At least in this matter, Aiwass could be sure that Bishop Mathers's intelligence was not as extensive as his own.
Although Aiwass had completely forgotten the plot, the letter he had obtained earlier at the Pelican Bar, "A Letter from Someone to the Noble Red Society," contained some key information.
The letter roughly stated that the Demon Scholars sent by the Noble Red Society this time should be "a group of people," not just two. "That adult" would cooperate with their actions, continuously creating cases throughout Glass Island in advance to divert the Surveillance Bureau's attention and manpower.
Similarly, the mysterious person who wrote the letter also issued a warning to the Noble Red Society in a tone almost like an equal partner the gist being that the amount of debt he could allow the Society to accrue was limited. If the Society still did not give him what he wanted this time, then he would "with a heavy heart and firm resolve carry out some unfriendly actions that neither of us wish to see."
The two "pen pals" who met Aiwass had, in fact, detached themselves from the main group and arrived early.
Their motivation was also easy to understand.
They had been operating the "Aiwass" line for a very long time. And perhaps they believed that Aiwass would die in this ongoing turmoil; or perhaps they thought their superiors would try to seize Aiwass as a resource; or perhaps they felt uneasy about this operation, and thus activated Aiwass, this reserve supply, in advance to replenish important resources.
Perhaps at first, they were drawn by the name of the "Moriarty" family, but when Aiwass became a priest and still trusted them, he himself became a special value.
Noble blood, pure heart, a soul seeking Transcendence, a willing sacrifice perhaps there were other factors. But Aiwass's specifications as a sacrifice were very high.
Because that sacrificial ritual was not a targeted summoning ritual for shadow demons, but rather for any higher-level demon. As a result, as soon as the ritual began, the shadow demon came sniffing around.
Aiwass used half of his life force as a sacrifice and signed a contract with the shadow demon this was, in fact, the correct price.
The correct sacrificial price is "half." No matter how much you offer, the demon only takes half, and usually, it's the renewable half. Because the essence of this ritual is "equal division."
Equal division of property, equal division of power, equal division of benefits, equal division of risks in this way, the two parties can be called collaborators. If the summoner's qualities satisfy the demon, the summoner can symbolically take an extra 1% to signify the distinction of "master and servant"; if the summoning was barely successful, then it's usually an even split.
But in reality, this has no binding force on the demon's actions. It's merely a difference in whether the verbal address is "master" or "partner."
Demon Scholars are legal professionals in countries other than Avalon and the Eternal Church. If sacrificial techniques absolutely required killing the sacrifice, then Demon Scholars would inevitably be murderers, and this profession could not possibly be legal. Furthermore, if a Demon Scholar performed self-sacrifice, it would directly equate to suicide.
The sacrifices of Demon Scholars in the Avalon Kingdom were often accompanied by slaughter, but this was actually not a demand from the demons, but rather a need for silencing witnesses, robbery, or preparing ritual materials.
Under circumstances where the spread of mysterious knowledge is restricted, most ordinary people don't even know what extraordinary professions exist within the Path of Transcendence, nor do they even know the formal term "Demon Scholar," instead using "Warlock" as a common folk term, based on the established impression of "he's a lord who can cast spells, anyway."
However, Demon Scholars actually have weak magical abilities and can use very few types of spells.
They are far inferior to Mages of the Path of Wisdom, Necromancers of the Twilight Path, and Sages of the Adaptation Path, and even inferior to Law Masters of the Authority Path the primary strength of Demon Scholars comes from "rituals" and "demons." Many spells require reliance on rituals, need to be prepared in advance, and their power far exceeds normal spells.
For example, Veronica's "Curse Infant" requires an infant cursed to death by the spellcaster as ritual material. A ritual spell guided by a Second Circle Demon Scholar has destructive power sufficient to threaten or even instantly kill Third Level frontline professions.
If they don't have suitable materials on hand, or haven't contracted sufficiently powerful demons, Demon Scholars become very weak.
But conversely, if Demon Scholars scheme in secret and prepare in advance, they can unleash destructive power far beyond their own level.
Now, he was in the open, and they were in the dark.
If Aiwass only used his Demon Scholar abilities to fight, it would be a double disadvantage not only would it easily reveal his identity, but he would also be completely unable to coordinate with his teammates.
He wouldn't even be able to blend in. It would be hard to even lie down and do nothing.
Originally, Aiwass had planned to quickly acquire a priest profession level, but he hadn't expected it to happen so soon. He hadn't even told his adoptive father about it, but Bishop Mathers had already thought of it.
In the morning, the Surveillance Bureau called to make an appointment they said they planned to visit Moriarty Manor in the evening. His adoptive father was very happy, saying he wanted to give Aiwass some kind of commendation or something... but Aiwass wasn't particularly interested in that.
What good things could the Inspector give? In the game, players busied themselves, but in the end, they didn't get anything substantial. All the benefits were split among themselves.
Moreover, Aiwass was worried that Haina, that blockhead, would come again this time, arriving several hours early. So, he didn't dare to go out today.
He had originally planned to stay home and read with his sister.
But at nine in the morning, he was invited to Si Zhu Cathedral by Bishop Mathers.
But now, Aiwass felt no dissatisfaction in his heart; he was exceptionally pious and extremely serious.
Just kidding, this was a profession skill instructor!
And strictly speaking, he had pulled strings. Without passing the examination, and without doing that long and tedious series of "recognition quests," he directly obtained the qualification to learn sacred techniques!
The old bishop slowly explained, "So-called 'sacred techniques' are the most practical, safest, and easiest to master mysterious techniques of the Devotion Path, carefully selected by the Church based on the principles of 'safety,' 'health,' 'ease of learning,' and 'benefiting others.' After passing the corresponding qualification examination, the corresponding techniques will be taught for free by a Bishop, and taught until learned."
I get it, it's like the starter Pokémon. Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur... emphasizing being easy to use and easy to raise.
Aiwass muttered to himself, feeling anxious and impatient.
And Bishop Mathers still unhurriedly said, "There are four kinds of sacred techniques that can be mastered below the Bishop level.
"'Prayer,' 'Sacrificial Fire,' 'Illumination,' and 'Blessing.' It is especially important to note that the essence of mysterious techniques cannot be understood literally."
The old bishop explained, "So-called 'Sacrificial Fire' refers to a technique for strengthening the body and restoring oneself.
"A person's life is like a candle, and the soul is the flame. We, fellow travelers of the Path of Dedication, share our light and fire. And this also means that we ourselves will gradually become depleted.
"I specifically created this unhealthy state for myself to demonstrate to you."
Saying this, the old bishop pointed to his unnaturally white hair at his temples.
Aiwass knew what he was going to say, but still nodded obediently.
Simply put, all spells of the Devotion Path require burning one's own blood.
Even healing involves burning one's own blood to restore others' health if so, then the Devotion Path must have a stable means of restoring blood.
This is the art of "Sacrificial Fire."
"First, light a new candle. Any color will do, it makes no difference once you are proficient enough, carrying a pack of matches will suffice."
The old bishop said, extending his left hand: "I don't know how much you understand about mysterious knowledge, so I will explain from the beginning.
"Among the five fingers of both hands, the thumb symbolizes fire, the index finger symbolizes air, the middle finger symbolizes Aether, the ring finger is earth, and the little finger is water. The four basic elements each have two corresponding fingers, while light and darkness correspond to the left hand and right hand respectively. Therefore, we usually use the left hand for Sacrificial Fire and the elements of the Devotion Path are light and fire, so our most important fingers are the left thumb and middle finger.
"Until you can use it proficiently and engrain it into your instincts, I do not recommend performing any operations with your right hand."
Saying this, a cluster of white flame ignited on the old bishop's left thumb, illuminating the candle holder in front of them.
There was a thick, long white candle already placed there. The light it emitted after being lit instantly illuminated the entire space.
"To facilitate guiding you through your first visualization, I specifically chose the brightest model."
Bishop Mathers explained, motioning for Oswald to push Aiwass's wheelchair closer.
"Come, raise your left hand. Do as I do..."
His movements were slow: "Imagine that what is before you is not a tangible candle flame, but a distant golden sun.
"No matter how bright the fire before you is, you must imagine it shining with an extremely brilliant light that light fills every corner of your vision, completely saturating your entire field of view, without a single shadow. Imagine it can penetrate your palm; even if you open your hand, your hand should be as transparent as glass."
Aiwass did as told.
And just as he extended his hand.
A pop-up window suddenly appeared before his eyes:
[Samuel Mathers is teaching you "Sacrificial Fire." Do you wish to spend 1 Public Experience to master this mysterious technique?]
The moment he saw this pop-up, Aiwass paused for an instant, instinctively looking towards Bishop Mathers.
In the game, if a player's certain mysterious technique was obtained through quests that is, not through reading, but by maxing out an NPC's personal favorability and then receiving one-on-one instruction. The experience required to learn this mysterious technique was directly proportional to the technique's level and inversely proportional to the instructor's level.
In other words, the easier the mysterious technique was to learn, and the higher the instructor's level, the less experience the learner would consume.
In the game, this setting didn't have much significance; it was just to indirectly show how strong this person was. Because players didn't really lack this little bit of experience this broken game had no stamina limit, and the experience spent on learning mysterious techniques wasn't much.
But when online debaters discussed "who is stronger than whom" and "who can instantly kill whom," they would use this as a basis to deduce the corresponding professional level of that NPC.
When players learned sacred techniques back then, they all uniformly had to spend seven experience points to learn them and no matter how weak that teaching NPC, whose name Aiwass had forgotten, was, he was at least a certain Bishop.
So what's the situation with you, old man? You have such a high level in version 0, why have I never heard your name in the game?
Oh no, I've run into a sweeping monk here.