Lumian didn't rush to find Ryan, Leah and Valentine, the three strangers, but went straight to the old tavern to try his luck.
If that mysterious lady shows up, he has a lot of questions to ask!
Since we have already accepted the free gift, we will have to pay the price in the future. We might as well take advantage of the opportunity to get more benefits, as Aurore said.
As soon as he entered the old tavern, Lumian's eyes lit up.
The mysterious lady was sitting in her old seat in the corner, two glasses of emerald absinthe in front of her.
Two cups? Did she know I was coming? Lumian walked over and greeted her with a smile:
"Good morning."
The lady was wearing a white women's shirt with a vine pattern on the collar, a beige ankle-length loose skirt, and a light pink women's beret at her side.
Lumian was influenced by his sister's various magazines and knew that this was the latest fashion trend in Trier.
The lady looked up at him:
"It's getting late. It's almost noon."
Isn't this just to accommodate your schedule? Lumian muttered to himself.
Seeing this mysterious lady instantly made him feel at peace.
He sat down and said very directly:
"I've been having a lot of problems lately."
The lady pushed a glass of absinthe to Lumian. The swaying green liquid seemed like the goddess of joy in everyone's heart.
She didn't say that it was okay to talk about it, nor did she say that it wasn't okay to talk about it.
Lumian picked up the glass of absinthe and took a sip. He felt the rich aroma of the wine, with a hint of bitterness in its refreshing taste, which was somewhat different from the absinthe he had drunk before.
"What is this?" he asked puzzledly.
"Another kind of absinthe has been very popular in Trier recently. In order to distinguish it from the previous ones, people prefer to call it absinthe anise liquor. Writers, painters, and poets especially recommend it." The lady also took a small sip.
In the transparent glass, the green liquid seems to have a psychedelic color.
The three main ingredients of absinthe are wormwood, fennel and anise. The recipes of absinthe produced by different distilleries are slightly different, and some even add lemon essential oil and other things.
Did she go to Trier during the days she was not there, just to bring back some absinthe? Lumian could not understand the behavior of the lady opposite him.
He didn't ask any questions, but talked about what he had experienced during this period, including reality and dreams.
The lady sipped her small glass of absinthe and listened quietly to Lumian's story.
"That's about it. Is there any way for me to master that mysterious dance in the shortest possible time?" Lumian went straight to the point.
As for the key to ending the cycle and the secret of dreams, based on his previous experience, he believed that he would not get the answer even if he asked.
The lady gently shook the emerald liquid in the cup and said with a smile:
"Without an extraordinary improvement in flexibility, you will never learn.
"Of course, you can force yourself to jump through a section, but you will definitely suffer injuries such as ligament rupture and muscle tearing. How can you hunt monsters then?"
Lumian is very sensitive to the hidden meanings in other people's words:
"Then is there any way to significantly improve my flexibility?"
The lady chuckled:
“You have to ask yourself.”
“…” Lumian was once again defeated by this vague prompt.
If the person on the other side is more familiar and not so mysterious, he will definitely say two sentences:
"Explain it to me clearly!
"Don't make me kneel down and beg you!"
As if she had heard his inner voice, the lady smiled and added:
“The way to achieve extraordinary improvements in your flexibility lies within yourself.”
"Huh?" Lumian looked confused.
The lady took a sip of the absinthe and sighed:
"Didn't your sister teach you ritual magic?"
Lumian noticed that strange emotion in her eyes reappearing.
“I have.” Lumian’s mind moved. “Pray to yourself?”
The lady looked him up and down, then laughed and said:
"Who do you think you are? What good will praying to you do
"You can only choose the weakest creatures when summoning spirit world creatures. All your inspiration is related to your physical body."
For example, dangerous intuition? Lumian roughly understood what the mysterious lady meant:
The spirituality of the "Hunter" is actually enhanced, but it is mainly focused on inspiration and cannot meet the needs of occult affairs such as ritual magic.
“What should we do then?” Lumian asked.
The lady sighed:
"Have you learned the Binary Ritual Law?"
“I have.” Lumian nodded.
The lady said, “Ah!”
"It's a good thing you have a sister, otherwise I would have to teach you all this occult knowledge. It's so tiring, so tiring."
So you didn't talk about ritual magic, meditation vision, contracted creatures, and supernatural languages. Is it because it's too much trouble? You showed up after Aurore finished talking? Lumian suddenly felt like the blood was rushing up and blocking his throat.
He took two deep breaths and said:
"Binary rituals require items that are closely related to gods or secret entities, but I don't have any..."
As he spoke, Lumian fell silent.
The lady smiled and said:
“You have.
"Well, do you remember it?"
Lumian pointed to his chest:
"The thorn symbol and the blue-black symbol?"
The lady nodded first, then reminded:
"Don't worry about the blue-black symbol. The essence of using the binary ritual to get a response is to extract the divine power contained in the target object. If its power decreases, the balance that your body has achieved with great difficulty will fall to the bad side. At that time..."
She didn't finish her words, but her expression made it easy for Lumian to understand the subtext.
To put it in Aurore's idiom:
"There's no hope. Just wait to die!"
“Is it the blue-black symbol that protected me and prevented me from being completely contaminated?” Lumian already had some knowledge of mysticism and understood that the current situation was called contamination.
"It was the great being I mentioned who protected you." The lady corrected solemnly, "When you have solved the secret of the Dream Ruins, I will tell you her name and you can pray to her directly."
Did that great being send down its power to seal the pollution represented by the thorn symbol in my heart, preventing it from completely contaminating me? Lumian didn't know whether that great being was good or bad, or whether he had any evil intentions, but at least he felt close to him in this matter.
He thought about it and guessed:
"Using binary ritual to steal the power represented by the thorn symbol
"If that power decreases, the pollution will be weakened and the seal will be stronger?"
"How can you call it stealing?" the lady retorted. "It was a request for a gift from someone, but she just happened to have some power nearby, so she responded based on the principle of proximity. The seal of the great being and the weakening of a certain barrier prevented the main body of the someone from noticing it."
Or are you people who only speak half of the words? How is this different from stealing? Lumian muttered to himself.
Combining the divine gifts and abnormal paths that the lady had mentioned, he asked thoughtfully:
"Through the binary ritual, I pray to the power corresponding to the thorn symbol and ask it to grant me a blessing so that my flexibility can be greatly enhanced?"
"That's about right." The lady nodded. "To be precise, ask it to grant you the power of 'Dancer'."
"'Dancer'?" Lumian thought of the performance of the "Noodle Man".
The lady took a sip of absinthe and said:
"For the extraordinary paths outside of the twenty-two paths, we still divide them into Sequence 9 to Sequence 0 for easy understanding, correspondence, and reference.
"Well... in a sense, the division of sequences is in line with the underlying rules of this world."
“‘Dancer’ corresponds to the thorn symbol’s sequence 9, just like ‘Man in the Ring’ corresponds to its sequence 4?” Lumian asked several questions in one breath. “Can it improve my flexibility, enhance my spirituality, and allow me to easily master that mysterious dance?”
The lady smiled with satisfaction and said:
"Sure enough, with the foundation of mysticism, communication will be much easier. I don't need to explain anything else."
Lumian asked excitedly:
"What are the corresponding names of Sequence 8, Sequence 7, Sequence 6, and Sequence 5?"
"Sequence 8 is 'Mendicant Monk', Sequence 7 is 'Bound Person'. Alas, what are you doing knowing so much? First master the rituals and try to become a 'Dancer' as soon as possible." The lady was not very patient.
"Mendicant monk"... "The bonded one"... Hearing these two names, Lumian instantly had many associations.
"Mendicant monk" is a real profession, mainly referring to certain members of major churches.
Like the "Eternal Sun" Church, it is divided into several groups due to different concepts. Among them, the two most important ones are the "Preaching Brotherhood" and the "Little Brotherhood", also known as the "Mendicant Monks".
The former is mainly composed of many clergymen from the church and the "Purifiers" of the Inquisition, and emphasizes the brutal crackdown and cleansing of heretics, cultists, and wild extraordinary people in order to promote the orthodox teachings of the "Eternal Sun".
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The members of the latter are mainly concentrated in monasteries, and some church members have also joined. They advocate restraint of desires, begging for food and asceticism, and preaching in various poor areas, so that more people can believe in the "Eternal Sun".
So, when the word "mendicant monk" was mentioned, Lumian felt that it was related to missionary work, asceticism, and special ritual magic.
As for the "betrothed person", the first thing that came to his mind was the black mark on the parish priest and the mouth monster.
Aurore said that it might be a trace left by a special contract.
"The monster I killed was originally the 'Bound Person'?" Lumian asked in astonishment.
I actually killed a monster equivalent to Sequence 7
The lady nodded slightly:
"Yes, the 'Contracted Person' is the one who, with the help of the special contract and divine witness provided by that being, obtains different powers from different creatures. One contract corresponds to one ability.
"Whether they are powerful or not depends on what abilities they have acquired and how many abilities they have. It is not impossible for those who have gone astray to be killed by ordinary people.
“In fact, there are similar situations in the supernatural realm. It is common for some supernatural beings who are not good at fighting to be killed by those of lower sequences.
“Ability is important, brain is important, and advance preparation is equally important.”
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