By the time Shen returned home, the afternoon had already begun drifting toward evening. The apartment was still empty; Arthur wouldn't return from work for some time, while Elara and Sera were likely still occupied with their studies. That suited Shen perfectly.
After hanging his coat near the door, Shen went directly to his room and closed it behind him. His gaze naturally fell upon the old occult book resting on his desk.
His meeting with Erica had at least given him something to look forward to tomorrow, but until she spoke with the head librarian, there wasn't anything else he could do about the library job.
Rather than spend the rest of the afternoon doing nothing, Shen pulled out his chair and sat down.
"Might as well continue studying this," he murmured as he picked up the occult book. "If I'm going into the Beyonder world, I should at least learn enough mysticism to keep myself alive."
Becoming a Beyonder hadn't suddenly filled his head with mystical knowledge. Shen still possessed his memories of reading Lord of the Mysteries, and that knowledge could help him greatly, but remembering what Klein had done and actually knowing how to perform those things himself were completely different matters.
Back on Earth, ritual magic, divination, charms, spirit summoning, and the countless strange rules surrounding mysticism had merely been interesting parts of a novel. He could read about Klein experimenting with rituals without worrying about what would happen if something went wrong.
Here, however, one careless mistake could have very real consequences.
A failed ritual might be the least of his problems. He could attract some wandering Spirit World creature, accidentally contact an unknown existence, or draw the attention of something that should never have noticed a Sequence 9 Beyonder in the first place.
In this messed-up world, ignorance wasn't merely inconvenient. It could very easily get him killed.
Shen opened the occult book to where he had stopped before and began reading carefully. The next several sections focused on the basic preparations required for ritualistic magic: how to select a suitable environment, arrange candles, prepare materials, and properly use symbols depending on the entity involved in the ritual.
What caught Shen's attention most, however, was a section explaining how to isolate the ritual area from outside spiritual interference.
"A spirituality wall..." Shen muttered, leaning slightly closer to the page.
According to the book, a spirituality wall wasn't simply an invisible barrier that appeared because a Beyonder wanted one. Creating it required a ritual blade, preferably one made from or containing silver. The practitioner first needed to calm the mind and clearly sense the spirituality within their body before guiding it into the silver blade.
Once the spirituality gathered near the tip of the blade, the practitioner would physically walk around the area they wished to isolate while continuously releasing a controlled amount of spirituality.
A circle was the most common shape, although a square could also be used depending on the ritual arrangement. As the practitioner walked, the spirituality flowing from the blade would leave behind an invisible boundary.
Once the path returned to its starting point and the two ends connected, the enclosed area would become separated from its surroundings.
Shen slowly nodded as he read through the instructions. "So the knife is basically a medium used to guide the spirituality. The actual wall is still formed from the practitioner's own spirituality."
He continued reading. A spirituality wall could prevent ordinary sound, light, and weaker spiritual fluctuations from easily leaking out of the enclosed space. It also reduced interference from the surrounding environment and could keep weaker wandering spiritual creatures from casually disturbing a delicate ritual.
Of course, it wasn't an impenetrable barrier.
A sufficiently powerful entity could break through without much difficulty, but for ordinary rituals and prayers, it was one of the most basic precautions a practitioner of mysticism should learn.
Shen stared at the page for several seconds before his expression became slightly strange.
"So, in simple words, don't perform occult rituals in the middle of your room with absolutely nothing separating you from the outside world..." He paused before slowly looking around his room. "...Which is exactly what I've been doing."
Thinking back on it, he had been surprisingly careless during the last few days. Of course, he hadn't performed any complicated rituals yet, but that didn't change the fact that he had started experimenting with spirituality without understanding many of the most basic precautions.
Shen looked back down at the book and silently thanked the mysterious cloaked man who had given it to him. Whatever that man's reasons had been, this book was proving far more useful than Shen had initially expected.
Experienced Beyonders could apparently form spirituality walls rather quickly, sometimes within only a few minutes. Beginners were another matter entirely. The difficult part wasn't remembering how to walk around the ritual area.
It was maintaining a stable flow of spirituality while moving, controlling how much spirituality was released through the blade, and preventing the unfinished boundary from collapsing before the circuit could be completed.
Too little spirituality and the wall wouldn't properly form. Too much would unnecessarily exhaust the practitioner, while an unstable flow could cause the entire boundary to collapse halfway through.
Shen rested his cheek against one hand as he finished reading the section. "That sounds much more troublesome than it first looked."
He had also begun to notice something else about his Rising Star abilities. Proficiency wasn't nearly as effective when it came to mysticism as it was with ordinary skills.
When Shen had practiced Voice Change earlier, Proficiency had been almost frighteningly useful. Once he understood how to alter his voice, each attempt seemed to build upon the last. Even imitating the voices of other people became easier the longer he practiced.
Mysticism was different.
Proficiency could help him understand the instructions, remember what he had done during previous attempts, and perhaps adapt more quickly whenever he discovered a mistake, but it couldn't replace spirituality itself.
And unfortunately, spirituality wasn't one of Rising Star's strengths.
His spirituality had certainly increased after becoming a Beyonder. Compared with when he had been an ordinary person, the difference was obvious. However, Shen was fairly certain that his current spirituality couldn't compare with Beyonders from Pathways naturally suited toward ritual magic, divination, or spiritual perception.
Seers, Mystery Pryers, Monsters, and similar Beyonders possessed natural advantages in those areas that Rising Star simply didn't have.
Shen looked down at his hand and tried sensing the spirituality within his body. After a few moments, he sighed. "If a Seer's spirituality at Sequence 9 is like a small lake, then mine probably feels like a cup."
He thought about it for another second before correcting himself. "Maybe a large cup."
Silence followed.
"...No, it's still a cup."
Shen shook his head and returned his attention to the book. Though that does not mean Proficiency wasn't useless when it came to mysticism, he couldn't expect it to simply turn him into an expert of something his Pathway wasn't naturally suited toward.
"So Proficiency can't carry me through everything after all," Shen muttered. "Looks like even the MVP has its limits."
Still that was probably for the best. If Rising Star could simply look at any supernatural skill and master it after practicing for a few minutes, then it would be far too ridiculous for a Sequence 9.
Shen closed the book halfway and reached toward the drawer beside his desk. During the warehouse gathering, he had purchased a simple ritual knife along with the other basic ritual supplies. It wasn't particularly valuable, but the blade contained enough silver to be useful for simple mysticism practices.
He took it out and turned it over in his hand. "Well, staring at the instructions isn't going to teach me anything else. Let's see how difficult this actually is first."
Shen moved several objects away from the middle of the bedroom to give himself enough space. His room wasn't particularly large, so there was no need to create an enormous boundary. A simple spirituality wall enclosing the bed, desk, and center of the room would be enough for practice.
Once everything was ready, Shen sat cross-legged on the floor with the silver knife resting across his palms. He closed his eyes and gradually slowed his breathing.
At first, the ordinary sounds around him remained distracting. A carriage rolled across the cobblestones outside, someone shouted farther down the street, and the old apartment occasionally creaked around him. Shen ignored them one by one and gradually turned his attention inward.
Before becoming a Beyonder, sensing his spirituality had required nearly half an hour of meditation just to notice the faintest tingling sensation. Now it came much more easily.
There was a subtle current somewhere within him. It wasn't heat, cold, blood, or anything physical. The sensation seemed to exist somewhere between his thoughts, instincts, and body, faint but undeniably present.
Shen concentrated on it until the sensation gradually became clearer.
"Alright, I can feel it. Now I just need to guide it into the knife."
He attempted to move the current toward his right arm.
Nothing happened.
Shen frowned but continued concentrating. On his second attempt, the spirituality seemed to move slightly before immediately slipping from his control.
"Come on. I know you're there."
The third attempt was better. The current moved farther through his arm before scattering again.
Shen opened his eyes and stared at the knife for a moment. "At least it's moving. That's something."
He closed his eyes and tried again.
After several more attempts, Shen finally managed to guide a faint thread of spirituality all the way into the hand holding the silver knife. A strange cool sensation spread across his palm, causing his eyes to immediately open.
"That felt different."
He looked down at the knife. Nothing had visibly changed; there was no glow or obvious supernatural phenomenon surrounding the blade. Yet Shen could faintly sense his spirituality gathering around it.
His expression brightened.
Then the sensation disappeared.
Shen stared silently at the knife before sighing. "...it could've stayed for another five seconds."
He started again.
For the next hour, Shen focused almost entirely on this single step. He sensed his spirituality, guided it toward his arm, attempted to maintain the flow, and then pushed it into the silver blade. Sometimes he succeeded for several seconds. Other times the spirituality scattered before it even reached his hand.
Whenever he became too excited about succeeding, his concentration weakened and the flow destabilized. Whenever he tried forcing the spirituality forward, he used too much at once and ended up with an uncomfortable pressure behind his eyes. If he relaxed too much, the current simply faded before reaching the knife.
By the time an hour and a half had passed, Shen leaned back against the side of his bed and rubbed his forehead.
"This is much harder than the book makes it sound."
His eyes moved toward the open page on his desk seeking any additional guidance.
But the instructions remained annoyingly simple: sense the spirituality, guide it through the blade, and maintain a stable flow.
Shen stared at the sentence before muttering annoyingly, "Sure. Why don't you just write, 'Become good at mysticism,' while you're at it?"
He then rested for several minutes before continuing.
As time passed, Shen gradually noticed that Proficiency really was helping him, just nowhere near as dramatically as it had with Voice Change. Once he understood a mistake, he rarely repeated it in exactly the same way.
After realizing that forcing his spirituality forward caused it to scatter, he became better at maintaining a gentler flow. When he noticed that gripping the knife too tightly disrupted his concentration, his hand naturally remained relaxed during later attempts.
Proficiency couldn't give him greater spirituality or supernatural talent, but it did make the process of learning from his mistakes much faster.
By the second hour, Shen could reliably guide his spirituality into the silver knife.
Then he tried standing.
The moment he moved, the flow collapsed.
Shen remained frozen halfway to his feet before slowly looking down at the knife. "...You've got to be kidding me."
Apparently, maintaining his spirituality while sitting completely still and maintaining it while moving were two entirely different matters.
Shen sat back down and rubbed his forehead. "I seriously need a proper mysticism teacher."
His thoughts naturally drifted toward a certain future Fool.
"How lucky are you, Klein?" Shen muttered with a trace of envy. "You became a Seer, had Old Neil teaching you mysticism, and had an entire Nighthawk team around you whenever something went wrong. Meanwhile, I have an old book and memories of watching you learn all of this."
Of course, Shen knew Klein's life had hardly been easy. Considering everything Klein would eventually endure, calling him lucky overall would be ridiculous. But when it came specifically to learning basic mysticism, Shen couldn't help feeling envious.
"If Old Neil were here, he'd probably take one look at me and tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong. Instead, I've spent two hours arguing with my own spirituality."
Shen sighed before sitting properly again. Complaining wasn't going to teach him anything.
He stabilized his spirituality, guided it into the blade, and then slowly rose while maintaining his concentration. This time, the flow lasted several seconds before breaking.
Better.
He tried again.
Then again.
And again.
Time gradually passed without Shen noticing. The pale afternoon light beyond the window became dimmer, eventually forcing him to light the lamp on his desk. By then, his shoulders were stiff and his head carried the dull heaviness that came from repeated spiritual exertion.
When Shen finally looked toward the clock, his eyes widened slightly. "Three hours already? I really thought Proficiency would make this easier."
It had made the process easier, but not easy. Mysticism felt fundamentally different from learning an ordinary skill. No matter how quickly Shen understood what he was supposed to do, his spirituality still needed time and repeated practice to respond properly.
Before he could continue, the sound of the apartment door opening reached him.
Arthur and the twins had returned.
Shen looked at the silver knife in his hand, then toward the occult book on his desk. His stomach chose that moment to remind him that he hadn't eaten for several hours.
"Alright, food first. I can continue learning after filling my stomach."
He put away the knife and book before leaving his room.
Dinner was simple, as usual, but after spending several hours practicing mysticism, Shen found himself far hungrier than expected. Arthur asked how his day had gone, and Shen told him about meeting an old university friend and the possibility of finding work at the library.
Arthur was surprised, but he smiled and praised Shen for finding proper work.
Shen, after hearing Arthur praise him, felt embarrassed and conveniently left out exactly how little the position paid.
Elara spent part of dinner complaining about a professor who apparently believed assigning additional reading somehow created more hours in the day, while Sera talked about a story she had recently begun reading. Shen mostly listened calmly while eating, occasionally joining their conversation, and by the time dinner ended, the uncomfortable emptiness caused by his spiritual expenditure had faded somewhat.
After helping clear the table, Shen returned to his room and brought out the silver knife again.
"Alright," Shen said while rolling his shoulders. "Let's try again."
He stood near the bed with the knife held in his right hand. By now, channeling his spirituality into the blade had become much easier. The difficult part was maintaining the flow while completing the entire boundary.
Shen closed his eyes briefly, gathered his spirituality, and guided it toward his arm. The familiar current entered the silver blade.
He opened his eyes and slowly began walking.
The tip of the knife remained angled toward the floor as Shen imagined an invisible thread being drawn behind it. One step became two, then three. He passed the edge of the bed and approached the desk.
The spiritual flow suddenly wavered.
Shen stopped immediately. "Steady... don't scatter."
For a moment, the flow stabilized.
Then it collapsed.
Shen looked behind him even though there was nothing visible to ordinary sight. He had barely completed a quarter of the intended boundary.
"...Again."
The second attempt went farther.
The third failed almost immediately when Shen divided too much attention between where he was walking and maintaining the spiritual flow. During the fourth attempt, he released too much spirituality through the knife, and a sudden wave of dizziness forced him to sit down.
Shen rubbed his temples while waiting for the room to stop swaying slightly. "If Arthur comes in and finds me unconscious on the floor while holding a silver knife, how am I even supposed to explain this? 'Don't worry, brother, I wasn't doing anything dangerous. I was only practicing occult rituals in my bedroom.'"
He imagined Arthur's expression and immediately shook his head.
"Yeah... I'd rather avoid that conversation."
Shen rested until the dizziness disappeared before continuing.
His next few attempts became progressively better. Each failure taught him something small, and Proficiency made it easier to incorporate those lessons into the next attempt.
Eventually, Shen stood near the edge of his room once again, his expression far more serious than it had been when he first started.
"No rushing this time. Just keep it steady."
He drew out his spirituality, guided it into the silver knife, and began walking.
Slowly, Shen passed the desk, then the bed, then the wall beside the window. Every step was deliberate. He could sense the faint spiritual trail extending behind him, invisible to his eyes but clearly present to his spiritual perception.
He turned the final corner.
The beginning of the boundary was only a short distance away.
"Just a little more..."
Shen carefully brought the tip of the knife toward the point where he had begun.
The two ends connected.
Something changed.
There was no flash of light or dramatic supernatural phenomenon. Instead, the room simply became quieter.
Shen stopped moving.
The sounds from outside still existed, but they seemed distant and muffled, as though the room had somehow moved slightly farther away from the rest of the apartment. Even the light from the lamp seemed more contained within the enclosed space.
More importantly, Shen could sense the invisible boundary surrounding him.
His eyes slowly widened.
"I... actually did it."
A smile spread across his face as he looked around the room. "Haha! Finally! After spending half the day fighting with this damn thing, I actually did it."
The spirituality wall trembled slightly.
Shen immediately stopped celebrating and concentrated on stabilizing it. "Alright, alright, calm down. I'm not wasting another hour because I got too excited."
After maintaining the wall for a short while, Shen carefully dispersed it rather than allowing it to collapse. He sat down and meditated until some of his spirituality recovered before practicing again.
Another hour passed as Shen repeatedly formed and dismissed the spirituality wall. Each attempt became slightly easier. At first, maintaining the barrier required nearly all of his concentration, but eventually he could move around inside it without immediately destabilizing the boundary.
By the time he finally stopped, the sky outside had become completely dark, and the crimson moon hung beyond the window.
Shen created the wall one final time and tested it more carefully. He walked around the room, moved several objects, and spoke at a normal volume. His voice sounded unchanged from inside, but he could sense that the barrier prevented most of the sound and spiritual fluctuations from leaking outward.
During his next attempt, he tried increasing the size of the boundary slightly. It worked, although the larger wall noticeably increased the amount of spirituality required to maintain it. Making it smaller was considerably easier.
Once Shen was satisfied, he finally dismissed the barrier and dropped onto the edge of his bed. His body wasn't particularly exhausted, but his mind felt heavy after hours of continuous concentration.
"How long did that take me? Six hours? Almost seven if I count dinner and all the breaks?"
Shen looked toward the occult book resting on his desk. According to the author, a complete beginner could require several days of repeated practice before reliably forming a spirituality wall.
He had managed it within a single afternoon and evening.
"Looks like Proficiency really did help after all," Shen said as he glanced at the silver knife. "Just nowhere near as much as I was hoping for."
Mysticism depended too heavily on spirituality, spiritual perception, symbolism, and other supernatural factors for Proficiency to treat it like an ordinary skill. At his current Sequence, Rising Star simply didn't provide much spirituality.
Still, Shen couldn't complain too much. Something that might have required several days had taken him several exhausting hours instead.
"If I tried learning divination like this, I doubt Proficiency would suddenly turn me into a Seer," Shen muttered before giving a small laugh. "Would've been convenient, though."
He placed the silver knife on the desk and leaned back slightly, stretching his stiff shoulders. "Enhanced Memory helps me remember the theory, Proficiency helps me understand my mistakes faster, and my spirituality still has to do the actual hard work. I guess that's how it works."
Shen shook his head with a faint smile. "And here I was thinking Proficiency was going to be the MVP for everything. Looks like even the MVP can't carry me through mysticism."
For several minutes, Shen simply sat there and rested.
The sensible thing would have been to stop for the night. He had successfully learned his first proper piece of ritual mysticism, his spirituality was already tired from hours of practice, and he had work-related matters to deal with tomorrow.
Then Shen's gaze slowly drifted toward the empty floor in the center of his bedroom.
A certain memory surfaced in his mind.
Four steps.
Four pieces of staple food.
An ancient honorific name spoken in Chinese.
The ritual Zhou Mingrui had performed before eventually awakening inside Klein Moretti's body.
Shen's expression gradually became thoughtful.
"I really do envy Klein when it comes to learning mysticism. If I had Old Neil teaching me, I wouldn't have needed to spend half the day figuring out a spirituality wall by myself."
He was silent for a moment before another thought followed naturally.
"...Speaking of Klein."
Shen looked toward the center of the room again.
At this point in history, Klein Moretti was still alive in Tingen, and Zhou Mingrui should still be hanging inside one of the cocoons above Sefirah Castle.
And the Celestial Worthy's consciousness should still be buried deep within his coffin. Even if he tried to awaken now, the True Gods would probably do everything they could to stop him.
Hell, even God Almighty might even force open his own coffin just to reach over and slam the lid of the Celestial Worthy's coffin shut again. he lampooned inwardly.
Which meant that, as far as Shen understood, Sefirah Castle currently had no active master.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"What would happen if I performed that ritual now?"
The idea had appeared so naturally that Shen didn't immediately recognize how dangerous it was.
Perhaps nothing would happen.
That was actually the most likely result.
Zhou Mingrui had been connected to Sefirah Castle because he was one of the people suspended inside those mysterious cocoons. Shen had no such connection. He wasn't even a Beyonder of the Seer, Apprentice, or Marauder Pathways.
By all logic, the ritual should simply fail.
Shen rubbed his chin while staring at the floor. "I should probably leave it alone."
Several seconds passed.
His gaze remained fixed on the same spot.
"...But what if it actually works?"
Curiosity began gnawing at him.
Shen knew Sefirah Castle was one of the nine Sefirot and this one belonged to the Lord of Mysteries. Even the gods desired control over such things. If he could somehow establish the faintest connection with it before Klein's arrival, the benefits could be enormous.
He remembered the Western Continent as well. People there could receive power indirectly from the Sefirot through boons without actually owning them.
"If people can receive boons from a Sefirot without possessing it, then theoretically..." Shen murmured before stopping himself. "No. I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't even know if it'll respond to me and how it works."
He leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees.
The safest option was obvious.
Don't touch it.
Don't pray to it.
Don't attract the attention of anything associated with the Celestial Worthy.
Shen understood all of that perfectly.
Unfortunately, curiosity was one of the most dangerous things a human could possess.
Knowing that something was dangerous and actually being able to suppress the curiosity to find out more were two very different things.
"If nothing happens, then I lose a few minutes and confirm that I have no connection to Sefirah Castle. If something does happen..." Shen's expression gradually became more serious. "Then I stop the ritual the moment I notice anything dangerous."
He remained seated for another minute, weighing the idea in his mind.
Finally, Shen stood.
"...I'll try it once."