Time flowed mercilessly. While Furen meditated, having lost awareness of time, the cry for help from the greatest ancestor in Abraham family history—Bethel Abraham—descended upon him.
Though Bethel's desperate call was almost unbearable, Furen didn't experience the kind of agony that would make one wish for death. At most, the pain was comparable to the terror he felt when he had previously depleted all his spirituality—when it felt like all manner of malicious beings had set their eyes upon him.
After surviving that earlier ordeal, Furen now felt that Bethel's scream wasn't so frightening. In fact, he even thought that if it was only this intense, previous members of the Abraham family should have at least become demigods. Even so, it was still painful—every scream seemed to challenge the limits of his endurance.
At that moment, if anyone could see Furen's pupils—dilating and contracting with pain—they would have noticed a mysterious gate formed of countless radiant starlight sigils within his eyes.
After four or five minutes of torment, Furen felt a wave of relief flood through his body and soul. Only then did he realize how badly his muscles ached from tension; his entire body was drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked through, as if he had been submerged in water.
During his suffering, the pocket watch on the balcony had been knocked aside. Enduring the aversion still lingering in his mind and the involuntary spasms of his body, Furen dragged himself step by step to pick up the watch. Upon opening it, he found that the timing of the full moon had matched Martin's prediction down to the second.
He placed the watch on the large table in the room, then forced himself to take a hot bath in the washroom. Tossing his clothes aside, Furen, running purely on instinct, used his last ounce of strength to crawl onto the bed.
No sunlight filtered into the dim bedroom, yet the next morning Furen awoke even earlier than the day before. After rubbing his eyes, he found it was only 7:00 AM.
He intended to yawn and fall back asleep, but an excess of energy kept him wide awake. With a reluctant yawn, Furen got up.
After freshening up, Furen, feeling a strange mix of mental grogginess and physical vigor, went up to the third floor—back to the study that had caused him such agony the night before.
Placing his pocket watch, Meteoric Iron Dagger, and Angel's Gate—his two mystical items—on the table, Furen took out a blank notebook he kept at home to start recording his experiences, hoping it would help with digesting the Scribe potion.
First off, although I was somewhat overwhelmed yesterday and did feel significant pressure, it didn't feel like something an Apprentice couldn't endure. And as I move up the sequence, my resistance to 'Mister Gate's' scream should improve too. But… could it be that the scream itself intensifies with each sequence? That would be a death sentence! Wait… perhaps there's a point above Astrologer where a balance is reached, allowing one to endure it? Could that be it?
Speaking of the Gate pathway, the high-sequence Beyonder I'm most familiar with is Fors Wall. Come to think of it, she was invited into the Origin Castle by Klein just when she could no longer withstand 'Mister Gate's' scream—and she was only Sequence 9 then! Could it be… the longer I endure the scream, the more intense Mister Gate's influence becomes?
Furen shuddered as he wrote this, but quickly realized something was off and continued:
Wait, that can't be. Other members of the Abraham family would have suffered even more, yet they didn't lose control. Could it be that by the time one reaches Astrologer, they can already endure the scream? But as they ascend, the scream intensifies faster than their resistance can grow? Yet the Scribe potion can be digested in advance, right? So does that mean there's some mysterious change at the Scribe level? Could it be that Mister Gate himself laid down this challenge for his successors, or is it an inherent imbalance in the Gate pathway?
At this point, Furen was overwhelmed by the many unanswerable questions. He forcibly suppressed his curiosity and wrote a final summarizing line:
No matter what the promotion path looks like, the conversation between Bethel and Roselle will definitely affect the scream. It seems only by advancing and personally experiencing it will I know if my theories are true.
Having written this lengthy analysis, Furen stretched and checked the pocket watch. Realizing not much time had passed, he rubbed his eyes, gathered his belongings, and prepared to head out.
Just before leaving, Furen noticed that his clothes had already started piling up in the washroom, even though he didn't own many. He couldn't help but rub his forehead with a knuckle, troubled by these mundane but unavoidable chores.
Should I hire a laundry servant to wash my clothes every day, and another to clean the house? No, I can't risk them discovering certain things…
Furen's thoughts drifted to the occult laboratory in the basement, causing a headache.
Then should I clean and wash everything myself? No way, time is too tight for that nonsense. Guess I'll just hire a temporary worker. But where do I find one? I'll ask the coachman—coachmen who often go through the rich and noble districts usually know these things. Ugh, what a pain.
With his decision made, a weight lifted off his chest. Furen let out a relieved sigh and pushed open the door with ease.
Waving down a carriage, Furen said, "To the Trier National Library, thank you."
Once the carriage began moving steadily, Furen turned to the obviously experienced coachman and asked, "Excuse me, if I wanted to hire some servants, where should I go?"
The coachman—clearly not as talkative as the one from the previous day—was momentarily taken aback, likely not expecting a client to strike up a conversation. But after gathering his thoughts, he replied while expertly handling the reins:
"If you live on Corson Street, sir, then not far from there—still within the Goldhanson District—is a shop called the Goldhanson Life Improvement Company. They're a middleman agency for hiring servants and workers for the wealthy."
"Would you like me to take you there first, sir?" he added.