Lumian rolled back a distance before standing up again.
The scream that broke out in an instant and then suddenly stopped made him feel a lot more at ease.
However, he did not take it lightly. He carried his hunting rifle on his back and held an axe in his hand before cautiously approaching the completely collapsed house.
Where bricks, stones and wood blocks were stacked, dust filled the air and lingered for a long time.
Standing outside, Lumian couldn't see the monster's body at all, which proved that it had been completely buried. In the current environment, his sense of smell was greatly weakened. He couldn't help but raise one hand and cover his nose to protect it from the irritation of dust.
Faced with this situation, Lumian took seven or eight steps back, keeping a safe distance from the target, and patiently waited for the dust to settle.
While waiting, he kept observing his surroundings, being wary of shallow footprints that might suddenly appear and various smells that might approach rapidly.
Finally, the air became "fresh" again and his vision was no longer disturbed.
Lumian approached the building again, following the smell of blood, and found the monster that was pressed down by layers of heavy stones.
Since he was not in a hurry, he relied on his talent as a "hunter" and moved the stones one by one in a specific order without causing secondary collapse.
At the same time, he was always on guard against the possibility that the monster was not dead and was waiting for an opportunity to attack him.
Another heavy stone was pulled away, and Lumian saw the monster whose head and neck had turned into a whirlpool-shaped "mouthpart".
It lay on its back, its flesh and blood had been crushed to pieces, its chest stuck to its back, its "mouthparts" full of sharp teeth were stuck in the ground by the pointed half of a stone pillar, and several of its dark black tentacles covered with flesh were broken.
If the features were not obvious, Lumian would have been unable to recognize whether this pool of semi-solid and highly viscous meat paste was his target.
This worked better than he expected!
After initially confirming that the monster was completely dead, Lumian cast his gaze towards its chest and found that the three black marks were still clearly visible in this situation.
Very strange... Even in the world of occultism, this shouldn't be common, right? Lumian, who had been taught by his sister for a long time, still lacked a lot of knowledge and could only make certain judgments based on his feelings.
He had originally planned to use the small knife he carried with him to peel off the pieces of skin where the black marks were, but the trap was so effective that the skin on the opponent's entire chest was completely broken and pressed into the flesh, making it impossible to peel it off even if he wanted to.
After thinking for a few seconds, he tore open his inner linen shirt, pulled off a small piece of cloth, and placed it in front of him to serve as paper.
Then, he got another piece of cloth, wrapped it around his index finger, and stained it with the monster's blood. As for whether this could completely isolate the possible pollution and toxicity, he didn't care too much. If something really went wrong, he would just have to get out of the dream quickly. Anyway, the damage that could be brought into reality was very small, and he should be able to recover completely in a few hours or most of the day.
Using the monster's blood as ink, Lumian copied the three black marks.
As he was painting, he suddenly felt dizzy and felt some swelling and pain in his forehead.
Based on the common sense taught by Aurore and his understanding of his own state, Lumian believed that his spiritual energy had been almost exhausted, and he found the reason:
"Just by copying these three marks, my spiritual power is almost drained away?"
On the one hand, he was surprised by the strangeness of the black mark, and on the other hand, he was shocked that the spiritual ceiling of the "hunter" was too low. He estimated that he was only slightly stronger than a normal person with talent.
After a short break, Lumian continued copying. He did this three times on and off before he finished the work, and his head was throbbing with pain.
In this state, it was impossible for him to explore further. He could only put away the cloth, pick up the axe, and return to his home on the other side of the wilderness.
After walking out of the ruins and relaxing a little, he suddenly felt like he had digested a lot of the "Hunter" potion.
“It seems like this was a successful hunt…” Lumian muttered.
His conclusions, which he had already realized but had not yet organized, then emerged in his mind:
“It’s important to stay calm… When you suddenly encounter prey and have no time to prepare, staying calm is even more important.
“Always observe the environment and think about how to use it.”
As his thoughts turned, Lumian returned home, went up to the second floor and entered the bedroom.
He forced himself to memorize the marks for a while before falling on the bed and falling asleep.
… …
The next morning, when Lumian woke up, both sides of his temples were still a little swollen, which was a sign of excessive spiritual consumption in the dream ruins.
He shook his head, left the room and went to the bathroom to wash up.
When he went downstairs, he found that his sister had prepared breakfast, including toast with jam, sliced sausages and strong coffee.
“So early?” Lumian blurted out in surprise.
My sister seldom gets up early.
Aurore responded unhappily:
"You find yourself in a time loop, and the people around you are weirder and scarier than each other. How can you sleep well? I can't sleep well anyway."
“I can’t help it even if I don’t want to.” Lumian comforted his sister, “At least you can actually sleep, while I have to be busy even in my dreams.”
"That's right." Auror picked up the coffee with half a bag of sugar cubes in it and took a sip.
After her brother sat down and ate most of the toast and sausage, she asked:
"What did you gain from this exploration of the Dream Ruins?"
Lumian recounted the entire encounter between him and the monster, and concluded:
"Aurore, uh, sister, can you help me figure out what those three black marks represent? At the end of the Lenten celebration, the parish priest also had similar things on his body, and there were more of them."
Aurore nodded slightly and took out a fountain pen and a piece of notepaper from the secret pocket of her off-white corset dress.
Lumian began to paint quickly, not quite accurately recreating the black marks.
Soon, he handed the note to his sister and "introduced" her:
"I only remembered it a few times. I'm not sure if some parts are right or wrong, but some are definitely like this. Here, here, and here, they are all correct."
Just by restoring part of the mark, a lot of his spiritual energy was consumed.
Aurore placed the note on the table in front of her, looked at it intently for a while and said:
"These characters are not of any kind I recognize, and the corresponding symbols are more distorted than those commonly seen in the occult."
Lumian was a little disappointed when Aurore added:
"From the influence of the extraordinary words and symbols on the surroundings and the traces of prying on natural forces, I suspect this is the external manifestation of a special contract."
As she spoke, she pointed at the note with her index finger.
“Contract?” Lumian asked back.
Aurore nodded.
“Based on your battle with that monster, each black mark should represent a special contract.
"The purpose of this contract may be to help it obtain a kind of extraordinary power from some spiritual creatures, alien creatures, and alien creatures. Therefore, the black mark on its left chest glows and brings invisibility. The one below its neck corresponds to the sound that makes people irritated, resentful, and irrational. There is no expression on the right chest. I suspect it is related to the 'mouthparts', tentacles, or digestion."
“No wonder…” Lumian suddenly understood some details of the previous battle.
He then laughed and said:
“Did the parish priest sign a dozen contracts with different creatures
"What do you call this? This means everyone can be his father!"
"What a weird description." Aurore muttered, "Now it seems that the parish priest who fought with you at the end of the Lent celebration didn't even show one tenth of his strength. He probably only used one of the abilities he gained from the contract, and then his body and mind inexplicably lost control and were at your mercy."
Lumian didn’t understand in the last and the previous cycle, but now he clearly felt how lucky he was at that time.
He asked eagerly:
"Can I copy the contract I got from the monster and get in touch with the corresponding creature?"
He was very envious of the "invisibility" ability.
"A contract is a contract, and a ceremony is a ceremony. Do you know how to hold the ceremony?" Aurore poured cold water on him. "Even if you master the ceremony, do you know what the price of this special contract is? The parish priest must have completed it with the help of a hidden gift..."
At this point, Aurore was stunned for a second and said to herself:
"Why does the monster in the ruins of your dream also have this kind of black mark... Did it also receive the gift from that person?"
As she spoke, Aurore cast her eyes towards Lumian's left chest:
“Could it be related to the black thorn symbol that locks your heart
"The parish priest has it too. Hmm... The dream ruins might have been created by the secret existence represented by the thorn symbol. The key to ending the cycle might also be hidden there. Or, in some cases, the problem can only be solved if reality and the dream ruins do something simultaneously..."
“It’s possible.” Lumian felt that this could explain why monsters also had black marks and why the mysterious lady asked him to explore the dream ruins and try to unravel the secrets there.
He then sighed:
"Aurore, uh, sister, your imagination is much richer than mine."
"This is a writer's self-cultivation." Aurore smiled.
After breakfast, she asked Lumian to go to the study with her and taught him Hermetic.
It was not until three or four in the afternoon that the two of them finished their tutoring, and they just ate something casually in the middle.
"Okay, you can go out and have a drink with Pierre Berry now." Seeing that the time was almost right and it would not arouse suspicion, Aurore gave instructions to Lumian.
Lumian hummed, and said with concern:
"You must be careful."
My sister is going to take the risk and contact those three sheep to see what information she can get.
… …
In the dilapidated two-story house where shepherd Pierre Berry lived.
Lumian looked around and asked the old woman in front of him:
"Where's Pierre?"
The old woman was Pierre Berry's mother, named Marti. She was obviously only in her early fifties, but due to overwork, she had many wrinkles, spots on her skin, and her black hair was graying. She looked not much younger than Naroka.
"He went to church," replied Marty.
Going to church again? Lumian was shocked.