Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 590 - : Reference Letter

Chapter 590: Chapter 590: Reference Letter

“Tifa and I have encountered nuns from the Spiritual Practice Order in the Dark Realm, and we learned a few things,”

Shard nodded.

“The good relationship between the Spiritual Practice Order and the Council is not solely due to His Excellency the Speaker’s extensive connections, but also because of Granny Cassandra. She really is a local from Midshire Fort, received help from the Order in her youth, and has also assisted them. Of course, this is also because, although there are both men and women in the Spiritual Practice Order, it is predominantly female. Especially those qualified to wear a silver crown as an eyepatch, their eyes are quite powerful… Although these women can be more cryptic than the diviners of the Prophet’s Society, they are very capable. If you need it, I can also give you a letter to help you out, but it can only be a letter of recommendation, not to expose our relationship,”

But if it’s just an introduction letter, without the aid of Ms. Cassandra, the Grand Witch of the locale, the help and conveniences that the Spiritual Practice Order could offer Shard were clearly limited.

Shard thought for a moment:

“Anyway, I will first make contact with the Spiritual Practice Order. As for the matter with Ms. Cassandra, I’d like to think it over some more,”

“Alright, Tifa, give Shard the letter I wrote, and remember to stamp it. The Spiritual Practice Order is mainly active in the eastern part of the continent; they have been in Midshire Fort since the last era. They know more about the boundary between life and death than I do. The current leader of the Order is Sister Delphine, an Eleven-Ring Sorcerer. Despite being disabled, she is quite a beautiful and elegant lady, with a figure…”

“Cough, cough.”

While opening the inkpad box at her desk, Tifa suddenly coughed, and the witch glanced at her, stopping her topic, then smiled at Shard:

“Anyway, take my letter and go see her; she probably won’t mind giving you some help. People from the Spiritual Practice Order respect nature and death, believe in animism, and there’s really nothing else you need to avoid.”

She picked up her teacup and took a sip, seeing Shard contemplating, she signaled that he could ask any questions.

“That Ms. Cassandra, how come at over a hundred years old, she’s only at Ten Rings? No, I’m not saying Ten Rings is low, but compared to you…”

The Red-Haired Witch smiled and put down her teacup, Shard noticed she wore white lace gloves today:

“I understand what you mean. I’m only in my twenties and I’m already at Eleven Rings, while Tifa is at Six Rings but she is even younger. It’s easy to explain. We have two supernatural systems that mutually promote rapid progress among witches. But such growth requires talent. We are similar to ordinary Ring Sorcerers, it’s just that they grow slower, but will also encounter the situation where obtaining Spirit Runes is exceptionally tough at certain levels.”

Shard nodded in understanding, it would indeed be odd if everyone had the potential to reach Thirteen Rings. The middle-aged witch he met at the Vampire God Duke Lowell’s wine party had also sought breakthrough power by braving the party of the Evil God.

“My limit is probably around Eleven Rings. Honestly, I’ve been stuck at this level for over two years now. For normal Ring Sorcerers, this is quite common, but for a witch, it’s almost akin to stagnation.”

“So, how about Tifa’s talent?”

Shard asked curiously.

“That’s hard to say; talent isn’t something you can test by just touching a crystal ball like in storybooks. But doesn’t she have Miss Feliana’s gift? When she faces difficulties, she can just advance one level.”

Miss Feliana’s gift allows Tifa’s witch level, except for upgrading from Twelfth to Thirteenth Rank, to forcibly ascend. That is, if Tifa could advance to the Eleventh Rank like Miss Galina, she would immediately become a Twelfth Rank witch.

“That really is enviable…”

Miss Galina quietly sighed, but her tone did not carry much envy:

“But it’s fine, Tifa is mine.”

The black-haired Miss Maid winked at Shard, with a slightly mischievous look that hinted at something elusive.

Because he talked about matters regarding Midshire Fort with Miss Galina until late at night, Shard did not go home that evening.

Since he had also brought Mia with him, he and the cat stayed overnight at the witch’s manor. Miss Galina had specially arranged a room for Shard in the manor, where he would rest on any of his future overnight stays.

Early Friday morning, a carriage took Shard into the city. He first stopped by the Prophet’s Society to sign some documents, collected the other prizes of “Big City Player 1854” championship, and had a brief discussion with Vice President Mark about the recent competition.

Afterward, he went to Coldwater Port to inquire Mr. Edmund about the matters concerning Midshire Fort and the “Interstice of Life and Death.” The elderly gentleman was surprised to hear about it and mentioned that he indeed knew some things.

“You should know that the Hermit Society is a very ancient organization, and our research and records might even be more detailed than those of the Church of the Five Gods. The boundary between life and death, a place that should not exist, is actually due to a fault in the world.”

“What do you mean by ‘a fault in the world’?”

Shard asked curiously, and the old man seriously replied:

“The departure of the Ancient God of Death, which caused instability in the rules of death itself.”

He suddenly lowered his voice, signifying the discussion of real, existing Great Ones:

“Think about it, young man, among the current five True Gods, which one has ‘death’ as part of their main priesthood?”

Shard thought about it, then shook his head in surprise:

“It seems there isn’t. The closest are the Lord of All Things, the God of Nature and Malice, and the Lady of Creation, the God of Creation and Destruction, but obviously, those aren’t directly ‘death’.”

“Yes, the Hermit Society believes that the appearance of the Interstice of Life and Death represents the initial signs of world annihilation. And the constant issues with the Interstice represent the apocalypse getting closer,” Shard said.

Shard had not forgotten that this was an organization that advocated apocalyptic theories:

“But the initial appearance of the Interstice of Life and Death can be traced back to the Fourth Era or even earlier Eras. Could it be that the world’s destruction began then?”

He couldn’t help but ask, and Mr. Edmund was a bit embarrassed:

“These matters still need to be researched, but it is a confirmed fact that the world’s errors are increasing,” he said.

Although Mr. Edmund did not know how to rescue people who had mistakenly entered the Interstice, his words had at least told Shard how terrifying this phenomenon was.

Not having lunch at the lighthouse, Shard went back home before lunch, and after having lunch with his cat, around one o’clock, the doctor, Dorothy, and Luviya also arrived.

The doctor first distributed winnings they had bet on at the underground casino for the champion of the Big City Player. Since Shard was almost certainly advancing to the finals when the doctor placed the bet, the odds at that time were 1 to 1.51. Shard had bet 1200 pounds, and after deducting the handling fee and a gratuity for the doctor, he took home 1750 pounds. This money not only compensated for the expenses of buying Sorcery “Elf’s Detoxification” last Saturday, but even left Shard’s wallet a bit thicker.

If it hadn’t been for Priest Augustus’s incident, this would have been a happy occasion for everyone. But with the priest nearing death, they had no interest in celebrating the win. Therefore, after hastily congratulating Shard once again on getting the title “King of Roder Card 1853,” the others shared different pieces of news they had brought.

“The Academy has already started an investigation in Midshire Fort, they acted quickly and confirmed the disappearance of Priest Augustus. Although they couldn’t confirm with Shard in person that the priest had truly fallen into the boundary between life and death, they suspected the legend of Midshire Fort. Currently, Saint Byrons is negotiating with the Church to explore the secrets of Midshire Fort,” said one.

The Academy, after all, is far from the civilized world, and the Church of the Five Gods is the one that truly understands many secrets of the civilized world.

“Not only Priest Augustus is missing, there have been over ten disappearances in Midshire Fort City Area and the surrounding Sicarl Mountain. The Church is conducting an investigation, but they refuse to disclose details to Saint Byrons, as they believe it has nothing to do with the Three Great Magics Academies,” said another.

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“What exactly does the Church know? Why does it seem like they are deliberately keeping secrets?”

Shard asked in confusion, to which Dr. Schneider shook his head:

“We can only be sure that the local problem is significant.”

“There have also been two disappearance cases among the Royal Army stationed near Midshire Fort, but because it involves front line stations, they haven’t reported to the Church yet,” Dorothy said, as Luviya and Dr. Schneider looked at her, curious about her sources of information.

“I managed to gather a summary of unusual phenomena in Midshire Fort City over the years, you can check it yourself,” she said.

She handed Shard a ridiculously large leather paper bag, it was a mystery how Lecia managed to gather so much information in just half a day.

“Does the Prophet’s Society have any information about Midshire Fort?”

Shard then asked Luviya, who nodded:

“The records about Midshire Fort from the Society are very strange, only noting that Circle Sorcerers from the Society absolutely must not conduct large-scale Necromancy Rituals in that city, and forbade any Diviners with particularly strong Divination Inspiration from going there. More information needs higher clearance to access, I need some time to make the application. For now, all we know is that the Society is very wary of Midshire Fort City.”

“Alright, it seems the Church and the Academy are both trying hard to figure out what exactly happened in Midshire Fort, but we cannot just do nothing,” Shard concluded:

“I will often go to Midshire Fort recently, I also have some friends there.”

“You do have a lot of friends,” Dr. Schneider commented offhandedly.

“Priest’s disappearance occurred between two and four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon. According to the most optimistic scenario, he can survive in the boundary of life and death for a week. Today is Friday, meaning most of my daytime will be spent in Midshire Fort until next Wednesday. Dorothy, I must ask you to take care of Mia.”

After all, only Miss Writer, who didn’t need to go to a day job, had the time.

“Okay, I’ll come to your house every morning, since I can write from anywhere.”

“Doctor, keep in contact with the Academy, hopefully they can come up with a solution soon,” Shard urged.

The doctor nodded, but he did not seem very optimistic. If saving Priest Augustus were possible, even though he was just a correspondence student, the Academy would definitely make every effort. But the problem was that they didn’t know what exactly was going on in Midshire Fort, and the Five Gods Church wasn’t willing to share this information with the Academy, while the Church’s own actions remained untraceable.

“Dorothy, you will need to keep working to get more information from the Prophet’s Society. The Academy knows surprisingly little about Midshire Fort, besides my friends and the Church, we can only look to the Prophet’s Society for clues.”

“No problem, but I have to warn you, Shard, please remember. Unless absolutely necessary, you must absolutely not enter the ‘Interstice of Life and Death.'”

Luviya said seriously, and both the doctor and Dorothy nodded:

“We’ve almost lost the priest, we can’t afford to lose another person.”