034: What's Above the Moon?

['Artisan Module' upgrade completed.]

Time had unknowingly passed.

Basking in the sun, experiencing the quiet life and indulging in his desire to slack off, Don looked at the system and opened the 'Artisan' module.

With him at the center, the surrounding light and various buildings twisted and writhed, radiating ripples like water patterns.

Rays of light seemingly composed of countless fundamental particles mixed with various mysticism symbols continuously bounced out, leaping and spiraling through the air, light and shadow intertwining. The brilliant sunlight also lost its original color, becoming somewhat gray, hazy, and illusory.

His spirituality immediately made Don notice the changes in 'Artisan'.

Compared to the previously rather monotonous mysticism symbols that adorned it and served as background, after devouring an Alchemist's Beyonder Characteristics, the background board behind it had quietly undergone changes.

More profound, more mysterious, complex and ancient patterns connected with various mysticism symbols. From Don's existing mysticism knowledge, among these symbols, only a few pointed to 'knowledge', 'civilization', 'mystery' and other mysticism symbols commonly used by Beyonders of the Mystery Pryers and Savants Pathway.

More were of unclear meaning, either abstract symbols revealed by the mythical creature forms of these two pathways at Sequence 4 and above, the Demigod level, or collectively pointing to extraordinary domains that current mysticism cannot reach.

Copying them down would probably cause quite terrible consequences.

But it didn't have much impact on him overall. Don looked them over and no longer bothered with them.

After roughly browsing through the manual given by the system, Don submitted the 'Theater That Never Draw' for the system to optimize.

[Beginning optimization, consuming one Crafting attempt, remaining Crafting attempts: 22.]

[Remaining time: 47:59:54.]

That is, two days.

Optimizing Sealed Artifacts requires much less time than creating a brand new mystical item.

After the 'Artisan' module upgrade, it could finally stably handle extraordinary items of Sequence 3 and below.

It compressed the required processing time, reduced the negative effects of the corresponding crafted extraordinary items, could stabilize more powerful extraordinary abilities, and could craft mystical items from Angel-level Beyonder Characteristics. But like before, if forced to do so, unknown mutations would occur during the crafting process.

Between Sequence 5 and Sequence 4 is a watershed, and between Sequence 3 and Sequence 2 is likewise a watershed.

One is the birth of divinity, the other is the appearance of complete mythical creature form.

"However, just optimization, appropriately reducing the negative effects of already finished mystical items or Sealed Artifacts, the system that devoured an Alchemist can now perform optimization."

Because Sequence 4 is a qualitative change, after satisfying a certain condition, even if the selected target is a Sequence 2 Miracle Invoker's Beyonder Characteristics, 'Artisan' can work on it.

'Moreover, 'Artisan' can now handle three different mystical items at once.'

Don thought for a moment, then threw in the inverted cross his father had given him for the system to purify the mental imprint within, and took out the previously prepared Arbiter Sequence 4, Imperative Mage's Beyonder Characteristics separated from that meatball, throwing it in together with his own iron chain for enhancement.

Enhancing Sequence 6 to Sequence 4.

Still selecting only one extraordinary ability, maximizing its effectiveness.

The reality-enhancing imperative at Sequence 4 level would undergo qualitative change.

As for the remaining...

Don thought about it and decided to discuss it later.

"This way, the most important thing is actually the digestion of the potion. Using Sequence 5 spirituality to drive demigod-level mystical items consumes a great deal."

With his Sequence 5 spirituality, even if the negative effects weren't strong, he couldn't sustain it for too long.

Having too many demigod-level extraordinary items wasn't bad, but it was somewhat wasteful overall.

After spreading the final decolorized syrup on the ground to dry, Don put away his marionette and returned to the castle.

"Olsen."

Don found Olsen in his family garden. Olsen was currently crouched on the ground, doing something unknown, looking at the flowers planted in the ground somewhat mysteriously.

"Ah?"

Olsen raised his head, and Don returned the magic book he had previously borrowed.

This mystical item called 'Traveller's Notebook' had been lent to him by Olsen before entering the theater. It recorded a demigod-level 'Exile', which helped him exile the Black Knight and was quite helpful.

"Speaking of which, what are you doing in Tingen this time?"

After returning the mystical item to Olsen, Don naturally brought up this topic.

He and Olsen had known each other for a long time, but Olsen's visit to Tingen this time was somewhat sudden.

"Wanted to change places for some peace and quiet." Olsen didn't hide anything and said quite directly, "I don't know why, but recently when night comes, I start hearing strange sounds."

As a Traveler, distance wasn't something he needed to worry about.

"Sounds?"

Olson had mentioned this briefly yesterday, but his condition was really too poor at the time, so Don hadn't asked in detail.

Now he could understand specifically what components Mr. Door's ravings actually contained.

"Mm." Olson sat on the ground without much regard for appearance, whether because the effects of losing control hadn't disappeared or because he was truly too exhausted to have strength, "That should be a kind of raving. That somewhat vague voice makes me faintly sense the feeling of losing control."

"However, currently, it's not serious. I can still bear it, and it won't affect my own stability yet."

"But..."

"But what?"

Olsen fell silent. He pressed his lips tightly together, looking somewhat hesitant.

"Don, do you know what high-sequence Beyonders become when they lose control?"

Without waiting for Don to answer, he continued on his own, "They become incomplete mythical creatures that indiscriminately attack any life around them that they can see."

The few remaining demigods of the Abraham family after the War of the Four Emperors had also successively lost control in recent years.

Some of them sensed something before approaching loss of control and exiled themselves to other places, while others showed no abnormalities but suddenly turned into monsters at some moment, indiscriminately killing many children of Abraham.

They used many methods to investigate these problems, but all issues pointed to Abraham itself, to their bloodline.

"The elders noticed the problem and told us to leave the Abraham family's ancestral land on our own, to find places that can block the moon."

"Block the moon?"

Don pressed, "Is there a problem with the moon?"

"I don't know." Olsen honestly shook his head, "The elders... they should know something, but they haven't told us about it. They only vaguely mentioned that above the moon..."

"There's something."

(End of Chapter)