The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 25: True Meditation

"Curly Baboon Research Society?" If it weren't for the fact that his sister wasn't in the best of moods, Lumian would have burst out laughing.

Even though he managed to hold back his laughter, he couldn't help but say, "For those who know, it's clear you're researching curly baboons, but for those who don't, it might seem like a group of curly baboons doing the research."

Of course, he was just joking, because the word "research" in the passive voice had a humorous twist.

Aurora rolled her eyes at him. "We often joke about that ourselves, saying it's a bunch of curly baboons being researched."

Seeing that his sister's mood had improved a bit, Lumian changed the subject and asked, "Are all the members of your research society Beyonders?"

"Not all of them," Aurora replied briefly. "But for some gatherings, ordinary people can't attend."

She didn't explain why they couldn't attend.

"Who's the president? How many vice presidents are there?" Lumian continued to ask.

"Are you conducting a household registration check?" Aurora replied, a bit annoyed.

"Huh?" Lumian was confused.

He could roughly guess that what his sister meant by "household registration book" was actually referring to the detailed information about the "Curly Baboon Research Society." In other words, she wasn't keen on him digging too deep into the details.

Aurora puffed out her cheeks and sighed before saying, "The president's code name is 'Gandalf,' and there are five vice presidents in total."

"Alright, I'm going to summon 'Hela's' messenger now."

Lumian nodded at first but then had a doubt. "Aurora, um, sis, didn't you say you only know 'Hela's' code name, but you don't know her actual name? How can you summon her messenger?"

He remembered that his sister had just mentioned that by changing the last part of the summoning incantation to "the messenger belonging solely to so-and-so," you could accurately target the specific entity. But now they didn't know who "so-and-so" was.

"Good observation," Aurora praised. "Being able to spot problems is an excellent learning trait. Let me explain: when you sign a contract with a spirit world entity, it doesn't matter what name you use. The contract will automatically extract a bit of true essence from you, creating a bond between both parties. But remember, from then on, you can only use the name you signed the contract with for summoning. Changing it to the real name won't work."

Lumian thought it over and said, "I understand. The key is the essence and the bond. The name used when signing the contract is just like an incantation for future summoning. It doesn't really matter what's written."

"Exactly," Aurora nodded slightly.

Lumian suddenly chuckled, "Is there a possibility—just hypothetically, of course—that you, sis, obtain the correct incantation, summon a messenger, and sign a contract under the name 'Aurora Lee.' Later, out of love for your brother—that's me—you teach me the incantation, and I successfully summon another messenger. But when it comes to signing the contract, I, for fun, also use the name 'Aurora Lee.'

"So, the question is, when you use the phrase 'the messenger belonging solely to Aurora Lee,' which one would show up?"

Aurora's face turned blue as she heard this. "I don't have a messenger, so how would I know!"

She exhaled to calm herself and then, deep in thought, began to analyze, "This would actually be a case of name overlap causing confusion in targeting. Unlike ordinary contracted creatures that can only be summoned by the contractor, messengers that can be summoned by others indeed have a higher chance of encountering this issue. However, since I don't have a messenger, I can't confirm if there's a special mechanism to avoid such errors. I can only try to analyze it with the knowledge I have: