"So, is the Seventh Agency that impressive?"
"Impressive?"
"It's more than just impressive!"
"The Seventh Agency is an official organization established by the followers of the Goddess of Magic. In the era when I was alive, it didn't even have a unified name."
Edmond seemed to fall into some distant memory.
"At that time, the Tower of Magic—that is, the followers of the Goddess of Magic—planned to persuade the King to establish such an organization."
"It was specifically intended to supervise and contain out-of-control transcendent powers. The original drafted name was the 'Kingdom's Seventh Special Affairs Department,' or the Seventh Department for short."
"It likely changed its name later."
"With the abilities of those mystics, I can't imagine what kind of organization it has become."
Edmond lamented.
"A high-Scale mystic could probably borrow the power of the Goddess herself."
"After talking for so long, it turns out you're just guessing."
Elias was somewhat unimpressed.
"Idiot!"
Edmond was momentarily choked up.
"Don't let your guard down! Remember the Origin Web I mentioned?"
"I remember."
"Didn't you say that becoming a transcendent involves relying on the Origin Web to release spells?"
"Exactly."
Edmond continued with a leading question.
"But do you know who this massive 'Origin Web' is related to?"
Elias paused his movements, looking at the air as if looking at a fool.
"Since you've asked this much, it must be related to the Goddess of Magic, right?"
"Yes."
Edmond's voice became serious, carrying a unique sense of solemnity.
"The Goddess of Magic is the master of the Origin Web, the 'Weaver' who wove this giant web."
"Theoretically, she can erase all the spells in the entire world and cut off any person's connection to the Origin Web at will."
"Holy crap?"
Elias looked shocked.
"So she's basically the administrator?"
If the Origin Web was the internet, then this Goddess of Magic was definitely the network admin!
"Administrator?"
"That's a very accurate understanding."
"In a sense, she indeed manages the flow of all arcane power in the world."
"Then isn't John actually really strong?!"
Elias suddenly felt that John, the Moon Bay street-drifter, seemed pretty impressive.
"If he were truly strong, would he be bragging about it everywhere?"
"Hiss—"
"Good point!"
"Then what about the other gods?"
Elias thought of a massive bug.
"Since she's managing it..."
"If she erases all arcane power, won't everyone be finished? Doesn't that make her the absolute ruler?"
"It's not that simple,"
Edmond explained.
"Although the Origin Web covers everything, it is not everything."
"Certain spells from other gods are also affected by the Origin Web and may even fail."
"But once you reach the level of a god, many spells exist independently of the Origin Web."
Speaking to this point, Edmond's tone suddenly carried a trace of pride, and a sense of superiority naturally arose.
"Especially the great Moon Lord."
"A portion of the Moon Lord's spells originates entirely from the Moon Lord's authority; that is power derived from spirituality itself."
"This part of power is based on your own spirituality and the Rational Circuit you've constructed; it will not be affected by the Origin Web."
"What?"
A playful smile appeared on Elias's face.
"After taking such a long detour, you've started aggressively promoting your Moon Lord again?"
"Promoting?"
"It's... an extremely enthusiastic way of selling something."
Elias explained.
"It's exactly like how you look right now."
"Don't misunderstand."
Although Edmond didn't quite understand, he roughly caught Elias's meaning.
"I'm just mentioning it in passing, so you know how superior the path you've chosen is."
"After all, you're about to drink the spirit vision potion and step into the faith of the Moon Lord. There is some basic knowledge you need to know."
Elias shrugged.
He only had this one path to take anyway.
Although the Lord of the Raging Sea sounded powerful, he didn't have the guaranteed Remove Curse as a fallback.
He didn't want to be trapped on this island reef for the rest of his life.
"Fine, fine, long live the Moon Lord."
Elias gave a perfunctory reply and then pointed to the mess of materials on the table.
"Then I'm going to start concocting the potion. Is there anything I need to watch out for?"
"Do I just stew it all together in one pot?"
"Of course there's a technique!"
Edmond's tone became rigorous.
"Concocting a potion isn't like making a stew."
"The order of the materials is strictly required. It's written in the formula; you must follow it exactly, even a second's difference won't do."
"Secondly, there's the ritual for the Moon Lord."
"You need to prepare some things and wait until nightfall."
"It must be when the moon rises, facing the direction of the moonrise..."
Edmond began to drone on about a long list of precautions.
From the orientation of the candles to the tone of the prayers.
Fortunately, most of the auxiliary materials needed for the ritual—such as pure silver powder, special spices, and specific rune-drawing tools—were present among Edmond's relics from when he was alive.
They weren't hard to collect.
There was only one item that gave Elias trouble.
"The sacrifice,"
Edmond said.
"You need to present something you care about as an 'anchor' to establish a connection with the spirit world."
"Something I care about?"
Elias was stunned.
He sat in his chair, watching the sky outside gradually darken, rubbing the cold glass bottle in his hand as he fell into deep thought.
What was it that he truly cared about?
Was it that fairly handy revolver?
Or those few gold crowns he hadn't spent yet?
No, those were just external possessions; if they were gone, he could just earn more.
His thoughts involuntarily drifted back to his previous life.
That world without magic, without gods, and without monsters, where there were only endless PPTs and constant overtime.
That ordinary young man named Jiang Huan.
In his previous life, he hadn't lived a particularly exciting life; one could even say it was full of regrets.
He hadn't caught the wave of virtual currency, and afterward, he had fantasized countless times about what would have happened if he had bought even just one Bitcoin;
He missed the dividend of the self-media boom, watching as several people filming skits became multimillionaires while he could only chuckle while scrolling through their videos;
After graduation, he was met with the decline of the physical economy, and could only honestly be a beast of burden, overtaxing his hairline in an office cubicle for a few scraps of silver, all while having to bow and scrape to a boss stupider than himself.
Perhaps at that time, what he cared about most were his parents far away in his hometown and that unfulfilled dream that had been smoothed over by life!
But all of this, after he transmigrated here, had vanished like passing clouds.
That world was already far away from him, separated by an unbridgeable barrier.
He could no longer pursue those things, nor could he even fulfill his filial duties.
As a stranger in a strange land, in this crisis-ridden otherworldly place.
The only important thing he had might be his precious memories from his previous life.
That was the only proof that he had ever existed as 'Jiang Huan.'
But these happened to be secrets he could not speak of.
He couldn't tell anyone he was a transmigrator; he couldn't tell anyone his head was filled with the knowledge of another civilization.
He could only mix in some memes he knew during his frequent bickering with old Edmond.
It seemed only in this way, only while experiencing old Edmond's confusion, could he find a sense of reality that his previous self wasn't just a dream.
This was a lonely carnival.
And a silent resistance.
But the problem was, memories were too abstract; they couldn't be taken out and placed on the table as a sacrifice.
He couldn't exactly dig out his brain to offer it up, could he?
"What are you thinking about? You're so lost in thought."
Edmond's voice interrupted his train of thought.
"Nothing."
However, for now, thinking about these things seemed redundant.
Elias shook his head, tossing those messy emotions out of his mind.
A person cannot live in the past.
For the current Elias, he was both Jiang Huan and Elias.
The fusion of two souls allowed him to inherit all the original owner's emotions and bonds.
Then, as Elias Rockland, what he cared about most should be his brother Arthur and sister Charlotte living in Hope County.
They were the family the original owner would have risked his life to protect and were one of the motivations supporting his survival now.
It was just that for Jiang Huan, there was no actual feeling of being blood-related.
Thinking of this, Elias walked to the dilapidated suitcase brought by the original owner in the corner.
After a bit of searching, he took a photograph out of a book pressed with dried flowers.
In the photo, a young Arthur wore a police uniform with a serious expression, Charlotte wore a long dress and smiled brightly, and the Elias in the middle scratched his head somewhat shyly.
"This is it."
Elias looked at the photo, his gaze softening slightly.
This photo carried the familial love of the Rockland siblings and all the concerns of the young man named Elias.
This should fit the theme.
"Preparations are almost complete."
Elias took a deep breath and carefully placed the photo in the center of the table.
Outside the window, night had already fallen.
A waning moon hung over the sea, shedding a cold glow.
"Let's go, head outside,"
Edmond instructed.
"You must remember, the advancement of a Scale is accompanied by an audience with the divine name."
"What?"
Elias, who was about to carry his things out the door, slipped.
"An audience?"
His eyes widened, his face full of terror.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
"I'm just an ordinary person who isn't even a transcendent yet, and I have to have an audience with a god after drinking the potion?!"
This was like a commoner traveling to America and being told as soon as they got off the plane that the President was going to receive them!
"Look at you, so spineless!"
Edmond said with disdain.
"Don't worry, at your current level, you're still far from having an audience with an actual god."
"Even I haven't seen one, let alone you."
"An audience at a low Scale is generally a vague image related to the god,"
Edmond explained patiently.
"Usually just an outline, though the higher the Scale, the more clearly you see."
"For example, with the Moon Lord, you might see different moon phases, or nocturnal creatures like owls or nightingales."
"In a sense, this is a kind of gaze from the deity toward the believer, representing that He has seen you."
"Legend says only at a high Scale can one hear divine oracles."
"If you go further and reach the level of a divine servant or a demigod, I suppose seeing a real god isn't impossible."
"But such people only exist in legends; who knows?"
"Whew..."
Hearing this, Elias finally breathed a long sigh of relief and patted his chest.
"That's good then, that's good."
"An owl is fine. Harry Potter, right? I'm familiar."
Elias nodded, his state of mind stabilizing again.
Carrying a pile of bottles and jars and that precious photograph, he pushed open the door of the wooden cabin.
The sea breeze howled, carrying the unique chill of the night.
Elias took a deep breath, standing on the gravel clearing he had specially cleared outside the cabin.
He began to prepare for his first step into the transcendent.
Rate on N.U.
