"Grandfather’s notes... Grandfather, who didn’t want us to get involved with the mysticism world, left something like this?"
Inside the Boyle family mansion, in the tea room on the first floor, Nephthys couldn’t help but murmur in surprise after hearing Nust’s words. Nust continued to explain.
"Back in the day, the old master got caught up in the whirlpool of mysticism struggles. Although he managed to escape death countless times, all his relatives and close friends died because of it. After his last brother perished in the Hafdar Tomb, he developed a deep aversion to the mysticism world. After marrying your grandmother, he retired to Pritt and completely cut ties with anything related to the mysticism. He didn’t want his descendants to walk the same path he did. He forbade you and your father from getting involved because he knew that most of the troubles in the mysticism world were self-inflicted.”
"However, the old master also knew that a curse had latched onto his family. There might come a day when his descendants would have no choice but to face mystical threats. So, he left behind some measures for emergencies. That notebook is one of them. It contains the old master’s recorded experiences in exploring the Silence path, methods for accumulating spirituality, choices for advancement beyond the Spiritualist rank, and even the rituals for advancement. If you, miss, intend to continue on the Silence path... this notebook will be very useful to you."
Nust spoke earnestly to Nephthys. Hearing his words, Nephthys couldn’t help but feel a surge of interest and asked further.
"Then... might Grandfather have written about Hafdar in that notebook? I want to understand why our family is cursed. Could there be a way to lift the curse in that notebook?"
Nephthys asked with hope in her voice. Hearing her question, Nust frowned slightly and then spoke with great seriousness.
"I don’t know if the old master’s notebook contains any information about Hafdar, but listen to me, miss. Even if it does, don’t entertain any thoughts about that ancient undead. Even at the peak of his youth, with the most reliable companions, the old master could only barely escape with his life after facing Hafdar. How strong is that ancient undead? What level has it reached? It’s completely unfathomable... Back then, the old master could only barely survive its wrath. Even if you find information about Hafdar in the notebook, don’t even think about acting on it. That ancient undead is from thousands of years ago. It’s not something ordinary mortals like us can contend with!"
Nust warned Nephthys sternly, fearing that she might entertain ideas of going to North Ufiga to seek the source of the curse. Nephthys, hearing his words, could only nod and say.
"Ah... I understand, Grandpa Nust... I was just asking...""Just asking is fine, but don’t even think about anything else related to Hafdar."
After giving Nephthys a serious warning, Nust glanced at the dark sky outside and continued.
"Once your father wakes up, I’ll go to the old estate and bring the old master’s notebook for you. From now on, you can refer to the old master’s experiences to study mysticism... It’s getting late now, miss. You should go rest. I’ll take you back to school tomorrow morning."
"Mm... Thank you, Nust."
After that, Nephthys and Nust parted ways. She returned to her room in the mansion and took out her history book, beginning to write a response to Dorothy.
…
Tivian North Suburbs, Green Shade Town, No. 17.
Dorothy sat at her desk in her study, looking at the response Nephthys had written to her in the Literary Sea Logbook. The response roughly outlined what had happened on Nephthys’ side and her current situation. In truth, Dorothy had already pieced together most of the details through her own senses.
However, Nephthys’ response wasn’t entirely devoid of useful information. She mentioned the abilities she had gained after becoming a Spiritualist.
Now, as an Apprentice-rank Silence Beyonder, Spiritualist, Nephthys possessed abilities beyond those of ordinary people. She could sense and see spirits wandering in the mortal world, communicate with them, attract or repel them to some extent, and even use her spirituality to guide these spirits to follow her and perform certain tasks.
Additionally, as a Spiritualist, she had developed a resistance to harm from spirits, her willpower had strengthened, and she had gained some immunity to possession and curses. She could also better withstand cold.
“So these are the abilities of a Spiritualist... As an Apprentice, they’re not particularly impressive. They seem similar to the Scholar’s efficient information processing and enhanced memory. In terms of combat utility, they seem a step below the Craver and Shader. In the early stages, the Chalice and Shadow paths are indeed a bit overpowered.”
Dorothy thought to herself as she read Nephthys’ description of the Spiritualist’s abilities. It had to be said that for an Apprentice, the Craver’s vitality was somewhat exaggerated. Most other pathways only had minor abilities at this stage.
After finishing Nephthys’ response, Dorothy closed the Literary Sea Logbook and began to assess her gains from this mission. The biggest reward from helping the Boyle family resist the curse was the mystical knowledge recited by the ancient undead.
This mystical knowledge, titled ’The Elegy of the Fallen’, contributed 4 Silence and 3 Revelation spirituality. After accumulating all of it, Dorothy’s current spirituality were: 5 Chalice, 7 Stone, 6 Shadow, 1 Lantern, 11 Silence, and 12 Revelation.
Dorothy originally had 6 points of Chalice, but after using 1 point to give Nephthys a Devouring Sigil, she was left with only 5 points, which was still quite scarce.
“I’m feeling a bit tight on Chalice... But I still have one piece of Chalice spiritual storage left from the beef jerky Adèle gave me. With that, I shouldn’t be too short on Chalice for now. But to solve the Chalice shortage in the long term, I’ll probably have to rely on Adèle and the others.”
Dorothy thought to herself as she assessed her spirituality. Although her Lantern spirituality was also important, she only had 1 point of it. Fortunately, she mainly used Lantern for divination, and the spirituality for divination rituals could be replaced with storage items. She still had 4 Lantern storage items left, so she wasn’t too worried.
“If only I had another way to accumulate spirituality... Maybe I should learn dancing from Adèle. Her method of becoming an idol to gather spirituality seems quite fast... And I’m quite good-looking too~”
Dorothy thought this but quickly dismissed the idea. Becoming an idol was too high-profile and didn’t suit her style at all.
Moreover, Dorothy was only thirteen years old. Although she was pretty and cute, and could easily become an idol, Gregor was about to arrive in Tivian. If he saw her neglecting her studies to sing and dance, he would definitely blow up.
After putting aside these random thoughts, Dorothy refocused on the matter at hand. She was still quite interested in the ancient undead that called itself Prince Hafdar.
“This Hafdar... seems to be a noble from the ancient civilization of North Ufiga. For some reason, it became undead in its tomb... Based on the rantings of its apparition before it disappeared, its power is gradually recovering. This is corroborated by the recent increase in the curse’s strength on the Boyle family.”
“Another thing worth noting is... the ancient civilization of North Ufiga, which has already perished, seems to be related to the Revelation and Silence paths…”
Dorothy thought to herself. She came to this conclusion based on the content of ’The Elegy of the Fallen’, which Hafdar had recited. The poem seemed to have been composed by undeads like Hafdar from the ancient civilization. The entire poem was a confession, a confession to a deity called the Heavenly Judge, confessing their own voluntary fall, how the Revelation beings had fallen into Silence undeads.
If the poem’s description was true, then it implied several important pieces of information. In ancient times, besides the Star Numerology Scriptorium, the ancient civilization of North Ufiga might also have had some connection to Revelation. The Heavenly Judge might have been a deity worshipped by the ancient civilization of North Ufiga, though it’s unclear if it still exists. The opposition between Revelation and Silence seems to be the opposition between the spirits of the living and the spirits of the dead. Moreover, although they are opposed, they seem to be able to transform into each other.
“North Ufiga... might also have clues related to Revelation…”
Dorothy thought to herself. However, she had no plans to travel that far for now. With her spirituality still lacking, she wasn’t in a hurry to explore the Revelation path. For the time being, compared to the vague clues in North Ufiga, she placed more hope in Adèle finding her teacher’s relics.
“But I might go to North Ufiga someday... Not just to look for clues about Revelation, but also because Nephthys seems very motivated to lift her family’s curse…”
Dorothy thought to herself. In Nephthys’ response, Dorothy could clearly see the change in Nephthys’ attitude toward the extraordinary. Between the lines, Nephthys clearly expressed a desire to delve deeper into the mysticism world.
After finishing her thoughts, Dorothy glanced at the moon outside the window, tidied up the things on her desk, and prepared to turn off the lights and go to bed.
"Phew... Time to sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll go to the library... There’s still work to do..."
…
Sunrise.
Even though it was noon, many students were still studying inside the vast library of Royal Crown University in the northern suburbs of Tivian.
"Ugh~~"
In a secluded corner of the library, Nephthys sat at a desk, yawning. After blinking her eyes, she lowered her head and began to read the dense text in front of her—a mystical text.
Across from Nephthys, Dorothy sat with stacks of books piled high in front of her. Among the books, several sheets of white paper were spread out. Dorothy was using a pencil, ruler, and other tools to carefully draw something on the paper. Hearing Nephthys’ yawn, she looked up and said.
"Senior Nephthys, you didn’t sleep well last night after all that commotion. You can go rest first. Studying the mystical text can wait a bit..."
Dorothy spoke to Nephthys, who shook her head to clear her mind and quickly responded.
"No, no need, Miss Dorothy. I’m just a bit tired, but it’s not to the point where I need to sleep right now. I can keep reading for a while."
Nephthys replied. As Dorothy had expected, after learning about her family’s curse, Nephthys’ motivation to study had skyrocketed. Now, she was fully committed to studying the mystical knowledge and the mysticism, no longer needing Dorothy to remind her.
Although she had promised Nust not to provoke Hafdar, Nephthys still couldn’t help but think about how to lift her family’s curse.
Nephthys understood that if she wanted to lift the family curse, she would one day have to face Hafdar, the ancient undead that even her grandfather had fled from. To face it, she would need to reach a considerable level on the Beyonder path. Thus, with the family curse as a driving force, Nephthys’ motivation to study mystical knowledge had greatly increased. What was once an elective course for her had now become a mandatory one, and Dorothy was quite pleased with this change.
And so, Nephthys continued to study the new mystical knowledge. Although Akasha cleared her cognitive poison, studying mystical knowledge was still mentally exhausting. After reading for a long while, she took a break to drink some tea. At that moment, her attention turned to Dorothy, who was busy drawing among the stacks of books.
"Miss Dorothy... What are you drawing?"
"Hmm? Oh, just trying to sketch some design plans," Dorothy replied. Hearing this, Nephthys was taken aback.
"Design plans?"
With clear confusion in her voice, Nephthys picked up one of the sheets of paper on the table. After looking at it, she saw that it was filled with geometric lines and numbers. These lines outlined something she had never seen before. Nephthys guessed... it might be some kind of mechanical part.
"A part?"
Nephthys murmured curiously, then turned her attention to the books in front of Dorothy. She found that they were all about mechanics, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and other science and engineering subjects—completely different from the mystical texts she was reading.
"Miss Dorothy... Are you designing some kind of machine?"
"Hmm... You could say that. Just a little idea I had. I’ve had some free time recently, so I thought I’d try it out."
Dorothy said this, then looked down at the drawings in front of her. Most of the drawings were of individual parts, with some showing assembled components. Upon closer inspection, one could see that Dorothy had named each part or assembly.
Cylinder... Piston rod... Crankshaft flywheel... Fuel injector... Igniter... Valve train... and so on...
Many of these were names Dorothy had heard in her previous life. These components were part of Dorothy’s design. Once the design was complete and all these parts were assembled, they would form a crucial invention—the internal combustion engine.
Yes, after spending many days in the university library and learning enough foundational knowledge, Dorothy had finally begun her journey of invention. To support the massive financial demands of her Beyonder path, she planned to create a major invention to earn money. That invention was the internal combustion engine.
At first, Dorothy had wanted to build cars and airplanes. But she suddenly realized that to create those, she would first need to invent the internal combustion engine, the foundational technology for both. So, she decided to start by inventing the internal combustion engine to solve the power problem before moving on to other things.
The world Dorothy was in was currently in the midst of the First Industrial Revolution, which was the Steam Revolution, centered around the improvement and widespread use of steam engines. The Second Industrial Revolution would be the Electrical Revolution, with one of its most important aspects being the widespread use of internal combustion engines, leading to the invention of cars and airplanes.
Thus, the internal combustion engine was a crucial invention. Dorothy was fully confident that once she perfected it, this groundbreaking invention would ensure she never had to worry about money again!