Jacob was looking at the headless corpse of Sebastian as his blood continued to spread, with disbelief and trepidation.
Taking a deep breath to calm his palpitating emotions, he looked towards Autarch and asked again, "Are you alright?"
"I...I'm fine, sorry, sir." Autarch finally spoke in a feeble voice.
"It's not your fault; no one saw it coming." Jacob sighed, not blaming Autarch but feeling relief that he was fine and could still speak.
After something like this had never happened before, it was Autarch's first time to experience something like this, not to mention getting injured. He was glad that Autarch didn't die, or he would really lose much more than he had gained, which was nothing.
He then sent Autarch back to his solar plexus space since it was the best way for Autarch to rest and recover.
Then Autarch told him what happened without asking, "S-sir, I don't know why, but a strange sigil was branded on his brain, containing his life memories. The moment I try to devour it, it suddenly triggers a powerful fluctuation and the... then, I sensed extreme danger, so I quickly tried to flee his brain, but I failed. I have seen nothing like that sigil before, and I didn't sense any danger from it until....until it was too late. I have no excuse for my incompetence."
Jacob's eyes narrowed when he heard Autarch's explanation about what actually happened, and for some reason, he sighed in relief. He started to think that someone or something had just intervened to prevent him from knowing the reason behind Adolph's presence in the Common Plains.
However, this just made the matter more complicated and eerie at the same time since whoever was behind it was extremely cautious. This information was so important that they had made it so that Sebastian wouldn't be able to tell or someone like Autarch wouldn't be able to get his memories.
Sebastian didn't strike Jacob as a person who would be willing to let someone place a bomb into his head, not to mention this bomb seemed to be a product of some mysterious magic that even Autarch failed again and almost died because of it.
However, he knew with Sebastian's death, the mystery was completely buried unless he could find the person who placed this 'sigil' in Sebastian's head, the true hand behind the curtains, which he had no clue about.
"I've told you, it's not your fault. Let's take it as a lesson, and if you find something like that in the future, retreat. Now you should rest; you've done enough. Once you recover, I want you to draw that sigil for me in case we encounter something similar." Jacob sighed ruefully as he didn't let his emotions run amok since this wasn't the place or time.
"I'll follow sir's orders." Autarch weakly replied before he went dormant.
Jacob then looked towards the bloody mess, gritted his teeth, and waved his hand before starting to gather blood. After all, Sebastian was still an Inception Body Legend Rank expert, and despite his discomfort, he couldn't waste such high-quality blood. He also grabbed Sebastian's bracelet, which was also a space treasure.
"Is he fine?" Nyx suddenly asked. She was watching everything with a hint of worry. "What? I thought you didn't like him," Jacob coldly replied as he tried to open the space bracelet.
"Hmph! Who said I like him now? I'm just worried since he's a very important tool at our disposal!" Nyx quickly changed her tone as she retorted.
"A tool, huh?" Jacob's eyes flashed with a subtle glint before he replied, "He'll recover in time. But currently, he's indisposed, and we need to change a few things."
"Heh, leave it to me!" Nyx quickly agreed despite knowing she couldn't take Autarch's role. They were too different from each other.
Jacob didn't comment on it, as he was in a gloomy mood. At this moment, he unlocked Sebastian's space bracelet. But he was shocked when he saw what was inside-it was completely empty!
'He came here without any recovery medicine or any weapons? Is this even possible, or was he too confident about keeping his life? Don't tell me this thing is also related to this sigil?!'
Jacob had never been so flustered as he was now, ever since he had crossed over, and he had never expected that in search of answers, he would leave with more questions and a never- ending anxiety.
'What are the chances of him leaving some clues in his personal quarters?' Jacob thought gloomily as he looked towards the dry, headless corpse of Sebastian before shaking his head, 'If this is organized, then whoever did this won't make such a rookie mistake. The only clue I have now is that sigil. Fuck!'
Jacob's momentarily outburst made the entire ship tremble before he controlled himself and directly absorbed Sebastian's blood, and the runic lines around his thumb started to glow. Afterward, Jacob directly torched the dry corpse and watched until it was a pile of ashes; this time, something endured his flames, and with his soul force, he grabbed it.
It was actually a golden chain with a triangular pendant imbued with a silver gem, and Jacob didn't find anything extraordinary about it as it appeared extremely ordinary. However, he was surprised when he finally noticed that even in the Eyes of Judge, the pendant appeared exactly the same without any kind of particles emitting from it, which had never happened before. He activated his Eyes of the Judge completely!
At this moment, Jacob was finally able to 'see' something squirming within the silver gem. It was a mercury-like liquid and extremely tiny. Despite activating the spectrum of flaws, the pendant appeared the same without any flaws. The only change was that he could now see the white mercury squirming within the gem.
Jacob tried imbuing it with his three types of mana one by one, but nothing happened. The white mercury didn't change, and despite his powerful physique, he couldn't break the pedant or even the golden chain.
'Just what is this pendant? Is it related to whatever Sebastian was hiding?' Jacob mused as he gravely looked towards the pendant.
Then he tried another and decided to take it into his space ring. As he suspected, it didn't go into a normal space treasure at all, which made Jacob solemn before he tried stowing it into the Infinity Pendant, and this time, he succeeded!
A rueful yet grave sigh escaped Jacob, 'Just what is the mystery behind my reincarnation... is there even a mystery to unravel?'