Chapter 21: Sacred Art: Fire Sacrifice

At least in this matter, Aiwass could be sure that Bishop Mathers did not have as much information as he did.

Although Aiwass had completely forgotten the plot, the letter "Someone sent to the Noble Red Society" obtained at the Pelican Bar mentioned some key information.

The letter generally stated that the demonologists sent by the Noble Red Society would be "a group," not just two. "That Lord" would coordinate their actions, creating numerous cases across Glass Island in advance to distract the Supervisory Bureau's attention and manpower.

Likewise, the mysterious author, in a manner reminiscent of an equal partner, issued a warning to the Noble Red Society—essentially, there was a limit to how much he could allow the Society to take on his debts. If the Society still didn't give him what he wanted, he would "with a heavy heart, but with determination, carry out some unkind actions that neither of us wanted or would see."

The two "pen pals" who came to meet Aiwass actually left the main group and arrived early.

The motivation is also easy to understand.

They had been operating the Aiwass line for a long time. Perhaps they believed that Aiwass would die in this ongoing unrest; perhaps they thought their superiors would come and seize Aiwass's resources; or perhaps they were uneasy about this operation and therefore activated Aiwass's reserve food in advance to replenish important resources.

Perhaps at first he came for the name of the "Moriarty" family, but when Aiwass became a pastor and still trusted them, he himself became of special value.

Noble blood, a pure heart, a soul seeking transcendence, a willing sacrifice—perhaps there were other factors. But Aiwass's standard as a sacrifice was very high.

Because the sacrificial ritual was not a ritual for summoning shadow demons, but any higher-level demon could come. As a result, the ritual had just begun when the shadow demon smelled the scent and came over.

Aiwass used half of his life force as a sacrifice and signed a contract with the Shadow Demon - this was actually the correct price.

The correct price for the sacrifice is "half." No matter how much you offer, the demon will only take half, and usually the renewable half, because the essence of this ritual is "equal division."

Property, power, profits, and risks are all equally shared—these two parties are considered collaborators. If the summoner's qualities satisfy the demon, they can symbolically take an extra 1%, thus clarifying the distinction between "master" and "servant." If simply summoning the demon is a struggle, then the normal split is usually 50/50.

But in reality, this has no binding force on the devil's behavior. The only difference is whether the devil is called "master" or "partner".

Demonologists are a legal profession in all nations except Avalon and the Eternal Church. If sacrificial techniques required the killing of one's own sacrifice, then demonologists would be murderers, and the profession would be unlawful. Furthermore, if a demonologist performed self-sacrifice, it would be tantamount to suicide.

The sacrifices of demonologists in the Kingdom of Avalon are always accompanied by massacres. This is not actually the need of the demons, but the need to silence people, rob, or prepare ritual materials.

As the spread of esoteric knowledge was limited, most ordinary people didn't even know what extraordinary professions there were in the path of transcendence, and they didn't even know the official name "demonologist". Instead, they used "warlock" as a folk nickname based on the established impression that "he is a master who can cast spells."

But in fact, the demonologist's spell ability is not strong, and the types of spells he can use are quite limited.

Far inferior to mages of the Path of Wisdom, necromancers of the Path of Dusk, sages of the Path of Adaptation, and even to law mages of the Path of Authority—a demonologist's primary power comes from rituals and demons. Many of their spells rely on rituals, require advance preparation, and are far more powerful than normal spells.

For example, Veronica's "Cursed Infant" requires a baby cursed to death by the caster as ritual material. A ritual spell guided by a second-level demonologist is destructive enough to threaten or even instantly kill a third-level front-line profession.

Without the right materials and a contracted powerful demon, the demonologist would become very weak.

But on the other hand, if demonologists plan secretly and prepare in advance, they can unleash destructive power far beyond their level.

Now I am in the light and they are in the dark.

If Aiwass only uses his demonologist ability to fight, it will be doubly disadvantageous - not only will his identity be easily exposed, but he will also be completely unable to cooperate with his teammates.

I can't even get along. I can't even lie down.

Originally, Aiwass had intended to obtain the priest class rank as soon as possible, but he hadn't anticipated it happening so soon. Bishop Mathers had already thought of it before he even mentioned it to his adoptive father.

That morning, the Supervisory Bureau called to make an appointment—they planned to come to Moriarty Manor in the evening. His adoptive father was very happy, saying he would give Aiwass a commendation or something like that...but Aiwass didn't seem very interested in it.

What good things can the Supervisory Bureau give? Players in the game are busy and busy, but in the end they get nothing. They are allowed to divide the benefits among themselves.

Aiwass was also worried that it was that fool Haina who came again, so he came several hours in advance. So he didn't dare to go out today.

I originally planned to stay at home and read with my sister.

As a result, Bishop Mathers invited him to the Candlelight Cathedral at nine o'clock in the morning.

But now, Aiwass had no dissatisfaction in his heart. He was extremely pious and serious.

——Just kidding, this is a professional skills instructor!

And strictly speaking, he had gotten in through a backdoor. He hadn't passed any exams, nor completed that long, boring list of "approval tasks," yet he had directly obtained the qualification to learn the sacred art!

The old bishop preached slowly, "The so-called 'sacred arts' are the most practical, safest, and easiest-to-master mystical arts of the path of devotion, carefully selected by the Church based on the principles of 'safety,' 'health,' 'ease of learning,' and 'benefiting others.' After passing the corresponding qualification exam, the bishop will teach you the corresponding art free of charge, and he will continue to teach you until you have mastered it."

I know, it's the starter Pokémon. Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur... the highlight is that they are easy to use and easy to raise.

Aiwass muttered to himself, feeling very anxious and impatient.

Bishop Mathers continued to speak calmly, "There are four types of sacred skills that can be mastered by those below the rank of bishop.

"'Prayer,' 'fire sacrifice,' 'illumination,' 'blessing.' It is important to note that the essence of the mystical arts cannot be understood literally."

The old bishop explained: "The so-called 'fire sacrifice' refers to a technique to strengthen the body and restore itself.

"Human life is like a candle, and the soul is the fire. We who walk the path of dedication share our light and fire. This also means that we ourselves will gradually become deficient.

"I deliberately created this unhealthy state for myself to demonstrate to you."

As he spoke, the old bishop pointed to the unnatural white hair on his temples.

Aiwass knew what he was going to say, but still nodded obediently.

Simply put, all spells on the path of dedication require burning one's own blood.

Even when healing, one burns one's own blood to restore the blood of others - if that's the case, then the path of dedication must have a stable means of restoring blood.

This is the art of "worshiping fire".

"First, light a new candle. Any color will do, it makes no difference—and when you're proficient enough, you can even carry a pack of matches."

The old bishop said, stretching out his left hand: "I don't know how much you understand about the mystical knowledge, so I will start from the beginning.

"Of the five fingers on both hands, the thumb symbolizes fire, the index finger represents air, the middle finger represents ether, the ring finger represents earth, and the pinky finger represents water. Each of the four basic elements has two corresponding fingers, with light and darkness representing the left and right hands, respectively. Therefore, we typically use our left hand for fire worship—and since the elements of the Path of Devotion are light and fire, our most important fingers are the left thumb and middle finger.

"Until you become proficient in it and have it ingrained into your instincts, I don't recommend using your right hand for anything."

As he spoke, a white flame ignited on the old bishop's left thumb and lit the candlestick in front of him.

There was a thick and long white candle placed there in advance. The light from the candle instantly illuminated the entire space.

"In order to facilitate your first visualization, I have specially selected the brightest model."

Bishop Mathers explained, motioning for Oswald to push Aiwas's wheelchair over.

"Come on, raise your left hand. Do it with me..."

He moved slowly: "Imagine that what you see before you is not a candle flame that is within reach, but a golden sun that is out of reach.

“No matter how bright the fire is before you, imagine it shining with an utterly brilliant light—a light that fills every corner of your vision, saturates your entire field of vision, leaving no shadow. Imagine it piercing your palm, so that even with your open hand, it will be as transparent as glass.”

Aiwass did so.

And just when he stretched out his hand.

Suddenly, a pop-up window popped up in front of him:

[Samuel Mathers is teaching you "Fire Worship". Do you want to pay 1 public experience to master this mysterious skill?]

The moment he saw the pop-up window, Aiwas was stunned for a moment and subconsciously looked at Bishop Mathers.

In the game, if a player acquires a certain mysterious skill through a quest—that is, not through reading, but through one-on-one instruction after maxing out an NPC's personal favorability—the experience consumed in learning this mysterious skill is directly proportional to the skill's level and inversely proportional to the teacher's level.

In other words, the easier it is to learn this mysterious skill and the higher the level of the teacher, the less experience the learner needs to consume.

This setting doesn't have much meaning in the game, it's just to show how strong this person is. Because players don't lack this experience - this crappy game has no physical limit, and the experience required to learn mysterious skills is not much.

However, when online beast fighters discuss "who is stronger" or "who can defeat whom in seconds", they will use this as a basis to infer the corresponding professional level of this NPC.

When players learned the sacred skills back then, they all had to spend seven experience points to learn them - and even if the teaching NPC, whose name Aiwass had forgotten, was weak, he was at least a certain bishop.

So what's going on with you, old man? You were at such a high level in version 1.0, so why have I never heard of your name in the game?

——Oh no, I met the Sweeping Monk.

Today is still more than 6,000 words, remember to read the new book~

(End of this chapter)