activa-t Chapter 40 Reimbursement
Chapter 40 Reimbursement
At noon, Lucius came out of the police station's underground shooting range and had lunch in the public canteen on the first floor of the police station.
The food in the cafeteria can't compare to the Oakwood Restaurant near the East York University campus, but it's cheaper, more plentiful, and... free.
When Lucius sat down by the window with his tray, his left wrist was still a little sore.
After a morning of shooting practice, he is now confident that he can consistently score around 7 rings on a 10-meter target without using sequential shooting ability, and occasionally even 9 or 10 rings.
After finishing his meal, Lucius returned his tray to the recycling window and said goodbye to Charles and Eleanor, who were still arguing in the office about the ownership of a case file.
Lucius passed through the main entrance of the hall and flagged down a carriage at the public carriage stop by the roadside.
"To 19 Sprin Street." He handed the driver a penny.
The carriage bumped along the cobblestone street for a few minutes before coming to a steady stop in front of 19 Sprin Street just before the setting sun disappeared.
When Lucius pushed open the door of the detective agency, he saw Oliver brewing coffee as usual, with the air filled with the fragrance of roses and lilies.
"Why does he have so many kinds of coffee?" Lucius thought to himself.
Since last Thursday, he has seen Oliver brew at least four different types of coffee from completely different origins and with different flavors.
"Good afternoon, no, good afternoon, Oliver."
"Good afternoon, Lucius." Oliver picked up a clean white porcelain cup from the tea cabinet and smiled.
"Try it. It's a new variety that the Invincible Sun Church sent me from Elon. It's a new coffee they tested at a food tasting event last week. They haven't named it yet, so they asked me to write a taste review."
Lucius took the cup and sipped it. As the coffee spread on his tongue, the first sensation was the sweetness of rose, followed by the slightly bitter aftertaste of lily.
He put the cup back on the table and commented:
"It's a very special feeling, refreshing. However, I prefer yesterday's Akara coffee. It has a richer body, and there's a lingering caramel aftertaste in your mouth after drinking it."
Oliver was roused by his words, and his smile widened even further:
"That's a very accurate review. In the past, when Felix tasted my food, he would only use the word 'good' to describe my skills."
"That's a shame, to say the least." Lucius finished the last sip of his coffee. "Where's Captain Felix?"
Oliver pointed towards the second floor:
"In the office. A newly recruited member is promoted to a rank-up. He needs to issue a notification to all squads of the Hull City Anti-Suppression Bureau, explaining that the third squad has added a formal rank-up member."
You must also submit a complete promotion file to the headquarters of the Elon Anti-Corruption Bureau, including your secret modification records, potion-making process, specific ritual parameters of the atmosphere effect, and the first ability assessment after promotion.
Once this file is archived at headquarters, your Sequencer status will officially take effect in the Kingdom's Anti-Corruption Bureau system.
"What, do you need to see him?"
Lucius relayed Anthony's invitation and then revealed his own purpose:
"I'd like to receive an advance of one week's... three weeks' salary, and a decent suit might be worth more."
"You want to do this with your own salary?" Oliver shook his head after hearing this and smiled.
"You can have Felix approve this expense under the guise of operation funds for tomorrow night's auction dinner... You can enter the dinner independently to search for clues about Marcus, and your formal attire is the necessary work equipment for this operation."
Is this even possible? Lucius thought about it. The contract they had signed did mention that expenses for field investigations could be reimbursed within the same month.
At the time, he mentally assumed that this item meant: "the cost of taking a public carriage on a business trip" and "the cost of accommodation when handling cases in other places".
I never imagined that an evening gown could be included in the "essential equipment for field investigations".
"I'll do it right away," Lucius said, turning and heading upstairs.
Oliver, standing behind him, promptly reminded him, "Don't forget the occult class later."
Boom boom boom!
"Come in," Felix's voice came from inside the door.
Lucius pushed open the door and saw Felix sitting behind his desk writing something.
Hearing the door open, Felix looked up at Lucius, his drawn eyebrows slightly raised, signaling him to continue.
Feeling guilty, Lucius revealed his own thoughts, without betraying Oliver's advice.
Felix paused for a moment, then looked up and smiled:
"You've integrated into the Anti-Suppression Bureau's life much faster than I expected. Alright, I'll write a brief funding approval report for this matter, and we'll handle it together with the promotion notices that will be sent to each squad this afternoon."
"Come see me after you finish your occult course. I'll give you a note then, and you can go to Oliver to collect your cash."
Lucius's face lit up with a hint of joy as he realized his goal had been achieved.
This way, he could save a lot of money to buy the secrets from Miss Moran's bookstore.
The fact that there were no Mystic Points in the Mystic Journal made Lucius very uncomfortable, as both the Secret Rank and the Sequence Path upgrades required a large number of Mystic Points.
他之前尝试过，密传从lv0升到lv2需要2点神秘学点数，而升到lv3时至少2点是不够的。
As for the Feast Attendant Apostles? The idea of using mystical points to achieve a second promotion is inexplicable, not to mention how many points are needed.
Lucius left Felix's office and turned to enter the secret library.
Oliver had arrived earlier, and in front of him was a thin blue booklet that Lucius had never seen before.
"Oliver, what are we going to learn today?" Lucius pulled out a chair across the long table and sat down, his tone much more relaxed.
"To be honest, your learning ability has improved even further since you were promoted to the position of Feast Apostle."
Oliver opened the booklet to the first page, pushed it in front of Lucius so he could glance at the table of contents, and then said:
"Now that you have just been promoted to a Sequencer, what you need to learn most is not more theory, but how to deeply explore your existing combination of abilities."
You need to develop your own unique skill set.
"Then what should I do?" Lucius leaned forward slightly, wanting to hear what this experienced person had to say.
"That depends on how you look at it," Oliver said, throwing the question back at him.
"According to the abilities recorded in the sequence of the Feasting Apostles: Dreaming, Perceiving Faces, Sevenfold Protection."
"All I can directly teach you is the part related to dreams. Although you acquired the ability to enter dreams through the secret teachings of the Lamp Master, its subsequent development can still function and grow normally within the framework of the Feast Attendant Apostles."
"Regarding the ability to perceive facial expressions, I can't offer any direct advice. However, based on the case records we've collected when capturing members of the Blood Cup Cult, the key to this ability lies in arousing desire."
"As for the Sevenfold Protection, according to the records of the previous Feast Apostles, those who choose this sequence usually tend to go in two career directions."
One type is weapon enchanters, who are skilled at attaching different types of protection to weapons. You can learn this from Felix.
Another method involves apothecaries who embed the blessing within the potion, granting the user a temporary buff for a specific period.
Oliver hesitated for a moment, but then mentioned the other end of the option:
"If it's the latter, then you can only learn from Gray. Gray is the only fully-fledged pharmacist that the entire Third Squad can currently access."