Chapter 41: Mirror Weaver

The two lingered for a while like a true mistress and maid, enjoying a relaxed period.
Dounia took out the deep-blue stained glass shard from her pocket and began studying it on the table.
Rather than hiding it, it was better to let Miss Adelle form a preconceived notion early, overlooking this established fact.
Moreover… most importantly, she urgently needed to increase her strength to deal with that ferocious female protagonist who would make her “fly” the moment they met.

“This is…?” Adelle was slightly surprised.
This was not something Dounia could easily obtain.
Similar to Forbidden Tomes, while not strictly sealed artifacts, their value was already somewhat comparable.

“Where did you get this from?” Adelle asked, deeply astonished.
Dounia certainly didn’t have it when she was imprisoned in the Anomaly Bureau, and after that, Dounia was almost always within her sight. It couldn’t have been picked up from the ground, could it?

“Julie gave it to me, the one who always likes to do crossword puzzles at the entrance of our D-section,” Dounia replied truthfully.
She was well-versed in the art of lying; Julie could even corroborate her words, further increasing her credibility.

“This item isn’t cheap; it’s much more expensive than these snacks,” Adelle said.

“Did she say where it came from?” Adelle pressed.

“Hmm… I remember her saying she found it near her home, didn’t know what it was, but thought it might be useful, so she gave it to me,” Dounia said, a reminiscent expression on her face.

“Is that so?” Adelle nodded slightly.
Though still strange, it sounded more plausible.
Julie had been working at the Anomaly Bureau for many years; her background and character were unproblematic.
‘When I have time, I’ll search around her home; this isn’t some weed that grows by the roadside.’

“Do you know what this is called?” Adelle asked.
Dounia shook her head, puzzled.

“This is called a ‘Mirror Shard.’ You can determine its quality by its transparency, refractive index, and the wispy, ink-like liquid inside. This piece is quite good, at least upper-middle grade,” Adelle patiently explained. “It’s an excellent mental defense talisman, capable of suppressing mental aberrations like Soul-Loss to a certain extent.”

“Then why doesn’t Miss Violet use it?” Dounia asked, confused.

“Her situation… is rather special,” Adelle said with some hesitation.

‘Hmm? There’s a hidden story here.’
Dounia caught this subtle anomaly.

“Back to the main point, besides its general use, its true purpose is…”
Adelle stared into Dounia’s red eyes and said, “It’s a key material for refining potions when advancing on the ‘Deeper Consciousness’ pathway.”
She was testing if Dounia knew the term Deeper Consciousness.

“Can you please not speak in riddles?” Dounia said helplessly, propping her chin with her small hand, a look of disdain on her face.

“It seems you truly don’t know the origin of your abilities,” Adelle said. “Firstly, pathways are different types of extraordinary power systems, and each pathway has its unique characteristics. For example, ‘Deeper Consciousness’ is a pathway that only those of the psychic lineage can possibly tread upon. Extraordinary individuals walking this path are extremely rare; even most psychological instructors are merely theoreticians or ‘borrow’ power by trickery.”

“And sequences are subdivisions of pathways. Each pathway is divided into 9 sequences from low to high, each with its unique abilities and characteristics, and advancement requires meeting certain conditions and consuming corresponding potions.”

“The ability corresponding to yours should be Sequence 9 of the ‘Deeper Consciousness’ pathway—the ‘Mirror Weaver’,” Adelle paused. “Don’t tell anyone what I’ve told you.”

‘So she knew all along! Fia isn’t foolish after all… Even if she was somewhat negligent because of Violet’s illness, she wouldn’t be completely unaware of my background and just let me blindly try to cure her.’
Dounia blinked.
‘It’s like she knows the color of my underwear! Good thing I was cautious and didn’t keep a diary or anything. If she found out I transmigrated, wouldn’t I be directly burned at the stake as some kind of “Extradimensional Evil Spirit” or “Outer Demon”?’

“I don’t know if your psychological mentor mentioned it to you, but extraordinary individuals belonging to the ‘Deeper Consciousness’ pathway possess extremely strong mental influence abilities, making them very dangerous.”

“And their primary method of self-improvement is through the use of ‘Mirror Shards’ and ‘Forbidden Tomes’,” Adelle continued. “You can try to fully immerse your mental power into the Mirror Shard. Generally, the first time yields the greatest benefit.”

“You are a self-awakened extraordinary individual, and typically your abilities aren’t fully developed. This ‘Mirror Shard’ should allow you to complete some of the abilities expected of Sequence 9.”
Dounia blinked.
She had indeed not yet fully immersed her mental power into a Mirror Shard.
This was the difference between games and reality.
In games, you just click the left mouse button to use an item, materials automatically combine, and skills are learned instantly. In reality, the missing steps could be quite tedious.

“Alright, I’ll give it a try,” Dounia said, picking up the Mirror Shard from the table.

“If there’s any danger, I will immediately use ‘Mimicry Command Seal’ to share the mental impact for you. At that moment, you must immediately cut off your mental power,” Adelle instructed.

“Okay.”
Dounia gazed at the Mirror Shard resting in her palm; a deep, ethereal blue permeated the clear glass, like a microcosm of an endless ocean, or perhaps the star-studded firmament of a dark night.
She tightly closed her eyes, and her mental power surged forth from the depths of her soul like a mysterious tide.
Under Dounia’s strenuous control, her faint and scattered mental power gradually converged, transforming into ethereal threads.
As her concentration deepened, those threads became increasingly distinct, dancing and stretching in the air. They gradually began to draw closer, intertwining and weaving together. They were no longer isolated threads, but seemed to merge into a single entity.
Thread by thread, they intertwined, transforming into a thick, strong bramble, its clearly textured surface filled with a sense of power.
Fine beads of sweat permeated Dounia’s forehead, her body trembled slightly as she pierced her mental power into this endless deep blue ocean.

Whoosh—!
She seemed to hear the long cry of a whale.
Dounia, clad in a nightgown, slowly opened her eyes within the clear liquid. She felt as though she was beneath the deep sea, yet she didn’t find it difficult to breathe or her eyes stinging.
This was simply because she was already a part of the Reflection World.
Dounia slowly swam upwards, only to find herself seemingly falling deeper into the abyss. The peculiar sensation of inverted weightlessness not only didn’t affect her, but instead allowed her fingertips to touch a ‘sea surface’ as smooth as a mirror, which was the gateway to that deep blue, almost black, starry sky.

Creak, creak—
A giant black spider crawled above the ‘sea surface,’ its countless compound eyes, like shattered mirrors, chilling to the bone. It crawled slowly, then suddenly stopped, fixating its gaze on Dounia. Immediately after, it tilted its head back and let out a deafening roar.
A premonition of danger instantly surged from the depths of Dounia’s heart. Dounia frantically swam to the side.

Crunch—
Sharp limbs, like keen blades, swiftly pierced through the spot where Dounia had just been. A glint of unrestrained fury flickered in its dense, shattered-mirror compound eyes.
Snap, snap, holes were pierced one after another. Dounia darted back and forth like a nimble fish, dodging attacks with extraordinary agility, yet still narrowly suffered a scratch on her shoulder.
Grey blood flowed from the wound on her shoulder, and she slightly widened her eyes.
This loss was not only sanity, but also a small amount of memories about Adelle!
A clear premonition told her there was still hope before her memories completely sank into the deep sea below. But if she continued to be injured like this, or hit in vital spots, she would gradually lose a large amount of memories, until her entire self became a helpless, wailing infant!

“Adelle!” Dounia, floating in the water, called out loudly.
In the real world, Adelle gazed at Dounia, whose eyes were tightly closed, a golden Command Seal faintly visible on the back of her hand, ready to be activated.
She looked at Dounia.
But Dounia could not respond.