Chapter 51

Lumian deeply understood Aurore's words.

When he was still wandering, he had learned not to underestimate anyone. Some adult vagrants had underestimated him, thinking he was weak, and ultimately suffered great losses. Some benefactors, though well-intentioned in providing food, failed to consider the state of the vagrants' long-starved bodies, leading to mistakes.

Lumian thought for a moment and said, "It seems that a relatively precise description for summoning the desired creature is very valuable."

"Yes," Aurore nodded, deeply moved. "Notes containing the corresponding summoning incantations are very valuable. Every incantation, every description, every note is earned with life, blood, or pain. For example, the three-part description I use to summon 'White Paper' is 'a spirit wandering in the void, a friendly creature that can be commanded, a fragile sphere that can resonate with my will.' The last part, if you tried to figure it out on your own, you wouldn't know how many failures it would take to piece it together, and each failure means significant risk."

A fragile sphere that can resonate with my will? Could a normal person come up with such a description, especially the words 'fragile' and 'sphere'? Lumian thought to himself as he asked, "So, did you buy this from someone else?"

"No," Aurore shook her head, her expression somewhat bitter. "The 'Seer' pathway is different from others. It is often pursued by a large amount of knowledge, whether you want to know it or not, whether you can bear it or not, you cannot refuse. When taking the potion to advance, this 'pursuit of knowledge' becomes even more severe.

"Although most of this knowledge is useless, some of it is valuable, and the incantation to summon 'White Paper' is one of them."

"From the 'Hidden Sage's' infusion?" Lumian understood his sister's meaning.

Aurore looked at him in surprise, "You know? The teachings of that lady?"

"Yes," Lumian nodded.

Aurore thought for a moment and pursed her lips, "From my personal experience, the 'pursuit of knowledge' is not entirely from the 'Hidden Sage's' infusion. The 'ringing in my ears' is indeed hearing Her voice and receiving Her knowledge, which always causes me pain, making my head feel like it's about to explode, and I wish I could lose control.

"But occasionally, especially when I'm in poor condition and about to lose control, I have a hallucination that all the knowledge in the world has come to life, chasing me, rushing towards me, and I can't avoid it. The incantation to summon 'White Paper' is one that actively entered my mind.

"When taking the potion, about 99% of the 'pursuit of knowledge' comes from the 'Hidden Sage,' and 1% is related to the knowledge that has come to life."

"It's very strange and terrifying, enough to scare everyone in the village," Lumian remarked sincerely, while thinking about how to help his sister solve the problem of the 'pursuit of knowledge' or at least reduce its impact.

Aurore responded with a bitter smile, "It's because I often suffer such torment that I don't want you to step onto the path of the extraordinary, but in this situation, being an extraordinary person is indeed better than an ordinary person."

To make her brother remember the madness and danger of the extraordinary path, she pointed to her head, "Being pursued by knowledge and living with pain, I feel my mind and personality have undergone some changes.

"I often tell you that I have social anxiety, but sometimes I'm very talkative, enjoying going out to chat with the old ladies in the village, telling stories to the children, and occasionally going crazy, borrowing Mrs. Pualis's pony to gallop in the mountains, shouting and screaming.

"Being very talkative is a reaction to staying at home for a long time, unable to return to my hometown, and the suppression of the extraordinary path.

"And the occasional craziness..."

At this point, Aurore looked at Lumian and chuckled, "You don't think it's just a figure of speech, do you?"

Lumian was silent, feeling that his sister's laugh was both self-mocking and lost, carrying indescribable pain and struggle.

Aurore then sighed, "At those times, I hardly recognize myself."

"There must be a way to solve it," Lumian felt deeply powerless at this moment.

"Let's hope so. Let's continue," Aurore pointed to the altar, "Once a contract is signed with a summoned spirit, summoning it again will be easier, and the last part of the description can be changed to 'Aurore Li's contracted creature,' which is very precise, isn't it? And before the contract is dissolved, no one else can summon it."

"Can each person only have one contracted creature?" Lumian was very concerned about this.

"Not necessarily. I'm not sure about the exact limit, but it's definitely more than one, especially for certain special sequences. When summoning, you can distinguish between the first, second, etc., contracted creatures. Additionally, you need to remember that summoning a spirit consumes your own spirituality. The more you summon, the more it consumes. As a 'Hunter,' I estimate you can only handle one contracted creature."

Knowing her brother's character, she further closed any loopholes Lumian might find, "Each summoned spirit can only stay in the real world for a limited time, the weaker the longer. You don't need to think about summoning one, waiting for your spirituality to recover, and then summoning another, unless you choose very weak ones and your spirituality is significantly enhanced."

She then gave an example with 'White Paper,' "If I don't let 'White Paper' carry my abilities, it can stay in the real world for twelve hours. If I share my special eyes with it to do tasks, it can only last for three hours, and my own spirituality will continue to be consumed."

Lumian, who had been thinking about forming an army of spirits, was very disappointed.

He thought for a moment and asked, "Can you only summon spirits? Can you only summon spirits?"

"Not necessarily," Aurore shook her head, "You can also summon creatures from the Underworld, the Mirror World, and other dimensions attached to the spirit world, the real world, and the star world, as well as creatures from other worlds or planets, whether they are spirits or not. However, this is very dangerous. Most extraordinary people who attempt it end up dead, and a few mysteriously disappear, leaving only notes to prove what they did."

"Can you summon something from the real world?" Lumian asked curiously.

Aurore thought for a moment and said, "Theoretically, as long as the target has a close connection to the spirit world or has reached a certain level, it should be able to hear the summoning and decide whether to respond. However, such targets are either very special or very powerful. If you want to live a good life, don't try it.

"Moreover, when the summoning target is not a spirit, the ritual requirements are higher, and more spirituality is needed, even requiring a large amount of sacrifice to open a summoning gate for non-spirit creatures.

"With the spirituality of a 'Hunter,' you can barely summon 'White Paper.' If you want to try something more powerful, you would need to pray to a deity or a hidden existence, and you might need to prepare something full of spirituality for the sacrifice."

Lumian roughly understood the summoning ritual magic and asked his sister, "So, you're going to recite the incantation and complete the summoning?"

"How could that be?" Aurore chuckled, "The ritual has been interrupted so many times, how can it continue? Normally, if the ritual is interrupted according to the procedure, it can be resumed from the breakpoint, but I was mainly explaining and didn't pay attention to the necessary steps."

You probably forgot... Lumian muttered in his mind but didn't dare to say it out loud.

Aurore then continued, "However, I do need to perform a summoning ritual, partly to demonstrate the entire process to you and partly to seek help."

"Seek help?" Lumian asked in confusion.

Summon a powerful spirit to help?

Aurore explained, "Among countless spirits, a very small number can serve as messengers, personal messengers. Messengers, based on special contracts, can be summoned by others.

"For example, if I have a contracted messenger, someone in Trier can summon it, give it a letter, and it will immediately cross the spirit world to deliver the letter to me.

"Because of the special nature of the spirit world and the connection of the contract, it only takes a second or two to complete the delivery."

"That's amazing, as fast as a telegram," Lumian sincerely marveled.

He thought to himself, I want one too!

"Don't even think about it," Aurore saw through his thoughts, "Summoning a messenger is very difficult. Unless you have the exact incantation, it's almost impossible to figure it out on your own, and only a few special sequences can master the exact incantation. Even I don't have it."

Lumian was disappointed and asked, "Are you going to summon someone's messenger to write a letter and ask for help?"

"Yes," Aurore nodded, "She is one of the few who have advanced the farthest on the extraordinary path, and she has her own messenger. I don't expect her to save me, but she should be able to give me some advice."

It's probably very difficult, that mysterious lady said we can only rely on ourselves... Lumian asked curiously, "We? Do you mean your pen friends?"

Aurore nodded first and then asked in confusion, "When did I mention pen friends to you?"

"Last time, no, the time before last," Lumian answered honestly.

"Alright," Aurore covered her forehead, "Actually, it's a mutual aid organization we gradually established among those who can't return to our hometown. We communicate through letters, share knowledge, solve problems, and have small-scale gatherings or communicate through messengers. She is the vice president and one of the founders of our organization, with the code name 'Hela.'"

"Code name?" Lumian was a bit confused.

Aurore nodded, "In the organization, everyone uses code names and doesn't reveal their real names. When writing letters, we emphasize that they are pen names to avoid being discovered by the authorities."

"What's your code name?" Lumian was very curious about this.

Aurore was silent for a moment and answered with a sigh, "Muggle."

"What does that mean?" Lumian didn't understand.

Aurore's eyes dimmed as she answered, "An ordinary person without extraordinary abilities."

Lumian knew his sister wanted to be an ordinary person living in her hometown and quickly changed the subject, "What's the name of your organization?"

Aurore's expression became complex, "Originally, we wanted a high-class name, but considering we write letters regularly, a too conspicuous name would attract the attention of certain forces. So, we settled on a name that looks like an animal enthusiast group."

"What is it?" Lumian asked.

Aurore answered a bit embarrassedly, "The Curly Baboon Research Society."

PS: I explained the ritual magic in detail because it will be used a lot in the second part. After all, we need to pray to deities for blessings and power, which is the new system I mentioned. The latter part will soon involve spirit creatures and contracts.

PS2: Thank you, Naxida, for the silver alliance donation.