The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 561: Annan Austere-Winter’s Admirer

“…En?!” Nefertari was shocked when she heard this.

Although the first two secrets were completely unexpected for her, it was nothing compared to the shock brought to her from the third secret.

—Annan·Austere-Winter?

As a student of Bone Healer Seti, Nefertari certainly knew the name.

She knew more about it than ordinary people.

Annan was Grand Duke Ivan’s favorite young son, the future Austere-Winter’s Grand Duke, and the real inventor of the internal combustion engine.

At the same time, he also had a close relationship with several upright deities. “The Loved One in the Cup”, “The Blessed One of the Red of War”, “The One Sheltered by the Venerated Skeleton”, “The Silent One”, “The Monster That Leaves No Trace”, and a candidate for a saint recognized by [Eye of Patience] , Old Grandmother’s most beloved “young dragon”.

Annan was termed the most talented ritualist in history. Before soul purification, he had reached the pinnacle of a ritualist.

This was absolutely impossible in theory.

Ritualists were a group of people who only rely on “wisdom”, “perseverance” and “luck” to obtain transcended power.

The path of ritual was far more dangerous than the path of transcendence because the power they controlled was beyond their level. Any ritual failure would bring irreparable damage. This left the ritualist with no room for failure.

Generally speaking, the strength of a ritualist depended on the highest level of ritual they were capable of controlling.

Even the highest-level ritualist—in other words, it did not mean that the ritualist, who could replicate the “miracle of creation”, would not fail when performing low-level rituals.

Whether it was being cursed with bad luck, trembling due to injury, being influenced in one’s thinking…even including the inevitable end that ritualists must face.

The soul of a mortal could afford an overburdened occult knowledge.

The path of ritual itself was not entirely a “craft of mortals”. At least when this path was first developed, the souls of its practitioners were not that weak. It was later that the Yaselan people discovered that this path could allow people without transcended talent to use transcended power. That was why ritualists were populated to a large scale.

During the Yaselan Empire period, “ritual” was even a compulsory exam for the official transcender. Just like being good at using guns does not mean you won’t need to practice close quarter fighting.

However, the ritualist path lost the orthodox method of inheriting the knowledge after the empire was destroyed, the fall of the “Great Sky Library” into the deep sea, and the demise of the elves. This led to the fragmentation and loopholes in the inheritance of most ritualists.

Annan·Austere-Winter, as the son of the Grand Duke, would of course receive a more complete education than folk’s ritual knowledge.

Generally speaking, this kind of big shot would rather take the path of transcendence than the path of ritual. They would only know some rituals that they needed to use daily, and some rituals that could be used against themselves.

Ritual was power that did not tolerate “failure” at all.

However, Annan was different.

Before he became a transcender, he had already used the “Creation” level ritual multiple times.

Ritualists were not as hierarchical as transcenders. “Amateur ritualists”, who only mastered high-level occult knowledge but lack awareness of low-level common sense, were not uncommon.

Ritual itself was divided into levels.

Generally speaking, the levels of mysterious ritual were divided according to the weight of occult knowledge as a “key”.

The heaviest knowledge was the ultimate secret at the beginning of the world, it would change the world as long as it was spoken. It was said that the reason “occult knowledge” was “knowledge that will be forgotten when spoken” and “knowledge with power” was hidden in the secret of creation.

Below that was the “core knowledge” about the other world, which could also be called “the Otherworldly level” knowledge. Whether it was the world beyond the dream world or the immaterial world, or other worlds that were not directly connected to the “Mist World”, as long as it involved the knowledge of the nature of the world, its power was enough to destroy the sanity of mortals.

For example, curse energy, the real Sage’s Stone, the essence of dreams… etc. These secrets about the nature of the world were beyond the reach of ordinary people. Nefertari only heard of their names. She did not dare to find out more about it or even think about it.

As long as a person learned a few words about the other world, the person would keep falling into nightmares. It was even possible to conjure otherworldly beings in dreams.

Further down was the knowledge before the Second Age. That was, knowledge about “history”.

The occult knowledge of those ancient deities was at this level, which was the highest level a mortal could bear. The knowledge was like the real names of the twelve upright deities and what they did before the Second Age.

This level of knowledge had power just by reading it out. It could be used in ritual as a substitute for valuable material, and could also produce high level influence. If mortals carried too much of this knowledge, their souls could be destroyed by the weight of knowledge.

For example, if a mortal learned the Old Grandmother’s real name, he would often dream of the Austere-Winter snowstorm. When he woke up, the house would be covered with ice and snow. The subject would hear wolf howls that only he could hear more and more frequently. Once he left, he would never return.

However, if a mortal learnt about Father Flint’s secrets, the subject’s quilts might burn on its own when he slept, and his creativity would gradually increase. Occasionally, there would be scorched marks on the skin as if struck by a hot hammer. There might even be a sudden explosion without warning, reducing the person to ashes.

Only transcenders above Silver Rank could hold this mystery for a long time.

Later on, after the Second Age, it involved the knowledge of “Truth”. For example, the real names of the new deities such as the Paper Princess, the real names of the Book of Truth, and the secrets of the ancient deities after the Second Age.

This level of knowledge, at most, could only produce illusions, auditory hallucinations, and phantom touch.

Even an ordinary person could wield a considerable amount of this knowledge as long as their spirit was resilient enough, without worrying about whether their rationality would be destroyed.

After the Second Age, information below the Truth no longer had “mystery”.

The last knowledge was the “false tome” derived from the above kind of knowledge, which was understood as a “custom” by ordinary people in a second-hand use. For example, the secret about the funeral, the secret about the blacksmith, the secret about the locksmith, they sounded like a made-up story, or a strange custom of some place.

Generally speaking, part of the “Truth level” knowledge could be modified intentionally or unintentionally. It was indeed practiced as folklore in many places. Occasionally, strange phenomena would appear.

Except for a very small number of coincidences that “just meet the ritual conditions”, most of the cases were just visual hallucinations or auditory hallucinations.

Annan was obviously just an ordinary person.

At most, he could only recognize Old Grandmother’s real name.

But according to the rumors, he had indeed performed the “Creation” level ritual.

Since even Bone Healer Seti once lamented Annan Austere-Winter’s ritual talent to his students, presumably that should be a real story.

Nefertari had already graduated by then.

She just went back to take a look.

However, even with Seti’s understanding and recognition of Nefertari, she was not even qualified to know the ritual’s name.

The reason being it was possible to deduce part of the mystery of creation from it as long as the subject knew the ritual’s name. As a mortal soul, Nefertari would be severely injured from it.

However, Annan, as a mortal, how did he perform the ritual?

At that time, Nefertari wanted to ask.

However, she was still timid and did not dare to talk back.

However, since it is Annan · Austere-Winter.

That became unsurprising.

Annan was a saint candidate, who had been noticed by the [Eye of Patience], two years ago.

It was expected for Annan to be able to purify Sporeggar Mill;

Annan was able to clear the erosion rate of his subordinates and revive them, and he did not exceed Nefertari’s cognition.

It was only natural that Annan would be the leader of the ancient organization, “Secret Eye”.

It became reasonable for Annan to be able to create a fake body and a pseudonym for himself;

Now that Annan had embarked on the transcendence path, it became unsurprising for Nefertari that Annan could defect Silver Rank magics.

Then, everything made sense.

He was that Annan Austere-Winter… You know?

Nefertari felt no fear at once.

With Annan Austere-Winter’s ritual knowledge, he would have no problems in any nightmare. Anything Annan acquired in his hands could be used to arrange rituals. A casual word of occult knowledge at the Creation level could kill formidable enemies in a nightmare.

I see.

Then, there is nothing to be afraid of.