Lord of Mysteries:The Good Witch

"This gun of yours is at least two years old, right? And it's been poorly maintained. The rifling is almost completely worn out, making it practically a smoothbore. The action and hammer are also corroded. This will seriously affect your shooting accuracy and could even cause the gun to explode. As a gun user, you must be aware of this, right?"

Old Neil, dressed in a black robe, remained seated at his mottled desk, holding Angel's .45 caliber revolver. He opened the cylinder, pointed the notches towards the gas lamp on the wall, and peered down the barrel.

Angel sat opposite him, and upon hearing her weapon being devalued, she quickly defended, "This gun is secondhand. It was already in this condition when I got it. If it were a new gun, I would definitely maintain it properly and never let it get like this."

"What I mean is, you should have come to exchange it for a new one sooner."

Putting down the revolver, Old Neil glanced at Angel, his stern face suddenly breaking into a slight smile.

"Come and get bullets when you run out, and don't use your gun to this extent. The other guys replace their guns two or three times a year, and most of the old weapons they return are almost as good as new. Guns and bullets are both consumables, *consumables*!"

He emphasized.

Angel's lips moved, as if she had a thousand words to say, but what finally came out was, "You're right."

She had arrived at Blackthorn Security Company early this morning. Besides reporting to the headquarters daily as Dunn Smith had requested, the most important thing was to replace her revolver.

She originally thought that such a matter would be made difficult, but to her surprise, Dunn readily agreed to Angel's request for a gun replacement. He even offered to equip her with a Watcher badge and apply for a "Weapon Usage Permit."

"Miss Granger, you wouldn't want to be stopped and questioned by the police for carrying a gun on the street, would you?"

Dunn had asked Angel while writing the approval slip.

Banishing the strange thoughts from her mind, she handed over the slip: "One .45 caliber revolver, 40 rounds of the same caliber ammunition, and a Special Operations Department badge."

"I was a little curious the last time you came to get bullets. Why does a girl like you use such a large caliber revolver?" Old Neil took the slip but didn't immediately go to the armory to get the items. Instead, he asked with a smile.

"I believe that a handgun is essentially a close-quarters weapon, and stopping power is more important," Angel replied truthfully. This was also why she had been using the revolver left behind by Cole Granger instead of switching to a smaller caliber revolver with a moderate power and a six or seven-round cylinder.

"Well, a very standard answer, but I do hope you all use weapons of a unified caliber. This would make it easier for you to resupply each other with ammunition in battle, and it would also make things easier for me, the armory manager."

Old Neil waved the slip in his hand, turned around, and entered the iron gate at the back. After a short while, he came out with a brand-new handgun, two boxes of ammunition, and an iron badge about half the size of a palm.

The badge was inlaid with silver lettering that read "Ahuwa County Police Department" and "Special Operations Department Seventh Squad," surrounding a double-sword crossed crown emblem representing the police system.

The new revolver was more finely crafted than Angel's original one. The wooden handle was carefully polished and engraved with the police emblem. The metal parts gleamed under the flickering gaslight.

One box of bullets contained ordinary handgun ammunition, and the other contained demon-hunting bullets, which were packaged in paper and iron boxes, respectively, as before.

After receiving the items, Angel signed her name on the logbook that Old Neil handed over, completing the handover.

"Will the old weapon be destroyed or stored?" Angel asked curiously, seeing Old Neil place her old revolver into a box under the table.

"Generally, we hand them over to the Tingen City Police Department regularly for disposal. They will dismantle and destroy the weapons to prevent them from falling into the hands of civilians or even entering the underground market. Although civilian weapons are already rampant, this procedure still has to be done," Old Neil replied, kicking the box containing the recovered weapons.

"Of course, weapons damaged during Beyonder events are not included. Sometimes these weapons can be contaminated with Beyonder powers, or even become Beyonder items or magical items themselves. It is very dangerous to hand them over to ordinary people. The church has special personnel responsible for disposing of them."

Angel caught the key point in Old Neil's words: "Magical items?"

"Any item that comes into contact with Beyonder characteristics for a long time may become an item containing Beyonder power. We call these items magical items. Even if it only accidentally comes into contact with spiritual materials, or even parts of an Beyonder being's body, it will become an Beyonder item with spiritual power," Old Neil said slowly, leaning back in his chair like a teacher.

"Most of these items are simply contaminated with power and cannot be used, but a small number of them will acquire Beyonder characteristics and become magical items with those characteristics. It is said that the church has craftsmen who can use ordinary Beyonder materials to actively combine them, turning ordinary weapons into Beyonder weapons with Beyonder abilities."

Filtering out the convoluted terms and concepts, Angel grasped the key point in Old Neil's words: Beyonder weapons.

*So, where can I buy one?* she almost blurted out.

Old Neil winked and said with a smile, "You want to ask where you can get such weapons, right? Every Watcher who has heard me talk about Beyonder weapons has asked that."

"My answer is, you can't get them."

"As far as I know, all the official Beyonder in Tingen City combined couldn't even put together an Beyonder weapon—ah, the guys from 'Mechanical Heart' are different. They have their own craftsmen who can make weapons with slightly inferior effects but much lower risks. Maybe you can try your luck in the underground market by spending a lot of money, or find a craftsman from the Church of Steam and Machinery to make one."

Greatly disappointed, Angel picked up the brand-new revolver on the table and sighed, "Then it seems I can only use ordinary revolvers. At least it's free."

Old Neil laughed directly upon hearing this, "I like young people who can find joy in hardship."

"However, besides Beyonder weapons, there are other simple and… cheap ways to improve combat effectiveness."

Seeing Angel's disappointment, Old Neil added.

He reached into the pocket inside his robe, took out a small silver piece, and handed it to her.

Angel took it and examined it carefully.

The silver piece was very thin, and both sides were engraved with Hermes runes. This was a script commonly used in mystical rituals. Complex words and symbols intertwined and surrounded each other, covering the entire surface of the silver piece.

Just holding it in her hand, she felt a deep, serene mystical power, like what she felt when praying to the Night Goddess in the cathedral.

"This is a 'Slumber Charm.' As long as you recite your designated activation incantation—this one is 'Night' in ancient Hermes—and then inject spirituality into it, it will be triggered. The effect is to put people nearby to sleep, similar to Leonard's Beyonder abilities."

Remembering Leonard Mitchell's ability to recite poetry and make people sleepy when fighting Mrs. Sharon, Angel nodded in understanding. This should be from the same source as the "Sleepless," or perhaps even directly from the power of the Night Goddess.

These pre-made charms could indeed greatly enhance combat effectiveness, as they were almost a reproduction of an Beyonder ability from a certain sequence. Even if they were not inherently lethal, using them unexpectedly could instantly tilt the scales of a battle that was originally evenly matched.

Even if the "Slumber Charm" couldn't directly put Beyonder to sleep, it could still greatly affect the fight between Beyonder, even if it only interfered with the opponent's thinking for a second or two.

"The method of making charms is very simple, similar to your process of making special bullets: engrave the incantation on the base material and inject spirituality. They don't maintain their effect for long, usually only one to two weeks, but they can be reactivated by re-injecting spirituality after the effect expires."

"You have experience making special bullets, so I won't start teaching from the basics. You can take this charm, choose a material, and copy the incantation on it to create charms with the same effect."

"Thank you, Mr. Neil," Angel said, not expecting an unexpected gain.

"Just some basic knowledge of mysticism. I also need to teach the newcomer, Klein Moretti, these things anyway, after the divination lessons. Well, you can learn together."

Klein Moretti… He drank the potion in the alchemy room next door this week and became an Beyonder…

Angel thought of the moment she watched him drink the potion that day. These past two days, she had been busy making "Storm Gathering" bullets and was always worried about whether all of this was a test by the Nighthawks. She hadn't seen this new neighbor again.

Knock, knock—

A knock sounded on the door. The two turned their heads to look at the same time. A top hat appeared in the crack of the door, followed by the face of a young man with short black hair.

"Sorry, I think I heard my name?"

The person who came was Klein Moretti, whom Old Neil had just mentioned.

"Ah, we were just talking about you. I'm planning to take some time to teach you how to make charms. Miss Granger is also very interested." Old Neil was not at all embarrassed about being caught talking behind someone's back. "Are you here to pick up practice bullets?"

Klein had already pushed the door open and walked in. Hearing this, he nodded and replied, "Yes, thank you, Mr. Neil. The same as usual, thirty rounds of ordinary handgun ammunition."

"Okay, wait a moment." Old Neil got up again and went to the armory behind him to get the bullets.

"Practice?" Angel looked at Klein, who was standing by the door, and asked doubtfully.

The young man, wearing a black vest and a top hat, smiled and explained, "The captain gave me the task of familiarizing myself with how to use a handgun as soon as possible. I now get thirty bullets every day to practice at the shooting range."

Holding her newly acquired revolver, Angel's heart stirred.

"Is the shooting range nearby?"