Eros subconsciously took a few steps closer, and he could clearly feel the ring on his hand transmitting a sense of dread, as if it were terrified of the Decaying Man in the pool ahead.
Eros stopped in his tracks and moved no further. Instead, he calmly steered toward the shelves holding the Grade 3 Sealed Artifacts on the other side, distancing himself from the center of the containment room. As the distance grew, the fear radiating from the ring gradually diminished until it vanished entirely.
Standing before the shelves lined with various bizarre Grade 3 artifacts, Eros found himself momentarily at a loss for how to choose.
Honestly, I don't really have much need for a Grade 3 Sealed Artifact.
Suddenly, Barbara's voice rang in his ear:
"Third shelf from the top, second item on the far left. Cervini wants you to choose that one."
Eros froze for a second, his gaze instinctively shifting to the spot mentioned. It was a silver box with a transparent glass center in the lid, allowing one to see the object inside.
It was a silver bracelet with a crescent moon pendant. Eros walked over and stopped in front of the box.
Seeing Eros’s interest in the bracelet, Dean Como spoke up to introduce it:
"Grade 3 Sealed Artifact—The Full Moon Bracelet. This was seized a few years ago by the Academy’s subjugation team from a group of defectors from the Church of the Moon (拜月教)."
"Normally, items from such cultists would be sent to the underground containment vaults of the great cathedrals in Intiles. However, since this is only a low-level artifact and didn't seem to have much value, it was left here."
"It has two functions. First, under the light of a full moon at night, your strength receives a minor boost. Based on Academy testing, for low-sequence warlocks, this boost ranges from $1\%$ to $5\%$. For Transcendents, however, the boost is negligible, only around $0.x\%$."
"The second function is to release a beam of full-moon radiance as a frontal attack; the power depends on the amount of Ling you inject. As for negative effects, there is only one: on the night of a full moon, you will hear the ravings of an unknown entity. We have tried to make contact with that entity but received no response, so the item is considered relatively safe."
Eros’s heart skipped a beat after hearing the description. Could this be the item Natalia was trying to steal?
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But if it was just a Grade 3 Sealed Artifact, why go to such great lengths to steal it back? Wait—if it were just an ordinary Grade 3 item, it wouldn't have caught Cervini’s attention. This meant the artifact wasn't as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Furthermore, Dean Como mentioned it was taken from defectors of the Church of the Moon. Could this item be related to the reason they defected? Perhaps it contained some secret of the Church of the Moon?
Yet, that didn't make sense either. If it were truly that important, why would the Church of the Moon only send small fries like Natalia and her team? And if the defectors were killed by an Academy team, their strength couldn't have been higher than Sequence 8. Could something carried by someone that weak really be significant?
If it wasn't important, why send people to retrieve it? If it was important, why send such a weak team? It felt like a nested set of dolls with no end.
After thinking for a while and failing to find an answer, Eros temporarily gave up on the puzzle. Regardless, if it caught Cervini’s eye, it was absolutely worth getting his hands on. He could study it first and maybe find something new. After he was done, he could even give it to Natalia so she could complete her mission—maybe she’d even let him "unlock a few new positions" out of gratitude.
That's what I call maximizing profit.
Without further hesitation, Eros picked up the silver metal box.
A flicker of surprise crossed Dean Como’s eyes. "You want this one? Are you sure you don't want to reconsider? There are many artifacts on these shelves far more powerful than this. If you're unsure, I can introduce them to you one by one."
Eros smiled. "Thank you for the offer, Dean, but I think this one is quite nice. It’s very pretty, and my mother happens to be short of a bracelet. I’ll take this one."
Dean Como: "..."
So you're treating it as a piece of jewelry? Seeing Eros's determined look, the Dean sighed and said no more.
After selecting the artifact, Eros and Dean Como didn't linger in the containment room. Back on the surface, they parted ways, and Eros headed straight for his detached villa.
Once back in his room, Eros took the Full Moon Bracelet out of the silver box and toyed with it in his hand.
"I don't seem to notice anything special about it," he said, focusing his senses on the piece.
"Cervini says there is a special power inside that is resonating with her," Barbara relayed.
Eros’s eyes sharpened. Power resonating with Cervini? Cervini was a divine artifact. For something to resonate with her, the level of that "special power" inside must be incredibly high.
"Can you detect what kind of power it is?" Eros asked urgently.
In his soul space, Barbara glanced at the silver crescent floating beside her. The crescent flashed several times, conveying its meaning. Barbara translated:
"She says she can't right now. She has to wait for a night with a full moon to draw out the power within."
"I see." Eros wasn't disappointed. It was just a matter of waiting for a full moon—no big deal. He promptly fastened the bracelet onto his wrist.
He spent the rest of the evening in the house, waiting for Undine. Time ticked by. When he judged it was about time, he walked out of the Academy gates and waited at the bottom of the steps.
After a short wait, a low whistle echoed from the distance. A steam train, dotted with faint lights, pierced the quiet night and pulled toward the platform not far from the steps.
Watching this, Eros couldn't help but feel a bit wistful. A dozen trains had left, but only one returned. The saying that contact with the mystical means contact with madness and death was certainly no exaggeration.
With a sigh, Eros stood up from the steps and headed toward the platform.