After dinner, Richard returned to his bedroom, closed the door, and slid the bolt.
He took the two new Marvels out of their cloth bags and arranged them with the other objects already on his desk.
The Eagle Badge was placed on the left, the silver ring on the right.
He dealt with the badge first.
He placed his right hand over it, his palm pressing against the bronze surface of the embossed eagle wings.
The panel began to absorb steadily.
The speed was about the same as it had been in the shop, roughly 0.01 per minute.
The Ether deposit in the badge wasn’t particularly deep, but it was exceptionally uniform.
One hundred and fifty years had left a thin, dense film of Ether in the bronze base.
Like soot stains accumulated over countless years on the walls of an old house, it couldn’t be wiped or washed away; it had fused with the bronze itself.
While absorbing, Richard used his Spiritual Vision to apply a Fixed Gaze to the badge’s surface.
Fixed Gaze was much easier at such close contact. As Ether flowed from his palm, his Perception followed suit, clinging to the badge.
He could vaguely sense the distribution of Ether inside the badge.
Uniform, stable, with no Seal structures or Inscription interference.
It was a "clean" old object.
The Ether had been deposited naturally. It hadn’t been artificially injected or enhanced by a ritual, but had simply steeped over time and through its environment.
And more importantly, there was nothing Sealed inside...
’Then again, if everything was as dangerous as the Sphinx Lamp, the world wouldn’t be far from total collapse.’
About forty minutes later, the Ether in the badge ran dry.
The panel showed that the badge had contributed approximately 0.41 Points.
Next was the silver ring.
The ring was much smaller than the badge, but its Ether Density was significantly higher.
After he placed his palm on it, the fluctuations on the panel were a notch greater than with the badge.
The silver was abnormally pure, confirming in Richard’s own Perception the appraiser’s note Clement had relayed to him.
High-purity silver was, in itself, an excellent conductor of Ether.
For artifacts of the same age, the purer the silver, the higher the efficiency of Ether deposition, and thus the greater the final accumulation.
Under his Spiritual Vision’s Fixed Gaze, the sun cross symbol on the ring’s face showed a faint ripple.
The symbol wasn’t engraved later; it had been cast as part of the ring.
The creator had designed the sun symbol into the mold when making the ring.
This meant the ring was never an ordinary piece of jewelry from the very beginning.
It was an identifying mark for a certain organization or Guild, used by its wearer to show their allegiance.
The sun cross symbol. Celtic tradition. Native to the Western Continent.
It belonged to a completely different cultural lineage than the sun pattern on the Sun Seal.
About twenty-five minutes later, the ring was also empty.
The silver ring contributed approximately 0.69 Points.
’Half again as much as the badge. The advantage of high-purity silver is clear.’
Richard wrapped the two empty Marvels in their cloth bags separately and put them back in the drawer.
He sank his consciousness into the panel and glanced at the total.
[Available Points: 2.13]
’I’ve actually saved up over two points.’
Combined with his previous reserve, the two new Marvels had contributed a total of about 1.1 Points.
Richard leaned back in his chair, staring at the number on the panel.
’Enough to unlock a new Skill and upgrade an existing one.’
The progress bar for Breathing Lv.2 was still climbing, currently at about 95%.
At its current rate, it should fill up naturally in about two weeks.
When that happens, if I invest one point, Breathing can break through to Level 3, and I’ll gain the "Healing" trait.
’If I set one point aside for that, I’ll still have a little over one point left to use now.’
Richard’s gaze shifted to the unlit Skills on the panel.
Three Aspects of Wisdom: Scholarship Lv.2 (Unlocked);
Rationality Lv. —— (Locked, Prerequisite: Scholarship Lv.3);
Perception Lv. —— (Locked).
[Perception]
His eyes lingered on this Skill option for a long time.
Old Big had said that having too much inspiration at a Low Tier could attract disaster.
’The bigger the window, the more eyes can see you from the outside.’
But what Old Big meant by "too much inspiration" was the kind of person born with off-the-charts inspiration, someone who could correctly identify and sort all twenty items on their very first day of training.
Richard’s own inspiration test score had been average, just enough to get by.
Unlocking [Perception] Lv.1 should raise his inspiration from "just enough" to "quite useful."
The gap between Lv.1 and a level that could attract the attention of something deep within the Curtain was not small by any means.
He recalled his experience after unlocking other Skills.
After unlocking [Breathing] Lv.1, the improvement in his respiratory efficiency had been gradual; he hadn’t turned from a normal person into a superman overnight.
After unlocking [Scholarship] Lv.1, the boost to his learning efficiency had also been a slow, cumulative process.
He hadn’t been able to recite the Latin declension tables backward and forward right away; that took a week or two of accumulation.
That, plus Mr. Holland’s one-on-one tutoring, was what took him from being completely clueless to a competitive level, and even then, he was still no match for someone like Montague, who had been training since childhood.
[Eating], [Sleep], [Walking]—every single one followed the same pattern.
Unlocking was the starting point. Improvement came from practice, and practice took time.
The panel hadn’t given him a shortcut to the heavens. It was more like a fast, uphill road with a gentle slope and a smooth surface.
How fast he walked depended on his own two feet.
Following this logic, the increase in inspiration after unlocking [Perception] Lv.1 would also be gradual.
To reach the "disaster-attracting" level Old Big spoke of, he would need to raise [Perception] to Level 3, or even higher.
And based on his experience with other skills, going from Lv.1 to a full progress bar for Lv.2 would be impossible without several months, or even longer, of continuous training.
The increase in his inspiration would be kept within a safe range.
His window would get a little bigger, but not so big that distant eyes would notice.
By the time he could spare the Points to get [Perception] to Level 3, he figured he’d be at the Practitioner stage and have some ability to protect himself.
Richard made his decision.
He locked his consciousness onto [Perception] and pushed.
"Confirm?"
He pressed it.
The gray faded from the word as cleanly and decisively as it had with his other Skills.
[Perception Lv.1]Progress: 0%
[Available Points: 1.13]
The change didn’t start in his chest like Breathing, nor did it surge up from the depths of his mind like Scholarship.
It began at the edges of his five senses.
The first to change was his hearing.
Downstairs, his Mother was clearing the dishes. The vague clatter transformed into discernible, individual sounds.
The scrape of a porcelain bowl on a wooden rack, the tap of a metal spoon against a pot’s rim, the squeak of the rubber washer as the faucet was tightened.
From Evelyn’s room next door came the rustle of turning pages. The papers were of different thicknesses, and the sounds they made as they were turned had subtle differences.
A thick page went "SWISH," a thin one "shhh." She was flipping through them quickly, probably looking for a specific passage.
Next was touch.
The sensation of his fingertips on the desk became richer.
The direction of the wood grain, the unevenness of the lacquer, the gradient of the desk’s temperature spreading outward from the point of contact with his fingertips.
His vision underwent no physically discernible change.
The light, colors, and outlines of objects in the room looked no different than before.
But Richard noticed that the amount of information he could gather by sight had increased.
A single glance at the bookshelf, which before would have just been "a row of books,"
now revealed "seventeen books, three of which have creased spines, the leftmost one is half an inch shorter than its neighbor, and the corner of a piece of paper is wedged between the fifth and sixth books."
The information density had increased, and moreover, he could freely choose whether or not to process this extra information.
All these sensory changes combined into a holistic feeling.
He felt... clearer.
Hearing, touch, smell, sight, taste (though he couldn’t test that one at the moment)—the once-separate streams of information began to converge.
Sitting in his chair, he could simultaneously perceive everything happening around him.
He didn’t need to consciously focus; the information came to him on its own.
Richard closed his eyes, sitting in this state of clarity for a long time.
’I only just unlocked [Perception], and I’m already having such a wondrous experience.’
He found it hard to imagine what the world looked like to those born with overflowing inspiration.
To them, the world must be completely different from how ordinary people see it. A thick barrier must naturally exist between them.
And having such a perceptual barrier from a young age could easily lead to psychological alienation.
They would become either extremely calm and detached, or extremely arrogant.
The one who sat in the head seat at the Divine Pantheon Salon had given him a similar impression.
Richard turned up the lamp’s wick and took the Divination candle and copper dish from his drawer.
He wanted to see if unlocking [Perception] would change his Spiritual Vision and Divination practice.
The candle was lit, its flame standing upright in the center of the copper dish.
Following the steps Old Big had taught him, Richard regulated his breathing, cleared his mind of stray thoughts, and let his consciousness sink into the threshold state between clarity and trance.
Previously, entering this state required a three-to-five-minute warm-up.
He had to adjust his breathing cycle by cycle, peel away his thoughts layer by layer. It was like waiting for sediment to settle in muddy water—it couldn’t be rushed. The more you rushed, the more chaotic it became.
Today was different.
By the end of the second cycle of breaths, he had already touched the threshold state.
After the third cycle, he slid right into it.
In his Spiritual Vision, the candle flame in the copper dish began to reveal its changes on the Ether Layer.
’When I practiced Spiritual Vision before, the Material Layer and Ether Layer always tended to blend together.’
Now, the gap between them had widened a little.
Not by much, but enough to reduce confusion during his observations.
Richard observed the candle flame in his Spiritual Vision for about ten minutes before switching to his Divination practice.
The core of Divination is "to ask."
Spiritual Vision is passive reception; Divination is active projection.
One projects a question onto the Ether Layer, observes the feedback, and then translates that feedback back into language.
Using Wax Language, Richard chose a simple practice subject: tomorrow’s weather.
This was the standard practice target Old Big recommended for beginners.
The weather is a natural phenomenon, uninvolved with personal will.
The information on the Ether Layer is relatively clean, with little interference, making it suitable for novices.
He projected the question.
The reading from the Wax Language indicated a westerly wind.
Tomorrow would most likely be overcast turning to light rain, with the temperature two to three degrees lower than today.
Richard recorded the divination result in his notebook, closed it, and blew out the candle.
The improvement from unlocking [Perception] was incredibly practical.
No single ability had taken a great leap forward, but all activities related to "sensation" had been smoothed out.
His Spiritual Vision was clearer, his Divination more sensitive, and even his everyday observational skills had risen to a new level.
Richard recalled his second meeting with Old Big, when the man had used the Cold Reading Skill on him and deduced he had a worrisome younger sister.
Now, he could do something similar, and more easily than Old Big had, without needing to observe for so long.
His window had indeed gotten bigger.
But thankfully, the night outside was quiet, with no unwelcome eyes peering in.
Richard rolled over and closed his eyes.
The stream of sensory information continued to flow in the darkness behind his eyelids.
He felt like a fully wound clock, ticking away, steady and serene. TICK. TOCK.
And in that serenity, Richard fell asleep.
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