Chapter 40: Inspiration

Ace conducted a detailed mental perception check on Tag, confirming the effect of the sphere of light: Tag’s mental power seemed to have undergone an alteration, and he was now incredibly devout toward the Son of the Sea.

Ace investigated several other blessed individuals. Some of them had not yet fully absorbed the sphere of light, which Ace successfully siphoned off using a Magic Item. He removed the sphere of light from Emberlight, preparing to keep it for slow research.

Ace cast Lesser Charm Creature on these individuals in turn. Only after confirming the rune structure had sprouted behind their necks did he confidently wake them up.

Tag woke up in a confused state. He felt as if he had been chased by a thousand Merfolk and had somehow ended up here. His head had spun, and then he fainted.

The strange guy in the Merfolk mask in front of him seemed to be his close friend. Why did I feel so strange? Tag felt a slight ache on the back of his neck.

Then, he looked into a pair of eyes glowing with a faint light and gradually stopped wondering why he felt strange.

Ace felt the charm imprint finally stabilize and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t expected the Mana fluctuation in Tag’s body to be so violent, almost breaking through the control of the charm.

Fortunately, Ace promptly activated Illusion Gaze, lowering the target’s will and manipulating his thoughts.

After some questioning, Ace carefully used his mental perception to check Tag’s condition, and after taking half a pot of fresh blood from Tag, he suggested that they had received a bounty mission to catch a small group of Merfolk in the westernmost village of Cimali.

Ace did not intend to kill Tag and his companions. There was no grievance between them, so it was unnecessary. Tag and the others were confused by his illusion, making it difficult for them to recall his true features.

Wantonly killing people also did not align with his moral boundary. A person is who they are because they have self-discipline and a bottom line. Without self-discipline, one is a monster controlled by desire.

He could abandon the innocent barbarian woman for self-preservation. He could kill the bloodstained Sea Raiders without guilt. He would also let innocent people go when his safety was not jeopardized.

He was neither an excessively kind person nor a cold-blooded villain; he was simply himself, truly following his inner conviction.

Over the next month, Ace investigated different types of blessed individuals who had received the blessing at different times. He drew several tentative conclusions:

First, all blessed individuals slowly convert into devout followers of Pontos, regardless of whether they previously worshiped Pontos.

Second, most of the blessed individuals have a very strong desire or obsession. Why this characteristic attracts the sphere of light is still unclear.

Third, Nobles are also blessed, and the proportion is much higher than ordinary people. This suggests that high mental power and high Mana accumulation are more attractive to the sphere of light. Perhaps a Magic Item could be created to capture the sphere of light.

Fourth, the penetration of the sphere of light requires a lengthy process. For those who received the blessing on the same day as Ace, the sphere of light had not fully integrated yet.

Ace crafted a simple Magic Item. It looked like an ordinary copper mirror. During its creation, he mixed in the remaining powdered heart of Sharp. The Rune Array used was a modified single-rune array based on his meditation method, which could be called the Meditation Rune Array.

This copper mirror had two effects: the wearer would be in a passive meditation state, and active activation could moderately enhance Ace’s meditation effect. Ace planned to use this copper mirror to attract the sphere of light from Emberlight.

He extended his mental power to the copper mirror and activated the Rune Array within it. Mana accumulated. He brought “Emberlight” closer to the copper mirror, and the sphere of light indeed began to waver. Ace extended his mental power along the Rune Array and touched the sphere of light. The sphere immediately clung to it and traveled along the mental power into the copper mirror.

Ace was prepared and quickly severed the mental connection, successfully transferring the sphere of light into the copper mirror. He then placed the copper mirror into a prepared high-purity lead box and wrapped it in cloth. Lead was the most mental-power-inert substance Ace had discovered, making it perfect for storing the sphere of light.

Ace did not have the capability to research the sphere of light now, but he believed he would eventually be able to. Therefore, he needed to preserve this valuable experimental material first.

With the matter of the sphere of light temporarily concluded, Ace began practicing medicine at the clinic of the famous Cimali physician, Hel, using the charm spell. He treated patients every morning and spent the afternoons strolling casually through Cimali, drawing anything that interested him on his portable drawing board.

He would draw and treat local people simultaneously. A rumor spread through Cimali that Ace was granted both extraordinary medical skill and painting ability by the Son of the Sea.

Three months later, on a mid-summer afternoon, Ace was casually sketching on the street. A line of people formed in front of him, wanting Ace to draw their portraits with his brush and palette.

“Scholar Ace’s paintings are so lifelike. Just like a real person,” said an excited young man.

“I want to have my most beautiful moments recorded,” said a charming young woman.

“I really like Scholar Ace. Not only are his medical skills superb, and his innovative surgeries have saved countless lives, but he is also an artist,” said a young girl, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Ace.

“I heard it’s due to the grace of His Excellency Pontos that Scholar Ace achieved so much in such a short time,” a middle-aged woman said mysteriously.

Ace’s medical practice and painting in Cimali were exceptionally smooth. The locals unreservedly accepted his superb medical skill, and they greatly admired his paintings, believing he was a blessed individual of the Son of the Sea. Since all blessed individuals undergo some astonishing change, Ace’s situation was not surprising.

His New Medicine philosophy was very popular here. Even some older bloodletting physicians came to study under him. They claimed that Ace’s knowledge came from the gift of Pontos and that they were learning from the favorite of Pontos.

His painting was even more pursued. His right hand was called the God-Granted Hand by the Cimali people, capable of both performing life-saving surgery and creating moving artworks.

In truth, Ace was only at the level of an oil painting enthusiast in his past life, but the great increase in mental power in this life gave him unique perception abilities, greatly enhancing his painting skill.

Space, composition, light, and color—with each completed painting, Ace’s understanding of the inspiration he felt at the bonfire festival four months ago deepened. His understanding of Spell Models also deepened. Runes, in a sense, are also an art of painting.

He spent his days saving lives and sketching from life, and his nights patiently painting a massive fresco on the city wall to capture the moment of inspiration. He had a premonition that once the colossal fresco was complete, he would once again grasp the state of spiritual advancement that was interrupted before, achieving an essential leap in his life level.

He had been introspecting over these three months, feeling joy in healing the sick and saving lives, and experiencing life while sketching from the local environment. The joys and sorrows of the Cimali people, every blade of grass and tree in Cimali, the collected medicinal materials, and the prescribed formulas—all gave him a unique sense of inspiration.

This was the essence of life sublimating, the soul blooming.

Ace suddenly packed up his stall, abandoning the waiting crowd, and rushed back to his residence. The bewildered crowd chased after him, and many people, unsure of what was happening, followed the pursuit. The crowd swelled.

The inspiration had returned. He had to capture his love for life, his hymn to existence, his adherence to the spirit of objective and neutral research, his pursuit of the truth of the world, and his yearning for the secrets of the supernatural—all painted on the massive artwork, inscribed in his soul, to become the fuel for his ascension.

On the massive fresco, the sketched outline was gradually being colored. The merriment of the bonfire festival, the fiery girls, the strong young men, the elderly who refused to slow down, and the naive children—they held torches, their expressions lively and diverse.

The mural progressed bit by bit. The fiery torch-snake was gathering, rising, rushing toward the sky, dimming even the idol.

The people who had followed quietly watched the massive fresco. Many of them found themselves in the painting, found their own joys and sorrows, their own truth, and their own inspiration.

Ace watched the mural slowly reach completion. Finally, at the center of the scroll beneath the idol, he sketched himself: gazing at the sky, filled with endless hope, endless curiosity, and endless inquiry. He then wrote a sentence on the side of the mural:

“In the long night, countless fireflies suddenly gather. They become both firewood and tinder. When the tinder gathers, they become a torch.

In the dark of night… I am the light.”

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