Chapter 42: The Abilities of “Actor”

Humming a tune, Evah deftly gathered the equipment needed to concoct a potion. He pulled an iron box from the cabinet, opening it to reveal the auxiliary materials for the Actor potion. Aside from pure water, they were mostly common spiritual materials: black sun flower powder, dragon tooth grass powder, and the like.

Evah unhurriedly added the auxiliary materials to a beaker one by one. Then he took out Medici's blood gem and dropped it in. As if triggering a chemical reaction, flames instantly flared up within the beaker's liquid.

Watching the change, Evah remained calm. With a flick of his hand, he produced the main ingredient for the Actor potion—a fragment of Nyarlathotep's power.

As he tossed the fragment in, the flames vanished rapidly. The liquid's surface froze into glistening, translucent ice crystals.

Beneath the ice, a faint red flame refused to die out, burning within the liquid like the eternal flowers Evah had once seen. The blood-red flames, rose-like, danced within the ice, both gorgeous and dreamlike.

"Gotta say, these potions keep getting prettier, but they look less and less drinkable. Will chugging this really not burn me from the inside out?" Evah muttered, eyeing the fiery eternal flower with a weird expression. After a moment's thought, he raised the beaker and downed the Actor potion in one gulp.

It felt icy at first, then searing hot. Evah felt like he was oscillating between frost and fire. Then all temperature sensations faded, and his consciousness plunged into a bottomless abyss, surrounded by nothing but darkness and chaos.

It was a madness that could consume an ordinary person. But in the depths of that endless darkness, Evah glimpsed a red flame. The moment he saw it, his scattered thoughts snapped back into clarity.

With practiced ease, he reined in his mind, breaking free from the darkness and chaos, and opened his eyes.

"So that's it. The auxiliary materials really do reduce the risk of losing control…" Evah said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

The effect wasn't as noticeable when he took the Sequence 9 Mischief-maker potion, but with the Sequence 8 Actor potion, he immediately understood the role of high-Sequence-related auxiliary materials in the formula.

They were like a single black dot on white paper—distinct from Nyarlathotep's power, they created a different kind of distortion and madness. That madness, ironically, served as an anchor, preventing the drinker from being swallowed by the darkness and chaos inherent in Nyarlathotep's power.

In simple terms, it was fighting poison with poison, chaos with chaos, madness with madness.

"But the two kinds of madness somehow cancel each other out, striking a balance. If this trend continues, when I reach high Sequences, will I end up pitting the Primordial's Will against Nyarlathotep's madness?" Luo Lin mused, his expression turning odd as he quipped to himself. Then, with a grin, he began exploring his new abilities.

The Actor potion first boosted his spirituality. Its core ability was "Thousand Faces."

Similar to the Faceless ability but less potent, Thousand Faces allowed Evah to subtly alter his facial features by about 10%. It wasn't a huge change, but for someone like Evah, already a master of disguise, that 10% paired with makeup was enough to transform him into an entirely different person.

While Thousand Faces had limits on facial adjustments, it let him freely change his hair and eye color, sparing him the hassle of hunting for contact lenses in this era.

Beyond that, the Actor potion granted him the ability to create illusions. Though the illusions' range was small, they were convincingly realistic.

The Mischief-maker'd core ability, "Emotion Manipulation," also got a major upgrade. Previously it was limited to controlling an individual's emotions for a short time, it now extended to group emotional manipulation, affecting up to about 10 people at once. With further potion digestion, that number could grow.

"Lastly, my observation, mental acuity, and learning ability have improved further. I can pick up vague thoughts like a Telepathist, and my speed and strength are up too—probably not far off from Sequence 8s built for direct combat," Evah noted.

"And Medici's gem gives me flame manipulation. Thanks to Medici's unique nature, I can control multiple flames at once with ease, which neatly offsets the Actor's lack of offensive power," he concluded, even he couldn't help but marvel. "Man, the Actor Sequence is almost too strong. I feel like I could take on a Sequence 7 head-on without borrowing anyone's power. With necessary preperation, I might even hold my own against a Sequence 6. But the digestion difficulty is no joke—basically like digesting four or five normal Sequence 8 potions."

That said, when Evah checked his Actor potion's digestion progress, his expression turned peculiar. "I've already digested about a fifth of it. Why? Is it because I've been running around with my aliases, fooling people?"

The Actor Sequence, as the name suggested, centered on performing as a specific role. That aligned perfectly with Evah's recent antics.

As a dedicated Mishchief- maker, Evah had thrown himself into playing his various aliases, strictly adhering to their personas in front of others. He'd even "tricked" heavyweights like Pallez and Azik with those identities. In that light, it wasn't surprising that the potion had partially digested already.

"So the Actor's acting direction is to embody a role like a true performer. Ugh, that sounds so meta…" Evah couldn't help but grumble.

"But it's probably not just that. Actors perform on a stage, so fully digesting the Actor potion likely requires performing in character with an audience watching," Evah mused, rubbing his chin as ideas for his next steps took shape.

He thought of Qilangos and Ince Zangwill, forming a few plans for how to act out his Actor role.

"No rush on digesting the Actor potion, though. Let's check the next Sequence. Hmm, Sequence 7 Mask Master. Auxiliary material requirements are items related to high Sequences of the Abyss or Monster pathways?" Evah raised an eyebrow, recalling the Rose School of Thought in the original story, as well as Sharon and Maric. A thoughtful glint appeared in his eyes.

(End of Chapter)