After leaving the occult shop, Ross discovered that the rain had already stopped.
Before getting into the Humvee, he turned for one last look at the storefront, then climbed inside.
As the vehicle pulled away, Ross looked toward the female officer sitting nearby.
“Senna, did you notice anything?”
Senna Larkin shook her head.
“Sorry, sir. All I can confirm right now is that he’s a Beyonder. Beyond that, there’s very little I can determine.”
“The only thing I’m reasonably certain of is that his Beyonder abilities are related to divination or prophecy.”
“As for his combat capabilities, we’d have to see him fight to know.”
Ross nodded, then his expression hardened.
“This time, Bruce Banner cannot be allowed to escape.”
“Have our people immediately investigate every soft-drink bottling plant operating around Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro.”
Senna nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
Before long, Ross’s Humvee disappeared from 71st Avenue in Forest Hills.
Ross had barely left when Tony Stark pulled up outside Kez Merlin’s shop in his Audi TT.
Tony parked directly in front of the building, grabbed the backpack containing the Savant Beyonder Characteristic, and walked inside.
The bell above the door chimed.
Kez looked up to find yet another visitor entering his shop.
Tony glanced around at the furnishings before giving a surprised whistle.
“Kez, you’ve got quite a few antiques in here.”
Most people probably wouldn’t have noticed, but Tony was a wealthy collector who owned plenty of antiques himself.
He could tell at a glance that a surprising number of objects in Kez’s shop had genuine age behind them.
Kez noticed the backpack in Tony’s hand and smiled.
“Nothing compared to what a billionaire like you probably keeps at home.”
He nodded toward the bag.
“So? How did the research go? Find anything interesting?”
Tony tossed the backpack across the counter.
“Nothing.”
Kez caught it easily.
“My instruments couldn’t get any useful readings from the thing. Then I tried cutting off a sample for analysis, and apparently it’s impossible to damage.”
Kez laughed.
“I was hoping you’d discover something useful. Would’ve made recovering the other Beyonder Characteristics a lot easier.”
He set the backpack down.
“Here. I’ll give you one piece of information for free.”
“Beyonder Characteristics cannot be destroyed.”
Even Sealed Artifacts were extraordinarily difficult to destroy without power at the Demigod level, and once a Sealed Artifact was broken down and released the Beyonder Characteristic within it, that Characteristic itself still couldn’t truly be eliminated. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
Tony paused.
If Beyonder Characteristics were genuinely indestructible, then their numbers shouldn’t have decreased since the moment they first appeared.
“Maybe we just don’t have enough power,” Tony said.
“Is there really such a thing as something that absolutely can’t be destroyed?”
Kez shrugged.
“Who knows? Based on everything I know, Beyonder Characteristics are indestructible.”
Then he added casually, “If you ever manage to destroy one, tell me immediately.”
If someone actually succeeded in shattering a Beyonder Characteristic, that would imply the involvement of power at an extraordinarily high level.
That was something Kez would need to take very seriously.
Tony was silent for a couple of seconds before nodding.
“If I ever manage it, you’ll be the first to know.”
“I’ve already started collecting objects like this. Once I find the other two, I’ll send them over.”
With that, Tony turned and walked straight back out.
He had only come to deliver the Characteristic.
There was still plenty waiting for him at home.
He needed to continue developing the unfinished Mark armor, and tomorrow was the next Tarot Club gathering.
Kez watched Tony leave without comment, then looked toward Anger.
“Anger, flip the sign on the door. We’re closing for the day.”
The golden retriever immediately got to his feet and trotted toward the entrance, tail wagging.
He reached up, flipped the sign from OPEN to CLOSED, then pressed a button beside the door.
A security shutter descended over the storefront.
Kez returned to his bedroom and took the Savant Beyonder Characteristic out of the backpack.
A system notification immediately appeared.
[Detected: Sequence 9 Savant Beyonder Characteristic. Recycle?]
“Recycle.”
The translucent ice-blue Characteristic vanished from Kez’s hand.
Three more notifications followed one after another.
[Reward obtained: Mysticism Knowledge Package.]
[Unlocked: Sequence 9 Savant Potion Crafting.]
[Acquired: Intelligence concerning a Sequence 8 Clown Beyonder Characteristic.]
Kez blinked.
One Characteristic had produced three separate rewards.
Not bad at all.
He opened the Mysticism Knowledge Package first.
The information contained within covered the construction of honorific names, prayer rituals, sacrificial rituals, charm creation, rituals for communicating with creatures of the Spirit World, and a wide range of other occult practices. This story is hosted at novelping(.)com.
Kez visibly relaxed as he reviewed it.
This filled a major gap in his knowledge.
Without something like this, his understanding of proper mysticism would have remained painfully incomplete despite everything else he knew.
He then examined the newly unlocked Sequence 9 Savant Potion Crafting function.
The system could convert an appropriate Beyonder Characteristic directly into its corresponding potion.
Alternatively, it could consume mystical energy or supernatural objects native to this universe and transform them into the supplementary ingredients required to prepare that potion.
Kez immediately understood the implications.
He could now sell potions.
More importantly, he could deliberately guide other people onto the Pathways and turn them into Beyonders.
That would make expanding the Tarot Club considerably easier.
There was an important distinction between a potion and a raw Beyonder Characteristic.
A Beyonder Characteristic was the actual crystallized source of Beyonder power, usually precipitating after the death of a Beyonder or supernatural creature.
It was the fundamental core behind every Sequence.
A potion, by comparison, was a properly prepared medium for absorbing that power.
Its main ingredient was the corresponding Beyonder Characteristic, supplemented with various spiritual ingredients to stabilize and regulate the process.
Consuming a potion was the proper and primary method of becoming a Beyonder and advancing through the Sequences.
There were other relatively safe possibilities.
The children of Beyonders could sometimes inherit portions of their parents’ Beyonder Characteristics and be born with supernatural abilities.
Simply swallowing a raw Beyonder Characteristic was another matter entirely.
At low Sequences such as Sequence 9 or Sequence 8, there was at least a possibility of surviving the process and becoming a Beyonder.
But it was only a possibility.
More often than not, someone reckless enough to consume a raw Characteristic directly would lose control and turn into a monster.
Thinking back to the Beyonder accompanying Ross, Kez could only conclude that she had been extraordinarily lucky.
Finally, he opened the third reward.
It contained intelligence on the location of a Sequence 8 Clown Beyonder Characteristic.
For Kez personally, this was even more valuable than the other two rewards.
Once he recovered the Clown Characteristic, the system would unlock the Sequence 8 Clown potion, allowing him to advance from Sequence 9 Seer to Sequence 8.
Low-Sequence abilities were simply too limited for a world like Marvel.
After reviewing all three rewards, Kez immediately used the system to transform the recycled Savant Beyonder Characteristic into a Sequence 9 Savant potion.
At tomorrow’s Tarot Club gathering, he intended to formally introduce Tony Stark to the Beyonder world and place him on the Paragon Pathway.
Before then, however, Kez still had several things to determine.
He needed to find out exactly how much mystical energy was required to manufacture one Sequence 9 potion, identify which supernatural objects in this universe could be converted into that energy…
And before the Tarot Club gathered again, he needed to settle on his own three-line honorific name.