Chapter 132: The Edge of Inspiration

After dinner, Father read the newspaper in the living room while Mother shooed Evelyn upstairs.

Richard finished helping his mother wash the last dish, returned to his bedroom, closed the door, and slid the latch.

He opened his drawer and took out the items he needed for the night, one by one.

The Copper Dish and the two dozen or so small stones engraved with symbols that Old Biggs had given him.

From the drawer's hidden compartments, he carefully extracted his collection of supernatural items.

He set the Sphinx Lamp aside first. He would need it later for his Signature, putting it in an entirely different category from the rest.

He placed the Gargoyle aside as well. Even though he had finished studying its spell formula, he wasn't keen on recycling it just yet.

That left five items, which he lined up along the right edge of his desk.

According to the theory Isabella had shared over the phone, the Copper Pendant, Silver Coin, Ancient Roman Copper Coin, Sophie Censer, and Solar Seal were now nothing but empty shells.

Richard already had a rough idea of what he wanted to do.

Mr. Hutton had given him the Silver Coin.

The old gentleman had been quite generous with the gift and probably wouldn't ask about it later.

Still, taking the very first gift from his guide and handing it off for recycling just didn't sit right with him.

He didn't want to part with the Ancient Roman Copper Coin either.

It was small enough to carry around; it was incredibly ancient, with a deep and robust structural foundation; and now that its ether had been drained, it would be much more compliant.

According to Isabella, this was exactly the sort of raw material practitioners of the Secret path dreamed of.

Because it was such a perfect vessel, it was worth holding onto.

He had no idea how far he would walk down this path or whether he would eventually need it to seal an artifact or act as a casting medium.

Keeping it in reserve couldn't hurt.

The Silver Coin and the Ancient Roman Copper Coin would stay.

As for the Copper Pendant, the Sophie Censer, and the Solar Seal, he felt no special attachment.

The Copper Pendant had been a death warrant for this body's original owner, making it feel rather cursed.

Sending it off for recycling would finally bring that chapter to a close.

The Sophie Censer was a heavily modified second-hand piece—a complete mess of a tool that wouldn't be much use anyway.

And the Solar Seal was relatively recent and crudely crafted. It wasn't worth the drawer space.

But before making a final decision, he needed to run a divination.

He had to be sure of one thing: would handing over these three supernatural items make Isabella suspicious?

He had bought the copper coin and the censer at Donner's shop on Flower Moon Street in late October. The Solar Seal was a November purchase.

He had paid for all of them out of his own pocket.

Yet he couldn't be certain whether Isabella would question why these supernatural items had been drained of ether so quickly.

Now that Perception had been illuminated on his panel, his divination skills had reached a new level, allowing him to properly read the omens.

Richard retrieved the runestones Old Biggs had given him and scooped them into a cloth bag.

Closing his eyes, he voiced his question: "What will my aunt's visit bring me as a whole?"

After his silent focus, he grabbed a handful of runestones from the bag and scattered them across the Copper Dish.

He opened his eyes. Six runestones lay scattered across the Copper Dish, some close to the center, others near the edge.

The Wheat Ear (harvest), the Double Circle (relationships), the Crescent Moon (growth), and the Hammer (action) had all landed near the center.

The Water Drop (unfinished business) and the Spiral (repetition) rested at the periphery.

He pieced the information together and interpreted the results.

"My aunt's visit will be a rewarding alignment, bringing both change and growth," he concluded.

"It requires active cooperation, and the event itself will involve some back-and-forth confirmation. Any negative aspects are basically negligible."

It was an incredibly straightforward, positive divination.

Handing over the three empty supernatural items to Isabella for recycling wouldn't pose any danger.

As for the back-and-forth confirmation...

He guessed that once Isabella arrived, she would physically inspect each item and ask a few questions he'd have to navigate.

But the runestones had made it clear: that questioning wouldn't lead to any negative fallout.

Richard decided he could comfortably hand over the Sophie Censer and the Solar Seal for recycling. As for the Copper Pendant, he would hold off and consult his grandfather first.

As for the two new items he had recently acquired from Clement, he would keep them for now.

If this round of recycling went smoothly, he could simply stockpile a few more and hand them over in the future.

Richard scraped the residual wax from the Copper Dish, placed the runestones back into their cloth bag, and wrapped the wax strip in oiled paper.

Sitting there, he realized that the various connections he had forged were all beginning to yield steady returns.

Connection One: Mr. Hutton.

The traditional academic route, which served as his primary path upward.

Connection Two: Clement.

His clearance-stock connection, securing a long-term supply of low-cost supernatural items.

Connection Three: His aunt, Isabella.

The channel for exchanging supernatural items through the academy system, which was about to open up.

Connection Four: Old Biggs and his lineage.

Training in Spirit Vision and divination from the Civilian Guild, along with potential lateral introductions in the future.

Connection Five: The Theogony Salon.

A higher-tier information exchange platform. Their next formal mid-December gathering was taking place tomorrow night.

Richard glanced at his system panel.

Learning Lv.2: 75% progress.

That number had been stuck there for several days.

The progress bar for Learning was different from his other skills. It advanced along two main vectors: acquiring new knowledge and integrating existing knowledge.

His daily coursework, Latin practice, and studies in mystical theory all slowly fed the progress bar.

But for the last quarter—between 75% and 100%—the climb had noticeably slowed.

Based on his current speed, assuming he maintained this level of study through the winter break...

...and factored in whatever new knowledge his winter internship might bring, the progress bar should hit 100% by early spring.

As for the requirement to find a "double-overwritten text" to unlock the next stage, he could ask both Mr. Hutton and Isabella.

Once he met that condition, as long as he had enough points on hand, he could push Learning from Lv.2 to Lv.3.

And reaching Lv.3 in Learning was the prerequisite for illuminating Speculation.

Speculation—the final piece of the intellectual triad.

Learning governed the input and storage of knowledge: learning quickly and retaining it perfectly.

Perception governed the gathering and filtering of information: seeing clearly and hearing accurately.

Speculation would govern the processing and application of knowledge: thinking deeply and judging flawlessly.

Only with all three would he achieve a fully closed cognitive loop.

Now that he possessed the first two, the absence of the third felt glaringly obvious.

Richard wanted Speculation more than any skill he'd awaited before.

With Speculation, he would be able to run mental models, refine spell formulas, and perhaps even invent his own once his level was high enough.

He didn't even need to look far; spells like Stone Armor and Shadow Armor both had massive room for improvement and expansion.

Richard ran through his mental timeline.

Learning Lv.2 reaching 100%: Expected around February of next year.

Point Requirements: Promoting Learning to Lv.3 required one point. Illuminating Speculation required another point. Total: two points.

Current Available Points: 0.13.

Deficit: Roughly 1.87 points.

He would have to close that gap by harvesting supernatural items.

Between his current acquisition channels—Clement's antique shop, plus whatever Isabella might bring him...

If he could secure another one or two high-quality supernatural items during his winter internship, he might just bridge that two-point gap.

He neatly packed away the Copper Dish, the runestones, and the gray wax strip, then poured himself a cup of cool tea and set it on the corner of his desk.

His notebook lay open on the desk, half-filled with notes from earlier that day. His pen still rested at the bottom of the "Supernatural Item Recycling" column.

He sat there for a moment before flipping to the list he'd drawn up that afternoon.

It was his "List of Potential Offerings," a document he had been compiling for the past three weeks.

He had graded every entry across three dimensions: scarcity, verifiability, and the risk of exposing his identity.

Anything with a risk level above medium had been crossed out.

That left a curated list, sorted by importance:

First item: A complete manual for the Stone Armor spell formula.

It was a versatile spell formula that practitioners of all three paths could use for basic defense, and it left no identifying marks on the user.

Tossed onto the round table at the salon, it would serve as an impressive, untraceable piece of hard currency.

Second item: The reverse-engineered theoretical model for Shadow Armor.

This was a deliberate hook.

The model laid out the logic behind reverse-engineering a spell formula.

It described the mechanical shift from "inward reinforcement" to "outward application" and included a few pages arguing the feasibility of using shadows as a medium.

But he had stripped out the core equations, replacing the critical ether flow parameters with empty placeholders.

Anyone reading it would grasp the underlying concept and see the immense potential for innovation, but if they wanted a working spell, they would have to figure the rest out themselves.

Third item: An operational guide on dismantling seals.

He had written this based on the practical experience he gained from reverse-engineering the Sphinx Lamp's seal.

He had sanitized the guide down to pure methodology, replacing any details that pointed toward a specific supernatural item with abstract descriptions.

Fourth item: Several pieces of intelligence regarding evil creature activity in the Northern Industrial Zone.

The reinforcement cycle for Briston's underground seal, the aftermath of the collective nightmare at the Manchester textile mill, a few public incidents recently assumed by the Briston Branch Office...

As he finished reviewing the list, Richard's gaze drifted toward the Copper Dish in the center of his desk.

His earlier use of Stone Reading to divine Isabella's visit had yielded an extraordinarily clear result. The tight positional correlation of the runestones had surprised even him.

With Perception illuminated, the feedback he received from divinations had leaped up an entire tier.

Richard rested his fingertips on the desk, pausing in thought.

What if he used Stone Reading to divine the outcome of tomorrow night's gathering...?

He barely finished half the thought before his entire body went rigid.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. The Seat of the Sun in his chest abruptly clenched, and the flow of his ether micro-circulation ground to a sluggish crawl.

His Inspiration was screaming a warning.

Richard sat absolutely motionless for nearly a full minute.

Slowly, the oppressive sluggishness in his chest dissipated, and the Seat of the Sun resumed its steady rhythm.

He raised a hand and wiped a sheen of cold sweat from his forehead.

The sheer precision with which Hecate had constructed the temple, directed the Spirit Realm Messenger, and layered the sensory space—every little detail proved that she was utterly paranoid about information leaks.

She would never allow a newcomer to cast a targeted divination on a gathering she had orchestrated.

If he dared extend his psychic tendrils in that direction, he wouldn't just bump into some harmless, passive phenomenon like tomorrow's weather.

Moving much slower than usual, Richard packed the runestones back into their cloth bag one by one.

He tied the bag tight and shoved it, along with the Copper Dish, into the very back of his drawer.

He slid the drawer shut and locked it tight with the key.

'From now on, I won't divine anything involving Hecate.'

Downstairs, the grandfather clock chimed ten times.

Richard blew out his lamp and climbed into bed.

Wrapped in the gentle warmth of his blankets, his Sleep Skill slowly began to work its magic.

...

The next day, he sat through his classes entirely absentminded.

Mr. Holland called on him during Latin class, asking him to translate an excerpt from one of Seneca's letters.

Richard stood and delivered the translation flawlessly.

"Not feeling quite yourself today?" Mr. Holland asked, pulling him aside in the corridor after class.

"I just didn't sleep well last night," Richard replied.

Mr. Holland didn't pry further. "Get some rest tonight."

"I will."

After school, Richard headed straight home.

Dinner passed as usual. Evelyn predictably used breadcrumbs to spell out her "Christmas Wish List" for him on the table.

The first item was a new scarf. The second was chocolate. The third item she had smeared away with her thumb.

"What was the third item?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"You already wrote it down."

"Just because I wrote it down doesn't mean it's for you to read."

In the kitchen, Mother coughed twice.

Richard walked over to the doorway. "Mom, did you take your medicine for tonight?"

"I already took it."

"Then you should head to bed early."

At half-past nine, Richard returned to his room.

He threw the latch and stuffed a handkerchief into the gap beneath the door.

He sat at his desk for a while, double-checking the inventory of items he had finalized earlier that day.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Richard lay down on his bed.

His consciousness surfaced from the darkness.

The temple hall had already materialized. The dark red round table, the twelve stone pillars, the intricate reliefs carved into the crossbeams—everything was exactly where it had been.

Richard walked over to the seat he had occupied during the previous gathering and settled into the stone chair.

He subtly scanned the table.

Dionysus was already there, lounging lazily in his seat.

Prometheus had arrived as well, his back perfectly straight behind his red-gold mask.

Nemesis sat diagonally across from Richard, her long whip and scales floating quietly above her head.

Only Ares's chair remained empty.

Once Richard took his seat, a brief, half-minute silence descended over the temple.

Hecate was the first to speak.

"Ares has requested a medical leave of absence for tonight's gathering," she announced.

None of the others spoke, but they could all guess why Ares had failed to show up.

He must have actually followed Lauren's lead and ventured into the Ash Belt north of Glasgow.

That particular Ash Belt was infamous—a place where even a team of veteran Hunters might see five men walk in, but only three walk out.

Massive risks naturally entailed massive rewards.

By all logic, tonight's gathering should have been his perfect opportunity to liquidate his spoils.

New maps, fresh intelligence, all sorts of mystical materials—those were the kinds of premium goods Ares could have proudly laid out on the table.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't get to see any of it until the next gathering.