Edwina's teaching ability was truly outstanding.
Edward's mental state, on the other hand, was on the verge of collapse.
At first, she might have taken on the role of a caring 'onee-chan', tutoring her cute otouto. But when Edward repeatedly made the same foolish mistakes and refused to learn, she immediately transformed into a strict instructor, dragging him back into the nightmare of senior year exam prep all over again.
That second half of the night was, without a doubt, long and torturous for Edward.
By the time he opened his eyes the next day, it was already afternoon. He lay in bed drenched in sweat, his mind feeling like it had been forcibly stuffed full of grammar rules, vocabulary, sentence structures and phrases.
The good news was, he had really managed to learn the basics of Ancient Feysac overnight.
The bad news was, he now felt nauseous just seeing any Ancient Feysac words in Groselle's Travels.
The moment he woke up, Lilith came running over with worry all over her tiny face.
"What happened to you, Edward? You just wouldn't wake up! This morning, after Miss Lilith came back from mouse-hunting, you were still like this. I called you and even stepped on you, but you wouldn't budge!"
"I'm fine—wait, you stepped on me?"
He had just sat up and was about to speak when Audrey walked over and reached out to feel his forehead.
"It was Lilith who came and got me. Are you sick?"
"Ugh—"
Edward let out a long sigh. "You'll never guess what I went through last night after you went to bed."
"You…stayed up studying Ancient Feysac all night by yourself again?"
"No! It lasted far longer than that."
He proceeded to tell her about how Edwina had entered his dream to teach him. Audrey listened thoughtfully and then nodded slightly.
"So…you spent a very long time in a dream last night…with a beautiful lady?"
"???"
Edward was stunned. Wait—was that the message I was trying to convey just now?
"Pfft."
She covered her mouth and giggled. "Just teasing you."
Then she walked over to sit at the desk. "You learned Ancient Feysac overnight—that's a good thing, right? How many people dream of doing that? You should be able to read the book now, right?"
"…I feel sick just looking at Ancient Feysac right now."
Despite that, since the ability of Bookworm directly affected his combat power for the foreseeable future, Edward forced himself to open Groselle's Travels after resting for a while.
The content was straightforward, just like the original novel had described: the giant Groselle encountered various companions during his hunt for the 'King of the North' and travelled with them. However, the last few pages were stuck together, so the ending was still unreadable.
Of course, the plot itself wasn't what mattered—the key was the characters introduced in the story:
—A Sequence 5 "Guardian" from the Warrior pathway,
—A Sequence 5 "Ocean Songster" from the Sailor pathway,
—A Sequence 5 "Dream Stealer" from the Marauder pathway,
—A Sequence 5 "Priest of Light" from the Sun pathway,
—A Sequence 5 "Disciplinary Paladin" from the Arbiter pathway,
—A suspected demi-god Frost Dragon of unknown pathway,
—And the book itself was supposedly written by the Dragon of Imagination.
Edward first attempted to use [Silverfish] to 'consume' the book itself—in other words, to acquire the Dragon of Imagination's powers. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He wasn't sure whether that was because the book didn't include any direct description of the Dragon of Imagination or due to some other reason.
Next, he tried to 'consume' the textual descriptions of the individual characters in hopes of gaining their full Sequence 5 abilities directly—
Sadly, that didn't work either.
It wasn't that he couldn't consume them—it was that his 'overdraft' version of [Silverfish] couldn't. In other words, once he advanced to Sequence 6, perhaps he would be able to.
So, he moved on to selectively 'consume' individual supernatural abilities described in the book. At present, the maximum number of abilities he could hold at the same time was five, meaning he had to make strategic choices.
First, he picked the Arbiter pathway's [Prohibition]—a "rule-type" ability that could exert powerful effects in combat.
Next, the Marauder pathway's [Theft]: not only could it temporarily steal others' mystical abilities, but it could also snatch away dreams, ideals, memories, and even intentions just before they were acted upon, creating momentary confusion.
Third was the Warrior pathway's [Dawn Armour], which compensated for his lack of defence.
Then the Sun pathway's [Light of Holiness], an extremely powerful ability—the one the Saint of Secrets had nearly used to instantly finish him off.
For the final ability, instead of picking something from the Storm pathway, Edward chose the suspected demi-god Frost Dragon's [Frost Breath]—a move whose power needed no explanation.
Of course, these were just his initial picks. After 48 hours, the effects of the current abilities would expire, and he'd be able to re-select.
"Bookworm is amazing," Audrey murmured, stunned that it could actually grant such a wide variety of mystical powers just through words.
"Well, let's just say…it has potential," Edward shrugged. "I'm only Sequence 7 right now—my spirituality isn't strong enough to freely use these powers. I'll need to grow stronger."
"Oh, quit pretending to be humble. You know you're only Sequence 7," Audrey huffed, feeling like he was being all smug despite having scored a major benefit.
But then a thought occurred to her, and she suddenly smiled.
"The two of us—one can breathe fire, and the other can breathe ice. Isn't that fun?"
Hmm, technically speaking, Frost Breath was a kind of flame too.
But of course, Edward wasn't foolish enough to say that out loud. Instead, he played along with her.
"How about this—let's form a combo one day: 'The Red-and-Blue Duo', how's that sound?"
"What a terrible name."
"Hahaha, forgive me. I suck at naming things."
The two of them bantered for a while, and Edward's energy waned further and further. He'd stayed up late the previous night, and after suffering through a whole "Three Years of Mock Exams, Five Years of Practice Questions" experience in his dreams, his body was finally relaxing—and simply couldn't hold out any longer.
———
By the time he woke up again, only a faint afterglow lingered on the horizon.
Edward stretched lazily. He couldn't tell whether he hadn't gotten enough rest or had overslept, but his head felt fuzzy and throbbed now and then.
"Edward."
Lilith lightly kicked a book aside with her hind legs and hopped up onto the bed. "You're awake~ Hungry?"
Edward chuckled and scratched her under the chin.
"Well, aren't you thoughtful, asking if I'm hungry?"
"Not really~ It was Audrey who told me to ask you."
She stepped back, wriggled out of his reach, and glanced over at the tea table. "She brought those for you. Said if you woke up hungry, you could have some."
Like a cold and impartial message delivery machine, she finished her task and went off to groom herself.
The tea table was covered with delicate pastries and freshly cut fruit—most likely the work of the Earl Hall's chefs. Unfortunately, it was all on the sweet side. After a few bites, Edward found himself getting a bit sick of it.
"Did you eat already, Lilith?"
She sat upright obediently. "I did. Miss Lilith knew exactly where you kept the dried fish."
"You little sneak!"
"Come on, let's go out for a bit."
Edward scooped her up and placed her on his shoulder. He had just reached the door when a knock sounded from the other side.
"It's me—Christine."
Edward suddenly remembered—she'd sent him a message via the messenger bird yesterday.
He opened the door. "I was just about to go out and grab a bite. Want to join me?"
"No need. I won't stay long."
She got straight to the point. "Mr. Lawrence told me, if I needed help, I could come to you."
Edward raised an eyebrow. "I'll help—but only within my abilities."
"That's enough."
Christine nodded slightly, her expression unreadable. "First thing. I…I've started to recall a few things."
She gently pressed her temples, as if trying hard to focus.
"I remembered someone from the Psychology Alchemists who helped me. A man in a white mask. He saved me when I was being hunted by traitors from my family. Then, he told me about the book and key that led to the Abraham family's treasure."
Psychology Alchemists? Masked?
Edward was visibly startled. In the Psychology Alchemists, anyone qualified to wear a mask was at least demi-god level!
"How would he know the secrets of the Abraham family? And why would he tell you? What price did you pay?"
"I don't know."
She shook her head. "That's all I remembered. So—I want to find out the truth and recover my lost memories."
"Sorry. I can't help you with that."
Edward refused without hesitation.
"I don't know what you think the Psychology Alchemists are, but even just the masked man you mentioned is likely a demi-god. You want me to investigate a demi-god from a long-standing, secret organisation? You're giving me way too much credit!"
"I understand."
Christine accepted the rejection without complaint. "Then let's move on to the second matter—I've found the location of the Abraham family treasure."
That fast?
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"…???"
Do you even hear yourself?
Christine quickly realised how contradictory she sounded and hurried to explain.
"Over a hundred years ago, the family went through a disaster. The surviving members, in order to protect the treasure, decided to move it elsewhere."
"You mean…the treasure was taken away?"
"Yes—and no. It was moved, yes. But without the key, no one can open it."
So basically…they moved the vault, but you still need the key to open it.
Wait—why does the Abraham family need a key to open their own vault?
"And then?"
She hesitated for a moment before continuing, "I don't know if you've ever heard of…the legend of the Sunken Laurel."
Edward raised a brow. He'd just used that 'treasure' as bait to recruit a bunch of pirates a few days ago.
"I've heard of it. A hundred years ago, it was said to be carrying the kingdom's gold, jewels, and valuables obtained from East Balam. It veered off course and sank somewhere between the Berserk Sea and the Sonia Sea."
"In truth, the family's treasure is on that sunken Laurel. The rumours about gold and jewels—were just that, rumours passed on and twisted over time."
Christine's voice was serious.
"If we can find the Sunken Laurel, we'll find the Abraham family treasure."
———
[Note]: We missed our powerstone goal. But that's partially because I typed the wrong goal by mistake, and by the time I noticed it, it was quite late. So, here's the Extra Chapter.. If you guys want another one tomorrow, we'd NEED to hit 725 Powerstones. So, Go VOTE!
Oh, and if you are like me and want to read 40 Chapters in advance of the current story right now, you can support me on my Patreon. Trust me, it's awesome~
Link - (P)atre(o)n.c(o)m/ Iseeblack [Remove the brackets]