『Gem Facetology』

Above the card's painting, a colorful gem is cut into special geometric shapes, and the light passes through these breathtaking crystal surfaces and angles, and then the world appears in some incredible way.

The card melted like chocolate in his palm, and silver-white metal droplets then penetrated into the skin like mercury.

Immediately afterwards, various knowledge about the facets of gems burst into Ed's mind like a tsunami. At this moment, his brain was like a differential machine, reading the data on the punched card at a stable rate.

The huge and complicated knowledge made him overwhelmed.

Under the impact of huge amount of information, the brain seemed to have entered an overload state: he could not think, lost his language ability, and could not even move his fingers.

Fortunately, this state ended soon, and my mind calmed down again. Many nouns from gem facets emerged in my memory, like shells left after the tide recedes—

Chessboard facets, spider web facets, butterfly wings, star-shaped... including the pupil facets of the cat's eye stone on the one-eyed spider, and there are even some facets that he cannot understand, which are separated from the concept of geometricality.

"Uh, this is...?"

Ed felt his eyes spinning in front of him, and he held his forehead with both hands, muttering vaguely intently.

[This is a normal phenomenon. Once you slow down, you will return to normal. Now you are lying on the bed and entering your sleep.]

Silvi seemed to have no intention of leaving Ed for breathing and resting, but continued to command the next move.

"But am I just dreaming now?"

Ed resisted the disgusting dizziness, held his forehead with his right hand, and showed a question with an index finger on his left hand.

[I need you to enter the secondary dream, where it is more chaotic and more malleable.]

"Okay, I'll give it a try."

Ed took a deep breath and silently recited ten numbers. Until the feeling of turning the earth was relieved that day, he lay on the dilapidated wooden bed in the room. A creaking sound came from the old wooden bed-

He once again guided his consciousness to sink and headed to the deeper part of the dream.

...

Consciousness seemed to have arrived at the quiet deep sea, and it was pitch black. There seemed to be something cruising by like fish, silent ripples rose and dissipated, but they could not be touched.

[Now, imagine an irregular crystal, whatever it is.]

Irregular crystals...

As Ed thought gradually built up, a bumpy colorless crystal stone appeared in front of him, and several crystal clusters suddenly raised from the crystal bed, like beetles with four legs facing the sky.

[The Secret Guard Program can fine-tune the parameters of items in the dream. Choose a facet structure, use your will to forge it, and perfect its shape.]

After saying that, Ed's hands really ignited a pure white flame that was so thin that he could not feel the temperature of the flame at all.

However, when he slowly approached the crystal with his hands burning with white flames, the crystal was like mercury, gently melting into a suspended spherical liquid, turning into a dazzling ball of light.

Which facet should I start with...?

He searched repeatedly from his memory and finally chose a classical Volunian facet that was easier to use - "Royal Shelter".

This facet, which originates from the secret text of "Lake", can project a single energy barrier forward when it is stimulated. Ancient elf nobles often wear "Royal Shelter" facet gemstones on rings or necklaces to protect themselves from assassination or other sudden threats.

Unlike the iron-shaped knight shield that was common in later generations, the shape of the "Royal Shelter" is closer to the kite-shaped shield of the late Vulunich era, sharp and slender, like a drop of tears flowing into the sky.

His mind was constantly repeating the structure of "Royal Shelter". As the details became clearer, the liquid crystal changed into shape and gradually formed a water droplet shape...

Suddenly, it seemed that due to uneven heat, a slight crack appeared on the crystal surface.

Then the disaster happened - as the crystal solidified, the crack spread rapidly like cancer and was irreversible.

Until the irreversible situation in the end, the crystal shattered into countless fragments.

If this were Catalina's birthstone, the consequences would be unimaginable...

【It doesn't matter, continue.】

Ed rubbed his palms, held his breath in his heart, and reconstructed an irregular crystal.

This time, he heated the crystal surface as evenly as possible, allowing the crystal to gradually solidify from a relatively stable state.

Finally, the transparent crystal gradually formed a stable form, and the shining facet expanded and extended along the center of gravity of the gem, forming a perfect tear.

The facet engraving of the "Royal Shelter" was successfully carried out.

Normal gem faceting carving requires complicated grinding and cutting, and a part of the mass will inevitably be lost during the process. In my dream, Ed can use the strange light white flame to melt the gem and solidify it again.

Most importantly, there will be no loss of quality.

After confirming that the crystal state had stabilized, Ed carefully pinched the colorless crystal suspended in the darkness.

I saw that the crystal projected an invisible barrier in the shape of a zither along the optical axis where the facet meets.

I don't know how strong it is? Ed used his consciousness to build his 9mm caliber revolver and aimed it at the invisible barrier to shoot.

Bang————————the bullet shattered the barrier, but the warhead also had obvious deformation.

[The effect will be better against traditional projectiles such as bows, arrows, crossbows, and arrows. After all, there was no gunpowder or bullet when the elves invented this facet... In short, it was not bad, at least not lower than my expectations.]

Silvi commented.

Ed reviewed the details that could be improved just now in his mind, and tried again. This time the crystal surface was more crystal clear and obviously made some progress.

He shot the barrier again with bullets, and this time the bullet hovers in the center of the barrier.

Although the barrier was covered with dense regular cracks, like a snowflake that had magnified several times, it did not break immediately like before.

[From today, practice once every night before falling asleep. This way you should be able to master the melting method before the next full month and use it to treat Catalina's crystal malignant disease.]

"Yeah, I understand."

Ed nodded, and then the pale white flame obscured his horizon and sent him back to reality...

...

When he woke up, it was already dark and the streets were already empty when he looked out the window.

[What do you plan to do next? Join the Shentuo Bureau? Or just be a free person like your sister?]

"I don't think I have the choice."

There was no one at the moment, Ed said softly:

"Mr. Eaton's meaning is already very obvious: either I join the Shentuo Bureau, or I can only act under the monitoring of the Shentuo Bureau in the future. Instead of doing this, it is better to join the Shentuo Bureau directly."

[Hmph, it seems that you are not as stupid as you look.]

Ed casually put his arm on the windowsill and looked out the window, with a little helplessness in his words:

"From the moment I came back to life, I'm afraid I've been included in the list of key surveillance. What's more, when dealing with Freud, I also used the same abilities as Arthur. How could the Divine Mechanism Bureau not be suspicious?"

The pale white flame floated in front of the window, like a slender finger writing on the window fog:

【Do you regret it?】

"What do you regret?"

[Remember to be involved in this series of things. When you get the Arthur character card, you have the chance to leave. There are many countries and regions in the world, and there are always places where the Gods and Bureaus cannot or are unwilling to manage it.]

"Who knows? Maybe I feel uneasy, even though I don't remember having something like "conscience."

Ed gently pressed his forehead against the window, revealing a heartfelt smile:

"For some reason, when I think of people like Arthur and Catalina in the world who are willing to believe me, I feel like I have to do something."

[It sounds like a noble person, my dear good gentleman, but noble is a kind of useless virtue.]

"Who said no? As long as the Shentuo Bureau does not realize your existence, I will be safe for the time being."

Ed closed his eyes and prepared to leave these troubles until tomorrow to solve them.

"—Good night, Sylvie." He waved his hand softly, and the pale white flamed words gradually faded.

He reached out and turned off the light. In the room with only a glimmer of light, the outline reflected by the broken moon shadow made him lonely again.

Before he fell asleep, he couldn't help but open the window, and stretched his elbow on the windowsill and looked out:

On his left, the orange-red gas lamps were warm and pleasant, making the city look particularly tall and majestic. But when he looked to the right, it was still covered with dark night fog.

The East District is like a root system buried in dark soil, providing the entire city with a steady stream of nutrients...

"Good night, Yinwu City."
Chapter completed!