Chapter 39 – After the departure of today’s three guests, Charles entered the secret library. There was much to analyze today. He needed to analyze the increased stone plate ability he obtained last time and confirm the results he newly obtained this time.
And afterward, he planned to go to the vision world. Two prophecy stone pieces were combined. He was infinitely curious about how much stronger the power had become now.
“Shall we examine the items we obtained?”
The newly obtained items were one relic, one magic book, and one holy relic from the purifying organization. In total, there were three items.
In addition, he had brought various occult materials and talents from the Linden family mansion, but the important ones were about three items.
To examine the relic, he picked it up. This was an emerald brooch that Efrain Linden had, which had previously blocked the bullets from Charles’s revolver.
Charles turned his head to the side. There lay a beautiful monocle and a rough cutlass. He couldn’t use the monocle last time in the mansion.
There were no long metal objects around. Also, it wasn’t possible to walk around carrying a cutlass during the day. Even if it wasn’t a cutlass, any metal object longer than 1m caught the eye.
“Compared to that, the brooch can always be worn.”
He activated the power of domination on the emerald brooch and read the status window.
[Emerald Brooch]
[Classification: Relic]
[Summary: A brooch of unknown origin.]
[Ability: The wearer is protected against physical attacks from both long-range and short-range. It can block any powerful physical attack. If it receives 10 attacks, the protective ability disappears and it takes a day to recharge.]
[Side Effects: The wearer must consume six pineapples each day while wearing it. Failure to do so will result in the return of the damage they received.]
“Amazing.”
The ability to defend against physical attacks up to 10 times a day. With this, one could survive even sniper bullets. However, it was important to note that it was a physical defense, so it would be useless against someone carrying a flamethrower, for example.
One might think about how they would encounter an enemy carrying a flamethrower in the city, but Metropolis was a place where anything could happen.
“The condition of having to consume pineapples daily is a bit of a bother, but it’s not as bad as I thought since pineapples are easily found in the city.”
Well, anyway, it wasn’t much of a bad side effect. Charles then applied the power of domination to the next item.
[Lion Resurrection Scroll Volume 1.]
[Classification: Magic Book]
[Summary: A lion resurrection scroll containing the art of necromancy. It uses the power of the god of the other world, ‘The Messenger of Death,’ to resurrect the dead perfectly. It also contains spells to turn the dead into servants.]
[Side Effects: The more the magic book is used, the more it leads to death and strongly induces suicidal impulses.]
“Yikes!”
Startled, Charles frowned as he looked at the book that suddenly appeared in his hand.
“Smells like rotting corpses. Get rid of this right now.”
“Eek. I don’t smell anything.”
“Don’t you smell the coppery scent? This thing is a third of it. It’s in charge of the dead in the Lion Resurrection Scroll.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Charles scratched his head as he put down the Lion Resurrection Scroll. He didn’t think he would need to use this magic book right away. Using corpses was the simplest method of creating servants, but it was repulsive.
Even when he played as a different Pope, he didn’t like necromancers like that and ended up avoiding them. It wasn’t that the undead were invincible, and besides, Metropolis was a metropolis.
If the setting was not Metropolis but somewhere like a plain or prairie, it might have been useful, but it was challenging to find corpses in the city. It was also necessary to clean up the annoying cemetery and there was no place to keep the corpses brought in, and since the corpses had to be recreated as undead, it was impractical as an immediate power source.
Furthermore, the undead were all swept away by the Militant Knights of the Illuminated Church. It was more profitable to summon new servants from another world and make a contract with them than to steal corpses from the other world.
“Well, the story might change if I can gather all three volumes of the Lion Resurrection Scroll.”
For now, he sealed it somewhere in the secret library. Unfortunately, magic books could not be taken to the vision world, just like the Lion Resurrection Scroll could not be kept there either.
In fact, the last item Charles was looking forward to was the relic he obtained. He pulled out the chest he had stored in the rear warehouse. When he opened the lid of the chest, all the Holy Water from the Light Soprano was completely evaporated.
“No, it’s more like absorption.”
The weakened Holy Grail fragment, which had been dictated by the power of the Light Soprano, was no longer emitting delusions as intensely as before. Charles raised his hand and touched the Holy Grail fragment.
“Seems like the fear is gone now.”
“It’s neutralized because I’ve balanced it sufficiently. The Holy Grail fragment is now completely out of the clutches of the Delusion Machine.”
He scattered his aura and saw that the enormous malice that had been mixed in with the original Holy Grail fragment disappeared as if washed away. His enlightenment value didn’t rise, and there was no other harm.
It was decent enough for even an ordinary person to see. Charles felt it was time to use the power of domination.
“Exciting.”
“Are you going to dominate that now?”
“It might take a little longer. I need to concentrate now, so don’t interrupt me.”
“Got it.”
Pagnal Recor sat at the nearby desk and looked at Charles. He closed his eyes and focused his mind. The power of domination was not an ordinary ability.
Before he was possessed, Charles gave all he had to ‘Hermes,’ an entity, and obtained all of his abilities. Hermes was a great being to the point where his name was engraved in the era.
Among players, he was considered the primary being closest to the gods of the other world.
With the abilities bestowed by Hermes, Charles could dominate even relics. When his fingertips connected, a different recoil returned than usual. Unlike ordinary relics, a strong resistance was felt.
He analyzed the structure, unfolded the power, and dominated it. With two pieces of stone obtained, Charles’s aura had increased tremendously. Simply by overlaying his aura, the Holy Grail offered no resistance and yielded.
The Holy Grail fragment connected its consciousness and sent telepathy.
“Program initializing. Administrator authority change.”
[Holy Grail Fragment: One of the four major relics classified as Cup, Wand, Sword, and Medal. Initially, the relic was empowered directly by the relic machine, but most of that power has been lost and it is currently attributed to the user Charles. It contains an artificial intelligence created by the relic machine, but the program has been reset. It possesses a vast array of abilities.]
Charles gazed at the Holy Grail fragment after domination. The two heart-shaped jewels of sapphire and ruby were shining brightly. The voice transmitted telepathically was mechanical.
By toggling the vast array of abilities in the status window, one could learn the information, but Charles decided to ask directly.
“What abilities do you possess?”
“Your ‘creation’ related abilities will be enhanced.”
“You can collect and store the aura imbued in entities or objects and transfer it to others.”
“The owner linked to the Holy Grail can always store additional aura in the Holy Grail. As long as the owner is alive, they will receive aura permanently.”
“Drinking the water contained in the Holy Grail fragment will heal the body and mind.”
“Great.”
Charles grinned. Using the power of domination, he took away the ‘complete power’ of the relic.
“Still, I won’t be able to use the abilities as perfectly as the head of the Order of the Holy Crown.”
Even though it was a downgrade of about 70% of the full power, it was still unethical to take someone else’s power. Charles had once played against Jonas Shaft, the head of the Order of the Holy Crown.
Jonas Shaft’s singular abilities were powerful, especially the abilities emanating from the relics were overwhelming. In fact, the relics of other Orders were no less formidable either.
The greatest advantage of the Holy Grail fragment was its ability to receive almost infinite aura. The amount of aura that a human body could store was limited. It could be called the size of the soul. However, by linking with the Holy Grail fragment, one could pull aura from it and use it.
Originally, this was impossible. Temporarily embedding aura elsewhere was relatively easy, but it was challenging to permanently embed it. However, this relic could store aura permanently.
While linked to the relic, one could receive the stored aura.
“If Jonas Shaft had this relic, there’s a high probability that in almost every scenario, he would sacrifice the ordinary citizens of the Metropolis city. Through Human Sacrifice, all their souls would be exchanged for aura and stored in the Holy Grail fragment.”
Charles had no intention of gobbling up the aura in such a mad way, so he stored his aura to consume later.
And the ability to heal the body. This meant he didn’t need to acquire potions separately. It would be a good idea to have some ointments just in case, but having an alternative to potions was a plus.
Since the items were roughly sorted out, Charles planned to go to the vision world to examine the abilities of the stone pieces he obtained.
Closing his eyes, he submerged into his inner self.
When he arrived in the vision world, Charles could see a place where float stones were laid out. New stone pieces were combined with the existing ones.
When he obtained the first stone piece, he could form a belief of the unbaptized in the vision world. Now that he had obtained the second stone piece, Charles could gain some transcendental abilities. Not only that, he could see the visions he had seen before again.
“It shows… the past.”
Very ancient illusions that happened in ancient times unfolded once again.
It was the same illusion that he had seen from the first stone piece, but now digging into memories that no longer existed, he realized that people called that event the ‘Ascension.’
A very old man of advanced age was visible, with hair that had turned white reaching down to his waist. Charles now knew the man’s name.
His name was ‘Rem.’ Apart from his name, that was all he could find, but considering that the name of the era before the great Hermes era was called the Rem era, the old man was undoubtedly a great figure.
As expected, there was a vision of six disciples standing in front of that old man.
In this moving illusion, Charles could manifest and move freely. It was like seeing space in 3D.
Compared to when he looked at them from the perspective of the stone piece, this time the space itself seemed to be recorded, and Charles could move around freely in that space.
The six disciples each possessed tremendous auras. Although they seemed to have honed their auras in different directions, their origins were undoubtedly the old man named Rem.
Between the old man and the disciples, there was a round table with the prophecy stone on it. It was not in the form of pieces but a complete form of the prophecy stone.
Charles knew that the name of this round table was the ‘Empty Round Table’ and that it was an artifact that could support a very strong power. He could also learn that it was made of a giant’s shoulder bone.
Many things were analyzed. Charles could learn about the six disciples. He could understand their names, their past, and even foresee their future.
