their abilities is simpler than us, as long as they pledge their souls to the Demon Spirit for it to drive them."
"But the frequency of Demon Spirit Agents appearing is very low, mainly because the number of people engaging in true demon worship in society is relatively small nowadays. There have only been two cases within the last ten years that could be identified as being caused by a Demon Spirit Agent, resulting in the deaths of a total of one hundred and seventy-eight civilians and five agents of the Spirit World, one of which was a rank four agent." Lola replied as she ate, "The Demon Spirit Agents I know are another kind of lunatic, the same ones who treat life like grass, but want to do things in a big way and don't carry them out in secret, with a strong sense of autonomy, it doesn't feel quite the same as this lunatic today. Besides, do you think this killer today will make the Alpine Mist people thousands of miles away feel uneasy?"
Shaun froze a bit: "Would there be another force capable of doing something like this?"
Lola said:"There are too many, the Dark Order, the International Gangster Federation, it's all possible. I'm not sure, investigate and see."
Shaun's beef tartare was almost done and grunted contentedly, "Oh, it's a bit mushy, must have some dessert to weigh it down. How do you know so much?" The latter sentence was a question for Lola.
Lola had also finished the crispy veal ribs and started drinking red wine again: "Remember the agent's mutual aid society I told you about? This is a mutual aid organisation that our agents themselves have set up privately, basically all active agents have joined, except for freaks like you, or a few legendary existences."
"The Mutual Aid Association mainly facilitates the exchange of mission information and secret stone information, and is able to drastically increase the likelihood of newcomers finding secret stones."