Lord of Mysteries:The Good Witch

Having renewed her resolve, Angel decided against taking the public carriage to Tingen's steam train station as originally planned. Instead, she approached a hired carriage parked at the street corner.

"To the Dragon's bar in the dock district," she instructed the driver lounging in his seat. The docks on the outskirts housed Tingen's largest underground market, and she needed to make thorough preparations before confronting Madam Sharon.

"It's 12 pence to the docks. If you need a ride back, you might as well hire the carriage for 2 soli per hour. I can take you anywhere," the driver offered.

Without hesitation, Angel hired the carriage. Time was of the essence now, and she couldn't afford to search for another ride back.

Watching the scenery rush by outside the window, Angel closed her eyes and planned her next moves.

Originally, she had allotted at least two weeks to prepare for confronting Madam Sharon. She needed to convert her out-of-world knowledge and skills into combat prowess and required the cooperation of multiple official Beyonders. Only with a surprise attack would she have a chance of victory. In a direct confrontation, given her current Sequence 9 abilities, injury or even death was likely.

Now, with preparation time cut to 24 hours, the chances of success had drastically diminished.

Angel was unsure when her message at St. Selena's Cathedral would reach official Beyonders. Perhaps they had already begun to act, and she'd be pinned down by a group of men upon opening her door on Daffodil Street. Or maybe those slow-witted individuals would have no reaction even as she kept her appointment at Madam Sharon's residence.

All she could do now was enhance her capabilities as quickly as possible.

Advancing her Sequence further was out of the question. Perhaps after a successful promotion, a Sequence 7 Cole Granger 

could defeat a higher Sequence Madam Sharon with a surprise attack, but now she was merely a Sequence 9 "Assassin."

Moreover, Angel had no intention of following Cole's path and using innocent lives as upgrade experience, as the name of the "Assassin" potion might suggest.

That left only arming herself with external means to increase her combat effectiveness.

As they traversed Tingen City from the northern district's church to the southern docks, the streets grew less crowded, and the gas lamps lining the roads became scarcer.

If not for Cole Granger memories of purchasing extraordinary materials here a few times, Angel might have suspected the driver of ill intentions, leading her astray.

Only when the cramped, low buildings disappeared from view and the Tussock River, reflecting the crimson moonlight, came into sight did she confirm their arrival at the dock district.

The driver stopped the carriage beside a small path by the river. At the end of the road lay the expansive dock work area and warehouses. During the day, this place bustled with activity—loading and unloading cargo, hawking goods—but at night, it was eerily quiet.

"Ma'am, it's not safe here at night. If you're going to that pub... Never mind," he began to caution Angel as she alighted from the carriage and adjusted her hood, but seeing her pat the holster strapped to her leg, he wisely fell silent.

The Dragon's Bar was the docks' sole entertainment venue. During the day, it was packed with workers enjoying a drink in their spare time. At night, lingering drunks still roamed about. Like the Wild Heart bar, it featured rat-catching dog gambling, but the dock's rough men preferred the raw physicality of fistfights.

Pushing open the heavy door, a wave of cheers mixed with the strong scent of alcohol greeted her. On the boxing ring, two shirtless men were throwing punches at each other with gusto. The collision of fists against flesh elicited rounds of applause. Over a dozen patrons waved their glasses, cheering on their favored fighters. No one noticed Angel's arrival.

She skirted the boxing ring and entered the billiard room at the back of the pub. Two men were playing pool while several others stood around the table, commenting on the game. They fell silent as she entered.

Angel stated her purpose, and after exchanging glances, the men quietly moved aside, revealing a hidden door at the far end of the room.

She pulled the candlestick by the window to open the secret door, then passed through several empty rooms before reaching a spacious area.

This was a warehouse adjacent to the Dragon's Bar, rented out as an underground market. It was now at its busiest, with people setting up stalls everywhere, either standing or sitting, waiting for customers. Even more people moved between the stalls, comparing prices and exchanging information.

Most items sold here actually lacked extraordinary properties and were merely ordinary mystical objects: candles for prayer, various authentic or fake ritual incense, crystals and minerals that were more ornamental than practical. The majority of buyers were mysticism enthusiasts, purchasing these items to satisfy their own needs or those of their small circles, without involvement in extraordinary events.

Of course, Beyonders like Cole Luminar also mingled among the buyers. Supplementary materials for various potions, ingredients for divination or curse rituals, and base materials for crafting extraordinary items could all be found here.

After walking around the market and overhearing several transactions, Angel selected the items she needed.

First, she bought most of the reagents from a vendor selling pre-mixed chemical solutions, along with the wooden box used to store them, complete with lining and handle.

Then, carrying the box, she moved between stalls, quickly filling it with materials like luminous lizard scales and scream grass. Finally, a piece of star crystal weighing about ten grams was wrapped separately in a cloth bag and placed in her coat pocket.

Declining the market guard's offer to help carry her purchases, Angel retraced her steps through the billiard room and past the noisy boxing ring, returning to the hired carriage waiting for her by the road.

"Let's go to Daffodil Street... No, first to Iron Cross Street," she instructed the driver. Before heading home, she needed to retrieve the lady's pistol she had left there a few days ago. Now, any weapon was precious.

Ignoring the box's filth, Angel carefully placed it on her lap, standing on tiptoe to minimize the carriage's jolts. This was her crucial safeguard for surviving the next evening.

Pushing open the door of 6 Daffodil Street, the paper slip used to detect intruders fluttered down. Angel wasn't sure whether to feel disappointed or relieved.

The paper bag containing bread, potatoes, and celery that she had carelessly tossed on the living room table when she returned in the afternoon was still there. Now, she had neither the mood nor the time to cook. She simply grabbed a loaf of bread, tore off half, and bit into it while carrying the wooden box down to the basement.

The mutton she had thrown down there two days ago had begun to emit an odd odor, successfully masking the faint smell of blood. But now she regretted doing so, as she would have to spend the entire night in the basement with this unpleasant smell.

"If the study wasn't full of flammable materials, I wouldn't be working here," she muttered.

Pinching her nose as she entered the basement, Angel lit the candles and looked around, ultimately deciding to endure the discomfort. Once she lit the fire, the rising temperature in the basement would create a chimney effect, drawing out most of the odors.

She arranged the purchased materials on the stone table, categorizing them. Lighting the stove nearby, she preheated the crucible retrieved from the kitchen, then began processing the materials using Cole's alchemy tools.

The surface of the lizard scales was scraped off with a small knife and soaked in nitric acid in a test tube. The essence of scream grass was extracted using alcohol. Calcium carbide was ground into powder. Resin was melted and kept warm near the crucible. The star crystal was cut into equal small pieces...

As her movements transitioned from clumsy to skillful, Angel felt as if she had returned to the time when she personally crafted her battle equipment in the Templar Order. Recalling various memories of the past, her eyes stung, almost bringing tears.

Ah, it was just the etching solution's vapor irritating her eyes. That's fine then.

Slightly heating each new .45 caliber pistol bullet, she melted the adhesive, removed the bullet head, and poured out the propellant. Angel picked up the engraving knife, concentrating her spirituality at its tip, which surged forth.

She carved the first sigil with mechanical precision.

"Storm Convergence" was the easiest to produce among the five special ammunitions mastered by the Church of Light in her original world. By repeatedly hitting the same spot, it could stack increasingly higher damage. Even when used individually, its penetration power far exceeded that of ordinary bullets.

Due to its ability to stack damage with repeated hits, "Storm Convergence" was typically used in automatic weapons. However, in the Kingdom of Loen, automatic and semi-automatic weapons like repeating rifles and six-barrel machine guns were all military-controlled equipment. Angel had no way of obtaining them, so she could only produce revolver bullets, relying on the "Assassin's" physical coordination ability to aim at the same spot as much as possible to trigger the bullet's special properties.

The manufacture of "Storm Convergence" required engraving complex patterns on the cartridge, then filling it with spirituality-rich materials. The bullet head was made of mithril mixed with crystal powder. The soft bullet head reduced the occurrence of ricochets, making the impact points more concentrated. Moreover, the treated bullets were more likely to shatter upon hitting the target, releasing powerful energy. After receiving the goddess's blessing through prayer, these properties would become even more pronounced.

Although the engraved patterns representing various bullet properties belonged to physical principles and should theoretically be applicable in this world as well, being separated by an entire world meant that prayer obviously couldn't receive the Light Goddess's blessing. Angel was uncertain how effective the engravings would be.

The materials also couldn't follow the original formula. Instead, using Cole Granger limited mystical knowledge, she used degraded substitutes of similar types from this world. The bullet heads could only use low-melting-point lead, though fortunately, the star crystal was rich in spirituality, elevating the bullets' quality somewhat.

Angel engraved the cartridges fully, further treating them with resin and etching solution before filling them with the essence of scream grass. Lead blocks were melted in the crucible, mixed with star crystal, and poured into iron molds to form new bullet heads. After cooling, they were reassembled, completing a "Storm Convergence" bullet.

Her craftsmanship hadn't deteriorated. Calculating the time spent, Angel estimated she could process all the bullets in her possession before dawn. But before that, she decided to test if the prayer blessing was effective.

Gripping the cartridge tightly in her hand, she traced a circle with four points on her chest with one finger, silently reciting a prayer, beseeching the Light Goddess for blessing.

As expected, the bullet showed no reaction.

Sighing inwardly, Angel opened her palm. The brass cartridge reflected the dim candlelight, unchanged from before.

This incomplete "Storm Convergence," relying only on the properties of its materials and engravings, would have greatly reduced lethality against Beyonders.

Although disappointed, this was within Angel's expectations. She hadn't hoped to receive aid from her world's deities through prayer in this alien world. She picked up another cartridge, intending to replace the part of the engraving representing divine power with ordinary engravings, at least increasing some physical damage.

Just as she was about to complete the engraving on this bullet, she suddenly recalled the strange event at St. Selena's Cathedral earlier that night, and the words spoken by that mysterious voice.

"Those who dare to move forward shall be rewarded."

After all, Cole had been a believer of the Goddess of Night in life... With a "why not try" attitude, Angel replaced the original engraving meant to beseech divine power with the holy symbol of the Goddess of Night she had seen in the cathedral—stars dotting the sky, surrounding half of the crimson moon. After processing the second cartridge in the same manner, she followed the previous prayer ritual, holding the cartridge and tracing the crimson moon on her chest, praying to the goddess:

"Goddess of Night, more sublime than the starry sky, more eternal than eternity.

"You are the Lord of Crimson, Mother of Concealment, and also the Queen of Calamity and Fear.

"Lord of Slumber and Silence..."

This was the prayer of the Church of Night from Cole Granger memory. He had once been a not-so-devout believer of the Goddess of Night, but since becoming an "Assassin" and staining his hands with innocent blood, he hadn't dared to step into a church again.

"I beseech You...

"I beseech You to bless this object...

"Grant it the power to fight against evil and injustice..."

The body of an apostate, the soul of a heretic—could such a prayer truly be effective?

Angel finished reciting the prayer and opened her eyes. A faint crimson light leaked through the gaps between her tightly clenched fingers.

She opened her palm in surprise. Red electricity danced and flowed within the originally dull engravings. The brass cartridge glowed with a dazzling crimson light as if ignited, which took a long time to dissipate.

Undoubtedly, this was now a complete "Storm Convergence" bullet imbued with the power of prayer. Even without testing, she could be certain that it was no less potent than the standard ammunition produced in her original world.

The prayer... worked?

Angel took a deep breath. She wasn't sure if this was truly divine favor or if the manufacturing method coincidentally aligned with this world's principles, thus successfully recreating the complete bullet effect.

But this didn't prevent her from expressing gratitude to the Goddess of Night.

She traced four points in the air before her chest, outlining the crimson moon. Compared to her perfunctory performance at St. Selena's Cathedral, this prayer was somewhat more heartfelt.