"Huff... huff... What, what is going on?"
Inside the carriage of the express train, in the small washroom, Sodod sat on the toilet, looking astonished at the results of the perception he had gained by expending a large amount of "Lamp".
After expending a lot of "Lamp", Sodod finally perceived the presence of an Extraordinary nearby, but to his surprise, it was not the ""Shadow"" he was looking for, the color of ""Shadow"".
In the perception of a ""Lamp"" Extraordinary, other Extraordinaries have specific colors; ""Shadow"" is black, but the Extraordinary presence Sodod perceived this time displayed a strange purple, a purple he had never seen before.
'This... what's going on? What kind of Extraordinary is this? Could it be, could that guy not be '""Shadow""'? No, this strange Extraordinary is far from me, at least a carriage away.'
'Then, that guy with such bizarre abilities is definitely not a Student level '""Shadow""', should be a Black Earth... My '""Lamp""' is no match for his '""Shadow""' anyway, so what I detected shouldn't be him, but another type of Extraordinary. There are other Extraordinaries on this train!'
Within a short period, Sodod clarified his thoughts, roughly confirmed the current situation, and then had an idea.
'Now... this is the only way...'
...
Over the dark wilderness, the steam train continued to roar forward. Because of the sudden large amount of white smoke, the train staff, thinking there was a fire somewhere, rushed to put it out. However, after opening the windows and dispersing the white smoke, they strangely found no trace of fire at all. The compartment where the white smoke originated was now empty, with nothing inside. The briefcase that had originally fallen on the ground was also gone.
Inside a compartment in a first-class carriage near the front of the train, Dorothy, who had been bored lying on the sofa, looked curiously at the train staff running back and forth in the corridor, a hint of doubt arising in her heart.
"Did something happen outside? It's not a fire, is it?"
Dorothy murmured this, and after worrying for a while, seeing that no alarm bell rang and the train didn't slow down, she concluded in her heart that it was probably nothing serious.
'It should be nothing serious... Forget it, I'll sit for a bit longer and then go to bed. In this era without mobile phones to play with, I can only go to bed this early.'
While thinking, Dorothy looked at the ring of concealment she wore on her hand, passed down from her mother, and checked the Spirituality inside. She checked the ring's Spirituality roughly every half day to ensure she hadn't been inadvertently detected by any form of detection-type Extraordinary ability.
Although so far, Dorothy's ring of concealment had only worked at Buck's mansion to resist a wave of Hunter detection, and not at other times, Dorothy still checked the Spirituality inside the ring regularly every day just in case.
Originally, Dorothy thought the ring's Spirituality would be unchanged, just like before. However, this time, after checking, she froze in place.
Dorothy, sitting on the sofa, found that the ""Shadow"" inside her ring of concealment was now completely gone, not a single bit remaining. The 2 points of ""Shadow"" she had originally stored in the ring were now completely empty!
'What's going on? What Extraordinary ability detected me? And this '""Shadow""' was completely consumed in one go; there's no '""Shadow""' left in the ring. Does this mean I might have been detected?!'
Looking at the condition of the ring on her hand, Dorothy thought in astonishment. At the same time, she immediately became alert. She looked around, wanting to see if there was anything unusual, and although she didn't find anything abnormal, she had already determined that she might be in danger.
'My location might have been exposed. There might be other Extraordinaries on this train. I must take action.'
While thinking, Dorothy took out her magic box, opened the lid and expanded the entrance, then took out the Corpse Puppet Ring from it and put it on before starting to control the Corpse Puppet stored inside the magic box. Instantly, a Corpse Puppet wearing a trench coat and a top hat, with deep-set eyes and a high nose, crawled out of the magic box and stood in Dorothy's compartment. This was precisely the Corpse Puppet Edrick.
Just then, there was a knock on Dorothy's compartment door. Dorothy looked at her compartment door. It was obvious that someone was outside, quite possibly the Extraordinary who had detected her!
Realizing this, Dorothy quickly crawled under the bed, lying still beneath it. Then, controlling Edrick, she drew his pistol, went to the door, and asked,
"Who is it?"
"Huff... huff... Mr. inside, huff... huff... I know you are an Extraordinary. Please open the door. I have something important to beg you for? Anyway, please open the door first..."
Outside the door, a weak voice came. After hearing these words, Dorothy couldn't help but be slightly startled.
'Something to ask of me? And this voice...'
Dorothy thought this, and then she controlled a Corpse Puppet gecko she had released beforehand to crawl out from the gap under the compartment door and look at the scene outside. She saw a man clutching his abdomen, his clothes stained with blood, leaning against the doorframe, breathing weakly with a pale face. Using the Corpse Puppet gecko's vision, Dorothy's heart tightened upon seeing this scene.
'As expected, he's injured, and it's serious. Looking at him, it seems he's not here to cause me trouble...'
After quickly confirming the situation outside the door, Dorothy controlled Edrick at the door to open the compartment door. The man outside immediately stepped inside and then weakly sat down on the ground. Edrick also immediately closed the door and, pistol in hand, asked the man in front of him.
"Who are you? What is your identity? What did you encounter? What do you want to ask of me?"
Edrick asked directly, and the other party, after taking a few breaths, looked at Edrick and said solemnly.
"I am Sodod Short, a Captain of the Alster Security Agency. I was attacked while on a transport mission. The item I was transporting was stolen, and I was severely injured by him. Now I'm holding on with the enhancement of the Raw Consumption Symbol, but I can't last much longer... huff..."
'He's from the An Yin Bureau? And Alster? Isn't that the city I just passed through not long ago? He said he got on the train there?' Listening to Sodod's words, Dorothy, hidden under the bed, thought this, and then continued to control Edrick to ask.
"What were you transporting? Who was the person who attacked you?"
"Huff... huff... I don't know, I don't know any of that. That item was sent back by our investigation team dispatched to Razor Mountain Range. My mission was to escort this thing to the Directorate General of Tivian. As for the guy who attacked me, I don't know who he is either... I can only confirm that he is a '""Shadow""' Extraordinary, possibly a Black Earth, capable of moving through walls. He is very likely a 'Wall Walker' with primary '""Shadow""' and secondary ''Shi' (Stone)''..."
'Wall Walker? The book Aldrich gave me before said that if a primary '""Shadow""' and secondary ''Shi' (Stone)'' practitioner follows the elemental path, they can advance to Wind Art User. This Wall Walker seems to have advanced through other promotion rituals...'
Listening to Sodod's words, Dorothy thought this. She understood that even if the primary and secondary Spirituality were the same, different advancement rituals would result in different ranks after promotion, such as the "Thirster" and "Taster" of ""Cup"".
Just as Dorothy was thinking about something, Sodod's breathing became more rapid. He widened his eyes, looked at Edrick, and continued to speak.
"Huff... huff... Although, although I don't know what kind of Extraordinary you are or which organization you belong to, but... but now I want to ask you to retrieve the item I was transporting! Then, then help me deliver it to the An Yin Bureau Directorate General in Tivian. As long as you can get the item there, the people at the Directorate General will definitely give you a generous reward... That item is inside my box. Although I don't know what's inside... it absolutely cannot fall into the hands of those dangerous societies and cults... Ugh... Ngh..."
As he was speaking, Sodod's body began to tremble. His eyes widened, and looking at Edrick, he spoke his last words.
"Please..."
As the Life Devour effect Sodod was using to cling to life began to fade, after spitting out one last mouthful of blood, his head tilted, and with wide eyes, he met death.