Chapter 402: Chapter 402

In the myths Jenkins knew from Earth, the chief Norse god, Odin, had drunk from the Spring of Wisdom. Then, to prepare for Ragnarök, he hung himself upside down from a great tree for nine days and nine nights, and in doing so, came to understand the origin of magic: the runes.

If that story had taken place in this world, it would have clearly been a standard Enchanter ritual.

He swallowed hard. "But I have no way to hang myself upside down."

He cradled the book in his right hand, his left unconsciously drifting to his waist. There, next to his belt, was a hemp rope: B-10-04-1212, the Hunter's Trap Rope.

A corner of his mouth twitched, and he took a couple of steps in place. In the darkness, only the silver light circled around him. The thought returned: "But I don't have a Spring of Wisdom..."

This thought was almost laughable, since only a few days ago Jenkins had been worried about his own vial of spring water expiring.

It seemed like a coincidence, but fate was far too fond of playing cruel tricks. He had acquired these items so naturally, through a series of unrelated events, only for them to now be linked in such an unexpected way.

"Wait," he muttered, "I remember that before Odin hung himself, he also sacrificed one of his eyes..."

The thought solidified his conviction. Jenkins now truly believed that fate was pointing him toward Odin's hanging ritual. After all, the metal block sealing the demonic eye of the suicider was right in his pocket.

Hathaway had once told him that drinking water from the Spring of Wisdom made it easier to grasp new abilities. And the baptism ritual planned here, beneath this very tree, was itself an adaptation of a long-lost ancient rite. Read complete versıon only at novelꞁire.net

This gave him more than enough reason to believe the lost ceremony was a ritual for learning an ability. And that ability was Undying Man.

The sun had completely disappeared. A deep silence fell over the darkening forest. Jenkins stood at the edge of the pool, the two silver orbs circling around him.

"Should I go see what's happening outside first, or should I try the ritual?"

He muttered to himself. In response, Chocolate gave a soft meow, then leaped from Jenkins's shoulder. The cat deftly scrambled up the giant tree and settled on a high branch, looking down at him.

Its amber eyes seemed to glow in the encroaching darkness. As Jenkins gazed into them, he felt for the first time that the cat he'd raised truly possessed a wealth of emotion.

Since Chocolate seemed unwilling to leave, Jenkins couldn't bring himself to abandon his companion and depart alone.

He stripped off his overcoat and thick outer layers, leaving them in a pile by the pool. Clad only in a white shirt, he took a running start and clumsily wrapped his arms around the massive trunk—a good ten times his own girth. He scaled the tree, then untied the hemp rope from his waist and secured it firmly to a thick branch.

Just to be safe, he gave the rope a sharp tug, ensuring it would hold his weight.

The end of the rope hung directly over the pool. He jumped down from the tree, rummaged through the pockets of his discarded clothes, and threw every valuable material he had into the water.

Finally, he knelt on the grass and cupped the iron block engraved with the true name in both hands. Flames erupted from his palms, the red light weaving through the silver glow in the darkness. Sensing a power from the same source, the god's true name ceased its resistance, revealing the eye encased within.

It rolled over in his palm, just as it had before, until its pupil, brimming with a malevolent light, was staring directly at him.

The eye, too, was tossed into the pool.

Perhaps because it had been saturated with so many spiritual materials and artifacts, the pool's surface began to emit a white, fluorescent glow in the darkness. Specks of light drifted up from the depths, floated on the water, and then vanished into the air.

He pulled out the test tube containing the water from the Spring of Wisdom, uncorked it, tilted his head back, and downed it in a few gulps.

This time, there was no special sensation, just a chilling cold in his stomach that was now spreading to the rest of his body.

"Fate must have been guiding me to this," he thought. "Otherwise, I've just suffered a tremendous loss..."

Mulling this over, he removed his shoes and stepped off the bank into the water.

The white fluorescent light swirled around him of its own accord, and an icy coldness surged into his body from all sides.

Suppressing the urge to summon fire for warmth, he waded to the center of the pool. It wasn't particularly deep; even in the middle, the water only came up to his chest.

He had no idea what a proper baptism ritual entailed, but the instant the top of his head brushed against the dangling rope, his body was flung into the air, tumbling of its own accord.

The rope swiftly and neatly wrapped around Jenkins's right leg, then automatically hoisted him into the air until he was suspended a few feet above the water.

"This feels a bit silly."

The thought had barely crossed his mind when gravity sent the blood rushing to his head, his face quickly turning crimson.

No strange phenomena occurred. Nothing happened at all, except for the two silver orbs of light that continued to circle his body.

Chocolate lay on the branch directly above Jenkins, its head tilted down as it watched the hanging figure below.

It opened its little mouth, revealing the pink inside as it yawned. Then, it placed its front paws together and waited silently.

Jenkins's situation, however, was growing dire. He only now recalled that a human bound by B-10-04-1212 could never escape on their own. As time ticked by, his breathing grew ragged, and a heavy fog began to cloud his mind.