Chapter 1619: Chapter 1619

While conversing with the man in the black hat, the bartender picked up the bowl, almost as if he were intentionally displaying it for Jenkins to see.

Jenkins’s peripheral vision caught the movement, and he froze. He recognized the golden bowl—or more accurately, the golden wooden bowl.

This was an item from the very first Mysterious Realm he and Mr. Barnard had experienced. Mr. Barnard had taken it as his reward for clearing the realm, while Jenkins had received the candle from the table.

Mr. Barnard hadn't turned the bowl over to the Church, selling it on the black market instead. It was only after his death that Jenkins learned it had eventually found its way into the hands of the Witch's House, where they used it to concoct their unique poisons.

Later, after the Witch's House failed in their attempt to summon the Hanging Mother Goddess's Shadow during the battle in the Evergreen Forest, they withdrew completely from Nolan. The bowl had vanished without a trace, and Jenkins never expected to see it again, especially not here.

"This bowl," the bartender mused, "the tavern could take it. It would make a fine decoration. Are you looking to trade it for something else?"

The transaction was still underway. The bartender asked the man whose face was obscured by his hat, his voice a slow, magnetic drawl.

"Yes, a trade. I need an extraordinary tool capable of repairing complex machinery."

"What a coincidence," the bartender remarked. "We do happen to have something like that. How did you know?"

The box was metallic, long and slender. Its surface was etched with a pattern of fine, intersecting horizontal and vertical lines of varying lengths. Jenkins suspected that with the right cryptographic key, one might be able to decipher a message from it.

The bartender placed it on the bar and, once again, opened it right in front of Jenkins and Miss Stevel. The man in the black hat was clearly displeased but didn't dare to object.

The bartender opened the box, revealing a seemingly unremarkable silver metal wrench resting on the red lining inside. If Jenkins hadn't known that electroplating technology didn't exist in this world, he would have sworn its beautiful silver sheen was a layer of plating.

"A curious little tool," the bartender explained. "It can repair most machines with nuts and bolts. We've used it on the tavern's boiler out back a few times. And now, it's yours."

At those words, Jenkins glanced at his senior, and she gave a slight nod. The instant the man in the black hat grasped the wrench—the very second the deal was sealed—a brilliant flash of silver erupted from Miss Stevel's hand, slicing clean through the man's arm.

But as the arm tumbled to the floor, no blood sprayed from the wound. Instead, the severed cross-section revealed a complex mesh of red flesh interwoven with brass-colored clockwork.

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His suspicions confirmed, Jenkins launched himself at the man. But instead of fleeing, the man dropped to his knees, reaching for the fallen wrench with his one remaining hand. He left himself wide open. Jenkins's fist slammed into his chest. It was like striking a sheet of steel, but fueled by his [Titan's Power] and wreathed in the melting heat of his bestowed flame, the punch shattered the metal plate and plunged straight through the man's heart.

"His heart... it's actually normal?"

He pulled his hand out, and the man's corpse slowly crumpled to the ground.

"The heart and brain can't be easily modified," Miss Stevel explained, her experience showing. "Otherwise, a mismatch occurs between the body and the soul."

Jenkins nodded and picked up the wrench. Its spiritual aura was strong, clearly a numbered item, yet it looked utterly unremarkable. If his eyes couldn't perceive the aura, Jenkins wouldn't have been able to identify it as an extraordinary object even by touch.

"It's yours now," the bartender offered smoothly. "You can dispose of the body yourself, or we can handle it for you."

Jenkins nodded and handed the wrench to Miss Stevel.

"I still have urgent business to attend to. Would you mind taking this and the body to the Church? I'm not sure if you've heard what's been happening near Nolan, but this corpse and this tool are critically important."

"Of course, don't worry about it," Miss Stevel replied with a bored air, carefully stowing the wrench away. "I was planning on reporting back to the Church anyway to see if they have any assignments for me in Nolan. Miss Bevanna is aware of my undercover status."

"I won't mention you to the Church. I'll say I did all this myself. You're up to something dangerous, aren't you? Be careful. You're the only apprentice Papa Oliver has left now."

A faint smile touched Jenkins's lips. He shook his head, gave his senior a wave, and departed.

In a fog-filled alley, he mounted his unicorn and ascended, intending to survey the city from above. The aerial view was vast, but the thick fog was also more pronounced. After putting on his monocle, however, the obstruction wasn't too severe.

The monocle enhanced the effect of his Eye of Reality. Having been away from Nolan for nearly three months, he noticed that the dark spiritual aura within the fog had become more distinct. Although still very faint, this miasma now permeated every corner of the fog-covered area. It meant that during his absence, the city's pollution had worsened—this kind of fog was now potent enough to spawn strange things.

After resolving a few trivial matters in the fog-bound districts, he returned to the upper part of the city, where he happened upon the spirit of a stray cat at the mouth of an alley. By the time Jenkins had purified its resentful energy, it was already three in the morning. Summer dawns came early, and he planned to set off for the Evergreen Forest at five.

Next, he headed for the dock district in the west, moving east from the wharf. The docks had their own problems. In a waterfront fishery warehouse, Jenkins stumbled upon the horrifying corpse of a fishman, frozen solid in a block of ice.

This creature had the head of a fish and the limbs of a man, its body covered in foul-smelling scales. Its face was so grotesque that a single glance was enough to cause visceral discomfort. This was definitely not something that belonged on land.

Although the fishman was dead and posed no immediate threat, Jenkins still questioned the watchman and had him fetch the warehouse owner. From him, he learned that the corpse had been dredged up from the sea by his fishing boat near the coast, right after the great tsunami that hit Nolan last month.

This creature was a type of aberration summoned from a terrifying alternate dimension by the pirate king, Femishue the Destroyer, after he had merged with the corrupted Heart of the Ocean and a mass of tentacles. The warehouse owner, oblivious to the truth, simply thought it was a rare curiosity he could collect and later sell for a good price.

But Jenkins discovered that the minds of the watchman and the middle-aged merchant, who had both stared at the fishman's corpse with fascinated eyes many times, had already been affected by it. He suspected this terrifying aberration was connected to some unknown evil god or Mysterious Object. He worried that due to this subtle influence, the two men were subconsciously beginning to worship a monster that did not exist in the material world.

He had no choice but to spend a little more time luring a priest from the nearby Church of the Ocean over, thereby pushing this troublesome matter onto them.