Chapter 149 - 149. Searching For Clues 2
Jack's eyes bulged after reading the description. A unique consumable that summoned a mythical grade monster?
'How strong is a mythical grade?' He asked Peniel in his mind.
"Most of the boss you fought till now were Elite, right? Stronger than elite is special elite, like the Lizardman Blood Guard who you fought when we just met. After that is the Rare Elite, which was the grade this duke here has. Above it is the Mythical grade."
'Damn! Then the monster summoned by this horn will be absolutely terrifying!' Jack exclaimed.
"You don't say."
'Is Mythical the strongest grade for monsters and NPCs?'
"No, there is still the Eternal grade."
Jack's eyes twitched. He had already had to go all out fighting an Elite. He could not imagine the fearsomeness of the Eternal grade. He realized now that he was still at the bottom pool within this new world. He would need to get stronger if he was to explore this world further.
He then looked at the other display stand next to the one with the ivory horn. It held a simple stone, the shape was irregular and has no color. Its surface was so smooth that it reflected the images around it, similar to a mirror. Jack inspected it.
Divine Crystal (Legendary Material)
L– legendary?! It's the highest grade item if according to the beta guide. This was the second legendary item he had seen apart from the Second Soul Remnant which gave him his second class.
"I didn't expect to see a Divine Crystal here," he heard Peniel's voice in his mind. "This duke is obviously not a simple person."
'You know about this thing?' Jack asked.
"Of course, didn't you already know by now that I know everything?" Peniel replied with a disdainful tone. "This is one of the materials that can be used to upgrade or create legendary equipment. Countless factions would fight or pay a high sum for this crystal. I was amused that the duke left it in the open like this in his workroom."
So Peniel knew about this legendary material? Why did she not know about the Second Soul Remnant? When she was surprised by the existence of his second class, he thought that Peniel's wide knowledge was limited to below the Legendary realm, but it turned out that it was not the case. Could that Second Soul Remnant be something special even among legendary items?
Jack shook his head, no use to think about that now. He should focus on the task at hand. If the two items on the display stands were such extraordinary things, he doubted the missing item that was originally on a similar stand would be anything less. No wonder the duke activated such a huge barrier formation after it was found missing.
He looked at the other things around the room but couldn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He then approached the window again and glanced at the tiny gap at the bottom of the window.
"How many people were in this mansion when the painting was stolen?" He asked.
"Including me, my butler Winston, our main suspect maid Joselyn, there were six others," the duke answered. "One of which was the friend that I mentioned had come to visit me when the event happened, Marquess Fernando."
"He did not protest for being held here all this time?"
The duke chuckled, "he had no choice, I outrank him."
"I would like to talk to all of them, can that be arranged?" Jack asked.
"That will be fine, Captain Salem can help with the arrangement," the duke answered.
The captain looked at the duke before asking, "will that include Duchess Isabelle?"
The duke turned to Jack, who said, "everyone if possible, please."
The duke nodded to Captain Salem. "Everyone it is, then," he said. "I'm glad you seemed to know what you are doing."
Jack smiled awkwardly. He could not tell him that he was just copying what he had read from fictional detective stories, could he? He just hoped he could pick up clues from the interviews like the detectives in those stories.
"When would you want it?" Captain Salem asked Jack.
"An hour from now. One more thing, I would like to talk to them separately one by one and in an enclosed room."
"All right, let's do it at the study room on the first floor," the duke said.
"In the meantime, will it be ok if I roam around the mansion by myself?"
"Sure. All of the restricted rooms are locked. Unless you tried to forcefully open the door, there should be no problem."
"What happened if I forcefully try to open a locked room?"
"An alarm will sound out, and an offensive spell will assail the would-be intruder."
"That is the same to this door when it is locked?" Jack gestured to the door of this room.
"Yes," the duke confirmed.
"One last thing, do you remember the exact time when you found out that the painting was missing?"
The duke nodded, "yes, it was at 10:12, because that was the time I activated the barrier formation."
"Okay, I have no more questions at the moment."
Captain Salem said, "I will show you the first floor's study room first before assembling the occupants of this mansion, so you know where to find them an hour from now."
"That will be great," Jack said.
Jack and Captain Salem walked downstairs while the duke stayed in his workroom. Jack asked the captain during their walk, "when you make the search on this estate, did you find anything out of the ordinary?"
"Like what?" The captain asked.
Jack shrugged, "something that was not used to be in this estate, or someone behaving unusually compared to their normal behavior?"
"It's not like I often visited this place or accustomed with the people here, so how should I know? It's also my first time here due to this theft. I was just looking for the missing… painting, so I did not pay attention to other matters."
Jack nodded. He did not ask the captain any other questions, but he talked to Peniel in his mind instead, 'did you notice that both the duke and the captain had a slight pause when they mentioned the missing painting?'
"What's on your mind?" The fairy asked back.
'I don't think it is a painting that we are looking for.'
"So what is it we are looking for?"
'Not sure. But it's something small that could fit inside that glass case stand, and probably also narrow enough to pass through the gap at the bottom of the window of the duke's workroom."
"You think the maid Joselyn threw the not-painting out from the window?" Peniel asked with a surprised tone.
'I'm not sure. That's what I'm trying to find out now."
After Captain Salem showed him the study room on the first floor, they parted. Jack went back to the main entrance, after getting lost twice, the mansion was simply too huge. He went out the main door to the front garden. He then looked up at the mansion, he tried to identify where the duke's workroom was located from the outside here. While observing, he was amazed to notice his eyesight could see much better than he was used to. The windows that were far away on the upper floors were so clear, he could even see what was behind those windows. This must have been the passive effect of the Dragon's Eye skill.
With his improved eyesight, he could quickly identify which was the window from the duke's workroom. As he had guessed, the workroom was at one of the towers. He walked towards the base of the tower, he looked up again to determine that he was right under the window. Before he was thick bushes that covered the lower half of the wall. If anything fell from the window above, it would most likely fell into these bushes.
"Find anything?" Peniel asked as Jack was ruffling through the bushes.
'Not yet,' Jack said as he kept on searching.
'I think it must have been taken,' he said finally after searching for a while.
"How can it be? Isn't the duke said the maid in suspect had been taken into custody since the start? How is it possible for her to come and take it?"
Before Jack could answer, his monocle picked up something. He had never stopped ruffling the bushes, at this time a marking appeared from one part of the bushes. The marking indicated it to have a connection with his current quest, and then some tracking footsteps were highlighted in his God-eye monocle.
"Hey, the thing works its magic again!" Peniel cried out in excitement.