Chapter 548: Resurrection Spell and the Jack-of-all-trades Club
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 548: Resurrection Spell and the Jack-of-all-trades Club
My expression darkened as I scanned the information provided by the Identification Art.
This girl was one of the Children of Destiny the Witch Academy had brought in back in the day, part of the same batch as Lucianne. I hadn't expected her to be so unremarkable; I didn't have the slightest memory of her name.
Sang Yuan.
That was her name.
She had originally belonged to the Subsidiary Half-Orc Academy under the Beast Academy. No wonder there hadn't been a peep when she was taken. Those guys from the Beast Academy... it was no surprise they kept their mouths shut. They wouldn't dare challenge the Witch Academy.
Furthermore, the information indicated she had been tortured before her death. If it were just that... it might be somewhat tolerable, but... her entire family was dead too!
This wasn't the primary scene of her death, so the information I could gather was limited. However, to use the Resurrection Spell later, the ritual required and the casting materials consumed—especially those used to beckon Soul Essence—would be substantial.
This was why the Resurrection Spell was best cast the very moment someone died; that way, the consumption was minimized. When I had used the Resurrection Spell before, I hadn't even needed any extra casting materials.
But no matter how much I ruminated on it, I couldn't change the established facts.
The occurrence of this event seemed to clarify the situation I had seen through the Qi Observation Art—the scenario where players were rising up to hunt down a Child of Destiny.
If they used one Child of Destiny as a sacrifice to obtain a certain number of Luck Threads, they could invest more players and use that opportunity to strike again... Their target certainly wasn't just these insignificant Children of Destiny; what they needed were the Luck Threads.
The players' realization that there was more than one Child of Destiny must have come much earlier than I anticipated!
And... there was another point to note. This "former Child of Destiny" who had already lost her life... seemed to have lost her identity as well.
The Luck Seed within her, which had never truly blossomed, was now covered in cracks. Her state was even worse than Qiu Ruxin's had been; she could no longer hold onto any Luck.
Even if she were resurrected, she would forever lose her status as a Child of Destiny. But I wasn't satisfied with just this information; I needed to know more.
I wanted to understand exactly how those players were plundering Luck... Was killing a Child of Destiny really all it took?
I wasn't so sure about that.
As time passed, a mentor finally arrived, albeit late. She was carrying several ritual props and a fair amount of materials; she had likely been delayed while searching for these items.
Upon arriving, her gaze swept across the crowd and locked onto me instantly. She gave me a slight smile, as if I were the only person in the entire crowd worth a second glance.
However, her gaze didn't linger. She stepped toward the person lying on the ground.
She knelt down, performing a perfunctory check of the corpse before rummaging through a small box for pre-fabricated material powders and the blood of an unknown creature used for mixing.
After some preparation, she picked up a pen-like tool and began drawing a rune ritual on the spot. Her hand moved like a printer; without the aid of any rulers or tools, she quickly completed a perfectly structured ritual array.
It was only after she finished drawing that I suddenly realized the method she was using... She didn't seem to be using a Resurrection Spellbook?
It was "manual casting," performed entirely without a spellbook!
No wonder she needed the aid of casting materials and a ritual; they were used to counteract the suppression of the Main World Great Weakening Spell.
But just as I had suspected, the primary purpose of most of the materials and the ritual was to use the original physical shell as an anchor to guide the Soul Essence back.
With just a bit of observation, I had thoroughly deciphered the mentor's methods. Still, I was curious why she didn't just use the Resurrection Spell directly...
I didn't rush to ask, instead pondering the reason myself. After a moment, I think I understood.
After advancing to the Transcendent level, one's Immortality might reach a state beyond my current comprehension. Therefore, the death of a Transcendent expert might be a terrifyingly unique state, rendering ordinary Resurrection Spells inapplicable to them.
Since such Resurrection Spells were useless to them, they were naturally phased out. The reason they could discard them so decisively was that they had reached a level where they could choose to complete such spells through manual casting.
I had almost fallen into a logical trap—the idea that a Witch must use a spellbook. Did the Witch race simply not cast spells before the spellbook was invented?
Certainly not. The Great Weakening Spell was merely a specialty of the Main World, but even with it in effect, it didn't mean a Witch's manual casting was weak.
For a Witch, resurrecting a lifeform they completely understood—a simple structure they could see through from shell to Soul Essence—naturally didn't require much mental effort.
As the light of the magic ritual flared brilliantly, a terrifying power forced the onlookers to retreat. This was the first time many students had ever witnessed a Resurrection Spell being cast.
After all, within the Witch Academy, actual cases of death were rare outside of the Arena, let alone in a setting like this.
As the person's Soul Essence, carrying a massive amount of memory, converged into a humanoid phantom, I knew the resurrection was nearly complete.
I quietly activated the Ley Line Identification Art to gather more information. Of course, I wasn't targeting the dead girl's Soul Essence or her direct memories, but rather the nearby Ley Lines.
As the saying goes, "a bird leaves a trail." After her Soul Essence and memories had been put through such an ordeal, they were bound to leave some information behind. Even after she was resurrected, I suspected she might not remember many things.
Having obtained some satisfactory information, I was about to leave the crowd when I spotted a familiar figure at the entrance of the Jack-of-all-trades Club.
"Oh... so this is how it was arranged. How interesting," I whispered to myself.
I was starting to like "scripts." The way life was filled with such coincidences was becoming fascinating. It felt as though one never needed to feel lost; Luck would always point toward the final direction.
"Hello, we meet again." This time, I was the first to greet them. They were quite surprised to see me; they probably hadn't expected to run into me in such a specific place.
I was also surprised. It wasn't strange to see Lucianne here, but... Qiu Ruxin was actually following behind that senior sister named Daphne.
"Sister Xiao Han!" Upon seeing me, Qiu Ruxin was undoubtedly the most excited of the group.
"Shh, keep it down," I said, gently patting Qiu Ruxin's small head. "Something happened here; it's better not to make too much noise."
"Mhm, mhm! I understand." Qiu Ruxin quickly lowered her voice.
At that moment, Daphne brought Lucianne forward to greet me. After all, our current relationship was that of student and teacher.
"Hello, Teacher Xiao Han," Daphne said as she stepped forward. This time, she didn't even call me "Teaching Assistant" but addressed me directly as "Teacher."
"May I ask what happened here?"
"A student was killed, and that mentor is using a Resurrection Spell to bring her back. That's the gist of it," I said briefly.
"A student of the Witch Academy was killed?!" Daphne was shocked by my words. However, she was a member of the Jack-of-all-trades Club, and this was their headquarters.
She wanted to step forward to investigate but realized the resurrection was at a critical stage.
As the deceased girl opened her eyes again, experiencing death and resurrection for the first time, she appeared shaken. The dense crowd surrounding her triggered a stress response.
Carrying the emotions she had felt before death, she instinctively tried to resist and scream, but she was eventually calmed down by the mentor.
The matter seemed to end there. The magic ritual drawn on the ground turned to ash, scattering with a light breeze.
The teacher then left with the newly resurrected student.
Seeing that the event was over, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Daphne followed them closely; clearly, she wanted to learn more about the situation.
However, the teacher didn't explain the details to her. Or rather, that mentor might not have known them herself; she was only responsible for performing the Resurrection Spell.
After failing to get any useful information, Daphne suddenly realized she had done something rather foolish.
"I'm so sorry... Teacher Xiao Han. I was just too anxious. Teacher Xiao Han, do you have business here today?"
"Nothing in particular." I didn't mind Daphne's brief departure. "I was just wandering around. This is my first time here, and I happened to catch a good show involving a Resurrection Spell."
"I see. In that case, let me take you to the reception room. It's quite crowded here, but it's much quieter in there." As Daphne spoke, she led the way toward the reception room. Regardless of why I was there—even if it was just to watch the show—they felt it was necessary to host me properly.
The distance from the front hall of the Jack-of-all-trades Club to the reception room in the back wasn't far.
Daphne was still very excited about my visit and talked to me quite a bit, including some things about Qiu Ruxin. Her tone carried a hint of eagerness until we entered the reception room.
This was the first time I had received such treatment.
"Would you like something to drink, Teacher Xiao Han?"
"Coffee. Anything is fine," I replied. I had always been quite fond of coffee.
She then asked Qiu Ruxin and Lucianne before letting the girl in charge of the reception room's refreshments go and prepare them.
"I didn't expect to run into you here today, Teacher Xiao Han. Since you're at our Jack-of-all-trades Club, we should fulfill our duties as hosts..."
"Oh, there's no need for pleasantries. I prefer a more natural conversation. Just treat me like an ordinary person," I said, gesturing for her to stop her somewhat stiff speech.
"Al... Alright." Daphne nodded quickly. This was one of the few times she had dealt with someone of my status; it would be a lie to say she wasn't nervous.
Previously, she would have treated me as a teaching assistant and wouldn't have been so constrained. But after learning some of the public notices issued by the Jack-of-all-trades Club, her mindset had changed.
"Strange... You weren't this tense the last time you saw me. By the way, did something happen at the Jack-of-all-trades Club? That girl clearly died outside the academy. Why was she brought here after returning?"
"That... I'm sorry, I don't know much about it either. Perhaps it was a member of the Jack-of-all-trades Club who brought her back. After all, they all know there are teachers here who have mastered the Resurrection Spell. Besides, the Jack-of-all-trades Club is an offline location for academy tasks. It's normal to come here when something happens."
"I see." I didn't press the issue further. My visit to the Jack-of-all-trades Club was partly a coincidence and partly because I wanted to see how much the current students knew about the outside situation.
But this was indeed an accident; I hadn't expected to see Qiu Ruxin here.
"Let's change the subject then. I didn't expect to see Qiu Ruxin here. Did she join the Jack-of-all-trades Club?"
"Yes, Sister Xiao Han, I did join," Qiu Ruxin nodded, speaking up first.
"Sister Qiu Ruxin is quite special. We noticed her shortly after she appeared at the academy, so we sent her an invitation. You don't mind, do you, Teacher Xiao Han?"
"Of course not. I left in a hurry last time and forgot to leave any contact information. I didn't expect our next meeting to be like this. In any case, thank you to the people of the Jack-of-all-trades Club for looking after her."
After all, I had lost contact with her after bringing her into the Witch Academy.
Perhaps at that time, Sister Bai had felt a bit jealous after learning about Qiu Ruxin's feelings for me.
But now that Sister Bai had calmed down, she probably wouldn't do such a thing again. I had always viewed Qiu Ruxin as an ordinary friend, and... she had contributed to the formation of my Tree of Great Knowledge. Regardless, that connection couldn't be denied.
Moreover, I intended to give Qiu Ruxin a Great Knowledge Seed.
As I spoke with Daphne, her desire to establish a connection with me was barely concealed. However, I didn't find her attitude repulsive. Perhaps I had spent too much time with those Witch sisters lately and had grown accustomed to this way of interacting. Besides, she really had been looking after Qiu Ruxin recently.
Just then, the girl who had been preparing the tea pushed the door open and entered. However, following behind her was another tall girl.
Upon entering, her gaze immediately locked onto me.
"Teacher Xiao Han, I just heard from the students that you were here. You didn't say a word! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xing Anlei, one of the Vice Presidents of the Jack-of-all-trades Club. If you want to learn anything about the club, or if you want to take on or commission a task, just let me know." This girl, who called herself Xing Anlei, spoke to me with great familiarity.
"Hello. I didn't expect that just wandering in to see what the fuss was about would earn me this much attention."