'Oh crap! This can't be good for me!'
Jace maintained a perfectly normal expression on the outside, calmly sipping from his cup of tea.
It had been over two and a half months since he last saw Sarah. She was a good friend of his, but after the incident with Natalie—where he learned that Sarah was the one who had
encouraged Natalie to sleep with him—he simply didn't know how to face her.
Because of that lingering awkwardness, he had even deliberately missed one of his scheduled therapy sessions with her.
However, while Jace hadn't met with her, 'Ellen' certainly had!
Over a month and half ago, when Jace had first started acting and was trying to seek out more effective situations to practice in, he had a interesting idea: tricking a Beyonder with his Faceless abilities.
A Beyonder was, by nature, an existence higher than mundane humans. Therefore, if he could successfully deceive a few of them, he would undoubtedly digest significantly more potion than he would by acting as a Faceless among normal civilians.
His first option had been Natalie.
He had originally formulated a plan to assume Sarah's appearance and collaborate with her to trick Natalie, essentially acting as Sarah while interacting directly with the Hunter.
Jace was fairly certain that Sarah would have willingly helped him with this bizarre endeavor, as she herself was quite playful and... naughty? Yes, let's go with naughty.
But ultimately, that plan would not have worked, because Natalie was a Sequence 6 Conspirer who had a keen intuition and exceptionally sharp senses.
Even tonight, when she had glanced at the various clothes scattered across his bedroom, it was likely that she had already figured out his Sequence 6 powers.
That was because his current powers as a Faceless were somewhat... inadequate.
He could perfectly mimic someone's physical appearance and behavioral traits, but body scent, on the other hand, was an entirely different issue.
He was technically able to imitate a specific person's scent, but the reproduction was incomplete because he couldn't completely block out his own underlying scent.
He would only be able to mask his own scent entirely once he had digested more than 80 percent of the Faceless potion.
And since Natalie already knew his natural scent well enough, acting as a Faceless against her would be ineffective as she would without a doubt recognize his scent, and then her intuition would take over, and she would figure out the situation in seconds!.
So, Natalie was off the list.
The second candidate he had thought of was Sarah herself, and she was perfect for him to act against.
Sarah belonged to the Spectator pathway, whose literal essence was to observe and figure people out, whereas the Seer pathway specialized in hiding themselves form any kind of beyonder's sight.
It was the ultimate clash of abilities, making her the ideal target, and Jace had gone right ahead with it.
He painstakingly created the persona of a young, pretty girl. He mapped out a distinct personality, genuine emotions, physical behavioral quirks, a believable background, and a name for her.
And finally introducing himself to Sarah not as Jace, but as 'Ellen Stone'.
Jace—or rather, Ellen—gradually became close friends with Sarah. They met up at Sarah's house multiple times and bonded over their shared love for fashion and romantic literature.
Hell, he had even gone so far as to hypnotize an ordinary family, planting false memories to make them accept 'Ellen' as their biological daughter, and then casually invited Sarah over there to have a cup of tea a couple of times.
It was an immense amount of work, but it proved to be extremely effective for his digestion.
How else do you think he managed to digest three months' worth of a Sequence 6 potion in just two months?
But now, it looked like his good days were officially over. Since Sarah had just successfully advanced to Sequence 6, now she just might notice something off, and figure it out.
He sighed internally.
Natalie, meanwhile, noticed that he was suddenly lost in deep thought. "What is it?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just thinking about things," Jace said, brushing her off with a casual wave of his hand.
Jace set his cup of tea down on the table and picked up a leather-bound notebook that was resting nearby.
"Let me give you the formula," he said. He took the pen attached to the notebook and began writing down the formula from his memory.
After finishing, he cleanly tore off the page and handed it to Natalie, who accepted it.
Jace then picked his cup back up and continued to sip his tea while Natalie quietly read through the paper.
'Main Ingredients:
Gray Demonic Wolf's Front Claws.
Forest Hunter's Tongue.
Or
a Reaper Beyonder Characteristic.
Supplementary Ingredients:
80 milliliters of Gray Demonic Wolf's blood. (Or the Reaper Beyonder Characteristic's predecessor's blood.)
2 fangs of the Forest Hunter. (Or the Reaper Beyonder Characteristic's predecessor's 2 teeth.)
10 drops of Colorful Bearded Horned Lizard Venom.
10 drops of Hornbeam Essential Oils.
Advancement Ritual:
Plan and execute a successful capture of a target with a Sequence higher than your own. Flaunt the completed conspiracy before them, and consume the potion as they witness your victory, filled with fear and despair.
Note: The increased number and higher Sequence of the captured targets, and the greater their fear, regret, and anger, the more potent the ritual's effect.'
Natalie let out a slow sigh; the ritual was more difficult than she had anticipated.
She focused her mind, committing the exact formula and ritual requirements to her memory, and then set the piece of paper in her hand on fire.
As the paper burned away into ash, she looked up through the flickering flames at Jace, who was still calmly sipping his warm tea.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she spoke up, "Also, I might need your help to hunt a Sequence 5 Hunter."
Jace almost spat out the tea, but didn't.
He calmly set the cup back down on the table, narrowing his eyebrows as his gaze sharpened.
"You do realize that Sequence 5s are different from Sequence 6s, right? A Sequence 5 Reaper is even more dangerous to fight, and trying to kill one is borderline suicidal," he said, his voice turning serious and grave.
Natalie nodded firmly. "Yes, I know. But we are both Sequence 6 now, and besides, we can always just invite a few other powerful Beyonders to join the hunt while we are at it," she explained, trying to rationalize the danger.
She continued, "And I'm only bringing this up just in case we happen to cross paths with a 'Reaper'."
Jace thought about the proposition for a moment, and nodded. "Okay," he agreed.
Following that heavy topic, they talked about a few other casual matters, and Natalie cleared up a few of her remaining doubts regarding the specifics of her upcoming ritual.
Soon enough, the meeting concluded and Jace was left alone in the quiet living room.
Without waiting a single moment longer, he walked straight back into his bedroom, collapsed onto the mattress, and entered a restful slumber once again.