I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 153 Explicit and Implicit Sections

At dinner, the long table in the hostel was laden with more food than at previous meals.

The senior members' table and the new members' table were not separated tonight.

Eight people sat around the same long table.

Richard took a sip of ginger tea.

The spiciness of the ginger went down my throat, and my stomach warmed up.

The proprietress brought out another plate of food from the kitchen.

"My daughter made apple pie, please have a taste."

The apple pie was topped with brandy sauce and sprinkled with raisins, almonds, and dried cherries. I heard there were even lucky coins inside.

"As usual, we'll share it."

The apple pie was cut into eight pieces, and Richard's piece had no coin in it.

Edmund took his second bite and, with a "pop," spat out a coin.

"Is it me?" The young man asked, somewhat bewildered.

"You're going to have good luck this year," Mrs. McNeil smiled. "Keep it safe."

Edmund thought about yesterday's experience, looked around at the others, and found that their expressions all seemed to have expected it.

"Thank you everyone." He quietly wiped the coins clean and put them in his pocket.

After dinner, Richard went upstairs.

The progress of [Perception] Lv.1 has been greatly advanced in the past two days.

The two infiltrations into the nearshore area and the use of spiritual vision during combat each time deepened the precision of perception.

Richard checks the panel.

[Perception Lv.1] Progress: 77%.

There's still a while until Lv.2, but the progress in the last two days has been more than in the previous week.

The proficiency with the [Moon Nail] technique has also greatly improved.

The forming time has been reduced from two seconds to one and a half seconds, and it can now be done with two fingers together.

Once the formation time is compressed to within one second and a finger-sized amount can be achieved, then the technique is considered mastered.

Once he was familiar with the technique, he could activate [Shadow Reversal]. He was somewhat looking forward to seeing what the [Moon Nail] reversal would be like.

The original Moon Nail is used to nail others, while the reversed Moon Nail is used to nail yourself?

What's the use of nailing yourself?

As Richard pondered this, he completed the warming process for the evening, and the Sphinx lamp grew increasingly hot to the touch.

On the table lay a simple map he had drawn a few days earlier, marking the relative positions of Whitcomb and several surrounding main roads.

He put the map away and took out a larger, newer brochure of the national railway network from the drawer.

He grabbed the brochure at the station on the day he left.

Richard used a pencil to locate Whitcomb Station on the map, then followed the branch line back one square at a time.

He poked the transfer station compartment with the tip of his pencil.

Osborne, a small city with a population of less than 100,000, is a hub for textiles and timber.

The station is a hub, with branch lines heading north, south, and west all departing from here.

Walking Lv.3 Unlock Conditions: Travel across the day, pass through dangerous places, and do not use any means of transportation throughout the entire journey;

Sleep Lv.3 Unlock Condition: Complete a full deep sleep in an unfamiliar and unfavorable place.

In fact, the wilderness around Whitcomb can fulfill both of these conditions.

But he couldn't very well tell his seniors that he was going mushroom picking, let alone spend the night in the wilderness without their knowledge.

Even if he were truly capable of sneaking out without alerting anyone.

Whitcomb is definitely not a suitable place for camping.

The seal was still weakening, and the puddle on top of the rock was like a half-open eye.

Osborne was different.

In the northwest corner there is a state-owned forest, and further west are low hills.

There are several pastoral trails in the mountains that have been followed since the 18th century, and every summer and autumn, hiking enthusiasts come from the city to hike for a day or two.

Mr. Hutton showed him the "Annual Report on Weak Points in the Empire," and there was only one small mark on Osborne's page.

The place wasn't too cold, there were quite a few people, there weren't many weak points in the curtains, and the area outside the city was indeed the wilderness.

He drew a circle next to Osborne.

The next question is, should I go alone?

The answer is, of course, no.

Before he came into this world, he had watched a lot of short videos of the Aotai Line.

Getting lost, sprains, hypothermia, slippery mountain roads after snow, or sleeping in the cold outdoors and not waking up... any of these can turn a camping trip into trouble for the search and rescue team.

Neither of the two traits can be unlocked by a single person alone.

The safest way is to join a club and find a coach to lead the team.

This is where Osborne’s advantage as a city lies.

There are local hiking clubs in the city. You can pay an activity fee and even rent camping equipment from others.

The guide led the way, and the group of more than a dozen people followed a familiar route.

Before setting off, sprinkle a talisman and ask, "Will this journey be safe? What will the road conditions and weather be like in the next thirty-six hours?"

Ask one last time before heading into the mountains, "Is there anyone among my companions who might cause trouble?"

Why not do more divinations to increase your [Perception] progress bar?

Having made his plan, he blew out the kerosene lamp with peace of mind and closed his eyes.

………………

The breakfast on the second day was simpler and cleaner than the previous two days.

The proprietress placed a porcelain bowl in front of each person, containing a thick oatmeal porridge with a layer of milk skin floating on top.

A small dish of butter and a spoonful of amber honey were placed next to the porridge, and two dried mint leaves were settled at the bottom of the honey jar.

"From today onwards, the meals will be prepared according to the rules for seal masters."

The proprietress placed the last bowl.

"Oily, strong, alcoholic, and spicy foods will not be served."

"Why?" Theodore asked, holding up his spoon.

"The tongue of a repairman must be clean."

Mrs. McNeil took a sip of porridge and replied casually, "If there's lingering spice in your mouth, the incantation will sound distorted."

"I thought they were worried we'd get diarrhea," Theodore muttered, only to be glared at by Maggie and then quickly composed himself.

Mr. Hutton sat at the other end of the table and had already finished half of his porridge.

"After you finish eating..." Mrs. McNeil put down her spoon and took a pencil stub from her apron pocket:

"Everyone, gather around this table. I'll go over the schedule for the next few days."

The proprietress took the bowls away and wiped the table clean.

Mrs. McNeil took a roll out of her handbag and spread it out in the center of the table.

It was a measured diagram of the Whitcomb Mill, with several dark spots on the paper caused by tea stains.

She then took out a thin wooden stick from the leather case and gently tapped the map with the tip of the stick.

"Today is the third day, and we have three things to do before the crossing of the curtain on the fifth night."

The tip of the rod was moved to the outer wall of the mill.

"The first thing to do is to repair the silver band protecting the inscription on the exterior wall of the mill and seal any obvious seepage points."

This is our "safety net"—no matter what happens next, we must at least reseal the surface seal.

Move the tip of the stick inward.

"The second task is to investigate the documents inside the sealed layer."

The mill was originally a medieval chapel, and the cellar beneath it contains several pre-Roman frescoes and an inscription.

She looked up and glanced at the newcomers.

"The core mechanism of the Gugel Seal is 'naming'."

"When the name is forgotten, the seal weakens."

The twenty-three workers in 1881 died after their shadows were eaten by the "shadow-eating woman".

But the reason the seal began to weaken from that year onward was fundamentally because, starting with the Great Dissolution under Henry VIII, the number of people who knew her real name gradually dwindled.

"The environmental damage caused by industrialization is not the root cause," Mr. Hutton added from the side.

"Does the name stone need to be recarved?" Edmund asked.

"Yes, we need to." Mrs. McNeil nodded.

"In the cellar, you can still see an original name stone, but its inscription has been worn down to just scattered strokes."

Our task is to reconstruct the name as accurately as possible from the murals and fragments of inscriptions.

"What if it can't be restored?" Richard asked.

If it cannot be restored, use a "metaphor".

Mrs. McNeil tapped the edge of the map with her stick.

"Metonyms are a fallback in sealing techniques. When the true name is completely lost, sealing masters can use a sufficient number of 'descriptive phrases' to replace the true name."

The principle is that this being is uniquely identified by this set of phrases, thus this set of phrases possesses 'naming rights' equivalent to the true name at the sealing level.

"It sounds like replacing a real name with a long list of synonyms," Theodore said, scratching his head.

"That's one way to understand it," Mr. Hutton explained carefully.

"The cost is that the sealing efficiency of the pseudonym is 30% to 40% lower than that of the real name, and a new set has to be replaced every few decades, and synonyms will also be worn away by time."

"When she came out in 1881."

Maggie pulled her scarf down a little from under her chin: "Is she still using her real name, or a pseudonym?"

"In 1881, metonymy was still in use."

Mrs. McNeill recalled.

"The real names were lost after the Great Dissolution, and by 1881, more than three hundred years of pseudonyms had been put together."

The last few generations of seal masters started to run out of suitable phrases, as their vocabulary had been almost entirely used up by their predecessors.

The set of metonyms from 1881 was hastily put together by the church from within the religious order, a process that was extremely inefficient.

"That's why the workers were eaten."

The tip of the stick moved in another inch.

"The third one, and the most difficult one."

She looked up and glanced at the four newcomers.

"The border stone formations, this layer is behind the veil."

"In the material world, we wear silver belts, burn candles, and carve true name stones; that is called the manifest aspect."

Mr. Hutton took over the conversation, drawing a circle on the table with the bottom of his teacup as he spoke, and then drawing another circle slightly offset by half an inch inside the first.

"Its true effect is on the corresponding hidden part that the visible part casts behind the curtain."

He pointed to the outer circle: "This is the manifest realm, the material world."

He then pointed to the inner circle: "This is the hidden area, behind the curtain."

"The two circles should have been placed together, almost overlapping."

However, as time goes on under the seal, the inner circle will drift inwards or to one side.

"Once it drifts away, no matter how much you repair the outer ring, the inner ring can't keep up."

"That's why we have to go down to the Hidden Division."

The old man paused briefly, waiting for the four newcomers to process the information.

"Since the incident in 1881, Whitcomb's seal has hardly been repaired."

Over the past thirty years, the visible silver belt has barely held up, while the hidden belt has loosened considerably.

"So," Mrs. McNeil continued, "we must go down to the Hidden Village this time and tie the knot back ourselves."

She took back the wooden stick:

"Before that, let's fix the main part first."

If the visible parts aren't repaired properly, don't expect to come out cleanly after going in.

"Understood," Edmund was the first to reply.

"Today's specific division of labor."

Mrs. McNeil put the stick back into the leather case.

"Edmund and Maggie, follow Mr. Hutton to the cellar to do a document survey."

Edmund understood church ritual language, and Maggie understood Gaelic; both language systems would be used.

"Yes," Edmund nodded.

"Richard, Theodore, come with me to put silver strips on the exterior wall."

"it is good."

"Two hunters go out on patrol in the morning. After they finish their rounds, they will set up patrol lines around the outer edge of our work area."

Mrs. McNeil closed the lid on the leather case.

"Set off."