Five ritual magics
Lumian wasn't in a hurry to hold the Ritual right now. First, he had been busy all day and wasn't in the best condition, so he needed to rest or wait until 6 a. m. to reset his condition. Second, the Ritual involved two Hidden Being and Corruption that could cause a village to Loop. If something went wrong during the process, not only would the "Golden Rooster Inn" be lost, but the entire Messy Street might not be able to be saved, and who knows how many people would die.
Therefore, Lumian planned to go Underground after dawn and find a Depths Quarry Cavern as the site for the Ritual.
As for materials, he brought all of them that he had used in the Cordou Village.
The Messy Street were never quiet at night, but Lumian slept soundly, almost without dreaming, and woke up to the sound of Church bells ringing in the morning.
He got up slowly, washed up, and went to Café on White Coat Street for breakfast, which included plum pie, Savarin muffins, and Café au lait with lots of Milk.
Delicious food always brings joy, and with the Golden Rooster Inn no longer under the control of the Stinger Gang, Lumian's condition gradually returned to its peak.
So he returned to room 207 and the library, intending to take the necessary materials and the Carbide Lamp to the underground Trier.
Lumian had just finished preparing Future the house when she heard a soft knock on the door.
He opened the door with a hint of doubt and found Anthony Reid standing outside, dressed in military green clothes and unstrapped leather boots.
The forty-something Information Broker touched his short, blond hair and said to Lumian, "I've made some progress."
Parish Priest, or Madame Pualis and her Subordinate? Lumian stepped aside to let Anthony Reid into the room.
Anthony glanced around, and Lumian's image was reflected in his Deep Brown Eyes.
Almost simultaneously, Lumian felt that familiar, slight unease.
He controlled his racing thoughts and asked, "What did you find?"
Anthony Reid nodded slightly and said, "Someone saw someone resembling Louis Lund on Market Avenue, who is the Butler of Madame Pualis you mentioned."
Right on Market Avenue? Lumian suddenly became excited.
I was so close to Louis Lund and Madame Pualis?
"Are you sure?" he asked quickly.
Anthony Reid shook his head:
"I'm not sure. I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you. I'll ask you for the remaining payment once I'm sure it really is Louis Lund."
"My money can't wait to leave me." Lumian made no attempt to hide his eagerness.
After seeing Anthony Reid off, his belief in obtaining the "Mendicant Friar" Gift became even stronger.
The Carbide Lamp, tinged with a bluish light, pushed aside the surrounding darkness, revealing the street nestled between the Stone Pillars to Lumian.
A slightly chilly wind blew in from somewhere, and the stone wall above showed faint signs of dampness.
Lumian traversed these Tunnel that corresponded to the streets and alleys on the ground, and found the entrance to a Depths.
Relying on his Hunter's memory of the environment, he continued to descend until he finally reached a Quarry Cavern that was the size of two or three "Golden Rooster Inn".
Some white Mushrooms are growing sparsely in the cracks of the rocks.
According to Charlie, many people in the Messy Street and surrounding area find similar Cavern Underground to grow Mushrooms to supplement their household income and increase their Ingredient. Many years ago, "Trier Mushrooms" became synonymous with this type of plant, but the Mushrooms here look like they were grown naturally.
Lumian circled the Cavern twice, carefully examining it.
After confirming that there were no problems, he found a rock about half a meter high and placed the Musk Candle, which was infused with his own blood, on it, while placing another candle closer to him.
After tidying up the environment, Lumian lit the two Gray-White Candle by rubbing their spiritual energy, following the order of top to bottom and gods to humans.
Immediately afterwards, he drew Ritual Silver Dagger, quickly sanctified it, and created a "Spirit Wall."
Unlike the last time when she prayed for the power of the "Dancer," Lumian was still full of spirituality after completing these things, and easily entered a more ethereal state where she could perform Ritual without the help of incense.
He slowly exhaled, picked up the Gray Ambergris Perfume from the "Altar," and dripped it into the Candle representing the Deity.
The soft, sweet fragrance wafted into his nostrils, bringing him a sense of calm.
Following the Gray Ambergris Perfume came Tulip powder. As the strange fragrance filled the "Spirit Wall," Lumian took two steps back, gazing at the Burning candlelight, and cried out in a low voice and Ancient Hermetic, "The Power of Fate!"
A howling Wind Sound arose, causing the Orange-Yellow candle flame, representing the Deity, to flicker and dwindle until it was just a tiny spark, seemingly about to go out at any moment.
In the dimming light, Lumian's left chest felt burning hot, and he felt a bit dizzy.
He heard that familiar, mysterious voice once again, seemingly coming from both infinite distance and close at hand, but it wasn't clear enough yet, and it hadn't yet overwhelmed him with Pain.
Lumian continued reciting the remaining Incantation in Ancient Hermetic:
You are the Past, the present, and the Future;
"You are the cause, the result, and the process."
Inside the "Spirit Wall," the invisible wind was completely stained black, and a faint Gray Fog permeated the surroundings.
The stones and bottles seemed to have transformed into flexible objects, Distortion one after another.
Without a sound, the candle flame representing the Deity expanded to the size of a fist, silvery-white with black streaks.
On Lumian's skin, above those stones, one particle after another emerged, wriggling and extending, as if ready to burst forth at any moment.
His ears were completely filled with that terrifying sound, and he could no longer hear anything else. His head was spinning so badly that he felt like he was going to vomit.
His thoughts wandered and became chaotic at times, but he managed to finish reciting the rest of the Incantation.
As soon as Lumian finished speaking, the silvery-black candlelight instantly condensed into a beam of light, which landed on his left chest.
A large amount of silvery-black illusory liquid flowed out rapidly from there, enveloping Lumian's body as if it had its own life and will.
Lumian was already prepared, and in his uncontrollable agitation, he awaited the needle-like pain that pierced his entire body, the clear babbling as if sawing off his own head, and the burning sensation that erupted from within his body.
He collapsed, curled up, and entered a state of agonizing endurance, as if he knew exactly how.
All he could do was struggle to maintain the "little boat" that represented his own rationality amidst the "waves" whipped up by the raging storm.
During this process, he tried several times to let go of himself, to let the evil thoughts in his heart take over, to become one with the Pain, and to stop suffering such torment. But the delicate and sweet fragrance always lingered around his nose, causing his violence and irritability to rise and fall again and again.
In the end, Lumian even felt as if his body and mind had ceased to exist, leaving only a trace of Rationality spirituality adrift.
The pain began to subside, and his delirium gradually subsided; he knew he had survived.
Lumian on the cold ground, unwilling to move for a long time.
After a few dozen seconds, he managed to regain some of his strength, quickly ended the Ritual, and cleaned the Altar to prevent any accidents from happening.
After dealing with these matters, Lumian plopped down on the stone that had served as Altar and began to carefully examine the Change within himself.
Soon, he muttered to himself, "My tolerance for extreme environments has increased a little..."
"Hehe, the advantage is that you don't have to buy winter and summer clothes?"
Besides this, Lumian also discovered that he had another kind of intuition.
That's an intuition about Fortune!
He can now roughly sense what kind of Fortune others are experiencing recently, such as good luck, bad luck, Calamity of Blood, or romantic luck, but he can't see the specifics.
In other words, Lumian can detect when someone is in a state of Bad Luck, but he cannot know how bad luck will be or how long it will last.
"As expected of Monks who worships the power of Fate..." Lumian couldn't help but sigh, feeling that he could completely replace Aosta Roul in Divination for others.
Although he knew absolutely nothing about Divination, given that he could see a rough outline of someone's Fortune, wasn't he free to make up whatever he wanted to say?
In addition, Lumian gained a lot of knowledge about rituals and five Ritual Magic.
The former made up for many of his shortcomings in the field of Mysticism, while the latter enhanced his Mysticism methods.
The five Ritual Magic are "Animal Transformation," "Prophecy," "Fortune Transfer," "Substitution," and "Ghost Exorcism."
"The Animal Transformation" is Ritual Magic that uses animal hides such as Sheepskin and Cowhide to transform a target within Altar into a corresponding animal. This can also be used on oneself. As long as one knows the pre-set Incantation, or waits until the Ritual effect ends, one can return to a human body. When transformed into an animal, one is basically unable to speak and cannot use most of the Extraordinary Ability.
The "Prophecy" was completely different from what Lumian had imagined. The whole process involved collecting materials such as snake venom sacs and stones from eagle nests, using Ritual Magic to create a strange potion, then finding a corpse that had been dead for less than seven days, not yet cremated or Corpse, and pouring the potion into its mouth. Thirty seconds later, the Corpse would briefly Resurrection and answer the caster's three questions about the Future.
"The Fortune Transfer's luck" involves using Ritual Magic to create an item associated with one's own Bad Luck, then sending that item out to someone else. By having that person open, consume, step on, or wear the item, the Bad Luck is transferred to them, thus changing one's luck.
The "Substitution" is more complex. Lumian suspects that it is a reflection of the "Fate Hunter" ability in the Low-Sequence. Just like how he had to find a Vagrant to live under the name of Charles for a period of time in order to escape the threat of Suzanne Matisse, during which time the vagrant had to live in Room 207, use all of Lumian's money, and gain the approval of acquaintances such as Charlie to establish sufficient Mysticism connections before the Ritual was performed to complete the Replacement.
After the Ritual, Suzanne Matisse took her revenge on the Vagrant, not Lumian.
Of course, Lumian wasn't sure if he could fool Suzanne Matisse, who was close to Half-God, by using "Substitution" at the Sequence 8 level. He even suspected that the Ritual Magic would fail outright.