I loaded the Mysticism panel.

The news of Richard's signature quickly spread throughout Ashford's household.

The first person to arrive was naturally Vincent.

My cousin is still the same as always; he came in and threw his hat on the sofa.

"I heard you signed your name?"

"Um."

Vincent sat down on the sofa and crossed one leg over the other:

"So, what ability did you get?"

Richard made his shadow appear briefly in the material world, then made it disappear in the blink of an eye.

Vincent stared, wide-eyed.

"Humph." He leaned closer. "A shadow? What... what can that do?"

"If I can hide behind the curtain, the material world won't be able to see my shadow."

Richard picked out what he could talk about:

"Spells that use shadows as a medium cannot lock me down. When I attack others with my shadow, I can emerge from behind them."

Vincent circled halfway around the shadow that had fallen back onto the wall, marveling at it.

"Scholars are just full of tricks." He shook his head.

"We hunters, the signatures we give are all real stuff."

After I signed my name, I simply swung my knife faster; there was no need for all this roundabout stuff.

Richard smiled but didn't respond to that.

Vincent's visit was just the beginning.

By Friday, Ashford House’s living room was packed with people.

Richard had never seen such a well-organized formation.

The leader was a burly man who looked to be in his forties, with broad shoulders and a thick waist, and an old scar on his left cheek that ran from his brow bone to his chin.

As soon as he entered, the aura he exuded made the air in the small area feel heavy.

This is actually a hunter with a minor level of expertise.

Vincent leaned close to Richard's ear:

"That's Mr. Baldwin. By seniority, we should call him Uncle."

The generation that my great-grandfather lived there long ago no longer resides in the capital; they moved to the south.

Although we are several generations removed, we are still one family by blood.

Following Baldwin were a middle-aged couple and two teenagers.

"That couple is my cousin's family," Vincent whispered.

"My cousin is my second grandfather's daughter. You know my second grandfather, right? He was my grandfather's younger brother. He passed away a few years ago."

My cousin also married a hunter named Holloway. Following them were their two sons, who also practiced Blood Burning.

Richard mentally sorted out the layers of kinship relationships.

Gerald's maternal grandfather's younger brother died young, leaving behind a daughter who was his cousin.

My aunt married into the Holloway family, who were hunters, and had two sons.

Add to that Vincent from his uncle's family, and Baldwin from the southern branch...

The Ashford family bloodline, from the main branch, collateral branches, and those that branched off several generations ago, all come together to be hunters.

This room full of roughnecks has all come here today for him, the newly minted scholar.

Baldwin was the first to step forward, extending his large, fan-like hand.

"Little Richard." He shook hands firmly. "Congratulations on signing your name."

"...I should call you Uncle Baldwin." Richard's hand was gripped so tightly it hurt.

"Hey, what's the point of talking about that?"

The burly man grinned, revealing a set of teeth stained yellow by tobacco.

"If it weren't for the fact that our southern branch of the family suddenly produced a scholar with an unusually high degree of compatibility, I wouldn't have bothered to make the trip to the capital."

Richard found his bluntness refreshing.

Vincent added from the side:

"The old man was overjoyed and specially sent a message to invite Uncle Baldwin's branch back to get acquainted with the family."

If the family prospers in the future, the collateral branches will also benefit.

Holloway's uncle also joined in; he was rather thin, with lively eyes.

"Mr. Williams," he said very politely.

"With another scholar in the family, those of us who do fieldwork will have something to look forward to."

Richard agreed, but he knew exactly what was going on in his mind.

Not one of the people in this room came to reminisce.

The family's hunters, along with various distant relatives, rely entirely on the family's resources to run field missions, collect commissions, and accumulate resources.

The less experienced they are, the harder it is for them to get jobs, and the lower their commissions.

Now, a new seedling has suddenly sprouted in our house, looking like it's about to grow taller.

Hunters and scholars don't have much conflict over resources; in fact, they have a lot of interactions.

When hunters go out on missions, they need scholars to identify items of unknown origin, decipher the inscriptions on altars, and determine which weak points they can attack and which they cannot.

A scholar who is willing to help his hunters can save them from many detours and save them from losing their lives.

Come and get acquainted with Richard; it'll be easier to find him if you need anything in the future.

Richard saw it clearly, so he didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

This is how the mystical side of the world works.

Those two boys from the Holloway family, though only half-grown, are honest.

The older one, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with bandages wrapped around his arm, approached Richard, hesitated for a long time, and finally managed to utter:

"Cousin, I heard you can hide shadows behind curtains? Then... then in the material world, is it really true that we can't see a single shadow?"

His younger brother nudged him from the side: "Are you stupid? Why are you asking this?"

"I'm just curious," the older one said, sticking out his neck. "I've been practicing for two years, and I haven't even gotten close to mastering a decent technique."

Richard was both amused and exasperated.

"That's all I'm capable of right now," he said honestly. "I need to hide it, then let it out again; I still have to practice slowly."

The two boys gave an "oh," clearly realizing that the academic profession wasn't as mystical as they had imagined.

Old Bao laughed heartily from the side:

"You little brats, don't bother the scholar with your fists and feet."

Scholars use their brains, which is different from what we do.

He turned around and handed something to Richard.

It was a small tin box, about the size of a palm.

"It's just a small token of our appreciation, put together by our branch in the south."

Richard took it and opened it.

Inside were three etheric condensates.

The color wasn't very good, and the texture wasn't very even.

However, these three items, placed together, are quite heavy.

"This..." Richard raised his head.

"When hunters go out on missions, they can scrape some of this stuff off the evil creatures."

The people in the room exchanged congratulations and pleasantries for a while before gradually dispersing.

As he was leaving, Old Bao spoke in a rough voice.

"Keep this."

"If you ever need our help in the future, just let us know."

We may live far apart, but we're still family.

Richard accepted the tin box.

He understood the meaning of this gift; when he truly grew up, he would naturally have to repay it.

Human relationships are always reciprocal.

Everyone else had left, but Vincent remained glued to the sofa.

"See that?" My cousin said, swinging his leg.

"Your signature has made all the men in the family very happy."

"I see." Richard placed the tin box on the table.

Vincent got up from the sofa, retrieved his hat, and put it on his head.

"Alright, I'm leaving too."

Vincent walked towards the door, then turned back halfway:

"Oh, by the way, my dad wrote to me a couple of days ago."

Richard stopped in his tracks.

Vincent's father was the uncle who went to the New World.

"What did he say?"

"I wasn't saying anything serious," Vincent waved his hand dismissively.

"Same as always, asking about my family situation, how my training is going, and telling me not to slack off."

He glanced at Richard:

"At the end of the letter, he added that he had heard that his sister had given birth to a promising son."

Let me congratulate you on his behalf.

"Please thank your uncle for me," Richard replied politely.

Vincent didn't respond; he just waved his hand, pushed the door open, and left.

………………

The final practical activity of the training program is tomorrow morning.

The artifacts brought back from the Black Soil River basin had just been set up for exhibition, which was exactly where Richard was planning to go and try his luck with the ether.

But before going to the museum, there was something he kept in mind.

He hadn't forgotten Evelyn's crooked letter.

Richard was pondering how to get Pudding back to Briston safely.

Puddings are delicate things; they'll collapse if they're bumped around on the road.

Back in his room, he picked up his pen and wrote back to his sister.

Evelyn's letters were full of everyday stories: red bean pie, burnt rabbit, oven vent.

He couldn't give his sister the feedback that had actually happened to him.

Signature, shadow, ciphertext, the line drawn by the great master...

But he can say it in a different way.

He picked up his pen and wrote:

Evelyn:

Things in the capital city are indeed more refined than those in Bristol.

I've already pre-ordered the crème brûlée at the Royal Hotel.

However, the journey will inevitably be bumpy, so you'll probably only get to eat the collapsed pudding.

He paused, then artistically modified the recent events.

"My classmate in Beijing recently brought home a litter of Maine Coon kittens."

"Right now they are still small, their eyes can't open yet, and they can't even walk properly, but when they grow up, you won't be able to carry them."

"You can't rush them if you want them to grow up smoothly."

Richard paused for a moment after writing this.

It cannot be rushed; this is something that is repeatedly said in the coded documents when discussing the basics.

He continued writing.

"Keep an eye on Dad for me, make sure he doesn't work too much overtime. And remind Mom to take her medicine on time."

"I'll treat you to all the dishes you want to eat when I make a lot of money in the future."

"As for that Professor Rabbit #039... I think if he really gets into the Imperial Culinary Academy in the capital, I'll have to taste the first batch of food he makes."

I'm going to be a taste tester. —r.

Richard folded the letter and sealed it.

He walked to the window and pulled the curtains open a crack.

The sun in the capital city was already setting in the west.

He looked down at his shadow at his feet.

The candles hadn't been lit yet, but the sun was already shining in at an angle.

His shadow was stretched long and spread across the floor.

The shadow lay there quietly.

Richard had a sudden thought and gently lowered it onto the curtain.

In the material world, the long shadow at his feet had disappeared.

On the shallows beyond the curtain, the weak and clumsy black humanoid figure rose once more.

Richard mentally conveyed a message to it.

Train! Train hard!

The shadow took off running, circling the shallows behind the curtain.