Lord: Sequence Master

At the hotel entrance, Rosen was greeted by yet another private tutor early in the morning.

Upon learning that Rosen was only at Sequence 7, Viscount Ab quickly became much friendlier. After returning to the hotel, Rosen followed Viscount Ab into his Void Gallery.

This was Rosen's first experience entering someone else's Void Gallery. Unlike the labyrinthine designs he'd seen before, Viscount Ab's gallery was the simplest type—a nested gallery, where each new layer of the Void Gallery is added on the outside.

On the gallery walls, Rosen saw many spiritual paintings, each imbued with spatial attributes. The paintings depicted various alien life forms, and he followed Viscount Ab into one of a cave with a resting slime.

From the outside, the painting appeared to show only an empty cave with a sleeping slime. However, once inside, Rosen saw that deep within the cave was a hidden prison confining the slime.

In standard spatial paintings, the space inside reflects the outer appearance. But through techniques like hidden paintings, layered imagery, or sketching methods, parts of the true nature of the painting can be concealed. This imbues the painting with greater power, making it harder to detect its secrets.

Rosen already understood how to master sketching techniques, so he projected his Mind Canvas, manifesting a chair and easel. Setting up a human-skin canvas, he began sketching the imprisoned slime using a brush disguised as an ordinary extraordinary item.

Though he hadn't yet learned advanced sketching techniques, Rosen was already skilled in basic drawing.

Sketching techniques essentially elevate realism to the next level. The goal is to create artwork so detailed that it surpasses even high-definition photography, making it nearly impossible to distinguish the painting from reality. For artists who have mastered Self-Portraiture, reaching the first level of sketching techniques is relatively easy.

Rosen's hand moved so swiftly that it created afterimages. Under the influence of spiritual control, the brush's tip split into several parts, allowing him to paint intricate details simultaneously. This multitasking skill, which Rosen had honed over time, allowed him to work more efficiently and gradually learn to juggle even more complex tasks.

He completed the painting quickly, but Viscount Ab shook his head and tore it up. He then brought out prepared extraordinary materials and carefully instructed Rosen on how to mix his own paints.

True sketching techniques require not only perfect replication of appearance but also the subject's spiritual essence. All spiritual paintings carry an aura that gives life to the subjects, but that aura comes from the artist's own spirituality. The artist infuses their energy into the painting.

However, sketching techniques demand that the artist not only use their spirituality but also simulate the subject's spiritual essence. The subject, unless under the artist's control, will not willingly offer its own essence. Even if it did, it would be nearly impossible for the subject's spiritual energy to merge perfectly with the artist's without conflict.

This is where the artist's mastery of sketching techniques based on spiritual attachment comes into play. By using special paint mixtures and their own spiritual energy, the artist can simulate the subject's spiritual essence, perfectly capturing its aura.

At this point, the true potential of such spiritual paintings becomes apparent.

Rosen, having mastered the Mind Canvas, could easily sense the imprisoned slime's spiritual energy. With Viscount Ab's guidance, he successfully mixed the correct paints and, through the spiritual attachment technique, replicated the slime's spiritual essence in the painting.

This time, Viscount Ab nodded in satisfaction, surprised at how quickly Rosen had grasped the concept.

As Rosen examined his new spiritual painting, he immediately noticed a difference from his previous works. Through the painting, he could clearly feel the state of the real slime in the cell—whether it was content, angry, or hungry. It was as though he had a continuous, comprehensive monitoring system for the slime.

Sensing the extraordinary energy, Rosen realized he had successfully mastered Level One of Sketching Techniques.

Viscount Ab then accelerated the teaching process, introducing new models for Rosen to refine his skills. In just one month, Rosen advanced his sketching techniques to Level Three, thanks to his Mind Canvas, vast knowledge, and the Divine Authority of Culture. While Rosen didn't consider himself a genius, his learning ability now rivaled that of top human prodigies.

After Viscount Ab's departure, Rosen placed bounties for the capture of various extraordinary creatures. Once he acquired them, he immediately used sketching techniques to perfectly replicate their spiritual essence and seal them within spatial paintings.

In a few months, Rosen had advanced his sketching techniques to Level Four, marking his second Level Four skill after mastering Spatial Trap Crafting.

[Sketching Techniques, Level 4: With special paints, one can create spiritual paintings that perfectly replicate the subject's aura.]

Enhancement Feature: Picture Prison—Additional prison spaces can be hidden within the painting.Enhancement Feature: Mind Prison—The painting can influence the spiritual essence of the life forms within.

When Rosen advanced his sketching techniques from Level Three to Level Four, he used the heart of a Sequence 4 Soul Devourer as an enhancement material. In exchange, he promised to paint a spiritual realm masterpiece for someone in the future, a deal that allowed him to obtain this rare material.

The enhanced sketching techniques did not disappoint.

The Picture Prison was similar to the hidden cell in Viscount Ab's painting. For instance, if he captured a ram-headed monster and imprisoned it in the painting, the image of the ram-headed monster would appear almost as lifelike as Rosen's self-portrait. Even more impressive, the painted version would retain the extraordinary powers and complete memories of the real creature.

However, for the Picture Prison to work, the target must be captured alive and given the necessary sustenance to survive.

By comparison, the Mind Prison feature was far more powerful.

Rosen glanced at the painting of Corollo, who was acting as a model but appeared visibly anxious. Activating the Mind Prison, Rosen combined it with his Mind Canvas, allowing him to instantly access Corollo's thoughts and memories, even sealing parts of them within the Mind Prison.

Moreover, with the Mind Canvas, Rosen could manipulate Corollo's consciousness.

In the painting, he made Corollo believe he was a cat. The real Corollo, standing nearby, immediately squatted down and started licking his hands like a cat.

And this was just Level Four of sketching techniques. Higher levels could unlock features capable of sealing the target directly within the painting, bypassing nearly all defenses, curses, or inflicting harm from afar.

There are even past accounts of artists painting a demigod, burning the painting, and incinerating the demigod—thousands of miles away—using ordinary flames.

High-sequence painters are masters of curse-based attacks.

Rosen's next goal was to master his final skill: Finishing Touch.

However, mastering Finishing Touch required more than painting in the comfort of his home. He needed to venture into the Spirit Realm to capture traces of history and infuse them into his paintings, just like placing the final stroke on a dragon to bring it to life.

The capital of the Dungeon Kingdom was its only city, where ordinary people lived within the hidden spiritual realm of the royal city. Besides numerous dungeons, the kingdom also had abundant underground mineral resources.

Temporary mining towns sprang up around valuable veins and disappeared just as quickly when the resources were exhausted.

Ironwood Town was one such mining town.

Unlike most mining towns, the residents of Ironwood Town weren't miners but farmers.

Though the area contained the precious extraordinary material—red iron ore—the iron content in the ore was extremely low. Unable to extract enough iron directly from the earth, the Dungeon Kingdom resorted to planting large quantities of ironwood trees.

Ironwood trees have a unique ability to absorb iron as they grow, allowing the rare red iron in the soil to be absorbed into the trees themselves. By burning the harvested ironwood, they could then extract the precious extraordinary metal.

However, Ironwood Town met a grim fate. The rich red iron within the ironwood trees attracted an iron-eating earth dragon, a Sequence 4 creature from the underground world. The entire town was devoured, and with little red iron left, growing more ironwood became unprofitable. Eventually, the town was abandoned and forgotten, its cave passages collapsed and sealed off.

If Rosen hadn't accessed official records through his status as an artist, he would never have found this long-forgotten town.

According to the experiences of other painters, the best way to sense the past traces of something is to visit places where those people or objects were erased or destroyed. Such sites make it easier to sense the lingering historical echoes of their existence.

Without sharing his gray mouse's power, Rosen followed its lead underground. Although Rosen could burrow using his mouse's abilities, the gray mouse was far faster at navigating the earth.

Two days later, Rosen found himself staring in disbelief at the completely buried remnants of Ironwood Town.

He attempted to use a Void Scan, but it proved ineffective. The soil in the area contained trace amounts of red iron, and the buildings—constructed from local materials—held faint traces of spiritual energy. This interference rendered the Void Scan useless.

With no other choice, Rosen expanded his Divine Territory and summoned several cave demons he had recruited. He ordered them to begin excavating the buried town. Both his Ash Hive and Demon Nest had been upgraded to divine structures. The Ash Hive, like his Slime Nest, now produced an ash bee every week, while the Demon Nest continued producing cave demons, with a higher chance of creating mutated variants.

The cave demons were highly efficient, and with Rosen's Void Scavenger technique collecting the loose material, even the red iron deposits were extracted from the soil. Despite this, progress felt slow.

Rosen expanded his Divine Territory further and dispatched all of his followers to assist. The catfolk, who had recently switched to miner sequences, finally had their moment to shine. Their contributions were substantial, and within a few days, the buried town was fully excavated.

Most of the buildings—made from ironwood and stone—remained well-preserved, despite the passage of centuries. Only a few had been damaged, likely during the dragon's attack.

Rosen released his Hunter Magic Eyes, surveying the town from a god-like perspective. He then projected a detailed blueprint of Ironwood Town onto his Mind Canvas, capturing the layout with perfect accuracy.

With the overall sketch complete, he inspected each building, inside and out, creating individual paintings for each. Since these were not spiritual paintings, they didn't require any infusion of spiritual energy, allowing him to complete each one in mere seconds.

Even the damaged buildings were carefully pieced back together, like solving a puzzle, before being recorded in his paintings.

In just a few hours, Rosen had sketched the entire town.

Next, he set up a massive easel—ten zhang (about 33 meters) in diameter—to begin creating a spiritual painting of Ironwood Town. Using his sketching techniques, Rosen meticulously captured every detail of the town, down to the texture of the ironwood planks in a simple wooden house.

This process took two months, but in the end, he had an exact replica of Ironwood Town as it once stood.

The scenery was complete, but the most crucial part remained—the people.

Reconstructing buildings was one thing; recreating the lives of those who had lived there was far more challenging.

Fortunately, this world had not only painters but also photographers. Rosen found an old group photo in the archives—a photograph of over a thousand residents of Ironwood Town. Group photos were common in the human world, serving as records left by previous generations for those to come.

Without such records, recreating these figures through the Spirit Realm would have been an arduous task.

Even after hundreds of years, the photo clearly showed the clothing and faces of every individual. Years of drawing portraits had sharpened Rosen's ability to observe people, and he began carefully studying the photo to identify where each person had lived.

While he couldn't match everyone, certain clues helped. One man, for example, wore a hat, and Rosen found the decayed remains of a hat in a box within one of the houses. This clue allowed him to match the man to his home.

One by one, Rosen added the people of Ironwood Town to his painting, depicting them in their respective homes or, when uncertain, showing them on the streets or working among the ironwood trees. No one was left out.

This part of the painting took three full months to complete, far longer than the town's reconstruction.

(End of Chapter)