Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 286 285 Job Ritual Magic Level Test
Rune, Tingen.

No. 32 Red Rose Street, Blackthorn Security Company.

The brass lamp on the oak desk reflected the slightly worn ink on the newspaper placed on the table.

Klein sat behind his oak desk, pen in hand. A small ink stain appeared next to the headline "Breaking News! Breaking News! The Final Outcome of the Clover Incident," and he seemed slightly lost in thought.

After performing a dream divination on Anna, it was interpreted that her fiancé might have died, but it seems that things haven't gotten to the worst yet.

Klein put down his pen, rubbed the newspaper in his hand slightly with his fingertips, pondered for a moment, and was about to get up when there was a knock on the office door.

“Please come in,” Klein said.

"Klein."

The person knocking on the door was Cohen, a slightly short Night Watch member with a slightly flushed face. "Miskatonic University is holding a special lecture at the University of Tingen. The captain asked me to tell you that we can find other teammates to switch shifts this afternoon."

Klein paused, then stood up. "Really?"

“Yes, that’s right, we can leave in a bit,” Cohen said. “I talked to Leonard, and Mr. Neil said he could cover your afternoon shift. Shall we leave now?”

"Hold on."

Under Cohen's watchful eye, Klein tidied up the office, removing some documents and the newspaper he had just been reading from his desk.

As a graduate of the University of Tingen with degrees in history and linguistics, Klein spent most of his time within the Tingen Market Nightwalkers translating ancient texts and compiling relevant historical materials.

As a support-position Sequence 9, during his time at Blackthorn Security, apart from the initial few times when he had to participate due to the "Antigonus Family Notes," he was generally not assigned any high-risk missions other than his daily shifts at the Charnis Gate.

After speaking with Old Neil, Klein and Cohenley, along with Pedigru, who happened to be going to work at the University of Tingen, boarded a carriage together.

The carriage slowly passed through the central square of Tingen. Cohen slightly lifted the curtain and could see people coming and going on the commercial street. At this moment, newsboys were hawking the extra edition of the Tingen Morning Post, a scene of prosperity.

Cohen sighed as he pulled the curtain over the room.
"This is the third time I've taken this test."

"Honestly, this is really difficult. Pedigris, how did you manage to pass the Level 2 exam on your first try?"

"Perhaps it's because I'm a wizard. This exam favors extraordinary individuals with high inspiration and strong spirituality. Generally speaking, such people are much better at applying and using ritual magic than those who are not good at similar situations, like hunters."

“But I’m not bad either. I feel like I’m almost done with the Midnight Poet’s potion…” Cohen muttered.

According to Klein's understanding, the professional ritual magic level test is divided into two parts.

One exam was a written test, which assessed the candidates' professional knowledge and skills. It included the comprehensive application of knowledge such as "Complete Works of Semiotics", "Outline of Ritual", "A Thousand Available Materials", "The Arrangement and Application of Honorific Names", etc. The exam paper was somewhat similar to the comprehensive humanities and science exam that Klein experienced in the college entrance examination before his time travel.

Ah, of course, cheating using divination methods like dream interpretation is not allowed. Examiners will keep a close eye on those who like to use unorthodox methods.

However, if they cheat flawlessly, that's another matter.

The second part tests practical application skills, which can also be described as an "interview." Candidates need to use their sequence abilities and combinations of various ritual magic to solve problems.

Based on the actual situation and taking into account the candidate's adaptability and application ability, an examiner will be specifically responsible for recording each candidate's situation and scoring them accordingly.

"The content of the first exam is always pretty much the same, but the content of the second exam is always a little different... For example, the content of my last second exam was a city full of zombies."

At this point, Cohen Lee shuddered, as if he had thought of something extremely terrifying, a scene that had left him with considerable psychological trauma.

"That city is called Raccoon City, by Goddess Above, it's full of mutated monsters that can't be killed..."

"The exam I took was about the Ishimura, which was supposedly based on a spaceship that traveled to another star system. Haha, I don't know if that's true or not..."

Pedigru recalled the content of his exam and then spoke to Klein.

"Well, the captain also has a Level 2 Ritual Master certificate. His exam was about a planet called LV426, where there's a monster that parasitizes human bodies, growing inside them until it matures and bursts out... In short, it's all very bizarre exam material..."

Klein opened his mouth.

Ah this...

Oh, this...

"And then there are those fragile human-skin balloons that burst at the slightest touch, mansions filled with paper figures, a dusty town called Silent Hill, strange videotapes, a child meowing like a cat, a fallen nun, a bloodstained, moving skeleton, a supersonic statue..."

"I feel that there is indeed an exam outline, but the outline contains a lot of content. Although there are some repetitions in each exam, the details are changed significantly each time. Sometimes, there are even cases where two or three questions that have appeared before are pieced together..."

Cohenley, with a bitter face, sighed:
"That's how I failed my exam the time before last... Klein, do you know the feeling of being chased and hacked down by a bunch of fleshy monsters, with balloons shaped like your own head floating above your head, ready to hang you?"

"Cohen, stop talking." Klein numbly wanted Cohen to shut up.

He suspected that this "predecessor" not only copied Resident Evil, but also copied everything from Silent Hill, The Nun, Junji Ito, Peanuts, Alien, and so on.

Transmigrator senior, if you can't plagiarize, then don't plagiarize! Even if you do plagiarize, don't plagiarize so comprehensively!
He could already picture that scene; he wanted to quit!
"However, even if it's the same type of test, the content and passing conditions for Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 ritual masters are different."

Pedigru added, “Cohenri, you and Klein are only low-sequence extraordinary beings, so you can only apply for the Level 3 Ritual Master exam... Let me take your last exam as an example. If it's just the Level 3 Ritual Master exam, then your ultimate goal is simply to escape that contaminated city.”

“Ah, indeed.” Cohen recalled, “My last test question was indeed about escaping Raccoon City.”

At this point, Cohen Lee almost wanted to hug his knees and cry: "But when I was about to run out, I ran into a huge group of zombies and was kicked out of the exam room."

Actually, the proper term for that thing should be zombie.

Klein's lips twitched, but he didn't make a sound.

"However, the Level 2 Ritual Master exam should focus on understanding the reasons for the city's pollution and purifying it to a certain extent to alleviate the pollution. The Level 1 Ritual Master exam will likely focus on completely resolving the city's abnormal situation and catching the culprit behind it."

After all, the application standards for a Level 1 Ritual Master are equivalent to those of a demigod from Sequence 1 to Sequence 3.

Pedigris said, "Ah, of course. If you apply for the Level 3 Ritual Master exam but complete the Level 2 Ritual Master content, then your final assessment will be more inclined to move up one level. Based on the written exam score and the assessment rules of the second exam, a comprehensive evaluation will be conducted to determine whether you can obtain the Level 2 Ritual Master certificate, rather than the Level 3 Ritual Master certificate."

"Is that so?" Cohen seemed to be hearing this for the first time and didn't know much about it. "Does that mean that as long as I meet the requirements for a Level 1 Ritual Master, I can also become a Level 1 Ritual Master?" Pedigris pondered for a moment and smiled. "Theoretically speaking, yes."

"But in those exams, the monsters that a Level 1 Ritual Master will face are most likely to be at the demigod level, or even at the Sequence 2 or Sequence 1 level. Cohen, are you sure you can handle them?"

Cohenley: ...

Okay, he overestimated himself.

Pedigru turned his gaze to Klein, somewhat puzzled. "Klein, why are you sweating so much?"

Klein smiled awkwardly but politely at Pedigru and Cohen, making up an excuse to brush it off.

We can't just say that he'd back down just from thinking about it, can we?

What on earth did you do, you time traveler?!
The carriage traveled towards the University of Tingen, and soon they arrived at the university.

The undergraduates at the University of Tingen are currently on summer vacation. Apart from a few grueling graduate students, there aren't many people on campus, making it quite spacious and suitable as a venue for lectures.

After Klein, Pedigru, and Cohen got off the carriage, they saw people gradually walking into the University of Tingen.

"Are those people from the Church of Storms?"

Cohen seemed to recognize some of them and looked at Pedigru with some surprise.

"Ah, that's true."

Pedigru followed Cohen's gaze and seemed somewhat surprised to see an acquaintance.

"Is there anything wrong with the Church of Storms coming here? Pedigris, Cohen, why are you all so surprised?"

Klein sensed something was amiss and became curious.

As an exam recognized by the Church of the Righteous God, it shouldn't be surprising that people from the Storm Church came, right?
"I wouldn't say I'm surprised," Cohen said somewhat hesitantly. "After all, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone from the Church of Storms come to take the exam."

"The people in their church are all too short-tempered and can't concentrate on studying. A few years ago, after no one scored above 60 on the written test for several consecutive years, they seemed to have completely given up."

Pedigris added: "In recent years, the number and proportion of ritualists in all the orthodox churches today, including the Church of the Eternal Sun, the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, the Church of the Earth Mother, and the Church of the God of War, which are not in Rune, have been slowly increasing."

But only the Church of Storms has been constantly rising and falling...

After finally passing the first exam, all the extraordinary individuals from the Storm Church who took the exam the following year were swept away, resulting in an almost unbelievable "0" pass rate for the church.

"They seem to have been protesting that Miskatonic's exam questions are too difficult and have too many questions, demanding that the percentage of marks for the second round of exams be increased and that the rule of 'failure in either round of exams results in elimination' be abolished."

Of course, the result is obvious.

The University of Michigan suggested, "Why don't you go back and do some practice questions?" and then sent them to the neighboring University of Hoy to "continue your studies," rejecting nonsensical requests and adhering to good exam rules.

Klein was speechless upon hearing this.

However, this result is quite in line with his stereotypes about the Church of Storms.

"And the members of the Morse Order."

The three of them walked into the University of Tingen. Whenever they saw someone familiar, Pedigru would give Klein and Cohen a little pointer.

"That one who looks very beautiful, with an unnatural kind of beauty, must be a witch, or a member of a witch cult..."

“The extraordinary beings of the Church of Mother Earth Goddess love to weave crowns from branches and flowers and wear them on their heads, making them easily recognizable…”

"That over there is..."

Seeing that Pedigris had fallen silent, Klein looked curiously in the direction Pedigris was looking.

There stood a person wearing a hood, whose face could not be seen.

Cohenley instinctively moved closer to Pedigru, showing strong hostility towards the hooded man.

“Stay away from him, Klein, Cohenley.”

Pedigris's voice turned cold. "The Aurora Society's envoy, isn't he afraid that after leaving Tingen City, we'll capture him and lock him up behind the Chanis Gate?"

The messenger of the Aurora Society?

Klein was startled, and quickly recalled the secret organizations he had previously learned about.

The Aurora Society worships an evil god called the "True Creator," believing that all things possess a spirit. They are skilled at praying to their Lord through bloody sacrifices and have launched numerous riots and attacks throughout the Kingdom of Rune. They are the number one evil god believer that the three major orthodox churches need to suppress.

Seemingly sensing the unfriendly gazes of the group, the hooded figure tilted his head slightly, revealing a delicate jawline.

He or she saw Pedigru, Cohenley, and Klein, and bowed slightly, as if to greet them.

Good afternoon, all three of you.

That was a man's voice.

"Mr. B, what brings you here?"

Pedigris had clearly learned who this Aurora Messenger was from the sound.

“Of course I’m here to take the exam.” The man whom Pedigris called Mr. B smiled slightly.

"After all, this is a divine message given to us by the Lord."

(End of this chapter)