Tonight Dorothy will hold a ceremony in Shade's attic to be promoted from the fourth ring of the low ring to the fifth ring of the middle ring, so Shade does not plan to go to Fort Midhill this Sunday.
After breakfast, Shade went to Old John's pawn shop first. Because he arrived so early, Father John had just opened the door and didn't even take out the small sign outside:
"You came to my place so early. Do you want to buy something?"
After the gray-haired old man said hello to his neighbors, he yawned and stood at the door of the store to ask Shade who was walking along the street. Tobesk was so peaceful in the early morning, especially for those who did not have to work for a living.
For those who work hard:
"Detective, help me get the padlock from the door to the counter."
"Okay, but Father John, is the steam pipe at your door leaking? Why do you put a basin here to collect water?"
Shade asked curiously.
"The pipeline company has been notified to come and repair it. We can't delay this, otherwise it will freeze and crack when winter comes. Speaking of which, what are you here for?"
The two of them walked into the store together. The light was not very good in the morning and the gas lamp was turned on in the store.
"Is there a moonstone?"
"Of course, today's first business is so small? Detective, how much do you want?"
As he spoke, the old man rummaged through the goods list under the counter to check how many goods he still had...
"Just a small piece is enough. One of my magic arts requires casting materials, but only a very small amount is lost each time. Therefore, a small piece of moonstone can last me a long time."
"It must be inconvenient to always carry stones in your pocket, right? And they are easy to lose."
Old John raised his eyes and looked at Shade.
"So what do you mean?"
"I happen to have a ring made of moonstone here, and it has runes written on it using the moon script of the ancestors of the Fourth Age that can enhance the effect of thaumaturgy. Not only that, it"
"You can just make an offer."
Shade smiled and said:
"So early, you are really interested in making money from me."
"For the sake of you introducing Louisa to my place and placing a big order, I plan to sell it to you at cost price this time!"
Old John raised his neck and said, and finally took Shade's 1 pound 8 shillings and handed him the ring that looked like it was made of gray stone.
The surface of the ring is relatively smooth, and is engraved with a circle of small and elongated inscriptions. The letters look like a missing moon.
The translated meaning is quite normal:
【May the moon be with you.】
After returning home, Shade did not wait for the blond female writer. Instead, a strange carriage stopped at the door of his home.
Then a middle-aged woman who called herself "the owner of Aikedi Clothing Store" asked the clerks to carefully take down the twenty sets of clothes from the carriage and take them to the second floor for Shade.
"Miss Princess ordered it for you. She gave us the size information."
The confused Shade took the order from the female shopkeeper and was about to sign for it, only to realize that it was the clothes sent by Lesia:
"How many gold pounds did these clothes cost?"
The inventory only contains information about these hand-made clothes, and there is no price.
"Miss Prince's servant asked us not to tell you the price. It was the lady who asked for it."
Shade nodded and signed his name on the receipt. In this way, he would not be short of clothes this autumn.
Shade was at home all day long, and Dorothy came at ten o'clock in the morning. She looked a little nervous, and kept comparing the documents she got from the college to check whether there were any gaps in her ritual.
Shade suggested that he invite Luvia and Dr. Schneider to help out in the evening, but Dorothy refused. Her ceremony required as few people as possible, otherwise it might affect the success rate of the ceremony.
In order to let Dorothy relax, Shad took Dorothy to the University District to walk the cat after dinner in the evening. Then he did not go home, but walked along the Terrarel River embankment that passed through the University District.
Sitting together on the lawn and watching the stars.
The two chatted about many things, and this kind of conversation under the stars really relaxed Dorothy. In short, when they returned home at nine o'clock in the evening, the blonde seemed to be completely fine.
The time chosen for the ceremony was ten o'clock that evening. In order to prevent Mia from causing trouble, Shade locked it up on the second floor in advance and prepared the cat food it liked to eat and the two rings it liked so that the cat would not mess with it.
There was too much movement.
At 9:50 in the evening, Shade and Dorothy came to the attic together. Shade raised his head and glanced at the star map drawn with chalk on the sloping ceiling of the attic:
"If it goes well, the ceremony will be over in twenty minutes. But I'm curious, when you get promoted, will there be any reaction from Lesia a few blocks away?"
"When Lecia was promoted to the fifth ring, I just felt a little warm in my body, and there were no other abnormal phenomena. But once I am promoted this time, we will be on the same level again, and our connection will be strengthened. So, Lecia said an hour ago,
Just hide in her room in advance to prevent any accidents."
Dorothy stood in the middle of the floor filled with ritual items and looked at the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the center of the ritual array. This mirror was an antique and was said to have been used by the princesses of the Cavendish family three hundred years ago.
, which Dorothy borrowed from old John.
Although Papa John is a bit stingy, the products in his hands are absolutely authentic.
Dorothy's core spiritual rune is [Writer] [Play] [Another Princess]. When she is in a low level, she uses [Writer] as the core of the system, uses fairy tales as a means of power, and draws strength from enlightenment until
Characters in fairy tales can be summoned and used as summons to assist in battle.
Lesia's low-level ring also uses this method, and the two ladies' middle-level rings plan to use "acting". In addition to continuing to connect the sublimated words of fairy tales and calling out the characters in the story, they also try to "act" by themselves.
Play the characters in those stories and let yourself have the power of fairy tales.
Therefore, in this promotion, in addition to thoroughly connecting the words of the lower fourth level of sublimation - [Besides the dream of matches, the writer feels compassion for those who freeze to death], she also needs to activate the power of the core spirit runes as much as possible, and do a good job after the middle level
system construction.
This resulted in Dorothy dressing up as a "match girl". That is, she was barefoot, wearing patched coarse cloth clothes, a scarf on her head, and smeared pot ash on her face.
, holding a small basket in his hand, with matches in the basket.
Probably in order to show the "under-clothed" feeling, Dorothy's clothes were a little unsuitable for wearing on autumn nights, but the four-ring warlock would not catch a cold easily, so there was no need to worry about her health.
Now on the ground, in addition to the ritual traces drawn with special chalk, the precious metal charms bought from the academy, the potion bottles on the cabinets on the wall, and the ritual symbols made of antiques, there are also upright matches.
.The matches are stuck to the clay and fixed on the floor without tipping. Fixing these matches is the most troublesome step in arranging the entire ceremony.
"Attention, there are still ten seconds!"
Shade, who can sense time accurately, said, quickly walking to the attic window and opening it. The night sky was still shrouded in mist tonight, but the moon could still be seen.
The light of the moon shone on Shade. He stood at the window and turned around:
"Five seconds! Call out the life ring!"
Stretching out both hands, huge brass rings appeared simultaneously behind the two of them, and four-colored auras immediately overflowed in the attic.
"Three seconds! Silent moonlight!"
The moonlight slanted in from the window and shrouded Shade's body, helping him speed up his spiritual recovery. Of course, only he could see this beam of light.
"Two seconds! My lock, the little match girl!"
Of course, Shade, who only had three rings, could not fully use this thaumaturgy.
But with the first ring, he can summon snowflakes. With the second ring, he can vaguely summon the moon above his head. In the third ring state, while his spirit is rapidly consumed, his body and life ring resonate with the moonlight outside the window.
, then the starry sky and the star map on the attic ceiling vaguely overlapped, and it was as if the ceiling had become transparent, allowing the bright galaxy to hang directly above their heads.
Large-scale rituals can also use myth locks. Dorothy spent the winnings from betting on players in the city some time ago to arrange myth lock rituals in order to allow Shade to use [The Little Match Girl] as fully as possible at this moment.
"One! Dorothy, it's time!"
Dorothy stood in the center of the attic, her eyes closed, facing the huge copper-framed floor-to-ceiling mirror. The moonlight outside the window and the starlight above her head shone on her at the same time, while the snowflakes fell on her head and shoulders, and then slowly melted.
She carried a basket on her left arm and held in her right hand the story of "The Little Match Girl" written in her own hand. This was the original version of the story provided by the creator of the story, Shad, and symbolized the source of sublimated words.
The parchment roll automatically flew into the sky, and the curled paper roll unfolded little by little under the illumination of Dorothy's spiritual light. Then the flame ignited from the tail of the parchment paper, and then spread upward.
The ceremonial array on the ground lit up, and the 365 matches that were not originally lit lit up together under the snow-fallen ceiling.
In the swaying firelight, the surface of the floor-to-ceiling mirror that originally reflected this strange scene in the attic gradually blurred. A strange white mist covered the mirror surface after the parchment roll was completely burned out. But Dorothy still kept her eyes closed.
In this state, his right hand swung gracefully in front of him, and then a match appeared between his fingers.
Shaking the match slightly, the flame appeared on the head of the match. She opened her eyes and lightly threw the burning match towards the mirror.
Surrounded by hundreds of matches, surrounded by the ceremonial matrix that lit up on the ground, surrounded by moonlight, starlight and spiritual light, the matches ignited the white mist on the mirror. After the fire, a street scene of falling snow appeared on
Inside the mirror.
Shade, who struggled to maintain the starlight and falling snow, breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that the ceremony went very smoothly.
Dorothy held the basket and stared at herself in the mirror on the streets of the snow-falling town. In the mirror, she was huddled on the side of the street, with obvious traces of frostbite on her fair skin, and her face was pale as she looked at the snow-falling town.
"The Fantasy of Matches."
She said softly, and Dorothy's reflection in the mirror seemed to be looking at the "other Dorothy" in the mirror, trembling and standing up.
Dorothy drank the potions she had prepared in advance, and then sprinkled the dust at her feet evenly with the [Forged Philosopher's Stone] as the material.
The spiritual light on the life ring behind him shone brighter and brighter, and the matches burning on the ground did not shrink, nor did they gradually extinguish. The fire light became brighter and brighter, until the entire attic was illuminated like daylight.