The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Enchantment Card: Blade of Shadow
Eivass didn’t even wait for authorization from the Inspection Bureau; he knew he would be involved in the investigation.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would even be able to investigate independently – without being closely monitored by Haina as a supervisor, but directly participating as an “Inspection Bureau Associate.”
On one hand, it was his foster father’s influence; on the other, the Inspection Bureau, bound by the rules of their superiors, was always welcoming of outside help. Starting with Mr. Sherlock, the “detectives” hired and consulted by the Inspection Bureau had even become a profession.
If the investigation failed, it would be attributed to the incompetence of the hired detective, thus avoiding severe internal reprimands. If everything went smoothly, it would be credited to the correct guidance provided by the Inspection Bureau, earning at least some merit and a stable share of benefits. Eivass understood the Inspection Bureau better than Haina, even though she was a genuine supervisor.
Eivass had his reasons for actively participating in this investigation.
— Revenge and silencing.
The two versions of the story Eivass had told the Inspection Bureau earlier were actually lies. Or rather, not entirely true.
He was indeed a participant in the ritual and had met the two Demon Scholars.
But he was also the ritual’s sacrifice.
Because those two Demon Scholars were, in fact, Eivass’s “pen pals.”
Eivass had been interested in forbidden knowledge since childhood. The more forbidden the Mystical Arts were in the Avalon Kingdom, the more excited he became about researching them.
For example, Ritual Magic from the [Beyond] Path and Preservation Technique from the [Twilight] Path.
The former was a foundational ability for Demon Scholars, and one of the professions derived from the latter was Necromancer. Judging by the name alone, it wasn’t something good.
This Forbidden knowledge was only briefly outlined in his foster father’s study. Secretly hoarding forbidden books was a serious crime, even within a Knight family. But after reading the outline, young Eivass became even more eager.
He feverishly purchased ritual materials and attempted to perform rituals based on speculation and imagination, without possessing any Extraordinary Power or Mystical Arts.
This, of course, led to failure.
The core secret of this World was “knowledge.”
The nine Mystical Arts corresponding to the Nine Great Paths required corresponding knowledge to master. Conversely, as long as one mastered the relevant knowledge, even with low personal power, they could gain Extraordinary Power far exceeding their true abilities. Each piece of Forbidden knowledge was almost the foundation of an entire school of thought. In such circumstances, it was impossible to buy reliable “skill books” on the market.
Then, on Eivass’s sixteenth birthday, a secret society of Demon Scholars called “Noble Red” suddenly contacted him.
Eivass was initially very wary. But along with the letter, they sent him several handwritten copies of forbidden books containing knowledge and rituals related to demons.
Although they were all small rituals indistinguishable from minor tricks—such as causing boils, healing minor wounds, inducing sleepiness, or bringing bad luck—they were undeniably real Extraordinry rituals!
After trying them all, Eivass became very excited. Thus, he became pen pals with them, regularly exchanging information on Demonology, and they considered themselves Eivass’s friends. They often chatted with him about their emotional lives and daily trivialities.
At first, Eivass remained somewhat cautious.
However, two years passed quietly.
Eivass thought that if they had intended to deceive him, they would have done so long ago. The value of the secret knowledge they had gifted him was already considerabl—though Eivass, never having visited the black market, didn’t know how much this knowledge could fetch, the sheer quantity was substantial even if the quality wasn’t top-tier.
—Which scammer would operate for so long and invest so much just to deceive one person?
It was neither logical nor reasonable. It also didn’t align with maximizing profit.
Thus, Eivass gradually lowered his guard, genuinely considering these pen pals as kindred spirits he had never met.
A few days ago, they claimed they had business in the capital and wanted to meet Eivass.
Eivass believed them without hesitation or suspicion.
— This was the lie he told the Inspection Bureau. Because “Eivass” wasn’t kidnapped but willingly walked into it.
They were a man and a woman, both in red robes and with shaved heads. The man appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, and the woman was in her early twenties. Besides being mentor and apprentice, they were also lovers.
He warmly invited his “two friends” for a meal, after which the middle-aged man offered to let Eivass witness, or even personally participate in, a true demon Summoning Ritual—Eivass excitedly agreed.
But after he had spent over an hour preparing the ritual, he looked at the ritual platform and suddenly realized something.
Didn’t summoning a demon require expensive materials?
It was only then that he belatedly realized that he, having personally set up the ritual platform, had conveniently become the “willing sacrifice.” Concurrently, as a student of the Seminary at the Royal Law University, Eivass could become a Priest before graduation.
Although he hadn’t truly embarked on the path of the Extraordinary, he had already taken the first step towards the Path of Devotion.
This was reflected on his status card – he already possessed a level 1 Priest Profession. Once the experience for the basic skill “Basic Prayer” was maxed out, Eivass could level up his Priest Profession to level 2 and gain his first Path Trait of the Path of Devotion.
He happily shared this news with his pen pals—though “Priest” wasn’t as interesting as “Demon Scholar,” it was still an Extraordinary Profession. Being able to walk the path of the Extraordinary and possess Extraordinary abilities was better than nothing.
More importantly, Priests were a respected profession in Avalon.
The symbols of the Path of Devotion were light, protection, and candles. It was a path of self-sacrifice for others and ideals, and one could only grow stronger by genuinely practicing this principle. Therefore, all professions derived from the Path of Devotion were Extraordinary Professions with bright futures, recognized by people.
Thus, as a “willing believer of Devotion,” Eivass became a sacrifice of exceptionally high caliber.
It was only then, facing the crisis of death, that Eivass recalled his Past Life memories. He recognized the type of demon and successfully signed a contract with it.
He manipulated the Shadow Demon to sneak attack and kill the middle-aged man, who was also a Demon Scholar acting as his “mentor,” who stood there in stunned silence. However, the woman, the apprentice, was still alive.
If she had escaped any slower, Eivass would have killed her; but if she had dared to turn back and look, she could have killed Eivass instead.
It was a close call.
Eivass sighed.
— Just a little bit more, and he would have been sacrificed and silenced by that man; and just a little bit more, and he would have been killed by that woman.
Betrayed, deceived, and murdered.
Genuine anger echoed in Eivass’s heart. He unhesitatingly decided to retaliate.
Not to mention, it was highly likely that this woman had seen Eivass’s letters.
This meant that if she were captured, she could potentially expose Eivass—no, she absolutely would expose him.
His foster father’s stance was currently unclear, but even for his own sake, he had to silence her before the Inspection Bureau caught her.
However, Eivass also had no intention of exposing his identity as a Demon Scholar to kill her.
He had a way.
After waking up yesterday, Eivass’s first reaction was to try a simple ritual that the original “Eivass” didn’t know about, and which only appeared in the late stages of the game. After using that ritual to replenish his Life force, which had been depleted as a sacrifice, Eivass was largely convinced—the Forbidden knowledge he possessed was also useful in this World.
In the game, Eivass’s Profession was not a Demon Scholar of the [Beyond] Path… but an Illuminator of the Path of Devotion.
It was a pure support Profession that could significantly enhance teammates’ power with a small amount of healing and control abilities.
But now, facing world-ending crises alone, such a weak Profession wouldn’t suffice.
This was because an Illuminator couldn’t benefit from their own enhancements. In other words, most Professions on the Path of Devotion couldn’t benefit from their own enhancement, protection, or healing skills.
However, it was viable as a sub-Profession. After all, Eivass’s overt identity was a Priest of the Path of Devotion. Switching to an Illuminator could be prepared in advance, and he was also extremely familiar with the necessary Path Traits required for advancing to this Profession.
To resolve those crises, his main Profession required sufficient solo combat capability.
Considering he could take Illuminator as a sub-Profession, the answer was simple.
It was the “Eivass” of version 0, who, after mastering Phantom Demon power, advanced into the “Lord of Great Beasts.”
It was a late-stage Profession, advancing further from a Sin Scholar.
It allowed him to extract the essence of defeated, undying Phantom Demons and turn them into his own Summoned Beasts, the “Great Beasts” of six attributes.
Although he could only summon one “Great Beast” at a time, he could switch to the Great Beast most suitable for the current situation and then use support cards, equipment cards, and field cards made from the power extracted from other “Great Beasts” to strengthen the current one.
Most importantly, this Summoned Beast counted as a “teammate.”
Not only was its damage output far greater than his own body, but it could also receive all types of buffs from teammates.
In game terms, this Profession had the highest “buff reception rate.”
This was because the cards provided enhancements to high-level mechanics, such as three-speed, armor penetration, poison, burning, evasion, and magic penetration, but specifically lacked damage-increasing buffs. This meant it wouldn’t dilute the various damage-increasing buffs from the most mainstream support, the Illuminator.
Although after summoning a “Great Beast,” his main body would no longer receive attack buffs, leading to somewhat lackluster damage output.
However, during burst cycles, the Lord of Great Beasts could temporarily merge with the summoned, fully enhanced “Great Beast” to unleash extremely strong offensive power.
With the Illuminator complementing the Lord of Great Beasts, Eivass could enhance his Summoned Beast as a “teammate.” Furthermore, he wouldn’t lose the social benefits of his overt Priest identity, and he could switch to a Summoned Beast that countered specific enemies, offering a high ceiling.
In the worst-case scenario, where he was the only one facing a BOSS—this Profession combination might not boast the highest burst damage, but it would undoubtedly be the strongest in terms of overall performance and adaptability.
The ability to extract the power of higher-tier Phantom Demons and use Tarot Cards as materials to create Phantom Demon Cards came from the prerequisite Profession, Sin Scholar.
A Sin Scholar, after thoroughly researching and analyzing a Phantom Demon, could obtain the corresponding ritual knowledge—what kind of cards could be imprinted from this Phantom Demon, what materials and rituals were needed. Once this knowledge was acquired, even a Demon Scholar could begin crafting.
The most crucial prerequisite for advancing to the Lord of Great Beasts was to use the Sin Scholar’s abilities to create six blank cards of different attributes, each sealing a Phantom Demon of the corresponding attribute.
Then, one would have to repeatedly defeat Phantom Demons of the same attribute as experience material to level up these six Phantom Demons.
According to Eivass’s memory, Yulia harbored a fire-attribute higher-tier Phantom Demon.
It was precisely to sustain that Phantom Demon that her body had become so frail.
Once that Phantom Demon matured, it would claim Yulia’s life. To save her, one would have to confront the juvenile Phantom Demon directly; and Phantom Demons were undying—this meant that conventional methods were insufficient to save Yulia. At best, one could only delay the Phantom Demon’s awakening and loss of control.
The “Lord of Great Beasts” was different.
If Eivass could successfully create a “blank card” with sufficient capacity to contain the Phantom Demon within Yulia’s body, he could directly extract the Phantom Demon’s consciousness from Yulia.
This way, not only could Yulia survive, but he would also have advance materials for the Lord of Great Beasts!
And Yulia could also gain the residual energy of the Phantom Demon—making this unstable and dangerous power stable and growable, thus allowing her to embark on the path of the Extraordinary as well!
The foundation of all this was that the ritual for card creation in Eivass’s memory was reliable and feasible.
He had already tested other rituals before; the ritual knowledge from the game was indeed usable!
However, the creation of Phantom Demon Cards still required further verification. This was because the Sin Scholar Profession only appeared after the Fallen Heavenly Envoy Descended.
Now, two full versions ahead of schedule, Eivass was unsure if this ritual could already be performed.
Therefore, he needed to experiment.
As long as Eivass, in his identity as a Demon Scholar, could successfully create any Phantom Demon Card, it would directly confirm that this system was still usable in the current era!
This way, he would gain a type of power unrelated to that of a Demon Scholar.
His personal revenge and silencing efforts would proceed smoothly.
Yulia would be saved!
Even the destruction of Avalon might be reversible—
— As long as he could successfully create his own first card.
Currently, Eivass was still too weak. The only extraordinary existence he could wield, close to a higher-tier Phantom Demon, was the Shadow Demon.
And the only card that could be made by extracting the Shadow Demon was the “Moon” card.
To craft the “Moon Card,” regardless of how powerful the sealed force was, it required a nail from the forehead of a sinner being torn apart and three ancient ropes from a gallows as materials.
Eivass solemnly sat at his desk and took out a slightly darkened Tarot Card from a jade box.
These Tarot Cards were among a batch of unused Mystical items Eivass had purchased during his previous fervent obsession with various rituals. But now, they could be used to create the Phantom Demon Cards of the Lord of Great Beasts.
The Tarot Card depicted a moon, with two high towers on either side. Below the moon were a wolf and a dog, both barking madly at the moon. In the center bottom of the image, a lobster crawled out of the river, looking up at the sky in confusion.
This was [The Moon]. In Tarot divination, The Moon card symbolized confusion, hardship, and unease.
The creators of the Tarot Cards came from the prophets of the “Adaptation” Path. The prophets disdained astrologers, who also belonged to the “Adaptation” Path, comparing them to dogs barking at the moon—because all prophets agreed that the future could never be precisely predicted, yet astrologers strove to create an overly complex, precise “Great Unified Star Chart” capable of predicting all future events.
This act, in the eyes of the prophets, was ridiculous. It was like dogs barking at the moon, trying to understand what it truly meant. But this, in turn, exposed their ignorance and fearlessness.
Eivass held his breath, becoming extremely careful.
Because he had coated the “Moon” on the Tarot Card with mercury. He had used this as a medium to inject three points of his Dark attribute Mana yesterday.
Currently, Eivass’s Dark attribute Mana Pool had a maximum capacity of only three points.
And to craft even the most basic and weakest card, at least five points were required. Regardless of how powerful the card was, the other materials were the same; the only difference was the amount of gemstone powder used.
… Although crafting such a weak card was somewhat wasteful of materials, it was more important to succeed once and verify its feasibility.
Moreover, it could at least be reused as a magic scroll. Once the card was created, it only required one-tenth of the Mana to activate it; anything less than one point was considered zero. The only restriction was that only one card made from the same type of Tarot Card could be used per day. This meant that if Eivass used this Moon Card, he couldn’t use any other Moon Cards that day.
But it didn’t matter.
When he no longer needed it, he could simply sell it or give it away—a portable magic scroll that could be activated without Mana and automatically recharged daily would surely fetch a good price. From this perspective, these ritual materials were not wasted.
Eivass had already injected his three points of Dark attribute Mana into the card yesterday. Because of this, the card had become slightly black; this was not an illusion, but the card was indeed faintly absorbing the surrounding light. If placed in sunlight and compared to surrounding objects, it might be more apparent.
Now, Eivass’s Mana Pool had recovered its fullness.
He gently touched the mercury-coated moon again, slowly injecting all three points of his Dark attribute Mana from his body. A card crafted with six points of Mana would be slightly stronger than one made with five points.
“What a shame…”
Eivass lamented softly, “I’ll make one first. For the remaining three cards, I’ll gather more Mana later.”
Once the card was injected with the minimum five points of Mana, the ritual was immediately activated. If not crafted immediately, it would expire in an hour. Otherwise, Eivass could have stockpiled Mana day by day, accumulating enough to create the “Field Card: Shadow Dungeon,” which required thirty points of Mana.
He could also inject one more point today and start crafting tomorrow with seven points of Mana.
But from five to ten points of Mana, the weakest “Enchantment Card: Blade of Shadow” would be produced. Stockpiling a little more wouldn’t cause a qualitative change… so he might as well save a day.
With that thought, he used a hammer to firmly drive the rusty nail into the Tarot Card.
With a creaking sound, the paper card emitted a strange, sour noise, as if Eivass wasn’t nailing it into the card but into someone’s skull.
Following that, he looped the three ropes into circles and placed them around the nail from three angles. The other ends of the ropes were then secured with ordinary nails to three “Swords” cards.
The next moment, the ropes suddenly inflated, expanding as if they had tightened around someone’s neck, with the three ropes forming a circle instead of a “V,” despite only having a single nail in place.
Eivass then evenly sprinkled the pre-ground black pearl powder onto the Tarot Card. “The Moon” card belonged to the domain of the Path of Love. Black pearls were the guardian Gemstones of the Path of Love, used to attract the attention of “Hengwo,” the Pillar God of the Path of Love.
Even a mere glance—just a glimpse—was enough to imbue the card with spirituality.
After completing what he needed to do, Eivass stood calmly in place, motionless.
The shadows beneath him rose like wisps of smoke and merged into the card. The painting on the Tarot Card continuously changed, as if another artist was altering it.
When the changes to the painting concluded, the nail slowly melted, transforming into a new “Moon.” Two of the three ropes merged into the two new “Black Towers,” becoming two dog-headed figures holding scepters. The remaining rope replaced the original lobster’s position, becoming a black scarab beetle.
The card automatically floated up and landed in Eivass’s hand.
The card’s attributes automatically appeared in his eyes:
[Enchantment: Blade of Shadow (Moon)]
[Requirement: Dark 0]
[Instant, Contact, Immediate Effect]
[Effect: Temporarily grants the target “Weapon” Shadow, Cutting, and Corrosive attributes, treating it as an Extraordinary Weapon. Duration: 1 minute (+20%)]
It was done.
Eivass thought.
Another ten thousand character update today, requesting your continued reading!