"Doctor, I've also heard of this ancient relic. How could you even find this?"
Luvia said quietly while sitting on the sofa.
Dr. Schneider nodded:
"Feature: bring these hairs close to your head and they will automatically attach to your own hair. This feature is ineffective for people who have no hair on their heads, or for people whose longest hair is less than 0.1 inches (about 2.54mm). Once attached by these hairs, your luck will become extremely bad. The longest record is that someone persisted until the 13th day before being killed by bad luck. The only way to get rid of these hairs is..."
"Shave your hair?"
Xia De asked, and the doctor smiled helplessly:
"How can it be that simple? The only way is that you got good luck while being attached to the relic. Any method will do, including your twenty-sided dice of destiny. I remember that the effect of your dice has a very high priority, and the numbers rolled out are not affected by the luck of low-priority items."
As the doctor spoke, he saw the cat behind Shade's head and reminded him:
"This stuff is also useful for furry animals, Shad, keep an eye on your cat."
Xia De immediately turned around and grabbed Mia, holding her firmly in his arms.
Mia looked happy.
"Doctor, but this only brings bad luck, what about good luck?"
Dorothy got the point.
"It's very simple. First, you splice another person's hair onto your own hair. It must be black, and naturally black, not dyed. Then, you splice the unfortunate person's long hair onto the other end of the other person's black hair. The unfortunate person's long hair can only work on the hair that is still growing on the scalp, so it won't work on the other person's hair. And because it's spliced with the user's hair through another person's hair, it achieves a kind of ambiguous reversal. This state will last for about 10 seconds, during which the user will be extremely lucky, and after the time is up, the relic will fall off by itself."
"What is the price of manipulating fate?"
Luvia asked cautiously, and the doctor shook his head:
"For at least half a year, the user will be very likely to be attacked by evil spirits, and the dead around them will also be very likely to return as evil spirits, but the specific time depends on the user. Don't underestimate this side effect. The records say that after using the relic, you must not go near haunted houses or other areas for a short period of time. This is a side effect of the relic itself, and in addition to that, there is an absolute equivalent fate. What kind of luck you gain, you will pay the same degree of bad luck. This bad luck is delayed, but it will definitely happen."
"No problem, use this."
Shad said that if he used the dice illegally, not only would he have to bear the cost of further damage to the dice, but he would also be uncertain whether the good luck brought by the numbers would definitely come to him at the road sign he chose.
The good luck brought by the hair lasted for a long time. He didn't ask for much, just a few percent chance of hitting once. As long as the speed was fast enough, he wouldn't have to worry about using the relic but not getting the desired effect.
"Shad..."
The doctor looked at him but did not stop him:
"The academy has given the news, and they are investigating. I can't stop you because I also want to save Father Augustus, or at least find out what happened to him and bring back his body. Go, Shad, and be sure to be safe."
"We're waiting for you here. No matter what happens, be sure to come back and let me know at 5pm."
' said Dorothy.
"I have divined for Priest Augustus before, and he definitely did not die in Midhill Castle. Shade, be safe."
Luvia also whispered, then looked at the people around her and asked:
"But do you have any black hair here?"
"Yes, I have a black hair from my friend."
Shad nodded slightly. Luvia knew that Shad had a special relationship with the witch's maid, so she raised her eyebrows and said nothing. Dorothy knew that Shad had a close relationship with "her" great-aunt and an even better relationship with the maid, so she just glanced at Shad and said nothing.
I took Tifa's hair out of the study and asked Dorothy to help me tie it around the short hair on the right side of his ear. This was quite a delicate technique.
Then, the four of them went to the first floor together. The doctor did not follow them down, as he did not want the demon in his heart to see more secrets. But before parting, the doctor gave Shade a wooden button. This was an alchemical item he made himself, which could distort his facial features by using the distortion of light, thus forming a certain degree of disguise.
However, this alchemical item can only last for half an hour and can be easily discovered by a ringmaster, so it can only be regarded as a backup prop for Shade.
After thanking the doctor, Dorothy and Luvia took Shad to the wall together. Neither of them was surprised at all that the other knew the secret.
"Anyway, be careful."
They didn't say much, and Shad put the cat that was clinging to him into Dorothy's arms. Mia was dissatisfied because she had lived with the blonde writer for a few days, but she didn't escape.
"You guys go have lunch first. I'm afraid I won't be back until the evening."
He turned around, and Luvia put the metal box containing blood on the ground, fished out the hair in the blood, and tied it to the long black hair on Shad's cheek.
The feeling at this moment was very strange. Hair itself has no sense of touch, but when the unfortunate man's long hair touched Tifa's hair, Shad actually thought that his hair "felt" an extremely cold chill.
The whispers in his ears became more obvious. Shade could even make out that it was a woman speaking an ancient language about her miserable life.
Xia De didn't say much, and quickly walked into the hidden wall in front of him. Without stopping, he touched the statue in the center of the circular space:
"May the original rift protect me in infinite space."
Thick white fog immediately rolled in, enveloping Shade. He once again entered a world wrapped in white fog, and on the blurry path in front of him stood two worn-out wooden signposts.
At the same time, the mental pressure caused by using the relic suddenly eased, and even the whispers in his ears became fainter:
"You must not be suppressed by this space."
Outsider, you have entered the "space maze".
Message from the ancient god "Original Rift":
Existing space landmarks:2.
"Sacrifice this white stone crystal."
Time was running out, so Xia De immediately lifted the white crystal in his hand upwards. It disappeared silently in Xia De's hand, as if it had merged into the thick fog.
New information is obtained, and new...
"southeast!"
The Ancient God, the Primal Rift, has accepted your sacrifice.
Randomly linking spatial signposts.
Link successful, existing space landmark: 3.
Shad immediately reached out and plucked off the strand of blood-stained black hair that was hanging on the side of his face. He was relieved only after confirming that the hair was not stuck to Tifa's long hair.
It was clearly not a containment condition, but the black hair was motionless as if it was "dead".
"Are there any whispering elements?"
Shade himself could no longer feel the elements.
Yes, but very faint.
Xia De nodded, which meant that low-level relics would be suppressed in areas where the power of the ancient gods remained.
He did not touch the third wooden signpost that appeared on the path in front of him, but took a step back and returned to the hidden wall of the basement. He walked out of the wall and handed the dangerous relic to the anxious girls, and then officially began another long journey adventure.
Touching the statue again, he returned to the space maze and walked on the blurred path in the white mist. The third new signpost appeared, also inserted crookedly into the ground. A wooden arrow was nailed on the worn wood, with the number three written crookedly.
Shade placed his hand on the signpost:
The Original Rift will show you the way.
The white mist dissipated.
Xia De stood there without moving. When the white mist completely dissipated, what appeared in front of him was a circular space exactly the same as the one behind the wall of his own basement.
The statue of the ancient god Original Rift stood quietly in the center of the space, emitting light as Shade watched.
In the circular space of Saint Teresa Square and Coldwater Harbor, Shade placed some characteristic objects that could indicate the location. However, in the current space, there was nothing inside except the statue of God.
"I was looking forward to finding property or relics left by our ancestors in a place like this."
Xia De thought to himself and looked at the wall facing the statue. He summoned the life ring behind him and controlled the spiritual light of the core spirit rune time and space to illuminate the wall. The wall disappeared silently, but there was a faint light outside.
"What?"
The light should be farther away, so the opening of the wall did not cause any reaction.
Xia De waited for a few seconds, making sure that he didn't hear any approaching footsteps, before quietly coming out of the circular space.
There is a strange musty smell in the air, and if you calm down and listen carefully, the only sounds are the wind blowing through the treetops and the last cries of summer insects in early autumn.
The light comes from above on the other side of the room you are currently in, and is natural light from the sun.
Shade then lit up the light on his fingertips and looked around, and found that this seemed to be an abandoned basement. Animal feces and all kinds of worthless garbage were thrown on the ground, and spider webs were hanging in the corners.
The moonlight even disturbed the bats resting in the darkness. The creatures tried to attack Shad, but after a flash of moonlight, they fell to the ground.
"What kind of basement is this? It smells terrible."
There are no steps leading from the basement to the upper floor, and the two are connected by a trapdoor. There may have been a metal or wooden escalator, but now there is nothing.
Although the distance between the ground and the basement was no more than ten meters, because he didn't know what was going on above, Xia De did not choose spatial movement but chose frog leaping instead.
"Hi!"
After a light jump, he grabbed the edge of the square entrance to the basement, which was also the edge of the gap in the first floor. After still not hearing any human voice, he used his arms to lift his head from under the trapdoor.
This kind of pull-up-like movement is no pressure for Xia De now:
"Where exactly is this place?"
With curiosity, he finally saw everything around him. The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust, and rusty and even rotten metal furniture was piled up messily against the wall. There were some traces of a fire on the ground near the right side, but that was at least a year ago.
The space on this floor is surprisingly circular, and the walls are made of rough gray square bricks. There is no trace of the steam industry era.
Looking up, a spiral staircase extends upward, and a slender but very strong-looking metal pole extends from the top of the tower to the ground, as if to facilitate falling back from the highest floor to the bottom floor.
"Tower? Clock tower or lighthouse? Judging from the style, it seems to be neither."
The sunlight came from the front. There was no trace of human use in this large tower. The door at the bottom of the lighthouse had been removed, and the bright sunlight shone into the first floor of the lighthouse from outside, and then shone into the basement through the square gap in the ground.
Xia De exerted force with his arms, and after his upper body jumped out of the basement, he first put his legs on the dusty ground, and then climbed up.
He stood up and brushed off the dust on his clothes and hands. Because of his actions, the sunlight coming in from the door in front of him was covered with some granular dust. This look told Shade that this was an area far away from human communities.
"I hope it's not too far from the city. I hope this is Fort Midhill."
Xia De thought quietly in his heart, and then he remembered that he nominally believed in the righteous god Mr. Liming, so he prayed to Mr. Liming quietly again.
The sunlight coming in from the door was a little dazzling, so he raised his arms to shield his face from the sun. Instead of exploring this long-abandoned old tower, he walked into the light at the door.
The wind blew through the treetops, allowing Shade, who had lived in the steam city for a long time, to feel the breath of nature for the first time in a long time. In front of him was a forest, and the old tower behind him had almost completely merged with the forest. It was probably abandoned for more than 100 years.
The treetops had already climbed up the outer wall of the old tower, with vines connecting the towering trees and stone walls. Mosses, weeds, and various plants that Shade could not recognize covered the ground. Looking up, birds flew out of the windows of the old tower, as if they had lived in the tower for generations.
"The air is really nice, but what was this tower originally used for?"
He thought to himself.
He did not immediately start the night exploration, because he found a metal plate nailed to the stone wall at the door of the old tower. On the metal plate were several lines of vague words engraved in the form of official documents to explain the situation here:
The 1st Legion of the Royal Army of the Kingdom of Draerion - The 3rd Brigade of the Wind Rising Trail - Tower No. 12 has been abandoned due to the relocation of the front line, and the nearby camp has been demolished. Hunters, lost people, and stowaways in the West Carr Mountain can move to the northwest at 11 o'clock and find a small path into the mountain. After about 30 minutes, you can reach the southeast suburb of Midhill Castle.
—Logistics Support Department, Royal Army of the Kingdom of Drarion
Common calendar year 1765