In the winter night of Tivian, the evening wind was bleak and the cold was biting. On this last night of the year, the citizens of Tivian were either gathered around the warm stoves at home for the festival or came to the streets to participate in the New Year activities held everywhere. The festive atmosphere spread from each household to the city streets, and everything was in a peaceful atmosphere.
On a street somewhere in East Tivian, New Year decorations hung on both sides of the street. Under the streetlights, the cold night street was dotted with light snow. Since at this time, the citizens of Tivian were either gathered at home or participating in New Year activities at outdoor venues, there were almost no people on the streets, making them appear cold and empty.
"Ha... it's so cold..."
By a crossroad somewhere, Naifnis, wearing a woman's coat, looked at the deserted street, exhaled a puff of white mist, and rubbed her hands. Looking at the deserted crossroad in front of her, she spoke with unconcealed fatigue in her expression.
"Still... haven't found him yet? We've been walking for so long, hasn't your cat spirit reacted?"
Turning her head, Naifnis looked at Kapak beside her and asked. Kapak paused slightly after hearing this, then spoke into the void.
"Soul Whisker, can you sense Sado's fluctuations nearby?"
Just as Kapak finished speaking, a translucent bobcat with strange patterns on its body gradually appeared beside him. It circled Kapak, then twitched its whiskers, and then silently shook its head while floating in the air, indicating that it didn't sense anything nearby.
The Bobcat Soul Xu is a Wilderness Spirit nurtured by the environment of the New World. The Shamans of the New World Shamanism have various contracts with many Wilderness Spirits. Shamans can channel Wilderness Spirits with their own abilities and then borrow their power.
Soul Xu is a Wilderness Spirit that is very good at sensing the soul fluctuations of others. Kapak's teacher Uta channeled Soul Xu over when Kapak was leaving and informed Soul Xu of the characteristics of Sado's soul fluctuations that he had recorded, then asked Kapak to bring Soul Xu to Tivian to find Sado. As long as Sado appears within a certain range around Soul Xu, it can sense his presence.
Kapak arrived in Tivian by boat this afternoon, and since then, he has been tirelessly searching for Sado in this huge city with Soul Xu and Naifnis. They went to various streets and corners of the city, trying to get lucky and approach the area where Sado was located, so that Soul Xu could sense Sado's presence. But so far, there seems to have been no progress.
"Thief Miss, Soul Whisker says Sado is not nearby either."
After seeing Soul Xu's gesture of shaking its head, Kapak said to Naifnis. Hearing his words, Naifnis couldn't help but feel discouraged.
"Phew... still not there? We've already looked in so many places, and there's still no clue..."
Leaning against the wall nearby, Naifnis said this. Looking at the cold and silent street in the cold night before her, she couldn't help but feel a little melancholic at this moment.
'This is the first time, right? Not having a reunion dinner and warming up by the stove with Mom and Dad at home during the New Year, not watching a performance in the theater, but instead running around the streets looking for someone. Is this how secret society members spend the holidays?'
Naifnis thought this in her heart. Since the afternoon, she and Kapak had been running around Tivian for several hours. Now she was cold and tired, and at this moment, she deeply missed the fire at home.
"There's no trace of Sado near this place either. I'm afraid we have to change locations again, Thief Miss. Time waits for no one, let's hurry."
With a serious expression, Kapak said to Naifnis, who was leaning against the wall and panting. As a native living in the wilderness of the New World, and as a former hunter in the tribe, Kapak's strength and endurance were clearly much better than Naifnis, who was a rich young lady from the city. He wasn't even breathing heavily after all this, and was immediately ready to move to the next location. At this moment, Naifnis, who was tired and a little out of breath, reached out and stopped him, saying.
"Wait... wait a minute, searching aimlessly like this is not a solution. Tivian is so big, we might not even be able to cover one district in a whole night... If we keep searching like this, we might not find Sado even after searching for several days."
Exhaling white mist, Naifnis, leaning against the wall, said this to Kapak. Kapak was startled after hearing this, and then also spoke with difficulty.
"But... what should we do if we don't search like this? Only when Soul Whisker gets close to Sado can it sense Sado's soul fluctuations. If we don't go around everywhere, there's no other way."
Kapak said, spreading his hands. Since Sado disappeared, their whereabouts have been placed under the protection of some anti-divination system, making them completely untraceable. Dorothy once tried to perform divination but failed. She thought to herself that this must be the work of the mastermind who tricked Sado and them.
Therefore, for now, the only way Kapak and they can find Sado is to rely on Soul Xu to track Sado's soul fluctuations. However, judging from the current results, this method does not seem very efficient.
"I know... but, judging from the current situation, the range of soul perception of your Soul Whisker is really limited." Looking at the bobcat spirit body beside Kapak, Naifnis said with a hint of doubt in her eyes. Before this, she had already more or less understood the detection range of this Soul Xu for soul fluctuations, which was only about two hundred meters. A radius of two hundred meters, this detection range is simply too small for the entire Tivian.
"There's nothing we can do about it. Soul Whisker is a Wilderness Spirit from our side. Wilderness Spirits are products born from the combination of a specific environment and specific spirits. After leaving their own environment, their abilities will decrease significantly. If Soul Whisker were in its normal state, its sensing range should be much larger..."
Listening to Naifnis's words, Kapak looked at Soul Xu beside him and scratched his head as he spoke. Although Soul Xu couldn't understand the prite language they were speaking, Naifnis's slightly suspicious gaze earlier made it a little unhappy. It floated beside Kapak and looked at Naifnis with a hint of dissatisfaction.
"Couldn't... display its original abilities?"
After listening to Kapak's words, Neff murmured thoughtfully. After learning that Soul Xu's strength at this time was not fully displayed as it should be, a thought suddenly arose in her heart.
In her thoughts, Naifnis remembered Davis's notes she had just finished reading. The Extraordinary mentioned therein who practiced the path of Body Reliance seemed to have the effect of allowing spirits to exert greater power through their own bodies.
"Right... maybe we can do it this way!"
Clapping her hands, Naifnis spoke as if she had realized something, and at the same time cast an eager look at Soul Xu beside Kapak. The bobcat spirit was startled by Naifnis's gaze and jumped in the air, hiding behind Kapak.
"Uh... Thief Miss, what are you doing..."
"I've thought of a way to increase search efficiency! Mr. Kapak, can you ask this Soul Whisker to cooperate with me, let it possess me, and cooperate with my actions without resisting my will!"
Naifnis said to Kapak with shining eyes. Kapak looked puzzled after hearing Naifnis's words, and he asked in confusion.
"You mean... let Soul Whisker possess you and cooperate with your actions without resisting? Why?"
"There's no time for a detailed explanation right now. Just know that I have a ritual here that requires this Soul Whisker's cooperation. If it cooperates well, I might be able to let it display stronger abilities, allowing us to find Sado better."
With a serious expression, Naifnis said directly to Kapak. Hearing Naifnis's words, although Kapak's eyes were still puzzled, he still agreed and replied.
"A ritual that can allow Soul Whisker to display stronger abilities? Hmm... If that's the case, then I'll ask it for you."
After speaking, Kapak turned to the floating bobcat spirit body beside him, and then asked in Spirit Seal Language. Naifnis, who didn't understand Spirit Seal Language, watched the scene before her expectantly, until she saw Soul Xu shake its head abruptly after hearing Kapak's words, and her heart couldn't help but sink.
"Uh... I'm very sorry, Thief Miss, Soul Whisker says it doesn't want to listen to the request of an impolite person... It seemed to have sensed that you were doubting its ability just now, and it's a little unhappy now."
After communicating with Soul Xu, Kapak said to Naifnis somewhat awkwardly. Hearing Kapak's words, Naifnis couldn't help but freeze in place.
"What... it, it's angry with me?"
Naifnis looked at Soul Xu with some disbelief, saying that she didn't expect this Wilderness Spirit to be so sensitive. It had detected the emotions in her eyes just now and was quite petty about it.
"Well... you could say that. According to my teacher, Wilderness Spirits are respected, whether in our tribal culture or in the Extraordinary system of Shamans, so many of them have somewhat eccentric temperaments."
Spreading his hands, Kapak explained to Naifnis, and upon hearing Kapak's words, Naifnis's expression couldn't help but sink. After a moment of pause, she smiled and spoke to Soul Xu.
"Soul Whisker, I just unintentionally offended you. I, I wasn't very clear about your traditions over there, so I was a bit offensive just now. But I know I was wrong now, please be generous and forgive me."
Slightly bending over, Naifnis sincerely apologized to the lynx spirit in front of her, but the other party didn't seem to buy Naifnis's apology much. It turned its head slightly to the side and completely ignored Naifnis.
"Ah... this..."
Seeing Soul Xu's reaction, Naifnis felt a bit at a loss for a moment, then she turned to look at Kapak beside her and continued to speak.
"Mr. Kapak, could you please translate and convey what I just said to Soul Whisker? Just say that I didn't mean to offend it."
Naifnis said this to Kapak, and the other party, after hearing it, also responded helplessly.
"I'm afraid translating this won't be of much use. In fact, even if Thief Miss hadn't offended Soul Whisker, it probably wouldn't have paid attention to you. Wilderness Spirits generally only interact with people from our Shaman lineage, and even if we want to ask a Wilderness Spirit to do something, we must prepare offerings as bargaining chips."
"If Thief Miss wants to ask Soul Whisker for help, then you must first prepare the offerings for Soul Whisker."
"Offerings? What offerings?"
Listening to Kapak's response, Naifnis said confusedly, and Kapak continued to compose himself and respond.
"Generally speaking, the offerings we give to Wilderness Spirits are bone fragments obtained during funerals that contain trace amounts of the Spirituality of'Silence'. If Thief Miss has something similar, offering it to Soul Whisker might be useful."
Kapak said this to Naifnis, and after listening to Kapak's words, the only term that came to Naifnis's mind was Spirituality storage.
'Bone fragments with the Spirituality of'Silence'? Isn't that a type of'Silence' Spirituality storage! Miss Dorothy once said that all Spirituality can be sealed within objects with great effort, which is called Spirituality storage. These offering bone fragments sound like they mean the same thing as Spirituality storage!'
Naifnis thought this in her heart. After realizing that what this lynx Wilderness Spirit wanted was very likely'Silence' Spirituality storage, she began to figure out how to get some.
After thinking about it, just as Naifnis was about to contact Dorothy on the spot to ask if she had any, she suddenly noticed the street scene in front of her and found that it looked somewhat familiar.
'This is...'
Following the guidance in her memory, Naifnis raised her head and looked to the side. She saw a tall building across the intersection.
Because it was New Year's Eve, many shops on the street had already closed early, but the building in Naifnis's line of sight was still open for business, appearing particularly prominent. Above the open door, the horizontal signboard was lit by lights, and the letters on it spelled out the name "Golden Contract Bank".
"During the New Year... these guys haven't taken a holiday yet."
Looking at the bank across the road that was still open on New Year's Eve, Naifnis thought to herself. She had been to this place before, a few months ago when she helped Miss Dorothy buy a secret transmission, so she knew what this place was for.
"Mr. Kapak, please wait here for a moment, I'll go buy something and be right back."
Naifnis said this to Kapak, then turned and walked towards the bank in the distance, leaving only Kapak standing there looking at this scene in confusion.
"Buy something? What could she buy at this time?"
With confusion, Kapak waited silently in place. After waiting for about half an hour, he finally saw Naifnis walking back quickly from across the road.
"Thief Miss, what did you go buy?"
Looking at Naifnis who walked back, Kapak asked directly, but Naifnis didn't respond immediately. Instead, after walking up to Kapak, she opened her hand and revealed what she was holding, which were three ordinary-looking iron coins.
The moment he saw the iron coins, the whiskers next to Kapak, which had been lazy, suddenly shivered, and he stared wide-eyed and pounced towards the iron coins. Seeing this, Naifnis immediately withdrew her hand, causing Soul Xu to pounce on empty air.
Looking at Soul Xu, who was staring at her eagerly after pouncing on empty air, Naifnis couldn't help but say with a smile.
"So... Soul Whisker, now you should be willing to help me, right?"
Naifnis said this to Soul Xu, and although Soul Xu didn't quite understand what Naifnis was saying, it understood her meaning. Staring eagerly at Naifnis's clenched fist, it nodded repeatedly.
...
In a deserted park flowerbed in East Tivian on a cold night, Naifnis and Kapak were standing here. Naifnis was drawing a complex magic circle on the mud with a branch, while Kapak watched everything before him with curious eyes.
"Thief Miss, is this the magic circle needed for the ritual you mentioned? It looks somewhat similar to the magic circles my teacher often uses."
Looking at the magic circle Naifnis was drawing, which contained closed eyes, Kapak couldn't help but comment, and Naifnis responded while drawing.
"Is that so... Perhaps it's because both we and your teacher are Extraordinary from the path of'Silence'. It's certain that the magic circles would have similarities."
"The path of'Silence'? It seems that besides Shamans... there are many different Spirit Appenders here on the Main Continent..."
Kapak said with emotion, then he looked beside him and saw the lynx spirit on the ground constantly licking the three iron coins with a look of enjoyment. He spoke to Naifnis.
"But speaking of which, I didn't expect Thief Miss to be able to get such good offerings for Soul Whisker in such a short time. Extraordinary on the Main Continent are really convenient. Things like this can actually be easily exchanged for money..."
Kapak sighed like this, and Naifnis, who was drawing the magic circle, couldn't help but complain in her heart when she heard these words.
'It's convenient, but it's also terrifyingly expensive. These three things actually cost me over nine hundred pound. Those guys, they said it's a price increase because they're open during extra time for the New Year. Everywhere else, products are on sale for the New Year, alright? Only you guys raise prices so much... No wonder Miss Dorothy always calls them profiteers...'
Gritting her teeth, Naifnis silently felt pain for her wallet while continuing to draw the magic circle. If she hadn't been given a thousand pound for participating in Miss Dorothy's activities a while ago, she wouldn't have had any money to buy cat food for that cat lord now.
Finally, Naifnis finished drawing the magic circle, then she threw the branch in her hand aside and looked at the lynx spirit in front that was still licking the coins, saying.
"Soul Whisker, my offering has been presented. Now it's time to fulfill your promise."
Hearing Naifnis's words, Soul Xu paused slightly, then stopped licking. It looked at Naifnis within the magic circle, and after listening to Kapak's translation, it slowly floated up and drifted towards the magic circle that Naifnis had drawn.
Now that Naifnis had finally found a suitable spirit, with her Spirituality already full, she could finally begin the ritual to officially advance to the Black Earth Stage "Soul Appender".