I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 122 Illuminating [Perception]

After dinner, Richard returned to his bedroom, closed the door, and bolted it.

He took the two novel items out of the bag and placed them alongside the existing items on the table.

The eagle badge is on the left, and the silver ring is on the right.

He dealt with the badges first.

Place your right hand on top, palm against the bronze relief of the eagle wings.

The panel began to absorb the nutrients steadily.

The speed is about the same as when I was in the store, about 0.01 per minute.

The ether deposits in the badge are not very deep, but they are evenly distributed.

One hundred and fifty years have left a thin and dense etheric film in the copper substrate.

Like the soot stains that have accumulated on the walls of the old house over countless years, they cannot be wiped off or washed clean; they have become one with the copper itself.

Richard absorbed the energy while using his spiritual vision to "solidify" the surface of the badge.

Fixation is much easier in this close contact than usual; as the ether flows out of the palm, the senses also adhere to it.

He could vaguely sense the distribution of ether inside the badge.

It is uniform, stable, without any sealing structure or inscription interference.

This is a "clean" old item.

Ether is naturally deposited, without any human intervention or ritualistic blessing; it is purely formed slowly over time and through the environment.

Moreover, there was nothing sealed inside...

Indeed, if everything were as dangerous as the Sphinx lamp, then the world would be close to its complete demise.

About forty minutes later, the ether in the badge ran out.

The panel shows that this badge contributed approximately 0.41 points.

Next up is the silver ring.

The ring is much smaller than the badge, but its ether density is significantly higher.

Once you place your palm on it, the panel jumps around much more than the badge.

The silver was of exceptionally high purity, and the appraisal note relayed by Clement was confirmed in Richard's perception.

High-purity silver is itself an excellent conductor of ether.

For artifacts from the same period, the purer the silver, the higher the efficiency of ether deposition, and the greater the final accumulation.

The cross symbol on the ring face appeared slightly undulating under his spiritual vision.

The symbols were not engraved later; they were formed as a single piece during the casting process.

The minter incorporated the sun symbol into the mold when making this ring.

This shows that the ring was not an ordinary piece of jewelry from the beginning.

It is an identification mark of a certain organization or guild, and the wearer uses it to indicate their affiliation.

The cross-shaped sun symbol is a Celtic tradition, native to the western continent.

It belongs to a completely different cultural lineage than the sun motif on the sun seal.

About twenty-five minutes later, the ring was empty.

The silver ring contributed approximately 0.69 points.

It's half again as big as the badge; that's definitely the advantage of high-purity silver.

Richard wrapped the two empty, strange objects in cloth bags and put them back in the drawer.

He subconsciously looked at the panel and glanced at the total.

Available points: 2.13

I've already saved up two points.

Including previous stock, the two novelties contributed a total of approximately 1.1 points.

Richard leaned back in his chair, staring at the number on the panel.

It's enough to unlock a new skill and upgrade an existing skill.

The progress bar for Breathing Lv.2 is still climbing, currently at around 95%.

At the current pace, it should be able to reach the full height naturally in about two weeks.

With a little more effort, your breathing will break through to Lv.3, granting you the "Healing" trait.

I kept a little bit; I still have some on hand.

Richard shifted his gaze to the few skills on the panel that hadn't been activated yet.

The three aspects of wisdom: Knowledge Lv.2 (already unlocked);

Critical Thinking Lv. — (Not yet unlocked, prerequisite: Knowledge Lv.3);

Perception Lv. — (Not lit up).

[Perception]

He lingered on this skill option for a long time.

As Old Bige once said, having too much inspiration at a low level can easily lead to trouble.

The bigger the window, the more eyes can see you from outside.

But when Old Bige said his inspiration was too high, he meant the kind of innate, overflowing inspiration that allows someone to correctly distinguish and sort all twenty items on the very first day of learning.

Richard's inspiration test score was average, which is just enough.

Enhancing [Perception] Lv.1 should improve his inspiration from "just enough" to "quite useful".

The distance between Lv.1 and the level that can attract attention deep within the veil is not insignificant.

He recalled his experience after unlocking other skills.

[Breathing] After being activated at Lv.1, the improvement in breathing efficiency is gradual; you don't become a superhuman overnight.

After [Knowledge] is unlocked at Lv.1, the improvement in learning efficiency is also gradual.

I didn't memorize the Latin declension table perfectly right away; it took me a week or two to accumulate the knowledge.

With the addition of Mr. Holland's one-on-one tutoring, he went from knowing absolutely nothing to being able to compete, but in the end, he was still not as good as Montagu, who had been trained since childhood.

Eating, sleeping, and walking all follow the same pattern.

Lighting up is the starting point; improvement comes from practice, and practice takes time.

The system didn't offer any shortcuts to success; it was a gentle, flat, and fast-uphill road.

Whether one walks fast or slow depends on one's own pace.

Following this logic, once [Perception] Lv.1 is activated, the improvement in inspiration will also be gradual.

To reach the level of "bringing trouble" that old Big mentioned, one must at least raise [Perception] to Lv.3 or even higher.

Based on experience with other skills, it would take several months or even longer of continuous training to reach the full progress bar from Lv.1 to Lv.2.

His inspiration will be kept within a safe range.

The windows will be a little bigger, but not big enough to be noticed by people in the distance.

Once I can allocate enough points to upgrade [Perception] to level 3, I estimate I'll be at the practitioner stage and have a certain level of self-protection ability.

Richard made the decision.

He focused his consciousness on [perception] and pushed it in.

"confirm?"

He pressed it.

The gray faded from the words as quickly and decisively as when other skills were activated.

[Perception Lv.1] Progress: 0%

Available points: 1.13

Change doesn't begin in the chest like breathing, nor does it surge from the depths of the mind like knowledge.

It begins at the edge of the five senses.

The first thing to change was hearing.

Downstairs, the mother was clearing away the dishes, and the previously indistinct "ding-ding-dang-dang" sound had become a distinguishable, individual syllable.

The squeaking of a porcelain bowl placed on a wooden stand, an iron spoon hitting the edge of a pot, and the creaking of a rubber gasket when a faucet is turned on.

The rustling sound of turning pages came from Evelyn's room next door; the different thicknesses of the paper produced slightly different sounds as they were turned.

She flipped through the thick pages with a "whoosh" and the thin pages with a "sand." She was flipping through them very quickly, probably looking for a particular passage.

Next is touch.

The sensation of my fingertips touching the desktop has become richer.

The direction of the wood grain, the unevenness of the paint surface, and the gradient of the desktop temperature spreading from the fingertip contact point outwards.

No visual changes were observed.

The lighting, colors, and object outlines in the room looked no different from before.

But Richard noticed that he was able to obtain more information through visual observation.

A quick glance at the bookshelf used to reveal "a row of books";

Now we see "seventeen books, three of which have creases on their spines, the leftmost book is half an inch shorter than the one next to it, and a piece of paper is sandwiched between the fifth and sixth books."

The information density has increased, and he can freely choose whether or not to acquire this information.

These sensory changes, taken together, create a holistic experience.

He felt he had become clearer.

Hearing, touch, smell, sight, and taste (this cannot be measured at present) – previously separate information flows have begun to converge.

He sat in the chair, able to perceive what was happening around him.

You don't need to consciously focus your attention; the information will come on its own.

Richard closed his eyes and sat there for a long time in that clarity.

I had only just activated [Perception], and yet I had already had such a wonderful experience.

He found it hard to imagine what the world looked like through the eyes of those naturally gifted individuals.

The world in their eyes should be completely different from that of ordinary people, with a thick barrier naturally separating them.

Having such a perceptual barrier from a young age can easily lead to psychological alienation.

They are either extremely calm and indifferent, or extremely arrogant.

The person sitting in the head seat at the "Divine Salon" gave him a similar feeling.

Richard turned on the wick and took out a divination candle and a copper plate from the drawer.

He wanted to see if there would be any changes in his spiritual vision and divination practice after [Perception] was activated.

The candle was lit, and the flame stood upright in the center of the copper plate.

Following the steps taught by old Big, Richard adjusted his breathing, cleared his mind, and allowed his consciousness to sink into that critical state between wakefulness and trance.

Previously, it took three to five minutes to warm up before entering this state.

Breathing should be regulated in rounds, and distracting thoughts should be peeled away layer by layer, like waiting for the mud and sand to settle to the bottom in muddy water. You can't rush it, because the more you rush, the more chaotic things will become.

Today is different.

By the end of the second round of breathing, he had reached the critical state.

After the third round of breathing, he slipped into a critical state.

In his spiritual vision, the candlelight in the copper dish began to show changes at the etheric level.

When I practice visions, the material and etheric planes always seem to mix together.

Now, the spacing has increased somewhat.

Not much, but enough to reduce his confusion during observation.

Richard observed the candlelight for about ten minutes in a state of spiritual vision before switching to divination practice.

The core of divination is "asking".

Vision is passively received, divination is actively projected.

Project a problem onto the etheric plane, observe the feedback, and then translate the feedback back into language.

Richard chose a simple exercise using wax script: Tomorrow's weather.

This is the standard practice material that Old Big recommends for beginners.

Weather is a natural phenomenon and does not involve personal will.

Information at the etheric level is relatively clean and less disruptive, making it suitable for beginners.

He projected the problem outwards.

The reading result of the wax script indicates that it is the west wind.

Tomorrow will most likely be cloudy turning to light rain, and the temperature will be two to three degrees lower than today.

Richard wrote down the divination results in his notebook, closed the notebook, and blew out the candle.

The enhancement brought by [Perception] after it is activated is very practical.

No particular ability made a leap forward, but activities related to "feeling" were all smoothed out.

Their spiritual vision is clearer, their divination is more accurate, and even their daily observation skills have improved significantly.

Richard recalled his second meeting with Old Big, during which Big used "cold reading" to determine that he had a meddlesome younger sister.

Now I can do something similar, and it will be easier than for old Biggs, without needing to observe for so long.

My window has indeed become bigger.

Fortunately, the night outside was quiet, and no one was looking in.

Richard rolled over and closed his eyes.

The flow of information from the five senses continued to operate in the darkness of vision.

He felt like a clock that had been wound up, ticking away steadily and calmly.

Richard fell asleep in this tranquil state.