I loaded the Mysticism panel.

My aunt and Sophia didn't recover until noon. They went back home, their faces flushed and looking embarrassed.

Before leaving, his aunt, with a stern face, instructed Richard that he must not tell anyone about what happened last night, especially not to those people in the department.

Richard agreed in a very serious manner.

After everyone had left, the steward came to find him and said that his maternal grandfather wanted him to go to the study.

Richard straightened his clothes and went over.

Gerald sat in his study with a cup of tea beside him.

This time, he didn't use the ether field to crush Richard; he simply swept it lightly over him.

After sweeping, he pondered for a long time.

"It's signed."

"Yes." Richard stood in front of the desk. "My aunt took me to get it done last night."

"Compatibility, Isabella mentioned it to me." Gerald picked up his teacup and took a sip.

She said that in all her years in the industry, this was the first time she had ever seen a signature like this.

Richard did not respond.

Gerald put down his cup, took something out of his desk drawer, placed it on the table, and pushed it towards him.

It's a book, very old.

The cover is made of sheepskin, without a title or author, and there isn't even any gold lettering.

"Take this book home and read it yourself."

What's in the book?

"What separates practitioners from those who have achieved minor expertise, and how do they progress?"

The old man tapped the book cover: "And what about the little sage's journey to the top?"

Richard reached out and took the book.

"I can tell you," Gerald said, picking up his glass again.

"But I did say it, and you remember my words."

What you decipher and remember yourself is what truly belongs to you.

"Besides," the old man added, his lips twitching slightly.

"This book uses one of the simplest encryption methods."

"If you can't even open this little thing, you might as well not bother walking the rest of the road."

Richard understood; his grandfather had simply given him another test.

"Well..." Richard tucked the book into his coat pocket, "About my promotion, what about home?"

Gerrard glanced at him.

"I've already told you about the support the Ashford family has given you: information, connections, and protection."

"Now that you've signed your name, you're considered a practitioner."

"I'll reserve a resource for you first."

"Etheric condensate."

Richard thought of his medium-concentration etheric condensate.

That thing was pure ether extracted from the body of evil or evil-like creatures, or naturally condensed behind the veil, and it was cleaved into a solid mass.

"Every quarter," Gerrard continued.

"I'll send you a portion from my inventory, and it'll be delivered to you via Isabella's line."

"The portion is not large," the old man stated upfront.

"Our inventory has been tight these past two years. But one serving a quarter is enough to support our domestic business."

Richard had a plan in mind.

This gift is neither too light nor too heavy.

Ether condensate is exactly what a newcomer to the field needs right now.

"Thank you, Grandpa." Richard bowed slightly.

"You're welcome, you deserve it," Gerald waved his hand.

"Take the book back and decipher it. As for what it says, weigh it yourself."

………………

Back in his room, Richard laid the unnamed old book out on the table.

Richard turned to the first page.

His code-breaking skills have improved rapidly in the past six months.

I started by studying Appendix C, and it took me all night to finish just one page;

Later, the original materials brought back from the Imperial University Library, Whitcomb's boundary stones, and various supplementary materials and exercises sent by my aunt...

By dissecting it layer by layer, and adding knowledge and critical thinking, the speed of deciphering is now incomparable to what it was before.

He glanced at the academic style of the book.

It feels somewhat familiar; it follows the same line of thought as "On Ascending Behind a Curtain."

The wording, phrasing, rhythm, and even the preference for hidden coded language all match up.

Perhaps it's the same author.

The subsequent decoding went almost without any hiccups.

The encryption in Chapter 1 is a double substitution, plus a displacement based on the Latin declension table.

He opened it in no time.

After breaking through, the lines of coded messages were restored in his mind.

The first paragraph describes the path for professionals to advance in their careers.

"By reading this far, you have signed your name and officially become a practitioner."

Richard recognized that this was the author's usual opening.

First, place the reader in a specific position, and then continue.

"You might ask, from here to the first oath before minor proficiency #039 #039."

What's separating us? When will I finally reach that point?

My answer will disappoint you.

"There are no mileage markers, no scales, not a single progress line that you can count on your fingers."

Richard paused, his pen still.

"The door to minor mastery is not opened because of how many years one has cultivated oneself, nor because of how many books one has read."

It opens for only one thing—the path.

"The so-called 'entry point' is when you've mastered your professional skills to the point where you're an absolute elite in your field."

The hunter practiced his knife skills so much that it was invisible.

The secretives piled up the seals layer upon layer, one ring after another;

The scholar has discerned something that many people study their entire lives and never understand.

"Skills are something that cannot be quantified."

You are a few points better today than yesterday; others can't measure it, and neither can you measure it yourself.

"So our traditional collective has come up with a method that allows you to see where you are on your journey."

Richard continued deciphering.

"Your Signature Oddity"

"From the moment you sign your name, it becomes tied to you."

As your skills improve, your abilities will transform accordingly.

This transformation is slow, but it is real and visible.

Today, a new usage was discovered that didn't exist before; tomorrow, a certain effect will be half a percent stronger.

It measured out that inquantifiable skill for you.

"If you want to know how far you are from the path, go and see your wonder."

It's still changing, and you're still growing.

If it stops changing, there are only two reasons.

"Either way, you've already found the way."

"Either way, your potential ends here."

Richard thought of his Sphinx lamp.

Before signing its name, it could offer itself nothing but an old copper lamp of calm ether.

After signing its name, it granted itself the ability to "ferry shadows between the two worlds".

According to this book, for every bit of skill he gains, the lamp will transform accordingly.

That shadow will also grow stronger step by step.

There's another section that explains how this transformation was accelerated.

"The transformation of wondrous things cannot be rushed or hastily accomplished. But for it to grow, it needs nourishment."

"First, you must nurture your own ether day after day, so that the wondrous things recognize you as their master. The deeper the recognition, the stronger the foundation for transformation."

This is the foundation upon which it recognizes its master and takes root.

"Then there are etheric condensates."

This stuff allows the metamorphosis to grow faster and stronger; it's the nutrients it needs to grow bigger.

So that's how it works. That's where the quarterly dose of etheric condensate from my grandfather came from.

"Etheric condensate, hunters use it to warm their way around, hermits use it to nourish their spirits and as a catalyst for alchemy."

Each line has its own use; for scholars, it can be used as ink from etheric condensate to write something special.

"But nourishment is just nourishment; what truly drives the transformation of extraordinary creatures is your skill."

For scholars, I need to give a special reminder here.

Richard's gaze froze.

"Reading can help you learn more."

Knowing a lot doesn't equate to having high skills.

"You can sit in your room and memorize all the imperial classics by heart, but your wonder won't budge an inch."

"It waits for you to go out, down into the cellar, stand by the weak point, and match the things in the book with the living ecology behind the curtain in front of you."

You have to wait until you make a mistake and then correct it.

Once you misjudge the origin of something the first time, you'll suffer the consequences of that misjudgment later on.

"Only then will it move."

Richard put down his pen.

This passage clearly explains, sentence by sentence, the path he has walked in a daze over the past six months.

Whitcomb, the western suburbs shouldn't be a pit, the boy counting at the Holbrook textile mill...

To become a minor expert, he needs to go down into that world again and again.

The following section is the second half of the book.

Richard picked up his pen again.

The encryption in this second half is one layer deeper than the encryption in the first half.

It took him about half an hour to restore the first page to its original state.

The wording of the restored opening has changed abruptly.

The preceding sections discussed the basics and the transformation in a simple and straightforward manner, like a master craftsman teaching his apprentice.

At this point, the author's tone became more serious.

"If you've read this far, you've probably already read the volume I left behind earlier."

Richard had already memorized every single sentence from the previous volume, "On Ascending Behind a Curtain."

"In that volume, I talked to you about candles."

I've talked about the lines drawn at the level of profound mastery, and that those who exist above those lines can no longer be called human.

I will not repeat those words.

"In this volume, I'm going to tell you how that line was crossed inch by inch."

Richard continued deciphering.

"Let's first talk about the step from minor expertise to major mastery."

"The traditions you chose when you were a junior proficient are now ready to be fulfilled."

The second signature is known to the world as #039 accessing the inheritance system #039.

But very few people tell you that the moment you connect, you open a two-way door between yourself and that traditional source.

"Nutrition flows through this door, from the trunk to your branch."

You'll feel stronger and faster; a spell that used to take half a day to condense can now be formed with the first thought.

"But the door is two-way."

"Everything that comes from your branch, the trunk gets a share of."

The higher you grow, the more branches your trunk will have.

One day, you will no longer be able to distinguish which wisp of ether is your own, and which wisp flowed in through that door and will eventually flow back out.

"You think you're using the power of that tradition."

One day, tradition will be using your hand to do things.

Richard recalled the first half of the book, which was about "pruning".

The second half describes how, once the door is opened, it becomes impossible to distinguish one another from another.

Comparing the two sides, Richard felt a chill run down his back.

He continued deciphering.

"Let's talk about mastery."

"Everyone knows that the ether of a great master is deeply integrated with his physical body, and that he can cause destruction on the scale of a city-state. This is just the surface."

"The real change is hidden where you can't perceive it."

"At first you slept less and less, and later you simply stopped sleeping altogether, but you didn't feel tired;

You eat increasingly bland food; delicacies and a bowl of plain water gradually become indistinguishable on your tongue.

You stand in the crowd, listening to their laughter, arguments, and cries;

You can hear every word, but you understand less and less why they are moved.

"You might think this is composure, detachment, or that you've mastered it."

"It is not."

"That's the price the veil paid for you."

For every bit of strength it gives you, it takes one bit away from you, the person you are.

What was taken away at first were things that were dispensable... a little bit of gluttony, a little bit of drowsiness, a little bit of tears shed for others.

By the time you come to your senses, those things are like mudflats after the tide has receded, never to rise again.

"I have met a scholar who is very knowledgeable."

He could remember every word he had read in the past hundred years, but he couldn't recall the weather on the day his mother died.

When he told me about this, there wasn't a trace of regret on his face... He had long forgotten what regret felt like.

Richard was lost in thought for a long time after reading this.

The encryption below was even deeper, making it exceptionally slow for him to crack.

"As for experts..."

Here, the sentences suddenly become sparse.

When the author reached this point, his wording became extremely sparing.

Richard had a vague feeling that what was hidden in that stinginess was not that he was unwilling to speak, but that he dared not speak, and could not speak.

"The expert no longer possesses the power of #039".

"They lived out that power itself."

"If you ask me what an expert is like, I can't answer that."

"I have met one, or rather I think I have met one."

Looking back, I can't remember his face, I can't remember his voice, I can't even remember if he was actually him.

All I remember is that when he stood there, my shadow fell in his direction.

"He said something to me before he left, and I still don't understand it."

He said: "#039 I still have everything, but it's no longer mine."

Richard's pen hovered over the paper for a long time without falling.

The following section is the ending of this book.

"I wrote this volume for those who have read 'Climbing' because most of you who have read that volume have already had the idea of ​​climbing upwards."

"I can't stop you, and back then no one could stop me either."

"I'll only tell you one thing you'll forget later, but I hope you won't forget it..."

"Every step you take upwards is gradually replacing you with something else."

The replacement is extremely slow, so slow that you won't even notice it.

By the time you realize it, it's probably already been mostly changed.

"So, while you still remember why you're striving for success..."

"Engrave that #039, 'Why #039,' in a place on a curtain that can't be removed."

"Engrave it on the person you care about most, engrave it in the home you can always return to."

"That's the only mirror that will show you whether you are still you or not."

"Cave, et memento. (Be careful, and remember.)"