LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

"Everyone has observed long enough. Regarding this university, what are your thoughts on my previous invitation?"

Before they could answer, Don continued: "However, before that, as your host, there is one more place I'd like to invite you all to visit."

As a Marionettist, wasn't a theater, in a certain sense, also his 'marionette'?

To rapidly digest the potion, having tools—human tools—was absolutely essential.

"Simultaneously acting as both a Marionettist and a Bizarro Sorcerer can also be achieved by leveraging the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw." Although, admittedly, he couldn't compare to Klein Moretti, the prospective Lord of the Mysteries, in terms of potion digestion, facing Sequence One Amon and the 'Old Grandpa' meant entering the demigod realm as soon as possible was safer.

By utilizing the Euclid Space, certain actions became much safer and more convenient.

The entire Miskatonic University was divided into three distinct layers.

The Surface Campus constituted the outermost layer. In Don's plan, he intended to anchor this Surface Campus within Tingen City, using Tingen as an incubator to foster a normal university, corresponding to knowledge from the science and technology side.

After all, this location was too remote. If the goal was to separately recruit ordinary people and Beyonders, a location this isolated, with inconvenient transportation and trade, would inevitably pose significant challenges.

The Inner Campus corresponded to Beyonders. This section would be concealed within the shadowed parts of Tingen. If possible, Don planned to cooperate on a limited basis with several of the orthodox deity churches in the future.

Naturally, these were all considerations for later.

All these plans required lengthy deliberation and refinement, both concerning Tingen and the other orthodox churches.

After all, the university's essence was a "Grade 0" Sealed Artifact. If he were part of an orthodox church, he certainly wouldn't allow such a dangerous object to take root in Tingen.

Unless this Sealed Artifact was within a controllable range, and its controller was either a high-ranking member of an orthodox church or held a significant degree of goodwill towards the orthodox churches.

The path he intended to follow was the old road of the Moses Ascetic Order, meaning the latter option.

The Moses Ascetic Order was originally established by several humans who had viewed the Blasphemy Slate. They worshipped the Hidden Sage, who was still a non-personified deity at the time.

Before the Hidden Sage came to life, the Moses Ascetic Order was a highly respected organization with good relations with the major churches.

The attitudes of the major orthodox churches towards the Moses Ascetic Order were quite favorable back then. The God of Steam and Machinery had particularly close ties with the Moses Ascetic Order... if not for the Hidden Sage's sudden activation...

After sending the utterly bewildered Abraham family members into the Crimson Campus, Don paused.

"System, what exactly was the situation with the Hidden Sage suddenly coming to life?"

Based on his memories from his previous life, the Hidden Sage's activation should have been inextricably linked to the activation of the Knowledge Moor

[Ah, I don't know,] the System responded, equally confused. [The Main System didn't tell me either.]

Since its birth, it had carried the main quest of 'Recover the Sequence One Beyonder characteristics and Uniqueness of the 'Hermit' and 'Paragon' pathways'. The Main System had never provided any assistance regarding this part of the content.

Currently, its greatest feat was digesting a Sequence 4: Alchemist potion.

Don's expression immediately turned strange. "You don't know?"

The System shook its head frantically; it genuinely seemed unaware of any further information about the Hidden Sage.

"Could it be another insurance policy acquired by the Knowledge Moor?"

Both the System and the Hidden Sage were related to the Knowledge Moor; there must be a very close connection between them.

The System wanted to recover the Hidden Sage, firstly because it was the Uniqueness of the Hermit pathway, and secondly, likely because its 'activation' involved the influence of the Land of Knowledge.

If the Knowledge Moor created the System, could it also have autonomously created the Hidden Sage?

If that were the case, logically, two entities shaped by the Knowledge Moor shouldn't exhibit such a strong adversarial relationship.

But the System came pre-equipped with a recovery mission... locking them in the same cage, using the whole world as a stage to vie for ultimate victory?   

The victor becomes the 'Hermit', while the loser becomes potion material, part of an advancement ritual... or something similar.

Don wasn't clear on the ritual for advancing to Hermit; it was content not mentioned in the book. Unless he went to view the Blasphemy Slate again, he could only hope for some significant opportunity to acquire knowledge of that level.

Should he try finding Adam after advancing to demigod and use the Euclid Space to observe the Blasphemy Slate?

Hmm, it was worth a try, to see what the Hermit pathway's advancement ritual actually entailed.

Thinking this, Don said 'kindly', "It's alright. Go play now. While you can, eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want."

System: [??]

After speaking, Don walked into a massive building where the smell of printer's ink was particularly strong. Students sat scattered throughout, the atmosphere thick with academic intensity.

As Don entered the library, the librarian stood and bowed to him. Don casually found an empty seat and sat down. A young student fetched several books from the shelves and placed them on the table before him.

"Should probably have a dog here too... Hmm, I'll look into it later, see where I can find a supernatural dog."

The passages allowing transit between the Surface and Inner Campuses, apart from the special route accessible only to the person in charge, currently numbered only three as set by Don.

First: The Miskatonic University Library.

It was said that besides housing many of the world's precious books, it also contained numerous grimoires of black magic.

Necronomicon, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, The Book of Eibon... each concealed terrifying contents capable of overturning common sense and zeroing out SAN values.

Second: The Miskatonic University Museum.

Legends spoke of treasures related to the Cthulhu Mythos hidden deep within the museum.

Gems from the sunken city of R'lyeh; artifacts related to Nyarlathotep unearthed from Egyptian archaeological digs; tissue samples from the Deep One mythos...

Third: One Don was still preparing.

The abandoned observatory deep within the Natural Sciences Academy, belonging to the Astronomy Department.

Thanks to two 'star-gazing' artifacts, Don decided the third method of accessing the Inner Campus from the Surface Campus would be established here.

For humanity, danger didn't only come from the evil gods lurking in the shadows; the entities from beyond the stars were the true culprits behind the coming Day of Destruction.

Only by passing certain trials could one enter the Inner Campus section from these three locations, transitioning from an ordinary person to a Beyonder.

As for the Crimson Campus...

"That is not a good place."

To be precise, he had absolutely no intention of opening that area to anyone.

Formed from the spiritual pollution collected by a Sequence 2: Miracle Invoker, intermingled with various monsters he had created, the Crimson Campus was arguably one of the most dangerous regions within the entire Sealed Artifact.

All methods of traversing the spirit world would fail there, for it was a place completely isolated from the spirit world.

There was only one way to enter: being exiled there by the person in charge, or by the Theater Core itself.

Those thrown inside could only wait to die within, unless they were powerful enough to shatter the Miracle Invoker's power or kill all the monsters within.

(End of Chapter)