When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 691: Chapter 80: Just Tell Me If It Preserves Freshness or Not Chapter 691: Chapter 80: Just Tell Me If It Preserves Freshness or Not For a moment, Cardinal Matilda fell silent.

A ripple of silence echoed among the four people staring at the corpse.

If this house had just been built and nobody had lived here before…

How did this corpse get here?

Aiwass instinctively looked back at Sherlock.

—Is this perhaps your area of expertise?

Although Sherlock was not in child form at the moment…

from another perspective, didn’t the detective always encounter major cases right after reverting back from being a child?

Sherlock glanced at Aiwass somewhat inexplicably, then very consciously walked over and squatted down to examine the corpse.

But as soon as he squatted, he frowned deeply.

Because the corpse was too clean, devoid of any clues.

It was a female elf who appeared to be in her twenties or thirties, with chestnut-brown short curly hair.

She was still wearing the red robe that only a bishop could wear.

—This was an elf bishop.

Only after being exposed did her abdomen slowly soak through.

Blood seeped out from inside, but it only slightly saturated a palm-sized area of the garment before it stopped spreading.

Her expression was also very calm, with no signs of struggle.

Her skin still retained elasticity, was pale but not ghastly, and her body temperature was only cool, not ice-cold.

It was as if she had died just when the cabinet was opened.

According to the “preservation ability” that Cardinal Matilda just introduced, it was only possible to determine that her death occurred within a month.

“…There’s no way to ascertain the time of death.”

Sherlock shook his head and tried to gather other information, “The wound is in the abdomen…

May I examine it?”

As he spoke, he politely looked back at Cardinal Matilda who maintained her silence.

After all, he was no longer a child.

And though the dead body was right before him, this place was not Avalon; as a consultant for the Supervisory Bureau, he did not have the authority to touch the body at will in the Holy Nation.

Cardinal Matilda sighed, “Go ahead and examine, Detective Hermes.”

Upon hearing this, Sherlock lifted the corpse’s clothing to inspect the wound.

And from Cardinal Matilda’s expression and demeanor, Aiwass realized that she seemed to recognize this person.

As Sherlock examined the body, he approached the Cardinal Archbishop and asked, “Who is she?”

“Her name is Mercedes, you certainly don’t know her.”

Cardinal Matilda sighed, “But Grey knows her.”

“…The Holy Maiden?”

Aiwass was taken aback for a moment, then understood, “Is she a friend of Pure White?”

—If he didn’t have “Long Dates”, then the person accompanying him now and introducing these facilities would likely be the Grey Saintess.

Then she would have witnessed this body falling out from here…

and it might even have landed directly in her arms.

“She was a mutual friend of Grey and Yanis.

They grew up together,”

Cardinal Matilda shook her head slowly and spoke, “The relationship might not have been as close as between the two of them.

But she’s now the only friend left by Grey’s side…”

…Is this a provocation?

Does someone hold a grudge against Grey?

Aiwass had such a thought flash through his mind.

—No, that’s not right.

Aiwass immediately dispelled this thought, which contained a hint of wishful thinking.

It wasn’t that simple.

Because apart from the Papal Guards who had come earlier to bring in luggage, only the owner of the house and the other Cardinal Archbishops had entered this house.

And from Cardinal Matilda’s reaction, it seemed that the Grey Saintess starting to Amberficate was not a secret.

In other words, it was highly possible that the other Cardinal Archbishops also knew of this matter.

Considering the Saintess’s overly heavy feelings towards Yanis, it seemed her Amberfication was related to Yanis’s unannounced departure two hundred years ago.

At this time, if someone were to kill the only friend the Saintess had left and expose the body before her eyes…

without a doubt, it would further provoke her Amberfication.

Aiwass’s heart suddenly tightened.

…So, the plot has already begun?

“Something’s odd; I’ll talk about it later.”

Sherlock replaced the clothes and stood up, turning back with a frown, “The amount of blood is too little.

It could be for some other reason.

Because, logically speaking, such a wound should not have been enough to kill a person, let alone a bishop…

She should be at least at the Third Power Level, right?”

“Yes.

To my knowledge,” Cardinal Matilda replied, “Bishop Mercedes had at least three paths that reached the Third Power Level—she wasn’t a professional, but an heir.”

“An heir?”

Aiwass was somewhat puzzled: “What about that?

Aren’t all the members of the Papal Guard heirs?”

“Although some young elves…

for instance, Yanis have professions.

Both Grey and Mercedes are heirs.

She was a candidate for The Holy Maiden.”

Not all young elves had “professions.”

After all, the professional system was a new thing recently developed by the Great Sage and the Hourglass, having only appeared a little over a thousand years ago.

It provided symbols of authority that corresponded with professions recognized by the Pillar God and Celestial Marshal.

In this way, the scattered and chaotic professional inheritances were successfully linked under the names of gods.

This ensured that Transcendents would not go astray and also sorted out the system of abilities.

It integrated the originally individual extraordinary abilities of each person.

Previous ancient Transcendents might have inadvertently come across some Mystical Skills books that they should not have possessed, acquired knowledge that deviated from the proper path, thus corrupting their souls and skewing to another path, or received knowledge from different great beings within the same path, leading to mental fragmentation.

Under the professional system, this was impossible—if it wasn’t within the range of abilities that the profession could master, even Mystical Skills of the same path couldn’t be learned.

And once the career transfer was completed, one could directly acquire Extraordinary Abilities of considerable completeness.

And as long as someone had paved the way, others could follow the same path, pass the trials, and acquire the same profession, the same abilities.

This was also a form of “disenchantment,” and it belonged to the core authority of the Hourglass.

For example, “Illuminator” was a profession transformed from a Saint’s inheritance.

Aiwass was very likely the first person in modern times to master the career transfer of an Illuminator, possibly because the profession had just been recorded by the Great Sage.

It’s also possible that this was a profession that the Candle Master did not particularly want followers to undertake.

Reflecting on it now, the Candle Master’s most standard divine titles were “The God of Thorns Bound” and “The God Who Burns Body and Pursues Darkness.”

These were the two professions directly under the Candle Master.

The latter clearly corresponded to Torchbearers, while the former corresponded to Illuminators—meaning, Illuminators are destined to be bound by the Sin Thorn.

The Candle Master did not want his followers to bear the original sin that He himself should carry, therefore he did not encourage conversion to Illuminators.

That’s why he came to Aiwass, to ask if he wanted to go back to being a Torchbearer.

In ancient times, it was a path of inheritance independently opened by an elf Saint.

Her inheritance was not recorded in the Codex Book but was buried within the ruins—the statue that she turned into after her death should be on the sixth or seventh level.

Only by coming into contact with the statue of the Saint could one find the possibility to take up this path.

It was like a puzzle-solving game; theoretically, the password for the safe was in another puzzle.

But the number was fixed, and Aiwass had directly checked the solution and entered it.

Yet not all legacies of Transcendent power were crafted into professions by the two Pillar Gods.

Those that required a blend of multiple Paths, even special bloodline inheritance or the need for passing down certain skills, essentially were not recorded as professions.

For instance, the Son of the Moon, werewolves, Demons transformed from Demon incarnations, as well as some unique legacies mastered by Elves…

or “Shepherds”.

The biggest difference between professionals and heirs lies in the direction of resonance with the Path.

The souls of professionals are influenced by their professions, becoming purified by the Path…

Take Bishop Mathers, for example, who had been stuck at level 39 for a long time.

He once said…

that he had been reluctant to complete the advancement ceremony and step into the Fifth Power Level, fearing that he would be tainted by the power of the Path at that level, altering his personality and consciousness.

The bodily transformations brought about by a profession can make its holder’s state much more stable and prevent them from losing control or their power.

But heirs must rely on their own resonance with the Path to reach the corresponding Energy Level.@@novelbin@@

If they lose resonance with the Path, their abilities might even regress—this is more akin to an original state.

Just like muscles turn to fat if not exercised for a long time, skills are forgotten if not studied regularly.

Without the “anchor” of a profession, if one completely loses their true heart—even if just for an instant—they will immediately lose their extraordinary abilities.

However, for Elves who are generally more emotionally stable compared to other species, they essentially do not lose their powers for these reasons.

Elves believe that the “profession system” was predominantly created for the Short-Lived Species whose emotions are more unstable—a power that the Short-Lived Species would attempt to master.

Given the elves’ lengthy lifespans, they have ample time to sculpt themselves to a form more suited to accepting the corresponding legacy.

Many Elves, even those not yet a thousand years old and born after the creation of the profession system, still become heirs.

This is mainly due to the influence of their elders and society.

“In my view, one of the reasons Yanis left the Holy Nation is because of Bettina Dia’s Amberfication,” Cardinal Matilda slowly said.

“Bettina Dia is an heir.

She was originally Yanis’s mentor.

“Sometimes Grey tells me, she thinks one of the reasons Yanis never returns could also be this.

In our Holy Nation, heirs generally hold somewhat higher status…

after all, anyone can change their profession, but heirs need to be guided one-on-one.

Having a legacy means having a mentor, parents; a reliable, credible, traceable social relationship.

“Therefore, our Elven concept of legacy is very important, sometimes the mentor who passes on the mantle is even more important than one’s parents.

“During the adolescent period when one’s worldview is just beginning to take shape, in order to receive the legacy, one must spend a much longer time with the mentor than with parents, often more than tenfold.

Some mentors, to prevent parents from negatively influencing the child and thus deviating from the requirements of the legacy, might not even let the children go home.

“In that sense, Yanis is like an orphan.

After Bettina Dia’s Amberfication, although Yanis could have chosen another mentor to continue her learning, she instead chose to flee from the Holy Nation and become a professional…”

Cardinal Matilda looked troubled, “I think, at least at that time…

she must have felt inferior.

They might have fought, or not.

But after that, Grey’s conversations grew scarcer, and she stopped making new friends.

“Bishop Mercedes was Grey’s only friend.

She accepted the same legacy as Grey, but because she was more vivacious and much less compatible with the identity of The Holy Maiden, you could call her a ‘failed Holy Maiden’.

While Grey reached the Fifth Power Level of dual Paths, Mercedes could only touch upon the Third Energy Level.

“Her journey had come to an end, but she was unwilling to convert to a professional.

Maybe because of pride, or maybe just to keep the lonely Grey company.

Thus, she perpetually hung around the twenty-first level, continuing her practice as The Holy Maiden…

I always felt that this was also good.

At least little Grey could have some company, someone to chat with.

“…Fortunately, the one who came here with you was not Grey.”