At least in this matter, Aiwass could be sure that Bishop Mathers did not have as much information as he did.
Although Aiwass had completely forgotten the plot, the letter sent by someone to the Noble Red Society that he obtained from the Pelican Bar mentioned some key information.
The letter roughly mentioned that the demonologists sent by the Noble Red Society this time should be "a group of people", not just two. "That lord" will cooperate with their actions and create cases in various parts of Glass Island in advance to distract the attention and manpower of the Supervisory Bureau.
Similarly, the mysterious man who wrote the letter also issued a warning to the Noble Red Society in an attitude that was almost an equal partner - the general idea was that he could only allow the society to have a limited amount of credit. If the society still did not give him what he wanted this time, he would "with a heavy heart and firmly carry out some unkind behaviors that neither of us wanted or wanted to see."
The two "pen pals" who came to meet Aiwass actually left the main group and arrived early.
The motivation is also easy to understand.
They have been operating the "Aiwas" line for a long time. Perhaps they thought that Aiwas would die in this ongoing turmoil; or perhaps they thought that their superiors would come to snatch Aiwas's resources; or perhaps they were uneasy about this operation, so they activated Aiwas's reserve food in advance to replenish important resources.
Perhaps at the beginning he was attracted by the name of the "Moriarty" family, but when Aiwass became a pastor and still trusted them, he himself became a special value.
Noble blood, pure heart, soul seeking transcendence, willing sacrifice - maybe there are other factors. But Aiwass is a very high standard as a sacrifice.
Because the sacrificial ceremony was not a ceremony to summon the shadow demon specifically, but any higher-level demon could come. As a result, the shadow demon came over just after the ceremony began, smelling the scent.
Aiwass used half of his life force as a sacrifice and signed a contract with the Shadow Demon - this was actually the correct price.
The correct sacrifice price is "half". No matter how much you offer, the devil will only take half, and usually the renewable half. Because the essence of this ritual is "equal division".
Property is equally divided, power is equally divided, income is equally divided, and risk is equally divided - such two parties can be called partners. If the quality of the summoner can satisfy the devil, the summoner can symbolically take 1% more to show the difference between "master and servant"; if it is very reluctant to just summon, then it is usually divided in half.
But in fact, this has no binding force on the behavior of the demon. It is just a difference between the verbal address of "master" and "partner".
Demonologists are a legal profession in all countries except Avalon and the Eternal Church. If the sacrifice technique requires the killing of one's own sacrifice, then demonologists must be murderers, and this profession cannot be legal. And if a demonologist performs self-sacrifice, it is equivalent to suicide.
The sacrifices of demonologists in the Kingdom of Avalon are always accompanied by massacres. This is not actually the need of the demons, but the need to silence, rob, or prepare ritual materials.
As the spread of mysterious knowledge is limited, most ordinary people don't even know what extraordinary professions there are in the path of transcendence, and they don't even know the official name "demonologist". Instead, they use the established impression of "warlock" as a folk nickname, which means "in short, he is a master who can cast spells."
But in fact, the demonologist's spell ability is not strong, and the types of spells he can use are quite limited.
Compared to the mages of the Path of Wisdom, the necromancers of the Path of Dusk, the sages of the Path of Adaptation, and even the law mages of the Path of Authority, the demonologists' main power comes from "rituals" and "demons". Many spells need to rely on rituals, need to be prepared in advance, and are far more powerful than normal spells.
For example, Veronica's "Cursed Baby" requires a baby cursed to death by the caster as the ritual material. The ritual spells guided by the second-level demonologist are destructive enough to threaten or even kill the third-level front-line professions instantly.
If a demonologist does not have the right materials or a contract with a powerful enough demon, he will become very weak.
But on the other hand, if demonologists plan secretly and prepare in advance, they can unleash destructive power far beyond their level.
Now I am in the light and they are in the dark.
If Aiwass only uses his ability as a demonologist to fight, it will be doubly disadvantageous - not only will his identity be easily exposed, but he will also be completely unable to cooperate with his teammates.
He can't even mix well. He can't even lie down.
Originally, Aiwas had planned to obtain the priest professional level as soon as possible, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. Before he told his adoptive father about this, Bishop Mathers had thought of it in advance.
In the morning, the Supervisory Bureau called to make an appointment - saying that they were planning to come to Moriarty Manor in the evening. The adoptive father was very happy and said that he would give Aiwass a commendation or something like that... But Aiwass was not very interested in this.
What good things can the Supervisory Bureau give? Players in the game are busy all over, but in the end they get nothing. They are allowed to divide the benefits among themselves.
And Aiwas was worried that it was Haina, the fool, who came several hours in advance. So he didn't dare to go out today.
I originally planned to stay at home and read books with my sister.
As a result, Bishop Mathers invited him to the Cathedral to light the candles at nine o'clock in the morning.
But now, Aiwas had no dissatisfaction in his heart. He was extremely pious and serious.
—Just kidding, this is a professional skills instructor!
And strictly speaking, I got in through the back door. I didn't pass the exam, nor did I do the long and boring list of "approval tasks", but I was directly qualified to learn the sacred skills!
The old bishop preached slowly: "The so-called 'sacred skills' are the most practical, safest, and easiest to master mysterious skills of the path of devotion that the church has carefully selected based on the principles of 'safety', 'health', 'easy to learn', and 'benefiting others'. After passing the corresponding qualification exam, the bishop will teach you the corresponding skills for free until you have mastered them."
I know, it's the starter Pokémon. Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur... They're easy to use and raise.
Aiwass muttered to himself, feeling very anxious and impatient.
Bishop Mathers continued to speak calmly, “There are four types of sacred skills that can be mastered by those below the rank of bishop.
"'Prayer', 'fire worship', 'illumination', 'blessing'. It is important to note that the essence of the mysterious art cannot be understood in a literal sense."
The old bishop explained: "The so-called 'fire worship' refers to a technique to strengthen the body and restore itself.
"Human life is like a candle, and the soul is the fire. We who walk the path of dedication share our light and fire. This also means that we will gradually become short of ourselves.
"I deliberately created this unhealthy state for myself to demonstrate to you."
As he spoke, the old bishop pointed to the unnatural white hair on his temples.
Aiwass knew what he was going to say, but still nodded obediently.
Simply put, spells on the path of dedication all require burning one's own blood.
Even when healing, one has to burn one's own blood to restore blood for others - if that's the case, then the path of dedication must have a stable means of restoring blood.
This is the art of "worshiping fire".
"First, light a new candle. Any color will do, it doesn't matter - once you're good enough, you can even carry a pack of matches with you."
The old bishop said, stretching out his left hand: “I don’t know how much you understand about the mysterious knowledge, so I will start from the beginning.
"Among the five fingers of both hands, the thumb symbolizes fire, the index finger symbolizes air, the middle finger symbolizes ether, the ring finger is earth, and the little finger is water. The four basic elements have two corresponding fingers, and light and darkness are on the left and right hands respectively. Therefore, we usually use the left hand to worship fire - and the elements of the consecration path are light and fire, so our most important fingers are the thumb and middle finger of the left hand.
"Until you become proficient in it and have it ingrained into your instincts, I don't recommend that you use your right hand for anything."
As he spoke, a white flame ignited on the old bishop's left thumb and lit the candlestick in front of him.
There was a thick and long white candle placed there in advance. After it was lit, the light instantly illuminated the entire space.
"In order to facilitate your first visualization, I have specially selected the brightest model."
Bishop Mathers explained, motioning for Oswald to push Aiwas' wheelchair over.
"Here, raise your left hand. Do it with me..."
His movements were slow: “Imagine that what is before you is not a candle flame that is within reach, but a golden sun that is out of reach.
“No matter how bright the fire is before you, imagine it shining with the utmost brightness—a brightness that fills every corner of your vision, fills your entire field of vision, without the slightest shadow. Imagine it can penetrate your palm, so that even if you open your hand, your hand should be as transparent as glass.”
Aiwass did so.
And just when he stretched out his hand.
Suddenly, a pop-up window popped up in front of him:
Samuel Mathers is teaching you "Fire Worship". Do you want to pay 1 public experience to master this mysterious skill
The moment he saw the pop-up window, Aiwas was stunned for a moment and subconsciously looked at Bishop Mathers.
In the game, if a player obtains a certain mysterious skill through a quest - that is, not through reading, but through one-on-one instruction after maxing out the personal favor of a certain NPC, the experience consumed in learning this mysterious skill is directly proportional to the skill level and inversely proportional to the level of the teacher.
In other words, the easier it is to learn this mysterious skill and the higher the level of the teacher, the less experience the learner needs to consume.
This setting doesn't have much meaning in the game, it's just to show how strong this person is. Because the player actually doesn't lack this experience - there is no physical limit in this broken game, and the experience required to learn mysterious skills is not much.
However, when online beast fighters discuss "who is stronger than who" or "who can defeat who in seconds", they will use this as a basis to reversely infer the corresponding professional level of this NPC.
When players were learning sacred skills in the past, they had to spend seven points of experience to learn them - and even if the teaching NPC whose name Aiwass forgot was weak, he was at least a certain bishop.
What's going on with you, old man? You were at such a high level in version 1.0, why have I never heard of your name in the game
—Oh no, we ran into the Sweeping Monk.