Chapter 13: The Ring Warlock and the Life Ring

About six months ago, the late detective Spyro Hamilton took on a rather troublesome commission. Baron Huntington, a resident of Tobesk City, commissioned the detective to find a missing maid. The maid had served the Baron's family for many years and had proactively resigned a few days prior.

The Baron had sent his butler with gifts to invite the maid back, only to discover she had already vanished. Although the Baron held a certain social status, he was not the maid's family, and he himself seemed to distrust the police; thus, he had commissioned multiple detectives to conduct the investigation.

Spyro was not actually a renowned detective; his usual commissions were merely trivial matters like investigating extramarital affairs. This time, a nobleman had come to him, thanks to a referral from a former client.

Spyro Hamilton took this matter very seriously. Even if it was just a Baron, he was a big figure that ordinary citizens could not reach. He investigated with great dedication. During the spring of this year, he spent a month following various clues until he located an abandoned sanatorium on the banks of the Osel River, determining that this was the source of the missing persons cases.

"That sanatorium was probably abandoned about thirty years ago. I was just a child then, but I remember my family mentioning it."

The local, Bill Schneider, introduced the place, pointing toward a cluster of buildings that was gradually becoming clearer in the distance. Although the outskirts of the city were shrouded in thin mist, the clock tower beside the main building, along with its spires and cruciform decorative finials, could already be seen.

"At the time, the Royal Family instructed the Tobesk City Hall to undergo urban restructuring to accommodate the massive influx of people and the development of the steam industry. The policy back then was roughly to move infrastructure like hospitals into the city center and move factories to the outskirts. This place was originally a sanatorium for nobles—I hope you understand what I mean; it was for the kind of big shots we can't even imagine. In response to the call, the sanatorium moved completely out of Tobesk City to a nearby city, only half an hour away by train, which was actually more convenient.

"So, this sanatorium was abandoned. Even vagrants won't stay here; the area is deserted. You could die here and no one would know."

The surroundings consisted of large tracts of farmland and wasteland; the nearest rural town was an hour's walk away. However, there was a nearby manor and stud farm belonging to an Earl. During racing season, people would choose this path—the one the two men were currently walking—as a track, but there was no one around now.

Although the industrial development of this era was rapid, traces of the Steam Age could only be seen in large cities. Once away from the city, everything seemed to regress toward past eras; Shade understood the meaning of that sentiment.

The two soon arrived near the abandoned sanatorium along a small path. The doctor had not mentioned its name, which likely meant it wasn't important.

From the outside, the plaster had completely peeled off, and all the windows and doors were missing. Surprisingly, the perimeter wall of the sanatorium remained, though the courtyard inside was almost as barren as the wasteland outside, showing no traces of what used to be a garden.

The high buildings and spires stood tall in the wilderness, with only the decorations on the gate providing a faint glimpse of past prosperity.

"Follow behind me. We'll talk as we walk," the doctor said, kicking open a pair of gates that seemed rusted shut. The gates crashed to the ground, startling the birds in the nearby woods.

Even at the edge of the city, the mist had only dissipated slightly. The gloomy sky looked as if it were about to rain, and Shade somewhat regretted not bringing an umbrella.

The two walked into the sanatorium's courtyard, two pairs of boots treading through the overgrown weeds

"What we call Ring Warlocks refers to the fact that we possess a [Wheel of Fate]," the doctor said, glancing around as he led Shade toward the main building's entrance.

"Wheel of Fate?"

"Time, years, destiny, eras, civilization, the world—the wheel forged for us, symbolizing our very selves. Pay attention! I am going to show you a complete Wheel of Fate, not just a corner of it. Look closely—"

Walking through the tall grass, the doctor spread his arms slightly, palms facing upward as if cradling something, holding them level with his shoulders.

Everything behind him became blurred, as if covered by a layer of white mist. However, he himself remained unchanged, save for a faint smile on his face.

Then, in this empty, abandoned courtyard, Shade actually heard the whistle and echo of a steam locomotive.

"What?"

He hurriedly looked around through the waist-deep grass, and at that moment, his skin began to perceive a growing heat.

Turning back, he saw that what was behind the doctor was not white mist, but steam. Scorching steam, a steam that made him shiver for some unknown reason; the steam seemed to blur distance and space, causing everything behind the doctor to become completely ethereal.

Within that steam, a massive dark shadow was approaching. The mass of steam behind the doctor seemed to contain infinite space-time.

The whistle roared, the steam exploded, and the dark shadow drew closer and closer. The extreme speed generated wind pressure, causing the doctor's hem, the weeds in the courtyard, and the lapels of Shade's coat to flutter wildly, forcing him to squint his eyes.

More seriously, a sense of crisis rose within his heart.

"What exactly is in that steam?"

It was getting closer. Behind the doctor, deep within the steam, a massive hammer manifested, carrying immense momentum and energy. It appeared as a silver-gray mass, as tall as the entire building, and struck the doctor with a deafening roar.

The impact made Shade's ears ring and his vision swim; a strong urge to vomit forced him to clutch his chest. The ground shook, winds howled, and lightning flashed—within this series of hallucinations, the hammer strike felt as if it had cleaved heaven and earth, or perhaps as if it had struck Shade's very soul.

But it was only the doctor who was struck. The doctor remained motionless, yet Shade was convinced he had seen Dr. Schneider crushed into a copper pancake.

"Copper?"

He felt himself losing his grip on his own perceptions.

It was indeed a piece of copper. After being struck by the massive hammer, a huge, rotating copper ring appeared behind the doctor—a brass-colored metallic ring.

As the steam gradually dissipated, a brass ring with a pentagonal cross-section rotated slowly behind the doctor. A strange light, accompanied by more than twenty spiritual runes, drifted upon this Fate Ring.

The halo reflected on Shade's face. The outsider heard the faint laughter of the woman in his mind, and his eyes reflected this magnificent, miraculous, and powerful ring.

"This is the Fate Ring. A Ring Warlock only summons it in its entirety when fighting with full strength. Otherwise, they do not summon it, or only summon a part of it... Do you have any questions?"

The doctor stopped in the overgrown courtyard and asked the stunned Shade. Shade could still feel the heat from the dissipating steam behind the doctor, as well as the high temperature emanating from the massive brass ring.

The Fate Ring was not an illusion; it was a physical reality.

"Why steam? Why brass?" He didn't even notice the urgency in his tone.

The middle-aged doctor smiled.

"Young man, power cannot be detached from its era, and the world influences us.

As I said, the Fate Ring represents the self and the world. This era is the age of steam and machinery, so the Fate Ring emerges from steam and is forged by the strike of a massive hammer, presenting a brass hue. If this were the Age of Rainbows, the ring might be iridescent; if it were the Age of the Deep Sea, the ring would be water. Do you understand?"

Shade managed a nod, his heart racing from witnessing that breathtaking scene.

"I understand."

He was almost afraid to blink, wanting to sear the full image of the ring behind the doctor into his eyes. But the doctor waved his hand behind him, and the Fate Ring slowly became transparent and vanished, leaving Shade with only a few of the runes memorized.

Regarding the Common Tongue of the Northern Kingdoms, Shade could read and understand it even without the knowledge provided by the woman in his head, but he could neither speak nor write it. Now, however, Shade had inexplicably understood the meanings of those powerful spiritual runes; the few he caught were [Joy], [Hound], and [Mote]...

Suddenly, his head throbbed with pain, as if someone had tapped him on the back of his skull, so he abandoned the attempt to continue memorizing the powerful runes.

In this world, knowledge truly was power. Thus, it seemed understandable that the extraordinary organization the doctor invited him to join was an academy.

"But if my specialty is being able to read and understand all written languages... is that actually a good thing in this dangerous world?"

As Shade pondered his own secret, the doctor continued walking through the weeds, introducing

"The cross-section of my Fate Ring is currently a pentagon, representing that I am a Fifth-Ring Ring Warlock, and also a fifth-year correspondence adult student of the Academy. A First-Ring Fate Ring is a flat ring with spiritual runes inscribed on one side. A Second-Ring is also flat, but runes can be inscribed on both sides. A Third-Ring has a triangular cross-section, a Fourth-Ring has a quadrilateral cross-section, and so on. Do you understand? The higher the ring, the closer it is to a perfect, standard circle."

"Yes, I understand."

The two entered the building while talking. Over the many years, countless people had likely visited this place. There was no furniture left; a layer of dust coated the floor, rising instantly at the slightest step.

They did not stay on the first floor but headed toward the second floor via a staircase that looked unstable. Shade was quite worried about the safety of such a dilapidated building.

"Spiritual runes are the core of the Ring Warlock system. By inscribing spiritual runes upon our own Wheels of Fate, we accumulate Spirit and sense the four elements: [Miracle], [Profanity], [Enlightenment], and [Whisper], allowing us to continuously advance."

"Spirit? Elements?" Shade asked, puzzled, his heart filled with excitement. He finally wanted to know these things.

The doctor led Shade up the stairs.

"Regarding Spirit, in past eras, it had many names: Magic, Ether, Mana, Spirituality, the Light of the Soul. But in the current era, it is unified under the name 'Spirit.' It is information, it is elements, it is energy; it is the sum total of everything in the world that you can understand. It is one of the ways a Ring Warlock's mind interferes with matter. The method to accumulate Spirit is to come into contact with the elements, and the safest way to contact the elements is to read the stories and knowledge from previous epochs—culture, customs, heroic legends, and oral myths.

"Contacting this knowledge is equally dangerous; a single slip can lead to madness. Therefore, we generally read original manuscripts or translations."

Shade simply translated 'Spirit' in his mind as a "mana bar."

"But accumulating enough Spirit does not mean you can enter the next ring. What is most important for a Ring Warlock is not Spirit, but the elements. By accumulating the four Great Element Spiritual Runes, one effectively raises the ceiling of their Spirit, sublimates the soul, and tempers the body. The four elements can be sensed in many ways..."

Shade thought of the prompts from the woman in his mind. He had encountered "Whisper," "Enlightenment," and "Miracle"—specifically, witnessing Spyro's death, stepping onto the streets to see the world, and contemplating the meaning of God.

"Merely sensing and contacting them is not enough; one must inscribe the elements onto their own Wheel of Fate to prove the fusion of self and element. Every upgrade for a Ring Warlock requires a different combination of [Miracle], [Profanity], [Enlightenment], and [Whisper] runes. I will explain this further once you decide to join the Academy. For now, let me introduce the differences between the four elements."

The doctor paused, looked ahead, and smiled.

"I believe the person we are looking for should be right here."