I Loaded the Mysticism Panel

She flipped through a few pages and asked, "I see the booklet mentions the Casting medium requires a Gargoyle."

"A finished medium like that is probably hard to find, isn’t it?"

Richard was prepared for this question.

"A Gargoyle is the optimal medium, but not the only one," he said.

"The Inscription Master Guild originally designed this Technique for standardized distribution.

Find a stone that has been steeped in a trace amount of Ether to use as the base material, carve the key Touching and Leading Inscription from the appendix onto it, and it can be used as a basic medium."

"This Ether-steeped requirement—is it a high bar?"

"No," Richard replied.

"Any stone that has been in an Ethereal Active Area for a few decades or more will meet the condition.

Stone steps from a demolished old church, scraps from near an old Seal, even something picked from a mine’s waste rock pile would work."

"Once you’re proficient, you can discard the medium itself."

Nemesis nodded after hearing this and asked no further questions.

She also offered a few reminders:

"The Silver Needles are consumables. If you retrieve them after practice, one needle can last for about ten practice sessions."

"More meticulous Casters use a short silver blade, but the blade is more expensive and harder to control than a Silver Needle."

"Beginners usually start with Silver Needles."

Richard put the booklet for Moon Nail into a hidden compartment.

’If I’m being honest, I got the slightly better end of this deal.’

Although Stone Armor was a common Technique, the medium requirement was always a hurdle for the buyer.

Even though he had just clearly explained how to craft the medium, she would still have to find a stone, carve the Inscription, and slowly get used to it.

It would take at least a week or two from getting the booklet to being able to start practicing the Casting.

On the other hand, the Casting medium for Moon Nail was just a Silver Needle. He could start practicing as soon as he got it.

Richard placed the last item on the table:

"A practical methodology for cracking Seal transfer points. It covers how to identify several common types, the mechanical control required to pry them open, and the reverse technique of patching the opening with a Wax Seal."

Prometheus leaned forward slightly.

He was usually interested in this kind of material, but after reading a few lines, he sat back.

"This methodology of yours," he said, "is rather elementary."

"It is," Richard admitted openly.

Since no one else showed much interest, Richard took the manual back.

This item had always been the one with the lowest risk and lowest value on his list; it didn’t matter whether he could trade it for anything.

The trading at the table came to a temporary halt.

Everyone was looking over the materials they had just acquired, and Hecate, at the head of the table, did not rush them.

Richard seized the opportunity to speak.

"Everyone."

Several gazes from around the table turned to him.

"I have another question, if I may ask for your guidance."

Hecate nodded from the head of the table, signaling for him to continue.

Richard asked the question he had prepared.

"An elder in my family injured their Ether Loop when they were younger."

"I was wondering if anyone here knows of a way to heal a damaged Ether Loop."

Prometheus frowned.

"There are two types of loop damage."

"One is damage to the loop caused by physical injury. That’s relatively easy to treat."

"The other is damage caused by a failed Tier advancement. That’s not easy to treat."

"Which type does your family elder have?"

"Failed Tier advancement," Richard answered.

"Which Tier were they trying to advance to?"

"Minor Mastery."

At these words, even Nemesis turned her head slightly.

Dionysus took a sip from his wine glass without comment.

Prometheus thought for a moment.

"Loop damage from a failed ritual is much more difficult."

"It would require techniques at the Grand Mastery Level to heal completely. I don’t have any good solutions."

Richard wasn’t too disappointed to hear this; he had already expected as much.

’If Mother’s injury were so easy to cure, Grandfather and my aunt would have acted long ago.’

’They didn’t act, most likely because the cost of treatment was too high, or... the family couldn’t find a Grand Mastery Practitioner willing to bear that cost.’

"However..." Prometheus said, flipping through the booklet he had just received.

"Even if it can’t be completely cured, there are some daily maintenance methods."

"Daily maintenance?"

"A massage on the Ether Layer."

Prometheus nodded to Hecate, then projected a small booklet and passed it over.

"This is a massage technique for continuously soothing a damaged loop with Ether. It’s widely known. A gift to you, as a gesture of friendship."

Richard accepted the small booklet.

Inside were diagrams of a set of techniques, each one annotated with specific breathing rhythms, pressure points, and the amount of Ether to inject.

Prometheus added a word of caution:

"This massage will, at most, make the person ’comfortable.’ It’s a far cry from a cure."

"But if done consistently, it can slow the loop’s further degradation and alleviate daily discomfort."

"Understood."

"Also," Prometheus’s gaze fell on the Condensed Liquid Bottle Richard had just put away.

"Don’t use the Condensed Liquid to treat loop damage."

Richard’s fingers paused. ’He had indeed had a similar idea.’

"The effects of the Condensed Liquid are too potent," Prometheus said. "Trying to treat this kind of deep-seated damage with it could cause secondary injury."

"The main uses for Condensed Liquid..." He made a gesture.

"Are for breakthroughs during rituals, prolonging life in combat, temporarily strengthening the body, and amplifying the power of a Technique."

"You can think of it as a kind of stimulant or catalyst."

Richard nodded. "Thank you for the warning."

"It’s nothing." Prometheus took his booklet back.

The other two at the table had nothing to add.

Richard carefully folded the pages with the massage technique and put them in the hidden compartment along with the Moon Nail booklet and the Condensed Liquid Bottle he had just acquired.

Dionysus’s gaze swept, almost imperceptibly, over the two booklets.

When those two items had been presented earlier, he and Prometheus had, by unspoken agreement, not reached for them.

They both had similar, generic Techniques.

In his mind, Dionysus silently recalibrated the Newcomer’s Tier down a notch.

’A Newcomer, or a Practitioner who had just barely made his mark.’

Prometheus had arrived at the same conclusion.

’It was just that the thinking behind that reverse-engineering model was truly stunning.’

’For a Newcomer to develop a reverse-engineering model to that level showed he had a sharp mind.’

Dionysus took a sip of his wine.

The few still sitting at the table were all big fish who had jumped out of their respective small ponds, swimming toward the vast ocean.

They wouldn’t look down on the Newcomer just because of this assessment.

Sometimes, a newcomer’s rate of improvement could be much faster than that of an old-timer.

Hecate gave a slight nod from the head of the table. "The trading is concluded."

"The intelligence-sharing segment will now begin." She made a vague wiping motion with her hand above the table.

"The rules are the same as always. Whoever shares the most, I will, at my discretion, match you with your target resources during the next trade."

The moment she finished speaking, Dionysus put down his wine glass.

He sat up straight, shedding his previously nonchalant posture.

"I’ll go first."

"This past week in the Imperial Capital, the Royal Society’s Anomaly Investigation Committee issued another internal notice."

"This time, the notice has officially confirmed the alert level for anomalous events as Level Two."

_Officially confirmed_. Hearing that keyword, Prometheus’s expression tightened.

Dionysus glanced at the two newcomers and began to explain.

"Now that it’s officially confirmed, the practical effect is that incidents involving Curtain anomalies will no longer go through normal procedures but will be handled directly as major events;

Hunters and Secretive Ones with authorized credentials will be automatically placed on a ready-to-deploy list;

And the maintenance cycle for registered Seals has been shortened to two-thirds."

"Two-thirds?"

"A Seal that was originally reinforced once a year will now need to be reinforced again within eight months this year."

The face of Mr. Hutton immediately popped into Richard’s mind.

Mr. Hutton didn’t just maintain the site at Greenwood.

He regularly patrolled all of Brighton’s Seals with local Practitioners, which was why he took two days off every month.

"This piece of intelligence," Dionysus continued.

"Confirms the theory we discussed last time. The barrier is weakening overall, and the rate of decay is even faster than previously estimated."

Prometheus spoke next.

"I have something as well."

"In the last two months, several ancient tombs at the southern end of the Black Earth River Basin have been opened one after another."

His voice was raspy as ever.

"It was done by Imperial archaeological teams. Under the guise of cultural exchange, they are essentially shipping the contents back to the Imperial Capital."

"I can’t say which specific tombs they were, but I have a rough summary of the list of artifacts brought back."

He pulled a folded piece of paper from his inner pocket.

"The summary is incomplete, but a few items are worth noting..."

He unfolded the paper and read a few names.

"A Bronze Altar, a set of Funerary Bronze Artifacts, twelve Jade Miniature Statues, and one extremely well-preserved Priest’s Scepter."

"The scepter, is it a Marvel?" Nemesis asked, a little curious.

"Yes," Prometheus said.

"The Priest’s Scepters from the Black Earth River Basin have always been High-grade Marvels."

"This one is currently stored in a closed warehouse at the Imperial Capital Museum, not in the public exhibition halls."

He tucked the paper back into his inner pocket.

"That’s all I can say."

Richard secretly made a mental note.

’A Priest’s Scepter from the Black Earth River Basin... I wonder if it can compare to the pillars of the Fire God Temple.’

Hecate’s gaze turned to Richard.

"Hermes."

Richard retrieved a small paper card from the hidden compartment beneath his chair.

"There’s been a recent incident in the Northern Industrial District. In the foundation of an old factory west of Manchester City, there have been three reports of night shift workers fainting in the last half-month."

"Manchester City again," Prometheus said, somewhat surprised.

"No external injuries, no signs of poisoning, and upon waking, they can’t remember what happened before they fainted."

Richard continued.

"The local Branch Office sent people to investigate. Their preliminary judgment is that a residual Spirit Body in the foundation is passively seeping through on the Ether Layer.

But their efforts to deal with it weren’t very effective; the Spirit Body wasn’t completely purified."

"Is there a specific location?" Prometheus asked.

"The West District of Manchester City, the former site of the Pimlico Textile Factory."

Richard revealed the location.

This piece of intelligence corroborated the information about the increased alert level, confirming that the situation in the Northern Industrial District was indeed deteriorating.

On the other hand, it provided those present with a concrete project they could intervene in.

If someone wanted to earn a commission for "clearing residual Spirit Bodies," this was a ready-made job.

Both Prometheus and Dionysus took note of this.

Nemesis spoke next.

"I have something, too."

"A Hunter squad in the northern Gael Highlands encountered a Black Hound near Ailing Lake last month."

The Black Hound. Richard’s gaze sharpened; he had read about them before.

They were a local specialty unique to the Imperial territories and, strictly speaking, not considered Evil Beings.

Each county had its own name for it. In the east, it was called the "Night Traveler"; in the north, the "Bringer of Mourning"; and in the western mining districts, simply the "Coal Dog."

The Black Hound was not undead, nor was it a creature polluted by Ether.

It was more akin to a natural phenomenon.

Those who saw a Black Hound would often suffer a major calamity within three days to three months.

In very rare cases, a Black Hound would follow directly behind someone for an entire night.

This was the most ominous sign. Those it followed for a full night almost never survived the month.

But the Black Hound itself never took action.

It never bit passersby, never barked, and never blocked their path.

It simply appeared, followed, and then silently vanished.

This omen of misfortune was so grim that just hearing its name soured the mood of everyone present.

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