Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1791 - 1790: The Earl and the Mushrooms

Although the Witch’s task list contains a myriad of oddities, it’s worth noting that even using Time and Fate’s powers to peep into the future, one cannot see all the events destined to occur at once. Hence, most task descriptions on the list are rather vague; to complete them, one must first decipher what the tasks actually entail.

Shard had already decided what he wanted to do while having breakfast at home this morning. Simple tasks should be left to the Witch’s followers, while the most challenging ones might require the Grand Witches to personally intervene.

Shard focused on a task dealing with unknown materials, a task referred to as "Calm Ascetic."

The task description is relatively simple: A Draleon noble attending a local conference had indulgently reveled in desires in his youth. But in middle age, he suffered consecutive losses of his wife, children, and most family members due to accidents. Thus, the middle-aged noble awakened to repentance and began imposing a lifestyle of simplicity and moderation, hoping to achieve dual peace of Spirit and Flesh throughout the remainder of his life, akin to the Ascetics of the Church.

Upon arriving in Green Lake City, this noble seemed to have come into contact with some psychedelic substance, gradually transforming his Life Form away from a fleshly creature. The task directed was to rescue the noble and recover those hallucinogenic items.

Shard had a premonition that he would certainly encounter an intriguing story this time.

The identity of the specific Draleon noble was not explicitly mentioned in the Witch’s information. However, since it specified "coming from Tobesk," Shard merely had to go to the City Hall to consult Miss Galina, who was preparing for the morning’s meeting, to learn that Earl Petrack was the one among the negotiation delegation interested in Ascetics.

He is indeed one of the representatives from the negotiation team and resides mostly in Tobesk. His Tobesk residence also lies in the city center, quite close to Saint Delan Square.

Although the Earl is a delegation member, he only tags along and doesn’t often attend meetings, thus he cannot be found at the Green Lake City Hall.

Shard was about to leave after obtaining the address; however, since Shard was already there, the Duchess naturally wanted him to stay and attend the meeting with her. Fortunately, with Tifa’s help, Shard managed to slip away.

Earl Petrack was part of the first wave of the delegation members. The Green Lake City Hall arranged proper accommodations for these noble guests from Tobesk. Yet the ascetically minded Earl disliked such wasteful luxuries, so although he couldn’t refuse the lodging arrangement, he moved to a hotel on his second day in Green Lake City.

As for his hotel stay, naturally, he chose the Green Lake Hotel, which is closest to the Green Lake City Hall, and provides affordable, well-serviced accommodations.

The room number the Earl rented was unknown even to Miss Galina in her haste, but fortunately, Shard could directly inquire with the female hotel owner, Ms. Helena Green.

"Oh, that gentleman. He lives on the third floor just like you, but your rooms are on opposite sides of the stairs, so you’ve probably never met him."

Ms. Helena Green said with a smile.

So Shard counted the room numbers and reached the door of Room 308, where he closed his eyes and confirmed the presence of a heartbeat inside before knocking.

Knock knock knock~

A moment later, the door opened a sliver, revealing half the face of a middle-aged man whose gaze was intensely powerful, tall, and appeared strong enough to punch a lion to death:

"Who are you?"

Shard introduced himself:

"I must admit, Earl, not only do you not know me, but I don’t know you either."

The door was quickly closing, but Shard had already wedged his foot in the doorway:

"Please hear me out, I have heard for a long time that Earl Petrack of Tobesk enjoys meditation, introspection, and asceticism, and is a generous man. I share the same interests and have been eager to visit you, to converse and learn. Might you have some time?"

Shard inquired, and the Earl inside asked with a glare:

"Do you take me for a fool? Do you think I’d believe such a reason?"

"Then if I say I’m here to play Roder cards with you, will you open the door?"

"Absolutely not; I don’t even enjoy card games. How did you come up with such an excuse?"

Shard chuckled a bit:

"Alright, no more joking. I genuinely want to discuss meditation and ascetic topics with you. I heard about you from Tobesk’s ’Umbilical Cord Club,’ and I am also a member there, see."

He said, showing an empty palm. As for the "Umbilical Cord Club," it’s a club for mysticism enthusiasts established in Tobesk City Area, under twenty-four-hour surveillance by the Church, with the front desk manager even being a Circle Sorcerer of the Church.

The Illusion Technique confused this ordinary man, and the Earl curiously looked at the medal in Shard’s hand and nodded:

"Someone from the club? Your bearing indeed resembles a young noble of Tobesk. However, I won’t trust you easily, first answer a basic club question for me—what is a characteristic of entering the Third Stage of meditation?"

In orthodox Circle Sorcerer meditation, there is no division into stages, so Shard didn’t know what these ordinary people’s theories were:

"I don’t know, never heard of it."

He decided to be honest, and since the Earl was living alone, at worst he’d just break in.

The Earl then nodded and finally unlocked the safety chain:

"That’s right. Meditation is only divided into shallow and deep, there’s no third stage."

The layout of the room was similar to the one Shard had rented. Although the Earl didn’t have a servant living with him, the interior was still very clean and tidy. He didn’t have much luggage, and there were hardly any personal items visible in the room.

After entering the room, Shard glanced around and easily spotted traces of the elements. It was a plate of dried, dehydrated, brightly colored mushrooms on the coffee table, so vibrant as if they were glowing. Even the gluttonous Mia probably wouldn’t eat them. Aside from the mushrooms, there were scissors, a quartz mortar for grinding, and a small hammer on the coffee table.

"No Whisper Element, it seems unrelated to Relics."

Seeing Shard looking at the mushrooms, the Earl took the initiative to introduce:

"Using drugs and plants can better achieve the effect of meditation, and might even stimulate the legendary ’pineal gland’, opening the originally closed ’clairvoyance.’

"Hmm... illegal drugs?"

Shard hesitantly asked, sitting down with the Earl. The Earl nonchalantly shook his head;

"I have friends at Riddlevitch Field. Let’s not talk about it anymore. Since you’re here, let me share my new findings with you. Do you see these mushrooms? I accidentally discovered this special species at Green Lake and found that drying and grinding them into powder for absorption can better help us enter a deep meditation state, thus seeing the reality of the world."

He spoke with great excitement, even gesturing, as if he had truly made a major discovery.

But Shard hesitated more:

"After consuming the mushrooms, you didn’t see a string of dancing little elves, did you?"

"Of course not. I saw pitch-black cracks opening in the air. Look there, there’s even a large enough gap for me to pass through, leading to a paradise of bliss!"

The Earl happily said, continuing to deal with the mushrooms:

"You may not believe it now, but I’ll demonstrate it to you."

Shard looked surprised at the wall the Earl had pointed to, but there was nothing there. If it weren’t for his certainty that the mushrooms were special materials, he might suspect the Earl had gone mad from consuming poisonous mushrooms.

The Earl quickly made mushroom powder from the dried Seven-Color Mushrooms, then split the powder into two small portions. One was for himself, the other for Shard:

"Try it with me, and you’ll know what deep meditation truly is."

He extended the invitation expectantly and mixed his powder with tobacco, then rolled it up with cigarette paper:

"It can also be consumed directly, but that takes effect too quickly and can lead to headaches, memory decline, and drowsiness upon waking. So rolling it into a cigarette is perfect. Come on, young man, you have the honor to be the first, the taste of deep meditation is really nice."

Of course, Shard couldn’t accept such a thing. Seeing his hesitant look, the Earl said again:

"Don’t worry. Although it looks like a banned substance, you saw it, right? It’s pure natural plants. Not just me, even the island natives or primitive tribes deep in the rainforest still maintain a tradition of picking and using mushrooms similar to this. Besides, our medical development originates from the exploration of plant diversity, otherwise how do you think plant anesthetics came about?"

"Are there really no side effects from this?"

Shard asked suspiciously, and Earl Petrack thought for a moment:

"As long as you keep your mind free of distractions, dismiss all desires, and don’t have random thoughts, it’s absolutely safe."

He said quite confidently:

"In the deep meditation state, many terrifying scenes and sounds will appear, and the world will look different to us. But as long as we maintain a firm belief and are not disturbed by external forces, we won’t be affected."

"This..."

Although Shard believed in his firm beliefs, he knew himself well enough to know he was definitely not the kind of person who was very clear and desireless.

"This is good stuff. Since you don’t believe it, I’ll go first myself. If you want to follow, you will find me. I’m coming to the paradise of bliss."

"Wait, wait!"

But before Shard could finish speaking, Earl Petrack put the handmade cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a match.

Shard was sitting right opposite the Earl, so if he wanted to stop him, he could reach out and do it. But Shard wanted to figure out what these mushrooms were all about, and he believed he could handle the situation if the Earl went berserk, so he watched the Earl puff out clouds of smoke and soon drooped his head as if he had fallen asleep.