Chapter 882
Not “Learned”, but “Remembered”
Compared to those friends from Avalon who lived in a peaceful world, these experienced extraordinary beings were indeed all talented individuals… Eivass lamented in his heart.
It’s no wonder that in the original historical timeline, Avalon crumbled at the slightest touch.
Both were Fourth Tier energy users, but the Arbitrators of the Arbitration Hall might not have fought any tough battles even by the time they retired. Upon promotion, they were equipped with weapons crafted by elven artisans, armor forged by the royal family and blessed with the power of authority, griffins capable of high-speed maneuvers exceeding twice the speed of sound, and dozens of comrades who could be summoned at any time… If they were injured, healers of the Bishop or even Archbishop level could be found immediately to mend their wounds, and if they couldn’t handle a strong enemy, a Fifth Tier leader could be summoned for assistance.
With such high-spec support, they were only fighting against weaker opponents. Since the founding of Avalon, the Arbitrators had never faced an evenly matched tough battle – after all, their profession was “Arbitrator.”
Yet these individuals were also Fourth Tier, and each was experienced.
Eivass hadn’t arranged any tactics; they didn’t know each other well enough, and they certainly had no information about the enemy’s abilities or mechanics. Merely by observation, they clarified their mission within a very short time.
And they cooperated seamlessly, causing no interference – this was actually the most difficult aspect. Almost everyone had played the three-legged race game. Compared to the theoretical “mutual cooperation,” it’s much harder to avoid hindering, accidentally injuring, or impacting teammates.
Especially this martial monk… Is this the protective style of a real combatant? Eivass looked up at Mu, lamenting in his heart. As expected, tank professions require practical experience – this wandering martial monk is far superior to Haina! During Eivass’s brief team-up with Haina, he felt virtually no sense of security from her… It’s said that Haina has since transferred to the Royal Guard. Hopefully, she has grown now.
After the battle, Little Cat conscientiously began cleaning up the battlefield. Confirming the deaths of enemies and obtaining spoils of war were indeed the duties of extraordinary beings with agile inspiration and quick reflexes who had adapted to their Path. She was clearly quite experienced in this.
Before long, Little Cat had disassembled all the puppet guards into parts, ensuring they couldn’t possibly reanimate and rise again. Then, she returned holding two jewels. She had found two large, olive-shaped jewels, each slightly larger than an adult’s heart, within the red and green puppet warriors. The earth-yellow and blue puppet warriors also contained similar jewels, but these were already dim and shattered.
“Mr. Encyclopedia, what are these?” Little Cat asked the Dream Traveling Monk in their party.
The Dream Traveling Monk, who possessed the most hidden knowledge, was essentially the most learned individual. As scribes of Grimoires, they had witnessed countless secrets in the Dream Realm and mastered lost knowledge and inheritances. Even if a skill was completely lost, a Dream Traveling Monk might retrieve it from the Dream Realm. When it came to matters involving the extraordinary, it was better to ask a Dream Traveling Monk than an Archaeologist, who was an Ordinary Person.
“I have some impression of them. Let me think…” Encyclopedia said softly, beginning to search for relevant information in his mind.
At this time, Professor Bard and Sin both came closer. The two old men were clearly quite curious about these jewels.
“…Are these… some kind of ancient runes? Perhaps prehistoric script. Let me record them…”
“I’ll record them too. Please hold them up for a moment, Little Cat.” Sin said, taking out a small rune camera from his satchel. Compared to Professor Bard, who was meticulously sketching, this camera, no larger than his palm, appeared quite advanced. The old mage first waved his hand, conjuring three orbs of light that orbited Little Cat, making the jewels appear more transparent. He then activated the camera. A golden halo of fragmented runes appeared in front of the camera lens, and the old mage repeatedly pressed the camera’s buttons. After a short while, several extremely clear close-up photos were produced. The clearest one was so detailed that it allowed one to see the color of the grooves and dust on the jewels, as if the jewels were only a few centimeters away.
Seeing Professor Bard’s extremely curious gaze, Great Mage Sin chuckled heartily. “This thing is good, isn’t it?” he said, clearly quite pleased with himself. “This is something I developed.”
“Where can I buy this?” Professor Bard asked, clearly recognizing its value. “With this, I won’t have to draw them myself!”
“You can’t buy it.” Sin said leisurely. “We mages are not like those Alchemists – they like to let everyone in the world know as soon as they have a research breakthrough; they’re merely revealing knowledge we’ve already discovered. Without even understanding the principles, they rush to mass-produce and sell it. How can they create anything good with such an attitude?”
“I’m very interested in optics, and this is just one aspect of my research. This is the fourteenth version developed by me and my apprentices. By the standards of those alchemists, they probably would have sold the third version. Then they’d release a new version every year and swindle more fools’ money… Heh, after all, someone has to make money from the foolish. If this thing were actually put into production, most of the buyers would probably be doing it out of novelty. They have no interest in the technology, nor do they need it. Once bought, they’d show it off to other important figures and then let it gather dust. The crystallization of wisdom is not meant to be used like this!”
“However, if you like it, I can send you a pre-twelfth version prototype later. No need for money; we are not short of it.”
“In that case, thank you very much,” Professor Bard agreed readily. “But could I have some photos first?”
“Alright.” Sin nodded obediently and raised the camera. “Where do you want me to photograph? Please point it out to me.”
“Oh, let’s start with an overall shot, and then, if possible, photograph each rune clearly…” Professor Bard stood behind Sin, looking through the same lens. “Yes, yes, just like that…”
“Mhm, don’t worry. I’m a professional,” Sin said calmly. The attitude of this proud old mage towards this world-famous Archaeologist was clearly much better than towards other extraordinary beings of the same caliber.
Meanwhile, Encyclopedia had finally retrieved the knowledge he needed. “I know,” he said joyfully. “These runes likely have no linguistic meaning! Because this is the era of the Second Sun, an era when even elves had not yet been born. Language hadn’t even hatched… This means that each character in these ancient runes was used to invoke Extraordinary Power.”
“Then how did they communicate?” Vagrant asked, stepping closer with some doubt. “And even if these runes themselves don’t have linguistic elements… if enough people mastered these runes, couldn’t they use them for conversation?”
“…That I’m not sure of. I haven’t found any relevant information here.” Encyclopedia shook his head. “Perhaps we can find knowledge to supplement this within this ruin…”
After they finished taking photos, Eivass also came over, curious. “Let me take a look.” He took the jewels from Little Cat, who had been holding them up, wanting to see if the treasure system would appraise them. They looked like some kind of ancient treasure… and they clearly contained elemental power. Eivass’s special vision could see special energy emanating around them.
— But the system showed no reaction.
“Hmm?” Eivass blinked in surprise. This thing also had no reaction?
Eivass suddenly recalled that the system had also not reacted when he obtained the “alcoholic liver” and Sister Sasha’s eyes. Yet, for ordinary items like the handgun he acquired from the Ascension Ritual, the system could even appraise and provide attributes; ordinary items like daggers and Ritual Knives were even less of a problem. As long as they contained a tiny bit of Extraordinary Power, the system could detect it…
This thing was clearly a crystallization of some ancient power, so why was the system completely unresponsive? This was the third time a similar situation had occurred. For the previous two instances, Eivass could have argued that perhaps they were sealed well enough and not truly touched through the crystal spheres. But this time, the Extraordinary Power was clearly leaking out. Especially the red jewel; its temperature was so high that even Eivass could faintly feel it was hot to the touch. It was probably similar to the heat of a glass cup filled with water at fifty to sixty degrees Celsius, or the temperature of a computer case after running a game for an extended period. Holding it for too long could even result in a burn. Little Cat’s heat resistance was truly remarkable, as she didn’t even flinch.
With such intense elemental power, even sticking a mop handle behind it would make it a staff. Yet, no matter how Eivass touched them, no attribute panel popped up… Strange, what do these three things have in common? Could it be… that the “normal Eivass” couldn’t come into contact with them?
Not only that, but even the Ring Heavenly Envoy couldn’t get close to them. Those two crystal spheres could block the Heavenly Envoy’s perception, and even the Banquet Master couldn’t sense the location of the liver. Now, Eivass was in an ancient ruin preserved by a Preservation Technique, making it impossible for the Ring Heavenly Envoy to perceive it.
Suddenly, Eivass recalled something. After he became Pope, the Pure White Saintess mentioned to him during a conversation that the previous Pope had been quite interested in him even before their first encounter. This was mainly because Mathers had written to her about Eivass’s speed in mastering Fire Worship Magic.
“That feeling was less like ‘learning’ and more like ‘remembering’,” the Pope had exclaimed at the time. “If Eivass were not just a human… I would have considered trying to have him succeed me as Pope. Perhaps he could have ‘remembered’ High-Tier Divine Arts just as easily.”
— This was the reason she later invited Eivass to study in the Church.
While this might have been mere astonishment, its meaning was different for Eivass. Although for him, this was his first life in this world… For the Ring Heavenly Envoy, this was his ninth playthrough. In previous cycles, the Banquet Heavenly Envoy might not have even been born. That could only be because the power within the crystal sphere preserving the dragon liver was absorbed and destroyed before it was unsealed!
And the “Universal Experience” allowed Eivass to quickly master a skill… perhaps it was because these were skills the Ring Heavenly Envoy had once mastered!
If that’s the case… Eivass mused, looking ahead. If his guess was correct, then this current ruin was even more significant to Eivass. Because normally Eivass couldn’t access this ruin, and now the Ring Heavenly Envoy also couldn’t perceive it. Therefore, any knowledge or power acquired from this ruin would be beyond the Ring Heavenly Envoy’s plan!
(End of Chapter)
