The man’s body leaned back against the chair, his hands clasped on the armrest, his eyes half-closed, his posture remarkably serene. If you ignored the dagger embedded in his chest, he looked like a model sitting for a portrait painter, posing in the most appropriate way, conveying his calm, experienced demeanor.

Nitya gazed at his corpse, her head throbbing.

Her old client, James Vinylon, had returned to Nymph Fu, only to find his family massacred. He himself had vanished, apparently stealing a valuable book. The person who had been robbed seemed to take the matter very seriously, even hiring a superhuman to find him… Based on the fact that the man didn’t seem to treat money as money at all, the reward he offered had to be much higher than usual.

Thirty White Staves was no small sum. According to purchasing power conversion, it was roughly equivalent to $30,000 in her previous life… If she didn’t truly have no clue about James’s whereabouts, and if this man’s attitude weren’t so bad, making her feel like she’d never actually get paid for completing the commission, she wouldn’t have been able to resist the temptation.

—— Her only connection to James was the commission she accepted from him a month ago. How could he have tracked her down…?

Was she just unlucky? Or was James truly heading towards Schwerdt Town?

Nitya frowned in thought, feeling she should be a little more cautious from now on. After all, this corpse was the first one to find her, but it might not be the last.

“Speaking of, superhumans don’t seem to have bodily functions after they die…”

That was a plus. Saved her from having to deal with the unpleasant task of cleaning the seat.

Nitya placed the book she’d been reading for months, still unfinished, on the table, then stood up and went upstairs. She stood in the middle of the divination ritual circle.

Hmm, the dew hadn’t evaporated yet, and the sunlight wasn’t blocked by clouds. Everything was normal.

Nitya nodded in satisfaction, then clasped her hands together in front of her chest and chanted reverently.

“Creators and guardians of the world, origin and extension of all things, Gods of the winding halls of the Starry Realms… I, through my spirit, my heart, swear that my body has never been tainted, my soul never burdened by oaths, remaining pure and immaculate as a lamb. Hear my call…”

She paused, then continued.

“I want to know, will the life I have taken bring me danger?”

As her words faded, a quiet darkness engulfed her vision. The things of the real world remained only as hazy shapes. The darkness was boundless, stretching infinitely in every direction. All she could see were four towering spires, each piercing the heavens and rising abruptly from the ground, as if they were the four pillars supporting the world, radiating a magnificent and awe-inspiring glow.

Surrounding these four great spires were ten smaller, pointed towers, forming a circle around them. Each of the smaller towers had a different appearance, but they all had a crown-like, silver structure at the top, similar to thorns. The silver thorns intertwined, interwoven, interlocked, forming ten crowns at the peaks of the ten towers.

The vision lasted only a moment. As Nitya’s eyes focused on this scene, one of the ten smaller towers displayed its power, blinding radiance replacing the darkness, pulling her back into reality.

Nitya, a little dazed, held her head and repeated the answer she had received.

“There is a possibility of danger…”

This brought her some peace of mind. Even though she had dealt with the immediate danger, she still felt a little uneasy deep down – she was afraid that someone might come knocking on her door late one night.

She was very confident in her combat skills. In her own territory, prepared for battle, she had no fear. But if it came to assassination, a sudden ambush…

If you dare attack me, I’ll show you I’m not afraid of death.

Because her profession, “Ritual Magician,” was quite an extreme one.

If you think of the world as an incredibly complex video game, becoming a superhuman is like adding points to your various stats. Close-combat professions focus on adding to their strength and agility, while magical professions emphasize things like intelligence and magic power. And as superhumans become stronger, the types of attributes they can grow become increasingly numerous, from things like muscle density to affinity for a particular element, all of which can be increased to their liking…

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Because of the diversity of attributes, the types of professions that develop are also quite varied.

However, this doesn’t mean that magic, skills, and other aspects of this world have specific professional requirements. Because the “profession” system is created by humanity, a way of designating specific point-distribution templates, it’s an artificial construct.

But magic is a more fundamental, more intuitive application of the world's rules, a blessing from the gods. Besides the individual caster’s knowledge, it requires specific attributes.

Take the forbidden spell, “Infernal Sea,” as an example. It’s a spell that can only be used by the upper tier profession, “Elemental Lord,” because this profession has a magic power reserve and an affinity for elements that far surpass other professions. But if a warrior were blessed by the God of Wisdom, using divine power to max out his magic power harmony, and studied magic diligently, receiving certification as an upper tier mage, then he could also cast “Infernal Sea.”

The same applies to spells like Luminescence, Frostbite, and Fireball, which are lower-level spells.

So, although professions emphasize certain attributes, people still allocate some effort to raising other attributes, aiming for more comprehensive abilities.

A warrior will add a point to Magic Power Harmony because they’ll need Luminescence when digging. Mages also know to raise a point in Strength, because there’s always that moment when their magic power runs out and they need to swing their staff…

But Ritual Magician is different. It completely ignores physical attributes, focusing solely on spirit and magical reserve!

Nitya had been a Ritual Magician for over a year now, and a friend had commented that she had decent talent and was ready to advance to the next level. Ordinary spellcasters, by now, wouldn’t have become superhumans yet, but at least they’d have an athlete’s level of physical fitness. But she was still as physically weak as an eighteen-year-old girl.

Soft, frail, with limbs lacking strength.

The original body owner also had some innate physical ailments. She wasn’t just pale, looking like she was sick, but her physical strength was also weaker than ordinary people.

If a superhuman who could punch through a wall came sneaking up on her, it really would be “if you dare attack me, I’ll show you I’m not afraid to die…”

Therefore, after getting a response from the gods, Nitya finally relaxed.

She tidied up the materials scattered on the floor, then wiped away the ritual circle she had used. It wasn’t that she had forgotten about helping Sam find his son, but she could only perform one divination of this caliber per day. Lower-level methods of divination were good for finding lost items, but the accuracy for finding people wasn’t very high. She didn’t want to be perfunctory with the client.

Sam was in no hurry, anyway. Tomorrow would do.

Lady Nitya, slightly obsessive-compulsive, cleaned up the second floor, sorting and storing the materials. Then she went downstairs and stood in front of the corpse again.

She furrowed her brow in thought, then leaned down and searched the corpse.

—— Almost forgot to take my spoils!

After all, the hallucinogenic herbs she used were top-shelf. A tiny amount, the size of a fingernail, could put an ordinary person in a trance for a week. She had used the entire vial to be sure… At least she had to recoup her losses!

But after searching high and low, she only found a few silver coins, some miscellaneous items with unclear uses, a few red-colored banknotes depicting skyscrapers, and some other insignificant items, worth less than coins.

The dagger was hers to begin with, so it didn’t count as loot.

Nitya fell into contemplation.

So, the thirty White Staves he’d mentioned were just a bluff, no actual banknotes?

She counted the loose change in her hands – different currencies… Six “Red Tower” bills, four silver coins, and enough copper coins to make up half a silver coin.

Roughly equivalent to half her vial of herbs.

Damn, what a loss.

Nitya didn't give up, carefully searching the body again. But no matter how much she turned the coat inside and out, no matter how carefully she looked for a false bottom, money wouldn’t magically appear out of thin air.

She unsurprisingly found nothing.

“Come on, in this kind of situation, even if you don’t have money, you should at least carry some documentation to prove your identity. You came here empty-handed?” Nitya complained, venting her sorrow at losing a tidy sum of money, then finally made a decision.

She put the money and miscellaneous items back where she had found them, then changed into an outfit suitable for going out.

A deerstalker hat, Holmes style, which could enhance her non-existent intelligence; a brown coat, a bit too large for her, which would conceal her figure and add some non-existent intimidation; no skirt, but gray pants that would be easier for movement, which would add some... well, at least they were more agile than a skirt.

Overall, she didn't look like a young, innocent girl, but a handsome young man.

After all, her chest wasn't… well, you know…

She dressed quickly, then pushed open the door, colliding with the cold wind outside.

....

The Schwerdt Town police station stood on a crossroads in the eastern part of town. It was a three-story building, black and white, towering in the cold wind. At the entrance, a guard in a black uniform stood watch against the frigid air.

His gaze swept across the streets, chilled by the strange low temperature, his clothes drawn tighter around him.

“This goddamn weather…” he muttered. “It’s freezing even at noon. It’ll be even colder at night. And this isn’t even winter yet…”

He wondered how many unfortunate souls would freeze to death tonight.

He mumbled, rubbed his eyes, and looked up again. He saw a figure approaching, their strides long and quick. This made him momentarily alert, and as the figure came closer, he recognized them.

The most famous detective in the town, the adventurer who had been making headlines these past two years.

He unconsciously spoke.

“Selene…”

That was Nitya’s real name.

“Oh, now I go by Nitya.”

Selene stepped closer, then, under the guard’s confused gaze, smoothed her face, adopting an expression of delicate fragility, even squeezing out a few tears.

It was quite convincing. If she wasn’t right there, performing this act in front of him, the guard would have definitely thought she was a weak girl in danger.

Under the guard’s bewildered stare, she spoke.

“I need to report a crime!”