Lord of Mysteries:The Good Witch

Following the "Fool's" instructions, Angell had to conduct the ritual magic experiment by Wednesday at the latest. Although the materials needed for the ritual weren't expensive, they were quite diverse. After reviewing the inventory in her study's basement, Angell realized she needed to make a trip to the underground market to meet the requirements.

The largest underground trading market in Tingen was the "Evil Dragon Bar" located in the dock area. Before joining the Nighthawks, Angell thought this market was just a secret location passed on by word of mouth among mystery enthusiasts and some wild Beyonder. However, after hearing about it from Old Neil, Leonard, Seeka , and others, she discovered that Evil Dragon Bar had long been exposed to official Beyonder.

In fact, places like Evil Dragon Bar were established with the tacit approval of the church's Beyonder forces. This allowed them to control the trade of most dangerous items and extraordinary materials rather than letting it develop wildly.

Understanding this, Angell no longer felt burdened about visiting the underground market. After all, if seasoned Nighthawks like Old Neil frequently went to Evil Dragon Bar to purchase materials, what problem could there be with her preparing for ritual magic practice?

After nightfall, she hired a two-wheeled carriage and headed straight to the dock area. Considering the time needed for shopping, Angell didn't have the carriage wait. She paid the driver and let him leave.

She then skillfully navigated past the guards, the seemingly never-ending boxing matches, and the pool players who were actually protecting the secret entrance. Angell made her way down the long dark corridor into the underground trading market.

During her first visit to Evil Dragon Bar, Angell was in a hurry to make special bullets to deal with Madam Sharon. This time, with a different mindset and purpose, she leisurely explored the underground market like a supermarket, carefully selecting materials needed for ritual magic while broadening her horizons.

The underground market was actually in another building behind Evil Dragon Bar, appearing to be a converted warehouse. With a ceiling height of over 4 meters and an area of about 500 square meters, it was divided into rows of fixed stalls by the managers, with walkways in between. This arrangement made the crowd of traders feel busy but not chaotic.

As she browsed the stalls one by one, Angell quickly found items of interest. A young boy with messy hair sat on a small round stool, his head drooping as if drowsy. In front of him were many small, exquisite glass bottles, and beside him were bags of various sizes. Some overturned bags revealed their contents, among which Angell recognized the moon flowers she needed.

"Are you selling essential oils made from various herbs?" she approached, bending down to pick up a glass bottle. The thumb-sized bottle was sealed with a metal cap and contained a pale yellow liquid.

The boy looked up at Angell, paused for a moment, then replied, "That's right. You actually didn't mistake it for perfume. I've already turned away several customers who got it wrong."

"Isn't perfume also made from plant essential oils? It's just more fragrant than what you've made here," Angell said, removing the metal cap. A pungent smell wafted out – yes, peppermint.

"Of course, it's different! Perfume is just a cosmetic, but essential oils can be used as medicine, and they can also..." the boy's face suddenly turned red as he eagerly refuted. Halfway through, he stopped abruptly, looked around, then continued, "...never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway. These essential oils are 5 soli each, and if you buy 3 or more, you can get a 10% discount."

"So expensive?" Angell raised an eyebrow. Given the production process, raw material prices, and required extraction equipment for essential oils, she didn't actually think it was very expensive. She was just instinctively trying to negotiate the price down.

"The price was set by my teacher. He said we can't lower the price even if they don't sell," the boy said with a stern face, showing an attitude of rather dying than bargaining. But then he added in a low voice, "...how about an extra 5% discount if you buy 3 or more bottles?"

Estimating that further negotiation wouldn't yield much more of a discount, Angell nodded in agreement.

"Alright, let's go with that price. I need peppermint, moon flower..." She rattled off the list of essential oils she needed. To avoid revealing the detailed requirements of ritual magic, she deliberately chose two additional types of essential oils.

Surprisingly, the boy's stall had a very comprehensive range of essential oils. Even the two extra types Angell added were skillfully selected by the boy and packed into an elegant cloth bag.

"That'll be 1 pound, 9 soli, and... 9 pence," the boy quickly calculated the discounted price, handing over the cloth bag with one hand while accepting the banknotes from Angell with the other. After returning 3 pence in coins, he immediately turned to the vendor of another stall behind him and said, "Hey, old man, I've got enough money. I'll take all those herbs of yours."

The vendor he called "old man" cheerfully accepted the money and handed over a large bag of unidentified herbs to the boy.

So this is what they call "profiteering"... Angell witnessed the profitability of underground trading as she watched the money she spent on a few bottles of essential oils turn into herbs that could produce several times more essential oil in the boy's hands.

Of course, without professional extraction equipment, even if she bought the herbs, she could only use alcohol for slow extraction, which would be time-consuming, inefficient, and prone to impurities. It wasn't suitable for ritual use, so she had no choice but to let the boy profit from the price difference.

Angell didn't dwell too much on this matter. If she could complete the Fool's task by spending just a few pounds, the cost wasn't too high.

She recalled the items needed for ritual magic. The ritual dagger could be replaced with an ordinary carving knife as long as it could create a spirit wall. Various foods should be purchased on the day of use to ensure freshness. That left only the sandalwood candles for the ritual.

Passing by several stalls selling materials and finished products, Angell approached a middle-aged man who was promoting various amulets to other customers.

For Beyonder who could make their own charms and amulets, these protective talismans made by ordinary people based on flawed mystical knowledge weren't worth buying. What interested her were the sandalwood candles placed in the corner of the stall. These candles were more translucent than ordinary animal fat candles and had a more slender body, easily distinguishable from other candles.

"How much for those candles?" Angell asked after the middle-aged man failed to make a sale and sat back down on his low stool.

"Hm, what?" The man looked at Angell in confusion, following her gaze to the candles.

"You want to buy candles? No, no, these aren't for sale. I use them to make amulets. Why don't you take a look at these amulets instead..." He picked up the silver amulet with openwork design and feather-shaped decorations that he couldn't sell earlier and handed it to Angell.

"5 soli," Angell said directly, without looking at the amulet in his hand.

"This one is 6 soli. For 5 soli, you can only buy the ones over there..." The man didn't understand her meaning and continued to fiddle with the silver amulet.

"I meant the candles."

The middle-aged man was stunned. It took him a while to react. He looked at the amulet in his hand, then at the bundle of candles in the corner, hesitating for a moment.

"Alright, they're yours..." The man sighed, agreeing to the trade.

Ordinary candles usually cost 1/2 pence. Even if sandalwood candles were several times more expensive, buying a bundle of 10 like this wouldn't cost more than 2 soli. Angell's forceful purchase at more than double the price indeed broke through the man's psychological bottom line. He dejectedly put down the silver amulet and handed the bundle of candles to Angell.

"I didn't expect my first deal today would be reselling candles," he said self-mockingly as he accepted the 5 soli note. "It seems selling candles might be a more profitable business than making amulets."

Realizing that her eagerness to buy the candles had discouraged the vendor, Angell smiled wryly and tried to console him, "I'm sorry, I just urgently need these candles. I didn't mean to imply that your amulets aren't worth the price. These, um..."

She pressed her tongue against her back teeth, opened her spirit vision, and looked at these dull amulets. As she was struggling to find some insincere praise, she suddenly felt a disturbance in her spirituality from behind, as if her intuition was urging her to be alert to that direction.

No longer paying attention to the dejected middle-aged man, she turned to look behind her. Sitting against the wall two rows of stalls away was a thin young man. He wore the linen shirt and blue-gray trousers common among dock workers. His wrinkled clothes seemed unwashed for a long time. His lifeless eyes stared at the sky, his mouth muttering something incomprehensible.

Passersby seemed accustomed to the young man's presence, ignoring his strange behavior and only slightly detouring to avoid contact with him.

"Who is that?" Angell pointed at him, asking the middle-aged man who was now polishing his amulets.

"An orphan, don't know his name. He's crazy, always talking nonsense and shouting at strangers. Often gets beaten up when he runs into someone with a bad temper," the man glanced in the direction Angell was pointing and casually replied. "If it weren't for Mr. Swain, the manager here, having a bit of kindness, he would have been thrown into the Tussock River long ago."

Reopening her spirit vision, Angell carefully observed the deranged young man but made no additional discoveries.

Perhaps only a "spirit medium" or "Seer" skilled in spirit vision could see something more... She licked her teeth and closed her spirit vision, no longer paying attention to the young man.

With the candles acquired, Angell's main task was essentially complete. However, since she rarely visited the underground market, she decided not to leave immediately. Instead, she continued browsing different stalls, observing others' bargaining and arguments, occasionally buying some reasonably priced materials.

She even encountered the round-faced, shy young man she had sat opposite on the public carriage earlier that day. He was haggling over an intricately designed, ornate ritual knife. Judging from the vendor's reactions – from resistance to compliance to repeated nodding – the initiative in the transaction seemed to be in the hands of this seemingly just-of-age young man.

Noticing Angell's gaze, the round-faced young man turned to look. He seemed to recognize Angell as well. Smiling, he said a few words to the vendor, took the small knife, and walked over.

"Beautiful lady, we meet again."