Chapter 303: The Cultist’s Technique

Gawain made no unnecessary moves. He simply stood still, watching the woman called “Selina” walk off into the distance. After a few seconds, he withdrew his gaze and left the place as if nothing had happened.

That was Selina Gerfen—there was almost no doubt about it!

Though she wore a veil, Gawain Cecil had seen Selina Gerfen with a veil several times before in his memories. So from the moment he first saw “Selina” in the psychic network, he had a vague sense of familiarity. But since those were someone else’s memories, and the current “Selina” differed slightly—especially in voice—he hadn’t paid much attention to the feeling. It wasn’t until just now, the instant she turned and walked away, that a certain image in his mind overlapped perfectly with the woman before him, and he immediately made his judgment:

This was the dream church priestess from seven centuries ago—Selina Gerfen.

She was alive? Had she lived for seven hundred years? And now she was a high-ranking member of the Sleepless sect?

Gawain quietly walked back toward Crystal Plaza, his thoughts gradually settling.

Whether or not this was truly Selina Gerfen, his plan could not be derailed.

Seven centuries had passed, and everything had changed. The Dream God’s Church had become the fanatical, paranoid Sleepless cult. The once gentle and kind priestess had now become the leader of a heretical organization. Perhaps every sect’s fall had its own reasons, and maybe Selina Gerfen had her own agenda—but now was not the time to investigate such truths.

He could not reveal his identity, especially not in front of Selina.

Having made up his mind, Gawain stopped and disconnected from the psychic network, letting his mind drift into emptiness.

When he opened his eyes, Amber was indeed staring straight at him, her face barely half a meter away.

Gawain raised an eyebrow. “I’m telling you, aren’t you afraid that one day I’ll get startled by you and reflexively do a flying kick, slamming you into the wall?”

Amber was completely unfazed. “Yeah, right. You don’t even have your sword in hand when you try those kicks.”

“With your fighting skills barely better than a goose’s, I could smack you into the wall with an eggplant!” Gawain casually pushed the half-elf’s head aside and stood up, stretching. “I’ll run an errand—go get Jenny and Kamail… Actually, forget it, I’ll just go myself. The study doesn’t have everything I need.”

Amber immediately perked up and rubbed against him excitedly. “Hey, hey! Did you have some big revelation in your dream again? Or did you see a little girl?”

Gawain paused mid-step, expressionless, and glanced at Amber. “I did see a little girl—along with a pretty young woman.”

Amber froze for a moment, then jumped up. “I told you that biography of yours is nonfiction, but you wouldn’t admit it! And you even hit me on the head!”

At the Rune Research Institute, Jenny and Kamail were deep in discussion about complex interference issues in mid-level and higher magic arrays. They were surprised by Gawain’s visit—this was usually the time he handled official business or studied mechanical blueprints, and it was rare to see him here.

Plus, Amber wasn’t with him—the half-elf guard was almost always by Gawain’s side, rarely out of sight.

“She’s too noisy. I told her to find somewhere else to play so she wouldn’t cause trouble here,” Gawain explained, then went to the desk and pulled out a sheet of draft paper. Taking up a dip pen, he began sketching rapidly.

Jenny and Kamail leaned in curiously. They saw that Gawain wasn’t drawing a new mechanical design, but a rune array unlike any they’d seen before. It was clearly an unoptimized, traditional magic array, with intricate, repetitive rune patterns and numerous interwoven mana lines. What surprised Kamail most was that among the runes, he spotted single characters that didn’t belong to elemental script—they looked less like elemental runes and more like distorted sacred religious symbols…

“What is this?” Jenny asked, unfamiliar with the “divine rune symbols” used by clergy. She found the array strange and structurally illogical, as if it had been cobbled together. “Is this some kind of magic array you designed?”

Gawain looked up seriously at the two. “No, it’s not mine. It’s the Sleepless’ technology.”

Jenny gasped. “The Sleepless?!”

Kamail’s eyes lit up instantly. “You mean that cult you mentioned before, the one that fell from the Dream God’s Church?”

“Exactly. This is one of their brainwave amplification and transmission arrays. Originally, they also had a complementary technology called the ‘artificial neural cord’ that could connect human neurons to external devices, but I haven’t figured that part out yet. All I found was this array.”

Jenny looked stunned, her expression hard to fathom. “My lord… how did you get this?”

“I devoured the soul of a Sleepless,” Gawain said, delivering a rehearsed explanation. “I gained his memories, and I’ve been digesting them ever since. This rune array is the latest result of that research.”

Of course, that wasn’t the real answer. The truth was he had found these reliable materials in the mind of the old mage Daniel.

The Sleepless’ network relied on “dream divine arts.” Like any supernatural power, dream divine arts required talent; not everyone’s mana and spirit were strong enough to connect to the network unaided, like Gawain or the nightmare bishops. So they had auxiliary connection technology. From Daniel, Gawain obtained part of this auxiliary tech.

Neural links, artificial neural cords, brainwave amplification and transmission—these were the keys.

Daniel was a powerful high-level mage who theoretically didn’t need external aid. But there was a “compatibility” issue: the Sleepless’ dream magic, derived from dream divine arts, didn’t align with traditional magic systems. Human “magical talent” and “spiritual talent” were often unbalanced, especially for those deeply versed in traditional magic—their mental structures and brain functions were heavily influenced by magic. So when using “divine magic,” their efficiency dropped significantly. That’s why Daniel had to use auxiliary links to access the Sleepless’ network.

He had obtained this tech from the Sleepless, and now it was in Gawain’s hands.

“Cultist technology…” Jenny hesitated after learning the origin of the runes. “Are you planning to study their power?”

“Technology itself is neither good nor evil; it depends on who wields it,” Gawain said calmly. “Seven centuries ago, these powers saved countless souls from despair and inspired many warriors who had lost their will. It’s not the power that’s corrupted—only people can fall.”

Kamail strongly agreed. “I know what the Dream God’s Church used to be like. Long ago, they were the gentlest and most tolerant of all sects. Everyone has dreams—king or farmer, noble or slave—and dreams soothe all equally. That’s the meaning of dreams and the creed of all Dream God’s followers. They always saw protecting the peace of the human mind as their mission. If it weren’t for the facts before me, I’d never imagine such a group could fall and become the ‘Sleepless’…”

The ancient mage shook his head. “Even now, I find it hard to believe.”

Unlike others, Kamail had participated in the “Rebellion” project and knew the truth behind the fall of the Nature God. Gawain had hinted at the strange circumstances of other gods, so Kamail could guess some reasons for the dark sects’ corruption. All he could do was sigh.

Jenny was open-minded and accepted Gawain’s view. Seeing the runes, she no longer felt uneasy. “You want me to simplify and reconstruct these rune groups?”

“Simplification and reconstruction are the ultimate goals, but first we need to understand how it works—what each part of the runes does. Without that, reconstruction is impossible,” Gawain said. “You can get Pittman to help. The transformation from dream divine arts to dream magic is similar to how druidic divine arts become spells. Their rune patterns should share commonalities. And Kamail, you should be able to help too, right?”

“Of course. The ‘Rebellion’ project was about studying divine power. The ‘Inversion Array’ we use in the alchemy factory now was one of our achievements,” Kamail said confidently. “The divine runes are wrapped in all kinds of mystical explanations and confusing auras by the clergy, just to keep their gods exalted. But logically, divine runes aren’t much different from elemental runes.”

Gawain nodded with satisfaction. “Good. The key is to figure out how their ‘transmission’ technology actually works, and whether the ‘content’ of that transmission can be imported or exported through media other than neurons. If I’m right, this research could also advance your work on mana fields.”

The moment he said this, both Gawain and Jenny felt a sudden spark of insight—very bright.

Arcane sparks flickered around Kamail. “Exactly! That’s the direction… mana field propagation! You reminded me—they’re probably the same domain! And communication spells… all of these should be part of the same field!”

The ancient mage was thrilled—any researcher would be. The joy of an impending breakthrough was intoxicating.

He and Jenny had studied mana fields for a long time. The fluctuating interference curves and oscillating mana had haunted him day and night. Though Gawain had pointed him toward the concept of waves and fields, and new mathematical tools helped analyze the vast experimental data, one question remained:

Can mana “waves” be precisely controlled? Can they carry information? Can they be used for anything beyond energy transmission?

Communication spells had long been a “black box” technology. Was there a connection between them and mana fluctuations?

Kamail was familiar with communication spell arrays. Even without tools, he could draw one precisely. But a single array lacked contrast, and isolated evidence was hardest to analyze. Even he hadn’t yet simplified or reconstructed communication arrays—because he couldn’t understand what each rune part did, so he couldn’t segment or rebuild them. Without functional segmentation, simplifying the array with rune logic formulas would break it apart and make it unusable.

But now, he had a comparative sample.

The Sleepless’ thought transmission technology was essentially another form of communication spell.

Two different communication spell samples lay before them—this might be the key to unlocking the black box…

(End of chapter)