Jace looked around in amazement.
He couldn't help but feel that he had truly lucked out by meeting Catherine.
His eyes scanned the several boxes, Beyonder characteristics, and artifacts neatly arranged on the shelves.
Most of them belonged to the lower sequences, but there were a fair amount of mid-sequence artifacts, with only a select few reaching sequence 6 level.
Though the collection wasn't that big considering the numbers, it was substantial.
In the reality of the Beyonder world, even a hoard of this size was considered a fortune.
Jace turned his gaze back to Catherine. "You collected all of these?" he asked, a trace of excitement in his voice.
Catherine's face froze for a fraction of a second. "Most of it was collected by my husband... I simply inherited them after his death," she said, her tone turning a little awkward.
"I see," Jace nodded. He was curious about what Catherine's late husband had done to amass such a hoard, but he chose not to pry. He felt quite awkward about the whole topic of Catherine's deceased spouse.
Looking around the room, he wondered for a brief moment if there might be something related to the Seer pathway hidden here, but a quick sweep confirmed there obviously wasn't.
"The most valuable things I have stored here are these two," Catherine said, stepping in front of a specific shelf.
Jace, who was trailing right behind her, heard her words and stepped closer. Leaning in, he looked over her shoulder.
Two small boxes rested on the shelf.
Catherine pointed at one of them and said, "This is a Sequence 5 characteristic of the Arbiter pathway." She looked back at Jace, who was now standing directly behind her.
"I hunted him myself," she added, a clear hint of pride lacing her voice.
"And that one over there is the real artifact," she said, shifting her finger to point at the neighboring box.
She picked it up slowly and opened it.
Before Jace's eyes lay a stunning golden pocket watch, adorned with beautiful, intricate embroidery and secured by a matching golden chain. There were two distinct buttons located on the top corners of each side.
Jace was captivated.
Once again, this was not a pocket watch, despite its appearance. It was remarkably similar to the silver stopwatch he had just inspected upstairs, but instead of a fifteen-minute limit, this one looked designed for thirty minutes.
Currently, the minute hand rested precisely on the number two, leading Jace to guess that only two minutes of luck had been accumulated so far.
He couldn't help but wonder at what its effects could be.
"This was one of the prize pieces that came with the collection after my husband died," Catherine said, her eyes fixed on the watch.
She continued, "If the silver stopwatch's bad luck gives the user a miserable day, this one gives the user the absolute worst day of their entire life. You wouldn't just experience extreme bad luck; you would lose at everything you attempt and lose many valuable things."
Her expression grew deeply serious as she turned to Jace. "The chances of losing your life while holding it are quite high as well."
Jace's face turned solemn upon hearing that warning, but he remained silent, allowing Catherine to continue.
"... all of that misery accumulates one minute of luck. And the luck it grants is truly astonishing. You will never lose, and you will succeed in absolutely everything you do," Catherine said, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
She turned fully to face Jace, holding the box in her hands. "When I was advancing to Sequence 5, I almost lost control. Just as I was about to lose everything, I pressed the button. Within five minutes, I successfully completed my advancement," she said, a wave of emotion passing through her eyes.
Jace wasn't particularly surprised to hear the great effects of the artifact, as he had already pieced it together using the brutal side effects and his existing knowledge of the Sequence 5 Winner.
"How do you charge it then?" Jace asked. If he had heard her correctly, there was a literal risk of dying just to charge the device. For a Beyonder to die like that—it required an immense amount of bad luck.
Catherine smiled. She closed the box, returned it to its rightful place on the shelf, and turned toward another section. Picking up a rectangular box, she opened it to reveal its contents to Jace.
Inside lay a silver necklace. "This is an artifact corresponding to a Sequence 6 Hypnotist. I simply hypnotize the people I dislike and make them to keep the stopwatch on their person for a day. They suffer through an awful day, while I gain a minute of astronomical luck," she explained with a brilliant, dazzling smile.
Jace smiled right back, thoroughly amused by her methodology.
"I plan to use this strategy for my next advancement as well," she stated firmly.
Before long, they exited Catherine's hidden 'collection room' and transitioned into her study.
There, Catherine began to meticulously outline her upcoming plan for advancement, actively seeking Jace's input and opinions on the matter.
Jace listened intently to everything she had to say, nodding along in agreement.
Catherine had started walking the path of a Beyonder quite late in her life, and because of that delay and her age, her advancements had always been a grueling affair.
The standard ritual for sequence 4 advancement required Catherine to become a mid-to-high-level political or social figure in a country and currupt seven individual of similar or higher rank, a feat that would realistically take her more than a few years to fully orchestrate.
However, if she waited all those years, she would only grow older, making her physical advancement even more perilous and difficult.
Fortunately for her, rituals didn't always need to be performed precisely as they were traditionally stated.
So, Catherine had decided to take a shorter but far more hazardous route, arranging all the necessary pieces in a completely different manner.
Jace completely agreed with the direction she was taking. He felt that her alternative method would work, and with the power of the Winner stopwatch by her side, her chances of a successful advancement were significantly higher.
By the time their discussion finally concluded, it was midnight.
Since they hadn't been intimate for over two months, they both willingly surrendered to the moment, indulging in an intense night of lust and passion for the remainder of the hours.
They held nothing back, until physical exhaustion finally forced them into sleep