Han Dong had candidly made his personal stance and identity known.
Mr. Black and White seemed to only care about his ‘standpoint’, and through his grasp of astrology, he had also gotten a grasp of Han Dong’s nature, knowing well that he stood alongside humans… As such, he did not care to find out just where Han Dong came from and even extended a certain level of support to help him keep his identity under wraps.
But… Han Dong still wanted to keep certain things to himself.
When discussing his wish to learn about summoning techniques, he did not let Chenli out.
An important reason behind this was because Chenli originated from the Space of Destiny, and there was no telling that Mr. Black and White would be able to utilize Astrology to learn of Chenli’s origin.
While Han Dong was still uncertain about the Space of Destinys’ root of existence, it would be unwise for him to expose himself like this.
“You wish to learn summoning techniques?”
“That’s right…” Han Dong had already thought of the rhetoric behind this decision. “When I saw the Suture Monster during the test, I felt that Necromancy wouldn’t be too bad. Though I have a ghoul’s arm, the rest of my body still leaves much to be desired. But if I have the assistance of a summoned being aiding me, it would be able to massively make up for my shortcomings.”
Mr. Black and White spoke, “‘Control’ is far more adept when it comes to the summoning and dominance of living beasts, fantastical creatures, monsters, and spirits. Our Department of Mysticism isn’t comparable to them in this regard. Two weeks isn’t a lot. If you do wish to learn, you’ll have to first build up a firm foundation in ‘Plague’ before you can come and learn summoning techniques from me. If you end up getting sidetracked and you end up failing to learn either to any degree of mastery, you might very well end up dead in the next Space of Destiny. The difficulty of a Trainee Knight participating in the Space of Destiny is far from that of the Novice Scenario… You understand that, don’t you?”
“I do.”
Mr. Black and White continued, “Regarding your ghoul arm, you can say these two words to explain the phenomena to outsiders: Plague Mutation. Most people would not care to investigate it further after hearing that since we are in the Department of Mysticism, and are capable of perfectly sewing the arm of a ghoul to a living thing.”
“Okay.”
“Once you’ve gotten a sufficient understanding of ‘Mysticism’, you’d be able to fully explain to others regarding all your various abilities with enough knowledge backing them up… You would not have to worry about being ‘exposed’ and you’d be able to propagate your name throughout the Holy City. While keeping a low profile would save you the trouble, gaining prestige and reputation would bring you unimaginable benefits and convenience. As to the pros and cons of this, I’ll leave it to you to weigh up the trade off yourself. No matter what, your personal standpoint must remain unchanged. Give it your all for the sake of humanity’s freedom.”
Han Dong thanked Mr. Black and White again. The probability of Han Dong’s identity being exposed was minimal with his help, so all he needed to do was to pay more attention to himself and that would do.
“As long as you accomplish what Pasha requests of you daily, you may come to the Star Observatory any time to find me. I’ll be here all day.”
“Understood… Speaking of which, Mr. Black and White… Where is Instructor Pasha’s office located?”
As Han Dong asked this, he bore witness to a strange scene.
A single black crow feather was spat out from the mouth of the black mask.
This crow feather that was floating in mid air actually turned into a black crow and perched itself on Han Dong’s shoulder.
“It will bring you to her office… You will have to familiarize yourself with the detailed structure of the Darkmoon Spire in a short period of time so you don’t waste too much time on this.”
“Understood.”
With their conversation ending and the 2 weeks deadline set, Han Dong needed to maximize every minute and every waking second he had, which meant that he would have to properly plan out every detail from here on out.
After Han Dong left, the room returned back to its appearance of the endless galaxy. When Mr. Black and White got up and made his way to the astronomical telescope, he casually took out a white mask and brought it up face to face with the black mask that he was currently wearing.
That was when the mouth of this white mask moved on its own accord, and the voice that came out from it sounded somewhat ethereal, “Crow… You’re acting a little abnormal today. You’ve always never been interested in these Trainee Knights. You had only learned the news from the periphery when we had that surgical suture genius two years ago that managed to obtain 99 points during the test. Why would you be so concerned with that kid today?”
The black mask answered, “I would of course place a bet on a Trainee Knight that even your Astrology skills had failed to get a precise reading of. If he can truly get used to everything in the two weeks and learn the basic Plague techniques, and even grasp some beginner summoning spells from me, we would do well to devote all our efforts to educate and groom him to the best of our capabilities if he succeeds in surviving the true Space of Destiny.”
The white mask asked curiously, “All this just because I can’t tell what’s the ‘fate calculation’ of that Trainee Knight?”
“That’s right. Since you are unable to get a reading of him, that means that his fate calculation might not belong to our world, so I have to take a bet on this. After all, it would only cost us just a bit of resources. As long as we can confirm that he stands with humanity, we would not have lost anything at all.”
“Who knows what the future holds?”
Their discussion ended, and Mr. Black and White exchanged the masks. Now wearing the white mask, the man’s temperament, posture and gait changed; Strolling over to the astronomical telescope, he continued with his observation of the cosmic galaxy in front of him.
—————————————-
Han Dong revealed a rare smile as he was taking the lift down.
The largest rock that was weighing down in his heart had finally been dislodged.
This world that was filled with magic and supernatural abilities had plenty of exceptionally talented men living in it. He might have been able to fool people once, but there was no way of telling if he would be able to successfully pull it off again.
“The Space of Destiny will arrive once more in two weeks’ time.”
Han Dong immediately thought of the Trainee Knight whom he had temporarily teamed up with several days ago – Kaz Martini.
After he had received the reward, Kaz had very clearly expressed his wish to continue teaming up with Han Dong, and that included future bounty assignments and Space of Destiny events.
“I should contact Kaz in advance, still using my Alan alias. I’ll pretend that I am a first year Trainee Knight from the Department of Mysticism and team up with him. A Crusader who has 3 Fate points should know much more.”
At the crow’s directions, the lift descended down to the first floor in the spire.
Next, he had to change and get into another special lift. The wall surface of this lift was contaminated with a viscous bacterial liquid.
“Instructor Pasha’s office isn’t inside the spire? Her focus is Plague, so don’t tell me…”
That was when Han Dong recalled the chamberlain’s words about the surrounding regions that were under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mysticism.
The Old Sewers.
The chamberlain had mentioned that this nearby region had a certain danger to it, and had suggested Han Dong to avoid venturing in the area.
After descending over 100 or so meters, the lift reached the bottom.
Right in front of him was an underground area that was filled in soft yellow light, and this yellow light did not come from the flames of a lit candle.
Instead, it came from the fluorescent bacteria that was growing all over the walls of the sewer, with the largest cluster about the size of an arm, like a giant pustule.
The spores that were drifting in the air continued to propagate the yellow glow to the various parts of the sewers.
Colorful fungi mushrooms grew on the gaps of the walls. He could even see rodents scuttling about with colonies of fungi on their backs, their sizes far bigger than most mice.
There were even strange bugs that had mutated, adopting weird postures and body parts that were beyond the realms of human understanding.
“Any normal human being in such an environment would only become nourishment to all these fungi.”
Just as Han Dong was contemplating how he should step into the place, the crow that was perched on his shoulder cawed loudly.
The crow immediately transformed into a fleshy beak mask and donned itself over Han Dong’s face.
The crow feathers had also changed into a set of black robe that could ward off the fungi found in the Old Sewers.