Lord: Sequence Master

"Is this written in blood?"

Rosen frowned as he examined the dense red writing on the mechanical mount.

The message read:

"Don't say you know me. Don't try to contact me. Wait until you become a demigod to rescue me. Inside the mechanical mount, there is a Spirit Realm coordinate, which is the most sincere reward I can offer. Lastly, a warning: do not use this mechanical mount in the Undercity Kingdom."

After reading this, Rosen immediately understood that something had indeed gone wrong with Farris.

Farris had successfully created a Sequence 3 mechanical mount, which had elevated him to a Sequence 4 Mechanical Inventor. With such a status, he was on par with other demigods. Yet, it was now clear that Farris had been captured, and sending this mechanical mount must have been a difficult feat.

Rosen knew his relationship with Farris wasn't close enough to warrant such a significant gesture. The final warning in the message made it clear that whoever had captured Farris knew about the mechanical mount. However, they likely didn't know the recipient's identity. As long as Rosen didn't use it in the Undercity Kingdom, he should be safe.

As for why the captor allowed Farris to send the mount, it was probably due to a contract witnessed by the Spirit of Contract. Breaking such a contract would result in Farris's death, making him more valuable alive. This was likely why Farris was allowed to send the mount, with a hidden message embedded inside.

Farris didn't ask Rosen to alert the Undercity Kingdom's authorities, which hinted that the one who captured him might be from within the kingdom. In Adventure King City, only one individual had the power and influence to execute such a silent abduction: the King.

Rosen sighed. From the Crimson Shadow Kingdom to the Blue Whale Kingdom, and now to the Undercity Kingdom, none of these rulers seemed virtuous. It was becoming clear that this was a common trait of those in power.

After attending numerous noble gatherings, Rosen had noticed another troubling trend: many nobles were deeply dissatisfied with the World Government. Nobles were forced to serve on the frontlines after a certain age, facing high casualty rates. Not every noble wanted to sacrifice their life for the sake of human civilization, and most were pressured into leaving their families to fight. Although the World Government had grown stronger over the past 20,000 years, its internal stability seemed to be slowly unraveling.

Rosen quickly formed a bond with the mechanical mount, though, for now, he could only access its Sequence 7 capabilities.

[Primordial Essence · Feathered Serpent God Mechanical Mount: Transcendent Item]

Grade: Sequence 7 (potential to reach Sequence 3)

Attributes: The mount can transform into three forms—Feathered Serpent Chariot, Feathered Serpent Ship, and Feathered Serpent Fighter Jet.

Primordial Essence Trait 1: Mounting — Grants perfect control over all mounts, allowing for mutual enhancement of attributes between rider and mount.

Primordial Essence Trait 2: Divine Charge — Instantly triples (or sextuples) the maximum speed.

Primordial Essence Trait 3: Pious Aura — Increases the defense of all allies within the aura by three (or six) times.

Primordial Essence Trait 4: Holy Shield — Creates a shield that nullifies all damage below demigod level.

Primordial Essence Trait 5: Holy Judgment — Enhances the next attack by a Paladin by three (or six) times.

Primordial Essence Trait 6: Resurrection — Grants the ability to resurrect a being that has died within the last three minutes.

Divine Trait: Spirit Realm Stealth — Allows the mount to phase between the spiritual and physical worlds, moving freely between them.

After reviewing the mount's abilities, Rosen fully grasped just how much he owed Farris. When crafting the mechanical mount, Farris had fused the Primordial Essence of a Sequence 4 Paladin, preserving six of the Paladin's powerful skills, including the core Mounting ability and the exceedingly rare Resurrection skill—a feat even most Paladins could not achieve.

With this mount, Rosen could easily disguise himself as a knight sequence practitioner.

In his Divine Domain, Rosen tested the mount's four different forms. Its default was a bio-mechanical version of the Feathered Serpent God, ideal for aerial combat. The chariot form was suited for land travel, the fighter jet form for fast aerial travel, and the ship form for deep-sea navigation. The mount could traverse land, air, and sea, making it an incredibly versatile tool for any journey.

Having fully mastered the mechanical mount, Rosen also found the Spirit Realm coordinate hidden within, along with detailed information. However, he wasn't ready to visit just yet—leaving so soon after returning would arouse suspicion. For now, Rosen chose to study the Time Trap Crafting skill he had acquired.

Normally, a hunter would need a deep understanding of time's power to learn such a skill. Fortunately, as a Painter, Rosen already had significant insight into time from creating Spirit Realm Paintings, which required large amounts of Time Essence Crystals. Additionally, his repeated experiences in the Time Loop Spirit Realm had given him further understanding of time mechanics.

With the help of Scholarly Knowledge and the Cultural Authority of the Feathered Serpent God, Rosen grasped the basics of Time Trap Crafting within half a year. Though he only reached Level 1, mastering the fundamentals was the hardest part. Improving from here would be much easier.

Thanks to his Glory Sage ability, Rosen could convert any time-related knowledge he gained into proficiency with Time Trap Crafting. He even tried using his Primordial Essence Hunting Belt to boost the skill's level, but the belt—capable of improving other hunter skills—couldn't enhance Time Trap Crafting, signaling its extraordinary nature.

While Rosen mastered the trap runes, the next challenge was to imprint time-related abilities. Most of these were found in higher sequences, and his Level 1 trap rune couldn't replicate them yet.

He put out a high-paying bounty to find a lower-sequence time skill.

Rosen considered using his hunter alias, Lynne Wells, but realized it might look suspicious. He had bought the Time Trap Crafting skill as Rosen, a noble, at the trading fair. Switching identities now could raise unwanted questions.

In contrast, it would be easier to explain why a noble painter would seek a hunter's skill. Many high-sequence painters used transcendent hunter skills to fortify their Void Galleries with traps, making them impenetrable fortresses. It wasn't uncommon for painters above Sequence 6 to possess some hunter skills.

Fortune favored Rosen when, within half a month, he received promising news.

In the Underground World, there was a parasitic plant called the Chrono Rainbow Flower, which lived on Rainbow Butterflies. When parasitized, the butterfly transformed into a Chrono Rainbow Butterfly, capable of using the time-based ability Time Dust. This dust could slow time upon contact or speed it up when ignited.

Though rare, a Sequence 7 Gourmand named Delia could transform into a Chrono Rainbow Butterfly.

Tracking down Delia wasn't easy, but Rosen finally found her residence.

To his surprise, despite being a Sequence 7 noble, Delia lived in an ordinary part of Adventure King City, in an annex designated for commoners. She even rented a spot on the local food street.

When Rosen found her, she was scurrying along the food street like a hamster, snacking at various stalls.

In this world, where food had no artificial enhancement, flavor was directly tied to quality. While some affordable ingredients were delicious, they were scarce. Most extraordinary beings avoided regular food as it lacked spiritual essence.

As a Gourmand, Delia's obsession with food was understandable. But seeing her indulge in non-spiritual food from a common street? It seemed unusual—perhaps she was trying to reset her palate after consuming too much spiritual food?

Rosen soon realized the truth—Delia was the biggest eater he'd ever seen. She ate her way through the entire street, consuming tens of tons of food. It seemed she had literally eaten herself into poverty.

Delia's mouth stretched as wide as a wagon wheel, swallowing a whole roasted pig in one bite.

Neither the street vendors nor the other diners seemed surprised; they were clearly used to Delia's enormous appetite. Some vendors even prepared oversized portions just for her.

Despite being a Gourmand, Delia didn't seem to enjoy the act of eating. Her expression was numb, as though she were forcing herself to eat food that no longer brought her joy. It was as if eating had become a burden.

After finishing her last bite, Delia turned to Rosen, eyeing him with suspicion.

"You've been following me for half the street. You must be the noble who placed the bounty for the Chrono Rainbow Butterfly, right?"

"Yes, that's me. It's a pleasure to meet you," Rosen replied with a polite nod.

"What exactly do you need from the Chrono Rainbow Butterfly's time ability?" Delia asked.

"I need your help imprinting the time ability onto a trap rune," Rosen explained.

"Ten thousand Essence Crystals," Delia stated after a brief pause, naming her price.

Rosen was momentarily taken aback—not because it was expensive, but because it was too cheap. Considering how rare the Chrono Rainbow Butterfly was, she could have asked for a million crystals, and he'd have had no choice. But she only wanted ten thousand, which was odd.

Given Rosen's wealth and ability to master Time Trap Crafting, it was clear he had the means to pay more. Delia, living in such poor conditions, had a prime opportunity to demand a higher price. So why didn't she?

Curious but without better options, Rosen agreed.

They set a time, and the next afternoon, Rosen arrived at Delia's home.

Inside, Delia activated her Void Kitchen, a transcendent structure similar to the Void Gallery but lacking its defensive capabilities and being ten times cheaper to build.

Delia had already prepared a mountain of spiritual food inside.

Without saying a word, she transformed into a Chrono Rainbow Butterfly, while Rosen began engraving the trap rune.

The Time Dust settled onto the rune, but the process quickly failed.

After dozens of attempts, Delia reverted to her human form and ravenously devoured the spiritual food she had prepared. Once her spiritual energy was replenished, she transformed back into the Chrono Rainbow Butterfly.

As Rosen watched her eat, a thought crossed his mind. Delia, with only 26 points of spiritual strength, was consuming ten times the amount of spiritual food needed to restore her energy. It seemed much of the spiritual energy she absorbed was being wasted.

When Delia was eating, Rosen had a strong suspicion that she might have developed an uncontrollable Gluttony ability.

A few days later, Rosen successfully imprinted the Time Dust skill onto his trap rune.

He immediately began experimenting with trap fusion, combining Time Trap with Space Trap. Initially, spatial teleportation took about a second to activate, but with Time Dust inside the trap, the teleportation time shrank from one second to one-tenth of a second.

This made teleportation ten times faster, significantly increasing the difficulty for prey to escape the trap. This was why Time Trap Crafting was valued so highly—at thirty million Essence Crystals.

With that task completed, Rosen turned his attention to Delia and asked the question he had been holding back for days.

"Do you possess the Gluttony ability?"

The moment he asked, Delia's expression changed drastically. Her eyes filled with fear and murderous intent. In an instant, a chef's knife appeared in her hand, and she slashed it toward Rosen's throat.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but even now, Rosen didn't regret his decision.

The Nightmare Slime might have originated from the Undercity Kingdom, or perhaps it was linked to the sealed demon god. Discovering any clue through Delia made it impossible for Rosen to let the matter go unexplored.

What Rosen hadn't expected was Delia's immediate intent to kill.

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Delia panted heavily, the knife in her hand still trembling after she severed Rosen's head. His lifeless face remained frozen in an expression of confusion and terror.

Delia began to wonder if she had made a grave mistake. Maybe Rosen had found out about Gluttony through some other means. But she couldn't afford to take the risk—her only priority was survival at any cost.

Accepting Rosen's bounty had been a desperate, impulsive decision, born out of her exhaustion. Now she knew she couldn't stay in Adventure King City any longer. She had to leave, following through with her original plan to flee to another kingdom.

Delia threw Rosen's body into the freezer of her Void Kitchen and started packing to leave the Undercity Kingdom. However, the moment she opened her front door, she found herself in a prison cell.

Through the bars, Delia saw the very same Rosen—who should have been dead—standing outside.

Her knife had been swift and lethal, but Rosen's Mind Projection had been faster. He had pulled Delia's spirit into his Spirit Canvas before the attack could claim his life.

Having spent so much time in her Chrono Rainbow Butterfly form, Delia's spirit was already depleted from casting Time Dust, making it easy for Rosen to trap her using the Soul Prison effect of his Painting Technique.

The cell in which Delia now found herself was located in Rosen's Alchemical Fortress.

With her spirit bound by the Soul Prison, the ordinary prison cell was more than enough to hold her.

"Let's see where your Gluttony came from," Rosen said, activating his Spirit Canvas and pulling a part of Delia's spirit into one of his paintings.

The painting, an abstract piece titled Memory, had a strong hypnotic effect that forced anyone who entered it to relive their memories. Rosen had created it specifically for capturing beings and exploring their past.

As Delia's spirit entered the dreamscape of the painting, she began to forget her present self and returned to her earliest memories, reliving her life from birth.

Rosen skimmed through Delia's memories, feeling a heavy burden settle on his heart.

Delia truly did possess Gluttony, much like the young Rosen. She had been born into an inherited noble family, but both of her parents were deceased. Her circumstances were even more tragic—she had been taken in by a guardian at a young age.

However, her guardian had sinister motives. While he treated her well outwardly, he had adopted her for one purpose: experimentation. He secretly destroyed her original extraordinary bloodline and injected her with a drop of Demon God's Blood.

Delia had no way of knowing the truth, as her adoptive father was a Sequence 3 Actor—a person so skilled in deception that he flawlessly concealed his true intentions.

Delia only discovered the truth when her adoptive father voluntarily revealed it to her. Shortly afterward, she was imprisoned by him—until one day, her adoptive father suddenly died.

Delia seized that opportunity to escape and had been living in fear ever since, hiding in the subsidiary realm of Adventure King City.

As Rosen delved deeper into her memories, several questions arose:

Why had Delia's adoptive father chosen to reveal the truth to her?

Why had a Sequence 3 Actor suddenly died?

Had her adoptive father truly died, or had he faked his death?

And most importantly—had the World Government's seal on the demon god in the Undercity Kingdom been secretly compromised?

These same questions had plagued Delia as well.

She didn't believe her adoptive father was truly dead and hadn't dared to leave the Undercity Kingdom for fear of being recaptured. She didn't even dare to take risks, living so cautiously that a Sequence 7 Gourmand like her was too poor to afford spiritual food.

Delia had lived every day in a constant state of fear for her life.

But after ten years of hiding in the Undercity Kingdom without incident, Delia began to doubt whether her adoptive father was still alive.

Gathering her courage, she had decided to try escaping. But escaping required money, which led her to Rosen's bounty and the recent events.

When Rosen had recognized her Gluttony ability, Delia's already frayed nerves had finally snapped. She had struck out in panic, and after killing a noble, she immediately prepared to follow through with her escape plan.

Now, Rosen was concerned. If Delia's adoptive father was still alive, hadn't Rosen unknowingly entangled himself in this dangerous situation? Could someone already be watching him?

The phrase "curiosity killed the cat" suddenly felt far too relevant—Rosen had indeed gotten himself into a troubling situation.

Inside the Spirit Canvas, Rosen quietly activated the Book of Secrets, allowing his true self to retreat while leaving a self-portrait behind as a decoy.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he emerged from the canvas and pondered how to deal with Delia.

Using the Spirit Canvas, Rosen carefully reflected Delia's memories, modifying the part where he had asked about Gluttony. Instead, he altered her memory to recall him asking about her cooking skills and inviting her to prepare a meal with ingredients he had brought.

Once the memory modification was successful, Rosen implanted a painting deep within Delia's subconscious. He then sent her back to her Void Kitchen, releasing the hold of the Soul Prison on her spirit.

When Delia regained consciousness, she had forgotten everything that had just transpired.

After bidding farewell to Rosen, Delia packed her belongings and prepared to escape.

Meanwhile, Rosen returned to his hotel and avoided any unnecessary actions for the next few days. He continued attending social events as usual, sometimes meeting other painters to exchange techniques.

Word soon spread that Rosen's Void Gallery now contained a Time Trap, and more nobles began interacting with him, expanding his social network.

One day, Rosen visited the last painter in the Undercity Kingdom, as he had planned.

"You're leaving?" Count Amuro asked, surprised.

"I've been away for a long time..." Rosen smiled. "If it weren't for the allure of your Void Galleries, I would have returned to the Blue Whale Kingdom long ago. My next stop is to visit the painters there, and after that, I plan to travel to various countries for decades."

"You're right," Amuro nodded, a trace of envy in his expression.

Although he was a Sequence 6 painter, Amuro felt certain that while Rosen would one day reach Sequence 5, he might remain stuck at Sequence 6 indefinitely.

Traveling between nations, visiting other painters, and exchanging techniques—these were things Amuro longed to do, but he didn't have the spare Essence Crystals to fund such endeavors. Void Galleries required significant investment, as did maintaining a Divine Domain, and Sequence 6 was a particularly demanding level. It wasn't until reaching Sequence 5 that nobles could afford a more leisurely lifestyle.

After bidding farewell to Count Amuro, Rosen purchased a ticket for the Spirit Realm train back to the Blue Whale Kingdom. The train wouldn't arrive for another two days.

If trouble were to come, it would likely happen within the next two days.

Yet, as Rosen boarded the train and left, no trouble came his way. It seemed his two months of caution had been unnecessary, and perhaps he had only been spooking himself.

Arriving at Blue Whale City station, Rosen finally allowed himself to relax—until, in the next moment, his heart skipped a beat.

He sensed the presence of a painting that shouldn't be there.

It was the painting he had embedded deep in Delia's memory—a virtual image designed to alert him to significant events. While his Main God Computer ensured no one could trace it back to him, the fact that he could sense it meant Delia was now in Blue Whale City.

Some coincidences were too numerous to ignore. Delia had fled the Undercity Kingdom and somehow ended up in Blue Whale City—just as Rosen had returned.

Coincidence? Maybe. But when too many coincidences happen, they start feeling like something else.