Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 838: The Hurried Time

Chapter 838 -838: The Hurried Time

Shard looked out the window. The hazy fog was a common sight in Tobesk at the turn of autumn and winter, after all, the steam factories and gas companies were in full operation during this season.

“I’ve been busy making a batch of Holy Water No. 4 recently. If I release it in bulk to the local black market, I wonder if it will attract the Church’s attention.” freewebnσvel.cøm

The old man said worriedly.

“Are you short on money recently? I can lend you some.”

Counting the 1,000 pounds from the foreign princess that he hadn’t collected yet, Shard’s savings now exceeded five figures.

“No need to lend me money, I need to repay some. I still owe Schneider 3,000 pounds.”

The Priest said, and only then did Shard remember this matter, which was the fee for the materials needed for the gate-opening ritual held by the Spiritual Practice Order.

Speaking of this, Priest Augustus asked with a smile:

“But, what project did Schneider invest in to make so much money? You were very vague last time. When I deliver the gift to him later, can I ask him about it? Speaking of which, exam week seems to be approaching again, and as the year-end draws near, the church also has to audit accounts and make reports, as well as do year-end summaries and plans for the next year… why do I feel busier than you young folks?”

Shard just hoped that even if Dr. Schneider mentioned the source of that money, he would absolutely not reveal that Shard also participated in gambling bets.

“If you’re worried about selling the Holy Water, I can take them to the black markets in Coldwater Port and Midshire Fort. With such a scarce commodity, finding buyers shouldn’t be a problem. If we spread out the supply, we won’t need to worry about being discovered.”

“That’s a good idea, but is it only Coldwater Port and Midshire Fort?”

The Priest leaned against the sofa and asked, to which Shard nodded:

“If I want to go to more places, I need a special mineral called White Stone Crystal, but it transports you to a random location.”

The Priest shared his secret, and Shard didn’t mind sharing this information with him.

The old man wiped his pipe and didn’t comment on Shard’s special “abilities.”

“Priest, do you think… this world could be destroyed?”

Shard suddenly asked. The old man’s eyes lifted to look at him, a puzzled expression appearing on his aged face:

“All things have an end. I thought you already knew this truth.”

“No, no, I mean, do you know the specific time of the world’s destruction?”

The Priest blinked his eyes:

“That’s also why I’m collecting Angel Remains. Since I encountered this power, I’ve known that the world’s destruction is certain. It could be tomorrow, but it could also be ten thousand years from now. If you’re looking for an answer from me, I’m sorry, I don’t know either. But at least I’m certain that the Sixth Era is a very special era, and the day of the End of All Things is related to the era we’re in.”

(Mia is running…)

In the following nearly two weeks, Shard enjoyed peaceful and serene days as he had wished.

With no Time Key to trouble him and no news of the next Chosen One appearing anytime soon, nor any clues about the divinity he yearned for, at least he managed to purchase a new “White Stone Crystal” at a high price from Coldwater Port, preparing to head to a city that might harbor divinity at any time.

But Shard was not completely idle. He gathered enough materials to perform a ritual linking “Sloth” to the Arcane Technique- “Great Sin Chain”. The knowledge about Original Sin provided by Tree Father was vast, but it contained extremely terrible and blasphemous information. Shard only shared some of it with the doctor, who sternly warned him never to tell a third person:

“You’ll get into big trouble. I don’t even know how your soul withstands this knowledge.”

Shard drank a whole bottle of Holy Water No. 4 in front of him to demonstrate that he had not been corrupted by the Great Sin.

Of course, besides the materials provided free of charge by Miss Galina, most of the other materials required for the ritual were purchased by Shard from various places. But at this moment, he had enough savings, so he didn’t mind the expense.

Newspaper reports about the upcoming visit of Carsonrick’s second princess, Margaret Anjou to Tobesk began to appear more frequently. The City Hall also launched a “Tobesk City Security Inspection for the Autumn of 1853 in the Common Era Calendar”. This action caused a temporary commotion in the city, but it was quickly suppressed by Riddlevitch Field.

During this period, Shard unexpectedly received a request for help through an old friend, a Roder card buddy, and the original owner of “Ancient Fairy Tale: Match girl”, Baron Lavende. He assisted Baron Pasos in secretly retrieving his family’s heirloom, a gold medallion with the family crest, from an underground Roder Card casino in the northern slums that was about to be shut down.

This only took one night, but the secret infiltration, the Roder Card game, the gunfight in the corridor, lockpicking and searching, and destroying the pawn records… it wasn’t a simple commission, and as a reward, Shard earned three figures of gold pound in just one business deal.

This included hush money, as Baron Pasos didn’t want anyone to know that he pawned the heirloom to an illegal casino. The damage to his reputation would be far more significant than a few hundred pounds.

After this deal concluded, Baron Lavende played cards with Shard at the Prophet’s Society during their free time. He nearly fainted from excitement when he saw the card “Genesis: Death”, which could only be considered an incidental episode at the end of this big deal.

Shard hadn’t been entirely unproductive during these two weeks. He received an invitation from Professor Hensinger Garcia, the Deputy Dean of the History Academy. After attending the autumn elective course “Sealed Space”, he chose to take the professor’s “Introduction to Exploration of Space Mystery” and submitted a ten-inch-long paper as the final report.

The multiple theoretical hypotheses Shard proposed in the course about the use of nested Maze Locks received high praise from Professor Garcia.

Apart from the courses at the Academy, Shard used his leisure time to delve deeper into the “Book of Pink” obtained from Desire, successfully mastering practical sorcery such as Grease Spell, Animated Rope Trick, and Limb Swelling Curse. Additionally, the Arcane Techniques that could be shared between the Yellow Moon and Silvermoon Spirit Runes were successfully developed by him into their “Yellow Moon versions”.

Unfortunately, even though he learned from the library in the Fifth Era when touching the “Nameless Ritual Book” that “worshiping the Exalted Sun can also borrow the power of the Silvermoon”, Shard couldn’t learn abilities like Moonlight Ray based on the Sunlight Ray.

For this, he specifically consulted Iluna, who had returned from Midshire Fort, but she wasn’t familiar with the power of the Moon and couldn’t give Shard good advice. On the contrary, after hearing Shard describe the use method of the Sunlight Ray too many times, Iluna miraculously learned the Sunlight Ray without performing the ritual after ending the class with Miss Galina on the first Sunday of Frostfall Moon.

It was hard for Shard to describe his feelings in the manor at that time.

“The balancing talents of the Chosen Ones are truly admirable and enviable.”

Miss Galina said in a good mood, and before Iluna could speak, the witch kissed Shard in front of her and kindly “advised” her student:

“Young girl, you have a long way to go. Don’t get overly excited about a temporary improvement.”

Iluna’s expression at that moment made Shard think she was going to throw out a Sunlight Gun.