Chapter 45 Ritual: Communication with the Skeleton
Before Annan entered this advanced dungeon, he never thought about the biggest gain from this dungeon...
...It turned out to be these banned books that I saw in Amos's study.
Because time was tight, Annan first briefly browsed through the book "Belief in These Gods Is Dangerous" and quickly found the entry about the Skeleton Lord.
Then he learned this information:
"... The Bones Lord is a new false god who appeared in the Third Age. Due to the change of eras, a lot of information has been lost. But what we can know from archeology is that the Bones Lord was at least in the Fourth Era - that is, the last
During the Era, he had a friendly relationship with the protector of January, the god of death and earth, and the righteous god "Bone Burial Granny".
"But in the fifth era, the Bone Lord was inexplicably alienated from the Bone Burial Church and other righteous gods, and was even denounced as a false god. The General Church in the United Kingdom was also forcibly disbanded by Yaweng's order, and was forced to become
underground.
"According to the author's investigation, perhaps it is because Lord Skeleton is related to the great barrier collapse incident at the beginning of this century..."
This information was something Annan had never seen from his senior before.
Especially the chronology of the "Third Era" and "Fifth Era" has never been seen before. The statements about the Great Barrier are also vague.
When Annan saw this, he couldn't help but open the title page.
Then, he saw the author's name.
A name that gave him a sense of déjà vu...
"...Gryaznuha Winter."
Annan read this somewhat convoluted name twice more and remembered it in his heart.
This doesn't seem to be the name of Annan's father, the current Grand Duke... is it his uncle or grandfather?
He didn't think too much and just turned the book back to that page.
Annan quickly found the ritual of the Skeleton Lord - because it was marked with a wavy line:
“The ceremonial realm of Bone Master involves the fields of death, mystery, hiding, and art, so it is necessary to avoid the January protected by the Bone Burial Granny, the February protected by the mysterious lady, and the April protected by Ya Weng.
"If it is a long-term ceremony, it is recommended to perform it in May and cut off from January. But if it is a short-term borrowing of power, then March can also be used. April 1st is a good termination date. Yaweng is the protector of artists, so it can be
Use Yavon's Holy Light to sever the ritual connection with the Bone Lord. This is a technique to break free from the shackles of the ritual.
"Because Bone Master's rituals are all deceptive, the price you pay will gradually increase every time you perform a ritual. And once you become dependent, you will definitely die.
"No matter what kind of power you pray to Lord Skeleton, it usually comes at almost no cost the first time. But the second time, he will ask you to pay 'half of your conscience' or 'friendship from now on'. This
It's a trap: you must choose the former, because the latter means that the person performing the ritual will be hated by everyone for no reason. In order to eliminate this state, they must perform a third ritual that is useless...
"In the third ceremony, Lord Skeleton will ask for 'eating a certain part of a person's body' or 'remaining half of one's life span'. This is still a trap. Because what he needs is not the second half of the half life span.
...But the first half is calculated based on the maximum life span, that is, no disease or disaster.
"Since in the previous requirement, both 'person' and 'part' are designated by the Skeleton Lord, and are usually fatal. Therefore, it is recommended that before the ceremony is held, the person performing the ceremony must permanently sever ties with his parents and children, divorce his current husband and wife, and use silver
The ceremonial knife injures all friends and lovers, at least with blood on the blade, to show the severance of friendship and never to have any contact with each other again.
"After that, you need to find a suitable victim for the ritual marriage three months before the ceremony begins, and be inseparable with him within three months. In this way, you can deflect the original sacrifice target. But the best thing is
The choice is still not to perform the second and third rituals - Lord Skeleton is a very generous false god. If you only perform the ritual once, you will almost only get benefits.
"The author recommends: People should be content."
The author warns.
This is the end of this book about Bones. Just looking at the content and knowledge in it, you know that this is knowledge that is absolutely impossible to make public.
Annan frowned slightly.
He remembered...the part he coughed up when he was in the gallery.
It was an emerald green eyeball.
...I'm afraid, those are Ai Lei's eyes.
Could it be that Amos did not perform the sacrifice transfer ceremony and then performed the third ceremony with the Bone Lord?
But it is clear from Ailei's diary that he has a very close relationship with Ailei. It is impossible for him to let Ailei be selected in the ceremony...
With such doubts in mind, Annan opened the "Complete Collection of Ritual".
This book was searched according to the field as keywords, similar to a dictionary. Annan searched one by one according to the keywords of "death", "mystery", "hidden" and "art", but found almost nothing.
The entire dictionary is foggy, with only a few rituals visible...
Annan originally wanted to use his strong memory to forcefully memorize the rituals in this book. However, the information on these rituals was the same as what Klaus had taught Annan before. It did not just require memorizing the words.
This knowledge has weight——
After Annan tried to understand the first ritual in the realm of death [Curse of the Living], he gradually lost consciousness.
When he woke up again, he suddenly realized that nearly fifteen minutes had passed - you know, it didn't take him that long to search and read the information about the Bone Master before.
He immediately realized that this was a trap. As long as he was obsessed with watching other rituals, he would have no time to investigate the truth. And as long as he failed the mission, these memories would be deleted...
So Annan no longer hesitated and just continued to read. In the end, he found the ritual belonging to the Skeleton King in the entry in the field of "art":
He lost consciousness again... and this time, when he lost consciousness, the characters of the system appeared in front of his eyes:
[True God Communication-Skeleton Lord]
[Ritual requirements: Black bull's tailbone, ram's horns, complete ribs of a boar that died of natural causes, palette/carving knife/strings/pen that have been used for at least ten years (core sacrifice), provided by the ritualist
Fragments of created works of art (destruction must not exceed three days)】
[Requirements for ritual performers: Artistic professionals, no less than 30 years old]
[Ritual income: career-related blessings, usually physical gifts]
【Carrying the Curse: Nightmares and Whispers】
[Nightmares and whispers (persistent curse): Before the ritual connection is severed, the ritualist will fall into nightmares from time to time at night, and will hear whispers from unknown sources from time to time during the day]
"I see……"
Annan regained consciousness and realized that more than twenty minutes had passed this time.
He murmured under his breath and wrote down the second ritual he saw today.
"Ai Lei, Ai Lei...hehe..."
But just as he was about to open the third book, he suddenly heard a woman's chuckle...or rather, sneer.
The light in the study suddenly became dim, and strangely colorful smoke slowly rose.
"Where's your mother?"
Annan gave elegant feedback immediately.
Without hesitation, he picked up the kitchen knife at hand and threw it in the direction of the laughter.
The laughter instantly turned into a scream of pain:
"--ah!!"
The smoke dissipated instantly.
Annan immediately saw that it was a painting - a portrait that originally hung opposite him, motionless and smiling gently at him.
At this moment, a kitchen knife was stabbed precisely in the center of the painting, and the woman in the painting looked at Annan angrily.