I loaded the Mysticism panel.

In his dream, Richard felt something gripping his chest.

Just as his grandfather collapsed, he fell into the darkness and was lifted up.

A force lifted him up from below, lifting him past the wind and past a flock of geese.

Hei accepted him.

Richard finally saw the procession clearly; it was passing through the sky, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The rider's outline was indistinct, but the horse's hooves trod very steadily even though there was no road beneath them.

Richard couldn't see the figure at the very front of the line, who was wearing antlers and holding a rein. He also didn't dare to look at him.

My maternal grandfather was at the end of the line; he was no longer the one being hunted, but one of the hunters.

The group moved forward, heading towards the direction with the loudest buzzing, towards the southeastern area where the light was just beginning to penetrate.

My maternal grandfather turned around at the end of the line.

Across the wind and the cries of geese, he looked at his grandson and made a gesture.

Richard had just learned that gesture: "The wind is blowing your way."

After finishing his demonstration, my grandfather turned his head back.

His figure blended into the endless line and could no longer be distinguished.

The wild geese's cries faded into the distance, but the low hum grew ever closer.

………………

Richard opened his eyes; the fire in the stove had long since gone out.

He lay there without moving, trying to find excuses for himself.

He met too many people and heard too many stories in the past two weeks.

The tooth mark on the doorpost, my grandmother's charcoal portrait, the rune blood pact, the hunting book, and the sakya fragments that Corbin had spread out on the table.

These things have been simmering in my mind for a week, so it's not surprising that they fermented at night and resulted in a dream.

When people dream, they are essentially rearranging and reorganizing the things from the day.

He even found evidence to support his claim: the cries of geese in his dream were mostly from the geese by the pond in the backyard.

The increasingly loud hum came from a delivery truck passing through the Chelsea intersection at three in the morning.

He laid out these reasons one by one, and was almost convinced of them himself.

[Reflection and Inner Awakening] Those eyes that were always picking at bones turned back to shine on himself.

This is someone who is trying very hard to lie to himself. Richard sat up and brought up the control panel.

[Sleeping lv.3, progress 100%.]

[Sleeping lv.3 → lv.4.]

The change came very quietly.

[Wild Sleep] The barrier between falling asleep and waking up has been completely smoothed out.

He can now fall into a deep sleep in any position and amidst any noise, and he can also fall out at any moment without any hesitation.

On the same night, the repair efficiency was raised to another level.

Richard's gaze shifted downwards: [Sleeping]

This feature is now enabled. To advance to the next level, you must meet the following requirements:

Level reached lv.4, progress 100%.

2 points are available.

During a sleep episode, I naturally had a dream that was later confirmed to be real (this fulfilled my wish).

Richard stared at the line of text for a long time.

The "later" part of the dream hadn't arrived yet, but the panel had already checked that line.

Richard took the tarot cards out of his canvas bag.

The first question he wanted to ask was the one he should never have asked: how many days did his grandfather have left?

Something, far away and separated by several layers of darkness, slowly lifted its eyelids.

Richard pressed the cards back onto the table and sat motionless, waiting for the chill to subside from the back of his neck.

You can only ask yourself.

He mentally revised his words several times before finally settling on one sentence:

"What I should be preparing for right now is..."

Ignoring the outcome and the enemy makes you the easiest target.

He only asked what tools could help and what he should do.

Shuffle, cut, and turn over three cards.

First card: [The Magician - Upright].

The person on the card is standing behind a table, with one hand raised to the sky and the other pointing to the ground.

There were four items on the table: a cup, coins, a sword, and a staff.

The items were arranged neatly, much like a street vendor who lays out all his possessions for customers to see, as if afraid you might think he was hiding something else.

He didn't need to look for anything elsewhere; everything he needed was on his own table.

Richard's gaze fell on the man's head, where a horizontal "eight" was hanging.

In the oldest versions, this card was called "The Stallman".

Its true owner is Mercury, or Mercury.

That is, Hermes.

Second card: [Moon, upright].

He was very familiar with this tarot deck; whenever he encountered a perplexing event, he would always draw this card, the Moon, during a divination.

The moon is an illusion and a shadow, a layer of water that cannot reflect anything, and there is one lying at his feet.

The third card: [Three of Coins - Upright].

A church was still under construction. A stonemason stood on the scaffolding, chiseling at the stone.

Two people stood below, holding blueprints and looking up at him, their expressions suggesting they were ready to point out which of his chisels had gone astray.

Stone, chisel, engraving marks—cutting the name into the stone, stroke by stroke.

Richard reached into the drawer and pulled out the half set of rune stones, with the missing corner facing up.

He sat there for a long time without moving, with three cards laid out side by side.

A magician is a mask.

The moon is a shadow.

Coin three is a runestone.

He has all three of these things; he doesn't need to look for any of them outside.

He aligned them in his mind, and his inner awakening made him suddenly realize that they were actually three sides of the same thing.

Runes are names engraved on stone;

The mask is the tube from which the divine name sank;

The shadow is the hand that can carry his name through the veil.

Add to that the pen in his pocket: "The Recorder's Pen," all of which are names.

Richard stood up and took a few steps to the window.

In the dream, my grandfather chopped a thousand times, and darkness closed in a thousand times; it was a battle we couldn't win.

The reason he couldn't win might not just be because his grandfather wasn't strong enough, but also because he attacked the wrong target.

Richard's finger stopped on the card "The Magician".

On the battlefields of ancient Greece, arrows flew wildly as the two armies clashed.

Only one type of person can travel from one side of the enemy camp to the other to deliver a message: in war between two armies, messengers are not to be killed.

Touching the messenger is tantamount to offending the gods as well; the one wielding the staff must not be violated.

That staff with two serpents represents this pass.

Richard slowly sat back down at the table, where the road split into three steps.

The first step is to push Hermes' resonance to the level of "radiant reflection".

Once you get that staff, you'll have the right to enter any tent, finish your sentence, and then come out.

The second step is to thoroughly understand the runes.

My maternal grandfather's contract was written in runes, and the accounts were also kept in runes.

If he wants to change an account, he needs to know how to use the pen in the bookkeeper's hand.

The third step, the shadow.

He can't go himself; his rank is too low. He might end up getting himself killed before he can save anyone.

The shadow is silent, lightless, weightless, and nameless.

Put a mask on it, give it a name, and let it hold the runestone and act as the messenger.

It was broken up, and I can accept the loss.

Richard collected the three cards and shuffled them again.

There is one more question he must ask:

Are there any blind spots in my thinking that I haven't considered?

The card flipped: [The Chariot - Reversed].

The man in the carriage was still standing, looking very imposing, while the two sphinxes were no longer obeying him.

The most crucial point is that this sign has never depicted reins. The driver relied on willpower to drive the chariot, and when the sign is turned upside down, that willpower falls to the ground.

Richard stared at the card for a long time.

【Reflection and Inner Awakening】Turn it over and over again.

The easiest way for him to deceive himself is that he believes he has the reins.

The one in my dream had antlers on his head and was holding a rein in his hand.

With the reins in that person's hands, he was at most one of those who were given a ride.

But then again...

"Those who are given a ride are, after all, on the bus."

As dawn broke, after much deliberation, he finally cast the two dots.

[Out of the body: two strands → three strands]

Available points: 1.11

Plans can't keep up with changes, so we'll have to use up two points for now.

However, the gap isn't large. I'll make up the remaining 0.9 when [Breathing] reaches 100% at level 4.

When the third wisp of spirit was peeled off from the tree of light behind the sternum, the empty space in the chest transformed from a penny into a saucer.

Richard held onto the edge of the table for half a minute to recover, then went through the entire process of the Mirroring Technique.

The still water spread out and then receded, finally flattening the emptiness.

The three strands of spirit were all stuffed into the shadow.

The shadow rose on the floor, the darkness deepening since last night.

He tried something he couldn't do before.

"messenger."

"The ferryman".

Two names, one after the other, fall along the transmission path.

The last time he was under two names at the same time, "Sentinel" was going to disperse, and "Shadow Guard" was going to gather.

The two forces tore at the shadow's surface for less than two seconds, nearly draining his ether reserves.

This time is different.

The messenger and the ferryman were traveling the same path, and their names, which were heading in the same direction, didn't clash when stacked together.

The shadow stood in the center of the room before the daylight entered, exuding a sense of mission that was ready to be taken out at any moment.

The ether was dropping very quickly, but this was the first time I had successfully completed the same-direction compound naming.

Richard withdrew the shadow.

………………

Clara's urgent telegram arrived in room 314, accompanied by a package.

Isabella pushed the package aside and looked at the telegram first.

"The third dive in Scapa Flow has been completed, and new markings have appeared in the seabed seal area."

Something was rewritten on the seabed, changing the grammar of sealing to the grammar of quoting.

The rewritten section is signed with a deer antler rein symbol, and a rubbing is attached.

The next high tide is on January 27th, my final dive. —c.

The rubbing was under the telegram; Isabella pulled it out and flattened it.

Richard's psychic vision was attached to it.

The symbol was simple: a pair of antlers with reins wrapped around them.

The reins were tied in a knot, just like the one Richard had seen in the rubbing in Corbyn's office.

That is the oldest type of "binding" in Rune.

The package also contained a letter and a gift; Isabella read the letter first.

"Mentor, everything is fine here. The seawater isn't as cold as I imagined."

The wetsuit was lined with two layers of wool, so it was actually quite warm once I went down.

The naval medic on board was very responsible; he would take our pulses every time we came aboard.

I'm always the most reliable one on the team, and he even praised me.

The seal maintenance is progressing well, and the Navy is very satisfied.

I'm enclosing some local specialties with this letter.

The tin box contains Orkney cheese, which is excellent sliced ​​and served with tea.

The paper package contained barley flatbread, which the locals call Bannock.

It's as hard as a paving stone, but it melts when you soak it in hot milk. You should try it.

That bottle of wine is from the winery on the high ground outside Korvor, which is said to have been open for over a hundred years.

Locals say the wine has a peat flavor and a sea flavor.

I can't tell the difference between good and bad myself, but everyone in the team says it's good stuff.

Please drink less and don't stay up late grading papers.

At the end of the letter was a line of smaller print, written in a much more illegible hand than the main text.

"P.S. If it's convenient, please help me apply for another ether accumulator as a backup."

It turns out that there was a problem with that bird during its third dive.

Isabella put down the letter and immediately took out the spare parts application form for the ether accumulator from the drawer, filled it out, and signed it.

She filled in very quickly, so quickly that the last letter was dragged out in ink.

"They don't seem to want me to worry about them," Auntie snorted softly.

"The ether accumulator malfunctioned on the seabed, how did she get back up?"

"Did you swim up on your own, or were you pulled up by someone? Not a single word was written."

The door was pushed open, and Sofia, who had received the news, rushed in and immediately saw the wine bottles on the table.

"Sent by Clara?"

"Um."

Sofia leaned closer and squeezed the bag of barley pancakes again, wrinkling her nose.

"This... is as hard as a rock."

Isabella sent the rubbings and telegram through the college's channels.

The reply arrived the next day: "The defense of Scapa Flow is under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department, and the College system has no right to interfere."

Isabella slammed the reply on the table and chuckled.

"What you can't see is as if it doesn't exist."

Isabella looked up at her nephew.

You don't look well.

Like his senior, Richard kept all the bad things a secret.

"I just didn't sleep well last night, it's nothing."

My aunt frowned but didn't ask any more questions.

In the office, only the scratching sound of pen nibs gliding across paper could be heard.