Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2770: Chapter 2771: Old Stone and Astrology Chess

After Luigi disappeared.

While everyone was still pondering what exactly this poet, who had suddenly appeared and then suddenly left, had actually done.

Dox moved faster than anyone, snatching the mask off the ground at lightning speed.

In his view, the poet had spoken to him, had him solve the problem, so whatever was left behind should be his... Of course, Kaier had contributed a bit too; well, once they got back to Sandworm Market, giving him some help would count as making up for it.

Dox happily flipped the mask over in his hands, but very soon, his expression darkened.

”What is this piece of junk?!”

Grumbling, Dox walked back, hesitated a moment, then handed the broken mask to Angel.

He really couldn’t tell what this mask was. There was no trace of anything Extraordinary about it; the only noteworthy thing was that he didn’t recognize the material.

And among everyone present, the one with the sharpest eye for materials was, without a doubt, Angel.

Angel didn’t understand what Dox meant at first, but once he took the mask and examined it carefully, he more or less got it.

Angel: ”This mask is carved from Old Stone.”

Old Stone? When Angel said this name, everyone present, including the Black Earl, showed puzzled expressions, because none of them had ever heard of such a material.

Dox: ”You mean, Olden Stone?”

Olden Stone was a type of stone whose largest yield came from the Seventh Foundation Prefecture of the Stone Mulberry Dynasty—also where the Punk Theme Park was located. Olden Stone was generally used to enhance the hand-feel of Alchemy Weapons. Grind it into powder, wipe an Alchemy Weapon with water-repellent hide-paper coated in it, and it could make your Alchemy Weapon feel much more natural and responsive in battle; aside from that, you could use the same method to maintain other Extraordinary Items.

For ordinary Wizards, Olden Stone’s function was dispensable. But for Bloodline Wizards who pursued fighting with weapons and breaking their limits, Olden Stone was still fairly useful.

The reason Dox asked whether Old Stone was Olden Stone was precisely a matter of cultural tendency and expression.

On the Flourish Continent, aside from the discoverer or inventor, the other factor that determined the right to name something was cultural dominance. For example, all names related to steel gears and steam machines were dictated by Yirong Country; Yirong had that sort of cultural advantage. Or, take the Wunong Duchy: because it produced nearly fifty percent of all cultivated flowers on the Flourish Continent, Wunong held a naming advantage for flora.

Countries at a cultural disadvantage, aside from accepting such names, had another choice: coin new terms.

To put it bluntly, it was a kind of spirit-victory method of self-comfort.

This led to certain items having different names in different regions.

This sort of situation was actually rare in the Wizards’ Realm, because most Extraordinary Items were rare, and their naming followed set rules. However, there were exceptions—things that weren’t all that rare, but still barely counted as Extraordinary Items. Such things would be subject to geographical cultural divergences and end up with different expressions.

In Dox’s eyes, Olden Stone was a very common commodity. From a translation standpoint, you could indeed translate it as Old Stone. Hence his question.

But Dox had forgotten to consider that Angel hailed from outside the Flourish Continent and had not been ”tainted” by the Flourish Continent’s whole set of cultural divergences; what he used were standard terms.

If even the standard term ended up being vague, that could only be chalked up to ignorance, not cultural difference.

Angel shook his head at Dox. ”They’re not the same.”

He paused, then sighed slightly. ”Honestly, this is my first time seeing Old Stone in person. I’d always thought Old Stone was just a legend; I didn’t expect it to actually exist.”

Angel had read about Old Stone in books hidden in Margaret’s secret compartment in Nightmare Abyss City.

But in reality, Angel had never seen any mention of Old Stone in any other book. Because of that, he had once suspected that Old Stone was nothing more than a legend.

Yet when he actually held Old Stone in his hand, the ”server” in his Mind Space spun up at once. Through a detailed analysis, his sealed memories were unlocked and the information regarding Old Stone resurfaced.

”So what is Old Stone, is it very valuable?” Dox’s eyes lit up. Since even Angel was seeing it for the first time, didn’t that mean Old Stone was very valuable?

The others also turned their gaze toward Angel. Could this ”mundane item” that looked utterly ordinary to them really have some big background?

Angel pondered for a moment. ”You can say it has value... depending on how it’s used.”

”What do you mean ’you can say’? Is there some kind of precondition?” Dox pressed.

Angel: ”It’s not a precondition, it’s just that...”

Angel had only spoken halfway when he suddenly trailed off.

Dox didn’t continue to press him, because everyone present had stopped paying attention to Old Stone and were all looking toward the left side of the corridor.

A hunched figure slowly emerged out of thin air.

”Presumptuous usurper who dreams of ascending a high seat, the whispers of the Stars tell me you are already prepared to fall into the Abyss of Magic?” A voice as ancient as time itself echoed in everyone’s ears.

As the voice faded, an old crone appeared before them, leaning on a cane, wearing a three-pointed star-and-moon hat and a star-and-moon robe, her skin sagging like wrinkled chicken hide.

This old woman shared one particular trait with the poet from earlier: she wore a mask. However, her mask covered her left eye, perfectly complementing the poet’s mask.

After the old woman came to a stop, she raised her head and looked toward... the Black Earl with slightly clouded eyes.

She showed no surprise at the fact that the Black Earl was merely a nose. She simply gazed at him quietly.

And just like the poet, she didn’t spare anyone else a glance, as if they didn’t exist.

Based on the earlier conversation with the poet Luigi, this old woman should be the one who was going to... test the Black Earl?

”Fall into the Abyss of Magic? What do you mean?” the Black Earl asked blandly.

The old woman lightly tapped her cane, and a special sun-and-moon Pattern appeared on the ground, upon which scattered starlight began to spread.

While everyone was still confused by her actions, those motes of starlight rapidly assembled, forming a circular Star Disk in front of the Black Earl.

The Star Disk was a grid of intersecting lines, with light points at each junction that flickered in and out of existence.

When they saw this Star Disk, everyone froze for a moment. They were anything but unfamiliar with it.

Rather than calling it a Star Disk, it might be more accurate to call it... a chessboard.

This was a form of ”entertainment” particularly favored by Prophet Wizards, called star-象棋.

Every point where the lines intersected was a Star. Every time they placed a piece, both sides of the gambling would silently think of a matter, a question, or an object in their hearts—the exact category decided by mutual agreement.

Once the moves were played, they would use various methods to ”guess” what the other side was thinking of.

Of course, in the eyes of outsiders this was ”guessing,” but for Prophet Wizards, this was actually a kind of ”interpretation.”

Whoever successfully interpreted the other could make the opponent place one more piece.

The more pieces placed, the greater the chance of forming an ”Astrology pattern,” enabling the other side to interpret the final answer. And the one who interpreted the other’s ”Astrology pattern” was the winner.

So, avoiding placing pieces, and misleading the opponent’s reading, that’s the real game inside the game.

The rules are roughly like this. You could say this is a game exclusive to Prophet Wizards. For non-Prophet Wizards, once they run into this kind of Astral Chess, they basically have no chance.

”Play Astral Chess?” The Black Earl’s tone rose at the end.

Keep in mind, among the people present, not a single one was a Prophet Wizard. Playing Astral Chess for them was basically flailing around blind. Before, Dox and Kaier could still help out, but if it was Astral Chess, all they could do was throw in the towel.

The old woman didn’t answer. Instead, she once again tapped her staff against the ground, and stars fell onto the board.

Points where the lines crossed lit up one after another, finally forming a row of astral lights like a Rainbow Bridge.

”Presumptuous usurpers dreaming of climbing high, listen to the murmur of the stars.” After the old woman spoke, she closed her eyes and fell silent.

This was exactly the same as with the poet before: she gave the prompt, then stopped talking. Only when you solved the problem would she speak again.

”Feels like a dummy, no matter what you ask it just won’t respond.” Dox muttered a complaint under his breath.

In fact, it wasn’t just Dox who thought this way; everyone else did too. The poet from before at least said a few sentences, but this old woman was completely talking to herself; the Black Earl questioned her, and she answered something entirely different.

Now that this star pattern was displayed, the meaning was obvious.

She wasn’t planning to play a game against the Black Earl. She directly revealed her own star layout and was letting the Black Earl interpret it.

Although it still wasn’t the same as real Astral Chess and was much simpler... could a non-Prophet Wizard really interpret this stuff?

Everyone stared intently at the Black Earl, while the Black Earl silently gazed at the stellar pattern on the board.

A few seconds later, the Black Earl summoned Vay over, reattached his nose, and motioned for Vay to hold out his hand. He tapped the first star that had lit up earlier.

Soon, a line of information floated above the board: The Far Shore.

Then, the Black Earl tapped each of the moves the old woman had played, one by one.

Each one was a place name, but not in the traditional sense of ”place name.”

For example: The Far Shore, The Horizon, The Starry Sky, Where the Sun Sets, The Sea Beneath the Bright Moon...

In a normal game of Astral Chess, these place names would have been ”interpreted” one by one by the Black Earl. But now the old woman was directly providing the answers.

What the Black Earl needed to do now was just one thing: through the meaning represented by each piece, interpret the overall meaning of the star pattern.

From beginning to end, the Black Earl was very calm. This gave everyone a bit of confidence; maybe the Black Earl really could interpret it.

However, it wasn’t long before they heard Vay asking in the Mind Ribbon: ”Dox, is your inspiration reacting at all? Hurry and come take a look, see if you’ve got any ideas?”

Even though it was Vay speaking, it was undoubtedly at the Black Earl’s signal that Vay said this.

Dox really wanted to say he didn’t understand either. But he knew this time it wasn’t Vay asking; it was an order from the Black Earl, so he could only grit his teeth and go.

Time ticked by bit by bit. Watching Dox scratching his head over there and hearing Vay sighing again and again, Angel knew this star layout was probably very hard to interpret.

Angel actually had a way to interpret it. He could completely go up to the Wilderness of Dreams and ask for outside help.

If he used outside help to get the answer, it definitely wouldn’t be wrong. But it would be hard for him to explain how he’d interpreted it.

He couldn’t exactly say he’d cultivated Divination cross-branch, right?

So Angel could only quietly watch from the side.

He was also really curious: if they failed to interpret it, what would happen? Angel glanced at the old crone who had closed her eyes and stopped talking, and secretly guessed in his heart that maybe she’d just never open her eyes again?

Regardless of what the old crone did in the end, one thing was clear: if they couldn’t interpret it, they would definitely miss out on the ”surprise” the Wise Sovereign had mentioned.

This was also what confused Angel a bit. Didn’t the Wise Sovereign know that none of them were Prophet Wizards? Why would he arrange a test involving Astral Chess?

Just as Angel was quietly waiting for the Black Earl to give up, a twist appeared.

The Black Earl let out a soft sigh. ”Forget it.”

Angel thought the Black Earl was about to give up, but the Black Earl’s next sentence left Angel stunned.

”The meaning of the star pattern is... the Abyss of Evil Gods.”

As soon as the Black Earl finished speaking, the old woman opened her eyes. ”Interpretation correct. Since you have discerned the Abyss of Evil Gods, you should understand what I mean. This is the message I am gifting to you.”

As her words fell, the old woman gently stepped back, and her figure began to slowly fade away.

At the same time, everyone heard her final sentence in their ears: ”Presumptuous usurpers dreaming of climbing high, remember my name: Astrologer, Glaipnir.”

The old woman vanished, leaving behind only the broken mask she had been wearing.

Vay walked over, picked up the mask, retreated back to the others, and handed the mask to Angel.

From beginning to end, Vay didn’t say a word.

At this moment, everyone was puzzled, but what puzzled them wasn’t why the Black Earl suddenly knew the answer to the star pattern—he had used Divination before. Although he’d said it was borrowed from someone else’s ability and already used up, who could say if that was true or not?

What they were puzzled about was: what exactly did Glaipnir mean by the message she claimed to be gifting the Black Earl?

Why was ”Abyss of Evil Gods” her message to the Black Earl?

Judging from the Black Earl’s complete silence, it seemed this message had truly struck a chord with him.

Although everyone was terribly curious, seeing the aura of silence rolling off the Black Earl, and the way Vay looked so miserable he didn’t even dare speak, in the end they still didn’t ask out loud. Instead, they shifted their gaze back to Angel.

Angel was now holding half a mask in his left hand and half a mask in his right, one for the left eye and one for the right.

He tried fitting the two mask pieces together.

They matched perfectly, aligning edge to edge.

Which meant these two broken masks should originate from the same source.

However, even with the two pieces combined, the mask was still missing a part.

The missing part was the nose and the lower half of the face.

Following the previous pattern, barring any accidents, the third ”person” should appear soon, and that person should be wearing the remaining part of the mask.

Angel looked up at everyone. ”Do we continue talking about Old Stone, or do we wait a bit longer?”