"Three formulas appeared at once; this notebook is not simple," Luo En muttered, stroking the notebook's cover.
"If these formulas are real, then it can be confirmed that this book is definitely related to Beyonder."
"No, the mere appearance of this content out of nowhere already confirms it's a Beyonder item."
"But how could such a valuable item appear at a second-hand stall?"
Luo En rested his hand on his forehead, leaning on his desk, contemplating the notebook's origin.
"The reason I bought it in the first place was because it had a spiritual reaction. Looking at it this way, it would be stranger if this notebook wasn't a Beyonder item."
"And this monocle, it clearly can't translate Chinese that I understand, yet it can translate these incomprehensible texts."
He took out the monocle and put it on.
But he didn't infuse it with spirituality; he just wanted to see if there was anything different.
"Could it be that it can only translate texts related to mysticism?"
The current situation seemed to suggest only this possibility.
"Should I divine?"
Luo En thought of the pendulum wrapped around his wrist and had the idea of using this universal method again.
But after a moment of thought, he gave up.
"Forget it."
He could currently only divine using the pendulum and Tarot cards, but these two methods were better suited for answering questions that were either right or wrong.
It was probably impossible to divine the notebook's origin using these two methods.
He didn't know how to use divination methods that could yield more information, like Dream Divination or mirror divination.
The situation was temporarily at a standstill.
… …
He once again infused the monocle with spirituality, hoping to see more content.
"It's not working."
Looking at the bizarre mystical texts in front of him, no translation appeared in Luo En's mind as before.
The monocle's Bring Your Own distortion filter only made his head feel dizzier, making it impossible to concentrate.
"Was that just a coincidence, or is only the part about the formula in this book correct?"
"It seems I still need to find a way to decipher it myself." The shortcut was no longer viable, and Luo En could only try to decipher this notebook by himself using the most brute-force method.
There was no other way; the potential gains from this book were simply too high. If there were more formulas later, Sequence 6, Sequence 5, Sequence 4…
He dared not even imagine how valuable those formulas could be.
"Go to the library to see if there are any clues in this regard…" After making up his mind, Luo En got up, put on his outdoor coat, and planned to go to the library.
"Lachi, you come with me…" Looking at the Orange Cat lazily sleeping on Luo En's bed, he dismissed the idea of bringing Lachi.
"What a lazy cat," Luo En mumbled, intending to leave, but after taking two steps, he turned back.
"Look at my memory, how can I not bring the book if I'm going to decipher it?" He patted his head, feeling that he had become careless, immersed in thought.
"This book is so precious; I can't not carry it with me." He stuffed the notebook into his satchel and then left the house.
… …
… …
"Esteemed Meihua 5, our team has arrived in Tingen. As in previous years, we will perform with the Circus here for about a month.
This time, I am accompanied by a few newcomers, and I will do my best to ensure their safety.
Thank you for your generosity; our operational funds for this mission are quite ample.
What I wish to report to you is that I have discovered traces of Hermes Society members' activities in Tingen.
As the Hermes Society is an opposing organization to the Shawshank Firm, I fear this is not merely a coincidence; they may have other intentions.
As a squad leader, I do not have the authority to proceed directly with the next action.
Therefore, I am writing this letter, awaiting your next instruction."
A Magician in a swallow-tailed coat wrote this letter by candlelight.
After completing the letter, he stopped writing, lowered his head, and mumbled something.
Instantly, the candlelight flickered, and a pitch-black hand appeared out of thin air, grabbed the letter, and then vanished with it into the night.
… …
… …
Through two days of research, Luo En generally understood what the text in the notebook was from various ancient texts and history books.
He discovered that the text in the notebook was a language called Ancient Hermes. It seemed to be an ancient version of Hermetic language.
Since his original body had learned Hermetic language, Luo En was not unfamiliar with this language used in ancient rituals.
However, there were very few books on Ancient Hermes in the library, which made the deciphering work quite difficult.
Luo En guessed that Ancient Hermes might be related to Beyonder, so most of the information was deliberately controlled by the Official.
Because of this, trying to decipher the entire notebook by himself became an almost impossible task.
However, Luo En also thought of a method: to find the words or sentences that appeared most frequently.
Just like cracking a code, some frequently appearing passages are likely common words or phrases.
As long as these are deciphered, it might be possible to deduce other content.
With this idea, Luo En began to scour the entire book, searching for frequently appearing words.
He found that apart from some already confirmed nouns and some possible modal particles, there were three main words that appeared most frequently.
When the deciphering scope was reduced to only three words, the difficulty of cracking decreased geometrically.
"Got it."
Luo En, holding materials in one hand and a pen in the other, was scribbling on the draft paper in front of him.
On his desk were various materials he had borrowed from the library. He had originally intended to decipher them directly at the library.
But then he thought that since this was knowledge related to mysticism, deciphering it so openly in public seemed somewhat inappropriate.
So he borrowed all those materials, and for that, he even got a library card.
Just now, he had successfully translated the first word.
"Hornacis."
"This sounds like a place name?"
The meaning of this word was not as clear as Luo En had imagined. After a moment of thought, he decided to put it aside and concentrate on deciphering the other two words.
"Flegrea."
This was the second word deciphered.
"Why are these all such strange words, whose meanings aren't immediately obvious?"
"Could it be that my deciphering method is wrong?"
Luo En, who failed to gain information from the second word, seemed a bit annoyed.
"Meow~"
"Lachi, don't meow, don't disturb me." Luo En didn't turn his head, his tone somewhat impatient.
"Meow!"
"Meow!!"
"What are you doing, Lachi!" Luo En frowned, turned around, and saw the Orange Cat lying on the bed, belly up.
"Belly, right, I forgot to feed you today." Luo En suddenly realized that he had been at his desk all day.
"Wait, I don't think I've eaten either!" As soon as he realized this, a wave of hunger washed over him.
… …
… …
"When you were a stray cat, no one fed you, so why are you so lazy now?"
Looking at Lachi happily eating fish, Luo En smiled and complained. Then he returned to his desk to continue his deciphering work.
Perhaps it was because he had eaten, he felt his thoughts become clearer, and in a short while, he completed the deciphering.
He picked up his pen and wrote down the last word on the draft paper, which was also the most frequently appearing one.
"Antigonus."