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Dmitry could not provide an answer to this question.
According to Dmitry, he had asked Annan about this matter at that ti.
Back then, Dmitry was the designated next Duke of Winter.
But Annan did not give him a straight answer. What Dmitry knew was that Annan intentionally chose not to embark on the path of the Transcendent.
This was very useful during his world travels.
However, he had progressed too far on the path of rituals.
With his identity, the secret knowledge he could access was unquestionably of the highest level. Except for so of the most advanced knowledge associated with taboos, he probably had a grasp on other secret knowledge to so extent.
If all went as expected, Annan might also have possessed knowledge of these taboos...
Otherwise, the old grandmother would not have entrusted to Annan the forbidden knowledge about "Winter" so confidently, while half asleep and half awake.
——Unless Annan had already mastered this knowledge before.
"Generally speaking, Ritualists can also step onto the path of the Transcendent. The path of rituals does not directly conflict with the path of the Transcendent... but there are exceptions."
Dmitry answered, "The more transcendent knowledge one bears and the higher one’s rank, the more burdenso the mystery becos.
"At the stage of [Corruption], if one holds secret knowledge, it will directly increase the erosion rate to so degree; and at the stage of [Concretion], the more secret knowledge one holds, the more additional curses one needs to complete the concretion.
"And most importantly——when advancing to the [Stigmatization] stage, one can modify one’s innate elental inclinations by accumulating a large amount of high-level secret knowledge in the sa field."
Dmitry explained.
This was a secret that only those who ca from official backgrounds as Transcendents could access... and it was a thod used by the Wizard’s Tower and various national official transcendental organizations to inherit the techniques of elental use.
Annan, at last, understood.
The first cycle’s Annan may have abandoned his mories not just to erase "emotionless" mories. It was also in part so that the secret knowledge would not affect his advancent.
To interact with gods, one inevitably acquires a large amount of secret knowledge; and to interact with the gods conveniently, one cannot be a Transcendent.
Considering this... the Annan of that ti must have decided from the very beginning to take on the second cycle.
He walked the path of rituals in the first cycle not because he did not wish to take the Transcendent’s path.
——But to pave the way for his future self, so that Annan would not have to retrace his steps when the ti ca.
He mastered the knowledge of the Ritualist, traveled the world alone, beca acquainted with the gods, successfully reversed the Heart of Winter, and cleansed his past knowledge... or perhaps, he did sothing else as well, which Annan has not yet grasped.
This was a first cycle strategy conducted entirely for the sake of experiencing the second cycle.
It really does have my style.
"For the pure elent of Cleanse, huh..."
Annan murmured.
Why are the elents mastered by wizards always the ones that perfectly complent their own attributes?
So that’s the reason.
——How coincidental could it be that the elents they awaken to are exactly the most useful ones?
They don’t have an attribute panel, nor do they have the Philosopher’s Stone.
Before advancing, they would not know what their own elental inclinations were.
And like the Dream Stealer Denton, before he turned into a Dream Stealer, he wouldn’t have known that he could get the elent of "Dream"; the "Soul Bearer" Bernadino would not possibly know that his elental attribute was "Soul" before creating this profession.
After all, not every Wizard’s Tower is like the Tower of the Storm... capable of inheriting the previous generation’s Elental Power and directly overriding one’s own talents.
But, they can let their souls be [Stigmatized] by amassing a large amount of high-level secret knowledge in a certain area!
——I see.
No wonder this was known as the "Stigmatization" stage in ancient tis.
Renaming it to the "Gold" stage, is it to conceal this secret?
At the Gold stage, whether the Elental Power and one’s own transcendent abilities can synergize, whether they can play a role where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, directly determines the upper and lower limits of a Gold-stage Transcendent’s strength.
"On the other hand, if the knowledge acquired is too disorganized or too extensive, it will make the advancent ritual uncontrollable... Right?"
That’s why ritualists are typically "elderly."
The greatest advantage of a Ritualist is to compensate for deficiencies—using the power of great entities to accomplish what one could not do alone.
So a Transcendent who changes professions to a Ritualist would not just master rituals from a few fields. Even less likely would they collect transcendent knowledge from their own field.
After all, rituals from the sa field can be accomplished with transcendent power.
So, it’s not just because a Ritualist is getting older that they acquire more knowledge.
A bigger part of the reason is that Transcendents who are not planning to advance further will go on to purchase related books and learn mysterious knowledge.
——This indeed was knowledge beyond Annan’s understanding.
Had he not inquired about it from Dmitry’s side, he would have had to wait until Kaiser Sassa was ready to advance to the Gold rank before he could learn it from him.
However...
"Brother, aren’t you... knowledgeable about Transcendents?"
Annan looked at Dmitry with so suspicion.
Although Dmitry was not a Transcendent himself, he understood these depths——Even Kaiser Sassa, the child of the Black Tower who had just advanced to Silver rank, didn’t know this secret.
But hearing Annan’s tone, Dmitry shivered in an instant.
"...You might as well stop calling brother and just call by my na instead."
Dmitry’s expression was sowhat odd: "You may not rember, but you used to just call Dmitry. Whenever you call ’brother,’ usually nothing good cos out of it..."
You’re basically saying I made you take the bla, right? I get it, I get it.
Annan nodded in agreent.
——Indeed, that’s sothing I would do!
But Dmitry didn’t imdiately respond.
He subconsciously reached into his chest——before he could realize it and pull his arm back, Annan had already pressed down on his arm.
"Go ahead, it’s okay."
Annan looked at Dmitry’s eyes, which were filled with exhaustion and even reddened, and softly urged: "Just one... I don’t mind, but rember to take care of your health."
Smoking is harmful to health.
But with Dmitry’s addiction, forcing him to hold back would have made him uncomfortable.
His ntal stress was already imnse. These few pleasures, Annan did not wish to deprive him of them because of his own reasons.
"...I am still a high-ranking clergy after all, my body won’t have problems. Maybe I’m even healthier than you."
Dmitry muttered, then hesitated for a mont before sitting on Annan’s bed and taking out a cigar box.
"You might not rember, but I liked to smoke the best cigars and drink the worst liquor... Ah, you really don’t rember."
Seeing Annan’s expression, Dmitry quickly realized and said no more.
Only after he put the lit cigar into his mouth did he finally let out a sigh.
"I thought about becoming a Transcendent once."
Dmitry’s voice was low and resonant: "But that was because of father.
"Father’s ALS was because he wasn’t a Transcendent.
"I am much older than you and Maria... back then, I had no other siblings. The first ti I saw father’s illness, I was extrely scared... there was no one to share that fear.
"That was when I decided to pursue the path of becoming a Transcendent. I wanted to be a Gold ranked Transcendent——
"...Until I witnessed my own first younger brother, also father’s second son... die miserably in a nightmare, turning into a senseless demon."
Dmitry said this and subconsciously bit down on his cigar.
In his eyes, Annan caught traces of fear, sorrow, and anger.
"——So, I retreated."
He said in a self-mocking tone, "How ridiculous, Annan. Feel free to laugh, because it is indeed both ridiculous and shaful...
"The son of a Grand Duke, the future Grand Duke of Winter. To run away from a re nightmare? I am not a warrior, not even a fighter.
"From that mont on, I no longer wanted to inherit the position of Grand Duke. That’s also one of the reasons I dared to take that bet with that corrupted man."
He murmured to himself.
Dmitry’s voice was very quiet: "Because I am not worthy. It’s that simple."
Annan fell silent.
But——
If you truly fear nightmares.
Why choose to beco a clergyman?
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