Chapter 118: Supernatural Item Selection

Once winter settled over Briston, daylight grew stingier by the day.

By the time history class ended, a fine snow was already falling outside.

At the podium, Mr. Hutton closed his lesson notes and clapped the chalk from his hands.

While a few students in the front row packed their bags, the old gentleman shot Richard a meaningful look and stepped briskly out of the classroom.

Richard understood perfectly.

He waited until most of the students had left before shoving his textbook into his bag and heading down the corridor toward the corner.

As usual, the door to Mr. Hutton's private office was slightly ajar.

The old gentleman sat behind his desk and pulled a document from a drawer.

"It has been nearly three months since you established your Ether Micro-circulation."

He skipped the pleasantries, cutting straight to the point.

"Yes."

"At a normal pace, your Micro-circulation will reach the stability required for a Signature in a little over half a year."

The old gentleman adjusted his glasses.

"Before then, there is something we need to prepare."

"A signature artifact?" Richard supplied.

Mr. Hutton gave a slight nod. "Indeed. That is why I asked to see you today."

He pushed the document to the center of the desk.

"A signature artifact takes time to break in. True compatibility between a Newcomer and a supernatural item doesn't happen the moment you sign your name; it requires day after day of patient nurturing."

"The sooner you settle on one, the more time you will have to forge a connection with it."

"I submitted an application to the higher-ups recently to see if we could allocate a supernatural item suitable for a Scholar-path Newcomer from the vaults."

"Higher-ups?"

"The financial backers behind Briston and many other schools across the northern district. You don't need to know the specifics yet; you'll get a formal introduction once you become a Practitioner."

Mr. Hutton tapped the cover of the document.

"The application was approved. We can provide two supernatural items to choose from, both meeting the specifications for a Scholar-path Newcomer."

"But they aren't free."

Richard waited for him to elaborate.

"It works just like a student loan," Mr. Hutton said bluntly.

"Once the supernatural item is assigned to you, you will have to pay it off in installments—but only after you complete your Signature, advance to Practitioner, and start earning a steady income."

Richard hesitated before speaking.

"Before you give them an official answer, could you look at some items I already have?"

The old gentleman looked up. "Items you already have?"

"Yes."

Mr. Hutton didn't seem surprised. "Bring them here tomorrow, then. I'll appraise them."

"Understood."

The old gentleman picked up his teacup and took a sip.

"By the way, you don't need to bring the Silver Coin I gave you."

"Is it unsuitable as a Signature vessel?"

"Its Ether content is too low, and it isn't old enough." Mr. Hutton set his teacup back on its saucer.

"A Signature entails carving your entire life's trajectory into the object. The vessel itself has to bear that weight."

"Three hundred years of history is nothing. Pick any random item from the basement of the Imperial Capital Museum, and it'll be older than that Silver Coin."

"It's more than enough to assist your cultivation, but for a Signature..." The old gentleman shook his head.

Richard nodded.

"Back to those items in your possession." Mr. Hutton pointed at the document.

"If you actually have something suitable, we won't need to dip into the vaults."

"If none of them make the cut, the two supernatural items in the vault will serve as a fallback. Either way, you don't lose out."

Richard stood up and pushed his chair in.

"I'll bring them after school tomorrow."

"Mm."

By the time he stepped out of the office, the corridor was empty.

Outside, the fine snow had turned to sleet, rattling against the glass.

Richard hitched his bag higher onto his shoulder and headed toward the school bus stop.

...

After the final bell rang the next day, Richard reorganized his schoolbag.

He placed his textbooks and notebooks on top, leaving two Cloth Bags containing six supernatural items safely at the bottom.

The Cloth Bags were tied tight with thin string and separated with old handkerchiefs to keep them from knocking together.

At the private office, Richard knocked twice on the doorframe.

"Come in."

The old gentleman had already cleared his desk.

His lesson plans, grading books, pen holder, and paperweight had all been moved against the wall, leaving a long, empty strip down the middle.

"Did you bring the items?"

"I did."

Richard set his bag on a chair and began pulling things out.

The first was the Bronze Sphinx Lamp.

With the vast majority of its sealed contents absorbed, the human-faced relief of the Sphinx had become noticeably sharper.

The second was the Gargoyle.

He pulled the crouching stone sculpture from its Cloth Bag and set it next to the lamp.

Placed side by side, the two beast-shaped supernatural items offered a stark contrast—one sitting in silent vigil, the other baring its fangs.

The next four items were a copper censer, the Ancient Roman Copper Coin, the Copper Pendant he had acquired first, and his most recent purchase, the Solar Seal.

The six items formed a row on the desk, arranged in descending order of size.

Mr. Hutton sat up straighter.

"Richard, if I recall correctly, from your initiation until now..." He did some quick mental math.

"From late September to today... in such a short window, you've somehow amassed six supernatural items."

Richard offered no explanation.

Mr. Hutton didn't press him. He could hazard a guess at their origins.

Richard's mother hailed from the Ashford Family; the boy had likely tapped into their resources.

"Alright, let's take a look at them."

Mr. Hutton picked up the Solar Seal at the far end.

"Something from the colonies."

"It isn't even two hundred years old. I doubt there's much Ether inside."

"Right."

"Just like the Silver Coin I gave you, this is fine as an auxiliary tool but useless as a Signature vessel."

Mr. Hutton set the seal on the right side of the desk, designating a rejection pile.

Next was the Copper Pendant.

The old gentleman pinched the lanyard and held the pendant up to the light, rotating it once.

Its copper surface looked grimy, bearing a patina stewed from the sweat of several generations.

Mr. Hutton reached a quick verdict.

"An old piece from the Eastern Continent. Did the Ashford House give you this one, too?"

"Yes."

"Its age is decent, but it still isn't suitable."

Mr. Hutton laid the pendant flat in his palm.

"Using artifacts from the Eastern Continent within Albion creates a faint rejection with the local Ether."

"Rejection?"

"There is a discrepancy between the Eastern and Western Continents. It isn't huge, and it doesn't affect daily use."

The old gentleman placed the pendant into the rejection pile as well.

"But a Signature is a lifelong binding. Over the years, even the slightest incompatibility will be magnified."

"You might not notice anything wrong in the first few years, but ten or twenty years down the line, when you try to advance your Rank, that underlying friction will become a fatal flaw."

"I understand."

Next was the copper censer.

Mr. Hutton picked it up, turned it over a few times, and reached the exact same conclusion Richard had when he bought it.

"This thing has been modified. It's a secondhand piece. We can toss it straight out."

"Yeah." Richard smiled. "That's exactly how I haggled the owner down."

The censer was pushed into the rejection pile, taking its place next to the seal and the pendant.

That left only the Bronze Sphinx Lamp, the Gargoyle, and the Ancient Roman Copper Coin.

Mr. Hutton picked up the Ancient Roman Copper Coin from the Diocletian era.

"This coin is actually quite good. It looks like I won't have to submit that application after all."

"How so?" Richard asked, slightly curious.

"Minted during the reign of Diocletian," the old gentleman explained. "Over sixteen hundred years old."

He flipped the coin to its back, then turned it over again.

"While it wasn't originally a ritual product, its sheer age makes up for that."

"Plus, a coin is small and easy to carry."

Mr. Hutton added, "Your Signature vessel will be with you for the rest of your life. Something you can tuck into your pocket is vastly more convenient than something you have to lug around."

He placed the coin right in the middle of the desk.

"If you don't have a better option, this coin is my top recommendation."

The old gentleman picked up the Gargoyle.

He noticed the inscriptions on its four sides and raised an eyebrow. "This one isn't bad, either."

"It isn't as old as the coin, but it is a genuine ritual product."

"Its inscription system is perfectly intact, making it a vessel of extremely high occult value."

"Using the Gargoyle for your Signature might even grant you a boost to specific Spell Formulas."

His evaluation of the Gargoyle finished, the old gentleman reached for the Bronze Sphinx Lamp.

The moment he touched it, he froze.

His fingers lingered over the joint Richard had previously pried open, tracing it for a long moment.

Richard had resealed that joint with wax ages ago, using a patchwork technique he'd gleaned from a seal maintenance manual on the library's third floor.

On the surface, it looked perfectly integrated with the original seal.

Richard's heart beat a little faster. Had he noticed something wrong?

But the old gentleman made no comment about the joint.

He simply placed the oil lamp dead in the center of the desk, right where the copper coin had been sitting.

He had quietly nudged the coin aside.

"With this lamp, you don't need to consider anything else. Not only does it boast incredible age and high occult value..."

The old gentleman's white eyebrows twitched in bewilderment.

"...but for some reason, there is a faint compatibility between you and it."

"Compatibility?"

"You can tell by the direction of its Ether flow. It's a technique for the Practitioner stage."

The old gentleman traced a line in the air.

"Under normal circumstances, a supernatural item bleeds Ether in all directions."

"Even when locked behind a seal, the trace amounts of Ether that seep out disperse evenly. Ripples on a pond don't travel in just one direction."

"But the Ether seepage from this lamp is slightly skewed."

Mr. Hutton lowered his hand.

"It actively leans toward you."

The old gentleman's tone shifted from a professional appraisal to a serious discussion.

"Resonance requires meeting at least one of three conditions."

"A long enough period of close contact, a high enough degree of Ether compatibility, or... a deep enough karmic connection."

Richard knew exactly why.

That late night in Nail Alley, he had pried open the lamp's seal and siphoned out over ninety-five percent of its Ether reserves.

A portion of it had been converted into points, while the rest was extracted by his Panel and condensed into a seed.

Eventually, that seed sprouted, blossoming into "Shadow Inversion."

The vast majority of the lamp's very soul had already flowed into his body.

But he couldn't say that out loud.

"It's probably... because I've handled it the most."

Richard offered a vague excuse.

Mr. Hutton didn't press him.

His own Mentor had once taught him: "As long as a student's secret hurts neither themselves nor others, let them keep it."

"Your job is to point the way, not to dig through their pockets."

He nodded. "Alright."

"This Sphinx Lamp... hits all three marks: age, occult value, and a pre-existing foundation of resonance."

"For you, there is no more suitable vessel for a Signature than this."

Richard looked at the bronze lamp sitting in the middle of the desk.

The Sphinx kept its eyes half-closed, gazing indifferently at everyone who approached it.

It had guarded the gate for him once already; now, it would guard him for a lifetime.

Mr. Hutton pulled his hand away from the bronze lamp.

"Since that's settled, I will teach you the nurturing method."

"Nurturing?"

"From the day a signature artifact is chosen until the day the Signature is formally completed, it requires patient nurturing, day after day."

Mr. Hutton took a thin booklet from a drawer, flipped to the middle, and pulled out a folded slip of paper tucked inside.

A simple diagram was drawn on the paper.