Richard stood inside the innermost Light Lock and glanced down at his chest.
The silver ring and the Eagle Hook, hanging from a leather cord, were both cold to the touch.
They had been cold ever since the sealing of the pit began.
As for his [Perception], he secretly glanced at his panel.
The progress for [Perception] Lv. 2 had shot all the way up.
After half a day of continuously observing two beings whose Tiers were countless levels beyond his own, his progress was approaching 60%.
He hadn’t done a thing.
He just stood there, watching and listening, his Breathing enveloped by a gust of wind, his form occasionally swept over by a gaze.
But the very acts of "seeing" and "listening" were the best nourishment for his [Perception] Skill.
...
The day before Professor Mortimer was to return to the Imperial Capital, Richard managed to get an introduction from Mr. Hutton.
He brought the ebony box before the old professor.
The meeting took place in Hutton’s office, as before.
"Professor." Richard pushed the box toward him.
"I have an item here that I can’t appraise myself. I was hoping you could take a look."
Professor Mortimer set down his cup of warm water. He extended a trembling hand and pulled the box toward him.
He first examined the temporary Seal that Aries had placed on it.
He glanced at it without a word. The Seal was too sloppy—so sloppy it wasn’t worth a second look.
Then, his gaze fell upon the layer of the Seal added by Hecate.
The old man let out a dry chuckle.
The sound was dry and hoarse, like someone recognizing the handwriting of an old acquaintance, or like discovering a sentence in a schoolchild’s homework that was far too mature for their age.
Richard waited for the old man to explain why he was laughing.
Professor Mortimer didn’t explain.
After his chuckle, he studied the box for a moment before speaking slowly.
"This is from the Weaving Net Tradition."
Richard’s heart skipped a beat.
The Pre-Roman altar in the Ashen Zone was from the Weaving Net Tradition;
and so was the Copper Mirror, with the bas-relief of the "Line of Destiny" along its edge.
"You must have performed a Divination on it," the old man said with certainty.
"...I have."
"And what did it tell you?"
"That opening it completely is a dead end."
Professor Mortimer chuckled drily again.
"But you couldn’t divine ’why it’s a dead end,’ could you?"
Indeed, he hadn’t been able to divine why.
The Tower Cards only gave the result, not the reason.
That was the limit of his Divination at his current level. If he pressed for more, he would suffer a backlash.
"Professor, in that case, could you...?"
"What’s the rush?" Professor Mortimer waved his hand dismissively. "Let me break it down for you."
His fingertip tapped lightly on the box.
"There’s a very basic misunderstanding in our line of work."
"Many people think that things sealed in boxes are all trying to ’get out and bite someone’."
"...They aren’t?" Richard asked.
"The kind that wants to get out and bite you is the lowest grade."
The old man continued to explain, "Sealing something that bites is the easiest. You just need to carve an Inscription that acts like an iron cage."
"The really troublesome ones are the kind that don’t bite."
A slight chill ran down Richard’s spine as he listened.
"If they don’t bite, what do they eat?"
"They eat ’tunes’."
The old man’s fingertip lightly plucked at the air around the box.
"Let me give you an analogy. Have you ever held a tuning fork?"
"...I know what it is, but I’ve never held one."
"You strike one fork, and it emits a fixed sound."
Professor Mortimer gestured as he spoke.
"If you don’t strike it, it stays silent.
But if you strike another fork with a similar tune nearby, it will start to ring on its own."
"This type of object is a tuning fork."
Richard suddenly understood.
"It doesn’t come out," the old man continued. "It just waits inside the box for someone to disturb the Ether around it."
"To break its Seal, you need to use Ether, right?"
"...Yes."
"To read its Inscription, you have to let your inspiration make contact with it, don’t you?"
"...Yes."
"The moment the Ether moves and the Inscription is read, that tuning fork will ring."
Professor Mortimer tapped the desk twice rhythmically.
"It rings once, it siphons a wisp from you."
"It rings a second time, it siphons two wisps."
"By the tenth time it rings, your own Ether Cycle will have synchronized with its tune."
The old man paused, resting his trembling hands back on his knees.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Richard’s back.
"Then what should I do?"
"Recently, have you seen or learned a method that can make Ether ’quiet down’?"
’He must be referring to the Silencing Technique. It’s not surprising that he saw through me.’
"...I have," Richard answered honestly.
"I did recently read about something that can briefly ’halt’ all Ether activity within a certain area."
"Then it’s simple."
Professor Mortimer pushed the box back toward Richard.
"To deal with something that ’lives by resonance,’ you don’t need greater strength.
When you break its Seal, first use that method of yours to create a small patch of ’dead water’ around the box."
The old man’s fingertip drew an invisible circle around the box.
"Within that small patch of dead water, no matter how subtle your Ether Flow is, the tuning fork won’t hear it."
Richard stood by the table, running the method over and over in his mind.
’Silence, then create a vacuum.’
’Read the Inscription inside the vacuum, letting it seep through in batches.’
This lined up perfectly with the stress fatigue method he used against the Sphinx Lamp, and with the "Temperance" and "Star" cards from his Divination.
The Divination had only told him that doing it in batches was feasible.
Now, the professor had filled in the gaps, explaining why it was feasible and what needed to be done first.
Richard stood up straight and gave a proper bow.
"Thank you for your guidance, Professor."
Professor Mortimer was giving Mr. Hutton a lot of face.
He didn’t stop there. He picked up his ginger water and took another sip.
"Since you brought it right to my door, and it’s been years since I’ve dismantled something of this caliber, I might as well get some practice in."

Comments

Loading...