Chapter 138

Chapter 138 Elements

“Master of ‘Stone’…”

Looking at the newspaper handed over by Godfrey, Oswan nodded thoughtfully and continued speaking.

“Your inference is indeed possible… The one capable of temporarily lifting the erosion of the ‘Cup’ must possess astonishing mastery over ‘Stone’. I need to find… the Master of ‘Stone’…

“So, behind that miraculously recovered little spirit, there might be the target we are looking for. Even if it isn’t directly connected, it could still have ties to our target,” Oswan murmured, then he looked at Godfrey and continued.

“Now, where is that little spirit? What do you plan to do?”

“I visited the Extraordinary Injury Department at the hospital; she has already been discharged. To facilitate later observation, the hospital kept her current address. I plan to investigate and see if I can uncover the existence behind her.”

Godfrey stated plainly. After hearing this, Oswan pondered for a moment before responding.

“Well… this is indeed a lead worth following up on. I hope you can find something. I also plan to shift my approach and investigate from another angle.”

As he spoke, Oswan glanced at the towering buildings under the distant dark sky, whispering.

“Mr. Lu Ke’s nemesis is within this city; as long as we can find it for him, our extraordinary path will be smooth…”

…

In the upper town of Igewent, at an apartment building beside Nanyang Flower Road.

Dorothy sat at the desk by her window, seriously eyeing a dusty old book on the table. This was a secret transmission she had just bought from Audric, said to contain information about the Black Tier.

Dorothy quickly read through the book on the table, ignoring the Poison Recognition mention in the text. This was a research-oriented secret transmission, exploring the spirituality of ‘Stone’, titled “Elemental Manifestations of Spirituality.”

According to this secret transmission, ‘Stone’ and ‘Cup’ represent opposing material spiritualities, with ‘Stone’ being the most material. If the spirituality of ‘Stone’ is used as a catalyst, it can easily bring forth the elemental manifestations of other less material spiritualities.

Spirituality is an essence with multi-layered expressions, where each layer reflects a facet of spirituality: concepts, spirit, sensation, matter… There are many types of expressions, and elemental manifestations fall under material expressions.

The secret transmission mentioned that each of the six types of spirituality has its corresponding elemental expression. The elements of ‘Stone’ and ‘Cup’ can be easily activated, while the other four types generally require ‘Stone’ as a catalyst to be triggered.

The elements corresponding to the six types of spirituality are: ‘Lamp’ corresponds to fire, ‘Shadow’ corresponds to wind, ‘Cup’ corresponds to water, ‘Stone’ corresponds to earth, ‘Silence’ corresponds to cold… or rather, ice.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of sufficient research subjects, the corresponding elemental manifestation of ‘Enlightenment’ has not yet been discovered.

Since all six major spiritualities have corresponding elemental expressions, there is a tier focused on manipulating elementalized spiritualities on the extraordinary path, known as Elementalists. Aside from ‘Cup’ and ‘Stone’, the other four spiritualities must accumulate ‘Stone’ as a supplementary spirituality to advance to Black Tier. After promotion, they can use the supplemental spirituality of ‘Stone’ to catalyze their main spirituality, thus activating their main spirituality’s elemental expression and manipulating the corresponding types of elements.

For instance, if a ‘Lamp’ apprentice chooses ‘Stone’ as their supplementary spirituality, they can advance to the position of ‘Fire Mage’. Conversely, if a ‘Shadow’ apprentice uses ‘Stone’ as their supplementary spirituality, they can advance to the position of ‘Wind Mage’.

Having finished the secret transmission, Dorothy let out a long breath. Just as Audric said, after reading this secret transmission, her understanding of the corresponding spiritualities and Black Tier deepened. At the very least, she now knew the names of five of the Black Tier positions, and understood one of her options for advancement.

If she advanced using ‘Stone’ as her supplementary spirituality, she would become an Elementalist corresponding to ‘Enlightenment’. However, the unfortunate thing is that while this book listed the elements for all the spiritualities except ‘Enlightenment’, it left her clueless about the element she could control.

‘This is a real issue. Because there aren’t enough research subjects for ‘Enlightenment’, they haven’t discovered its corresponding elemental expression… Is ‘Enlightenment’ really that hard to find? If you can use it for divination and counter-divination, why can’t you give some to research staff for study?’

Looking at the secret transmission in her hands, Dorothy inwardly complained, feeling that ‘Enlightenment’ might be a bit rare in the Secret World.

In any case, Dorothy roughly understood the knowledge of Black Tier through this secret transmission and recognized one of her paths for advancement. After that, she decisively extracted it as her spirituality.

Although this secret transmission focused on ‘Stone’, it briefly introduced all other spiritualities besides ‘Enlightenment’. Consequently, Dorothy accumulated knowledge of all spiritualities, with 4 points in ‘Stone’ and 1 point in each of the other spiritualities, totaling 2 points in ‘Enlightenment’.

Adding up, Dorothy now had a total of 15 points in ‘Cup’, 5 points in ‘Stone’, 1 point in ‘Lamp’, 3 points in ‘Shadow’, 2 points in ‘Silence’, and 9 points in ‘Enlightenment’.

‘400 pounds… quite a bargain.’

Next, Dorothy put the secret transmission away, unlocked the door, and walked into the living room, where she saw a sleepy-eyed Gregor sitting on the sofa, reading a newspaper.

Seeing her rarely awake brother, Dorothy blinked and said, “Gregor? You’re up already? Aren’t you going to catch up on sleep?”

“Ugh… I have a task from this afternoon to the evening, working as a bodyguard, so I can’t sleep too much.” Yawning, Gregor said weakly. The work from the last few days had clearly worn him out.

“Ah… you have work to do? Are there really so many places needing security in Igewent lately?” Dorothy asked curiously, and Gregor replied slowly.

“Absolutely… the Burton case… the White Galaxy Shore case… now Viscount Field has been killed by wolves in the mountains. Everyone in Igewent is on edge; every wealthy person wants to have a couple of bodyguards around them all the time… Even though the pay is high, it’s exhausting…”

“It’s indeed like that… If such terrible criminals and beasts are running loose, who wouldn’t be tense? I didn’t expect someone like Viscount Field to encounter misfortune; it’s truly unpredictable. Should I buy a few protective amulets or something…?” Dorothy sighed, and hearing her words, Gregor paused slightly, then put down the newspaper, looking earnestly at Dorothy as he spoke.

“Listen to me, Dorothy, don’t believe in those things. Don’t go buying any protective amulets; they’re useless.

“I can tell you, I have internal news from the police. The criminals responsible for the recent disasters won’t target civilians; they’ve probably left by now, so there’s no need to panic.”

Gregor advised, and Dorothy nodded in understanding.

“I see; then I’m relieved. But Gregor, you’re really impressive to have access to police internal news,” Dorothy praised, and Gregor couldn’t help but smile at being complimented by his sister.

“Of course! I’m your older brother, and I interact with our line of work and the police often. Even regular officers have to respect me a bit,” Gregor said proudly, thinking to himself that whenever he spoke, even the chief would listen closely.

“You really are impressive, Gregor.” Dorothy smiled, thinking that when she stirs things up in the city, the police will also be drawn to her.

“By the way, Dorothy, are you planning to go out?” At that moment, Gregor scrutinized Dorothy’s clothing and asked, and she nodded, responding.

“Yes, I’m visiting Anna, a student from the Orphanage of Mercy, who was recently adopted by Viscount Field and has just been discharged. The orphanage invited me to visit her.”

“Huh?” Hearing Dorothy’s words, Gregor was momentarily stunned.