I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 177 Mystery

Richard took the cup.

Isabella waited until he had taken three sips before steering the conversation back on track.

"Take out all the strange items you brought."

While drinking tea, she had already created a barrier to isolate the entire suite.

Richard sat down on the low couch and opened his satchel.

He had already arranged the strange items in his schoolbag in order before leaving home.

The Sphinx lamp on the innermost layer was completely enclosed.

The bronze pendant, the Sufi incense burner, and the sun emblem were all on it; he hadn't taken the medal and the silver ring yet.

The four items were neatly arranged.

Isabella glanced at the miscellaneous items and raised an eyebrow.

"Which one does Auntie want to look at first?" Richard began rummaging through his backpack.

"Let's look at the most important signed artifacts first."

Richard opened his backpack.

He wrapped the lamp in three layers of old flannel and placed it inside the box. He peeled back the layers one by one, and the lamp body was revealed from under the flannel.

The ethereal atmosphere of the entire suite swayed slightly the instant the lights came on.

Isabella's right hand hovered an inch above the lamp.

She didn't touch it immediately; she first scanned it with her intuition.

Richard took the opportunity to use his spiritual vision to observe her microcirculation.

My aunt's microcirculation was completely different from my mother's broken circulation.

The rhythm is steady, the direction is consistent, and the entire main vein extends to the fingertips, eventually condensing into a tiny point of light.

It's a level of precision that even Mr. Hutton's level couldn't achieve.

As a practitioner, Mr. Hutton had to rely on external media such as rubbings, paper, and pencils when dealing with work of equal precision.

My aunt doesn't need it.

Her palm remained above the light for about twenty seconds.

Isabella withdrew her hand.

"Richard, the connection between this Sphinx lamp and you has surpassed the level of ordinary 'resonance'."

"Mr. Hutton mentioned the three conditions for resonance to you last time, right?"

Prolonged close contact, sufficiently high etheric compatibility, and sufficiently deep causal connections.

"I mentioned it." Richard nodded.

"This lamp and you, all three conditions are met."

"...All three?"

Isabella did not press the matter further.

"Judging by the craftsmanship of this lamp," she returned to the main point, "it was originally created to guard the gate between two worlds of a certain temple."

"Which temple specifically?"

"There's no way to verify it," she shook her head. "And there's no need to investigate too thoroughly."

Isabella gently pushed the Sphinx lamp back to Richard's side: "It recognizes you now, and that's enough."

Richard rewrapped the lamp in flannel and placed it in a corner of the desk.

"Next... I need to tell you about what happens after you sign your name."

She reached out and drew a circle in the air on the table.

"Mr. Hutton should have told you that promotion requires signature."

"Um."

"But he probably only explained the process: branding, letting the veil know you exist."

"Yes."

"The process is correct, but he didn't explain the details behind the process to you."

Her gaze fell on the lamp on the table.

"After the name is signed, the artifact will begin to change."

She took a piece of white paper from her desk drawer, laid it out in the center of the table, and then took out a sharpened pencil.

Isabella drew a circle in the center of the paper.

"After being signed, the artifact will 'align' with the owner's profession."

She wrote the word "secret" on the left side of the circle.

"The most complex are the hidden ones; their signature artifacts can become containers or spellcasting mediums."

"A medium is a vessel for a residing spirit;"

The alchemist's vessel is a container for sealing the intermediate products of the reaction;

For the seal master, it is a conductor that facilitates the writing of inscriptions;

Specifically, observe which hidden path this person took in the concealed direction.

Her pen tip fell to the right of the circle and wrote "Hunter".

"The hunter's approach is the most direct."

Signed artifacts become combat aids, amplifying weapon damage, conjuring extra armor, extending the duration of Aether Bursts, and so on.

Finally, she wrote "Scholar" directly below the circle.

"The scholars have the most singular focus."

"Our signed artifacts will only be records and analyses."

"No matter what form it originally took, whether it was a book, a mirror, a bone flute, or a stone slab... once it was signed, its function remained the same."

Richard looked at the paper.

He mentally placed the image of the Sphinx lamp alongside the "Records and Interpretations," imagining what the lamp would look like after being signed.

A genie appeared from inside and preached to him?

No, no, that's Middle-earth mythology, it has nothing to do with the Black Earth River Basin.

Or perhaps the Sphinx on the lamp came to life, allowing you to play a riddle game with it?

This is a bit scary. If you can't answer the riddle posed by the Sphinx, you'll be eaten...

Just as he was lost in thought, Isabella raised her hand.

She gently brushed the tabletop, and a parchment scroll appeared out of thin air.

"Here you are."

She hung the parchment between the two of them: "This is my signature artifact."

"According to the rules, the signed rare items are our lifeblood and will not be shown to outsiders."

"But you're my nephew, so you're not an outsider. It's good to let you see it beforehand."

She turned her head to look at Richard.

"Would you like to give it a try?"

"Try what?"

"You can try covering your armor with stone in front of me."

Richard glanced at her.

"...Here?"

"Yes, right here."

Richard took a breath.

During the third cycle of exhalation, a large amount of ether is pushed from the Sun constellation to the palms.

He chose his left forearm as the target for the nail, with ether extending along the main vein to the outside of his wrist...

It broke halfway through solidification.

He could clearly feel that the ether he pushed out was secretly "read" from the outside just before the armor was about to take shape.

After reading about Ether, it dissipated, like building blocks that had been dismantled.

He looked up at his aunt.

Isabella's hand was resting on the suspended parchment.

Richard frowned and tried again.

The second ether solidified a little further back, dissipating around the elbow joint.

"..."

Isabella removed her hand from the parchment scroll.

She nodded to Richard.

Richard tried for the third time, and this time it went much more smoothly.

The nail plate solidified and took shape on the outside of the forearm, spreading from the fingertips all the way to the elbow with a soft "ding".

Three full seconds later, he withdrew the spell.

"What just happened?"

"This is the scholar's 'analysis'."

Isabella waved her hand, and the parchment scroll unfurled in the air, returning to an unseen spot beneath her garment.

"As long as the corresponding spell is recorded in my manuscript, I can use it to deal with anyone who uses the same spell."

"Does your manuscript contain an analysis of the Stone Armor?"

"They are not necessarily exactly the same stone armor."

"I also studied gargoyles before, but I didn't study them in great depth."

"But I have several methods for breaking down 'general protective' techniques. When scholars analyze techniques, they look at their 'underlying logic'."

"Once I understand the 'movement method,' I can dismantle this type of technique."

Richard's fingers paused on the edge of the table.

He needs to process this carefully.

So this is how the scholarly signature artifacts work.

Mr. Hutton's forging of the blade and his pronouncements on the night of the Whitcomb sealing ceremony should be another application of the same type of analytical ability.

He named each and every part of that "mother" that she herself couldn't name.

Once you shout it out, the other person can't stand still.

Isabella's use of this analytical ability to seal his spells is more intuitive and more suitable for direct combat.

"Auntie," Richard said thoughtfully, "what if the technique the other party used wasn't recorded in your manuscript at all, nor is there any similar type?"

"Then it can't be taken apart," Isabella answered decisively.

"What if there are only similar ones, and no exact counterparts?"

"It can be used to weaken, but it can't be completely shut down."

"What if the opponent's technique... has never appeared in academia before?"

Isabella glanced at him.

"The techniques used by ordinary practitioners, those with minor expertise, and even those with major expertise can all be traced."

No matter how innovative they are, they cannot escape the framework of their respective traditions.

"Only experts are different."

"The master's technique was created by himself, and there is no other record of it in the entire academic community."

She started writing the word "expert" again, directly above the circle on the white paper.

"The description of the 'expert' level is extremely brief in the literature you can access."

"That's one of the reasons."

She put down her pen.

"Experts are all highly individualistic."

"The core competencies of each expert belong only to themselves."

"What name he'll have, how he'll activate it, what area it will cover... these things will only take shape the moment he becomes an expert."

"We have a specific term in our industry to describe it."

She wrote a noun at the top of the blank paper.

"Mystery" refers to the sublimation of spells.

"The secret to becoming an expert is the sum of everything he has accumulated throughout his life, from being a registered author to a practitioner, from being proficient at something from a young age to becoming a master...

"It is a condensation of his personal tradition, and the final product of his signature artifacts and himself, which have been repeatedly intertwined on both sides of the curtain for decades or even centuries."

Isabella looked up.

"Does that sound familiar?"

Richard nodded.

"Bloodline Technique?"

"Yes, those 'family traditions' passed down from generation to generation almost all originated from the secrets of that master."

"Alright, these are all quite far removed from your current level, so just having a general understanding is enough."