Chapter 5 Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade
Evans knew that he could definitely participate in the investigation without even waiting for the authorization of the Supervisory Bureau.
If nothing unexpected happens, he can also conduct an independent investigation - he does not need to be closely monitored by Supervisor Haina, and can directly participate in the investigation as an "assistant of the Supervisory Bureau".
On the one hand, it is the face of his adoptive father, and on the other hand, the Supervisory Bureau, which is bound by the rules of its superiors, has always welcomed the help of outsiders - since Mr. Sherlock, who now has his own office, "detectives" hired and consulted by the Supervisory Bureau have even become a profession.
If the investigation is unfavorable, it is because the hired detectives are not strong enough, at least they can be exempted from strict internal accountability; if everything goes well, it is because the guiding ideas proposed by the Supervisory Bureau are correct, at least it can be regarded as a merit and a stable share of benefits.
Although Haina is a genuine supervisor. But Aihuas knows the Supervisory Bureau better than her.
The reason why Aihuas is so actively involved in the investigation of this matter, he has his reasons.
- That is revenge and silencing.
The two versions of the story that Aihuas told the Supervisory Bureau before were actually false. In other words, neither is completely true.
He was indeed a participant in the ceremony, and he did know the two demonologists.
But he was also a sacrifice in the ceremony.
Because the two demonologists were actually Aiwass's "pen pals".
Aiwass had been interested in knowledge related to taboos since he was a child. The more mysterious skills were banned by the Kingdom of Avalon, the more excited he was to study.
For example, ritual magic from the path of [Transcendence] and preservation from the path of [Dusk].
The former is the basic ability of demonologists, and one of the professions extended from the latter is the necromancer. From the name, it doesn't sound good.
This kind of taboo knowledge was only outlined in a small part in his adoptive father's study. Privately keeping banned books is a felony that can be jailed even in the Knight family. But after reading the overview, the little Aiwass at that time became even more itchy.
He enthusiastically bought some ritual materials, and without mastering any extraordinary knowledge and mysterious skills, he tried to hold the ceremony based on conjecture and imagination.
This would of course fail.
The core secret of this world is "knowledge".
The nine kinds of mystical skills corresponding to the nine major paths all require corresponding knowledge to master - conversely, as long as you master the corresponding knowledge, even if your personal strength is low, you can get extraordinary power far beyond your real ability. Every piece of forbidden knowledge is almost the foundation of a school. In this case, it is impossible to buy a reliable "skill book" from the market.
On the day of Aiwas's sixteenth birthday, a secret society of demon scholars "Noble Red" suddenly contacted him.
Aiwas was very vigilant at first. But the other party sent him several handwritten copies of forbidden books with the letter, which were all about demon knowledge and demon rituals.
Although they were all small rituals that were no different from magic tricks - such as making people grow poisonous sores, treating minor wounds, making people drowsy, or making people unlucky. It seems useless, but they are all real and correct extraordinary rituals!
After trying them one by one, Aiwas became very excited. So he became a pen pal with the other party and often exchanged some demonology knowledge. The other party also regarded himself as Aiwas's friend. On weekdays, I often chat with him about my emotional life and the trivialities of daily life.
At the beginning, Aiwas was still a little wary.
However, two years passed quietly like this.
Aiwas thought that if the other party wanted to deceive him, they would have deceived him long ago. The value of the secret knowledge they gave him was already quite high - although Aiwas, who had never been to the black market, didn't know how much this knowledge could be sold for, but even if the quality was not good, the quantity was already a lot.
——How could a liar operate for so long and invest so much to deceive one person?
This is not reasonable or rational. It is not in the best interests.
So Aiwas gradually relaxed his vigilance and really regarded this pen pal as a friend who had never met but was very congenial.
A few days ago, the other party claimed that they had something to come to the capital and wanted to meet Aiwas.
Aiwas believed the other party without hesitation and without any precautions.
——This is the lie he told the inspector. Because "Aiwas" was not kidnapped, but took the initiative to approach.
They were a man and a woman in red clothes, both with shaved heads. The man looked to be in his 40s or 50s, and the woman was in her 20s. In addition to being a mentor and an apprentice, they were also lovers.
He enthusiastically invited his "two friends" to a meal, and then the middle-aged man said that he could let Aiwas see and even personally participate in the real demon summoning ceremony - Aiwas excitedly agreed.
But after he was busy for more than an hour to set up the ceremony, he suddenly realized something when he looked at the ritual table.
To summon a demon, doesn't it require any expensive materials?
And then he suddenly realized that he, who had set up the ritual table himself, just became a "voluntary sacrifice". At the same time, as a student of the Royal Law University Theological Seminary, Aiwas can become a priest before graduation.
Although he has not really embarked on the path of extraordinary people, he has taken the first step towards the path of [dedication].
As reflected on the data card, he already has a level 1 priest profession. After the experience of the basic skill "Basic Prayer" is full, Aiwas can upgrade the priest profession to level 2 and master the path characteristics of his first dedication path.
Of course, he happily told his pen pals about this matter-although "priest" is not as interesting as "demon scholar", it is also an extraordinary profession after all. It is better to be able to embark on the extraordinary path and have extraordinary abilities than to have no extraordinary abilities.
More importantly, priests are also respected professions in Avalon.
The symbol of the "dedication" path is light, protection, and candles. This is a path of dedicating oneself to others and ideals. Only by practicing this concept from the heart can one become stronger. Therefore, all professions extending from the dedication path are extraordinary professions with bright prospects and recognized by people.
So, as a "voluntary sacrifice of 'dedication' believers", Aiwas became a high-standard sacrifice.
It was not until then that Aiwas recalled his past life memories before the crisis of death. He recognized the species of the demon in advance and successfully signed a contract with it.
He controlled the shadow demon to kill the stunned middle-aged man, the demonologist who was his "mentor", by surprise. But the woman who was his apprentice was still alive.
If she had run a little slower, she would have been killed by Aiwas; but if she had dared to turn around and look back, she could have killed Aiwas in return.
Almost.
Aiwas sighed.
- Almost, he would have been sacrificed and silenced by the man; and almost, he would have been killed by the woman.
Betrayed, deceived, murdered.
The real anger in Aiwas' heart was echoing. He decided to take revenge without hesitation.
Not to mention, this woman was very likely to have seen Aiwas's letter.
This meant that once she was arrested, she might betray Aiwas - no, she would definitely betray herself.
The position of the adoptive father was unclear now, but even if it was just for himself, he had to kill her before the Supervisory Bureau caught her.
However, Aiwas also did not intend to expose his identity as a demonologist in order to kill the other party.
He has a way.
After waking up yesterday, Aiwas's first reaction was to try a simple ritual that the original "Aiwas" didn't know about and appeared only in the later stages of the game. After using that ritual to replenish his life force that was drained as a sacrifice, Aiwas basically confirmed that the secret knowledge he knew was also useful in this world.
Aiwas's profession in the game is not a demon scholar who "transcends" the Tao... but an illustrator who "dedicates" the Tao.
It is a pure auxiliary profession that can greatly enhance the strength of teammates and has a small amount of healing and control capabilities.
But now, when he has to challenge those world-destroying crises alone, such a weak profession is not feasible.
Because the illustrator cannot benefit from his own enhancement. In other words, most professions in the "dedicated" Tao cannot benefit from their own enhancement, protection or healing skills.
However, the illustrator can be a part-time job. After all, Aiwas's public identity is a priest of the dedicated Tao. It is also possible to prepare for the job change to the illustrator in advance, and he is also very familiar with the necessary Tao characteristics that need to be mastered to advance to this profession.
In order to solve those crises, his main job must have strong enough single-player combat power.
Considering that he can work as a part-time Enlightener, the answer is very simple.
That is the 0 version of "Aivas", who advanced to "Lord of the Great Beast" after mastering the power of the phantom demon.
That is the later career after the advancement from the Great Sin Scholar.
After defeating the immortal phantom demon, you can extract their essence and transform it into your own summoned beast, that is, the "great beast" with six attributes.
Although there can only be one "great beast" summoned at the same time, you can switch to the one that best handles the current situation, and then use the support card, equipment card, and field card made by extracting the power of other "great beasts" to strengthen the current one.
And the most important thing is that this summoned beast is counted as a "teammate".
Not only is the output far greater than the main body, but it can also eat all types of BUFFs given by teammates.
In game terms, this profession has the highest rate of eating BUFFs.
Because the cards only enhance noble mechanical gains, such as three speeds, armor penetration, poison, burning, dodge, and spell penetration, but not damage-increasing gains. It just happens that it will not be diluted by the various damage-increasing BUFFs of the most mainstream auxiliary, the Enlightener.
Although after summoning the "big beast", the main body will not be able to get the attack BUFF, so the main body output will be a bit weak.
However, during the burst cycle, the Lord of the Big Beast can temporarily combine the summoned and enhanced "big beast" with itself, thereby bursting out extremely strong strength.
With the Enlightener and the Lord of the Big Beast, Aiwas can strengthen his summoned beast as a "teammate". And there will be no loss of the social gains brought by the apparent priest identity, and at the same time, it can be switched to restrain the opponent's summoned beast when corresponding to different enemies, and the upper limit is still very high.
In the worst case scenario, only one person can fight the BOSS-then this professional combination may not be the highest burst under ideal conditions, but it must be the most comprehensive performance and adaptability.
The ability to extract the power of phantoms and use tarot cards as materials to make phantom cards comes from the predecessor profession, the Scholar of Sins.
After completely studying and analyzing a phantom demon, the Great Sin Scholar can obtain the corresponding ritual knowledge - what cards this phantom demon can be used to print, what materials and rituals are needed. Once this knowledge is known, even a demon scholar can make it in advance.
The most important prerequisite for advancing to the Lord of the Great Beast is to use the ability of the Great Sin Scholar to make six blank cards of different attributes, and seal six phantom demons of corresponding attributes respectively.
Then repeatedly defeat phantom demons of the same attribute as experience materials to feed the levels of these six phantom demons.
According to Aiwas's memory, there is a phantom demon of fire attribute in Yulia.
It is precisely because of feeding that phantom demon that her body is so weak.
That phantom demon will take Yulia's life after it has developed. If you want to save her, you must face the juvenile phantom demon; and phantom demons are immortal... This means that conventional means cannot save Yulia. At most, you can only delay the time when the phantom demon wakes up and loses control.
"The Lord of the Great Beast" is different.
If Aiwas can successfully create a "blank card" with enough capacity to accommodate the phantom demon in Yulia's body, he can directly extract the consciousness of the phantom demon in Yulia's body.
In this way, not only can Yulia survive, but also the advanced materials of the Lord of the Great Beast can be prepared in advance!
And Yulia can also get the residual energy of the phantom demon by the way - making this unstable and dangerous power stable and growable, so as to embark on the path of the extraordinary!
The basis of all this is that the ritual of making cards in Aiwas's memory is reliable and feasible.
He has tried other rituals before, and the ritual knowledge in the game can indeed be used!
However, the production of phantom demon cards needs to be verified once more. Because the Great Sin Scholar is a profession that only appeared after the advent of the Fallen Angel.
Now that it has been advanced by two versions, Aiwas is not sure whether this ritual can be run.
So he needs experiments.
As long as Aiwas can successfully make any phantom demon card as a demon scholar, it can be directly determined that this system is still available at present!
In this way, he can get another power that has nothing to do with demon scholars.
His own revenge and silencing actions will become smooth.
Julia will be saved!
Even the destruction of Avalon is not irreversible -
- As long as he can successfully make his first card.
Aiwass is still too weak now. The only extraordinary existence close to the phantom demon that he controls is the shadow demon.
And the only card that can be made by drawing the shadow demon is the "moon".
And to make the "moon card", no matter how strong the power sealed in this card is, it requires a nail on the forehead of a criminal who is being torn apart by a chariot and three ancient ropes on the gallows as materials.
Aiwass sat solemnly at his desk and took out a slightly blackened tarot card from the jade box.
These tarot cards were one of a large number of mystical items that Aiwas bought when he was fanatically worshipping various rituals. But now they can be used to make the phantom demon card of the Lord of the Great Beast.
There is a moon painted on the tarot card with two tall towers on both sides. And below the moon there is a wolf and a dog, both barking at the moon crazily. In the middle and bottom of the picture, there is a lobster crawling out of the river, looking up at the sky in confusion.
This is the [Moon]. In Tarot divination, the Moon card symbolizes confusion, distress and anxiety.
The creators of Tarot cards come from the prophets of the "Adaptation" path. The prophets despise astrologers who belong to the "Adaptation" path, and compare them to dogs barking at the moon-because all prophets agree that the future can never be accurately predicted, and astrologers try to create a "grand unified star map" that is complex and accurate enough to predict all the future.
This behavior is very ridiculous to the prophets. It's like a dog barking at the moon, trying to figure out what it means. But this just exposes their ignorance and fearlessness.
Aiwass held his breath and became extremely careful.
Because the "Moon" on the Tarot card was smeared with mercury by him. He used this as a medium and injected three points of his dark attribute mana yesterday.
Now Aiwas's dark attribute mana pool has a maximum capacity of only three points.
And to make the most basic and weakest card, at least five points are needed. And no matter how strong the card is, the other materials used are the same, the only difference is the amount of gem powder.
...Although this kind of weak card is a bit of a waste of materials to make. But at least it succeeds once to verify whether it is feasible.
And it is at least a reusable magic scroll. Once the card is made, it only takes one tenth of the mana to induce it, and less than one point is regarded as zero. The only restriction is that only one card made of the same tarot card can be used in a day. That is to say, if Aiwas uses this moon card, he can't use other moon cards on the same day.
But it doesn't matter.
When it's not used, it can be sold or given away. Portable spell scrolls that can be induced without mana and automatically recharged every day will definitely sell for a good price. From this perspective, these ritual materials cannot be considered a waste.
Yesterday, Aiwass had already injected his three points of dark attribute mana into the card. Because of this, the card was slightly black. This was not an illusion, but it was indeed absorbing the surrounding light weakly. If it was placed under the sun and compared with the surrounding objects, it might be more obvious.
Now, Aiwass's mana pool has been restored.
He gently touched the moon painted with mercury again, and slowly injected all three points of dark attribute mana in his body. The card made with six points of mana will be slightly stronger than the one with five points.
"What a pity..."
Aiwass sighed in a low voice: "Make one first. The materials for the remaining three cards should be made when the mana is more in the future."
After the card was injected to the bottom line of five points, the ritual was immediately activated. If it is not made immediately, it will be scrapped in an hour. Otherwise, Aiwass can even hoard mana day by day and can hoard it for ten days. Make the "Field Card: Shadow Cellar" that can only be made with thirty points of mana.
He could actually inject a little more today, and then start making it with seven mana points tomorrow.
But with five to ten mana points, the weakest "Enchantment Card: Shadow Blade" is made. Hoarding a little more will not change the quality... It's better to grab one more day.
Thinking of this, he used a hammer to nail the rusty nail into the tarot card.
There was only a creaking sound, and the card made a strange sour sound. It was as if Aiwas was not nailing into the card, but into someone's skull.
Then, he looped the three ropes into a circle. He put it on the nail from three angles. And the other three ends of the ropes were nailed to the three "Sword" cards with ordinary nails.
The next moment, the rope suddenly inflated and expanded. It was just a nail, but it was like someone's neck, and the three ropes suddenly became a ring instead of a "V".
Then, Aiwass evenly sprinkled the pre-ground black pearl powder on the tarot cards. The "Moon" card belongs to the realm of the "Love" path. The black pearl is the guardian gem of the "Love" path, which can be used to attract the attention of the pillar god "Hengwo" of the love path.
Just looking at it, even just a glance - is enough to give the card spirituality.
After finishing what he had to do, Aiwass stayed calmly in the same place without moving.
The shadow under him was like a wisp of smoke, floating up and merging into the card. The picture on the tarot card kept changing, as if another painter was scribbling on it.
When the picture changed, the nail slowly melted. It became a new "Moon", and two of the three ropes were integrated into the two new "Black Towers", turning into two dog-headed men holding scepters. The remaining one replaced the original lobster and turned into a black scarab.
The card automatically floated up and flew into Aiwas's hands.
The attributes of the card have automatically appeared in his eyes:
[Enchantment: Shadow Blade (Moon)]
[Required: Dark 0]
[Instant, contact, immediate effect]
[Effect: Make the target "weapon" temporarily gain shadow, cutting, and erosion attributes, and be regarded as an extraordinary weapon. Lasts for one minute (+20%)]
It's done.
Aiwass thought.
Today is also a 10,000-word update, please follow me!