After successfully advancing to Sequence 4, Edward had forcibly withdrawn from the stream of information the potion was pouring into him. As a result, beyond knowing that he had indeed advanced, he knew nothing else.
He took a suitcase from his leather pouch, buried it beneath the fallen leaves, and slipped inside. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he emptied his mind, sank his thoughts, and re-linked himself to the stream of information brought by his promotion.
In the next instant, he once again arrived beneath the star-studded sky, before that door.
Within the door, a river of stars glittered, but unlike last time, he did not see Mr. Door.
Was it because he had time-travelled? Or was a single meeting all that had ever been necessary?
At that moment, the door once more dissolved into a vault of stars, which converged upon him and poured an unending flood of knowledge into his mind.
Corresponding information promptly surfaced in his consciousness:
[Sequence 4: Spiritcaster]
—also called Spirit Mage or Psychic Mage; can freely shift between spiritual and physical states.
Memory immortal. Spirit undying.
Abilities:
-[Secret Keeping]—Capable of keeping secrets and blocking detection. The "secret" of a Secrets Sorcerer partly signifies the world within the mirror—it is sufficiently mysterious and sufficiently hidden.
-[Space Concealment]—Can twist a targeted area, split it into 2 to create a concealed space. Leaving the hidden space is possible only via a door or by lifting the concealment.
-[Exile]—Generates an illusory door through which a preliminarily restrained target can be cast into a chaotic space. Different illusory doors correspond to different scenes where danger and opportunity coexist.
-[Rebuke]—When you are contaminated/polluted, you may negate the harm from that contamination/pollution and return it doubled to the source.
-[False Reality]—Creates illusions so convincing they pass for the real. The more the target believes what they see, the more real the illusion becomes.
-[Silverfish: Solidify]—When you consume text that contains an extraordinary ability, you temporarily acquire that ability—furthermore, you may solidify one such previously "eaten" ability as your own. The ability's level scales to your current Sequence. (Current number of abilities that can be solidified: 1)
(Aside from these, previously held abilities are further strengthened.)
Compared to Secrets Sorcerer, Edward had not only retained [Rebuke], which he had earlier "overdrafted," but had also gained [False Reality] and received a further enhancement to his core ability, [Silverfish].
[False Reality] appeared to act directly upon a target's consciousness, weaving illusions—in other words, the mind arts people commonly spoke of. However, it seemed to be more than mere false illusion.
According to its description, if a person completely believed in what they saw, then dying within the illusion meant true death in reality.
It reminded Edward of experiments he had read about: place someone in pitch darkness, cut their wrist with a dull blade, then simulate blood flow with dripping water. The subject, convinced they were bleeding out, ultimately died of "blood loss."
As for [Silverfish: Solidify], it converted what had previously lasted only two days and required repeated "eating" into a personal ability—but the solidified ability's level would adjust to his current Sequence.
In other words, whether the ability Edward chose to solidify was from a lower Sequence than 4 or higher, it would become Sequence 4 upon solidification.
Moreover, the note that followed—"current number of abilities that can be solidified"—implied that as the potion digested further or as he ascended to higher Sequences, he would be able to solidify more abilities.
With that thought, Edward suddenly froze. "Right—those abilities I ate before, apart from a small portion taken from Groselle's Travels, most of them came from the Cards of Blasphemy!"
Yet his Cards of Blasphemy had been deposited inside Klein's Sefirah Castle. Now that he had traversed time to an earlier era—before Klein had even 'descended'—those deposited cards were out of the question.
Which meant…was he about to fall back into the "weakened" state he had experienced in the Forsaken Land of the Gods?
A moment later—
"…Not entirely."
Edward took out the Book of Calamity.
When he had obtained it earlier, he had known it recorded certain extraordinary abilities that the Queen of Calamity had once used. But at the time, he'd had the Sea God's Sceptre, and recording those abilities required first learning Elvish, so he had set the matter aside.
Soon after, he had acquired the Tyrant card, which rendered the book's abilities moot for him. He had not expected it to become a "lifesaver" now.
With this, at minimum, he would possess demigod-level strength across two Pathways—the Storm Pathway and the Door Pathway. Under normal circumstances, self-preservation would not be an issue.
He could not help but breathe a quiet sigh of relief.
The next question was which ability he ought to [Solidify].
Strictly speaking, the ability Edward used most often was [Amplify]. Because he frequently treated it as a "buff," whether for casting magic or employing other abilities, he would first amplify them.
Second was [Distortion]. It could attack, defend, and support; it was extraordinarily handy in practice.
Third was [Theft]. As the core ability of the Marauder Pathway, it was every bit as good as its reputation. Whoever used it once sang its songs. However, as his opponents had grown too powerful, a Sequence 5-level [Theft] had found fewer and fewer chances to shine.
Beyond those three, he used many other extraordinary abilities, but their frequency and utility paled in comparison.
So—which should he choose?
[Amplify] had broad applicability and meshed perfectly with his magic.
[Distortion] was deeply practical and useful both in and out of combat.
After a few minutes of deliberation—
[Theft]!
As the signature skill of the Marauder Pathway, [Theft] at Sequence 4 underwent a true qualitative change. It would no longer be limited to stealing concrete items, extraordinary abilities, or thoughts; it could even steal conceptual things—such as distance, position, and even certain rules.
And as his Sequence rose, upon reaching Sequence 2, [Theft] would transform yet again, its scope expanding to encompass fate, identity, self-awareness, and Beyonder characteristics. At Sequence 1, it could even steal time, anchors, and Authority!
Therefore, if the number of abilities he could [Solidify] remained limited, [Theft] was unquestionably among the best choices—after all, he would eventually come into contact with the Black Emperor card and the Red Priest card, but hopes for the "Error" card were slim.
Having decided, Edward did not dwell on it further.
He sank his mind once more and accepted the next segment of information from the potion:
[Sequence 3: Deconstruction Scholar]
Ingredients:Wanderer potion + Dream Weaver characteristic.
Advancement Ritual:Deconstruct a story and usher it into reality.
As expected, it was the Apprentice Pathway's Sequence 3 potion, plus a Sequence 3 extraordinary characteristic—Dream Weaver, Sequence 3 of the Spectator Pathway.
But the ritual left Edward with that inexplicable sense of: I don't quite get it, but it sounds difficult.
What did it mean to let a story step into reality?
Taken literally, it was easy enough to grasp—in simple terms, turning a "false story" into "real reality."
Uh…not necessarily. Who said stories had to be false?
Many historical legends and tales were real; they existed in reality—yet if that were the case, would there be any need to "enter reality"?
So…did it have to be a "false story" after all?
Mm…he did not fully understand.
Fortunately, the next promotion was likely some time away; he would have enough time to ponder it slowly.
Last of all came overdrawing one Sequence 3 ability via [Delusion]:
-[Regression]—Deconstruct the target and induce full-spectrum regression, including—but not limited to—movements, behaviour, Sequence, and overall strength. When using [Regression], the more you understand the target, the higher the success rate, the stronger the effect, and the longer the duration. (This ability will be subject to a certain degree of weakening.)
At the sight of this ability, Edward's eyes widened.
Is this description truly as outrageous as it sounds—or am I imagining things?
A dimensionality-reduction strike, is it?
Even if it was a low-spec version, it was still outrageous.
Think about it: after untold setbacks and hardships, you finally advanced to Sequence 4 and became a demigod—then the moment you crossed hands, you discovered you had been knocked back down to Sequence 5. Who could stand that?
He simply did not know how much power this overdrafted [Regression] would truly exert.
After confirming that nothing had been missed, Edward cast one last look at the resplendent river of stars, then withdrew his consciousness and awoke in reality.
"Whew—"
He let out a long breath. Gazing at the emptiness all around him, that sense of loss and heartache returned once more. A few days earlier, upon advancing, he had opened his eyes to find two pairs of eyes watching him with concern.
They were the two most important people in his life.
Yet now, one had been cast into the past, while the other kept waiting in the future.
If Audrey were here, she would be asking how far along the potion digestion was by now.
He shook his head, casting off those idle thoughts.
The Secrets Sorcerer potion: undigested.
The Spiritcaster potion: likewise undigested.
"Heh."
Edward let out a self-mocking laugh.
This was the first time since taking potions and becoming a Beyonder that he had done no preliminary acting and no preliminary digestion whatsoever.
In other words, this time he truly had to rely on acting to completely digest two separate potions.
Come to think of it, his Wandering Mentor potion…had not actually been fully digested yet, either.
Edward could clearly sense that the small portion missing from Wandering Mentor had not been "auto-completed" by his advance to Sequence 4. If he did not want to leave hidden dangers for the future, he would have to remember to finish digesting that potion as well.
So—how ought he to act as a Secrets Sorcerer and a Spiritcaster?
For Secret Sorcerer, it naturally had to revolve around "secrets," combined with its [Secret Keeping] ability. His preliminary understanding was: to know secrets, and to keep them.
But here lay the problem.
He could be quite certain that, at this very moment, he already held many secrets and had not disclosed them to anyone in this era. Why, then, was there no sign of digestion?
Therefore, it could not be as simple as keeping secrets. There must be other prerequisites. He would have to summarise them slowly.
As for Spiritcaster, he had even less to go on.
Within the stream of information poured in at Sequence 4, the description for Spirit Mage had been: Memory immortal, Spirit Undying.
So what did "Memory immortal" mean?
How was one to make it immortal?
For now, these questions had no answers.
Still, he could be certain that maintaining—or switching between—the physical and spiritual states should aid the acting—he could take a page, to some extent, from wraiths.
In addition, [False Reality] should also help with digestion.
After quite a while, Edward rose to his feet and murmured:
"We…will surely meet again."
He stepped out of the suitcase. "First, I should determine exactly what era I've arrived in."
———
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