"Interesting trick?"
Klein asked curiously.
Old Neil chuckled and said,
"I'll go and inspect the weapons, materials, and document storage. You use the two cups on the table to make two cups of coffee. Put something bad in one of them. What exactly it is, you can decide on your own, use your imagination. The only requirement is that you shouldn't waste too much coffee powder. That's the coffee I ground myself using the coffee beans from the plateau's特产!"
"OK." Klein, although not fully understanding what Old Neil wanted to do, still happily agreed.
Watching him take out the copper key and open the iron door of the weapons storage, hearing the long footsteps echoing inside, he slowly arranged the cups, confirmed that there was hot water in the pot.
Removing the lid of the silver tin can, Klein used the shiny little spoon to sprinkle a spoonful of richly scented coffee powder into each of the two cups separately, then poured hot water, and stirred skillfully.
—As a time traveler from an era with abundant resources, he wasn't unfamiliar with coffee, but only knew it in the form of instant coffee.
After all this, Klein thought for a moment, sat down, lifted his right leg, and used his fingers to pinch some dirt from the sole of his boots and put it into the left cup.
Then, he carefully did another stirring, until the two cups of coffee had almost no difference in appearance and aroma.
After a few minutes, Old Neil swung his key chain and walked out of the weapons storage, slamming the iron door shut with a clang.
"It's done." His dim red eyes turned and looked at Klein across the table.
"Done." Klein nodded in reply.
Old Neil smiled and began to untie the silver chain around his wrist, sitting down.
His expression quickly became calm. His left hand held the chain out, letting it hang straight to the coffee cup on his right, the pure white crystal was just a little bit away from getting stained by the liquid.
In a relaxing tranquility, the white crystal inexplicably began to move slightly, doing a small counterclockwise rotation with the silver chain.
"This cup has the bad things added." Old Neil said in an affirmative tone.
Before Klein could confirm, he folded up the silver chain, picked up the other cup of coffee, and took a sip:
"Do you like bitter coffee? I'm used to one spoon of sugar and one spoon of milk."
Klein didn't reply, but asked with great interest:
"Your divination result is very accurate. Is it based on that pure white crystal? It's the white crystal, right?"
"This is the pendulum method in divination, also known as the spirit pendulum method. It relies on the connection between the spirit body of the crystal and the spirit world, the stars, and the use of some natural materials and spiritual communication, such as crystals, gemstones, and special metals, to predict the good or bad of things... Let's go back to those two cups of coffee. Counterclockwise rotation means bad, clockwise means good, no movement means neither good nor bad. You can also write the event on a piece of paper, pay attention, it's an event, not a problem." Old Neil put down the coffee cup in his hand, explaining in detail.
Klein seemed to be thinking:
"Is it not to use interrogative sentences?"
"Yes, don't use 'Whoever is willing to be my fiancée?', use 'Whoever is willing to be my fiancée?', write it on the paper, lay it flat on the table, then hold the chain with your non-dominant hand, pay attention, it's your non-dominant hand. At this time, straighten your arm and adjust the length of the chain so that the crystal is just above the paper, almost touching the event we wrote, then close your eyes and silently repeat that sentence seven times in your mind. After finishing, open your eyes, see if the spirit pendulum is moving, if not, close your eyes again and repeat the previous process until there is a movement."
Klein nodded slightly:
"Counterclockwise 'No', clockwise 'Yes'?"
"Or it can be interpreted as not smooth and smooth." Old Neil corrected, teaching Klein the other uses and details of the spirit pendulum divination. Klein repeated it several times and realized that this was a very practical divination technique. For example, when in an unfamiliar environment, one could use it to quickly determine if the food was poisonous without needing to acquire additional skills such as "Field Biology".
Of course, this form of divination was too simple and the answers obtained were only two or three, making it impossible to conduct in-depth exploration and interpretation. For instance, although some things were harmful to themselves, after certain processing, they could become very beneficial. For example, some ingredients, although they did cause harm to the body, were not severe. In a situation where one was almost starving, eating a little of them actually wasn't too bad. None of this could be judged using the pendulum method.
"I need to save up money as soon as possible to buy crystals or pure silver to make a pendulum..." Klein sighed.
Old Neil looked at him in surprise:
"You can apply directly. This belongs to the extraordinary ones. Especially for us, this type of auxiliary extraordinary person's standard equipment, there is still a yellow crystal and a pure silver pendulum in the weapon storage."
"But I'm not yet a formal member of the team..." Klein's heart skipped a beat and he was a little hesitant.
Old Neil smiled lightly:
"For extraordinary people, whether they are formal members or not, since there is no salary increase, then some kind of convenience must be provided in other aspects."
"Using 'benefits' might be more appropriate. I'll apply to the captain right away!" Klein clenched his fist in his mind and made a decision.
Without trying, how could one know if the captain would agree?
"OK." Old Neil smiled and said, "Let's start the formal 'Mysticism Course'. One of its basics is called 'Symbols'. Do you know what a symbol is?"
Klein recalled the scattered words he had heard before and what he had seen and heard in the astral plane and above the gray fog, and deliberated before saying:
"Whether in the astral plane, the illusory starry sky, or those unknown domains, they are outside our sensory world. The information obtained by our ears, noses, and eyes cannot accurately describe them. What we get are intangible intuitive inspirations and experiences, which manifest as abstract symbols and images representing different things and meanings. These symbols respectively represent different things and meanings."
"Very accurate. You are indeed a 'Diviner'." Old Neil nodded solemnly and said, "Only by mastering the ability to interpret symbols can one truly enter the door of mysticism. Well, the patterns on the Tarot cards, each element on the pattern, is a symbol, an artificially defined symbol, to help us understand and interpret the original 'inspiration'."
He took out a piece of paper and picked up the nearby pen, drawing a short arc.
Immediately after, he added several vertical lines under the arc and looked up at Klein, saying:
"Do you know what this symbol represents?"
Klein looked and looked again, and after a while, hesitantly said:
"Eyelashes?" "..." Old Neil let out a breath and said, "This is the symbol of the Harvest Constellation, this is the Thundering Constellation, and this is the White Frost Constellation..."
He casually drew several more symbolic signs.
Klein, while memorizing, couldn't help but speak:
"These constellation names are truly, truly very simple and plain, yes, plain!"
So rustic and so primitive...
Old Neil smiled and said:
"Back then, Emperor Rosel also thought so. He had always intended to change the constellation names to something like Virgo, Cancer, Scorpio, but unfortunately, he still couldn't resist the power of tradition. At least the ancient names of these constellations and the dates they represent can guide farming and harvest."
"I have to say, Emperor Rosel was a person with ideas." Klein didn't know how to tease.
Well, Emperor Rosel must have been a decent person in life...
Old Neil couldn't understand Klein's humor and continued to explain various basic symbolic signs, such as those of various constellations, such as the Sun, Red Moon, Brown Star, Red Star and Blue Star.
While talking about these, he also interspersed teaching the drawing method and precautions of the divination astrological chart, the making and materials of the crystal ball, and the selection of incantations. Klein felt as if he was overwhelmed by the information.
If it weren't for him noticing that the "Divinationist" potion had slightly improved his memory, he would have stopped Old Neil long ago, to facilitate his own digestion of the knowledge gained.
"Today's 'Mysticism Course' is over. Think about it yourself, if you have any questions, you can come to me." Old Neil took out a golden pocket watch, snapped it open and glanced at it, "Don't forget to read the historical materials I prepared for you. Honestly speaking, seeing them makes me feel afraid."
"Okay." Klein took the draft with the symbols written by Old Neil, quickly reviewed the mysterious knowledge he had learned today to avoid obvious forgetting.
Old Neil took another sip of the freshly brewed coffee and said:
"Only relying on memory won't do. One must use it frequently so that the knowledge can become your instinct. Also, meditation must be done every day. Only by practicing more and using it more can you truly master the power of the potion and uncover its hidden mysteries, eliminating the negative effects."
When he mentioned this, Klein remembered the performance and the divination club, tentatively saying:
"My potion's ability is related to divination. It's not enough to practice alone. You must come into contact with a large number of people, give them divinations, and then you can quickly master it. I plan to use the extra money to join the 'Divination Club', the one on Holles Street in the North District, to become a true 'Divinationist'."
This matter will definitely not go unnoticed by the night watchmen, so it's better to lay the groundwork in advance.
"Your idea is similar to Daley's. She has always said she wants to be a true 'Medium'. Old Neil shook his head and smiled, "But why wait until you have extra money? You can write an application to Dunne to approve the expenses!"
"Organizations like the 'Divination Club' may have members who have joined cults or evil organizations. As a civilian staff member of the night watchman team, a standard exceptionalist, joining them for monitoring is necessary for work requirements. We usually conduct regular inspections of these places, but due to insufficient manpower, it's difficult to follow up for a long time. Now it's up to you to handle it."
And this kind of operation? Looking at Old Neil's serious expression, Klein was simply stunned.
This is openly finding reasons to reimburse expenses for personal matters!
I have absolutely no idea about such things...
I'm just a keyboard powerhouse...
"You want to use your own money to do this?" Old Neil saw this and added with a smile.
Klein immediately shook his head and replied firmly:
"I'll report to the captain right away!"
Old Neil nodded in satisfaction and looked at the cup of coffee that hadn't been spilled yet, containing bad things, and said:
"What did you put in it?"
Klein gave a sheepish smile:
"Well, it's just a little bit of mud from the sole of the boots. Its color is similar to your coffee powder, quite similar."
Old Neil was stunned for a moment, then suddenly pressed his hand against his mouth and shouted in a low voice:
"Take it out and throw it away right now!"