Chapter 177

Note

In the dim carriage, Dorothy began sorting through the extraordinary items she found on Sodod and Kim.

Starting with Sodod, he had very few items. Dorothy found a storage item, a mechanism ring, and two sigils on him.

The storage item was a small red wooden block containing 1 point of “Cup.” The mechanism ring, after careful inspection by Dorothy, could hold both spirit storage items and sigils. At a critical moment, one could simply swipe the ring, and its intricate spring mechanism would activate, pressing the storage item and sigil onto the finger to activate instantly. This was convenient and quick, eliminating the need to slowly remove the sigil and storage item. The sigil was an unfamiliar “Lamp” sigil.

‘This little mechanism is quite useful. Although it’s purely mechanical and contains no extraordinary components, it can achieve one-click activation of sigils. It can be used covertly and in battle, so I’ll keep it.’

With this thought, Dorothy put away the mechanism ring and other items, then turned her attention to what was on Kim.

Kim also had very few valuable items: two “Shadow” spirit storage items shaped like silver coins and a small black bottle containing less than 30 ml of a colorless, odorless liquid. After activating her identification technique, Dorothy discovered that the liquid contained spirit energy, a combination of “Shadow” and “Cup.”

‘This seems to be… the same poison that affected Sodod? This venom has spirit energy. That’s why, despite not being hit in a vital spot, Sodod eventually died.’

Dorothy looked at the small bottle, thinking it might have some use in the future, so she tossed it into the magic box. To her disappointment, Kim only had two points of spirit energy, which she used to recharge her veil ring, bringing it back to 2 points of “Shadow.”

‘I still feel like I don’t have enough “Shadow.” If I had suitable sigils, even an Apprentice-level “Lamp” could find me, let alone a higher-tier “Lamp” extraordinary being. After all, an Apprentice-level “Lamp” usually has at least 5 points of “Lamp,” and if I were to compete with them in spirit energy, I wouldn’t stand a chance.’

With this thought, Dorothy resolved to stay far from the church and avoid provoking any extraordinary beings from the Church.

After sorting through Sodod and Kim’s personal items, Dorothy finally got to the main event—the mysterious cargo that Sodod was supposed to deliver but was taken by Kim, intended for delivery to the An Yin Bureau in Tivyán.

This cargo was originally supposed to be in Sodod’s password box, but Kim took it out using his wall-penetrating ability and placed it in his own bag, which was now on Dorothy’s table.

Although Dorothy agreed to recover the cargo, she didn’t agree to not look at it. She planned to inspect the cargo and decide whether to return it to the An Yin Bureau based on the inspection results.

Without hesitation, Dorothy opened Kim’s bag. Inside was a document envelope sealed with the stamp of the An Yin Bureau in Alster. The seal also included a warning message:

“Toxic Warning! Please prepare thoroughly before reading.”

‘Oh wow, there’s a toxic warning? That’s great.’

Seeing the seal, Dorothy felt a bit startled, then removed the seal and opened the envelope, taking out its contents.

Inside the envelope was a thin notebook and several photos. Both the notebook and photos were stained with large amounts of bl**d.

“These are… books and photos? And they’re covered in so much bl**d. Could this be Sodod’s bl**d?’

With a puzzled expression, Dorothy picked up the small notebook and flipped through it, noticing that the bl**d had long dried and turned black, clearly not recent. Therefore, it couldn’t be Sodod’s bl**d; the bl**d was already present on the notebook.

Without much thought, Dorothy carefully read the notebook. Most of the text was obscured by dried bl**d, making it barely legible. After a brief glance, she realized it was a survey report.

The report detailed the search conducted by a hunting team from the An Yin Bureau in Alster into the Razorback Mountains. They received traces indicating secret religious activities in the area.

…

“May 4th: After much effort, we successfully entered the edge of the Razorback Mountains. This place is hardly visited by civilized people. Our carriage broke down halfway, and we were covered in mud. Our clothes were torn by thorny vines. d*mn it… We wouldn’t have paid attention to this case if there hadn’t been d*ath cases. Only after this trip did I understand why this place hasn’t been developed.

“May 5th: We stayed in a village we managed to find. The villagers were generally nice, but some customs were hard to accept. They actually eat spider eggs! Unacceptable rural delicacies. We investigated leads in this village…

“May 7th: Following the leads, we delved deeper into the Razorback Mountains. The environment became increasingly harsh, but thank goodness, we found another village. The people here were more xenophobic and initially hostile, but their hostility eased after we explained ourselves…

“May 8th: Oh my god… This village also eats spider eggs? And they claim they can weave clothes from spider silk? What kind of spider silk can make clothes?

“May 8th: These guys are crazy. They want to execute an old man in the village because he not only refuses to eat spider eggs but also keeps forbidden items? We saved the old man, but this caused a lot of trouble for us. We had to leave the village. This barbaric land far from the light of the Three Saints should have a church! Even a small one would do!

“The old man showed us the forbidden items, which turned out to be a silver mirror with a crescent moon pattern on the back, resembling the symbol of ‘Shadow.’ According to the old man, this was a sacred artifact passed down through generations. The young people’s spider-related activities were the real taboo. When I asked why, he said…

“May 9th: Things seem serious. We sent a team member back to the first village with the old man, while the rest of us continued exploring deeper into the mountains…

“May 10th: We discovered ruins with clear religious traces, similar to those of the Radiant Church, but with slight differences in detail…

“May 11th: More ruins, but many were destroyed, and the destruction seemed recent…

“May 12th: …Spiders… are devouring the moon…”

…

Struggling to decipher the words among the bloodstains, Dorothy finished reading all the meaningful content and closed the notebook.

Next, she turned her attention to the photos. The photos depicted scenes from the team’s journey, including villages, spider eggs, the mirror considered a treasure, and ruined sites.

What caught Dorothy’s attention was the last photo.

On this black-and-white photo was a statue, a severely damaged goddess statue.

In the photo, the goddess statue, wearing light gauze and with a graceful figure, held a strange object that resembled both a mirror and a full moon in her hands. The statue’s original head had been artificially removed and replaced with a grotesque spider head crudely carved.