Dorothy will hold a ceremony in Shad's attic tonight to advance from the fourth ring of the lower ring to the fifth ring of the middle ring, so Shad does not plan to go to Midhill Castle this Sunday.
After breakfast, Shade went to Old John's pawn shop. Because he arrived too early, Old John had just opened the door and hadn't even put out the small sign outside:
"You come to my place so early, do you want to buy something?"
The gray-haired old man greeted his neighbors and then stood at the door of the store, yawning and asking Shade who was walking along the street. Tobesk in the early morning was so peaceful, especially for those who did not have to work hard for a living:
"Detective, help me get the padlock on the door to the counter."
"Okay, but Father John, is the steam pipe at your door leaking? Why do you put a basin here to collect water?"
Shade asked curiously.
"We've already notified the plumbing company to come and fix it. We can't delay it, or it will freeze and crack when winter comes. So, what are you doing here?"
The two walked into the store together. The light was not very good in the morning and the gas lights were on in the store.
"Do you have moonstone?"
"Of course. How small is today's first business? How much do you want, Detective?"
As he spoke, the old man looked for the list of goods under the counter to check how much goods he had left.
"Just a small piece is enough. One of my magics requires a material for casting, but only a very small amount is consumed each time. Therefore, a small piece of moonstone can last me for a long time."
"It must be inconvenient to always have stones in your pocket, right? And it's easy to lose them..."
Old John looked up at Shad.
"So what you mean is..."
"I happen to have a ring made of moonstone here, and it has runes written on it in the moon language of the Fourth Epoch ancestors that can enhance the effects of magic. Not only that, it..."
"Just make your offer."
Shade smiled and said:
"You really want to make money from me so early."
"Since you introduced Louisa to me and placed a large order, I plan to sell it to you at cost price this time!"
Old John said this with his neck tilted high, and finally took 1 pound and 8 shillings from Shad and handed him the ring that looked like it was made of gray stone.
The surface of the ring is relatively smooth, with a circle of tiny, elongated inscriptions engraved on it. The letters look like a waning moon.
The translated meaning is quite normal:
May the moon be with you.
After returning home, Xia De did not wait for the blonde female writer, but instead a strange carriage stopped at the door of his house.
Then, a middle-aged woman who claimed to be the owner of Ekdi Garment Store asked the shop assistants to carefully take down the twenty or so sets of clothes from the carriage and deliver them to the second floor for Xia De.
"Miss Princess ordered it for you and she gave us the size information."
Confused, Xia De took the invoice from the female shopkeeper and prepared to sign for it, only to find out that it was the clothes sent by Leicia:
"How much did these clothes cost?"
The invoice only contained information about these hand-made clothes, but no prices.
"Miss Princess's servant told us not to tell you the price; it was the lady who asked for it."
Xia De nodded and signed his name on the receipt. This way, he would not be short of clothes this fall.
Shad stayed at home the whole day, and Dorothy didn't come until 10 a.m. She looked a little nervous, and kept comparing the documents she got from the college to check if there were any omissions in her ceremony.
Shade did suggest inviting Luvia and Dr. Schneider to help in the evening, but Dorothy refused. Her ritual required as few people as possible to be present, otherwise it might affect the success rate of the ritual.
In order to relax Dorothy, after dinner in the evening, Shadra took Dorothy to the university district to walk the cat. Afterwards, they did not go home, but sat together on the lawn of the Tyrare River that passed through the university district to watch the stars.
They talked about many things, and this conversation under the stars was very relaxing for Dorothy, and when they got home at nine o'clock that evening, Goldilocks seemed to be completely fine.
The time chosen for the ceremony was ten o'clock that evening. In order to prevent Mia from making trouble, Shad locked her up on the second floor in advance and prepared her favorite cat food and two of her favorite rings so that the cat would not make too much noise.
At 9:50 p.m., Shad and Dorothy went up to the attic. Shad looked up at the star map drawn in chalk on the sloping ceiling of the attic:
"If everything goes well, the ceremony will be over in 20 minutes. But I'm curious, when you get promoted, will it cause any reaction in Lecia a few blocks away?"
"When Leixia was promoted to the fifth ring, I just felt a little feverish, and there was no other abnormality. But once I am promoted this time, we will be on the same level again, and our connection will be strengthened. So Leixia hid in her room an hour in advance to prevent any accidents."
Dorothy stood in the middle of the floor filled with ritual items, looking at the floor-length mirror in the center of the ritual array. This mirror was an antique, said to have been used by the princesses of the Cavendish family three hundred years ago, and was borrowed by Dorothy from Old John.
Although Papa John is a bit stingy, the goods he has are absolutely authentic.
Dorothy's core spirit rune is the Writer who plays another princess. When she is at a low level, she uses the Writer as the core of the system and fairy tales as a means of power, drawing strength from enlightenment until she can summon characters from fairy tales as summons to assist in battle.
The same method was used for the lower ring of Leicia, while the middle rings of the two ladies were intended to be used for role playing. In addition to continuing to connect the sublimation words of fairy tales and calling out the characters in the stories, they tried to "play" the characters in the stories by themselves, so that they could possess the power of the fairy tales.
Therefore, in addition to completely connecting the words of sublimation of the lower four rings - the dream of the match, and the writer's compassion for the people who froze to death, this promotion also requires her to activate the power of the core spirit runes as much as possible and prepare for the system construction after the middle ring.
As a result, Dorothy was dressed up as a "match girl" at this time, that is, barefoot, wearing patched coarse cloth clothes, a headscarf on her head, soot on her face, and carrying a small basket with matches in it.
Perhaps to convey the feeling of being "naked", Dorothy's clothes are a little... ...not suitable for wearing on an autumn night, but a fourth-ring sorcerer will not catch a cold easily, so there is no need to worry about her health.
Now, in addition to the ritual traces painted with special chalk, the precious metal charms bought from the academy, the potion bottles on the cabinets beside the wall, and the antique ritual symbols, there are also upright matches. The matches are glued to the clay and fixed on the floor so that they do not fall over. Fixing these matches is the most troublesome step in arranging the entire ceremony.
"Attention, there are ten seconds left!"
Shade, who could accurately sense time, said, and walked quickly to the attic window and opened it. The night sky was still covered with mist tonight, but the moon could still be seen.
The moonlight shone on Shade, and he stood at the window and turned around:
"Five seconds! Summon the Life Ring!"
With their hands extended, huge brass rings appeared behind both of them at the same time, and four-colored spiritual light immediately filled the attic.
"Three seconds! Silent Moonlight!"
The moonlight shone in from the window and directly enveloped Xia De, helping him to speed up the recovery of his spirit. Of course, only he could see this beam of light.
"Two seconds! Mystery lock, little match girl!"
Of course, it is impossible for Xia De, who only has three rings, to fully use this magic.
But with the first ring, he could summon snowflakes, with the second ring, he could even vaguely summon the moon above his head. With the third ring, as his spirit was rapidly consumed, his body and life ring resonated with the moonlight outside the window. Then, the starry sky and the star map on the attic ceiling vaguely overlapped, and it was as if the ceiling became transparent, allowing the brilliant galaxy to hang upside down directly above their heads.
Large-scale ceremonies can also use mazes. Dorothy used up the bonus from betting on big city players some time ago to set up a maze ceremony so that Shad could use the Little Match Girl as fully as possible at this moment.
"One! Dorothy, it's time!"
Dorothy stood in the middle of the attic, her eyes closed, facing the huge copper-framed floor-length mirror. The moonlight outside the window and the starlight above her head shone on her body at the same time, and snowflakes fell on her head and shoulders, and then slowly melted away.
She carries a basket on her left arm and holds a handwritten copy of the story of "The Little Match Girl" in her right hand. This is the original version of the story provided by the creator of the story, symbolizing the source of sublime language.
The parchment scroll automatically flew up into the sky, and the curled paper scroll unfolded little by little under the illumination of Dorothy's spiritual light. Then flames ignited from the tail of the parchment and then spread upwards.
The ritual array on the ground lit up, and the 365 matches that had not been lit lit up together under the snow-covered ceiling.
As the flames flickered, the floor-length mirror that originally reflected the strange scene in the attic gradually blurred the picture. After the parchment scroll was completely burned, the strange white mist covered the mirror. Dorothy still kept her eyes closed, and her right hand swung gracefully in front of her body, and then a match appeared between her fingers.
She shook the match slightly, and a flame appeared on the match head. She opened her eyes and threw the burning match lightly towards the mirror.
Surrounded by hundreds of matches, surrounded by the ritual array lit on the ground, surrounded by moonlight, starlight and spiritual light, the match ignited the white mist on the mirror. After the fire, the street scene of falling snow appeared in the mirror.
Shade, who was trying hard to maintain the starlight and the falling snow, breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that the ceremony went very smoothly.
Dorothy carried a basket and looked at herself in the mirror on the street of the snowy town. She was huddled on the side of the street with obvious signs of frostbite on her fair skin. Her face was pale as she looked at the snowy town.
"Outside the matchstick's dream..."
She said softly, and Dorothy's reflection in the mirror seemed to be gazing at the "other Dorothy" in the mirror, and she stood up trembling.
Dorothy drank the potion prepared in advance one by one, and then sprinkled the dust made of the fake Philosopher's Stone evenly under her feet.
The spiritual light on the life ring behind him shone brighter and brighter, and the burning match on the ground did not decrease, nor did it gradually go out. The flame became brighter and brighter, until it illuminated the entire attic like daylight.