Mystic Overlord: Reading Gives Strength
Chapter 28: Padding the Table Legs Isn’t Bad Either

Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Padding the Table Legs Isn’t Bad Either

"This..."

Honestly, Ronald had not expected such a turn of events.

He had even been ready, at the moment the opponent pounced, to roll away invincibly.

But the ’boy’ turned directly into ashes right before him...

This truly left him at a loss for words.

"Sigh—"

With a sigh, Ronald shook his head and began to examine the Divine Comedy in his hands properly.

The black cover and back were integrated seamlessly, holding yellowed pages bound together, and just holding it, one could feel the significant weight.

This was the weight of history!

Yet, having grasped such an important treasure, Ronald’s brows furrowed.

"Isn’t this wrong?"

"Isn’t it too light?"

As a modern adult who dabbled in cultural work, Ronald had certainly read world masterpieces like the Divine Comedy.

This epic poem, crafted over more than a decade, was astonishing in both structure and content.

"Hell," "Purgatory," and "Heaven," each section containing thirty-three songs.

Along with the epic’s prologue, that’s a total of one hundred songs, making up exactly 14,233 lines of neatly paired verse, with Dante using the word "stars" as a rhyme in each poem’s final line to echo one another.

The unique poetic structure and symmetric layout were also born from the numbers 3 and 10, which held mystical symbolic significance in medieval Europe.

That brought up the question.

The volume in Ronald’s hands weighed even less than a kilogram.

This was definitely not the weight a complete volume of the Divine Comedy should have!

He immediately opened the closed volume and quickly flipped through the original text.

In less than two breaths, the result was clear.

The Divine Comedy held by the Red Robe included only the prologue and the thirty-three songs of the Hell Chapter, with no trace of "Purgatory" or "Heaven."

"..."

"So, it’s just the Hell Chapter?"

Faced with this outcome, Ronald did not know what to say.

Given the twisting and bizarre experiences of tonight, and now only receiving the first part of the Divine Comedy, it was hard not to draw some conclusions.

However, the first issue to address was still Black Mountain soon becoming a "Magic Realm."

Concerning his own survival, he must continue to try to break the situation.

So, he would start with this newly acquired original text.

"Huff—"

After being silent for two seconds, Ronald stood in place and twisted his neck to clear his head a bit more.

Then, his fingers gently touched the opened page.

The next second—

In the dimly lit basement, a powerful voice swirled like a fierce wind engulfing every corner:

"As I walked the halfway of our human journey,

I found myself within a dark forest,

for the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah! How hard is it to describe this forest, so savage, rough, and sternly blocked!

How difficult to speak of that!

..."

The prologue of the Divine Comedy slowly sung from his mouth, Ronald was experiencing an unprecedented shock.

Along with the reading of the poem, an indescribable force was surging within him.

Not just in the basement.

This force gradually spread to the estate on the ground, the surrounding mountains, until covering the entire Black Mountain!

Boom—

In an instant, the entire Black Mountain transformed into a dome!

The black fog that continuously eroded the world and altered it was grasped by an invisible giant hand, immediately concentrating towards the center.

The center—

The villa where Ronald was located.

Then, in the basement, Ronald witnessed a scene that was impossible to put into words.

Apart from the ground where he stood, black fog seemed to infest endlessly from every wall around, which was then absorbed by the Divine Comedy - Hell Chapter in his hands.

Able to devour forests and kill all life, the black fog.

Able to obscure the sun and rewrite human common sense, the black fog.

Able to infect everything and drag the world into mutation, the black fog.

Now, like a newly hatched floating insect, it was effortlessly driven forth by the Magic Book in Ronald’s hands.

Previously forced to flee helplessly under the coercion of the black fog, Ronald was well aware of its terror.

Yet such a dreadful being was now powerlessly swept forth, even tearing apart the tentacles on the basement walls and ultimately turning into fragments collected by the original text.

No refusal allowed, so domineering!

Merely three seconds.

The terrifying power of the original text had cleansed the Black Mountain of several kilometers in size, leaving no trace of the black fog in the world!

Snap—

A soft sound.

The "Divine Comedy—Hell" automatically closed.

Now quietly lying in Ronald’s hands, it appeared as ordinary as an unremarkable diary devoid of any reaction.

Gulp—

Swallowing the saliva in his mouth, Ronald muttered in shock,

"Limbo..."

That was the ability the "Divine Comedy" had just activated.

Like the "Rain Mist Divine Hammer," as long as the content of the original text was recited under appropriate conditions, it would activate its own powerful strength.

And the "Divine Comedy—Hell" in Ronald’s hands possessed extremely complex powers.

First, it was the prelude written before the "Hell Chapter," which was responsible for activating the overall powers of the Magic Book.

And the first ability, once activated,

represented the initial entry into Hell, namely the first circle of the nine circles of Hell—Limbo.

Its power originated from the gap between the earthly realm and Hell, symbolizing the entrance to foreign territories.

From this, Limbo could effectively absorb all abnormal entities in the real world and then thoroughly process them.

This ability had almost no activation restrictions.

The only problem was that after absorbing the ’abnormal,’ there must be a buffering time. It could only reactivate after the original had completely processed the ’abnormal’ entities.

As the new master of the "Divine Comedy,"

Ronald could clearly feel that after completely processing the mutated Black Mountain, the ability of Limbo had entered a digestion period lasting four months.

Only when the mutation of Black Mountain was completely resolved could this ability be activated again.

Although it required a long time,

considering the terrifying degree of mutation of Black Mountain...

This was definitely a very powerful ability!

But what came next was a bit troublesome.

Unlike the "Rain Mist Divine Hammer" that could be activated directly.

Apart from Limbo, which was free of cost and symbolized the entry point to foreign territories,

to use other powers of the "Hell Chapter," it was necessary to absorb eight different concepts separately.

Lust, Taotie, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery.

Eight kinds of human behaviors or emotions, corresponding to the eight sins of Hell.

"..."

"This is practically useless..."

Unable to help himself, Ronald spoke in exasperation.

With the ability of Limbo cooling down and the other eight abilities unavailable,

it felt like this original text, now in his possession, had the ability to only prop up a table.

Fortunately, Ronald was not fixated on this object and immediately shook his head in relief:

"But it’s also good."

"At least the mutation of Black Mountain is resolved, and the risk to life is finally..."

Drip-drop—drip-drop—

Suddenly, a stuttering sound came from the stairs leading to the ground!

Pupils constricting,

Ronald instantly threw himself into a corner of the basement.

After the evil tentacles on the walls had dissipated, the dagger previously given by Nade lay there.

Though the dagger was now badly damaged, it was still more useful than his own mortal flesh.

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