The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 199: Ritual: Heart That Roars If Untouched

“I know this ritual!” Salvatore rushed down the street, shouting, “This is ‘Ritual: Heart That Roars If Untouched!’

“The ritual involves the field of blood. It’s under deity of blood and desire, Cup-holding Lady.”

Cup-holding Lady—

Annan rarely heard this name in the Noah Kingdom.

Although the Cup-holding Lady was also one of the twelve upright deities, she was generally called “the desire.” Philosophers believed that those who went crazy for no reason or those who were overwhelmed by the desire to do some stupid things had heard the Cup-holding Lady’s whispers.

Those who were more educated and had committed the sin out of impulsiveness would comment, “I have heard the Cup-holding Lady’s whispers,” to justify the sins they had committed euphemistically.

In the Noah Kingdom, almost only those immoral entertainment business operators believed in cup-holders. So it was hard to imagine that she could be an upright deity.

After running to the vicinity of 44 Clear Water Street, Salvatore stopped, panting for breath, and continued, “This is a high-level ritual… Now this ritual isn’t completed yet!”

“Summarize its content.” Annan followed behind Salvatore quickly and asked immediately.

His current outfit might look a little weird.

Annan wore white and slender elven leather gloves on both hands. He had a wooden bucket for the gloves, a waist bag for his kitchen knives that was dripping blood, and a brass flask.

The flask contained the Sage’s Stone in the liquid state.

Aside from brass material, Sage’s Stone could only be stable in white crystal and pure gold containers.

Otherwise, the Sage Stone would be consumed on its own, purifying the precious stone into white crystal, or making other metals besides copper into pure gold. The brass container under the sun exposure could significantly suppress this process and extend its lifespan as much as possible.

Even as the Alteration Wizard, Salvatore couldn’t afford to get three golden kettles out that easily.

Besides that, Annan’s right hand held “Barrier Destroyer’s Right Arm” (not including the hammer), and the left hand was armed with a kitchen knife that was dripping blood.

To put it simply, Annan looked like a maniac.

Annan also transferred his curse vessel, a bronze bracelet inlaid with sapphires, to his left wrist in the hope of speeding up the curse being conducted to his kitchen knife.

If Annan were to put on a mask, he was like the monster from horror movies, albeit his short height and figure.

On the other hand, Salvatore’s outfit seemed much more normal.

He wore a thick white robe that looked like a researcher or a doctor. In addition, he had an internal armor reinforced with thickened cloth. The primary reason was to resist the cold. Visually speaking, that armor made the thin Salvatore look generous and tall.

Of course, Salvatore also carried the brass bottle behind him and exposed it to the light.

In addition, he put the bullet-loaded “the Venerated Skeleton’s Bone and Blood Trigger” in the waist bag.

There was a beefy suitcase in his left hand. This suitcase had an opening for a hand to reach inside. There were different reagents tied to the side. They were all marked with metal pieces of different textures to ensure that Salvatore could get what he wanted even without visual cues.

Salvatore’s left arm was also tied to a black arm guard like the one used for blood pressure measurement, and a bottle of pre-conversion agent appeared like a perfume sample on the outer side. His right hand was bare, not equipped with anything. The purpose was to allow swift usage on the pre-conversion agent or other reagents from the left at any time.

Salvatore moved quickly to take out a bottle of blue reagent from the suitcase, skillfully took out the cork with his thumb with his right hand, raised it, and drank it.

His mental state improved a lot afterward.

Then, he took out two sticky, brown-black collapsible tubes and handed one of them to Annan.

“Take some of this first. It’s an ’emergency nutritional supplement.’ These are typically used to rescue those strayed in the wild. It will forcibly stop hunger while supplementing the necessary nutrients. However, long-term use will bring harmful effects to digestion, but it’s well-fitted for emergencies. Be careful. The smell may be a bit strange.”

Salvatore said, raising his head and squeezing the viscous supplement directly into his throat. A bitter and somewhat distorted expression was revealed on his face.

Annan followed suit, pushing the reagent out and taking a bite.

Then, he grew a little disappointed.

It didn’t taste so terrible.

Its taste was probably similar to the ginseng jujube drink [1] but with a strong flavor. Or probably sour lemon juice mixed with thick black sesame soup [2].

(TN: For those interested in what those beverages are, I put my findings into the hyperlink.)

It’s strange…

But the effect is excellent.

After Annan ate it for a while, he felt rejuvenated despite just waking up without eating anything.

Then, Salvatore took out a bottle of red reagent, a bottle of purple reagent, a bottle of strange smoke and handed them to Annan, “Blood Impulse Decoction, Perception Mixture, Frigid Cold Air. Take them right before the battle. Also, be conservative in using the Frigid Cold Air. I only have one bottle.”

After speaking, Salvatore took out a long silver-gray dropper with a plug from the suitcase.

He handed the dropper to Annan and said, “It’s inconvenient for me to do it because of the suitcase. Draw a line as you encircle the house. Be mindful not to break the line. If a spirit tries to enter, it will light up as a warning.”

“Got it.” Annan looked at Salvatore in surprise.

His previous experience against Gerald made him habitually use Salvatore as a heavy cannon.

Now Annan suddenly realized that Salvatore was a potion fighter.

When Annan dealt with the warning line, Salvatore explained, “[Ritual: Heart That Roars If Untouched] doesn’t bring any effect, nor will it summon anything. It is usually used when the user has to forcibly carry out a ritual while the ritual conditions aren’t met. Also, this ritual can be used to empty the venue.

“The ritual will collect the ‘heartbeats’ in the ritual area. Every nine seconds, the hearts of all people in the ritual area will hum. At the same time, the awakened people become more powerful, and those who haven’t awakened are stuck in their slumber.

“Ordinary people who have fallen asleep in this ritual will never wake up before the end of the ritual. Even if they’re punctured or stabbed with a knife, they won’t wake up. But those who become awake will never fall asleep. Thus, they are prevented from falling into a nightmare.”

Salvatore whispered, “Many powerful curse vessel materials are high-level nightmares’ ‘keys.’ Any physical contact with them may bring the victim into nightmares. If you want to use the keys’ power, you can either purify the nightmare once or use it for the ritual when it enters the “three days ban period for nightmares.” Otherwise, you have to use another ritual to seal the keys’ power or bless the ritual executor with a certain kind of power that stops the person from falling into the nightmare. What happened now is an example of that.

“Since we can break free from this ritual, it means that the ritual performer of this ‘Ritual: Heart That Roars If Untouched’ has a lower soul rank than ours. The good news is that we’re all the lowest-level Transcended, so…”

“So, this ritual was held by an ordinary person?” Annan asked incredulously.

What a commotion…

People in the whole city are in a deep sleep, and the sun is replaced.

Is this really something ordinary people can do?

“A ritual is like that.” Salvatore didn’t have any exaggerated reaction, “Knowledge is power. This ritual is tough to be held; at least you can’t just guess your way through.

“It takes nine people and nine hours to complete. Each person has to sacrifice one thing in the list: a mutilated eye, a mutilated ear, half a tongue, a piece of skin, half a cup of blood, half a bone, half a foot, half a hand, and half a heart. With these conditions met, it will refract the light that summons the Cup-holding Lady’s “mouth of the cup.”

“Since this is an illegal summoning, they must bypass the Cup-holding Lady. So the sacrifice used must all be fragmented, mutilated, or incomplete. That will summon an incomplete power of the ‘blood cup.’ But the Cup-holding Lady is an upright deity. Even if it’s summoning part of her power, that is enough to bring out a strange phenomenon.”

With that said, Salvatore pointed to the “dark red sun” in the sky.

“That isn’t the sun. That is the shadow of the ‘mouth of the cup.'”