Making a Plan

Luuk was in the kitchen of Graham's apartment, standing in front of the counter with some herbs on it. He would grind them into a powder using the mortar and pestle that was lying around unused in the cabinet. He had found all the ingredients, which were extremely common, at the supermarket, and had bought a lot at once. There were rosemary, green canary leaves, and some bentgrass; all of which were easily found in any household.

The herbs needed to dried first before they were able to be turned into a powder. However, for a Thief, it was an easy matter.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Theft, declare the moisture of these herbs mine!"

With his spell chant, the ingredients before him magically shriveled and dried up. Luuk put them all into the mortal and started crushing them with the pestle. It took some strength to completely grind that many herbs into a fine mixture, but he completed the job in an acceptable amount of time. Once the powder was ready, he chanted again.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Herbs and Precious Stones, grant this mixture of rosemary, green canary leaves, and bentgrass the power of healing!"

The green powder inside the mortar magically turned blue. Luuk took some and put it on a small saucer before carrying it to the bedroom where Graham was still lying down in the bed.

"Here, inhale this," said Luuk.

Graham got up and received the saucer from Luuk and looked at the blue powder on it.

"What is this?" he asked inquisitively.

"That's health powder," replied Luuk with a convincing tone.

Graham was curious about the powder, and also it was in his nature, so he took out a lighter from his pocket and started divination. The flame showed an image of someone sick inhaling the same blue powder like the one he was holding right now and gradually became better. Although the recovery wasn't instant, it was faster than a Contractbound's natural healing. After that, the flame returned normal and he put away the lighter.

Luuk didn't make any comment on Graham's action. He was already used to the detective's cautiousness.

Knowing it was safe to do so, Graham inhaled the blue powder and as it entered his nose, he felt a cooling sensation like he had just breathed in some mint. The sensation then turned into a warmth that spread all around his body, accelerating the healing of his injury. The pain that he had suffered just a moment ago was gradually decreasing and his strength came back little by little.

"This stuff is pretty useful. Do you have more?" asked Graham and then stretched his body.

"Yes. I made quite a lot. Just need to figure out how to contain it," replied Luuk.

"Is there any side effect?"

Graham tried to concentrate on his body to feel any abnormalities, but he couldn't find any.

"There is no immediate side effect, but taking it often will reduce its effect significantly until it's completely ineffective. So, after taking one just now, it's better to wait for several hours before taking another dose," explained Luuk.

Graham understood the limitation of this ability. If there weren't any, people would just consume the powder every time and they could practically become immortal. Besides this ability, in fact, almost all of the abilities that he had encountered had some limitation of some sort.

"You said it's called health powder. Does it mean there are other kinds of powder?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, but right now I only know three of them. Health powder being one, the others are stamina powder and strength powder. Stamina powder restores stamina while strength powder grants a small increase in strength,"

"I can help you research more mixtures. They can be very useful in battles, or for sale to make some money," Graham responded casually.

He would check the ancient book later because he was sure there was a section on a Jeweller's mixture when he was skim reading it last time. He didn't want to expose the existence of the book yet for now, even to Luuk.

"I was hoping you would say that," Luuk replied with a smile.

"Now tell me about your evolved Thief abilities again," asked Graham, changing the topic.

"It's not really an evolution-- more like a merge of the two Deities' abilities. I can 'steal' knowledge regarding herbs or gemstones from anyone. It's not really stealing, since the person I steal from will still retain the knowledge," he explained.

"If it could evolve into stealing any knowledge, it would be much more powerful," said Graham nonchalantly, and then added, "Since you're a Jeweller now, can you embed gemstones into bullets?"

"Yes, but as usual, the limit is ten times per day for now. I call this ability Embedding, by the way," he said proudly.

"Do you need a full-sized gemstone for one bullet or crushed pieces can also work?" asked Graham curiously.

"Since bullets are generally small, a tiny piece will work. However, the smaller it is, the more diminished its effect will be."

Graham nodded at Luuk's explanation. It made sense because a tiny piece of a bigger gemstone should only contain a fraction of its effect.

"Do you have anything else to do today? If not, do you want to go mining for some gemstones?" proposed Graham.

"I'm actually free today, that's why I'm home, so we can do that," Luuk nodded in approval.

"But, since I'll be showing the way and act as your bodyguard, I want the embedding cost to be free. And the gemstones too, as long as I participate in its acquiring. Don't worry, I will buy my own bullets," he said seriously.

Luuk didn't mind the suggestion since he knew nowhere was truly safe. He remembered the Jeweller whom he got the contract from; he was just minding his own business gathering some herbs and suddenly he was dead. Luuk still had nightmares about him, but he slowly got used to it.

"I'm okay with that," he replied.

Money shouldn't be a problem for him from now on because he could sell gemstone embedded weapons in the black market if he was in need of money.

Graham, who had now fully recovered, lit the lighter again and concentrated on the flame. He repeated a question in his mind and slowly, an image appeared in the flame. Luuk could also see it, which was of a red dot located in the far north of Sloten, at the foot of De Vaalserberg, the mountain range bordering Sloten. The location of the red dot was pretty far from them, so it would probably take hours to get there. After that, the image gradually disappeared.

Luuk looked at Graham with a slight expression of disbelief.

"Do we really have to go that far?" he asked.

"That, or go to the black market and spend more money," said Graham casually, and then his tone became serious, "but I'm not spending any money if there's a cheaper option,"

"Then it's a deal then. Should we go now?" asked Luuk.

"Wait," replied Graham shortly.

He relit the lighter and concentrated on the flame again. This time, he was going to divine the dangers that they might encounter in the place where the gemstones were. The flame burned brighter and then an image slowly formed. It was a cave that looked different from where they had found the ruin. This cave had very little stalagmites and looked more like a large natural tunnel. There were beasts in the cave that they didn't recognize and a supernatural creature that looked like a man-bat hybrid with little hair. After that, the image disappeared as slowly as it appeared.

Graham put out the fire and looked at Luuk.

"We definitely need to prepare first. I don't think it's a good idea to go today because we'll get only a little daylight before it gets dark. We should go tomorrow instead," he proposed.

Luuk seemed to be thinking. He knew Graham was right; it would be too dangerous to be there at night, especially since they had no transport home in that case unless they found a motor carriage driver who was willing to take them there and stayed. His only option was to skip classes again tomorrow.

"I guess we have no other options," he replied.

Since it had been decided that they would go tomorrow, they didn't need to prepare right away now.

"Let's pay Jacco a visit now that we have no other things to do. Maybe he can even join us tomorrow," suggested Graham.

Luuk agreed to the suggestion and the two of them left their apartment building. They took the public motor carriage to the restaurant where Jacco was working. It was still three in the afternoon, so the man should still be at work.

The motor carriage that they took arrived on Goetemarktstraat not long after. They got out after paying the driver and started walking towards a restaurant called 'Moeders'. There were quite a lot of people at the restaurant at that time. The two men took the seat at the corner that was rather quiet.

"Good afternoon, sir. May I take your order?" asked a male waiter wearing a uniform.

"I'll go with chicken curry and bread. Make it not spicy. And a hot chocolate, thank you." replied Graham.

"I want the onion soup with bread. And black coffee please," said Luuk.

"Oh and can you tell Jacco that Graham and Luuk are here?" added Graham.

The waiter, who was writing their orders, nodded and then went to the back where the kitchen was. While waiting, Graham looked around the restaurant to see if there was any interesting individual there.

In the busy restaurant, there was a group of youngsters sitting on the opposite end from them. They looked like university students who had just finished classes and were having a nice little hangout. There were four men and three women, all busy eating and chatting. Graham tried to listen in to their conversation, and with difficulty, he could make out what they were saying. It was nothing important to him, so he didn't pay more attention to the group.

Sitting near the students, there was an elderly couple enjoying their meal slowly in silence. There was nothing striking about them, so Graham didn't pay them too much attention. His attention was drawn by a man sitting alone near the door.

The moment Graham looked at him, the man looked back at the former. He was a man with fair skin and slender build. He had a handsome face that looked like it would be easy for him to be a celebrity if he wanted to. His jet black hair was combed neatly to the back, complementing his overall looks. Not long after, the man smiled meaningfully at Graham and stood up before leaving the restaurant.

"Do you know him?" asked Luuk curiously.

"No, but I think that might be the Virgo from the black market who bought my Romancer scroll," said Graham with doubt.

"Romancer? What are their abilities?"

"They are seducers. They'll make you attracted to them and then kill you. That's basically it," he explained shortly.

Their food came soon after that, along with Jacco who was carrying the food himself. He was still wearing his chef uniform with his usual slightly dirty apron.

"You two are looking for me?" he asked while setting the food on the table, and then sat near them once he was finished.

"Yes. How's your progress in pleasing your Deity?" asked Graham quietly.

Jacco smiled proudly and answered, "It's been done! So now I can make a contract with another one, right?"

Graham and Luuk nodded.

"Tell us, how did your abilities evolve?" asked Luuk.

"My War Drum should be more powerful now. And my body has become super strong!" he said proudly.

The two were just looking at Jacco without responding. The evolution seemed a bit lackluster if compared to theirs.

"That's it?" asked Graham.

Feeling judged, Jacco quickly thought hard.

"Uhm... I can make people angry at each other more easily now. And not just anger, but blind rage," he paused, "Oh, and I can cast other abilities while still playing the War Drum!" he said excitedly.

Graham went into thinking, and after some moments, he spoke.

"That ability can be really useful when we're fighting a group of Contractbounds. But I don't know if it will be effective against supernatural creatures. I need to use divination later," he said finally.

Jacco felt proud that his ability was complimented and a wide smile surfaced on his face.

"Anyway, are you free tomorrow? We're going to be making money," asked Luuk.

Hearing the word money being mentioned, Jacco's eyes opened wide with expectation.