Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lucien didn't know how he should react when he saw the identification result. The Identification spell yielded no information at all. He figured that it was probably because the ring was much more powerful than his current level.
“What is it?” Natasha noticed the change in Lucien's expression.
Since there were only the two of them here, Lucien did not hide his feelings.
Lucien nodded. “I'm trying to a.n.a.lyze it. Watch out for me. If anything goes wrong, cut off the connection between the ring and me immediately.”
“Be careful.” Natasha held her sword tight and stood beside Lucien.
Lucien spread out his spiritual power and carefully touched the simple black ring with it.
Suddenly, Lucien's spiritual power was dragged into an illusionary land. He stood on the lifeless earth covered with cracks and under the gloomy sky. Surrounding him were cl.u.s.ters of dried gra.s.s and greyish-white rivers. However, the white sun in the sky radiated a strong life force.
On the barren land, graves and black tombstones were everywhere. Many of them were slanted or broken. There were so many of them that they looked like cl.u.s.ters of short bushes on the deserted land.
However, the scene revealed a completely different picture in Lucien's eyes. The tombstones, the graves, the rivers, and the filthy clouds connected with each other in a way that was too complicated even to him. The complicacy of the structure exceeded that of any spell structures that Lucien had ever seen, and even merely looking at it made Lucien feel dizzy and weak.
Lucien first ruled out all the illusionary images and then started a.n.a.lyzing it bit by bit. The work was hard, but Lucien was not aiming at figuring out the whole structure but only knowing the function of the ring.
Casting Identification from time to time, half an hour later, Lucien finally figured out where the control core of the ring was.
Withdrawing his spiritual power, Lucien said to Natasha exhaustedly, “I need to take a fifteen-minute break now. Then I'll stimulate the control core of the ring and activate the spiritual imprint left by Congus within. You seize the chance to wipe it off using Pale Justice.”
During the past three years, Lucien had been working on many cutting-edge math problems with the arcanists from Tower including Levski, therefore, the legendary-level structure within the ring was not completely out of his comprehension. He was actually able to use some smarter ways to crack it. However, because of Lucien's lack of Necromancy knowledge and his relatively low level, although he had no problem with math, he still had to refer to violence. But with the adequate support of his knowledge, using violence would be much easier now.
“You can find a way to stimulate it? It's a legendary-level ring.” After knowing that Lucien did not get any feedback from Identification, Natasha's previous excitement faded away. Sometimes, a legendary level item did not bring one good fortune or power, but spelled a disaster, especially when the difference between the levels was too big.
Lucien smiled, although his face still looked a bit pale. “Why not? Come one, I probably can become a grand arcanist before turning thirty. I can at least roughly figure out a legendary structure.”
In front of the woman he admired, every man would try to show off his capability, no matter how old he was.
“When I first got to know you, I didn't realize you were this smart. Honestly speaking, every time when I saw you guys playing with those numbers and shapes, I was always very impressed, although I can't quite understand.” Natasha rubbed her chin and changed her tone as if she was talking to a junior. “But be careful, as I was told that overstraining your brain would make you turn bald.”
Natasha did receive a full set of magic apprentice curriculum when she was young. Her mother taught her pretty much about everything except for meditation, including spell-casting, math, geometry, Element, Electromagnetism, Force Field, Astrology. Her mother hoped that Natasha could become a profound n.o.ble lady.
In other words, Natasha had at least a high school diploma if it had been in today. Besides, she also knew history, fighting, coat of arms, and manners very well.
Lucien was a bit amused. “You think a sorcerer can't deal with alopecia?”
“Well… I think you're right, but lots of n.o.bles are worrying about it. Maybe you can help. It's always your motivation, isn't it? To benefit the public using magic.” said Natasha.
The topic of their conversation kept drifting like all the time.
When Lucien first mentioned his ambition in front of Natasha, his words impressed Natasha greatly. Although as a top n.o.ble, Natasha could hardly fully understand the lives of the ordinary folks, there was no doubt to her that there was a lot of money for the n.o.bles to dig in for in Lucien's idea, and the country could also thrive from it.
Evans Hair Tonic? Lucien thought to himself.
But he wasn't a big fan of the product name at all. He shot a glance at Natasha and then shook his head in great determination. “Enough. Let's start.”
Natasha was quite content that her joke caught Lucien again. So she got more serious and held the sword tight again.
Lucien took a deep breath and again extended his spiritual power onto the ring. This time, his spiritual power did not just stay on the surface, but suddenly dived in, heading for the horrifying cl.u.s.ters of tombstones.
Then, based on his rough understanding of the place, Lucien came around the defense on the outside and then directly headed for one of the ordinary black tombstones.
A red line of epitaph suddenly appeared on it:
“This is the best place for confinement, as everyone will eventually be confined in this small coffin.”
A name was inscribed underneath — Congus.
The scarlet words started distorting, turning into horrifying monster mouths, and they instantly tore Lucien's spiritual power apart into pieces. Behind the gravestone came out a blurry specter. Its eyes were s.h.i.+ning in jade-green light.
“Now!” Lucien said aloud to Natasha through the telepathic bond. He was in agony as his spiritual power was suffering from the bitter impact.
This was the best chance!
Natasha was well prepared, and she fully trusted Lucien. Following Lucien's instruction, she hacked at the ring.
Greyish-white smoke was released from the ring, and it sounded like that the cl.u.s.ter of smoke was crying. However, under the power of Pale Justice, the smoke quickly disappeared.
Now the black ring looked very dim. The gloss on it earlier was now gone.
Lucien took some time to recover from the pain and started leaving his spiritual imprint in the ring. Meanwhile, Natasha kept staying alert in case there was a further trap left by Congus.
As soon as Lucien finished leaving the imprint, suddenly, the ring started sucking in Lucien's spiritual power like a huge vortex. Within seconds, pretty much all of Lucien's spiritual power had been drained. He had to turn to his Holm Crown ring, Origin, to get out the extra spiritual power that he saved earlier.
Meanwhile, Lucien seized the chance and turned the black hole in his cognitive world to the front, facing the huge spiritual power vortex! The two holes were like two suction pumps rivaling against each other!
The black hole finally distorted the entire s.p.a.ce. The speed of Lucien losing his spiritual power suddenly slowed down. Then Lucien heard something snapped, and the suction from the ring instantly disappeared.
“Are you alright?” Asked Natasha concerned, seeing that Lucien's entire face had turned very pale.
Lucien sighed. “I did leave my spiritual imprint in it, but this ring is not something that I am able to use right now.”
Then Lucien shared the information of the ring with Natasha through the telepathic bond:
“Congus Ring, level-one senior-rank legendary item. The wearer has to be close to the ninth circle, or he would be drained up of all spiritual power and turned into an idiot.
“The qualified wearer will be immune to all the magic spells from the first to eighth circle, immune to Confinement, Shadow Killer, Energy Drain, Command, and Banshee Howling. Also, the wearer will have a good defense against legendary-level spells in the field of necromancy and illusion, even if they are cast by a top legendary.
“The wearer's physical fitness, life force recovery speed, and physical defense will also be improved by to levels, reaching the limit of that of a gold knight. Meanwhile, there is also an extra level of magic resistance improvement up to level-two legendary, and the wearer will be immune to any toxin and disease spells lower than the legendary level, as well as some cursing spells based on necromancy power.
“In addition, the wearer is automatically cast with Advanced Invisibility (4th circle) and Advanced Speed (6th circle), unless the wearer chooses to deactivate them. Every day, the wearer can cast Confinement (9th circle) for four times, Undead Scourge (9th circle) for three times, and Time Stop (9th circle) for two times.
“Meanwhile, the ring contains horrible magic power that gives its wearer the ability to cast unimaginable legendary spells. The wearer will be able to cast Spirit Confinement twice a day, DemiG.o.d-lich Howling twice a day, and Undead Rampart once.
“This is a super powerful ring made by a formidable demiG.o.d-lich!
“Both death and confinement frighten people.
“Congus”.
Natasha remained silent for a while and then sighed. “This is such a powerful ring. If Congus had chosen to use Time Stop, that would have been the end of us.”
“I don't think so.” Lucien shook his head and pointed at his left hand. “I have two demiG.o.ds inside of my body. Although neither of them could fight directly, their mere presence can make me immune to many spells, including Time Stop. Congus for sure already knew about it.”
The ninth-circle spell, Time Stop, only slowed down time-lapse within a small region. It was not for completely pausing time.
Natasha nodded, and then she sighed. “What a pity that you can't use it… I thought we'd have much hope surviving in the next day and a half.”
“We can't, but someone else can. As long as we can find a target close to the ninth circle and control him, we can make him wear the ring for us. Then problem solved,” said Lucien seriously.
Natasha's eyes lit up. “That's right! Especially that the false G.o.ds here in this world are not as powerful as those of the same level from our world! So the target you're talking about is…?”
“Ell, the Lord of Redemption.” Lucien already had the answer.
Then he took out the crystal ball and started searching for Ell's whereabouts.
However, the crystal ball yielded no result at all. It never happened before.
Lucien frowned. “Something's wrong with Ell. I missed something.”
“Try Francis. Maybe he's still around Ell.” Natasha suggested.
Lucien nodded and started casting again. Then after a short while, Lucien suddenly looked up and said to Natasha, “Francis is very close to us! Maybe he's right in the Death Valley!”
Horoscope could not provide the exact location of Francis, but it's results were enough for Lucien to make a preliminary judgment based on it.
“Although we don't know what they're planning, it could be a chance for us,” said Natasha. Then she turned to look at the ring, and disappointment was still in her eyes. “If we could use it, no matter what plan we take, it will be much easier.”
Lucien smiled. “There are two ways to reach the ninth circle.”
“What do you mean?” Natasha lifted one of her eyebrows.
Lucien continued. “First, your spiritual power will have to reach the ninth circle, but this isn't possible right now. So there's another way around: to have a fully substantialized cognitive world.”
“So you are saying…” Natasha started having some clues.
Lucien nodded. “When I came up with New Alchemy, my cognitive world already reached close to the eighth circle. In other words, my arcana level is higher than my magic level.”
Although one's arcana level came from the acc.u.mulation of arcana credits, therefore it seemed less reliable compared to the magic level, but to some degree, it reflected the level of one's cognitive world.
“But this still takes time. You don't have time to do research right now, do you?” Natasha asked.
Lucien picked up the ring and asked Natasha to go with him.
When they came out of the underwater cave and to the other side of the mountain, Lucien found another hiding cave and said to Natasha in a low voice.
“I don't have time right now, but I've been working on my research for long enough.”
As he was speaking, Lucien took out piles of files from his pouch and said, “these are data collected by Mr. Douglas with regards to the satellites and the questions he came up with. For the past three years, I've been working on solving them.”
“That's why when you called me, your voice sounded so close and clear, right?” Natasha recalled. “And when I asked you why you didn't answer.”
“Yes.” Lucien nodded seriously.
In the past three years, Lucien had been working with Levski and other arcanists on the Evans Geometry, which brought them lots of problems that could only be solved by tensor a.n.a.lysis. Therefore, Lucien had been working hard on deducing the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity.
Although Lucien had not progressed much in the latter, the former had already been almost ready!
The past three years of planning, acc.u.mulating, and waiting should finally fruit now!
Lucien unfolded his alchemy hut and started developing his paper under Natasha's curious stare.
“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies and Ma.s.s-energy Equation.”
Outside of the cave, the sun had completely set down..
