Chapter 247: I Can Get Stronger Just by xx?

When they brought Weiss into this temple, neither Leon nor Rena had ever told her about the existence of that secret chamber.

On one hand, back then they had still held a slight degree of caution and reservation toward Weiss, who had only just arrived. On the other hand, they had, after all, experienced some rather private things inside that secret chamber.

And now, Weiss had actually discovered traces of that secret chamber's existence through her own research into this temple.

“You two really did know about it.” Weiss immediately noticed something from their subtle reactions.

Since Leon was the Dungeon Lord and could control the dungeon's magical power to create monsters, then logically, he should be able to sense the flow of magical power within the dungeon. If there was magical power distributed throughout that secret chamber, Leon should have known about it.

Leon and Rena exchanged glances, then both sighed helplessly in the end, after which Leon asked Weiss: “How much have you figured out?”

“From the runes engraved here, I inferred that this temple should have a ritual chamber, but I couldn't find it directly. And from what I've observed, this temple is missing either a statue or mural dedicated to Moylai, so I thought there should at least be a secret chamber containing a statue or mural.” Weiss said.

Leon thought for a moment, then answered: “There really is a secret chamber here dedicated to Moylai. What do you want to do now that you know?”

“I want to study it. I've never had the opportunity to research a temple like this before.” Weiss replied as though it were only natural, “Can you help me open that secret chamber so I can take a look?”

“If, if you want to study it, I think it might not be very appropriate……” Rena tactfully tried to dissuade her.

“Weiss, since you've studied the faith of Moylai, have you ever heard of the ancient Ireland Earth Mother Goddess Church's ritual ceremony praising the propagation of life?” Leon tried to indirectly hint at the issue to Weiss.

“A propagation ritual ceremony?” Weiss blinked and thought for a while. Only after quite some time did realization finally dawn on her, after which her expression became just as awkward as theirs, “In other words, that room was used for……”

The Earth Mother Goddess Church's propagation ritual was quite famous. As a scholar who had studied knowledge related to witches, there was naturally no way she would not understand.

“……” Leon and Rena both nodded wordlessly.

Looking at their reactions, Weiss suddenly understood a little more: “You two couldn't possibly——”

Leon coughed dryly, while Rena blushed and looked away.

Weiss blinked. She had long since known about the relationship between the two of them, so this time she did not suffer too great a blow. Amid the awkwardness, she realized that she seemed able to directly learn about what was inside the secret chamber from the two of them.

Weiss hesitated for a long time, but in the end still made up her mind and tentatively asked: “Then……can you tell me what happened at the time?”

“You still want to keep asking?” Rena's eyes widened. She had thought that after asking this much, Weiss would back off like last time and stop touching on the subject.

“This is all for research. If possible, I hope you two can put aside your embarrassment a little and tell me the details. After all……regarding Moylai's power, regarding dungeons, regarding this temple, we need to understand them more deeply.” Weiss kept a stiff expression, doing her best not to let it appear unnatural.

Given her personality, if it was for research, even if she encountered this kind of sensitive topic, she would normally continue asking without changing her expression.

Everything had its priorities. Just like how a doctor examining an illness would inevitably touch upon a patient's privacy, one could not abandon treatment merely because of a little embarrassment.

It was only that once this kind of sensitive topic involved Leon, Weiss found it very difficult to remain completely unmoved.

Actually, Weiss herself also felt somewhat awkward asking about this matter. Not only awkward, there was also an inexplicable tightness in her heart, but she realized that she had to find a way to overcome it and could not keep avoiding it whenever it came up.

And aside from the awkwardness, it was impossible to say that she was not curious at all.

Leon looked at Rena, and Rena looked back at him. In the end, she still nodded, merely signaling with her eyes for him to be the one to explain.

She truly could not bring herself to say it herself.

“All right. After we discovered this secret chamber back then, we went inside to investigate. After entering, the secret chamber closed on its own and trapped us inside. Then I guessed that it might have something to do with this kind of ritual, so we……you know.

Then the secret chamber opened, and after that, our Blessings suddenly broke through to Tier Two, and each of us displayed demonkin transformation……” Leon roughly explained what had happened.

“Wait a moment!” Weiss listened seriously up to this point and could not help interrupting, “You broke through to Tier Two at that time?”

“That's right. I told you before that we killed Charon Esso in the dungeon beneath Hamelin Town, and that was when I accidentally obtained my Blessing. I think it was probably back then that our unintentional sacrifice unlocked the upper limit for Tier Two.” Leon said.

“I know that. But the dungeon beneath Hamelin Town has already been sealed, so it couldn't have helped you break through. Then when did you first come into contact with this dungeon? And when did you perform that ritual?” Weiss asked in confusion.

“We took over this dungeon about a year ago. Only a few days after clearing the dungeon, we opened the secret chamber while exploring this temple.” Leon said.

“Only a few days!?” Weiss's eyes widened.

The reason she had been able to raise her witch's Blessing to Tier Two was through the resources poured into her by the Rose School, Lamia's guidance, and the heretical items confiscated by the Church. In fact, without sacrificing Blessed of the Four Gods, witches could also break through to Tier Two by using certain precious magical potions combined with long-term absorption of magical power from a dungeon, but the cost would be relatively high.

But no matter what, this process would always require a certain amount of time. Going from Tier One to Tier Two could take anywhere from two to five years depending on the individual and external conditions, during which one would need prolonged exposure to an active dungeon in order to absorb Moylai's power.

Only a few days was far too exaggerated.

“So that's why I guessed that perhaps this ritual shortened the entire process. I actually asked you about this before, but you told me you didn't know much about this ritual, so I didn't bring it up again.” Leon reminded Weiss.

“Ah……” Weiss finally remembered.

When she had explained to Leon that advancing a Blessing required a long time, Leon had indeed abruptly asked her about the Earth Mother Goddess's propagation ritual. At the time, she had failed to understand why Leon was asking, and because she herself felt embarrassed discussing the topic with Leon, she had avoided it.

Now she understood. So back then, Leon had already suspected that this ritual had accelerated the advancement process for both him and Rena.

Thinking of this, Weiss furrowed her brow slightly: “But Leon, as far as I know, this ritual actually……doesn't help with advancing a Blessing.”

“What!?” Leon and Rena exclaimed in unison, both wearing expressions of astonishment.

They had advanced immediately after their first “dual cultivation”. How could the two things possibly be unrelated?

“Lamia once mentioned it to me by accident, and I've also seen partial records in the materials. In ancient Ireland, such ritual ceremonies did indeed exist, but that was an extremely long time ago. According to the records currently preserved in Moyland, it was merely a primitive fertility-worship custom and fundamentally had no effect on Blessings.

Leaving Moyland aside, this kind of ritual had actually already ceased to exist in Ireland three hundred years ago. The main reason it has continued to be remembered in the Empire is probably because of the Church's vigorous propaganda.” Weiss explained.

In order to attack heretical faiths, the Church had taken the fertility-worship customs of ancient Ireland's Earth Mother Goddess Church and criticized them, linking witches with sexual immorality. Because this kind of propaganda was attention-grabbing, it spread widely and could be considered fairly successful as a method of slander.

“It really doesn't have any effect? But this temple specifically preserved such a ritual chamber. Once it closes, it can only be opened after the ritual is completed.” Leon argued.

“According to my preliminary estimate, this temple is at least five hundred years old. It wouldn't be strange for it to retain some areas designed according to the customs of that era. Of course, we also can't rule out the possibility that it was preserved because it suited the interests of the temple's former owner.”

Weiss analyzed, “If that kind of ritual really worked, then in Moyland, where Moylai is specifically worshiped today, it should have undergone further development instead of being abolished. And if such a connection existed, then monsters inside dungeons should logically absorb more magical power as their mating frequency increased and thereby grow faster. Have you observed any similar phenomenon while raising monsters?”

Hearing this, Rena immediately shook her head. Having raised monsters for a long time, she was quite clear on this point.

“But we really did obtain Tier Two Blessings only after the ritual. There's no way the two things are unrelated.” Leon was utterly confused after hearing Weiss's answer.

“Perhaps it wasn't because of the ritual itself, but because of some other factor involved in the ritual.” Weiss thought for a moment and stared at Leon as she spoke.

Leon frowned slightly, then quickly understood the meaning behind the way Weiss was looking at him and pointed at himself: “You mean……me?”

“Leon, the fact that you possess Moylai's Blessing despite being a man is already unbelievable enough, not to mention that you simultaneously possess other Blessings without paying any price. When it comes to Moylai's Blessing, you're special, so I think this possibility is very high!” Weiss analyzed with a completely serious expression.