Chapter 212

Chapter 209 Return

Underneath the King Campus of the Royal Sacred Crown University.

In the ruins, Dorothy was still looking at the Imperial Language message left on the hidden wall in front of her, and couldn’t help but fall into deep thought as she read the content.

‘This inscription… It was left by the priest who originally worshiped this deity statue. According to his account, this goddess once had very widespread faith in Prite’s three islands. But due to some unknown ‘agreement’, the faith of this goddess had to withdraw from Prite. If her priests wanted to continue to follow her, they would have to leave their homes and go far east.

If what this message says is true, and her faith once spread across all of Prite, then it makes sense that her statues appeared in the distant Razor Mountains and Tivian. It’s possible that there might even be traces of her throughout all three of Prite’s islands.’

Dorothy pondered this, then began to recall the history of Prite from textbooks, hoping to find information about this goddess from a mundane historical perspective. However, after much thought, she couldn’t come up with an answer.

In all the history textbooks Dorothy had encountered, the origins of everything seemed to start about a thousand years ago, when the Radiant Savior saved the world. From that time onward, for a thousand years, the Radiant Church’s Three Saints sect was the absolute mainstream belief on the Main Continent. Any other beliefs outside the Three Saints sect were defined as heresies or heterodoxies, and no countries on the Main Continent nominally allowed these heresies and heterodoxies to exist legally.

If this wall engraving is true, and the goddess’s faith once widely existed in Prite’s three islands, either it existed a thousand years ago, or those history textbooks given to ordinary people are fabricated.

‘What’s worth noting is that the priest mentioned the term ‘agreement.’ This suggests that the goddess’s faith withdrawing from Prite seems to be a peaceful process reached through an agreement. I wonder what kind of reason could make a deity abandon faith in an entire country…’

Dorothy thought to herself, then continued to look at another part of the message.

‘The priest said that this altar was built by them in this ancient ruin for training and meditation. In other words, this ruin, which belongs to the Star Number Repair Association, is older than they are. The destruction of the Star Number Repair Association occurred before this altar was established.’

Dorothy analyzed this, recalling Beverly’s earlier words. After the Star Number Repair Association’s demise, the ruins beneath this school had been used as a base by multiple factions. This suggests that the religious organization that worshipped this goddess was one of those factions, using it as a secret base. There probably isn’t much else connecting them to the Star Number Repair Association itself.

‘Although I don’t know what Eight Pinnacle Nest intends to do with this altar left over from a thousand years ago, or what their purpose is, since it has nothing to do with the Star Number Repair Association, it shouldn’t affect me much.’

Dorothy thought to herself, then instructed her zombie puppet servant to pick up a gas lamp, preparing to explore further. The location of this goddess altar wasn’t deep within the ruins; there were still stairs leading downward. Dorothy felt that what she was looking for should be deeper down.

Of course, after investigating this goddess statue, Dorothy did gain something. The engraved words on the wall contained poison recognition, which was secret knowledge. From this, Dorothy extracted 3 points of ‘Shadow’ and 1 point of ‘Enlightenment.’

‘So, this goddess is likely also a deity of the ‘Shadow’ domain? As expected, she has little to do with the ‘Enlightenment’ repair association. To find the remnants of the repair association, I may need to delve even deeper.’

While thinking this, Dorothy controlled her zombie puppet, holding the lamp, and continued down the stairs, exploring deeper into the ruins.

…

On the other side, north of the King Campus, in the North Pine Forest.

The chase between the Hunter and Thistle abruptly stopped due to the appearance of a figure.

After a group of bats killed three Hunters on the spot, the remaining Hunters and their captains stopped. They watched as the group of bats suddenly condensed into a bald, red-eyed, pale-skinned, tall, and thin figure.

‘Being able to transform into a swarm of bats for high-speed movement… Is he a vampire!?’

Seeing the sudden appearance of the man, both captains of the Hunters couldn’t help but stand solemnly in place, guarding against the cold-looking man named Claudius.

They knew that the term ‘vampire’ wasn’t just a name for a legendary creature, but referred to the path of ‘Shadow,’ with ‘Shadow’ as the main focus and ‘Cup’ as the secondary focus, and was the title of the White Chalk tier.

White Chalk! This unfamiliar man who suddenly appeared was a White Chalk tier Extraordinary Being! Although they didn’t know why he came to save the target, this was beyond their capability to deal with!

“Fall back, split up and fall back!”

Seeing the current situation, the captain of the Hunters quickly made a judgment and issued orders to the entire team. Instantly, all the Hunters turned and withdrew into the forest, with the two captains swiftly leaving. When they realized that the opponent was too powerful for them to handle, these Hunters decisively chose to retreat.

Facing the rapidly dispersing Hunters, Claudius didn’t choose to pursue but simply watched silently as all the Hunters disappeared into the darkness. Only three bodies remained, killed by him with bats at the beginning.

“Claudius, sir, you just let them go. These black dogs killed A Ming and others…”

Thistle knelt on the ground, speaking urgently to Claudius, while Claudius turned his head coldly towards Thistle.

“Hmph… If I were to eliminate two Black Tier squad leaders here, how much reaction would the Black Dog Headquarters have? It would only lead them to send more garrison captains to investigate. All it would bring is trouble.”

Claudius spoke sternly. He let the Hunters go because he didn’t want to escalate the situation. If two Black Tier squad leaders died in this case, it would be enough to provoke the Anonymity Headquarters to deploy multiple White Chalk forces to investigate.

For Claudius, now wasn’t the time to escalate things to such a degree.

“Ah… I am foolish, sir Claudius, I didn’t think it through…”

Listening to Claudius’s words, Thistle responded in fear, and after glancing at him, Claudius continued.

“You weren’t supposed to launch a surprise attack on the so-called ‘Rosy Cross’ small society’s base? How did you encounter the black dogs?”

“We were likely deceived from the beginning! Sir Claudius, the place we attacked wasn’t a meeting at all, but rather a trap set by the black dogs. That ‘Rosy Cross’ might not even exist! Everything could be a conspiracy by those black dogs!”

Thistle told Claudius, and hearing this, Claudius frowned slightly and then spoke seriously.

“What is the situation inside the school now?”

“Sir, most of the people were led out by me to carry out the surprise attack, only a few remain,” Thistle replied. Hearing this, Claudius’s expression turned grave, and he spoke seriously.

“Let’s go… Immediately return.”