Chapter 898
Perhaps No Longer Ascending?
Cardinal Galatea’s suggestion held no practical significance, but it at least offered everyone an out—allowing them to stop marveling at the miracle Eivass had summoned and continue their ascent.
As Eivass transformed into a Sin Eater Beast, Cardinal Galatea’s illusion spell was broken.
Now, everyone could clearly see the true appearance of this “Mr. Pope”—though, in truth, everyone had already guessed his identity one way or another, and no one else could possibly possess such a demeanor akin to the “Child of the Candlemaster”… but now it was time to speak plainly.
Eivass did not waste any more mana maintaining his transformed state.
After ending his transformation, he put his clothes back on. After fully recovering his mana through prayer, he re-cast the blessings of “Group Protection Curse,” “Group Protection from Death Barrier,” and “Group Order Shield” upon everyone, and then they prepared to proceed further.
This eighth floor was far from the top. The true number of floors the Sky-Piercing Tower possessed in its prime was now unknown. However, since it had been cut off midway, and this eighth floor was not open to the sky, it meant there was certainly more space above, and it was entirely possible that more, stronger demon clusters could reside there.
Therefore, making some defensive preparations in advance to prevent surprise attacks was a prudent move. One could not rely entirely on the Vagrant’s warnings—don’t put all your eggs in one basket; after all, it was entirely possible for powerful enemies that couldn’t be predicted or detected to appear.
After Sin was resurrected, he had no clothes to wear, so Professor Bard enthusiastically lent him his own jacket. The two of them were roughly the same size, and it fit well enough.
While sincerely grateful for Professor Bard’s kindness and magnanimity, the old mage also frowned, feeling deeply uncomfortable all over… As a chief mage, he had never worn such poor-quality clothing since birth. If he hadn’t known Professor Bard was from Avalon, he might have suspected Bard was intentionally trying to humiliate him.
Despite finding it quite distasteful, he felt too embarrassed to say it. Doing so would make him appear undignified—this caused him to clench his brows and mutter and sigh incessantly, looking as if he were facing some great difficulty.
But in reality, he simply felt that the rough fabric, like a rag, was scraping his skin. He also sensed a faint, lingering sweat odor that made him vaguely nauseous.
This almost made Eivass, who knew the inside story, laugh.
This was a typical cultural difference.
In Avalon’s archaeology circles, and even in the entire academic community, Professor Bard was notoriously thrifty. This garment had been worn for at least ten years, specifically for fieldwork during archaeological expeditions. Because it was cheap and durable, he didn’t mind damaging it. Although it was clean when he left, after traveling for so long, it was certainly covered in sweat.
Even if he cleaned it with a spell, psychologically, he still felt it was unclean.
Such frugality was unthinkable in Star Antimony or Daffodil Duchy.
Scholars in Avalon took pride in their frugality. This was also a form of political correctness… mainly stemming from the academic world’s disdain for the Lloyd Society.
It was well known that the Lloyd Society was founded by some of the wealthiest individuals in Avalon. They enjoyed “sponsoring” others—be it scholars or knights—thereby using money to buy influence.
Therefore, if a scholar was wealthy… unless his family was already rich, most people would assume he had accepted sponsorship from the Lloyd Society—some Avalonians even referred to it as a “bribe,” even if these scholars held no power whatsoever.
Conversely, if a scholar was sufficiently poor, there were only two possibilities.
One was that the Lloyd Society didn’t value him; the other was that he refused sponsorship from the Lloyd Society. The former represented incompetence, while the latter represented universally recognized integrity. Thus, in Avalon, if a scholar or knight held a high position, their lives usually became quite modest.
For instance, the Grand Guardian’s household had few servants and didn’t purchase many villas or manors in other regions. His home lacked expensive ornaments and clothing, and he never took young Barton on trips.
It wasn’t that he lacked money—at his level, money was just a number. Whatever he wished to buy, if he stated a sum or a need, both the Old Queen and Isabel would fulfill most of his desires. The wealth of such a high-ranking figure was essentially intertwined with the royal treasury.
His simple lifestyle was solely to avoid negative political repercussions. Even though he hadn’t accepted a single cent from the Lloyd Society and disdained these merchants, simply appearing wealthy would naturally cause the public to worry if he had been corrupted. Old Meg always mingled with the common folk, frequenting taverns and fried chicken shops for this very reason—though she genuinely loved beer and fried chicken.
Haina was similar. When she was in school, she had wanted to buy fashionable cosmetics or clothes, or go shopping. But she didn’t have the money then. Now that she was wealthy and earned a considerable salary, she found it inconvenient to buy the things she desired.
Due to the influence of the Lloyd Society, an arbitrator appearing too wealthy… was generally not viewed favorably by the public.
However, it was different in Star Antimony and Daffodil Duchy. As a noble scholar, it was natural to have status and wealth… Living too frugally would instead suggest that no nobles were willing to sponsor you, or that no mage lords favored you. It implied you hadn’t passed the “market test” and lacked “true talent.”
Therefore, in these regions, scholars, led by mages, tended to live as affluent and presentable lives as possible. Many young mages even took out loans to maintain appearances, attending social events to project an image of wealth. This was done to foster greater trust from other sponsors.
After all, alchemists could earn money quickly, but mages did not. Even the most cutting-edge projects were undertaken by mages, yet mages were notoriously disinclined to monetize their projects, which would cause them to be looked down upon by other mages. However, research required funding… which meant there had to be some unfortunate souls to foot the bill.
To coax these “unfortunates” into contributing, mages would even allocate a significant portion of their future research funds to acquire opulent attire, to project the mysterious aura of a legendary archmage.
—In Eivass’s opinion, Professor Bard was somewhat mischievous.
He might not have been unaware of Daffodil Duchy’s customs. Perhaps he simply felt that Sin was too arrogant and dismissive towards others, making the children uncomfortable, and decided to playfully torment the old mage.
The effect was quite successful.
“Do you need any help… Mr. Sin?”
Little Cat looked at Sin sighing and cautiously approached him.
After all, repairing mechanisms and detecting traps was her responsibility within the team.
Sin merely glanced at her and calmly said, “It’s not a big problem. I can handle it… I’ll call you if I need a hand.”
His stubborn and proud tone momentarily made Little Cat feel a sense of being overwhelmed.
The first day she met Sin, when she approached him and accidentally tugged at his sleeve, Sin snatched it back, repeatedly patted the cuff, and even checked if she had left any shadow imprints or stolen anything. He even ignored her greeting, merely giving her a dismissive and wary glance before haughtily and distantly walking away.
This deeply hurt her.
Although the Trap Master was an advanced profession for assassins and thieves, she wasn’t from the street-thief background of “touching and stealing.”
She was from the Eagle Eye organization. She had indeed killed people, but they were all “Fallen Ones” colluding with the Child of the Moon. However, she hadn’t completed many missions before being recalled to headquarters for training due to her talent in trap assassination.
She had only recently graduated and intended to find the Child of the Moon in Daffodil Territory to hunt. But before she could kill many, the Daffodil Duchy declared independence; they even closed customs with the Iris Flower and activated mage towers to search for Eagle Eye assassins within the duchy. Her activities within Daffodil Territory were severely restricted, forcing her to find jobs to earn money—even so, she had never stolen anything.
…And now, after dying once, Mr. Sin seemed much more normal.
Could His Majesty the Pope’s resurrection have also cured his personality? Or was that state of not interacting with people a kind of illness?
“It’s repaired.”
Sin suddenly spoke.
Everyone gathered around him, and Sin explained to Eivass, “It’s not structural damage, but a programming error… The external track above the ninth floor is severely damaged. This means the elevator can at most reach the ninth floor, and the ninth floor itself might even be derailed. Considering safety margins, the elevator has locked the path to the ninth floor.”
“Meaning, if we go to the ninth floor, the elevator might be damaged?”
Eivass translated his words.
The group exchanged glances, then looked at Master Amber.
“Ah, it’s no big deal.”
The Vagrant suddenly spoke up, “Just nine floors… If the elevator breaks, we can just jump down. I thought it was much higher.”
“This floor alone is thirty to forty meters high, equivalent to ten floors outside. It’s not as simple as jumping down when you want to,” Sin warned. “This isn’t like those residential buildings outside. Think carefully. Do we really need to go up… Perhaps there are insurmountable traps above, or perhaps there are even stronger enemies.”
“That’s still less than three hundred meters,” the Vagrant retorted. “Don’t you have a spell that can solve this problem for us?”
“Heh, as if!”
The old mage’s voice suddenly sharpened. “Three hundred meters? Is that considered a problem? Don’t be ridiculous! Even a newly promoted second-tier junior mage could come up with at least seven or eight solutions. Who are you looking down on? Ha, Feather Fall, Storm Passage, Spring Space, Flexible Air Wall… I can talk about them until tomorrow if you want!”
Hearing this, the Vagrant’s lips curved slightly upwards.
He laughed heartily, shrugged, and looked at everyone, “Then the problem is solved, everyone. It seems people like me, from the countryside, don’t understand the power of spells. Hahaha…”
Just moments ago, the Vagrant, with his keenly intuitive awareness, had realized… although Sin had repaired the elevator, he actually didn’t want to go any further up.
Perhaps it was because dying once had been too painful, or because this garment made him feel uncomfortable. It was also possible that Sin had been intermittently glancing at the Sapphire in the hands of that white-haired Cardinal, seemingly wanting to go back and do something, thus appearing absent-minded, and even dropping his pretense—this was his true personality, rather than his initial arrogance.
So the Vagrant actively spoke up, putting Sin on the spot, preventing him from expressing his desire to leave.
Although the subsequent journey might not require this mage, the precedent could not be set here. If Sin could truly leave, then others could too. If Encyclopedia wanted to leave, and Little Cat wanted to leave, then “Silent Eyes” would also follow… In the end, there might not be many people left in the team. It would be better to just disband then.
Therefore, he kept provoking Sin, acting the clown to force Sin to demonstrate his “necessity.” Once this was done, because the old mage valued his reputation, he wouldn’t go back on his word. This was safer for everyone else.
Although the Vagrant was not the leader here, he was the only one who had carefully observed everyone’s expressions after Eivass revealed his Child of the Candlemaster form. A true adventurer with forty to fifty years of experience, adventuring, had an essentially different kind of experience compared to these extraordinary individuals who occasionally accepted a mission.
Even though His Majesty the Pope was here, they could be resurrected even if they died… but the Vagrant heard it clearly: the Pope referred to Sin’s corpse as “lightly dead.” This implied that resurrection was not absolute but had varying degrees of difficulty. Moreover, if something happened to the Pope himself, they would likely all die here.
Take Encyclopedia, for example—after realizing that Eivass was the Eternal Pope, he had been sweating profusely. If he had the chance to escape, he would have fled immediately, fearing that if the Eternal Pope were to die, the blame would somehow fall upon him.
Consider this… The world’s supreme leader, who shakes your hand in friendship, plays a board game with you, and then suddenly collapses and dies—who wouldn’t break out in a cold sweat?
If they were outside, he would have desperately wanted to stay by His Majesty the Pope’s side, but this was a dangerous ruin from the Amber Era, and they had encountered a cluster of over six hundred Fourth Tier demons less than half an hour after entering. Wouldn’t anyone want to escape as far as possible?
The Vagrant understood him.
But the problem was, the more people who ran, the more dangerous it would be for those who remained.
Under such circumstances, no one could afford to run or slack off—
The Vagrant’s seemingly drunken but extremely clear eyes, like a hawk’s, scanned the expressions of everyone.
—The most unstable among them was the great mage Sin, whose heart had become restless since seeing that Sapphire.
“Then it will depend on you.”
Before Sin could lose his temper, Eivass, picking up on the Vagrant’s words, said, “You are the only mage here. Protect yourself.”
“…Yes, thank you.”
Sin dared not argue with Eivass and immediately quieted down, becoming obedient, even his voice calming from its near-breaking point, “Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty the Pope. I am proud to be able to help you and will do my utmost for you.”
Eivass smiled and nodded at the Vagrant.
Then he turned back to Sin, reminding him subtly, “Our agreement must wait until we all return. I can choose many people, and the specific collaborators have not yet been determined.
“…I believe that when one does things, they should finish the current task before considering the next, shouldn’t they? Otherwise, I wouldn’t feel at ease entrusting the task to that person; what if my task is also put on hold? Wouldn’t you agree, great mage.”
“Yes, you are right.”
Sin immediately looked solemn, nodding seriously. It was as if he were not an old mage but a young boy being lectured by his teacher.
As they spoke, the elevator continued to ascend.
The ninth floor was reached.
(End of Chapter)
