Chapter 352: Chapter 352

Hearing the unfamiliar woman ask for the Morris estate, the young maid's suspicion sharpened.

She sized up the woman's attire; it was respectable enough. The light gray trench coat, though not typically feminine, seemed to complement the stranger's aura perfectly. But then, looking at Miss Miller's beautiful face, the maid found her so kind, so approachable, that her fleeting wariness vanished in an instant.

For a woman who had already found the path to becoming a demigod, charming an ordinary human was remarkably easy.

"I work there," Julia said, gesturing toward the house. "How can I help you?"

Miss Miller breathed a sigh of relief and handed her the package. "Hello. I've just arrived from Nolan City in the Fidektri Kingdom. My friend there, a Mr. Jenkins Williams, asked me to deliver this to the master of the Morris estate."

Julia took the package and glanced at the writing on it. She recognized the handwriting on the address immediately—it was indeed from the mathematician the princess was so fond of. A smile instantly blossomed on her face.

"Oh, you're a friend of Mr. Williams! What a coincidence. Please, come in and have a seat. You came all this way to deliver the letter as soon as you arrived in Ruen. You must not have had breakfast yet. I can have the servants prepare something."

The two women walked side by side into the estate's courtyard, a servant following behind to take Miss Miller's suitcase.

Miss Miller wore a gentle smile. After just a few turns around the property, combined with her first impression of Julia and the decor of the house, she had a very clear idea of who Jenkins's pen pal was.

"Jenkins, you always manage to surprise me."

Her smile grew even more radiant. In truth, besides looking for this J.W., her trip to Ruen included a plan to visit the High Tower. As it happened, the princess she had yet to meet would likely be an excellent ally.

"Jenkins," she thought, "when I get back to Nolan, I'll be sure to thank you."

She nodded at the maid, Julia, as she considered her next move. Servants were gathering from all corners of the estate, bustling with preparations. Meanwhile, Miss Miller had already formulated a complete plan for herself.

"I might have already found a place to stay and a sponsor!"

The first day of the new month was shaping up to be a very happy one for Miss Miller. Jenkins, back in Nolan, however, was having a rather trying morning.

At seven o'clock, he had attempted to simultaneously comprehend the knowledge gained from burning the divinity of the "first 31st" and from the whispers he had listened to the night before. Unsurprisingly, the effort resulted in blood streaming from his nose and ears, staining the carpet.

Cleaning a carpet was incredibly expensive. The one Jenkins currently had was an antique left by the house's previous owner. Its cleaning was so specialized that even Papa Oliver couldn't handle it; it had to be sent to a professional shop.

The thought of it made not just his wallet ache, but the back of his head as well.

He wiped the blood from his face and took out a pen and paper to record the knowledge he had acquired. Chocolate, who had been eating her breakfast on the other side of the desk, snuck a peek at him.

First was the knowledge from the divinity. Since its original owner was a powerful exotic demon, most of the information pertained to demonic lore.

What frustrated Jenkins was that he hadn't received any useful combat abilities. Instead, he had acquired a rather peculiar and bizarre demonic ritual and a method for evolving a martial-type ability.

While it was an improvement over the disgusting [Undying Maggot Demon Body], it still challenged his values and sense of morality.

The ritual was called the [Maiden's Bath].

The process and its effects were widely circulated in this world's fables and legends. Specifically, it involved bathing in the blood of young virgins, which, when combined with the proper methods, could grant eternal youth.

Jenkins wrote it down, glanced at it for a moment, and then promptly burned the paper with the flame from his enchanted candle. Such a ritual was utterly useless to him, now and forever.

The evolution method for the martial ability, however, involved killing people through a specific ritual to transform any potentially lethal ability into [Midnight Butcher (Red Martial)]. This ability would grant the Benefactor a comprehensive boost to their physical and mental attributes when engaged in activities related to "slaughter" and "conflict" in a nighttime environment.

Theoretically, the more one killed, the higher the success rate. It had no side effects and wouldn't even affect one's psyche, which made it remarkably effective.

"Wait, could the midnight murder cases that have been popping up all over the continent be related to this?"

He recalled the news he had read in the papers but then decided it couldn't be that simple. Besides, the reports mentioned none of the signs or patterns associated with this ritual.

Finally, there was a clue related to becoming a god—the third he had obtained.

[That which can become a god, carries the world's...]

It ended abruptly, as if the information had been lost along with a piece of the divinity itself. Jenkins suspected the drop of divinity had been incomplete to begin with, which would also explain why its effects had lasted for such a short time.

Chocolate hastily turned her head away, preventing Jenkins from looking at her.

But regardless, he now had: "That which can become a god, is not of this place, cannot be human, carries the world's..."

That made three clues in total.

If absorbing divinity always yielded a clue about apotheosis, then completing his being through legitimate means to become a pseudo-god seemed like a very good path.

It was far more convenient than the "shortcut" Mr. Pisco had mentioned. After all, he was currently only one of the nine Saviors; even shortcuts wouldn't be easy to take.

By comparison, the knowledge gleaned from the month-end whispers was far more useful.

Last night had marked the convergence of the Month of the Sage and Harvest and the Month of the Traveler and Frostfall. Naturally, the knowledge pertained to these two Righteous Gods. Jenkins even suspected that the voices he heard at the end of each month were, in fact, the conversations of the gods themselves.

Aside from some scattered fragments, he had managed to piece together three complete rituals, two of which were for learning new abilities.

[Traveler], a White Basic ability. It provided a comprehensive enhancement to one's physical constitution, resistance to hunger and cold, and even a slight resistance to toxins and other abnormal statuses. Thɪs chapter is updated by novelFirｅ.net

This ability was quite famous; it served as a prerequisite for many of the high-level divine arts within the Church of the Traveler. In other words, one had to learn [Traveler] first for any subsequent rituals to learn other divine arts to have a chance of success.

As useful as it was, Jenkins would never learn it. He didn't know the exact extent of its connection to the divine arts and couldn't afford to take the risk.