When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 691

Chapter 691: Chapter 80: Just Tell Me If It Preserves Freshness or Not Chapter 691: Chapter 80: Just Tell Me If It Preserves Freshness or Not For a moment, Cardinal Matilda fell silent.

A ripple of silence echoed among the four people staring at the corpse.

If this house had just been built and nobody had lived here before...

How did this corpse get here?

Aiwass instinctively looked back at Sherlock.

—Is this perhaps your area of expertise?

Although Sherlock was not in child form at the moment...

...

from another perspective, didn’t the detective always encounter major cases right after reverting back from being a child?

Sherlock glanced at Aiwass somewhat inexplicably, then very consciously walked over and squatted down to examine the corpse.

But as soon as he squatted, he frowned deeply.

Because the corpse was too clean, devoid of any clues.

It was a female elf who appeared to be in her twenties or thirties, with chestnut-brown short curly hair.

She was still wearing the red robe that only a bishop could wear.

—This was an elf bishop.

Only after being exposed did her abdomen slowly soak through.

Blood seeped out from inside, but it only slightly saturated a palm-sized area of the garment before it stopped spreading.

Her expression was also very calm, with no signs of struggle.

Her skin still retained elasticity, was pale but not ghastly, and her body temperature was only cool, not ice-cold.

It was as if she had died just when the cabinet was opened.

According to the “preservation ability” that Cardinal Matilda just introduced, it was only possible to determine that her death occurred within a month.

“...There’s no way to ascertain the time of death.”

Sherlock shook his head and tried to gather other information, “The wound is in the abdomen...

May I examine it?”

As he spoke, he politely looked back at Cardinal Matilda who maintained her silence.

After all, he was no longer a child.

And though the dead body was right before him, this place was not Avalon; as a consultant for the Supervisory Bureau, he did not have the authority to touch the body at will in the Holy Nation.

Cardinal Matilda sighed, “Go ahead and examine, Detective Hermes.”

Upon hearing this, Sherlock lifted the corpse’s clothing to inspect the wound.

And from Cardinal Matilda’s expression and demeanor, Aiwass realized that she seemed to recognize this person.

As Sherlock examined the body, he approached the Cardinal Archbishop and asked, “Who is she?”

“Her name is Mercedes, you certainly don’t know her.”

Cardinal Matilda sighed, “But Grey knows her.”@@@@

“...The Holy Maiden?”

Aiwass was taken aback for a moment, then understood, “Is she a friend of Pure White?”

—If he didn’t have “Long Dates”, then the person accompanying him now and introducing these facilities would likely be the Grey Saintess.

Then she would have witnessed this body falling out from here...

and it might even have landed directly in her arms.

“She was a mutual friend of Grey and Yanis.

They grew up together,”

Cardinal Matilda shook her head slowly and spoke, “The relationship might not have been as close as between the two of them.

But she’s now the only friend left by Grey’s side...”

...Is this a provocation?

Does someone hold a grudge against Grey?

Aiwass had such a thought flash through his mind.

—No, that’s not right.

It was like a puzzle-solving game; theoretically, the password for the safe was in another puzzle.

But the number was fixed, and Aiwass had directly checked the solution and entered it.

Yet not all legacies of Transcendent power were crafted into professions by the two Pillar Gods.

Those that required a blend of multiple Paths, even special bloodline inheritance or the need for passing down certain skills, essentially were not recorded as professions.

For instance, the Son of the Moon, werewolves, Demons transformed from Demon incarnations, as well as some unique legacies mastered by Elves...

or “Shepherds”.

The biggest difference between professionals and heirs lies in the direction of resonance with the Path.

The souls of professionals are influenced by their professions, becoming purified by the Path...

Take Bishop Mathers, for example, who had been stuck at level 39 for a long time.

He once said...

that he had been reluctant to complete the advancement ceremony and step into the Fifth Power Level, fearing that he would be tainted by the power of the Path at that level, altering his personality and consciousness.

The bodily transformations brought about by a profession can make its holder’s state much more stable and prevent them from losing control or their power.

But heirs must rely on their own resonance with the Path to reach the corresponding Energy Level.

If they lose resonance with the Path, their abilities might even regress—this is more akin to an original state.

Just like muscles turn to fat if not exercised for a long time, skills are forgotten if not studied regularly.

Without the “anchor” of a profession, if one completely loses their true heart—even if just for an instant—they will immediately lose their extraordinary abilities.

However, for Elves who are generally more emotionally stable compared to other species, they essentially do not lose their powers for these reasons.

Elves believe that the “profession system” was predominantly created for the Short-Lived Species whose emotions are more unstable—a power that the Short-Lived Species would attempt to master.

Given the elves’ lengthy lifespans, they have ample time to sculpt themselves to a form more suited to accepting the corresponding legacy.

Many Elves, even those not yet a thousand years old and born after the creation of the profession system, still become heirs.

This is mainly due to the influence of their elders and society.

“In my view, one of the reasons Yanis left the Holy Nation is because of Bettina Dia’s Amberfication,” Cardinal Matilda slowly said.

“Bettina Dia is an heir.

She was originally Yanis’s mentor.

“Sometimes Grey tells me, she thinks one of the reasons Yanis never returns could also be this.

In our Holy Nation, heirs generally hold somewhat higher status...

after all, anyone can change their profession, but heirs need to be guided one-on-one.

Having a legacy means having a mentor, parents; a reliable, credible, traceable social relationship.

“Therefore, our Elven concept of legacy is very important, sometimes the mentor who passes on the mantle is even more important than one’s parents.

“During the adolescent period when one’s worldview is just beginning to take shape, in order to receive the legacy, one must spend a much longer time with the mentor than with parents, often more than tenfold.

Some mentors, to prevent parents from negatively influencing the child and thus deviating from the requirements of the legacy, might not even let the children go home.

“In that sense, Yanis is like an orphan.

After Bettina Dia’s Amberfication, although Yanis could have chosen another mentor to continue her learning, she instead chose to flee from the Holy Nation and become a professional...”

Cardinal Matilda looked troubled, “I think, at least at that time...

she must have felt inferior.

They might have fought, or not.

But after that, Grey’s conversations grew scarcer, and she stopped making new friends.

“Bishop Mercedes was Grey’s only friend.

She accepted the same legacy as Grey, but because she was more vivacious and much less compatible with the identity of The Holy Maiden, you could call her a ‘failed Holy Maiden’.

While Grey reached the Fifth Power Level of dual Paths, Mercedes could only touch upon the Third Energy Level.

“Her journey had come to an end, but she was unwilling to convert to a professional.

Maybe because of pride, or maybe just to keep the lonely Grey company.

Thus, she perpetually hung around the twenty-first level, continuing her practice as The Holy Maiden...

I always felt that this was also good.

At least little Grey could have some company, someone to chat with.

“...Fortunately, the one who came here with you was not Grey.”