Bai Shi had no intention of taking a stroll through the Haligtree right now.
His purpose this time was solely to activate a Site of Grace.
Once the Grace was active, he could leave via fast travel. There was no need to linger.
Because the Consecrated Snowfield was simply too cold.
He currently had no cold-weather gear, nor any items to deal with it.
While the cold wouldn't kill him, it was still uncomfortable.
Bai Shi decided that the next time he came to the Consecrated Snowfield, he would absolutely max out his cold resistance.
In any case, now that he had activated the Site of Grace, he could decide to return whenever he pleased.
Bai Shi gazed at the distant Haligtree, his arms crossed over his chest, silently summarizing the gains from this trip.
No matter how you looked at it, coming to the Consecrated Snowfield through the waygate this time was a massive win.In this real version of the Lands Between, the Mountaintops and the Haligtree certainly wouldn't be accessible only through Leyndell, the Royal Capital, as in the game.
There had to be other ways to reach these two places.
If one truly had to pass through the capital, on a larger scale, the Haligtree's army would never have been able to march to Caelid unimpeded.
On a smaller scale, how could Finlay have possibly carried Malenia back to the Haligtree through the capital?
And the reality was just as he suspected—he had now found one of the shortcuts.
If he wanted to come here by other means, he would need to complete a large number of prerequisites.
For example, conquering Leyndell to gain access to the Grand Lift of Rold.
Then he would have to go to the Village of the Albinaurics to get one half of the secret medallion, and then to Castle Sol on the Mountaintops to get the other half.
These tasks would consume an immense amount of time and could even be considered extremely difficult to complete.
Even taking other small paths up would inevitably cost a great deal of time.
Bai Shi was quite satisfied with how things had turned out.
This had saved him a considerable amount of time.
He could move forward to find Ordina, Liturgical Town, and enter the Haligtree.
Or he could backtrack to the waygate and go straight to the Mohgwyn Dynasty.
And no one could have guessed that Bai Shi would be able to reach the Consecrated Snowfield.
If Bai Shi were to launch a surprise attack on these two locations, they would be completely unprepared.
Of course, all this was predicated on him finding the locations of these places first.
Bai Shi hadn't found a map this time, so he couldn't head straight for them.
That was the only small regret.
After one last look at the distant Haligtree, Bai Shi entered the space of the Site of Grace.
Under the Grace's warm radiance, the previous cold and fatigue were instantly washed away.
The chill on his armor was not dispelled along with them, but that wasn't a problem.
Melina appeared by his side, touching the still-cold armor on Bai Shi's body.
"It's really cold outside."
"Next time we come, we'll have to bring equipment that can resist the cold."
Bai Shi nodded.
"Yes, I'll have Boc prepare some after we return to Stormveil."
"Perfect timing. I need to give him the Golden Tailoring Tools I got from the Church of Vows."
"With better tools, Boc's skills will surely reach a new level."
Bai Shi looked at Melina and blinked.
"Want to come a little closer for a bit?"
A blush immediately crept onto Melina's face again.
When she was a spirit and Bai Shi couldn't see her, she had dared to be a little bolder.
"No, your body is too cold."
After making up a random excuse, Melina promptly vanished.
Bai Shi was a little baffled.
Was the armor on his body really that cold?
Or could it be that she was being shy again?
But they had just embraced for so long on the way here. Did she still need to be shy now?
Bai Shi sat at the Site of Grace for a while longer before teleporting to the one at the Four Belfries.
—
When he emerged from the Site of Grace, the brightness, unobscured by wind and snow, took Bai Shi a moment to adjust to.
The blizzard in the Consecrated Snowfield was so heavy that only a sliver of light could barely penetrate it.
Bai Shi scanned his surroundings and quickly found Slude.
Slude was now leaning against the topmost belfry, sitting and waiting for him.
Bai Shi took a moment to feel the temperature of Liurnia.
He had previously thought Liurnia was a bit cool, but now it felt like the most pleasant temperature imaginable.
Letting Slude leave first had indeed been the right call.
Otherwise, in that thin dancing dress of hers, she would have been frozen quite badly.
Seeing Bai Shi appear, Slude stood up, walked over, and silently followed behind him.
Bai Shi walked to the edge of the summit where the Four Belfries stood, using the high ground to observe the situation in the distance.
He decided to first check the distribution of the Cuckoos during the day and plan a route back to Stormveil Castle.
The Cuckoo encampment he had visited earlier was quite large, likely their main base or something similar.
Looking further in the direction of Stormveil Castle, he could see numerous Cuckoo encampments distributed along the shores of Liurnia, as well as several large-scale settlements.
Suddenly, Bai Shi noticed a structure that immediately captured his attention.
At the very edge of his sight, a magic tower stood alone on the shore.
Recalling for a moment, he believed this tower was the Converted Tower.
It was a magic tower whose inhabitants had abandoned the pursuit of sorcery, turning instead to faith in the Golden Order and worship of a statue of Marika.
Bai Shi remembered that the puzzle for this Converted Tower could be skipped entirely.
The normal way to solve it required a gesture, he thought it was called "Erudition."
Though he remembered the name, he wasn't exactly sure how to perform the gesture.
In any case, in most of his playthroughs, he had just jumped onto it from the side.
Bai Shi thought for a moment and decided to head in that direction to pilfer the contents of the magic tower.
Besides a Memory Stone, the tower had to have sorceries, right?
Since they converted to faith in the Golden Order, it had to have incantations too, right?
Bai Shi just wanted to help the items in the tower shine brightly once more.
—
Leaving the Four Belfries, the two of them set off straight for the Converted Tower.
As usual, Bai Shi cast Unseen Form on himself and Slude, then proceeded to weave through the paths between the Cuckoo settlements.
The settlements were not close to each other, with several kilometers between them, so there was no need to worry about being discovered.
As he passed one of the settlements, Bai Shi noticed an evergaol on the ground.
Many Cuckoo soldiers were standing guard around it.
It was probably the evergaol of that Carian Troll Knight.
If he rescued him, he could have him go to Ranni's Caria Manor to help out. A Carian Troll Knight was a very formidable fighter.
Not only were they physically powerful, but they could also use sorcery.
Aside from being too conspicuous when moving, they had no other weaknesses.
Bai Shi wasn't in a hurry to go in and free him right now.
If he rescued him now, Bai Shi would have to take him along.
Otherwise, trapped deep in Cuckoo territory, he would just be captured again.
So it was better to come back and release him later.
Bai Shi committed the evergaol's location to memory and then continued on towards the Converted Tower.
Gradually, the two left the Cuckoos' sphere of influence, and there were no more Cuckoos active near the magic tower.
Inside the Converted Tower, the Cuckoos had left traces of their activity, having turned over everything they could. The place was a complete mess.
However, the Cuckoos hadn't found a way up, and the seal on the Converted Tower was still intact.
Bai Shi stood before the statue of Marika, trying to recall how the Erudition gesture was done.
Bai Shi first held his hands out flat, then angled his forearms up to form a sort of triangular shape, and looked up at the Marika statue.
But nothing happened.
Bai Shi tried again, but still nothing.
A soft laugh echoed from the side.
It obviously wasn't Slude, who was waiting outside the Converted Tower, so it could only be Melina.
Bai Shi supported his chin with his right hand and began to think.
It seemed that opening the tower's seal required more than just a gesture; it probably needed to be paired with some sort of magical energy manipulation.
After all, since it was related to sorcery, simply striking a pose likely wouldn't be enough for it to be recognized.
Whatever, Bai Shi could just jump through the window.
Bai Shi left the ground floor of the Converted Tower.
He went outside, scanned the area, and set his sights on the half-circle of ruined walls next to the tower.
There was a considerable distance between the Converted Tower's walls and the tower itself. An ordinary person, even if they climbed the wall, would not be able to jump across.
But a distance like this was a piece of cake for Torrent.
So Bai Shi mounted Torrent and used a double jump to land on the narrow wall.
On top of this wall, Bai Shi found a spot directly opposite the second floor of the Converted Tower and had Torrent leap towards it.
At the entrance of the Converted Tower, Slude witnessed the entire process of Bai Shi and Torrent breaking into the tower.
She couldn't help but inwardly comment on Bai Shi's current actions.
He was clearly a king, yet he would resort to such methods to break into a magic tower...
Perhaps when she first met him, thinking he was a tomb raider wasn't a mistake after all.
Was this some kind of special hobby?
Bai Shi didn't know Slude's inner thoughts, otherwise, he would have smilingly told her that the Tarnished have an attraction to light, and that looting was a time-honored tradition.
Bai Shi and Torrent entered the Converted Tower. Inside, various manuscripts and books were scattered on the floor, having fallen into disarray over the long years without their master's care.
Bai Shi dismounted Torrent and picked up a few manuscripts from the floor to examine.
Although the content was somewhat weathered and blurry, he could vaguely make out from the emblems that it was a research manuscript on Golden Order incantations, containing the tower master's insights.
This one was severely weathered and seemed to have little value left.
The others scattered on the floor were likely just as basic, which was why they hadn't been properly preserved. Bai Shi didn't hold out much hope for these.
However, further up at the top of the tower, there should be plenty of truly valuable items.
Following the spiral staircase on the outside of the Converted Tower, Bai Shi reached the small room at the top.
In the small room, various books were neatly arranged on shelves.
And the former master of this magic tower was currently slumped over the desk in this small room.
He wore a Lazuli Glintstone Crown, his head resting on the tabletop. His sorcerer's robes were so tattered they could no longer cover the dry bones beneath.
The Lazuli sorcerers regarded the stars and the moon as equals, and this tower master had gone even further, directly converting to faith in the Golden Order.
A delicate necklace lay on the desk.
Bai Shi walked over and picked up the necklace, but in doing so, he triggered a magical trap. A Comet shot down from the tower's ceiling.
Bai Shi reacted in time, side-jumping to dodge it. The Comet pierced straight through the floor and shot down below.
If he had been hit by the trap's Comet, even Bai Shi would have been injured. As expected of a master of a magic tower, the damage was certainly beyond what ordinary sorcerers could achieve.
After dodging the attack, Bai Shi held the necklace in his hand to observe it.
This was the in-game item that expanded memory slots—a Memory Stone.
The Memory Stone necklace had a pendant with a black, non-luminous gemstone embedded in it.
It was a secret treasure of sorcerers, said to originate from the black moon of the Eternal City.
Bai Shi compared it to the academy key he had obtained earlier and confirmed that the black gemstone on the key was also a part of the black moon.
Speaking of which, what effect would a Memory Stone have in this world?
In the game, for the sake of gameplay, the number of sorceries and incantations one could carry was limited, requiring enough memory slots to hold them.
But now there would be no such restriction; the only limits were whether one could learn and master them.
Bai Shi put the Memory Stone necklace around his neck and immediately felt his thoughts become clearer, and the flow of his magical energy become smoother.
He tested it slightly against the sky outside the tower. The casting speed of various sorceries had increased a bit, and their power seemed to have slightly improved as well.
The effect was even more noticeable when using Night sorceries.
It was probably like a two-point boost to Intelligence, increasing casting speed, with an additional bonus for Night sorceries.
The effect was quite good, no wonder sorcerers regarded it as a treasure.
However, it seemed this effect couldn't be stacked by wearing multiple Memory Stones.
But even if it didn't stack, it was still good, because this kind of accessory didn't take up a talisman pouch slot.
Perhaps in the future, he should collect more rings and necklaces with buffs and become a Lord of the Rings.
Tucking the Memory Stone necklace into the innermost layer of his armor, close to his skin, Bai Shi turned his attention to the nearby bookshelf.
He took out a few books to look through. Most were well-preserved, the content was intact, and the writing was clearly visible.
In addition to various sorcery books, there were also several Golden Order prayerbooks.
These Golden Order prayerbooks took up a considerable portion of the shelf space, and there was even one on the Golden Order's fundamental principle of causality.
But for a sorcerer capable of using Comet, the incantations here were a bit too low-level.
However, judging from the number of prayerbooks he had, this sorcerer's conviction to convert was quite strong.
Bai Shi wondered what had made him change the path he had explored for half his life.
Bai Shi looked at the sorcerer's withered right hand resting on the desk. On the back of the hand was a phantasmal Golden Order Seal.
The Dragon Communion Seal Bai Shi had been using was given to him by the spectral storm knight, so Bai Shi didn't know how to transfer a seal.
Maybe... he could chop off the hand, like transplanting a Command Seal?
Forget it, he'd better not mess around. The Dragon Communion Seal was already sufficient.
Bai Shi collected all the books, confirmed there was nothing else worth taking, and then leaped down from the outer wall of the Converted Tower.