It was morning.
Jace walked in the streets bustling with people going to work. The shops were open; as he walked, he made his way toward a particular bakery.
A bell rang as he opened the door and entered the shop. The shopkeeper was an old-looking man wearing a baker's hat; he stood behind the counter packaging something in a paper bag.
The baker turned to the new customer, but seeing someone he recognized, he greeted him, "Morning, Harold."
Jace smiled. "Morning," he greeted the baker. Yes, he had currently taken Harold's place for over a week now.
After gaining the new marionette, Jace prepared for about a day and got to work.
Currently, he was hiding in a metal card's reflection inside Harold the marionette's pocket, but this time rather than using the imitated form of 'mirror blink' through the Polymath Ring, he was using the 'Wraith Locket' he had borrowed from Catherine for this particular endeavor.
He had considered going into his marionette's body through the Rose Bishop bracelet, but he gave up on that as he figured the 'Traveler' would be able to see something wrong with Spirit Vision.
The baker, after giving the packed paper bag to another customer, started packing different breads without even asking Jace/Harold what he wanted because he already knew Harold's preferences.
Jace took the bag of bread, paid the owed amount, got out of the shop, and walked onto the street.
He was following Harold's daily routine; from his memories, he often bought bread in this place since the owner was someone he knew.
Now he would go to Harold's house and eat the bread as breakfast.
As Jace walked down the street, he turned left and walked into an alley which led to Harold's house.
'I wonder where Nyx is...', Jace wondered as he walked.
Nyx was somewhere around him, that was certain. After all, it was related to their plan; Nyx was to follow him everywhere he went while hiding, and when the traveler came, she would act as an unpredictable variable and strike!
After changing alleys a few more times, Jace arrived before a two-story building. The upper floor was owned by Harold; by the flight of stairs at the right side of the building, Jace walked up to the door and entered his place.
The place was nice; it had two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. He lived there alone.
As he entered through the door, he hung his coat on a nearby hanger and walked into the living room.
Soon he sat at his dining table eating breakfast while reading a fantasy book.
It had been about nine days since he started acting, and frankly, Jace was bored out of his mind. This Harold guy was quite lazy and almost never got involved in any Beyonder matters because he was kind of a coward; he had also run into Jace about half a year ago and got his artifact stolen, an incident that also left him traumatized.
While Jace was bored, his only actual solace here was the novel that he read through Harold.
Currently, he had gotten out of the metal card's reflection and was hiding in the reflection of a glass in the kitchen.
After eating his breakfast, he sat on the couch in the living room, relaxed, and continued reading...
That was when his intuition stirred... His intuition as a Seer and the intuition of the Astrologer through his marionette also acted a little.
The real him hidden in the reflection became alert, but his marionette acted normally. As his marionette's intuition stirred, he looked up at the door.
Knock, knock.
As he heard the knock, Jace's heart beat faster. By now, purely through his intuition, he was sure that the person behind the door was indeed the traveler!
While still in the reflection, he pulled out the 'Lucky Stopwatch' which was filled with 15 minutes of really good luck.
He pressed the top right button and turned it on; through experimentation, he had found out that this artifact actually affected Sequence 5s, even if the frequency of it was lower. But it was still enough to turn the favor to his side.
Meanwhile, his marionette had already gotten up and was at the door; he opened it.
As the door swung open, it revealed a tall man in his 50s. His hair was gray and slightly on the longer side, and his beard was trimmed neatly. He wore a brown trench coat and a scarf around his neck.
He looked like an absolute veteran with a calm and composed demeanor; it made Jace quite nervous...
After opening the door, Jace emulated Harold's behavior and greeted the man. He put his hand to his chest and gave a slight bow. "Teacher..."
Harold was also always quite nervous when faced with this man, so Jace portrayed every small emotional and physical detail of a tense and nervous performance...
"Hmm..." the man hummed in a deep voice.
Jace immediately turned aside, and the man walked in.
Jace saw the back of the man; he was about three meters away. 'It's time!'
There was no point in wasting any time or opportunity. He instantly raised his hand at the traveler's back, his eyes glowed, and the small area around the fingers of the raised hand rippled.
He flicked his hand. "Theft!" This was a recorded theft that he had recorded from the Prometheus Ring!
Zhup!
Before the effect of the theft could reach the traveler, he disappeared from his sight!
Zhup.
As the figure disappeared, it instantly appeared to the right side, in the middle of the living room.
This was the 'blink' of a 'Traveler'!
But, it was something Jace had anticipated.
An Astrologer's spiritual perception was quite sensitive, and a Sequence 5's even more so, so it was no surprise that the traveler felt something wrong and blinked away.
Now the traveler looked at Jace/Harold with a hint of surprise in his eyes, but his expression was still composed and calm...
The man raised his hand at Jace, his eyes glowing.
That's when Jace took action—the real Jace who had already 'mirror blinked' behind the traveler into a photo frame of flowers on the wall of the living room!
Maybe it was because Jace was using the 'Lucky' Stopwatch, or maybe the traveler was occupied with his Harold marionette, but he didn't seem to sense Jace behind him.
But Jace didn't waste a single moment. While still within the reflection, he flicked his hand, on which he wore the Prometheus Ring.
"Theft!"
The glow in the traveler's eyes dulled in an instant as his eyebrows drew close in confusion, but his face and demeanor seemed to have gotten more serious.
What Jace had stolen was not the 'traveling' power, but it was the power of a Scribe's 'Record'.
A Traveler's powers of 'traveling' and 'blink' were not offensive powers; they only helped in traveling long distances, escaping, and evading attacks.
The only offensive and really useful powers they had were the powers of a Scribe, to record various powers and use them, and the man before him was a veteran traveler as well as a scribe. Who knew how many and what kind of powers he had recorded; there was also a good chance that he had recorded demigod-level powers.
So the power Jace first stole was that of 'Record'. Now the traveler could no longer record any powers, nor could he use the powers he had already recorded.
Meanwhile, the 'Traveler' by now had realized that this 'ambush' was more deceptive and thought out than he anticipated; his perception and intuition were tingling all over.
So he decided it was better to escape this situation and then later find out what exactly was happening.
Instead of using 'traveling' right there, he 'blinked' to the other side of the room, behind the couch near the window to throw off the target on him for a moment, and then he started the process of 'traveling'.
In an instant, his fingers turned translucent.
Just as he was about to fade into the spirit world, the process of 'traveling' was halted and his half faded figure rematerialized.
His eye in an instant went crazy!
He clutched his head as an intense amount of pain exploded in his head and scrambled his mind!
This was a Psychiatrist's 'Frenzy' at the Sequence 5 level!
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A/N:- MC will switch to the Door pathway at sequence 3, and then switch back to Fool pathway at sequence 2...
😓And also..., i might have reconsidered the thing about MC stealing the Safirah Castle for obvious reasons(it ain't possible)...