Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 241

Chapter 241: Knowledge
Following Emma, Hans was walking down a long flight of stairs.

Every step was covered in a little dust, but when Hans and Emma stepped on them, the dust moved aside, revealing a snow-white material… it almost seemed to be quartz.

‘How did they even build this here without attracting the attention of everyone in the black market?

Maybe they built it before the black market even existed’

Almost forty steps later, they arrived in an underground room.

The light coming from above was already too far to illuminate their way, but thanks to the shape of the earth’s mana around him, Hans could tell the shape of the rooms.

Apart from the stairs behind him, the only other place that wasn’t filled with earth mana was in front of him.

‘A room… high ceiling, about four meters, twenty-five meters wide, and about eighteen, maybe a little more, meters in length.’

Hans thought as soon as he set foot on the last step.

Emma raised her right arm and reached out for something on the wall on their left.

After a bit of searching, she finally found her objective, and a ‘click’ sound resounded throughout the previously silent place.

Hans covered his eyes, knowing what was about to happen.

A ceiling LED illuminated the whole white room, creating a blinding effect like that of a flashbang for the two who had just gotten used to the darkness.

After a few seconds, both of them rested their arms, uncovering their eyes and trying to open them a few times.

When they had gotten used to it and the light wasn’t a problem anymore, Hans could finally recognize what was standing in front of him…

In the middle of the room was something in between a table and an altar, it was made out of the same white material that enveloped the whole room, and standing in the middle of it was a capsule that contained a strange-looking… bone.

‘That’s a… bone I think’

Hans commented inwardly.

Then, on both sides of the ‘altar’ or table, were positioned two seats, opposite to each other.

They were both made out of metal and a white cushion on the backrest and on top of the seat.

There were no armrests, and due to the round ‘table’ in front of them measuring only about a meter and a half in diameter, it was possible for two people to touch hands if they sat on both sides.

Then, behind the ‘table, on the wall, was hung something that looked like a giant thermometer, an old-styled one.

A blue fluid inside of it reached the very top of the measuring line, standing right beside the writing:

100%

Other than that… the room was empty.

In his head, Hans questioned the use of the mechanism in front of them, but without saying anything, he followed Emma’s example and sat down opposite her.

It was then that she began speaking:

“Please, insert your hand in the capsule and touch the bone”

Before doing anything, Hans analyzed it and was shocked to see the results.

It was the bone of a mythical beast, more precisely, it was part of the skull of a griffin.

It was embued with the power of a god, apparently, the griffin had played the role of a high-ranking believer or an apostle, resulting in an accumulation of holy power in its bones.

Just part of its skull was an epic (mid) ranked item, Hans couldn’t begin to fathom the strength of such a beast.

All around the bone was a blue fluid, it was denser than water, but It still didn’t look as sticky as honey or slime.

Hans analyzed even that fluid…

It was the water of a sacred lake, which people had used for centuries in order to pray for the blessings of an unknown goddess.

Even the water was an epic (low) ranked item.

Emma opened the capsule from above, and inserted her hand inside it, touching the bone.

Hans did the same, and by doing so, he noticed a tube underneath the capsule that passed under the portal and curved in the direction of the ‘thermometer’ with the percentages beside it.

“What I am about to say may seem absurd, but I swear I am not going to say a single lie.”

Hans analyzed her with his {mystic insight}.

He didn’t let a window tell him, but instead saw it for himself… Emma was telling the truth.

“You know Hans, there are things which shouldn’t be told, they contain knowledge that does not belong to this world, and therefore, the world loathes whoever speaks about it.

Usually, this knowledge comes from…”

Hans finished the phrase:

“… the gods”

He said.

Emma’s eyes widened in surprise.

“You… know about the gods? How? Did someone… break the pact?”

Hans heard that world and couldn’t contain his curiosity.

“The pact?!”

He asked.

Emma thought about it for a second and after having considered it, she decided to tell Hans.

“Fine, I will tell you, it won’t even require much clearance…

There are countless gods, but none of them have ever set their sights on Earth… that is because there’s a pact between them, I don’t know what’s in that pact, nor do I know when it was agreed upon, the only thing I know, is that until humans leave earth, no gods can call their bids on us, and no gods can come in contact with humans.”

“What?!”

As those words came out of her mouth, the blue fluid on the wall seemed to have shrunk, and the substance didn’t reach the 100% mark anymore but was instead standing between the 98 and 99 percent marks.

‘I see… so that’s why even after witnessing the powers of an apostle first-hand, I couldn’t find anyone on earth with similar powers, it’s because no one’s allowed to connect with any ‘god’ as long as they stay on this planet.

Emma has already told me she doesn’t know anything else, but this is really strange… what could possibly be the reason for gods to agree on something like that?’

Hans was curious about that, but since there wasn’t any way for him to obtain more info, he decided to ask about something else.

“I noticed that fluid retracted as soon as you talked… what is this whole mechanism? What purpose does it serve?”

“This is correlated with what I told you earlier. Since some knowledge shouldn’t be spread, the world punishes whoever does it, even if it is a god…

‘Mhh… sounds about right, that’s in line with what I know’

“… but there is a way to avoid this punishment, using an object known as a medium, that will take the punishment for you.

In this case, the medium is the water, so every time we talk about something we shouldn’t talk about, part of this water gets destroyed, obviously, I think you’ve already realized this isn’t your normal tap water.”

“Of course, what I’m more curious about is why we would need this huge bone”

Hans answered and then immediately asked another question, obliging Emma to reply again and again.

“It’s to fool the world”

She said confidently.

Hans watched her as if she was weird before asking:

“What was that?”

“It’s the truth, even with a medium, humans can’t divulge forbidden knowledge, that’s why we use this bone, which was part of the body of a god’s devotee, and use the holy power inside it to make it seem like an exchange between the followers of a god.

The world has no eyes, but it feels everything, don’t take your hands off this piece of bone or you’ll probably bleed to death as soon as I tell you something that you’re not supposed to hear.”

“Alright”

It was all clear now… the purpose of the machine.

And that meant they still had 98 percent of the conversation to go…

“Last time you came running to me you were blabbering something, you talked about my class being a legendary one, and about me being in a coma… I couldn’t follow you, could you please explain what was going on?”

“I may not have enough clearance to tell you this”

She said as she glanced at the blue fluid on the wall.

“… but I can at least tell you something…

I… have seen the future, one of my skills allows me to do it”

The young man closed his eyes as he heard that information:

‘Mh… she’s probably talking about the ‘unknown’ skill’

She observed Hans’s calm reaction and then said:

“You don’t seem surprised”

“I am not, you managed to build this association when you were what? Like eleven, I did expect something similar, but still… it’s pretty crazy hearing it from you directly.”

“I guess so”

The two of them remained silent, both thinking deeply about what they had discussed.

In the meantime, inside the thermometer beside them, the blue fluid had diminished greatly, it now reached the little line that read: 85%.