Lord of Mysteries: The Assassin's Dark Path

Varina had hoped to directly obtain the formula from Maric.

He was somewhat confident about this, considering that Marich was backed by Miss Sharron, a Sequence 5 "Wraith," and that they hailed from the Rose School, with an angelic-level teacher. The possibility of obtaining the "Assassin" potion formula seemed quite high.

However, things didn't unfold as easily as he had imagined.

In response to Varina's inquiry, Maric snorted and immediately cut off his hopes:

"No."

"The potion formula you want is in the hands of a secretive cult, and I don't want to get involved with them."

"The only help I can offer you is the knowledge I've already given."

"The knowledge I've provided is worth 50 pounds. Once you pay, you can leave."

This scenario was different from what Varina had expected. He hadn't imagined that after just a few words, Maric would demand 50 pounds! What made it worse was that the information was something he already knew.

Had he known this earlier, he wouldn't have played the role of an occult novice.

Realizing this, Varina awkwardly spoke up:

"Mr. Maric, I admit the knowledge you provided matches your asking price, but the issue is, I thought the process would involve seeing the goods first, then discussing the price and transaction. So..."

Maric cut in to complete Varina's sentence: "So, you didn't bring enough money?"

"That's right," Varina replied, then proposed, "So, Mr. Maric, could we arrange for installment payments? I promise I'll return."

"How much do you have?" Maric asked bluntly.

"15 pounds!" Varina pulled the money from his left pocket, holding it at eye level.

Maric glanced at it, then took two 5-pound notes, walking a few steps closer and gesturing toward the door. "You can leave now."

His tone indicated that their transaction was settled.

Maybe it was true what they said—Maric really was one of the last elites of the Temperance faction. Though he seemed malicious, his nature was surprisingly kind.

Varina turned to leave, but before opening the door, he looked back.

"I'll remember your kindness, sir, and I hope I'll have a chance to repay it."

Without waiting for Maric's response, he opened the door and walked out.

Kaspars was waiting not far from the door. When he saw Varina, he immediately approached and asked, "Has the matter been resolved?"

"Partially," Varina smiled wryly. "Do you have anyone else you can introduce to me?"

"Maric is already the most formidable person I know. He's not even afraid of bullets!" Kaspars shook his head. "If he can't help you, I don't think I know anyone else who could."

"That's not necessarily true."

Varina explained, "What I need isn't power, but more knowledge. Can you think of anyone who fits that description?"

Kaspars dragged out the end of his sentence, clearly thinking. "Maybe… that old man can help you."

Once he had a plan, his pace quickened and his tone regained confidence.

"Here's the deal: I'll get you into a gathering of people like them. You can seek help from them there."

"I can tell you in advance that, in my opinion, the old man hosting the gathering is the one most likely to assist you."

"As for the time…"

"I can't tell you the exact time in advance, but you don't need to come for the next three days. After that, you should come by every day before 8 AM, and I'll take care of the rest."

Varina smiled and nodded. Kaspars's decision was exactly what he had hoped for. "Thank you for helping arrange this. How much do you want me to pay for this?"

"Two pounds." Kaspars nodded. "Of course, you don't need to pay me right now."

"That sounds fair."

The two walked back into the bar's main hall, and after bidding each other farewell, Varina left through the front door.

Inside the card room, Maric sat in a chair, still holding his earlier glass of wine. He spoke as though to himself, asking:

"Why did you suddenly signal me to show goodwill toward him?"

As soon as he spoke, a woman in a black court gown appeared at the window opposite Maric. Her hair was light gold, her eyes a clear blue, and her features were exquisitely beautiful.

"It was an intuition," Miss Sharron said in a soft, almost emotionless tone. "His actions of hiding in the shadows slightly triggered my spiritual intuition."

---

At 9 PM, Varina, feeling exhausted, returned to his lodging.

After a bath, he fought off the drowsiness and spent some time inspecting the revolver he had recently acquired. He then began to plan his next steps.

The focus of the plan was to make money.

To be safe, when he visited the Braveheart Tavern in three days, he needed to have at least 200 pounds on hand. What if someone at the gathering had the Assassin potion formula? What would he do then?

200 pounds—this amount was a small fortune for Varina.

After all, he had worked for over a year with almost no large expenses, and his total savings amounted to just around 20 pounds. In other words, if he relied on his current weekly wage of just over a pound, it would take him ten more years to save up that amount.

And now, he only had three days.

Clearly, he would need to resort to some less-than-legal methods.

On this point, a popular saying from another memory helped him come up with an idea:

"Fast money methods are all written into the legal code."

Varina had already vaguely figured out his plan. He intended to solve this by resorting to theft, and for this, he had already prepared his last line of defense: the revolver.

It wasn't just a tool for establishing connections—it also served well as a weapon of deterrence.

In addition, Varina's awakened extraordinary traits also provided a strong insurance for his theft.

He had to admit, although not his ideal trait, it was still quite useful.

The trait he was most satisfied with was the "Photographic Memory" from the "Generalist" path. If he had awakened that trait, he wouldn't need to worry about money at all.

In the original text, there were at least 20 to 30 complete potion formulas, many of which were high-sequence ones—just taking one would bring a pile of gold pounds!

Unfortunately, reality didn't work that way.

Varina didn't have "Photographic Memory," so he could barely recall the names of those formulas and a few of the main ingredients, but he couldn't remember which sequence they belonged to or the exact methods.

It felt like being in front of a treasure chest and begging for scraps—so pathetic!

He had considered how to unlock this treasure chest and had come up with a plan—once he reached Sequence 7, "Witch," he would be able to use Mirror Divination to fully recall those formulas.

Ah, speaking of Sequence 7, that was another heartbreaking matter!

---

How long had passed? Varina snapped out of his wandering thoughts, only to realize he still hadn't figured out a concrete action plan.

He sighed, organizing his thoughts and starting over.

As the saying goes, the hardest part is getting started. Varina was stuck on the very first step—choosing a suitable target for his plan.

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