212 A Guile of Fire Divination

"Welcome back, Mr. Hymes!" greeted Stefan warmly the moment he took a step inside the hotel.

"Hello again, Stefan. Still working hard I see?" Graham nodded and smiled back.

"Yes, Mr. Hymes. The other receptionist will come later after midday."

There was no hint of complaints in the young man's tone. Graham had grown to admire the hard-working nature of the young man over time. He was still young with a lot of other things that he could do, but instead, he chose to manage the hotels that his family owned.

"So, Stefan, besides working, what else do you do?" Graham's curiosity took the best of him.

The young man tapped his chin with his index finger and began thinking. His eyes were looking at the ceiling above while his expression showed solemnity. After a while, he finally looked at his guest.

"To be honest, Mr. Hymes, when I'm not at the reception desk, I do manager stuff. My father still needs to guide me, so I work slowly. I'm sure when I get more proficient, I'll be able to work faster and have more time for myself,"

Stefan then leaned forward as if trying to whisper. Graham walked closer.

"However, Mr. Hymes, I still watch Television from time to time. There is this cartoon that I just can't miss. Please don't tell anyone," Stefan's eyes were glimmering and begging. He was like a puppy that wanted something.

Graham nodded.

"Don't worry. Well, anyway, gotta get back to my room. See you later, Stefan,"

With a wave, Graham hurriedly walked upstairs, heading to his room. Stefan waved back at him but was only met with the man's back, so he awkwardly retracted his hand.

Graham started running up the stairs in excitement. He knew what was waiting for him and couldn't wait to obtain it. Standing in front of his door, he fished the keys out of his pocket and unlocked it.

His room didn't show any abnormality when Graham entered it. The curtains were still closed like when he left it, and the lights were also off. Stuff hadn't been moved around; they were exactly where he had put them. However, he knew something was waiting for him there. He had to use his ability on himself to get it.

After taking off his jacket, he lied down on the wide, soft bed and began chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, ask to read my own memory!"

There was nothing to be seen through the glass window in front of him, so he kept on searching. The scene in front of him was just that of thick fog. Finally, Graham got what he was looking for: a line that he needed to say out loud. He quickly ended his ability and returned to reality.

Bracing for what was to come, he began saying the line out loud.

"Ayer serpente Ose!"

Whoosh!!

His surrounding suddenly changed! He was no longer in his hotel bedroom but floating underwater. However, instead of water, it felt more like very dense air that was surrounding him. Graham was unable to move nor speak, for his body was just suspended mid-air without any support. He didn't even know which way was up and which was down.

There was no light that he could use as a guiding point. In the pitch darkness, Graham was trying to focus only on his breathing. At that point, he noticed that he could breathe!

The air around him refused to enter his lungs!

He tried to inhale deeply but got nothing. Quickly, he held his breath and tried his best to preserve whatever left oxygen he had in his body. Panicking would only cause his heart to beat faster and in turn, consumed more oxygen.

His skin couldn't feel any sensation but thickness around it. The air around him felt solid, yet at the same time viscous enough to allow him to move his limbs, albeit with difficulty.

At that point, he felt that the air suddenly bubbled up and reached an unimaginable temperature! There was also a giant shadow that looked even darker than the pitch blackness around him descending slowly. He couldn't clearly see it, but he had a feeling that he shouldn't directly cast his eyes on the shadow that evoked every bit sense of danger that he had.

The heat was most definitely coming from the figure, and if not for the dense air surrounding him, he would have been burned off to crisp.

Graham instinctively closed his eyes while his whole body was receiving the intense heat from all around him. It felt like he was standing very close to the sun. His skin started bubbling and popping, liquid mixed with blood came out of the ruptured holes.

His throat felt very dry that even the saliva in his mouth was completely gone. He couldn't breathe, and he couldn't swallow anything. It felt like a hot iron rod had been inserted into his throat, going all the way into his stomach, causing stinging pain all over him.

The pain lasted for what seemed to be years. However, the dark figure actually had only stayed for less than a second. Once it ascended back, the dense air around Graham cooled off rapidly.

His pain didn't just go away, however. Even after was brought back to reality not long after that, his skin still felt charred.

Pant... Pant...

Graham took a deep breath and examined his body. His skin was normal, and his whole body didn't show any damage nor injury. It was just a mental pain that he was experiencing, but the sensation was more real than he would have liked.

Getting up from the bed and wiping the sweat covering his face, Graham began to analyze the new knowledge that had just been transferred to his brain. The cold temperature of the hotel room helped him concentrate and cool down his still sweating body.

"My abilities have finally evolved, Val!" he cheered when he accessed the new information in his brain, "The Deity seemed to have been very pleased with our performance that five targets were all it took,"

"It's apparent that the Deities are not rigid systems, but living entities. They are very alive and can change their minds. They also seem to possess emotion, as seen from the fact that we need to please them to gain more power. But I don't think we should be talking about Them like this, Val,"

Graham began rubbing his chin.

"Now let's see how my abilities have evolved. First, as usual, the limit to how many times I can use my abilities has been increased to fifteen for all of them: Memory Reading, Transformation, and Thought Implant. However, Val, the cost for Thought Implant is still the same, so even though the limit is increased, I still cannot use it as often as it is too tiring. At least with the upgraded Purloin, the cost is slightly reduced."

Looking at the pale leather belt with complicated patterns that he was wearing, a smile surfaced on Graham's face.

"You chose the right upgrade for it, I think, Val. Choosing the other one will increase the abilities' power but their cost will remain the same. They are already powerful as they are, so the cost problems are the ones that definitely need addressing. If only we could find more of those fragments of a Thief..." there was gratitude and expectation in his voice.

"Moving on with my report, Val. There is an unexpected upgrade that I've got. So, do you remember that I got the ability of Palmistry from the Deity of Fire Divination, Val? That ability is just very underwhelming that I've forgotten it at the back of my head. With the current me, I'm now able to get a sense of what someone is thinking and feeling by touching their palm only. That upgrade should make the ability more usable, although I don't think I can use it in battle since there will be no time to be touching my enemy's palm,"

Graham looked at his own palm and ran his finger across it.

"I wonder how it works. We should try it on Stefan later. It should be okay since it doesn't do any damage whatsoever. Next. My Fire Divinator root seems to also have influenced the way my abilities evolved. Now I'm able to conjure an illusory flame with just thought alone!" his voice sounded genuinely excited.

Concentrating on the empty space in front of him, Graham began imagining a fireball the size of an exercise ball that he usually created. However, he got a headache instead, so he quickly changed the size of the fireball to that of a tiny flame created by a lighter.

Gradually, a flame appeared into existence in front of him, floating mid-air. The flame looked real, but he didn't feel any heat coming from it. It was, however, bright enough to illuminate the dark hotel room to some extent.

Graham put his finger on the floating flame but felt nothing. It was indeed just an illusory flame without any capability to burn anything. He got up and noticed that the flame was following him.

"I ask that you grow bigger!"

He uttered a command to the flame using Fire Manipulation. However, nothing happened. The illusory flame, after all, was illusory.

Seeing that his ability had failed, Graham changed his approach and concentrated on the flame that was floating in place. He then asked a question in his mind.

'Is it safe for me to stay longer in Hoorn?'

The flame burned brighter and gradually, an image appeared. It showed an illusory calendar that marked today's date, the first of October. Wednesday was the next day and there was no mark on the calendar. However, on Thursday the third, there was an ominous-looking skull on the calendar. Looking at the skull gave Graham a grave sense of danger, akin to what he felt from the man with a top hat that was chasing him after he and his crews had killed a Tiyanak. After that, the image disappeared, leaving Graham in deep thought.

"Alright, there is a lot to analyze from that. First, let's call this ability Fire Conjuration. The conjured flame is illusory and can't be used for burning or heating. However, it's good enough for Divination and illumination, seeing as it's following me. This way, we can save up on lighter fuel. Second, let's take a look at the result of divination just now. That seems to be telling me that we can stay for one more day top and then leave this place. Thursday will be a very dangerous day for us if we are still here by then,"

Graham then concentrated and thought about the fireball disappearing. Quickly, the fire disappeared as he commanded.

"Pleasing a President rank Deity brings a lot of upgrades to the previous rank, Val. My Tongue abilities have also evolved yet again. I can now use Order to force someone to think about something. It's a spur of the moment thing, so it's different from Thought Implant, and it will quickly go away if it's not aligned with the target's thought. However, if we add Intensify that we have stored inside Purloin into the equation, that ability can be very powerful."

Different scenarios began popping up in his head. He was thinking about the different ways his new Order could be used in battle.

"The ability to talk to ghosts hasn't been touched, so it remains useless. The ability itself is not actually useless; it's just the ghosts are not very helpful. Seeing that Contractbounds cannot turn into ghosts and only normal people can, they won't be of much help unless they knew a lot while alive, like that Soldier from Dodenherdenking," he complained.

Rubbing his hands together, his expression showed even more excitement now.

"Now onto the main dish: the evolution of my Guile abilities. As I've said, Val, the previous Deities we're in a contract with influence how the abilities evolve. I can now use Memory Reading with the help of Fire Divination as long as the target is within range and my line of sight. That means we don't have to make them unconscious first if we want to read their memory without leaving a trace,"

"Next is Transformation. Now I can store a total of six identities that I can transform into, and the duration has been doubled to four hours. There is this feeling inside of me that is telling me that this ability can evolve even further and it's related to the Deity of Fire Divination, but it appears that I'm still too weak for that. I'm sure it will evolve soon."

"The last one is Thought Implant. Besides the increased limit and effectiveness, I can also now implant an Order that the victim cannot break, as long as they're weaker than me. If they're equal in strength, it will take some time for them to break the Order, and if they're stronger, it will only take a short time. It's definitely influenced by the Deity of the Tongue. I wonder how this works. We'll need to experiment, but we cannot do it on Stefan. We'll need to find a scum of the earth for the experiment,"

Graham lied down on the bed and looked at the ceiling. His hand reached up as if trying to grab something.

"Now I understand why President rank Contractbounds are significantly stronger than Earl rank ones. However, I wonder why I can't form a contract with two Earl rank Deities, seeing as Fire Divination is just a Knight rank. That's definitely a question I need an answer to..."