Just as Leonard Ethan was using his mental energy to click on that card, it instantly absorbed those psychic forces. In a blink, a faint light erupted from his body, wrapping him like a cocoon.
In just a moment, Leonard's figure gradually disappeared in this dusty living room, leaving only a pair of footprints proving that someone was indeed standing here just now.
At this time, inside the light cocoon, Leonard felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, unknowingly closing his eyes and completely plunging into darkness, entering an extremely mysterious dreamland.
He didn't know how long it took, but it felt as if a basin of ice water had dripped from his forehead to spread all over his body. With a shock, all of his sensations returned to his body.
Leonard suddenly opened his eyes to find that he was no longer in that abandoned living room but was instead in a completely unfamiliar room.
Surrounding him were bookshelves stuffed with various books. It seemed that this place was a small bookstore.
After making sure that his surroundings were safe, Leonard began to check himself, only to find that he had now become a little white boy, and the fine linen shirt and silk-made coat he was wearing indicated that he was from a well-off family.
"It seems I've now become someone else," Leonard thought as he looked at his tiny white hands. "Since this profession is called 'History Explorer', I'm probably in the middle of an important historical event in some way."
Before he could finish his train of thought, a middle-aged white man appeared in front of him and handed over a rough-looking newspaper. "Little François, this is today's 'Egypt Messenger', and I believe you will love the content."
"Thank you, Father," Leonard instinctively reached out to accept the newspaper and then started reading. Just after a few lines, he realized that he not only considered the strange middle-aged man as his father but also had effortlessly learned French.
"François, 'Egypt Messenger', France 18th and 19th centuries—" Leonard quickly summarizes the contents he had just gathered in his mind while skimming through the newspaper content.
Finally, he found a critical piece of information in the newspaper: A black basalt stele inscribed with three languages was discovered near Rosetta.
"I am now Jean-François Champollion, French historian, linguist, and—Father of Egyptology," Leonard's eyes widened. As he confirmed his identity, a circle of fog appeared around him again.
When the fog dissipated, the environment changed once more. Over time, Leonard made multiple leaps across the timeline. Each time he figured out the general situation, he entered an important point in time like stepping into a time tunnel:
At the age of 11, Champollion entered the Glenoble Public School and taught himself various scripts, even earning the nickname "Egyptian" for learning Coptic.
After graduating at 17, he frantically researched the connection between Coptic and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in various Parisian libraries, which led him to poverty and ragged clothes.
At the age of 24, Champollion finally published notable research results and escaped his previous financial difficulties with royalties.
Seven years later, at 31, Champollion successfully summarized the Egyptian hieroglyphic translation system, representing the birth of Egyptology.
In the following years, Leonard followed in Champollion's footsteps to Egypt for field investigations, collecting, and replicating a large number of hieroglyphic engravings and data for research until his unfortunate death from a stroke at 41.
After being wrapped in that dense fog for the last time, the professional Inheritance Card for the History Explorer appeared before Leonard again.
However, at this time, the card was no longer gray due to being activated, and instead became a colorful, glass-like existence, emitting light all around it.
Under Leonard Ethan's gaze, three smaller cards of different colors flew out from the main card and hovered around it, and then some golden text emerged on each card.
"It seems the Inheritance can be used now. Let me see what this is," Leonard Ethan thought and sent his mind to explore, then observed the contents of these cards.
[History Explorer (Junior) (UR): Time will erode many things, but some existences can always gain knowledge, wealth, and power from history.
Occupation Card (Permanent), unique. Permanently bound to the user's soul and irremovable. Other cards must be used through this card.]
[Detailed Observation (R): Some people may take a long time to find what they are looking for, while others can do so in just a few minutes. One has to admit there is a difference between people.
Skill Card (Permanent) (Passive), the owner has extremely keen observation towards various existences around them, being able to notice things that ordinary people often ignore.]
[Proficient Language (Advanced) (R): Language is the bridge for human communication. Many times, misunderstandings caused by different languages have resulted in great losses, and even serious conflict. So it's always good to learn an additional foreign language.
Enhancement Card (One-time Use), consume this card to read and write any language that you have mastered over 10% as fluently as your mother tongue.]
[Detection (N): To find various items, besides making all the preparations, luck is also an indispensable part. Now, this problem can easily be remedied.
Skill Card (One-time Use), consume this card to detect the item with the highest historical value within a maximum radius of 5m centered on the user, and mark it.]
"This really is a Golden Finger." After looking at the four cards now present, Leonard Ethan showed a satisfied smile on his face. Although he didn't know yet how to obtain new cards, the ones he currently had were already powerful enough.
"But how should I get out of here next?" Looking at the surrounding fog, Leonard Ethan showed a puzzled expression. But just then, the fog around him suddenly dispersed, and he found himself back in the living room.
"It seems I only need to think about it." Realizing everything was back to normal, he nodded in satisfaction. Then he began to think about how to use these cards.
For him, confirming the safety of using the Golden Finger was the most important task at the moment. So the first thing he did was summon the cards and take a selfie with his mobile phone.
As expected, just like when he first obtained the Golden Finger, the cards could only be seen by him even after being activated. Once this was confirmed, Leonard Ethan started testing what these cards could do.
The Detailed Observation card came in handy right away, as he quickly remembered that the cover of the "Ancient Middle Eastern Poetry" published in 1958 that he had flipped through earlier seemed different from the other books.
After taking out the book for a closer inspection, Leonard Ethan found that the book's spine seemed to have been re-glued. After carefully destroying the glue with his carry-on knife, he used a tweezers to extract a small note from inside.
"A draft paper left by Jean-François Champollion when he studied Ancient Syrian Language." Opening the note, Leonard Ethan immediately recognized what it was, as he had written countless such notes in the Mystic Realm earlier.
At the same time, he finally understood the real reason for the activation of the Golden Finger. Apparently, it was not the relatively new books that had triggered the activation, but this small piece of paper with a significant historical value.