I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Isabella wasn't as drunk as she was last time.

That night at the Royal Grand Hotel, she was carried out by two men.

I can still walk on my own today, but my legs feel weak and half of my body weight is on my nephew's arm.

Price and his friends were ruthless with their words, and even tried to stab them in the back before parting.

"When the mentor wakes up tomorrow morning, he'll definitely act like nothing happened," Price whispered in Richard's ear.

"She does this every time," Clara added.

On the way back to my aunt, the carriage swayed and bumped along the stone-paved road to the west district.

Isabella leaned against the carriage wall, muttering something incoherently.

Richard listened intently for a while, and it seemed to be "Greek third declension... Attica dialect... uh..."

Sofia sat opposite her, cradling her aunt's head in her hands to keep it from swaying with the bumpy ride.

She lowered her voice and spoke to Richard.

"Once, after drinking, my mentor insisted on reciting an entire line of Plautus's comedic dialogue."

He even dubbed all the characters, playing three roles himself.

"...Which three?"

"Husband, wife, and the lover hiding in the closet."

Richard rubbed his forehead.

Sofia added another sentence.

"By the way, Clara asked me to tell you... her cousin, who's a skilled craftsman, has gotten even more irritable lately, and his order book is full until next spring."

"The queue is so far away?"

"It's said that it was mandated by higher authorities."

Sophia moved her mentor's head closer to the soft flesh of her thigh.

"The front lines need enchanted bullets and the sealing medium needs to be reforged."

All the alchemists were conscripted, and orders from the common people piled up.

"Clara said that if you have something you want her uncle to process, she has to tell you as soon as possible, otherwise she doesn't know when you'll be able to get it."

Richard made a mental note of this, but didn't reply.

The carriage turned onto the sycamore-lined street leading to Ashford House.

The wheels made a rustling sound as they rolled over the fallen leaves.

The butler was already waiting under the porch.

The maid, experienced in handling Isabella, moved swiftly and efficiently.

"No need for you to trouble yourself." The butler bowed slightly to Richard.

"Miss will be fine by noon tomorrow."

Sofia helped hand her aunt over to the maid and waved to Richard.

"Go back and get some rest; you have class tomorrow."

Richard watched as the two men helped his aunt into the room before turning and walking towards his own guest room.

The night breeze blew through the leaves of the sycamore trees.

The October wind was already cool, carrying a hint of frost.

Richard returned to his room, and the panel appeared on the screen.

[Wisdom] He pushed the progress of those three items forward amidst the applause at the Royal Hotel table.

Knowledge, critical thinking, and perception are all at level 3.

The four components of the body have been complete for a long time.

With all seven items in place, the "Spirit" section lit up.

Richard sent the thought into the device.

[Spirit] Item:

Both the four physical attributes and the three intellectual attributes have reached level 3, unlocking new features.

Out-of-body experience: One can separate a wisp of "spirit" and attach it to an external object or living creature.

The attached location becomes an extension that can be independently controlled, and the original consciousness is not affected by it.

[Currently available for peeling: a wisp (extremely weak).]

[Warning: If the attached spirit is destroyed, the original body will suffer severe damage.]

Richard stared at the line of text, comparing it to the shadow at his feet.

The shadow is his projection on the other side of the curtain; ultimately, it is a part of his body.

By ferrying that shadow, he was essentially extending himself outwards.

Out-of-body experience is completely different; it's like forcibly breaking off a fragment from one's own spirit and moving it outside.

One stretches a person out, the other splits a person apart.

And that warning... he recalled what his aunt had told him before:

At the minor mastery level, a wisp of spirit will be transferred to the named artifact. As a result, if the named artifact is damaged, the original body will at least be in a vegetative state.

Following the detailed instructions on the panel, Richard very lightly "bent" the inverted tree of light directly behind his sternum.

The leaves of the tree swayed, and a very thin wisp of something detached from the tree trunk.

It doesn't hurt, but it feels empty, an indescribable emptiness, like a piece of my chest has been ripped out.

That wisp of spirit floated before him, so weak that he could barely grasp it.

Richard tried to attach it to the brass dish on the table.

Once the spirit touches him, he gains another "feeling".

On the other side of the bronze dish, a pair of eyes-like things appeared out of nowhere.

Richard had his eyes closed, yet he "saw" the desktop.

Looking from the angle of the bronze plate, he was sitting in a chair, his eyelids lowered, with a pen beside him.

He tried to make the bronze dish move, but it didn't budge.

Inanimate objects only give him a distant sense of perception.

It can see, hear, and roughly sense the density of the surrounding ether.

But it was just an eye hanging there, unable to move an inch.

He then tried to "listen".

The old clock in the downstairs corridor has its balance wheel going back and forth.

Richard retrieved that wisp of spirit.

As soon as Lingyi left the bronze dish, the emptiness in his chest slowly filled up, and the leaves of the light tree shook again.

Sitting in the chair, he tried to examine this wisp of spirit over and over again.

The attachment to an inanimate object provides an additional means of perception: it can see, hear, but cannot be touched.

What about living creatures?

When it attaches itself to a living creature, it's usually no longer a suspended eye.

If a spirit from a pigeon or a wild cat were to possess it, it should be able to roughly urge it to take a few steps.

This reminded him of Lady Mary's cat incarnation and the bone bracelet.

But both the cat incarnation and the spirit within the bracelet are capable of wielding Lady Mary's power.

According to the detailed notes on the panel, living creatures have their own temperaments and will not obediently follow orders.

If a spirit attaches itself to you, you must first suppress it.

If you press it for too long, even this wisp of spirit will wear down.

There were no living creatures in his house to try, and it was late at night, so he didn't plan to go outside and catch anything.

Inanimate objects provide distant vision, while living objects offer only superficial manipulation.

As for the third level... Richard looked again at the path to ascending from the Out-of-Body realm.

His gaze moved downwards, and another prompt surfaced from the bottom:

"The ability to astral projection can be upgraded by consuming points."

One to two strands: requires 1 point.

Two to three strands: requires 2 points

Three to five strands: requires 3 points.

Five strands → ?: Additional conditions must be met (not yet unlocked)

Just like when expanding the spiritual count, the highest level was blocked by a threshold that he couldn't see through for the time being.

Richard put the matter aside for now; all he could peel away for the moment was this one thread, pitifully weak.

A glass partition with inanimate objects attached won't last long with living things attached.

Even a single strand is enough.

He looked at the shadow at his feet, and the thought in his mind became clearer and clearer.

Richard moved his shadow away from the wall and placed it in front of the table.

The shadow stood in the material world, and that mass of black had become much more solid than it had been initially; the training over this period of time had been very effective.

He had previously tried to make the shadow wear the Hermes mask, but the shadow couldn't hold it.

Now he has the [Out-of-Body] ability in his hands.

If you peel off a wisp of spirit and stuff it into the shadow, could that wisp of spirit be the "core"?

Richard broke off another strand from the tree.

This wisp of light sank into the shadow beneath his feet.

The moment Ling sank in, Richard's breathing slowed.

That hollow black mass finally had "something" inside, giving him a real sense of complete control.

In the past, Richard's shadow would move whenever he had a thought;

It's there even if you don't think about it.

The shadow is like a puppet on a string in his hand; it collapses as soon as the string is loosened.

Things are different now; once the spirit sinks in, the shadow becomes noticeably more agile.

Richard's gaze fell again on the bronze mask on the table.

Now that the shadow has a core, can it finally wear this mask?

He had the shadow stand in front of the table and gently placed the mask on the shadow's face.

The mask was stuck on.

The shadowy, featureless black mass held up the bronze mask, standing steadily.

Richard's heart skipped a beat; he could really wear it.

He was about to try to familiarize the shadow with Hermes' abilities.

[Internal Awakening] stopped him at this moment.

The pair of eyes that had been drawn back from the outside world saw a series of burning thoughts, but also revealed hidden dangers.

The biggest cost of this mask is that it attracts the dead, making the veil around the body even more transparent.

Letting the shadow use this ability is like adding fuel to the fire.

Richard removed the mask from the shadow's face.

As soon as the mask was removed, the shadow remained firmly in place.

He put the bronze mask away again.

Wearing it is inevitable, not now.

Once he rises a higher rank and studies the mask more thoroughly, then he can wait for that seed...

Richard then sank his shadow into the shallows behind the curtain.

That wisp of spirit began to move within the shadow.

Richard himself uses hygroscopic breathing.

The shadow on the other side of the shallows followed the same rhythm, inhaling and exhaling.

Inhale deeply and prolong the breath, exhale briefly and shorten the breath, holding your breath in the gap between waves.

The shadows behind the curtain seemed to breathe.

Once it has a core, it can operate according to the principles of quadruple respiration and tidal respiration, and begin to nurture its own extremely fine etheric microcirculation.

More importantly, it can begin to learn the techniques.

Richard tried to manipulate his shadow to create a stone armor effect in the shallows.

The shadow stretched out its dark arms, and the ether pushed towards the surface along its own filamentary circulation.

A thin shell formed on its forearm.

It was crooked and twisted, and its shell was so thin that it was almost invisible.

But it did indeed use the stone armor according to Richard's method.

Richard felt relieved; this was the proper use of "Astral Projection."

He gained another practitioner who could practice tirelessly day and night behind the curtain.

It doesn't deplete its daytime energy during practice; and what it develops is connected to its own physical body.

But then again, his true spirit resides in the shadow.

He used to treat his shadow as a consumable, throwing it into the shallows and letting it wear down its outline in the fragments of ether.

If something had really happened to the shadow and it had been scattered, he would have been in a situation where the cost was high but barely acceptable.

That won't work now; his shadow has become his lifeline.

The shadow is about to be scattered by something behind the curtain; it's not as simple as "scattering and then reforming."

With that wisp of spirit gone, he would at least suffer a severe blow to his vital energy, or worse... be unable to get out of bed.

The safety boundary is tighter than ever before.

After the experiment with the Out-of-Body effect was completed, the panel was reopened.

That seed that had been hanging in the air can now be planted.

[Seeds have been planted]

[Nucleocondensation property: Seed]

Seed Source: Arcane Embers

【Characteristic Tags: Name, Mirror, Substitute】

"Sprouting countdown: 10 days."

Richard was somewhat disappointed but not surprised when he saw the countdown.

The Sphinx seed took a total of twenty-four hours from planting to germination.

This one took a full ten days.

Richard stared at the three characters: "name, mirror, substitute".

Considering the various powers demonstrated by that expert...

A name is the key to controlling the other party's lifeline;

A mirror is a reflection of another person;

Substitution is putting yourself in the other person's position...

Richard became increasingly eager to try it.

But ten days is ten days, and the system won't make an exception for him.

And there's another big event going on – the debate week in October.