Lumian had only just tentatively concluded that Michel Garrigue had likely not yet been dragged into the mud by Guillaume Bénet and his cohort, and he had been planning to pay the assistant parish priest a late-night visit, only to return home and hear his sister announce that something was wrong with the man.
Aurore glanced at Lumian and let out a chuckle.
"When I spotted the problem with him, my silly little brother was standing right in front of him.
"Looks like you didn't notice a thing…"
She seemed so delighted that she had to raise her right hand to half-cover her mouth. After all, her little brother—who by all rights should have been completely illiterate in mysticism—had suddenly turned into a Beyonder, mastered a wealth of high-level knowledge, and realized that Cordu Village was caught in a time loop. Meanwhile, she, his older sister, had not only contributed little, but had even been outshone in mysticism, her area of greatest expertise. That had inevitably left her feeling a touch disgruntled.
Now, at long last, she had reclaimed her dignity as an older sister.
Watching the smile on her face, Lumian nodded. "I didn't spot anything unusual from how he acted."
Aurore gave an affirmative murmur.
"His Astral Projection—how should I put it? In short, it's brighter than a normal person's. Yet he's no Beyonder, nor has he undergone prolonged, systematic physical training."
"Could he just have a naturally good constitution?" Lumian guessed at first, before asking in confusion, "What's an Astral Projection?"
Aurore blinked in astonishment. "You don't know?"
"No," Lumian answered, shaking his head.
Aurore smiled once more, her tone laced with incomprehension. "That lady taught you the Pathways of the Divine, the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Indestructibility, and the acting method, but she didn't tell you basic concepts like the Astral Projection?"
"She was in a hurry, so she could only focus on the essentials," Lumian said, making an excuse on the mysterious lady's behalf.
Aurore's smile widened.
"Or maybe these foundational pieces of mysticism knowledge are useless to a wild Hunter. All you need to do is track, set traps, and fight."
She hardly knew how to describe her brother's current state. If you called him a mysticism illiterate, he actually knew quite a lot, each revelation more frightening than the last. But if you claimed his knowledge surpassed that of most Beyonders, he didn't even understand what an Astral Projection was.
Aurore let out a breath and adopted a serious tone. "Looks like it's up to me to complete your initiation into mysticism.
"Remember this: in the realm of mysticism, everything beyond a human being's physical body is divided into four layers. The innermost and most central layer is the Spirit Body. It is virtually synonymous with the concept of the spirit—the very 'spirituality' in the phrase 'all things possess spirituality,' the same spirituality that increases when one's spirit grows. You could say it is the fundamental core that constitutes the soul.
"For Mystery Pryers, potions primarily enhance the Spirit Body.
"The Astral Projection lies on the outer layer of the Spirit Body. It is the Spirit Body's outward manifestation in the real world and the Spirit World, and it is closely tied to your own will and your current emotional state.
"So, do you understand now? When I said the assistant parish priest's Astral Projection is brighter than an ordinary person's, it means there is something unusual about his Spirit Body—his spirit—which is reflected in his Astral Projection. It has nothing to do with whether he was born with a strong constitution, though it's certainly possible his natural spirituality is simply stronger.
"Through the Astral Projection, we can also perceive a target's genuine emotions. For example, red signifies passion and excitement; orange represents warmth and satisfaction; yellow denotes joy and extroversion; green stands for calm and serenity; blue indicates calm, rational thought; white represents brightness, positivity, and drive; dark hues signal melancholy, sorrow, and silence; while purple means spirituality is in the ascendant, bringing coolness and detachment…
"These colors are very difficult to fake, but they are rather generalized in nature, so they don't allow us to distinguish subtle emotional shifts or delicate feelings."
Lumian listened with rapt attention, wanting nothing more than to grab a pen and take notes.
"Just listen for now." Growing a little tired from talking, Aurore sat down by the dining table. "Later, I'll give you my first sorcery notebook. It's filled with basic knowledge like this."
"All right." Lumian sat down beside her, nodding obediently. "And what lies outside the Astral Projection?"
Aurore picked up her carved glass tumbler and took a sip.
"Next is the Mind Body. Beginning here, spirit and flesh begin to merge.
"The Mind Body involves the brain, tied to deduction, thought, insight, and the capacity to comprehend things. Certain potions mainly enhance this, and many spells target it as well.
"The outermost layer is the Ether Body, which is the manifestation of vital energy and physical condition. That's why I could tell at a single glance that your body had been vastly enhanced. By observing the thickness, brightness, and color of different parts of the Ether Body, one can also determine a target's health. As a Sequence 7 of the Mystery Pryer pathway, I can even deduce someone's lifespan from the state of their Ether Body.
"As for how to distinguish those specifics, you can check the notebook later."
Realization dawned on Lumian.
"So the Hunter potion primarily targets the Ether Body?"
"You have it backward," Aurore replied. "It targets the physical body and vital energy, and the Ether Body is simply the direct manifestation of both."
Lumian nodded as he turned the concepts over in his head, having grasped the basics of this mysticism knowledge.
Recalling what his sister had said earlier, he asked curiously, "Aurore, how did you observe the assistant parish priest? Why didn't I notice you nearby at all?"
Aurore smiled.
"Actually, I was at home the entire time. I used a special trait of the Mystery Pryer pathway."
"What trait?" Lumian asked, not minding whether she answered or not.
Aurore pointed to her own eyes.
"The most distinctive ability of a Mystery Pryer is called the Mystery Pryer's Eye.
"Although I need to reach a higher Sequence before I can fully unlock the Mystery Pryer's Eye—allowing it not only to work through my own body, but also to be affixed to other surfaces to provide remote surveillance—that doesn't mean a Mystery Pryer's eyes lack anything special beforehand.
"Starting from Sequence 9, a Mystery Pryer sees more than Beyonders of the same Sequence across most pathways. To give you the simplest example: before reaching the qualitative transformation that grants divinity, a Hunter can likely only see the Ether Body, and in a rather crude way at that. But right now, I can already scrutinize every detail of an Astral Projection. On top of that, I can see things around us that normally can't be seen."
At that point, Aurore glanced toward the kitchen.
The look gave Lumian an inexplicable shiver.
There was clearly nothing in that direction, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that some invisible presence he couldn't see was lingering there!
Aurore went on:
"Of course, that isn't necessarily a good thing. Seeing things you shouldn't see makes it terribly easy to run into danger. That's why I've always exercised great restraint, never looking at what I shouldn't. But as your Sequence rises, it's not a matter of simply choosing not to look."
Lumian thought about it, then asked in confusion, "Didn't you say you need a higher Sequence to project the Mystery Pryer's Eye outward?
"Then how could you observe someone inside the church from home?"
Aurore raised her right hand and wagged her index finger at him.
"I've always told you that knowledge is power, but you never believed me!
"Under normal circumstances, I really wouldn't be able to observe something several hundred meters away from home. But humans can use tools, and I have two great 'assistants.'"
As she spoke, she reached into different hidden pockets of her blue dress and produced two items.
One was an extendable brass spyglass; the other was a pocket-sized, dark ink bottle—which looked more like a child's toy.
"Look, a spyglass," Aurore introduced with a grin. "It helps me see people several hundred meters away clearly. Once the 'visual distance' is closed, I can observe the state of a target's Astral Projection, Ether Body, and Mind Body. This works for open spaces without obstructions."
Lumian listened, dumbfounded.
*That works, too?*
They were clearly discussing mysticism—why had his sister pulled out a spyglass?
"What about this?" he promptly asked, pointing to the pocket ink bottle.
Instead of answering, Aurore pinched her temples with both hands and simply unscrewed the cap.
Lumian suddenly felt a wave of chill, as though a draft of cold air had just blown in through the window.
"It's a unique Spirit World creature," Aurore explained.
"It? Where is it?" Lumian looked left and right.
Aurore looked rather surprised.
"You still don't know how to activate spirit vision?
"Didn't you say you saw many undead in that wilderness?"
Lumian had read the term *spirit vision* in the magazine *Spiritism* and understood what it meant, but he was completely at a loss as to how one actually went about activating it.
He looked at his sister and slowly shook his head.
"I don't know how."
Then he ventured a guess, "Maybe entering the so-called 'underworld' allows ordinary people to see ghosts and undead directly."
Aurore gave it some serious thought, then pressed further, "So you don't know Hermes, Ancient Hermes, Elvish, Dragonese, or Giantish either?"
"What are those?" Lumian gave a full demonstration of what it meant to be illiterate in mysticism.
Aurore couldn't help but press a hand to her forehead.
"Just what did that lady actually teach you?"
"The Law of Beyonder Characteristics Indestructibility, the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence, the acting method, the Pathways of the Divine, Sequence 0, Sealed Artifacts…" Lumian answered honestly.
"…" Aurore felt thoroughly flexed on. "I think you're looking for a beating!"
She sighed for a few seconds before pulling herself together. "In that case, I'll use this contracted creature of mine to teach you how to activate spirit vision, how to perform ritual magic, and how to use languages that carry supernatural power.
"This will just be a broad overview. If you truly want to master them—especially those languages—it's impossible without a year or two of hard work. Naturally, your pathway plays a role as well. 'Hunter' probably doesn't enhance your learning ability, nor does it grant bonuses in mysticism. Back then, relying on diligence and being spoon-fed the material, it took your sister nearly half a year just to get the basics down."
Her right hand gently stroked the empty air before her, as if petting an invisible kitten.
"For a Beyonder, activating spirit vision is very simple, but it isn't completely dark outside yet, so we'll cover other things first.
"I call it 'White Paper.' It's a very weak Spirit World creature. As long as you know the precise description, you can perform a ritual to summon it in your own name.
"Aside from the inherent difficulty of perceiving a Spirit World creature, it has only one function: to bear a certain supernatural ability of the contractor. However, the ability cannot be too complex, nor can it be too powerful."
Chapter 45