Chapter 434: What a Coincidence

Tap~ tap~

Tapping the small blackboard behind him twice, Rekton continued:

"The Rabbits of Knowledge are the favored of Knowledge and Mystery, and are themselves Spirit World creatures. To a certain extent, they are even more suited to becoming Spirit World sorcerers than humans—or rather, they are born Spirit World sorcerers."

"The favored of Knowledge and Mystery? I've only ever heard of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom."

A girl of sixteen or seventeen, sitting behind Ethan with some freckles still on her face, muttered in a low voice.

Ethan turned his head to glance at her and said with a light smile:

"Heh, He, like that 'Fool,' is a hidden existence not well known to people."

Ethan did not lower his voice. His words instantly drew the attention of the other students around him, and someone immediately asked curiously:

"Is a hidden existence not well known to people even more powerful than an ordinary great existence?"

Rekton spoke with a smile:

"Being not well known and being powerful don't have a direct relationship. This situation generally arises because They rarely or never respond to believers, or don't even have believers at all, or because They possess hidden authority that can conceal Their own existence, which also prevents the corresponding information from spreading."

After explaining, he said no more, waiting for the students to succumb to their curiosity and ask questions.

As soon as his words fell, the boy who had been very active all along raised his hand to ask:

"Mr. Tynes, what is 'hidden'?"

"A form of authority wielded by deities, just like the Lord of Storms' lightning or the Death God's death. It can conceal anything, even information."

Rekton responded with a light smile.

"Mr. Tynes, which hidden existence does Knowledge and Mystery represent? Ms. Pars said that we Spirit World sorcerers are people who actively pursue knowledge and explore mysteries. Will we also come into contact with this hidden existence in the future?"

Rekton turned his head to look at the person asking the question—a young man wearing a classical wizard's robe with gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose bridge, bronze skin, deep-set eyes, looking somewhat gloomy overall, with a mixed style of scholar and wizard that gave an incongruous impression.

With a steady gaze he looked at the other person, and some additional information quickly revealed itself to his eyes: body temperature slightly lower than normal, possessing a small number of corpse characteristics, and the spirituality on his body was considerably more abundant than a normal person's—he was likely a half-Corpse Collector who had inherited a small amount of traits.

After withdrawing his gaze without a trace, Rekton answered the other's earlier question with a light smile:

"You could put it that way. The hidden existence represented by Knowledge and Mystery is the 'God of the Unidentified,' and you may also call Him 'the Omniscient.'"

"He is the incarnation of knowledge, the radiance of civilization, the ultimate answer to all mysteries!"

"When we pursue knowledge, the very act of using knowledge is drawing closer to Him. In a sense, the moment every Spirit World sorcerer sets foot on this path, they have already encountered Him—it's just that no one notices."

"He generally does not respond to any prayers; only those occasionally flashing flashes of brilliant insight will attract His gaze."

The students in the classroom exchanged glances, all seeing confusion and curiosity in each other's eyes. It seemed this hidden existence had quite the personality.

The girl with freckles sitting behind Ethan raised her hand and asked further:

"He doesn't respond to any prayers? Not even devout believers receive a response?"

This time, without waiting for Rekton to answer, Ethan spoke first:

"As the incarnation of knowledge, He does not care about the devotion of believers, but rather values the exploration and development of knowledge. When we—when someone walks the path of exploring knowledge, delving into mysteries, and developing civilization, He is already with us."

"He is both merciful and cruel. When we walk the correct path, He walks alongside you and me; when we stray from the correct path, He will not hesitate to abandon you and me."

"You can think of Him as easier to reach than all known great existences, or you can think of Him as harder to contact than any great existence, because He is never where our eyes can see. Knowledge and wisdom are the keys to glimpsing Him, and He never stint on rewarding those who see Him."

"Really? What kind of reward would it be?" the girl behind Ethan said excitedly.

A reward? Giving you all a set of practice exams each would do it—as for promoting the faith, Ethan was quite skilled at this. In just a few sentences, he had already stirred up everyone's interest.

Rekton sighed silently in his heart. He did not doubt that some students in the classroom would try praying to the "Fool" and the "God of the Unidentified" tonight, even though they did not yet know the specific honorific names.

Over the following time, Rekton covered several more relatively friendly Spirit World creatures, along with the rituals to summon them and matters to note, then concluded this afternoon's class.

"Alright, that concludes today's afternoon class. As a first-day meeting gift, you will receive a small gift when you truly become Spirit World sorcerers."

As soon as his words fell, students below started pressing: "What kind of small gift?"

Rekton smiled lightly without answering. His figure turned transparent in the next moment and vanished from the classroom.

"He disappeared? Incredible!"

"Is this the ability of a Beyonder?"

Rekton's departure completely ignited this group of young people's longing for the mystical world. All their gazes turned in unison toward Ethan sitting by the window, questions coming one after another.

Ethan's expression paused for a moment. Looking at the boys and girls who had quickly surrounded him, he composed his expression and began patiently answering their questions one by one.

Finally, he did not forget to caution: "Do not casually attempt to pray to unfamiliar existences, especially without a complete honorific name and a correct ritual. Any tiny detail that goes wrong could cause the existence the ritual points to to be replaced—this is extremely dangerous."

"Regardless of whether the great existences we pray to harbor goodwill, what is a negligible influence to Them could be a catastrophe when it falls upon us."

Inside an inn in Impas, Rekton's figure silently materialized in the room.

He surveyed the room. The crow Anu had not yet returned from patrolling the Pas River Valley area with the Eye of Secret Peeking; only Tu Ba Ge was lying on the desk, still holding a quill pen, with a conflicted look on his face as he wrote something.

Rekton walked over curiously and instinctively reached out to rest his hand on Tu Ba Ge's head, but Tu Ba Ge tilted his head to dodge it and said with a look of disgust:

"Mm, your hand smells of cat. Don't touch my head, you'll get me dirty!"

What breed of rabbit are you, to be so sensitive to the smell of cat... muttering silently to himself, Rekton withdrew his right hand somewhat awkwardly.

He lowered his eyes and glanced at the paper under Tu Ba Ge's claws, which already had quite a few Dutan words written on it, and asked curiously:

"What are you writing?"

At the words, Tu Ba Ge's expression immediately collapsed, and he muttered in a low voice:

"I'm thinking about what else can be grown here besides coffee beans."

"I went to Mr. Plak's estate today. Their coffee bean cultivation techniques are already very mature. Aside from using my own Beyonder abilities, there's really nothing I can help with."

Rekton raised an eyebrow, not expecting Tu Ba Ge to be troubled by this problem. He smiled lightly and offered a few words of comfort:

"Beyonder abilities are your own abilities to begin with. Using Beyonder abilities to boost the yield and quality of coffee beans is perfectly in line with the acting rules."

"If you're not satisfied with that, you could try helping Mr. Plak improve the coffee variety—for example, making the coffee beans less bitter, so the brewed coffee has a milky aroma."

Tu Ba Ge's eyes lit up, and he bounced straight up from the desk:

"That's right, let's do exactly that!"

"I want fruit-flavored coffee!"

He happily muttered a couple of sentences, then Tu Ba Ge raised his head and solemnly looked at Lei Ke Dun, saying:

Where did you go touch a wild cat again? This isn't the seafood smell from that black cat on the Future; it's somewhat metallic, a really weird stench.

Lei Ke Dun's mouth twitched; he somewhat suspected that Tu Ba Ge might have been a dog before mutation, otherwise how could his nose be so keen?

He lightly coughed twice, then after Tu Ba Ge stopped muttering, he said in a low voice:

Today at school I met two mechanical expert cats; I plan to hire them later to help me craft some tools to improve people's daily lives.

"Mechanical expert?" Tu Ba Ge counted on his fingers, realizing those two cats were one level above him.

Its fluffy face showed a human-like dissatisfaction as it said: "Not long from now, I too will become a biologist!"

"Then you'd better work hard; they're preparing to build a powerful robot. Once they finish the robot, the feedback they get should be enough to digest all the magic potion on your body."

Lei Ke Dun reached out to pull Tu Ba Ge's ears, not forgetting to stimulate it with a remark.

Tu Ba Ge's gray ears seemed to have steaming red vapor bursting forth.

Before it got angry, Lei Ke Dun reached out and pulled it onto his shoulder, smiling as he said:

"Let's go out for dinner first; I noticed a Lunbao specialty restaurant today."

At the mention of food, Tu Ba Ge's mood instantly soothed; its eyes lit up, and it asked curiously:

"What is Lunbao's specialty? Is it delicious?"

When mentioning Lunbao's specialty, Lei Ke Dun's first thought was the Knowledge Church's exams, and he responded in a strange tone:

"Lunbao's specialty? It should be endless exam papers. If you want to eat, we can go find Bishop Lu Ke; I think he'd be happy to personally give you a stack of test papers."

Tu Ba Ge's gray face darkened, and he said somewhat angrily: "I'm asking about specialty food, not the local church's specialty!"

Ignoring Tu Ba Ge's muttering, Lei Ke Dun directly led it forward; his figure instantly turned transparent and vanished into the room.

In Pasi, the Knowledge Church is located in the West City District.

Lei Ke Dun's figure appeared in an empty alley; he glanced sideways at Tu Ba Ge lying on his shoulder, a deep blue glint flashing in his eyes.

Relying on his grasp of the mental form, he pulled Tu Ba Ge into the surroundings' "consciousness dead angle"; as long as it didn't actively interact with those around, no one would notice this strange rabbit.

After making preparations, Lei Ke Dun stepped out of the alley and headed toward the Lunbao specialty restaurant ahead to the side; this was the place he had spotted by chance while following Bri and Ritz through the city earlier this morning.

Just as he entered the restaurant, a young waiter obviously of South Continent ethnicity came over, greeting him in somewhat unskilled Finnebote language:

"Hello, would you like to dine?"

"Is there still space upstairs?" Lei Ke Dun responded with a light nod.

"Yes, please follow me."

The young waiter showed a proper smile, made a gesturing invitation, and walked ahead to guide Lei Ke Dun.

Guided by the waiter straight to the second floor, Lei Ke Dun had just glanced around when he saw a familiar figure—actually, three familiar figures.

They were exactly Ge Lan·Pa Er Si and her two cats, Bri and Ritz, whom he had seen that morning at the Pasi River Valley First Technical University.

Apparently sensing Lei Ke Dun's gaze, the three pairs of eyes simultaneously turned toward him.

He nodded at Bri and Ritz, as well as at Ge Lan·Pa Er Si who had taken them in; Lei Ke Dun turned his head toward the waiter quietly waiting for him and chuckled:

"I see a friend; I'll go sit with her at a table."

Speaking, he walked straight over to Bri and Ritz, moving the two cats aside amid their shocked gazes, then sat down in a chair.

Lei Ke Dun ignored Bri and Ritz's protesting gazes, placed Tu Ba Ge from his shoulder in front of them, then turned his head to look at Ge Lan·Pa Er Si and said:

"What a coincidence, meeting again?"

"Not really a coincidence; I wanted to see you, so we happened to meet here."

Ge Lan·Pa Er Si blinked, gave a mysterious light chuckle, and replied:

She wore a dark brown knitted coat, her brown hair very thick and disheveled, hanging over her ears and shoulders; her hazel eyes were bright and lively, and when she smiled she revealed her large front teeth, which added a youthful vitality to her gentle demeanor.

Her gaze fell unaffectedly on Tu Ba Ge, the corner of her mouth curling with a pleased arc as she said:

"I didn't expect you also like to adopt small animals!"

(End of Chapter)