The morning sun rose over Sapphire City. But it didn't seem to bring the usual warmth. It just illuminated the wreckage.

  The harbor was a messy graveyard. A graveyard of splintered wood, cracked stone, bloody dead bodies, and the rotting remains of things that should have stayed dead. The smell of ocean was drowned out by the sharp tang of blood.

  The victory celebration was a gloomy and ugly affair. There were cheers, sure. But they were thin. They were the sounds of people who were glad to be alive, but wished they didn't have to see what was lying next to them.

  Sapphire City had survived. But the toll was heavy. The ghost ship 'Lonely Queen' hadn't exactly brought ghost tale. It had brought devastation and tragedy.

  Jack stood on a pile of rubble. Looking at his system notifications.

  He decided not to make a choice yet. [Flaming Undead Chariot]. [Eldritch Ghost Ship]. [Cursed Dragon Mount]. Each had its merits and drawbacks. But Jack wasn't in the mood to window-shop for legendary artifacts. He swiped the screen away. It could wait until later.

  The city was still bleeding. There were things to do. Lots of things to do.

  "Dear!" A soft voice called out.

  Jack turned. Reina was walking toward him. Her long black hair was slightly disheveled. And her clothes were stained with dust and strange blood. But she still looked more composed than anyone else in the harbor.

  Behind her, Rune trailed silently. The fairy's body were pulsing with a rhythmic, deep blue light. A sign of mourning as well as frustation.

  "How’s the damage?" Jack asked. He wasn't talking about the buildings. And Reina knew that.

  "The healers are overwhelmed." Reina said. Her voice was practical but tinged with a rare note of fatigue. "There were too many injured patients. And the healers were running out of mana. They poured almost all their magic power for the final attack."

  "Figures." Jack said. He looked over at the groups of injured mercenaries and city watch members. "Survival is the easy part. It's the cleaning up that sucks."

  The next few hours were a blur of grim manual labor. Jack didn't want to reveal many of his incarnations. But he didn't hide the fact that he could transform into a rakshasa form.

  During the battle, people had seen him transforming into his Judge Jack. And luckily, they believed he had a secondary class as a primal sorcerer. And considered it his primal sorcery power.

  Now, to help out the aftermath, Jack openly transformed into a hulking rakshasa. He moved massive slabs of fallen rocks easily.

  And later, as the human mercenary, he joined Big Bill, and the relatively intact survivors. Their task was even less pleasant than lifting boulders. But it was crucial. The were handling the dead.

  The fallen defenders were collected with solemn respect. Their names were called out in hushed, referent tones.

  But the undead invaders were treated differently. Their bodies were piled up carefully because they could carry a dangerous taint. But no respect was involved there. Some mercenaries dragged them by their legs or kicked them to the assigned place.

  "No lingering traces." Big Boss Lodgrey instructed. "Every last one needs to be incinerated. Completely. We don't need any surprises in a few days when one of them decides to get up again."

  The work was laborious and emotionally draining. They moved through the wreckage. Separating friend from foe. Gathering the deceased.

  The smell of burning flesh soon mingled with the sharp tang of blood and the salty scent of the sea. A painful reminder of the battle's cost.

  Finally, the pyres had burned down to embers. And the last of the fallen defenders had been respectfully laid out for their proper funerals.

  The city settled into a somber calm. The initial panic had subsided. Replaced by a lingering exhaustion.

  Jack finally had a moment to himself for a few minutes. It wasn't long though. Someone called him and Reina to come to the president's office in the Mercenary Union HQ.

  ...

  Big Boss Lodegrey, the president of the Mercenary Union, sat across from them. Lady Gemrose stood by his side. Sharp and observing.

  "You saved Sapphire City, Mr. Night, Mrs. Night." Big Boss Lodegrey said in strangely formal manner. "For that, the Union is grateful. The city council is also grateful."

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  Jack simply nodded. "The threat was existential. We did what was necessary. But I am still a mercenary, Boss. I get paid extra for this mission, don't I?"

  The president grinned. "Yeah. Obviously. You'll get double payment. From the Union and from the city council. I'll ensure that."

  Jack smiled and placed a small, recognizable lantern on the polished table. It glowed with a soft, ethereal azure light. It was the [Azure Moon Lantern]. One of the two he had stolen from the cultist.

  Jack didn't plan to keep the lantern. Many people had known about it. Holding it would just cause unnecessary trouble.

  "You know this artifact, Boss. I took it from the Eternal Soul Cult. You know it holds power against undeath and other… non-traditional energies."

  The president's eyes had long recognized the artifact. A flicker of interest crossed his face. "What do you ask for it?"

  "Your steamrune engineering notes. And I don't want the common knowledge found in the library." Jack replied directly. "You know I'm also a steamrune engineer, Boss. But I'm stuck at the fourth steamrune. I need more information about steamrune engineering."

  Big Boss Lodegrey raised a thick eyebrow. "That's a steep price for one artifact, Night. Those notes are confidential. It contains many forbidden designs."

  "Then take out the forbidden designs." Jack conceded. "I don't want any design or blueprint. I'd rather create my own. What I want are the knowledge of advanced runes, the principles, the theories, and their logical reasoning."

  "Even if that was the case..."

  Lady Gemrose intervened smoothly. "Abe, Mr. Night's offer is reasonable. Exchanging the artifact and the notes were not a loss. And you know it. You are just too lazy to re-organize the notes."

  Jack simply waited. He knew the value of the lantern. Exchanging it with notes of steamrune engineering advanced notes was pretty fair. In fact, he might suffer a bit loss here. The artifact should be slightly more valuable.

  However, just before he came to this room, Jack had completed one task. Leveraging his Treasure Hunter class, he had already copied the artifact's power into a spellcard. And he even still remembered the card's information...

  [Spell Card: Azure Moon Field]

  [Type: Domain]

  [Effect: Creates a large area-of-effect field that suppresses the power of undeath energy, eldritch energy, and non-orthodox faith energy within its radius. Weakens entities drawing power from these sources and disrupts their abilities. Can temporarily sever connections to extra-dimensional power sources.]

  [Requirement: Usable by any transcendent. Caster must possess a minimum Mysticism of 60.]

  [Maximum Duration: 2 hours]

  [Cooldown: 2 hours per use]

  The spellcard might not be as good as the complete relic. But it had no 'complication'. He didn't need to worry others were scheming and plotting to seize it.

  Big Boss Lodegrey sighed finally. "Fine. A deal. The lantern for the advanced steamrune engineering notes, without any design. You'll receive them by morning. But you must sign a confidentiality contract under Arcane Law."

  Jack knew what Arcane Law Contract was. It was a blood contract stamped with [Arcane Court Seal], a rare mystic artifact. It had very strong binding enforcement.

  Jack nodded in agreement. He didn't mind signing a contract. He had no plan of revealing the steamrune engineering information to other people.

  "Along with the agreed-upon monetary reward?" He asked.

  "Yes, yes..." The president waved a hand with a flicker of annoyance. "We'll give them to you tomorrow. Along with two [Black Sapphire Tokens]. Consider it a bonus."

  "[Black Sapphire Tokens]?"

  "You're living in the capital, aren't you?" Lady Gemrose asked. "The tokens would grant access to the royal black market and the royal dark auction in Lonestone. They will point you to the location when the market and auction were open."

  Jack did not react externally. But internally, he was very pleased. The royal black market and dark auction. That was significant for him. Two of his incarnations, Jack Night and Jack Lantern needed a lot of rare materials to improve their power. And the access would definitely help a lot.

  ...

  He and Reina returned to their hotel room in the late afternoon. The city was still buzzing around the ghost ship invasion. Though it was quieter now.

  As Reina lay down on the hotel bed to relax, Jack moved into the bathroom. He stood before the hotel's bathroom mirror and activated his [Mythical Mirror Realm]. The mirror's surface rippled. Turning into a portal. A gateway to either the dangerous Mirror World or his tranquil Mirror Mansion.

  He reached out and disappeared. Entering his sanctuary, the Mirror Mansion. There was another relic he stole during the encounter with the three cults. He dropped it randomly here got safekeeping then. He hadn't appraised it yet.

  He quickly found the relic. A squat, metal object. Roughly the size of a human torso. A hard and heavy anchor. Its surface was carved with intricate, unsettling symbols that didn't seem like the runes he had learned.

  Jack focused his [Eyes of Judgement]. His mind delved into the information provided by the ability.

  [Name: Aberrant Anchor]

  [Grade: Epic]

  [Durability: Extremely Tough (96%)]

  [Special Ability: Soul Binding Pact; Soul Anchor; Spatial Armor]

  [Description: An ancient relic created in an undersea necropolis. It phases anyone bound to it slightly out of the current spatial register. Any physical or elemental attack will pass through the user as if they were a ghost. However, the anchor requires a human sacrifice to bind a soul to its protection. The anchor must remain within 100 meters of the user to function.]

  Jack frowned at the 'human sacrifice' part. While he was lawless and pragmatic, he didn't really like life sacrifice ritual.

  It seemed that it wouldn't be used often. He had no intention of sacrificing anyone to bind himself to this thing. But that didn't mean he couldn't extract its other benefits.

  He activated his Treasure Hunter ability. As usual, the system notification shimmered into his view.

  [NEW SPELL CARD ACQUIRED!]

  [SPELL CARD: SPATIAL ARMOR]

  Another tarot-like card appeared. Hovering on air. It had a classic painting of a transparent armor with big anchor at the background view. Jack immediately activated his [Eyes of Judgement] again...

  [Spell Card: Spatial Armor]

  [Type: Blessing]

  [Effect: Grants an invisible protection to the target for a limited duration, causing all physical and elemental attacks (including environmental hazards like fire or acid) to pass harmlessly through them. The target is effectively phased slightly out of synchronous reality, making them intangible to most forms of direct harm. This protection does not apply to mental or soul attacks, nor to attacks that manipulate spacetime directly.]

  [Requirement: Usable by any transcendent. Caster must possess a minimum Mysticism of 60.]

  [Maximum Duration: 10 minutes]

  [Cooldown: 6 hours per use]

  Jack nodded slowly. This was a perfect defensive ability. Just like the intangibility power of his specter incarnation.