Chapter 177: Mysterium

Richard took the cup.

Isabella waited for him to take three sips before steering the topic back on track.

"Take out all the supernatural items you brought."

She had cast an isolation barrier over the entire suite while they were having tea.

Richard sat on the low couch and opened his bag.

He had arranged the supernatural items inside in a specific order before leaving the house.

The Sphinx Lamp sat tightly wrapped at the very bottom.

The Copper Pendant, Sophie Censer, and Solar Emblem rested on top. He had left the military medal and the Silver Ring behind for now.

The four items were stacked neatly.

Isabella glanced at the assortment and raised an eyebrow.

"Which one do you want to see first, Auntie?" Richard asked, reaching into his bag.

"Let's look at the most important signature artifact first."

Richard opened the bag wider.

He had wrapped the lamp in three layers of old flannel and stashed it at the bottom. He peeled the fabric back layer by layer until the lamp emerged.

The ether field inside the suite rippled faintly the moment it appeared.

Isabella hovered her right hand an inch above it.

She didn't touch it immediately, instead sweeping it first with her Inspiration.

Richard took the opportunity to observe her Micro-circulation using Spirit Vision.

His aunt's Micro-circulation was completely different from his mother's ruined circuit.

The rhythm was steady and the flow uniform. The main circuit extended all the way to her fingertips, ultimately condensing into an extremely fine point of light.

It was a level of precision even Mr. Hutton could not achieve.

As a Practitioner, Mr. Hutton had to rely on external mediums like rubbings, paper, and pencils to handle work requiring that degree of precision.

His aunt needed none of that.

Her palm lingered over the lamp for about twenty seconds.

Isabella pulled her hand back.

"Richard, the compatibility between you and this Sphinx Lamp has already surpassed standard resonance."

"Did Mr. Hutton mention the three conditions for resonance last time?"

"Prolonged close contact, sufficiently high ether compatibility, and a deep enough causal connection."

"He did," Richard nodded.

"You and this lamp meet all three."

"...All three?"

Isabella didn't press the matter further.

"Judging by the craftsmanship," she said, steering the topic back, "this lamp was originally forged to guard a temple's gate between worlds."

"Which temple exactly?"

"There's no way to verify that anymore," she shook her head, "and no need to dig too deeply into it."

Isabella gently pushed the Sphinx Lamp back toward him. "It recognizes you now. That's enough."

Richard wrapped the lamp back in the flannel and set it on the corner of the desk.

"Next... I need to tell you what happens after establishing your Signature."

She reached out and traced a circle in the air above the desk.

"Mr. Hutton should have told you that ascending in Rank requires a Signature."

"Yeah."

"But he probably only explained the procedure—carving the brand and letting the veil know of your existence."

"Yes."

"The procedure is correct, but he didn't explain the layer beneath it."

Her gaze fell on the lamp.

"After Signature, the supernatural item will begin to change."

She took a piece of blank paper from the drawer, smoothed it out in the center of the desk, and pulled out a sharply pointed pencil.

Isabella drew a circle right in the middle.

"After Signature, the supernatural item aligns with its master's Practitioner path."

She wrote the word "Secret" on the left side of the circle.

"The Secret path is the most complex. Their signature artifacts become vessels or casting mediums."

"For a spirit medium, it's a vessel to house spirits;

for an alchemist, it's a container to seal intermediate reaction products;

for a sealer, it's a conductor to facilitate the drawing of inscriptions;

it all depends on which specific branch they take within the Secret path."

Her pencil tip touched down on the right side of the circle, writing "Hunter."

"The Hunter path is the most straightforward.

"Their signature artifacts become combat aids—amplifying weapon lethality, condensing extra armor, extending the duration of ether bursts, and so on."

Finally, she wrote "Scholar" directly beneath the circle.

"The Scholar path is the most singular."

"Our signature artifacts are purely for recording and analysis."

"No matter its original form—be it a book, a mirror, a bone flute, or a stone slab... after Signature, its function remains exactly the same."

Richard stared at the paper.

In his mind, he placed the Sphinx Lamp alongside "recording and analysis," imagining what it would become once he completed his Signature.

Would a genie pop out and preach to him?

No, no, that was Central Lands mythology; it had nothing to do with the Black Soil River basin.

Or would the Sphinx on the lamp come alive and force him to solve riddles?

That was a little terrifying. Fail to answer a Sphinx's riddle, and you got eaten...

While his thoughts ran wild, Isabella raised her hand.

She swiped gently over the desk, and a parchment scroll materialized out of thin air.

"Here."

She left the parchment hovering between them. "This is my signature artifact."

"According to the rules, a signature artifact is your lifeblood, never to be shown to outsiders."

"But you're my nephew. It's good for you to see this early."

She tilted her head.

"Want to give it a try?"

"Try what?"

"You can try casting Stone Armor right here in front of me."

Richard gave her a look.

"...Here?"

"Yes, right here."

Richard took a breath.

Pushing his Fourfold Breathing to the exhalation phase of the third cycle, a massive amount of ether surged from his Seat of the Sun into his palm.

He chose his left forearm for the armor. The ether flowed along the main circuit, extending toward the outer side of his wrist...

Halfway through condensing, the flow snapped.

He could clearly feel the ether he pushed out being quietly "read" from the outside just before the armor took shape.

Once read, the ether scattered like dismantled building blocks.

He looked up at his aunt.

Isabella's hand was resting on the floating parchment.

Richard frowned and tried again.

The second time, the ether condensed a little further up, only to disperse upon reaching his elbow.

"..."

Isabella lifted her hand from the parchment.

She nodded at him.

Richard attempted it a third time, and this attempt went much more smoothly.

The armor condensed on the outside of his forearm, spreading from his fingertips to his elbow with a soft clink.

Exactly three seconds later, he withdrew the Spell Formula.

"What just happened?"

"This is a Scholar's 'analysis.'"

Isabella waved a hand. The parchment dissipated, returning to some unseen place beneath her lapel.

"As long as the corresponding Spell Formula is recorded in my manuscript, I can use it to counter anyone casting a similar formula."

"You have an analysis of Stone Armor in your manuscript?"

"It doesn't necessarily have to be the exact same Stone Armor."

"I studied Gargoyles back in the day, but I never delved too deeply."

"But I do have methods for dismantling a few categories of general protection Spell Formulas. When a Scholar analyzes a formula, they look at its 'underlying logic.'"

"Once I understand the 'routing,' I can dismantle that entire category of formulas."

Richard's fingers paused on the edge of the desk.

He needed to properly digest this.

So this was how a signature artifact of the Scholar path operated.

Mr. Hutton's blade forging and judgments during the night of the Whitcom Seal ritual were likely another application of this same analytical ability.

Calling out the parts of that "Mother" that even she couldn't name, piece by piece.

Once called out, the entity could no longer maintain its foothold.

Isabella's method of using this analysis to completely shut down his Spell Formula, however, was far more direct—and much better suited for frontline combat.

"Auntie," Richard began thoughtfully. "What if the Spell Formula your opponent uses isn't recorded in your manuscript at all, and there isn't even a similar type?"

"Then I can't dismantle it," Isabella answered bluntly.

"What if there's only a similar type, but no exact match?"

"I can weaken it, but I can't completely shut it down."

"What if their formula... is something that has never appeared in academic circles before?"

Isabella glanced at him.

"The Spell Formulas used by ordinary Practitioners, Minor Adepts, and even Major Adepts all have traceable origins.

"No matter how much they innovate, they can never break out of their respective traditional frameworks."

"Only Virtuosos are different."

"A Virtuoso's formula is entirely their own creation. There isn't a second record of it anywhere in the academic world."

She brought her pencil down just above the circle on the blank paper and wrote the word "Virtuoso."

"In the literature you have access to, the descriptions of the Virtuoso Rank are extremely brief."

"This is one of the reasons why."

She set her pencil down.

"Virtuosos are highly individualized."

"Every Virtuoso's core ability belongs solely to them."

"What it's called, how it's activated, its area of effect... these things only take shape the moment they become a Virtuoso."

"There is a specific term we use in our profession to describe it."

She wrote a noun at the very top of the blank paper.

"Mysterium, the sublimation of a Spell Formula."

"A Virtuoso's Mysterium is the culmination of their entire life's accumulation—from their Signature to Practitioner, from Minor Adept to Major Adept... every single step."

"It is the condensation of their personal tradition. It is the final product of the repeated entanglement between them and their signature artifact across both sides of the veil, built up over decades or even centuries."

Isabella looked up.

"Sound familiar?"

Richard nodded.

"Bloodline formulas?"

"Right. The earliest origins of those family heritage formulas, passed down generation by generation, are almost always a Virtuoso's Mysterium."

"Alright, this is all still quite far from your current Rank. Having a rough understanding is enough for now."