Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 642 -

Chapter 642: 642

Chapter 642: 642

Tonight, Dorothy was going to perform a ritual in Shard’s attic to advance from the low Fourth Ring to the Inner Fifth Ring. Therefore, Shard did not plan to go to Midshire Fort this Sunday.

After having breakfast, however, Shard first headed to Old John’s pawnshop. Since he arrived too early, Old Man John had only just opened the shop, and even the small sign outside had not been taken out:

“You’re here so early, are you looking to buy something?”

The white-haired old man finished greeting his neighbor and yawned while standing at the doorway, asking Shard, who was walking along the street:

“Detective, help me bring the padlock from the door to the counter.”

“Sure, but Old John, is the steam pipe by your door leaking water? Why have you placed a bucket under it to catch water?”

Shard asked curiously.

“The pipe company has been notified to fix it. This can’t be delayed; otherwise, it will freeze and crack come winter. Speaking of which, what exactly are you here for?”

The two of them walked into the shop together. The morning light was not great, so the gas lamps were lit inside.

“Do you have any moonstone?”

“Of course, the first business of the day is something so small? Detective, how much do you need?”

As he spoke, the old man searched under the counter for the inventory list to check how much stock he had left.

“Just a small piece will do. One of my Arcane Techniques requires some Spellcasting Materials, but each use consumes only a tiny amount, so a small piece of moonstone would last me for quite a long time.”

“It must be inconvenient to always carry stones in your pocket, not to mention they’re easy to lose.”

Old John looked up at Shard.

“So what you’re suggesting is…?”

“I just happen to have a ring made of moonstone here, and on it, there’s an inscription written in the moon script from the Fourth Era that can enhance the effect of Arcane Techniques. Not only that, but it…”

“Just name your price.”

Shard said with a smile:

“So early in the morning, you’re really set on making money from me.”

“Since you introduced Luisa, who placed a big order with me, I’m planning to sell it to you at cost price!”

Old John said, tilting his neck, and in the end, he took 1 pound and 8 shillings from Shard, handing over the ring which looked like it was made of grey stone.

The surface of the ring was fairly smooth, engraved with a circle of thin, elongated inscriptions that looked like a waning moon.

The translated meaning was quite normal:

[May the moon be with you.]

After returning home, instead of the blonde writer, it was a strange carriage that stopped in front of Shard’s house.

Subsequently, the middle-aged woman who claimed to be the owner of “Ekdith Tailored Clothes Shop” gestured for her staff to carefully take down about two dozen sets of clothes from the carriage and delivered them to the second floor for Shard.

“Miss Princess ordered them for you, she gave us your measurements.”

Shard, puzzled, was about to sign for the delivery when he took the order form from the woman shop owner and realized it was the clothes sent by Lecia:

“How much did these clothes cost?”

The order form only had information about the purely handmade clothes, without any price.

“Miss Princess’s servant told us not to disclose the price to you; it was the young lady’s request.”

Shard nodded and signed his name on the delivery note. With this, he wouldn’t be short of clothes to wear this fall.

Shard stayed at home all day, while Dorothy only came at ten in the morning. She looked somewhat nervous, constantly checking the documents she got from the Academy to make sure her ritual was flawless.

While Shard suggested inviting Luviya and Dr. Schneider to help in the evening, Dorothy declined. Her ritual required as few people as possible to be present, or it might affect the success rate of the ceremony.

To help Dorothy relax a bit, Shard took her for a stroll to see the cats in the University District after dinner. They did not go home afterward but instead sat on the grassy banks of the Terael River in the University District, watching the starry sky together.

The two of them talked about many things, and such conversations under the stars did help Dorothy relax. In any case, when they got back home at nine o’clock, the blonde girl seemed completely fine.

The time chosen for the ritual was ten o’clock that night. To prevent Mia from causing trouble, Shard had locked her up on the second floor in advance, and prepared her favorite cat food and the two rings she liked, to keep the cat from making too much noise.

At nine fifty in the evening, Shard and Dorothy arrived at the attic. Shard looked up at the star map chalked onto the slanted ceiling of the attic:

“If all goes well, the ritual should be over in twenty minutes. But I’m quite curious, whether or not your promotion will cause any reaction from Lecia, who is several streets away?”

“When Lecia was promoted to Five Rings, I just felt a bit of heat in my body, nothing unusual. But once I get promoted, we will be on the same level again, and our connection will strengthen. Thus, Lecia hid in her room an hour ago to avoid any accidents.”

Dorothy stood in the middle of the floor, full of ritual items, and looked at the floor mirror in the center of the Ritual Circle. This mirror was an antique, said to have been used by princesses of the Cavendish family three hundred years ago, and was borrowed from Old John.

Although Old Man John was a bit tight-fisted, his goods were certainly genuine.

Dorothy’s Core Spirit Rune consisted of “Writer,” “Role Playing,” and “Another Princess.” She used “Writer” as the core of her system at Low Ring, drawing power from fairy tales and extracting strength from Enlightenment, until she could summon characters from the fairy tales as summoned entities for combat.

Lecia employed the same tactic at Low Ring, and for their Inner Ring, both ladies intended to utilize “Role Playing.” Besides continuing to string together the Sublimation Incantation of fairy tales and summoning characters, they tried to “act out” those characters themselves, to possess the powers from the tales.

Therefore, this promotion required not only a complete linkage of the Low Fourth Ring Ascension Words – “The Dream of the Matchstick Girl, Writer’s Pity on the Frozen Dead” – but also activation of the Core Spirit Rune’s power as much as possible, to prepare for the system construction after the Inner Ring.

Consequently, Dorothy now dressed herself as the “Matchstick Girl.” She was barefoot, with ragged, patched clothes on her body, a scarf covering her head, soot smeared on her face, and a small basket on her arm, which contained matches.

Probably to evoke the feeling of “scantily clad,” Dorothy’s attire was somewhat… inappropriate for a night in autumn, but as a Four-Ring Sorcerer, she was not prone to catching a cold, so there was no need to worry about her health.

The floor was now covered not only with the traces of the ritual outlined with special chalk, the Precious Metal talismans bought from the Academy, the Potion Bottles on the cabinet by the wall, and the antiques acting as ritual symbols but also with the stick matches erected. The matches were glued into the clay, fixed on the floor without tilting, and fixing these matches was the most troublesome step in the entire ritual setup.

“Attention, ten seconds left!”

Shard, who could perceive time precisely, said and quickly walked to the attic window to open it. Tonight’s sky was still shrouded in mist, but the moon could still be seen.

The moon’s glow shone on Shard, who stood at the window and turned around:

“Five seconds! Call forth the Ring of Fate!”

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With arms stretched out, colossal Brass Rings appeared behind the two of them at the same time, and a Four-Color Aura immediately filled the attic.

“Three seconds! Silence of the Moonlight!”

Moonlight slanted in from the window, enveloping Shard directly, aiding in the speed of his Spirit recovery. Of course, he was the only one who could see this beam of light.

“Two seconds! Maze Lock, Little Match Girl!”

Shard, with only three rings, of course couldn’t fully utilize this Arcane Technique.

But at the first ring, he could summon snowflakes, and at the second, he could vaguely summon the moon above. In the state of three rings, as his spirit rapidly depleted, his body and the Ring of Fate resonated with the moonlight outside the window. Then, the starry sky faintly overlapped with the star map on the attic ceiling, making it seem as if the ceiling had become transparent, allowing the dazzling star river to hang directly above their heads.

Large rituals could also employ Maze Lock. Dorothy had spent the prize money she’d bet on the Big City Player to set up a similar Maze Lock ritual, so that Shard could use “Little Match Girl” with all his might at this moment.

“One! Dorothy, time is up!”

Dorothy stood at the center of the attic, her eyes tightly closed, facing the huge brass-framed floor mirror. The moonlight outside the window and the starlight above shone on her, while snowflakes fell on her head and shoulders, then slowly melted away.

In her left arm, she carried a basket; in her right hand, she held the story of “The Little Match Girl,” penned by Shard, the creator of the story, representing the original version and symbolizing the source of the Sublimation Incantation.

The parchment roll automatically flew upwards; the curled scroll gradually unfolded in the glow of Dorothy’s spiritual light. Then, a flame ignited at the tail of the parchment and spread upwards.

The light of the ritual circle on the ground lit up, and the three hundred and sixty-five unlit matches beneath the ceiling blanketed with snowfall ignited at once.

In the flickering firelight, the surface of the floor mirror, which originally reflected this bizarre scene in the attic, gradually began to blur. An eerie white mist covered the mirror surface after the parchment had completely burned away. Dorothy maintained her eyes closed, her right hand gracefully waved in front of her, and then, between her fingers, appeared a matchstick.

With a slight shake of the match, a flame appeared on its head. She opened her eyes and nimbly tossed the burning match towards the mirror.

Surrounded by hundreds of matches, by the light of the ritual circle on the ground, and engulfed by moonlight, starlight, and spiritual light, the match illuminated the white mist on the mirror. After the flame passed, the street scene of Snowfall Village appeared within the mirror.

Shard, striving to maintain the starlight and snowfall, breathed a sigh of relief. This indicated that the ritual was proceeding very smoothly.

Dorothy, with her basket, watched herself in the mirror on the Snowfall Village street. The reflection showed her curled up on the side of the street, her fair skin marked with obvious signs of frostbite, gazing out pale-faced at the snow-covered town.

“Outside the dream of matches…”

She whispered, and the reflection of Dorothy in the mirror seemed to also notice the “other Dorothy,” trembling as she stood up.

Dorothy downed the prepared Magic Potion bottle by bottle, and then evenly sprinkled the dust, made from the Forged Philosopher’s Stone, at her feet.

The Four-Color Aura on her Ring of Fate shone even brighter. The burning matches on the ground didn’t diminish or slowly extinguish; instead, the light grew brighter and brighter until it illuminated the whole attic like daylight.