Although Thirteenth Fragrance did not want to admit it from the bottom of his heart, the things Husky brought back provided a lot of information.
Moreover, they were important.
“These foods and drinks are all hot and almost all intact. Combined with the unusually small number of tableware, we can deduce that…when these people disappeared, whatever they had been in contact with also disappeared along with them.”
Thirteenth Fragrance breathed a sigh of relief, put down the pen, turned the book to the beginning, and narrated, “Except for the seats, there is only one thing that has not disappeared with their owners. That is the gold jewelry.”
Husky’s short-term memory was relatively reliable.
He remembered the gold rings he picked up were not from the cabinet or drawer but from the ground.
To be precise, they were found next to the seat.
If there were only one or two occurrences, it could be considered a coincidence, as if they happened to fall next to the chair.
However, three gold rings were found near the chairs in different rooms. One ring and a gold necklace were found on different beds in the rooms. Something was not quite right. After all, they were gold jewelry. Why would someone just throw them away casually?
As long as you pay attention to this detail, it was easy to deduce the truth. After these people disappeared, only these pieces of gold jewelry were left behind at the very spot the people vanished.
“The number of occupants in rooms 201-208 are: one person, four people, Justice, three people, three people, two people, four people, and one person, respectively.”
“If ‘Frederick’ is counted as the occupant of Room 203, then the number of residents on either side of rooms 204 and 205 is perfectly symmetrical.”
“The ‘spawn point’ was shaped like a two-layer cake. After cutting out a small circle in the middle, each person’s room becomes a fan-shaped ring. Room 204 and Room 205 happened to be the two rooms closest to the main door.
If the spawn point was cut symmetrically, then after counting Frederick, it was exactly symmetrical from left to right.
“If it’s some kind of Mysterious Ritual similar to the Garden of Order…then the arrangement in Room 206 should be related to Room 203.”
[TN: Reference to Fate Grand Order.]
Thirteenth Fragrance looked at the notes, reviewing them carefully.
He quickly confirmed one thing.
“Only Room 206 and Room 203 do not contain any gold utensils or jewelry at all.”
“Gold…” Annan murmured.
He opened his eyes, occupied in thoughts.
After a long time, he sighed.
“I see.”
At least Annan had fully understood the way Pope Trisino arranged this nightmare.
Delicious Wind Goose turned his eyes away from the forum in front of him and looked at Annan, who was immersed in deep thoughts while watching Thirteenth Fragrance and Husky remotely.
“Gold… Does it mean Mr. Ray’s realm?”
As a ritualist apprentice, Delicious Wind Goose asked Annan modestly.
Annan shook his head.
“The metal ‘gold’ indeed symbolizes the sun and indicates ‘dyeing’. Just like silver symbolizes the moon and ‘condensation’.
“But when gold exists as jewelry, it has another meaning.”
Annan explained.
“The Alteration Wizards of Swamp’s Black Tower believe that they do not alter one substance into another substance out of thin air. Instead, they transform the old subject into a purer subject through a ‘newer and stronger’ substance. It is also the reason why the power of the Alteration Spell will become increasingly stronger once it is activated…
“It isn’t a compounded effect like a snowball. Otherwise, the weaker the Alteration Wizard, the more powerful and difficult to control it should be. Instead, the closer the Alteration Magic is to the endpoint, the greater the resistance will be. This resistance is not based on spells, but on spirituality — that is, the resistance to finding the correct path is higher than that of the wrong path.
“Spirituality will tend to the direction of lower pressure, just like fluid will flow to the side of lower pressure. In the end, the Alteration Magic that enters the wrong path will ‘return to the original point’. That is where a [cycle] occurs.”
In other words, the Alteration Spell would continue to circulate and become more powerful, making it more inclined in the wrong direction.
In other words, that was the sudden “diving” that occurred on the Alteration object at a higher level of spirituality.
Having said that, Annan glanced at Thirteenth Fragrance.
When he was explaining the magic, Delicious Wind Goose was frantically recording it, relaying what Annan said as a bullet text to Thirteenth Fragrance for reference.
However, the explanation was not a big deal.
“The purification process has branches and can form a cycle. It naturally also has the ultimate endpoint, the end with the greatest pressure. It is the so-called ‘Sage’s Stone’: [Things that cannot be changed and cannot be altered.]”
In other words, “all perfect element essence” was a treasure that could transform some imperfect things into their perfect forms.
This was what Annan learned from Salvatore, the knowledge from the Swamp’s Black Tower.
It was once a top secret known only to the Sons of the Tower. After the inheritance of Swamp’s Black Tower was interrupted by the Spiritual Monk, Salvatore hoped that the knowledge would have a chance to spread, so that this knowledge would not be lost after his death one day.
According to Salvatore, the perfect Sage’s Stone could not be manufactured artificially,
unless everything was perfectly blended.
The Alteration process to get the real Sage’s Stone was complicated. The Alteration Magic involved had to convert animals into plants, then proceeded to the fossil, the atmosphere, the water, and finally reverting to animals again. The magic would lose its original essence, making it a mixture containing the whole world in an unclassifiable manner.
In this point of view, the Sage’s Stone of the Hermes School could never reach the “ultimate endpoint”.
The Sage’s Stone of the Hermes school was created using materials that symbolize all things in the world, resulting in something that “could not be classified.” The item would be considered a “prototype” or “model” of the Sage’s Stone.
“When the [Golden Jewelry] is placed in the [circle] representing the cycle, it no longer represents [Sun] or [Purification], but heralds the [Sage’s Stone].”
Annan said slowly, “The positions you are in are carefully arranged.
“Using [circle] to symbolize the cycle, [symmetry] to symbolize mirror image, and [gold jewelry] for the Sage’s Stone, it created this symmetrical, circular gap between dreams.
“A [key] is needed to trigger the ritual. It is also the last step in creating symmetry…”
“I understand now.”
Thirteenth Fragrance’s pupils shrank.
After he read the notes, he realized, “Since Room 203 is Justice’s room, he is usually alone. And the real Frederick would never regard this as his room… Historically speaking, this mechanism has not been triggered.”
“Only when we, as purifiers of nightmares, enter this nightmare from the future will trigger this mechanism. That’s because we replaced ‘Frederick’ and we don’t have Frederick’s memory.”
“That’s why the food is hot and fresh! Because they just disappeared… Or, perhaps we just entered the dream.”
Frederick’s dream and the nightmare they entered completely overlapped at the beginning!
The moment the player playing “Frederick” entered the dungeon instance, the mechanism was triggered and the dream of “Frederick” was switched to the “gap between dreams”.
In other words, this was a ritual arranged to detect “whether there are nightmare purifiers entering this nightmare”!
As long as this history became a nightmare and there were nightmare purifiers entering, they would be thrown directly into the designed dream within the dream. Consequently, the dungeon purifier would be unable to escape… unable to enter the real history.
Frederick himself probably never dreamed of being here!
Trisino had even predicted that this place might become a nightmare. There would be people purifying it and peeping on it in the future.
Thirteenth Fragrance felt a chill run down his spine.
Annan’s eyes lit up.
How can a ritual be done to this extent?
Even a piece of consciousness coming back from the future could be detected and sealed, keeping them away from real history.
“So, is there a fourth level?”
“Sure enough, there is a fourth level in this nightmare.”
Annan and Thirteenth Fragrance said almost in unison.
That would be Justice’s [death] and [Frederick] becoming Professor Wolf in the surface world.
That would be a true historical node.
The next moment, a new main mission appeared in front of Thirteenth Fragrance and Husky.
[Main Mission: Going back to the real history.]
[Break out of the third dream.]
[Break out of the second dream.]
[Break out of the first dream.]
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