Chapter 48: Knowledge Pursuer
Lumian deeply understood Aurore’s words.
As a vagrant, he knew better than to underestimate anyone. Some adult vagrants suffered massive losses because they looked down on him and assumed him to be weak. As for some almsgivers, they provided food out of kindness but forgot to consider the starving bodies of the vagrants, causing them to make the wrong decisions.
After a moment of serious thought, Lumian said, “It seems like the description of a creature that can be summoned with relative precision is very valuable.”
Aurore nodded solemnly. “That’s right. A notebook that records the corresponding summoning incantations is very precious. Every incantation and commentary on it is exchanged with life, blood, or pain. For example, when I summoned White Paper, the three lines described it as ‘the spirit that wanders about the unfounded, the friendly creature that can be subordinated, the weak ball that can telepathically connect with me’. You have to make countless attempts and experience countless failures before you can piece one together. And every failure implies a huge risk.”
Is this a description that a normal person can come up with? In particular, the words ‘weak’ and ‘ball’… ?As Lumian criticized inwardly, he asked, “So, you bought this from someone else?”
“No.” Aurore shook her head and said with a bitter expression, “The Mystery Pryer pathway is different from other pathways. From time to time, it will be chased by a large amount of knowledge. It’s impossible to ignore, and there’s no way to reject it even if one can’t handle it. And when one consumes a potion to advance, the situation of being chased by knowledge becomes even more serious.
“Although most of this knowledge is useless, there will always be some that are valuable. The incantation to summon White Paper was one of them.”
Lumian understood. “Indoctrination from the Hidden Sage?”
Aurore looked at him in surprise. “You know that? Did that lady teach you?”
“Yeah.” Lumian nodded.
Aurore pursed her lips, lost in thought.
“From my personal experience, Knowledge Pursuit isn’t limited to the Hidden Sage’s indoctrination. My so-called ‘ear ringing’ does indeed hear His voice, where I gain knowledge, but it always puts me in pain. My head is close to exploding, and I wish I could lose control.
“But occasionally, especially when I’m not in the best state and am about to lose control, I have an illusion that all the knowledge in the world has come to life. A small number of them will chase after me and rush towards me, but I can’t dodge them. This is how the summoning incantation for White Paper barged into my brain.
“When consuming the potion, 99% of the Knowledge Pursuit comes from the Hidden Sage. 1% is related to revived knowledge.”
“It’s very magical and terrifying. It can scare everyone in the village.” As Lumian sighed with emotion, he was thinking for his sister about whether there was a way to resolve the problem of Knowledge Pursuit or reduce its impact.
Aurore replied with a bitter smile, “It’s precisely because I often suffer such torture that I don’t want you to follow the path of Beyonders. But in our current situation, it’s better to become a Beyonder than an ordinary person.”
To make her brother remember the madness and danger of the path to transcendence, she pointed at her head.
“After being pursued by knowledge and experiencing pain for a long time, I feel that my mind and personality have undergone a certain mutation.
“Don’t I always tell you that I have a phobia for social interaction, but I am very talkative sometimes? I like to go out and chat with the old ladies in the village and tell stories to the children. Occasionally, I will go crazy and borrow Madame Pualis’s pony to ride free into the mountains and shout?
“Being especially talkative is a kind of rebound from prolonged isolation and being unable to return to my true home. The path to transcendence is also a form of oppression.
“And the occasional madness…”
At this point, Aurore chuckled and looked at Lumian.
“You don’t think that’s just an exaggerated adjective, do you?”
Lumian fell silent, feeling his sister’s smile was self-deprecating, lost, and filled with indescribable pain and struggle.
Aurore sighed.
“During those times, I wouldn’t even recognize myself.”
Lumian felt deeply helpless. “There should be a solution.”
“Hopefully, let’s continue,” Aurore said, pointing at the altar. “After we sign a contract with the summoned spirit world creature, it’ll be easy to summon it again. We can change the last description to ‘contracted creature that belongs to Aurore Lee.’ That will be very accurate, right? Besides, before the contract is terminated, no one can summon it again.”
Lumian was concerned. “Everyone can only have one contracted creature?”
“Not really. I’m not sure how high the upper limit is, but it’s definitely more than one, especially with some special Sequences. When summoning, say the first contract creature or second contract creature of the person to differentiate.” Aurore spoke the truth. “In addition, summoning creatures from the spirit world will consume your spirituality. The more you summon, the greater the consumption. With a Hunter’s spirituality, I estimate that it can only withstand one contract creature at most.”
Knowing her brother’s personality, she curbed any loopholes that Lumian might find.
“Every spirit world creature can only stay for a limited period of time after being summoned to reality. The weaker they are, the longer they can stay. You don’t have to think about summoning one first. You can summon the next one after your spirituality recovers, unless you choose a very weak one. And only when your spirituality is significantly stronger than it is now.”
She used White Paper as an example.
“If I didn’t let White Paper be a vessel for my powers, it could stay in reality for twelve hours. If I share the specialness of my eyes with it and let it do things for me, it can last at most three hours, and my spirituality would be constantly depleted.”
Lumian was disappointed. He had wanted to form an army of spirit world creatures.
He thought for a moment and asked, “Can I only summon creatures from the spirit world? Can I only summon spirits?”
“No,” Aurore shook her head. “We can also summon creatures affiliated with the spirit world, the real world, and the astral world, as well as creatures from alternate worlds or other planets. Regardless of whether they are spirits or not, this is very dangerous. Most of the Beyonders who have attempted this have died tragically, and a small number have mysteriously disappeared. Only the corresponding notebooks were left behind to prove what they had done.”
Lumian asked curiously, “Can I summon something from the real world?”
Aurore pondered for a moment before responding, “In theory, as long as the other party has a close relationship with the spirit world or has reached a certain level, they should be able to hear the summoning and decide if they want to respond. However, such a target is either very special or very powerful. If you want to live well, don’t try it.”
“Furthermore, when the summoning target isn’t a spirit, the requirements for the corresponding ritual will be even higher. It will require more spirituality, and it might even require a large number of sacrifices. Only then can we open the Door of Summoning that can be used by non-spiritual creatures.
“You can barely summon White Paper with a Hunter’s spirituality. If you want to try something more powerful, you can only pray to a deity or a hidden existence. For this, you might have to prepare something filled with spirituality as a sacrifice.”
Lumian roughly understood the ritualistic magic of summoning.
“So next, you are going to recite an incantation and complete the summoning?”
“How is that possible?” Aurore scoffed. “The ritual has been interrupted so many times. How can we continue? In fact, normally, as long as we follow the process, we can resume from any breaks. However, I was mainly explaining, and didn’t divert my attention to do the corresponding things.”
You probably forgot… ?Lumian muttered inwardly but didn’t dare say it out loud.
Aurore then said, “However, I do want to hold a summoning ritual. On the one hand, I want to give you a complete demonstration of the entire process. On the other hand, I want to seek help.”
“Seek help?” Lumian asked in puzzlement.
Summoning powerful spirit world creatures to help?
Aurore explained, “Among the countless spirit world creatures, only a very small number of them can act as messengers. Private messengers—uh, messengers can be summoned by others based on special contracts.
“For example, if I have a contracted messenger, someone in Trier can summon it and give it a written letter. It will immediately pass through the spirit world and deliver the letter to me.
“Due to the special connection between the spirit world and the contract, it only takes a second or two to complete the letter delivery.”
Lumian sighed from the bottom of his heart. “Very impressive. It’s as fast as sending a telegram.”
But the thought that crossed his mind was:? I want one too!
“Don’t even think about it,” Aurore read his mind. “It’s very difficult to summon a messenger. Unless you obtain an exact incantation, it’s unlikely that you can succeed trying yourself. And only a few special Sequences can grasp an exact incantation. Even I don’t have one.”
...
Lumian was disappointed and asked,
“Are you going to summon a messenger and write a letter to them for help?”
“Yes,” Aurore nodded. “She’s one of the few among us who have gone the furthest on the path to transcendence. She has her own messenger. I don’t expect her to save me, but she should be able to give me some advice.”
I’m afraid it’s very difficult. That mysterious lady said that we can only rely on ourselves… ?Lumian asked curiously,
“Us? You mean your pen pals?”
Aurore nodded and asked in confusion, “When did I ever mention pen pals to you?”
“Last cycle, no, last last cycle,” Lumian answered honestly.
“Alright,” Aurore facepalmed. “Actually, it’s a mutual support organization slowly established by those of us who can’t return home. We rely on letters to communicate daily, share knowledge, and solve problems. There will be small-scale gatherings or communication through messengers. She’s the vice president of our organization and one of the initiators. Her code name is ‘Hela’.”
“Code name?” Lumian was a little puzzled.
Aurore tersely acknowledged, “In the organization, everyone uses code names without exposing their real names. When they write letters, they emphasize that it’s a pseudonym to avoid being discovered by the officials.”
“What’s your code name?” Lumian was very curious.
...
Aurore was silent for a moment before she replied with a sigh, “Muggle.”
“What does it mean?” Lumian was puzzled.
Aurore’s eyes darkened as she replied, “Ordinary person without superpowers.”
Lumian knew that his sister wanted to become an ordinary person living back home more, so he quickly changed the topic.
“What’s the name of your organization?”
Aurore’s expression became complicated.
“Originally, everyone wanted to give it a classy name, but considering that we would write letters every day, a name that was too conspicuous would attract the attention of certain forces. Therefore, in the end, we decided on a name that sounds like a group of animal lovers.”
“What is it?” Lumian pressed.
Aurore replied in embarrassment, “The Curly-Haired Baboons Research Society.”