After stalking Aron Bleak to his cheap rental unit in the East Boroughs, Jace teleported back to his bungalow.
It was time to sleep, but Jace was not sleepy as he had gotten up late, so he decided to walk into his study and polish up on his ancient languages.
——
Three days later, Hillston Borough.
Jace wore a black hooded robe. He had, of course, changed his face, taking on the appearance of 'Jake'.
At the entrance of what seemed like a rundown villa, Jace was searched by two men wearing black hoods. They asked for a particular code to confirm his identity, and Jace replied with the correct phrase.
The men nodded to him and allowed him in, so he didn't stand on ceremony and walked into the villa.
A few moments later, he was in a hall where many people sat, and more were arriving.
Everyone here was wearing a disguise, which was quite normal since this was a secret beyonder gathering.
Jace looked around and found himself a place to sit. While sitting, he looked toward the front, where there was a high ground like a stage.
On the stage sat a hooded man in a black robe on a high-backed chair, flanked by two men who were also hooded in black robes.
Jace smiled inwardly.
The man on the high-backed chair was none other than Mr. A, one of the twenty-two Oracles of the Aurora Order, who worshiped the True Creator—also known as the Hanged Man.
For months now, Jace had been searching for this particular gathering.
While searching for it, he had found many other gatherings in Backlund. The number was surprisingly high, but most of them were low-level, with only a few being mid-level, like the Eye of Wisdom's—Isengard Stanton's—gathering.
There were, of course, mid to high-level gatherings as well, but most of them were for government agents and the like, so jace stayed away from them.
Mr. A's gathering was one of the mid to high-level gathering.
It took a while for Jace to find it because the location of the gathering would always change every other time or so to avoid any kind of attention form official beyonders.
Thus, Jace had found a Sequence 9 Beyonder who attended this gathering, hypnotized him into recommending 'Jake' to the group, and finally got in.
This was his second time attending the gathering.
Jace looked to the left side of Mr. A, where there was a blackboard and a hooded scribe waiting to write down the items that participants wanted to buy or sell.
Jace walked up to the scribe and said, "Hello, today I'd like to sell a Sequence 8 Barbarian Beyonder characteristic from the Lawyer pathway. And I'd like to put in a request to buy 60 milliliters of a Black-Hunting Giant Lizard's spinal fluid, and about 100 milliliters of its blood."
The scribe nodded, asked Jace to repeat the contents to confirm, and wrote it on the board.
Jace went back to his seat and waited for the gathering to begin.
The spinal fluid of the Black-Hunting Giant Lizard was one of the main ingredients for the Hypnotist potion formula.
He was buying this for his cat, Nyx, who had digested her potion a week ago and was now pestering him eagerly to make her a Sequence 6 potion.
Looking around, his gaze fell on Mr. A again.
The guy was a Sequence 5 Shepherd, the most powerful Beyonder under the level of demigods—almost as strong as one.
Having him as a marionette would be of great help, but he knew that was not possible.
Just then, he felt the gaze of Mr. A under his hood meet his eyes. Jace froze for a moment but showed no reaction outwardly. Mr. A, meanwhile, gave him a light nod. Jace put on a small smile and nodded back.
That was a nod of acknowledgment because Jace was one of the very few Sequence 6 Beyonders here. As for how Mr. A figured it out? Jace didn't know, but it was expected.
It was not exactly impossible to make Mr. A a marionette, because Jace, with ample preparation and some help, could take Mr. A on.
But the problem was the fact that the members of the Aurora Order were especially close to their god, the Hanged Man.
So, if he were to do something to one of 'His' Oracles, Jace would come under 'His' eye, and that would only mean death for him, as Jace himself was not supported by any god or angel.
Soon, more people joined the gathering, and Mr. A announced the beginning.
Soon enough, Jace sold the Sequence 8 Barbarian characteristic for 580 pounds.
Mr. A authenticated the characteristic and acted as the medium for the deal as he did for every other deal.
A few minutes later, he found the guy who had brought the spinal fluid of the Black-Hunting Giant Lizard.
The first time Jace had come here, he had asked for it, but of course, no one had it on hand.
So, he had commissioned a guy to bring it for him. He had to pay a little extra, but it was fine. He bought the spinal fluid as well as the blood for an expensive price, then sat back in his place while continuing to watch the gathering.
Jace couldn't help but feel that this gathering was a good one. A guy literally sold a Sequence 6 characteristic and a formula, and he himself had bought Sequence 6 level ingredient.
There were, of course, various sealed Artifact on sale. A few of them caught Jace's eye, but they were still inferior to his current collection, so he didn't bother with them.
There were also charms of various kinds. There was a dagger that could freeze the victim upon stabbing, a cane that would electrocute a person at whom it was pointed, a charm to breathe underwater, a cooling charm, and a few others.
Charms, of course, were different from sealed artifacts. They had a time or use limit; once reached, they would turn useless and ineffective.
From what Jace knew about them, charms were created by praying to angels or gods, but of course, that was not the only way.
Artisans from the Savant pathway could create them as well, but as to how—that was a mystery to Jace.
So, just to test it out, Jace bought a charm himself. It was in the form of a simple silver bracelet. Using the activation word "Knowledge" would trigger it, granting the user the ability to speak and understand the Feysacian language for about 2 weeks.
While Jace understood a bit of the language, he was not yet proficient in it, so he bought the charm.