Chapter 54: The Grimoire

All these elements were like pearls scattered on the beach and the seabed. Ace’s idea was like a long string, threading these pearls together to form a dazzling pearl necklace: a magical artifact for recording supernatural knowledge, the Grimoire!

Ace’s vision involved using multiple copies of the apprentice grimoire, selecting talented mortals, forging covenants, disseminating magical knowledge, and having them collect and analyze runes, construct Spell Models, and explore the true knowledge of the world for him.

It was about leveraging collective wisdom to work for him, thereby furthering his own path of Magic.

The physical artifact was composed of six sheets of magical paper. The spine was made from the small horn of an Iron Bone Triple Horned Ox, a magical material capable of storing Mana and mental power.

The Grimoire’s cover was made from extra-hard magical paper mixed with Monster bone powder. The cover featured a hexagram pattern. This pattern possessed no actual supernatural effect; it was the symbol of magic from Ace’s past life and was thus used here.

Directly beneath the hexagram pattern, the following sentence was inscribed: “Keep Secrets, Stand Guard Together, Equivalent Exchange, Respect Knowledge, Seek True Knowledge.”

The back of the Grimoire had the Lesser Imperfect Transformation Spell pre-recorded. The owner of the Grimoire could sacrifice an ordinary item to the Grimoire, giving it the ability to transform into that item.

The first page is the Ritual Page. In Ace’s plan, this Grimoire can record a large number of rituals with miraculous effects. Currently, the only available rituals are the Covenant Ritual and the Equivalent Exchange Ritual, and it pre-stores a single-use Illusion Spell.

Every talented mortal chosen by Ace will be compulsorily bound to Ace by a magical covenant spanning thousands of characters, preventing them from betraying the torch-bearer or revealing the magical knowledge they learn.

The second page is the Control and Retrieval Page, the core control page of the Grimoire.

The owner of the Grimoire will store their mental power imprint on this page. The page possesses a certain computational and analytical ability, which has the potential to grow.

Through this imprint, the possessor’s mind will be connected to the Grimoire. They can use mental commands, like commanding a Mana Hand, to quickly retrieve information from the following pages and display the recorded information.

In addition, this page possesses small-range perception retrieval and recording functions, allowing it to perceive the owner’s own state and collect and record graphic information about supernatural knowledge, such as runes and Monsters.

The third page is the Rune Book Page, one of the three magical treasures. This page normally appears blank. Only by the owner’s mental command can the recorded rune catalog and rune information be displayed.

The fourth page is the Spell Book Page, also one of the three magical treasures. This page normally appears blank. Only by the owner’s mental command can the recorded list of spells and Spell Models be displayed.

The fifth page is the Magic Diary, used to record supernatural knowledge such as magical experiments, Monster guides, magic potion guides, Demon guides, Devil guides, and geographical humanities.

The sixth page is the Information Transmission Page. It appears blank on the surface, but within the magical signal coverage area, Ace can use this page to manifest text for remote communication with the Grimoire’s owner and share the latest knowledge they have researched and discovered.

All of this is stipulated in the thousands of characters of the covenant. Regarding the covenant, the Grimoire owner can check it on the first page at any time. Ace considers it perfectly reasonable and a perfect example of “equivalent exchange” to exchange future knowledge for the opportunity to touch the supernatural.

The initial version of the Grimoire is now successfully created. All that is missing is a guinea pig.

Daina looked at Ace’s retreating back, and when Ace suddenly turned back and smiled at her, she momentarily froze, then returned a shy, flower-like smile.

Ace looked at the shy Daina and sighed inwardly, The guinea pig is right beside me.

Now, only one problem remains: how to guide Daina’s mind to overdrive and reach the level of Mind Interference with Matter.

Ace immediately ruled out the Wisdom Potion. The deeper he researched the medicinal materials of this world, the more he felt the potion formula posed a great risk. Although he had improved it many times, the survival rate of the mice that consumed it could still not be guaranteed 100%.

The Blessing Spell was considered. Through his research on the Blessing Rune, Ace had degraded the five Blessing Runes into Lesser Runes. With the aid of Casting Materials, the Lesser Blessing could essentially double the mental, strength, constitution, agility, and perception of an average adult male. It could only be used once; multiple uses were ineffective.

A blessing constructed with Soul Runes could also only be used once, but it could be stacked with a Lesser Blessing. Ace did not have powerful Monster materials to use as Casting Materials, so he had never blessed himself.

Ace tested the Blessing Ritual and found that the ritual could be performed multiple times on the same creature. If the initial ritual yield was assumed to be 1, the second ritual would yield only 0.5, and the effect would halve successively.

Ace conducted physical examinations on the people on the estate and derived the basic data panel for an average adult male:

• Mental Power: 0.3 (1 Mental Power Unit is the mental power required to cast one Magic Missile. 0.3 Mental Power Units is the average for an ordinary adult male.)
• Strength: 0.4
• Constitution: 0.4
• Agility: 0.3
• Perception: 0.3

If any attribute were doubled, a superhuman change would occur. If any attribute exceeded 1, that attribute would have reached the level of a Divine Awakened.

Ace speculated that as long as mental power reached between 0.6 and 1.0, the mind would overdrive, reaching the level of Mind Interference with Matter.

“Go back. You don’t need to continue the math exercises this afternoon. You have finished Elementary Mathematics (Volume Two). You can take a good rest. If you have nothing else to do, you can walk around the streets freely.”

With that, Ace strode away.

Daina reached out her hand toward the direction Ace left, then lowered it. She bit her lip slightly and chased after Ace.

Late that night, Daina tossed and turned, finally falling asleep.

“Daina, Daina, Daina…”

A hoarse voice, sometimes near and sometimes far, drifted in. It was the middle of the night. Daina opened her eyes in confusion.

“Ah!!!”

In the moonlight, an iron mask glowed faintly. A black traditional Monster Hunter costume. Gauntlets flashed with a quick red light.

It was Ace’s new persona, the mysterious Monster Hunter known as Iron Face Fire Fist.

Daina frantically backed up toward the edge of the bed. She was instantly wide awake. Such a terrifying person had made his way to her bedside. She was terrified.

“Wh-wh-wh-who are you? What do you want? Don’t be rash. This is the Ace Estate. There are many guards. How about this: I pretend I didn’t see you, and you pretend you didn’t see me. Can’t we both just go our separate ways?”

Daina spoke in a rapid stream, her voice trembling with fear but mixed with a strange calm.

“Daina… why don’t you ask me why I know you?” Ace asked in a terrifyingly low tone.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-You, why do you know me?”

Daina was shivering all over. Her hand quietly reached for the scissors beneath her pillow, intending to strike the man if necessary. If the power gap was too wide, she would strike herself. She absolutely would not be disgraced.

“Because you are the Chosen One! Starting with the book, ending with the book. Sign a pact with me and become a Wizard Apprentice!”

Daina watched the masked man pull out a book from the shadows. The book was inscribed with dense straight lines forming a complex, dizzying, unknown pattern, glittering in the moonlight.