"Dancer"

Lumian didn't rush to find Ryan, Lya, and Valentine, the Three Foreigners. Instead, he went straight to the Old Tavern to try his luck.

If That One mysterious Lady appears, he has many questions he wants to ask!

Since we've already accepted this free gift and will inevitably pay a price in the future, we might as well take advantage of it, as Aurora suggested.

As soon as Lumian entered the Old Tavern, his eyes lit up.

That One mysterious Lady was sitting in her usual spot in the corner, with two glasses of Jade- colored Absinthe in front of her.

Two cups? Did she know I would come? Lumian Past and greeted her with a smile:

"Good morning."

The Lady was wearing a white blouse with a floral pattern on the collar, paired with a beige ankle-length loose Long Dress, and a light red women's beret was placed beside her.

Lumian, having been influenced by her Older Sister's various magazines, knew that this was the latest trend in Trier.

That One Lady looked up at him:

"It's getting late, almost noon."

"Isn't this to accommodate your schedule?" Lumian thought to himself.

Meeting this mysterious Lady instantly calmed his mind.

He sat down and said very directly, "I've run into a lot of trouble lately."

That One Lady pushed a glass of Absinthe toward Lumian; the swirling green liquid seemed like the goddess of joy in everyone's heart.

She neither said it was okay to talk about it, nor did she say it wasn't okay to talk about it.

Lumian picked up the glass of Absinthe, took a small sip, and found it to be rich in aroma, refreshing with a hint of bitterness, quite different from the Absinthe he had drunk before.

"What is this?" he asked, puzzled.

"Another type of Absinthe, which has recently become popular in Trier, is more often called Absinthe Anise to distinguish it from the previous kind. It is especially favored by writers, Painter, and Poet." That One Lady also took a small sip.

Inside the clear glass, the green liquid seemed to have a slightly psychedelic quality.

The three main ingredients of Absinthe are wormwood, anise, and fennel. Different distilleries produce Absinthe with slightly different recipes, and some may even add lemon essential oil and other ingredients.

She went to Trier for the few days she was absent, just to bring back some Absinthe Anise? Lumian couldn't understand the Lady's behavior.

Without asking any questions, he began to recount his experiences during this period, including both reality and Dream.

That One Lady sipped her small glass of Absinthe Anise, listening quietly to Lumian's story.

"That's about it. Is there any way for me to master that mysterious dance in the shortest amount of time?" Lumian got straight to the point.

As for the key to breaking the Loop and the secret of the Dream, he believed that asking would not yield any answers, based on his previous experience.

The Lady gently swirled the Jade- colored liquid in her glass, smiled, and said, "You'll never learn it without achieving an extraordinary improvement in flexibility."

"Of course, you can force yourself to complete a section, but you'll definitely suffer injuries like torn ligaments and muscle tears. How are you Hunting Monster then?"

Lumian is very sensitive to the hidden meanings in other people's words:

Is there any way to significantly improve my flexibility?

The Lady chuckled softly:

That's a question you should ask yourself.

"..." Lumian was once again defeated by this vague and ambiguous prompt.

If the person on the other end is someone he knows well and who isn't so mysterious, he'll definitely say a few words:

Explain yourself clearly!

"Don't make me kneel down and beg you!"

Seemingly hearing his inner voice, the Lady smiled and added, "The way to achieve extraordinary improvements in your flexibility lies within yourself."

"Huh?" Lumian looked confused.

The Lady took a sip of Absinthe Anise and sighed, "Didn't your Older Sister teach you Ritual Magic?"

Lumian noticed that strange emotion had reappeared in her eyes.

"I've been taught." A thought struck Lumian. "To pray to myself?"

The Lady looked him up and down, then laughed and said, "Who do you think you are? What good would it do to ask you for something?"

"You can only summon the weakest Spirit World Creature; all your spiritual enhancements are focused on the physical body."

For example, Danger Sense? Lumian roughly understood what That One mysterious Lady meant:

The Hunter's spirituality has indeed been enhanced, but mainly in terms of inspiration, and cannot meet the needs of Mysticism matters such as Ritual Magic.

"Then what should we do?" Lumian pressed.

The Lady sighed:

"Have you studied Dual Ritual Method?"

"I've learned it." Lumian nodded.

The Lady exclaimed "Oh!"

"It's a good thing you have an Older Sister, otherwise I would have to explain all this Mysticism knowledge to you, which would be too tiring, too tiring."

So you didn't talk about Ritual Magic, Meditation, Spirit Vision, Contract Creature, or supernatural languages because you found it too troublesome? You appeared as soon as Aurora finished speaking? Lumian felt a rush of blood to his head, a sensation that choked him.

He took two deep breaths and said, "The Dual Ritual Method requires Deity or an item closely related to Hidden Being, but I don't have one..."

As he spoke, Lumian fell silent.

The Lady smiled and said, "You do."

"So, do you remember now?"

Lumian pointed to his chest:

"The Thorn Symbol and that bluish-black symbol?"

The Lady nodded first, then reminded her, "Don't worry about the bluish-black symbol. The essence of obtaining a response using the Dual Ritual Method is to extract the Divinity power contained within the target item. If its power diminishes, the balance your body has painstakingly achieved will tilt towards the negative side, and then..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but her expression made Lumian easily understand the subtext.

To put it in Aurora's usual terms:

"There's no hope, just wait to die!"

"Was it the bluish-black symbol that protected me and prevented me from being completely Corruption?" Lumian already had some knowledge of Mysticism and understood that the current situation was called Corruption.

"It was That One Great Ones protected you," That One Lady corrected solemnly. "Once you unravel the secrets of the Dream Ruins, I will tell you His Honorific Name, and you can pray directly to Him."

Was it That One Great Ones descended with power, sealing the Corruption represented by the Thorn Symbol in my heart, preventing it from completely Corruption me? Lumian didn't know whether That One Great Ones was good or bad, or whether it had any evil intentions, but at least in this matter, it made him feel close.

He thought for a moment and guessed, " To Steal the power represented by the Thorn Symbol using Dual Ritual Method?"

"With that force diminishing, the Corruption will lessen, and the seal will become more secure?"

"How can it be called Steal?" That One Lady retorted. "This was a request for Gift from someone, who happened to have some power nearby and responded based on proximity. The weakening of the seal of the Great Ones and a certain Barrier prevented the main body of that being from noticing it."

"It's people like you who only say half of what they mean... What's the difference between this and Steal?" Lumian muttered to himself.

Considering That One Lady's account of Deity Gift and unconventional Pathway, he thoughtfully asked, "Through Dual Ritual Method, can I pray to the power corresponding to the Thorn Symbol, asking it to Gift me a significant enhancement of my flexibility?"

"That's about right." That One Lady nodded. "To be precise, ask it to grant you the power of a ' Dancer '."

"' Dancer '?" Lumian thought of the "Noodle Man's" performance.

That One Lady took a sip of Absinthe and said, "For the extraordinary paths beyond the twenty-two Pathway (https://www. hetushu. com. com), we still classify them into Sequence 9 to Sequence 0 for ease of understanding, correspondence, and reference."

"Hmm... In a sense, the division of Sequence conforms to the underlying rules of this world."

"' Dancer ' corresponds to Sequence 9 of the Thorn Symbol, just like ' Person of the Loop ' corresponds to Sequence 4?" Lumian asked several questions in a row. "It can improve my flexibility, enhance my spirituality, and allow me to easily master that mysterious dance?"

That One Lady smiled with satisfaction, "Indeed, having a foundation in Mysticism makes communication much easier; I don't need to explain anything further."

Lumian asked with some excitement, "What are the corresponding Sequence 8, Sequence 7, Sequence 6, and Sequence 5 called?"

"Sequence 8 is ' Mendicant Friar,' and Sequence 7 is ' Contracted One.' Oh dear, why do you know so much? First, master the Ritual and try to become a ' Dancer ' as soon as possible." The Lady was not very patient.

"Mendicant Friar"... "Those Contracted One"... Upon hearing these two names, Lumian immediately had many associations.

"Mendicant Friar" is a real profession, mainly referring to certain members of various Church.

The "Eternal Blazing Sun" Church, for example, was internally divided into several groups due to differences in certain beliefs. Among them, the two most important were the "Preaching Brotherhood" and the "Little Brotherhood," also known as the "Mendicant Friar Association."

The former, primarily composed of many Clergy from the Church and "Purifier" from the Inquisition, emphasized the brutal crackdown and purging of heretics, cultists, and Wild Beyonder in order to promote the orthodox doctrine of the "Eternal Blazing Sun."

The latter group mainly consisted of members from Monastery, with some also joining from Church. They advocated Temperance desires, asceticism, and missionary work in impoverished areas, aiming to spread the faith of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" to more people.

Therefore, when Lumian heard the word "Mendicant Friar," he felt it was related to missionary work, asceticism, and special Ritual Magic.

As for the "Contracted One," the first thing that came to his mind was the Parish Priest and the Black Mark on the Mouthpart Monster.

Aurora said it might be a trace left by a special Contract.

"The Monster I killed was originally a ' Contracted One '?" Lumian asked in astonishment.

I actually killed a Monster that was equivalent to Sequence 7?

That One Lady nodded slightly:

"Yes, the ' Contracted One ' is someone who, through a special Contract and Divinity testimony provided by That One being, obtains different powers from different beings; one Contract corresponds to one ability."

"How powerful they are depends on what abilities they acquire and how many abilities they have. It's not impossible for someone who goes astray to be killed by Ordinary Person."

"In fact, similar situations exist in the realm of the extraordinary, where it is common for Beyonder are not good at combat to be killed by those of Low-Sequence."

"Ability is important, intelligence is important, and advance preparation is equally important."