Chapter 151

The One Hundred Fifty-First Decision

In the Upper Town of Igewent, on Nanyang Flower Road, above an apartment building.

In the morning, Dorothy sat alone in her room, as she was the only one home. Due to what happened last night, Gregor obviously wouldn’t be returning, granting her a rare moment of solitude.

However, recently, Gregor had often been caught up in a series of overtime shifts, making this time alone not particularly rare for Dorothy.

At her desk, Dorothy was deep in thought, pondering the new transaction Audric had proposed to her earlier that day.

‘Audric wants me to stand by his side in the upcoming confrontation with his great enemy, and in return, he will owe me a favor that I can use to ask for his help in the future when I need it…

‘A favor… this kind of thing is the most unpredictable, its effectiveness can vary greatly, entirely dependent on the strength of the one indebted.

‘Audric seems currently quite inscrutable; I have no idea what his limits are. However, the fact that two Black Tier beings can serve as his vanguard against someone he considers a great enemy indicates that Audric’s abilities are not to be underestimated. If that favor is used effectively, it may yield results that money cannot buy.

‘But the prerequisite for this is… I have to be on his side, opposing his great enemy… I will face risks myself. Audric claims a sixty percent chance of victory in the battle, but the actual situation is completely unclear. Against one entity above Black Tier and two other Black Tier beings, do we really stand a chance?’

Dorothy’s deliberations continued until she remembered that before committing to help Audric, he refused to disclose more information for her consideration. According to him, additional intel could only be shared with those he could be certain would be allies. This logic was understandable; if she gathered plenty of information only to decide against helping, Audric would be at a significant loss.

Dorothy did not immediately agree to Audric’s invitation. Instead, she chose to return and think carefully about it, weighing the pros and cons before responding.

After over an hour of deep contemplation, Dorothy still hadn’t made a firm decision.

“Ugh, it’s hard to decide… My head hurts from all this thinking. Maybe I’ll check out the Secret Transmission to clear my mind.”

Rubbing her temples, Dorothy murmured to herself, then took out two Secret Transmissions she had just purchased from Audric, preparing to read them to refresh her thoughts.

First, Dorothy picked up the first Secret Transmission from her desk. Its cover was a grayish-purple and looked quite worn, much more so than any previous Secret Transmission she had encountered.

As she flipped it open and began reading, she was astonished to find that this Secret Transmission covered a topic she had never seen before.

It was a translation; a document that translated texts from other languages to Prit Language.

‘A translation of other languages? This is interesting…’

Seeing such a novel subject for the first time sparked Dorothy’s interest, and she carefully flipped through the pages, absorbing the knowledge within.

The author of that translation remained unknown; at the beginning, he stated how he would conduct his comparative translation—transforming a language called “Old Imperial Language” into Prit Language. The source material for this translation was an unnamed poem written in Old Imperial Language.

This poem was a praise piece that described the great achievements of a king.

Within the poem’s description, the world was once shrouded in darkness and chaos, with many evil gods existing in tangible forms, controlling their followers and waging war against each other. Countless beings suffered in the turmoil of war and tyranny brought forth by these wicked gods.

Ultimately, among humans arose a great king known as the King of Light, who possessed immense power and led the oppressed to rise against the capricious evil gods. After allying with powerful allies, he ultimately exterminated and expelled the evil gods, establishing his own empire.

This entire poem was not lengthy and was highly summarized, consisting mostly of various phrases of praise. Dorothy didn’t gain a wealth of information but had gathered enough to pique her interest.

‘King of Light? Stepping up to combat the evil gods during the era of darkness and chaos? This is somewhat reminiscent of the myth of the Savior of Radiance, and both titles are related to light—could there be a connection?

‘However… there are differences between this poem’s story and the myth of the Savior of Radiance. In the Radiant Church’s mythology, the Savior of Radiance is a god who pitied the humans tormented by the evil gods and thus descended to save them before returning to the palace of the sun and leaving behind three incarnations to guard the world.

‘Whereas this King of Light, in the poem’s description, is human. He arose from humanity, united allies to resist the evil gods, and ultimately founded an empire. The mythology of the Radiant Church doesn’t mention anything about empires.’

Dorothy didn’t dwell further on this so-called King of Light and his empire but turned to check the benefits gained from this Secret Transmission through the system.

To her surprise, this Transmission contributed to her knowledge in two parts: the first being the content of the poem about the King of Light, and the second being an introduction to Old Imperial Language.

‘Wow, after seeing this translation, I’ve gotten a preliminary understanding of Old Imperial Language… If I find more translations about Old Imperial Language in the future, I could gradually master this language and perhaps exchange it for a new Dragon Roar.’

Seeing the additional gains from this Secret Transmission, Dorothy thought, realizing she could use these two portions of knowledge separately. Thus, she decided to keep the language portion and utilize it later when she had accumulated enough knowledge, while the poem’s content was converted into Spirituality.

From the poem, she accumulated 3 points of “Lamp” and 2 points of “Enlightenment.”

After finishing this Secret Transmission, Dorothy set it aside and picked up the next one to read.

This one had a pure gray cover, and while it had gathered a layer of dust, it was still fresher than the previous book.

Flipping through the pages, Dorothy discovered that this was actually a research notebook! It recorded various studies on creating “Stone” spiritual artifacts, and the author of this notebook was none other than… Audric himself.

In this notebook, Audric stated that all “Stone” extraordinary beings, regardless of rank, are generally engaged in the construction of various structures, and Audric was no exception. This notebook was written during his research on his own constructs and seemed to be a work from his younger years.

‘Ha… Is this old guy showing me his achievements from when he was young? I’m not a “Stone” extraordinary being, so I can’t really understand these studies…’

With a chuckle in her heart, Dorothy continued to sift through the notebook when suddenly, a particular segment caught her attention.

…

“Next, I need to inject a little ‘Enlightenment.’ Although ‘Enlightenment’ is difficult to obtain, fortunately, my rank allows me to consistently hold a small amount of this precious spirituality.”

…

Dorothy stared at the contents of the notebook in astonishment. She hadn’t expected that while creating his constructs, besides extensively using “Stone” spirituality, Audric also made significant use of “Enlightenment” spirituality!

Moreover, the notebook clearly indicated that this “Enlightenment” spirituality did not come from Storage Items, but rather from himself!

This implied that Audric’s auxiliary spirituality was likely “Enlightenment”! He was an extraordinary being primarily of “Stone” and secondarily of “Enlightenment”!

Upon realizing this, Dorothy’s mind began to race. If Audric’s auxiliary spirituality was “Enlightenment,” it indicated he might possess vital information concerning “Enlightenment” spirituality, perhaps even critical intelligence about the path of “Enlightenment.” From him, she might acquire vital clues regarding her own ascension!

“It seems… I might just go and help the principal.”

Having reached this conclusion, Dorothy murmured to herself, having now made up her mind to accept Audric’s invitation, motivated by the clues related to “Enlightenment.”

‘Ha… Did he intentionally sell me this Secret Transmission because he suspects I might be an extraordinary being related to “Enlightenment”? By giving me this book, does he imply that if I want more knowledge about “Enlightenment,” I need to help him? Truly a cunning old fox…’

Dorothy thought to herself that she frequently bought Secret Transmissions from Audric, and due to her Poison Recognition skill, an ordinary extraordinary being wouldn’t purchase them so often, so it was quite possible Audric had caught on to something.

After finishing the second Secret Transmission, Dorothy extracted spirituality, gaining 3 points of “Stone” and 3 points of “Enlightenment.” Adding to her previous totals, she now had:

15 Cups, 8 Stones, 4 Lamps, 3 Shadows, 2 Silences, and 14 Enlightenments, with 5 points of Enlightenment being blue bar spirituality, experience spirituality totaling 9 points, and 2 points of the blue bar spirituality currently in recovery.

After reviewing all the Secret Transmissions, Dorothy leaned back in her chair, contemplating how to face the upcoming challenges.

“Phew… two Black Tiers, one above Black Tier… just the two of us, Audric and I, feels quite shaky. Can I pull in a bit more support…?”

While mulling this over, Dorothy took out the magic box she had just purchased, placed it on the table, opened the lid, adjusted the entrance size, and took out a book: “Navigation of the Literary Sea.”

Dorothy opened “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” flipped to a previous page where she had chatted with Vania, and wrote with a pen:

“Are you there?”