I loaded the Mysticism panel.

When the carriage arrived home, the steward waited under the porch to take the father and son's hats and coats.

The soup was still warm in the kitchen, but they had both eaten at the Phillips' house.

Gerrard waved and went upstairs by himself. His steps were much steadyer than yesterday, but he still had to hold onto the handrail after a few steps.

Richard returned to his room.

He also needs to take stock of what he gained on the night of mourning.

The first thing to do, as always, is to feed Shadow, this meritorious and hardworking hero.

That pitch-black thing rose up from behind the curtain on its own; it was so thin it could barely stand.

Richard then took out the highly concentrated condensate of the snake mother from the hidden compartment and placed it on the table.

Richard sat nearby watching, his shadow eating the congealed substance, its edges gradually solidifying in the light, turning from black smoke back into ink.

Half an hour later, the whiskers retracted, and the condensate decreased by less than one-third.

Richard pushed the medium-concentration condensate over as well, saying, "Eat more tonight."

The shadow hesitated for a moment, its edges trembling somewhat like a human burping, but it still pressed itself against the ground.

After it finished eating again, Richard took out his Sphinx lamp from his inner pocket.

It's been almost half a year since he finished his summer training program last year, and he's been signing his name on it himself.

Six months later, the lamp body, which had originally been rusty and mottled, was smoothed out by his handling.

The Sphinx relief on the lamp was more than twice as clear as when he first saw it in Clement's Antique Shop.

Its still water spread out on its own, and you could feel the continuous heat seeping out from the lamp body.

The ether in the lamp already bore the marks of Richard.

Ether clung to the inner wall of the lamp, following a path Richard had never seen before, creating swirling patterns in circles.

The vortexes become denser towards the inside, eventually converging in the center of the lamp body, above the forehead of the Sphinx's face.

This is the spot where he first discovered the new mark last month, and now there's another one.

[Knowledge] It started automatically and found relevant information.

In the writing system of the Black Soil River Basin, when a wave-like shape appears alone, it is pronounced as the consonant "n".

The three lines stacked together represent water itself.

Richard sat down at the table and began to think. Water, in the symbolic system of the Black Soil River, could lead to a whole host of meanings.

Like primordial water, overflowing and abundant, an abyss of chaos.

The Sphinx, with its body and head, guards the gate between the two worlds; in this context, water is reduced to merely a reflection.

The water reflects all things, and what is reflected is the image of all things.

I have now officially chosen the traditional mirror breathing method.

Just as my aunt had said, the signed artifacts were constantly drawing closer to their owners.

Richard suppressed the Mirror of Despair technique.

The ether fluctuations began to press downwards in a familiar rhythm.

It can reflect a shallow beach that stretches as far as the eye can see, with several outlines in the distance that are hard to tell whether they are mountains or waves.

His own shadow stood in the middle of the mudflat, his two arms hanging down at his sides.

Centered on it, a large area behind the curtain was reflected in his field of vision.

A few wisps of lingering resentment still floated in the mist, and ether lay beneath the distant outline. To the southeast of the mudflats, there was a slowly collapsing pit, all of which was clearly reflected in the mist.

The shadow can only see a distance of about ten steps around it.

After the Sphinx Lamp's powers were activated, its range of perception expanded by dozens of times compared to what the shadow itself could reach.

Richard then understood what the lamp's ability was.

The shadow is his reflection cast on the other side of the curtain. As he approaches, it also exhibits the characteristics of a mirror, for a mirror reflecting its image is a natural phenomenon.

Perhaps he shouldn't have let the shadow go to the trouble of exploring the surroundings in the first place, because any movement would be noticed by something deep inside the curtain.

He only needs to let his shadow stand there, and the surrounding scenery will automatically be reflected back as if looking in a mirror.

Richard tried to move the shadow toward the crater he had seen earlier, where a massive amount of ether was being inhaled and exhaled.

There seemed to be movement inside, but when Richard used the mirror to reflect the image, there was no reaction from this side.

Richard released his grip and leaned back in his chair. He now had an extra wide-area detection eye that could move freely behind the curtain and remain almost undetected.

The third new mark that appeared on the Sphinx was much shallower than the previous two.

The strokes broke off halfway through, the break was rough and the edges kept creeping outwards.

He felt that the transformation of the strange object was not yet over, which meant that his own potential was far from exhausted.

After testing the Signature Oddity, there's one more thing left to try.

Richard raised his hand, and the three-foot-long cane automatically materialized in his palm.

Two golden snakes intertwined head to tail, their scales overlapping each other.

It was cast with extreme precision, and the two wings on the top of the snake were closed and fit together perfectly.

Hermes's Caduceus

Richard placed it across his knees, closed his eyes, and let inspiration flow along the staff.

He checked the first ability first.

He doesn't need to actively read it; the Twin Serpents Staff will speak on its own, inputting detailed information about its abilities into his mind.

The messenger is inviolabilis.

The rules are so simple they're almost brutal.

The person holding this staff will be considered a messenger as long as they do not take the initiative to act.

From the moment he was recognized as a messenger, all beings on both sides of the veil who still recognized the concept of a messenger had to act according to the rules.

You can stop him, ignore him, or kick him out, but you can't hit him.

If you hit him, bad luck will befall you.

Richard stood up, gripped the double serpent staff in his hand, and paced around the room.

Changes began immediately.

His still water began to reflect automatically, and he found that the sharp edges of everything in the room seemed to have softened.

The sharp, piercing marks on the ethereal plane—the corners of the cabinet, the edges of the copper basin, the hooks of the clothes hangers—were all smoothed out.

This is the envoy's affinity.

He walked to the windowsill with his double-snake staff in hand. The gray sparrow that came to peck at the eaves every day did not fly away immediately.

It tilted its head and hopped on the windowsill, stopping less than a foot away from him.

Richard switched the caduceus staff to the other hand, but the sparrow hadn't flown away yet.

He made the double serpent staff disappear automatically, and the sparrow fluttered away.

Richard silently considered the limitations of the Twin Serpents Staff.

First, you cannot attack proactively while holding the double serpent staff.

He didn't even need to try it himself; the caduceus itself told him the rule.

Moreover, the two snakes were tightly coiled together, very smooth, and there was nothing on their bodies that could be used as weapons.

Even if you swing it around and hit it, it won't have much effect.

In addition, only intelligent beings who understand the rules of recognizing messengers will accept this approach.

Those who are mere tools with their names hollowed out, or those evil beings without self-awareness, don't even know who they are, let alone follow the rules.

Another crucial point is whether this set of rules applies if the other party's rank is far higher than one's own.

Professor McFee once said that the hunter himself only used the Wild Hunt ritual.

Even experts need to follow the rules, because the rules themselves are much older than them.

Richard thought about it and realized that the double serpent staff was one of his trump cards.

Holding this double-serpent staff makes one a messenger, and its value lies not in having him block other people's swords.

His value lies in enabling him to enter a place he might otherwise never have been able to enter, to finish his sentence, and then to return.

For a scholar, this ability is far more valuable than simply increasing combat power.

The second ability is [extradition (deductio)].

He read for a while, then frowned.

First, the biggest limitation of this ability is that it is passive; it cannot be activated actively by the caster.

When a lost spirit needs to be guided, it will come to this staff of serpents and recognize it.

At that time, the extradition will be triggered automatically, and the staff will open a door for him to return to his place and send him there.

This is the duty of the caduceus, and also the duty of Hermes, the god who has been guiding the souls of the dead for 3000 years.

During this process, the practitioner only acts as the door.

He doesn't need to reach out and push; the spirit will come in and go by itself.

Richard recalled last night, when his Twin Serpents Staff had not yet materialized.

Using a mirror as ink and breath as paper, he meticulously reflected and recited the names of the lost souls, thread by thread, and then used runestones to pave road signs.

They used the torch on the pillar of the fire god temple to weigh each item one by one, and then used a paperweight and a small balance scale.

A team of more than a dozen people worked for seven or eight hours.

Now that we have this double-snake staff, we don't need to go through all that trouble.

From now on, he only needs to leave the game running, and the Twin Serpent Staff will complete its tasks on its own.

Richard read it carefully for a while and discovered there was another hidden rule.

If he, the sorcerer, does the opposite and doesn't wait for the spirit to come to him...

He himself took the initiative to retrieve the spirit and forcibly extradite it, so that the door would open on both sides.

He won't be able to stop anything that wants to squeeze in from the opposite direction.

The consequences could range from minor damage to a broken soul, or worse, the thing on the other side of the door could find its way up, replace, attach itself to, or drag the person away.

At this point, this ability becomes very clear.

If a spirit comes to him on its own initiative, it will be a natural progression. But if he actively seeks out spirits, it's like inviting a wolf into the house.

He thought for a moment, then tried it out, adding a little ether to it.

With a hum, the double-serpent staff caused a gap to appear where there had been a wall behind him, and the gate to the spirit world slowly opened.

Countless things were slowly drifting by, many of them eager to move closer to him.

Richard immediately deactivated the ability, and the buzzing sound stopped as the double-serpent staff fell to the ground.

Those things are clearly not souls that need to be extradited.

It was a malicious thing, alerted by him, trying to squeeze through the door.

"Unless absolutely necessary, you should never proactively activate the extradition capability."

He silently reminded himself.

"If the spirit comes on its own, it will save us; if I go on my own, it will become a calamity."

Richard recalled Mrs. Mary's words: one must take control of the definition.

Since this staff has defined him as a messenger, he must fulfill the duties of a messenger.

He carried the message from one side to the other, and also safely delivered the spirit from the other side to this side. He only sent those he was willing to embark on their journey.

As for those who come uninvited and want to take advantage of his connections, that door certainly cannot be opened for them.

Richard made the caduceus disappear, and the rain outside the window had stopped.

Rainwater dripped from the eaves into the tin bucket below, the sounds coming from far apart.

He only started to feel tired now, so he sat on the edge of the bed, took off his coat, and hung it up.

As I lay down, the level 4 [Breathing Healing] skill began to work its own way, gradually smoothing out the fatigue that had accumulated over the past few days.

Half-asleep, he remembered the progress bar for [Breathing lv4] on the panel, which had already exceeded 90%.

I'm almost at level 5, and the [Spring] skill is just around the corner.

Thinking of this, the tin bucket outside the window started dripping water again, and with a thud, it was cleaned up completely.

He fell asleep to the sound of white noise.