The First Evolution

Chapter 194: Looking for Clues

Chapter 194: Looking for Clues

These passers-by were obviously familiar with all kinds of seemingly weird things, so they were not even interested in taking a second look at Fang Linyan who appeared from the door.

Fang Linyan stood there and looked at it, and found that most of the buildings here were two or three-story wooden buildings from the 16th century, which looked very old. The eaves were covered with triangular tiles. These titled houses were crowded together, which felt like the passengers in a crowded bus holding the handrails tightly. This scene was quite interesting.

Almost every house was a single stand-alone shop with carefully designed signage. The shop opposite Fang Linyan had a wind lantern that automatically did pull-ups, and the rusty sign on the shop on the right would wipe itself with a rag.

Suddenly, Fang Linyan heard the whistle of the train coming into the station, and he hurriedly turned around to look. It was just a teapot on the signboard of a shop behind him, puffing steam like a prank. As if seeing Fang Linyan looking at it, it even winked and puffed a few more…

In these dazzling stores, Fang Linyan generally strolled around. This was not his desire to shop, but he was doing the most basic market research work to see how much the purchasing power of the 3 Galleons he had.

In the end, the answer he came up with was not bad. The price of a normal wand was 6-9 Galleons, and the price of a cup of hot cocoa was 4 Sickle (1 Galleon = 17 Sickles).

Next, Fang Linyan found a second-hand goods store. Its name was Pragmatism. At the door, there were 2 white gloves hanging in the air, holding a broom and sweeping the floor. Seeing Fang Linyan in front of the store for a while, a glove threw away the broom and flew directly in front of Fang Linyan and stretched out its palm.

Fang Linyan was stunned for a while, then he tentatively stretched out his palm to hold it. He felt that the white glove felt like an inflated balloon. The glove shook his right hand with a gentle force. This should be the basic etiquette of shaking hands.

Then the white gloves flew half a meter in front of Fang Linyan and made a please gesture.

Faced with such a special reception, Fang Linyan no doubt felt quite novel. After he entered the shop, the white glove leading the way grabbed a brass bell on the side and rang it directly.

Amidst the bell sound, a black veiled woman who dressed like a Gypsy came out. Looking at her body and skin, she was probably in her 40s. She held a crystal ball in her hand. She looked up and down at Fang Linyan for a moment, then she said,

“How can I help you? Friend from afar?”

Fang Linyan shrugged and said,

“Just here for a stroll.”

He knew that in this kind of second-hand goods store, it was best not to reveal his purpose immediately, because the cost of second-hand goods purchased by the boss would be very low, so it was best to buy several things together and pretend to be not interested in the goods. In this way, the boss would sell the goods as long as he made some profit after covering the cost.

However, after shopping around, Fang Linyan didn’t find anything he was particularly interested in.

Of course, this was not to say that the goods in this store had no value, but because of Fang Linyan’s lack of eyesight. He originally thought that this place was a place where he could use the [Reconnaissance] skill to “get a cheap bargain”.

But obviously, the Space had already expected a similar loophole. After Fang Linyan picked up something and tried to [Reconnaissance], he got a prompt that the ownership of this thing belonged to the shop, and he had no right to use the [Reconnaissance] skill on it…

Finally, Fang Linyan took a fancy to a desk clock. The lower half of the wooden shelf of the clock was missing, but the upper part was still functional, and the clock was broken.

The second hand was a happy little man jumping happily on the dial, and the minute and hour hands were represented by light.

The most important thing was that every minute of the clock, a flower fairy would come out from the back and wind up the clockwork spring. This was quite amazing.

Fang Linyan was interested in this thing. Of course, it was to disassemble it and study the mysteries of the magical machinery in this world. However, after hearing the boss quoted 420 Galleons, he immediately realized that their fate would never cross…

Seeing the disappointment on Fang Linyan’s face, the female boss asked him,

“Excuse me, is there anything that interests you?”

Fang Linyan said solemnly,

“My friend is very good at magic machinery, but the tool he has in hand has been accidentally lost recently…”

The female said as if she understood,

“We won’t buy this kind of highly professional tool unless it’s very cheap, because we can’t sell them for a long time. We are most willing to buy those tools that can be carried around with us. Most people like valuable things such as pocket watches, lighters, necklaces, rings, etc.”

Fang Linyan nodded. In fact, this shop had the most of these things. He also knew very well that among these things for sale, there was a high chance that a system-approved magic equipment would appear. However, this kind of thing must be very expensive. The Space would never let the contractor get a cheap bargain like this. Therefore, he could only sigh in frustration.

“If only there is a way to loot this damn place…”

Fang Linyan couldn’t help but have such a thought in his heart, but he quickly shook his head.

With his current strength, if he wanted to make trouble here, he was really tired of living. Unless he was taking advantage of the situation to stir up civil unrest, but now Fang Linyan didn’t have such a chance at all.

After Fang Linyan left the shop, he didn’t delay any longer. After asking someone, he went to Knockturn Alley.

The entrance to this place was actually not difficult to find. There were 2 skull lamps hanging at the entrance of the alley. Even the environment in the alley looked gloomy and dark. Most of the shops were black magic shops. There were various things hanging on the signs. There were shrunken head, giant black spider, withered hand, sunflower flower pot with a smirk, and more.

There were obviously far fewer people walking in the alley than those outside. All of them were wearing masks or wrapped in black wizard robes. They seemed to be worried about being seen by the other.

Fang Linyan walked slowly in the alley, then he came to Borgin & Burkes. Compared with the rest of the places, this place seemed to be relatively normal. There was just a smiling clown mask hanging at the door. However, looking close, the lips of the clown mask seemed to be too bright just like it was painted with fresh blood.

Not only that, but the corners of the clown’s mouth were raised too much. Fang Linyan took a closer look and saw that its big mouth was forcibly expanded and torn open with scissors.

Of course, what’s more important was that the base material of this mask looked a lot like human skin, but Fang Linyan didn’t want to reach out and touch it to confirm the material. He just went right in.

As soon as Fang Linyan entered the door, he smelled an indescribable smell as if the leather that had been rotten for 5 days was boiled in a large pot, which was quite pungent.

The lighting in the store was bright, but it seemed that it was to better display the goods in the shop.

A shriveled hand on a mat was placed on the counter in the center, and it could be seen that the owner attached great importance to it.

There were blood-stained playing cards beside it. When Fang Linyan stared at this thing, he noticed that the head of the J winked at him.

The opal card in the frame beside appeared to be the only normal thing, but the label had a clear warning:

Do not touch! — Cursed — 19 muggles have so far died for possessing this thing.

In addition, on the small blackboard next to the counter were clearly written a few lines:

Buying the following casting materials at a high price from today:

Flash powder

Maple seeds

Light feather

The person who wrote these lines used some kind of pigment that could emit a faint phosphorescence on its own. Yes, it was the kind of phosphorescence that wafted from the bones of the dead in the mass graves.

At the boss’ seat behind the counter, there was a green-skinned goblin. It was at most 30cm tall. It had treacherous little eyes, thick and wrinkled green skin, and a peculiar necklace on its neck.

This necklace looked ordinary, but Fang Linyan was a very observant person. Even if he didn’t enter [Bullet Time], he noticed many small details. So, he quickly judged that this necklace was actually composed of finger bones. There was a very strange aura on it, which made people stay away from it instinctively.

It was like a morgue illuminated by the pale lights at midnight. Even if there are no corpses in it, no one absolutely wants to stay in it for a long time.

Seeing Fang Linyan entering the door, this little goblin didn’t even want to come out to receive guests. It just yawned lazily…

Fang Linyan was stunned for a while, but he remembered it clearly. The promotion mission that triggered the Scholar title was here. It seems that the time limit is still within 24 hours of entering this world. Why is there no response when I arrive?

However, his mind was also very quick. He immediately took the initiative to equip the Scholar title.

Sure enough, after he did this, although other people or creatures couldn’t see his action, the little goblin suddenly raised its eyelids, then it stretched out, grabbed in the air and smelled it.

Immediately afterward, the little goblin had a confused expression. In the end, it spoke to Fang Linyan,

“Hey boy, where are you from?”

TL: What will the new title be?