Chapter 44 The Increasing Strength

After parting ways with the old priest, and following the map three streets away, Shannon found the three-story gray building of the carriage rental agency. Its main business was booking carriage services in advance for important trips, but it also offered freight-carrying carriages.

Knowing that it was best not to let ordinary people see his books, Shannon specifically asked the driver if the cargo would be inspected.

"We are a professional carriage rental company. Even if you are hauling a corpse—no, even if you are hauling a whole carriage full of corpses—as long as you leave no trace, it has nothing to do with us."

The middle-aged accountant, lowering his eyelids as he took the money from Shannon's hand, emphasized:

"We are very professional."

Freight carriages were much cheaper than passenger carriages, even though this one had to carry Shannon back as well. When Shannon personally carried the books trip by trip into his home at No. 6 St. Adele Square, he had spent less than 8 shillings in total.

Although Room 2 on the second floor had previously seemed quite spacious, after moving in so many books, he could already feel that the study's space was becoming inadequate. While keeping the curious orange cat, Mia, from touching his books, Shannon thought that when he had the time, he must develop the remaining space in this house.

He did not go out again that day. The exaggerated, foggy weather outside was unsuitable for outings, so he obediently stayed at home, flipping through the books he had spent 50 pounds on, consuming gas and steam whose cost he did not yet know.

Most of the first-year courses for Ring-bearers only involved knowledge rather than the transcendent, so the majority of them were memorization-based examination subjects. As an outlander who had gone through a complete educational system, Shannon was quite adept at this and felt confident that he could finish most of the first-year courses during the exam season at the end of the year.

As for the courses requiring practical operation, he maintained a great curiosity about power and trusted his own self-learning ability, believing it would not take him too long to complete those courses.

Since he had obtained the textbooks, what Shannon was most concerned about were naturally [Spellcraft] and [Miraclecraft], as these two were the direct paths to gaining power. Though he kept the doctor's warnings in mind, Shannon still believed he needed a basic capability for self-preservation.

As a newly enrolled first-year Ring-bearer, St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy did not directly mention too many miracles and spells in the courses "Basic Ring-Bearer Studies - Miraclecraft" and "Basic Ring-Bearer Studies - Spellcraft," and the few mentioned seemed rather ordinary by their effects.

St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy provided free of charge three spells and four miracles to first-year correspondence Ring-bearers.

The free [Spells] followed a standard system; regardless of which college a student belonged to, the spells they first encountered were identical.

Among them, the spells recommended for first study and use were [Ignition], [Water Summoning], and [Object Movement]. These were the most primitive manifestations of mysterious power dating back to ancient times, and they held the potential to extend into more advanced [Spells].

Moreover, learning these three spells did not require many materials, and casting them required no material components whatsoever, making them the most convenient spells. Shannon managed to learn and master them skillfully in half a night—

"Ha!"

His eyes fixed on the newspaper in his hand, which finally emitted a wisp of burning blue smoke, startling the little orange cat—which had been playing by patting the pages on the other side—into darting straight into Shannon's arms.

"Ha!"

His right hand continuously shook an empty water cup, and as he shook it, the inner wall of the cup actually grew damp. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Shannon placed the cup back on the table, but before he could inspect it, the soft orange cat Mia in his arms curiously lunged toward the cup.

"Ha!"

Staring at the water cup with a gaze fierce enough to squeeze blood from his eyes, he watched the cup automatically slide backward a short distance across the tabletop. The orange cat lunged at the cup, changed direction mid-air, pushed off the tabletop with its small paws, and leaped back into Shannon's arms, looking startled once again.

This was a somewhat timid cat; its fierceness toward strangers was merely a means of self-protection.

As for the [Miracles] provided by St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy for first-years, they were determined by the Ring-bearer's core soul rune.

Shannon's talent was quite good. [Spacetime] and [Silver Moon], though rare, were not obscure. In the basic course on miraclecraft, the academy's recommendation leaned more toward miracles related to [Silver Moon]. After all, for a novice occultist, the [Spacetime] soul rune was both dangerous and complex.

Therefore, among the four free miracles provided by the academy, the only one related to [Spacetime] was [Time Perception], which granted Shannon the ability to know his current temporal location at any moment.

Although this miracle sounded rather useless, learning it was quite troublesome. As a basic miracle provided by the academy, the materials required for learning were naturally supplied by the academy as well. Among them, the century-old pocket watch was easy to find, but strange plants like the "four-leaf clockflower," although cultivated in the School of Alchemy's nurseries, had a very troublesome harvesting process, so Shannon would have to wait until next month to obtain it from the doctor.

As for the miracles related to [Silver Moon], the academy provided three—

[Cynthia's Silver Moon Grace]: Grants healing abilities under the light of the silver moon, capable of healing both oneself and others. This was a miracle exclusive to holders of the [Silver Moon] soul rune and could only be used at night.

From the naming convention, it could be seen that this was a miracle developed by academic Ring-bearers, hence prefixed with a name. If the [Silver Moon Illumination] invented by Shannon was strong enough, he could name it [Shannon's Silver Moon Illumination].

[Moon Shadow Illusion]: On any given night, utilizes the power of moonlight to cast simple illusions. Any holder of a moon-related soul rune could learn this miracle, but depending on the soul rune and the user, the illusions would have slight variations. It was likewise restricted to nighttime use.

[Silver Moon Slash]: Whips out a streak of silver moonlight in the air to attack enemies, exerting a very effective damaging effect against enemies possessing enlightenment and desecration elements. This miracle could also only be learned by holders of the [Silver Moon], but holders of other moon, star, or even sun-concept soul runes possessed similar miracles, albeit with different effects.

This was the only offensive miracle among the three.

The night sky in this world possessed three moons: silver, yellow, and red. The three moons held different meanings in occultism: the red moon was associated with flesh, blood, and reproduction; the yellow moon was the "moonlight" and "guide"; while the silver moon was synonymous with "guardian," "holiness," and "mystery."

Therefore, miracles related to the silver moon concept differed from those of other moons. If Shannon's soul rune had been an even higher-tier concept like [Moon], the number of miracles he could learn would actually have been even greater.

These three miracles were thoughtfully selected by the academy, leaning toward healing, illusion, and attack respectively, making the selection quite comprehensive.

The study materials still came bundled with the books: a thumb-sized glass bottle containing a mercury-like liquid called "Silver Moon's Lunar Essence," a piece of silver silk embroidered with an unknown Old God holy emblem, and a broken silver knife with only the blade portion remaining, the blade being engraved with a waxing crescent moon.

However, having materials was not enough to learn them; Shannon also needed to prepare the corresponding environment and master the matching incantations. None of these could be resolved in a single day, so by the night of this day, he had only learned [Silver Moon Slash].

The learning requirement for [Silver Moon Slash] simply necessitated that the Ring-bearer be able to imbue the silver moonlight onto the broken silver knife, which was quite simple for Shannon at his current stage.

He repeated this process under the moonlight at night, and each imbuement of moonlight caused the knife to become shorter. On the thirteenth imbuement of the silver moonlight, the broken blade within the light completely opticalized and vanished. Looking at his faintly glowing hand, Shannon achieved a sudden epiphany within his heart: he had mastered this offensive miracle.