Early in the morning, Hastur woke up from his sleep.
After going to the washroom to freshen up, he went downstairs while holding the clingy Ariella.
This little thing was probably being fed too well at home, as it had gained a full round of weight recently.
From its initial agility and alertness, it had begun evolving toward the lifestyle of an overweight house cat.
Hastur did not want to raise Ariella into a big fat cat.
He planned to forcefully take it out for walks and instruct the maid to take it out more often when free, while also slightly controlling its food intake.
"Meow?" Ariella looked at Hastur with innocent eyes, but it was useless.
Hastur rubbed its little head, then took a carriage out to handle some business.
There were two matters he needed to take care of right now. The first was to choose a suitable candidate to help him make a trip to Southville County to investigate various situations and confirm the specific land holdings of Viscount Abel.
The second was to resolve the issue of beyonder materials for the Assassin pathway. He was not lacking money now; what he lacked was a platform where such materials could be purchased.
Mr. A's gathering had originally been a fairly decent beyonder meetup, but now, before figuring out Mr. A's true intentions, Hastur did not want to have casual contact with him.
"Let's deal with the first issue first." Hastur took a carriage to the talent recruitment market, which had a more official name: the Talent and Employment Association.
This association claimed that it could recruit any kind of talent you needed. With no better options available, Hastur decided to come here and try his luck.
The Talent and Employment Association was located in the South Borough, not too far from the Harvest Church.
Hastur planned to stop by the Harvest Church later as well.
As soon as the carriage arrived at the entrance of the Talent and Employment Association, a dedicated service staff member came forward. After greeting Hastur, the staff member stayed by his side and introduced the scope of services provided by the association.
Hastur listened quietly at first, then stated his requirements: "I need an investigator with keen observation skills and a certain level of self-protection ability to help me go to Southville County to handle some matters."
"Understood. Please wait a moment. We'll select some suitable candidates for you right away."
The staff member led Hastur to the VIP area to take a seat, then had someone bring over a cup of Marquis black tea and two exquisite desserts.
Out of habit, Hastur took a bite of the dessert, but the very first bite surprised him.
The dessert tasted excellent and perfectly matched his preferences, comparable to the dessert he had tasted at Audrey's house.
A dessert chef of this level was actually serving a small Talent and Employment Association?
This association had truly found a treasure, and was very shrewd.
Basically, anyone who tasted such delicious food would greatly increase their favorability toward the association.
Hastur was no exception. As long as the candidates were acceptable later, he decided to choose this association's services.
After all, an association that could satisfy his love for desserts probably shouldn't go out of business.
After about twenty minutes, the service staff member who had left earlier returned with eight suitable candidates.
They were all between thirty and forty years old, and judging from their appearances alone, they all seemed mature and steady.
Hastur planned to let them introduce themselves first, then find an excuse to go to the washroom and head to the Hall of Stars to peer into the relevant fates of the candidates he favored.
If there were no major issues, he would choose one of them.
The eight investigators who came for the interview began introducing their backgrounds and some of the events they had experienced and accomplished.
The first said that he had once gone alone deep into a dried well and destroyed the secret hideout of a great thief inside.
The second said that he had once climbed a snow peak over four thousand meters high in the Feysac Empire and had personally witnessed a legendary snow giant on the peak.
The third said that he had once been a sailor, and when he was young, he followed a fleet deep into unexplored seas, where he encountered a series of legendary creatures, such as deep-sea mermaids of the ocean depths.
The fourth person was more modest. He only said that he had once crossed a barren desert on the southern continent alone, encountering nothing special, merely living alone in the wasteland for half a year.
The fifth person had the most pleasant appearance among the eight, and he spoke with a strong Southville County accent.
Before he even introduced himself, Hastur already thought highly of him.
After all, what he needed was an investigator who could help scout the specific situation in Southville County, and having someone who originated from Southville County would make the task much easier.
"I come from a small fishing village in Southville County. Since childhood, I've witnessed coastal pirates burning, killing, and looting. After growing up, I joined the army and fought to protect Southville County. But in the end, I grew disgusted with the inaction of the nobles there, left the military, left my hometown, and came to Backlund in search of new hope."
"During this stretch of my career, my more legendary experience should be the record of killing more than a dozen pirates single-handedly."
"As for special incidents, I didn't encounter any. I only met some rather special people."
This man's manner of speaking sounded very sincere and highly persuasive.
Not only was Hastur drawn in by his account, the other seven applicants also turned their attention to him.
Hastur was fairly satisfied with his experience and deliberately noted down his name, Caius.
Next, the sixth, seventh, and eighth applicants also began introducing their basic information.
Perhaps influenced by that Caius, their later accounts all leaned more toward real life, without mentioning any particularly exaggerated experiences.
Hastur asked each of them a few more questions, then told them to go wait outside. Using the excuse of going to the washroom, he made his way to the Hall of the Stars.
This time, the applicants he was relatively satisfied with were numbers four, five, and eight.
He conducted a Fate Glimpse on each of them.
Number four was rather regrettable, his abilities were quite good, but he seemed very ambitious and easily corrupted by money.
Such a person was not suitable to be entrusted with this task.
Next was number five. There were not many scenes revealed in the fate-related vision.
There were only three scenes. The first showed him fighting fiercely against pirates who were burning, killing, and looting along the coast.
The second showed him coming into contact with a gathering held by a group of people dressed in yellow.
The third scene was actually a new Beyonder Pathway!
Hastur abruptly opened his eyes. Today's recruitment had brought in a big catch!
Without a doubt, what the second scene pointed to was Caius coming into contact with members of the Yellow-robed Monks and ultimately joining them.
He had been patiently waiting for this group for a long time, and they had finally begun to take action.
They seemed not to fear him seeing through their identities at all, actually appearing openly right in front of him.
Did they really think he had no way to discern their true identities? Or was this development already within their expectations?
The third scene was even more interesting.
This Beyonder Pathway was not one of the twenty-two Beyonder Pathways he was familiar with, but a brand-new one. Unfortunately, it could only be seen up to Sequence 5.
From the initial Sequence 9 to Sequence 5, the Beyonder names were as follows:
Sequence 9: Gambler
Sequence 8: Chanter
Sequence 7: Playwright
Sequence 6: Exorcist
Sequence 5: Winner
This was a completely new Beyonder Pathway, one that came from the King in Yellow!
"Gambler, Chanter, Playwright, Exorcist, Winner..."
Hastur silently repeated these five words, five identities.
Judging from these five sequences alone, the Yellow-robed Monks were indeed involved with abilities related to fate, but they were different from the Fate Pathway that Will belonged to.
Will's Fate Pathway was very pure, a single road from beginning to end centered entirely on fate-based advancement.
This Beyonder Pathway, however, although it also involved fate, such as Sequence 9 Gambler and Sequence 5 Winner, also involved other aspects of Beyonder abilities.
Chanter and Exorcist seemed to be certain special positions within the Church.
For Yellow-robed Monks, it was understandable for them to advance into Chanters and Exorcists.
As for Sequence 7 Playwright, it surprised Hastur.
He would not have found the appearance of a Playwright in the entire Beyonder Pathway surprising at all; what he found strange was that Playwright was only Sequence 7.
If it were Sequence 2 or Sequence 1, Hastur could have understood it better.
But in that case, this Beyonder Pathway would, at high sequences, show similarities to the Spectator Pathway.
It seemed that the Spectator Pathway was still more suitable for becoming a writer.
Sequence 7 Playwright... there was also another possibility: the sequence of Playwright might have an ancient name that was not widely known.
The reason it was now called Playwright was merely to correspond to modern professions, making it easier for Beyonders who stepped into this sequence to understand its core and digest the potion.
Hastur pondered carefully for a while longer and gradually came to understand the main direction of this Beyonder Pathway.
It arranged fate together with church positions.
At higher sequences above Sequence 5, there should also be Beyonder sequences related to fate and the Church.
For example, names like XX Archbishop or XX Pope.
Now the question was, should he hand over the task of investigating Southville County to this Caius?
He might be a Sequence 5 Winner.
Just hearing the name of this sequence, entrusting the task to him would basically require no further worry.
But getting too close to a Beyonder belonging to the Yellow-robed Monks, didn't that involve too much risk?