Chapter 252: Riggel Jemma's true form is a pair of glasses; he's just a glasses frame.
The power core of the ancient Ys Kingdom was controlled by the Six Priestess families who served the Twin Goddesses.
Priestess of Heart — Fact.
Priestess of Strength — Topaz.
Priestess of Wisdom — Jemma.
Priestess of Earth — Haddar.
Priestess of Light — Dabby.
Priestess of Time — Mesa.
The Six Priestess families each controlled different attribute 'Books of Ys', derived from the Black Pearl, and practiced the magic within them. The power of the Books of Ys could be inherited through bloodlines.
Among them, the family heirloom of the Fact family, the Priestess of Heart, was an item called the 'Eye of Fact', which manifested as a floating magical orb hovering around the caster, movable at will.
The Eye of Fact could multiply the number of the caster's magic missiles, and advanced practitioners could even use it for multi-casting. The more Eyes of Fact controlled, the higher the required magical talent and total mana.
To explain it in more gaming terms, the Eye of Fact is a dedicated wingman or floating cannon for mages. With it, the caster's combat style could transform into that of a Thunder Fighter or 1943.
And this item was one of Cheng Tian's core objectives for coming to the Ys Origin dungeon.
He wanted to use the Eye of Fact to strengthen his Crystal Demon Eye!
Limited by genetic inheritance, the Eye of Fact could only be used by descendants of the Fact family. However, the Crystal Demon Eye floating on Cheng Tian's shoulder was clearly mistaken for the Eye of Fact by the blue-haired, fresh-faced mage named Riggel Jemma, who was also from one of the Six Priestess families.
Even with obvious differences in appearance, this type of spherical magical artifact that could float by one's side was essentially a symbol of the Fact family within the Ys Kingdom.
Of course, the core members of the Fact family were only a few, but this did not mean that the Fact family had no collateral branches. In fact, to become the power core of the ancient Ys Kingdom, a single-line inheritance over nine generations was simply unfeasible. All Six Priestess families would inevitably have a considerable number of collateral bloodline families; it's just that the game's worldview didn't expand in that direction.
The threatening words that were almost out of Cheng Tian's mouth were immediately swallowed back down.
"Uh, ahem, that's right. I am a member of the Fact family, just an ordinary collateral branch that accidentally awakened a bloodline divine artifact... Judging by your magical fluctuations, you must be a member of the Jemma family, right?"
Cheng Tian's eyes, hidden behind his mask, darted around, and he immediately started acting along with the fresh-faced mage's words!
He even casually lifted his mask, revealing a harmless human face.
As long as Cheng Tian didn't smile, he was actually quite human-like.
With the dual authentication of his human face and the pseudo-Eye of Fact, coupled with Cheng Tian's quick revelation of her family name as a thought-guide, the naive fresh-faced mage subconsciously relaxed, even lowering her raised staff.
Incidentally, Cheng Tian's magical attribute remained pure because the demonic factors injected into him upon joining the Dark Clan were directly overwritten by the Ghost Warrior template. Judging enemy and ally factions solely by evil aura wouldn't work with Cheng Tian.
"Yes, I am Riggel Jemma."
The mage, whose image was now completely associated with the fresh-faced mage in Cheng Mouren's mind, replied.
"I am Aoko, as for my family name..."
While Cheng Tian was still thinking about how to fabricate a surname, the fresh-faced mage immediately showed an understanding expression and stopped pressing the issue.
All Six Priestess families had collateral branches, but among them, the Fact family, known for its many talented individuals, was the most unique.
Other families' collateral branches were normal offshoots, maintaining some contact with each other. Only the Fact family mostly presented itself as having gone their separate ways, with the separated collateral branches looking more like products of internal competition failure and expulsion.
And such a collateral branch actually succeeded in awakening the ability to control a bloodline divine artifact. If this were during peacetime, it would definitely cause quite a stir.
Considering that the current Goddess search team also included an heir of the Fact family, it was indeed not advisable to inquire further.
Thanks to the fresh-faced mage's self-conjecture, Cheng Tian successfully avoided having to invent a family name that would likely be exposed. As for Cheng Tian's mask and peculiar attire, the fresh-faced mage also attributed them to identity concealment.
Cheng Tian disguised himself as a Remnant Blade, someone left on the surface, constantly wandering and resisting monsters. The fresh-faced mage also revealed her identity as part of the Goddess search team.
Not just her, but many other members who had been scattered by the previous interference of the transfer magic were also gathering.
"Sorry, I ruined your hiding place."
Because of the mask, Cheng Tian was completely speaking nonsense with a straight face.
"It's fine, I've rested enough. I'll go out now and try to rendezvous with the others."
The fresh-faced mage said a little apologetically.
As a descendant of the Wisdom Priestess line among the Six Priestess families, her performance in the Black Tower was indeed a bit subpar.
However, when Cheng Tian stated that he would continue to explore the Black Tower and search for traces of the Goddess, the fresh-faced mage was greatly surprised.
"The Goddesses are here!? I had no idea..."
It turned out that although the fresh-faced mage was a member of the Goddess exploration team, he only knew that the two Goddesses had left without saying goodbye three days ago, bringing the Black Pearl with them and coming to the surface. He did not know that they had chosen to enter the tower.
"No! I must report this news to the High Priest!"
The fresh-faced mage, looking anxious, instinctively jogged a couple of steps but immediately stopped, turning around to pull an item from his satchel.
"Friend, do you need to strengthen your weapon? I happen to have a piece of Cleria Ore that can help you strengthen your equipment."
Although he was anxious, the fresh-faced mage still looked sincere.
As a line of the Six Priestesses who controlled the Book of Wisdom, the Jemma family was very skilled in using an ancestral magic called "Sensing." Its essence was to directly interfere with and change weapons and armor using Cleria Ore as a material. In short, it was a humanoid strengthening machine.
Since he learned the Goddess's whereabouts from Cheng Tian and also "knew" Cheng Tian's desire not to be exposed to the Fact heir, out of a sense of repayment, the fresh-faced mage decisively took out his treasured Cleria Ore.
Cleria Ore (0.5 kg): Special item, magic material, forging material. A mithril-like ore produced when silver veins are eroded by the Black Pearl's magic. It is the fundamental building block of all ancient Ys Kingdom technology and magic, possessing extremely high magical conductivity. When strengthening weapons, armor, or metal constructs, you can try adding Cleria Ore. The success rate of strengthening will be significantly increased; as the strengthening level increases, the success rate will gradually decrease, but it will retain at least a 10% strengthening success bonus. Cleria Ore will influence the strengthening tendency of the equipment to some extent. If you have forging or crafting skills, you can also try to forge your own equipment using Cleria Ore alone.
"How about this, give me the ore first. You should retain more mana to ensure your safe exit from the tower, and then help me strengthen my equipment when we meet again later."
The fresh-faced mage, who was already prepared to cast his ancestral magic, heard Cheng Tian's reply.
This big boy, who couldn't hide anything in his heart, already showed a touched expression on his face, not expecting the other party to be so considerate.
"Okay! You be careful too!"
The fresh-faced mage, who directly stuffed the ore into Cheng Tian's hand, hurried away, carrying his worries for the Goddess and his gratitude towards Cheng Tian.
Cheng Tian, who watched the fresh-faced mage's human sensory signal quickly move away, immediately called Bazett over, handed her the shimmering silver ore, and then said,
"See if this can be used as a material for making the Sword of Reverse Light."