Chapter 250

Chapter 237: Organization

“To think that so much money was spent… Luckily, the operation was successful and we managed to scavenge some items, or else I would be at a loss…”

In her study, Dorothy looked at the cash expenditure she calculated and couldn’t help but lament that fighting is essentially about logistics; if one is low on resources, then there’s no chance of extraordinary warfare.

After summarizing the monetary expenditure, Dorothy began to assess her spiritual consumption. Since her “Enlightenment” bar had nearly 10 points after leveling up, her consumption of “Enlightenment” during this operation was substantial but did not exceed the limit. Aside from “Enlightenment,” she also consumed 3 points of “Cup” spirituality, mainly for puppet manipulation of Vania and Claudius, as well as to overload her capabilities to increase the puppet limit. Lastly, she paid 1 point of “Shadow” to activate the Lightness Sigil for Vania.

After deducting the base amount, Dorothy had the following spiritual points remaining:

4 Cups, 7 Stones, 2 Shadows, 1 Lamp, 1 Silence, 1 Enlightenment.

As for the sigils, Dorothy had used a Frenzied Banquet Sigil for Vania this time, of which she only had two; they were quite precious. She also had one Lightness Sigil.

“Indeed, I’ve become quite poor… I should carefully check what I managed to obtain; I hope it can cover my expenses.”

After reviewing her consumption status, Dorothy immediately began to examine the spoils of her recent operations. At the top of the list was cash; this time she had scavenged 400 pounds, plus the remnant from before, totaling 650 pounds. Looking at the thick stack of money on the table, Dorothy felt significantly reassured.

Next were the storage items; Dorothy had quite a haul this time, including a syringe containing 3 points of “Cup,” 2 silver coins worth 2 points of “Shadow,” 1 stone fragment worth 1 point of “Enlightenment,” and 4 gold coins containing “Lamp” energy disassembled from the Radiance Lamp.

Combining everything, Dorothy’s storage items included 3 Cups, 1 Stone, 2 Shadows, 4 Lamps, and 1 Enlightenment, which was reasonably good.

“These spiritual storage items were mainly obtained by disabling the traps set by those guys. They really went to great lengths to prevent anyone from disturbing the ritual, but unfortunately, it was all for naught.”

Looking at her organized spiritual storage items, Dorothy remarked, then her gaze focused on one of the “Lamp” storage items. From a spiritual perspective, it appeared not to be full and showed slight wear.

‘Is it because that lamp containing this storage item was on for too long that it shows clear signs of wear? In that case, I can directly use it for something else.’

Saying this, Dorothy took the not-fully-filled storage item and laid a piece of white cloth with a magical array drawn on it on the table. She placed the already somewhat worn storage item on top of the white cloth’s array and then retrieved several sigils from the array.

These sigils were ones Dorothy scavenged from Claudius; they were new sigils she did not recognize. She planned to use the worn “Lamp” storage item to identify these sigils, as identifying sigils requires less energy than identifying extraordinary items—about 1 point of “Lamp” could identify three different types of sigils.

After expending one worn “Lamp” sigil, Dorothy completed the identification of two types of sigils she had scavenged from Claudius.

The first was the Poison Fog Sigil, which combined “Cup” and “Shadow,” able to simultaneously consume both types of spirituality to expel poison gas. The more spirituality consumed, the more poison gas could be created, with no upper limit. Dorothy had one of these.

The second was the Shadow Blade Sigil, which could consume 2 points of “Shadow” to add a shadow enchantment effect to one’s weapon. If the user already possesses shadow enchantment capabilities, they could consume 4 points of “Shadow” to further enhance the effect. Dorothy had three of these.

‘These sigils are one that the bald bat used to spew poison, and another that he intended to use for a final showdown; it’s surprising there are still some left.’

Thinking this, Dorothy organized all her sigils together. She now had several bl**d-Eating (physical enhancement), 1 Frenzied Banquet (physical enhancement), 2 Light (illumination), 1 Radiance (extraordinary detection), 1 Bound Spirit (seal spirit body), 2 Silent (soundproof), 1 Poison Fog (poison creation), and 3 Shadow Blade (shadow enchantment).

After organizing the sigils, Dorothy turned her attention to the extraordinary item she had obtained this time. She already understood the general use of the smoke grenade-like vial; her main focus shifted to the pendant.

Dorothy picked up the pendant and one of the “Lamp” spiritual storage gold coins, and soon after, she received corresponding information—it was an extraordinary “Lamp” item.

……

“View Ring.

When activated by consuming ‘Lamp’ spirituality, it generates a strong sense of presence and attraction, causing people within its influence to involuntarily direct their attention toward it, significantly increasing their focus. The range and intensity of the effect are determined by the amount of ‘Lamp’ injected, but it does not exceed a radius of 500 meters.”

……

‘This is a pendant that creates immense attraction, making it hard for anyone not to focus on it. No wonder Vania was instantly drawn to it; it’s simply a professional tool for hypnosis.’

Looking at the white circular pendant on the magical array, Dorothy thought that with this item in conjunction with hypnosis, there would be no need to worry about anyone deliberately avoiding the hypnotist’s gaze.

As soon as the hypnotist’s eyes meet those of the subject being hypnotized, coupled with the other’s focused demeanor, it would become easy to induce hypnosis successfully.

‘However… to achieve the best effect with this, one must be capable of hypnosis themselves. Hypnosis is an inherent skill of vampires; unfortunately, I don’t possess it, so this item can only serve to divert attention in my case; its usefulness seems limited.’

With a tinge of disappointment, Dorothy thought as she inspected the pendant on the white cloth. She quickly stored it away and began organizing her next item, which this time was the secret transmission.

Dorothy placed the two secret transmissions she had obtained in front of her and randomly picked one to start reading. This transmission was titled “Queen of Insects: Annotations.”

‘”Queen of Insects”? Isn’t this about the story of the Thistle controlling the students? The poison recognition inside can cause students to develop a sense of admiration toward the Thistle; I didn’t realize that there were special annotations for this book…’

Looking at the secret transmission in her hands, Dorothy thought this as she continued to delve deeper into the content.

“Queen of Insects: Annotations” is a commentary on the original Queen of Insects, where the author explains many unclear points in the novel according to their understanding and expresses their own views and reflections on various aspects, most of which extol the lifestyle of the Thistle ants, believing that human society should emulate their ways.

Additionally, from this commentator’s descriptions, Dorothy learned that the “Queen of Insects” series is actually divided into several parts, with each book detailing different social classes of insects.

From low to high, these books are known as: “Worker Ants,” “Soldier Ants,” “General Ants,” “King Ants,” and “Queen Ants”…

According to the commentator’s narrative, the purpose of publishing the “Queen of Insects” series was to reshape human society to resemble an ant colony. Each book corresponds to a different class.

Those who read “Worker Ants” will naturally develop admiration for those who read “Soldier Ants” and higher-level books. Conversely, those who read “Soldier Ants” will hold those who read “General Ants” in high regard, and so forth. As one ascends in class, the admiration for those above becomes increasingly intense, with the “Queen Ant” reportedly able to command everyone beneath her at will.

‘I see, from this perspective, it seems the Thistle provides “Worker Ants” to the students of the academic society, while he himself and someone named Avery read “Soldier Ants,” which is why those students developed admiration for Avery after the Thistle’s demise.’

‘Following this logic, that bald bat likely read “General Ants”; the entire Eight Pinnacle Nest is probably maintained and governed through the effects of the “Queen of Insects” series, truly a work aimed at reshaping human society.’

‘Ha, other secret transmissions gain poison recognition due to their obscure knowledge, primarily resulting as an attachment to the knowledge of poison recognition. However, for the “Queen of Insects,” the effect generated by poison recognition is the main focus, while the narratives are merely subsidiary; the creator’s intention is this effect of poison recognition.’

Having finished reading the current secret transmission, Dorothy reflected on her insights into the operations of the Eight Pinnacle Nest.

Closing the completed transmission and setting it aside, Dorothy began to browse through the second secret transmission. This one was entitled “Thorn Whip.”

“Thorn Whip” is a self-biographical secret transmission that recounts the growth experience of a prison guard. At the start of the autobiography, the somewhat timid rookie protagonist enters prison work due to family connections. On his first day of work, he is so frightened by the condition of the tortured inmates that he soils his pants and becomes bullied by his colleagues. It is not until he meets a talking spider deep within the prison that everything changes.

Later, incited by the spider, the protagonist, now a torturer, finds joy in listening to the screams of inmates, with bl**d splatter on his whip remaining persistent. He discovers joy in cruelty, stringing every prisoner up on the torture rack, regardless of their crimes, and eventually even reaching out to his colleagues.

‘This seems to have some connection to the “Shadow” regarding torture law; it appears that ‘torture’ and ‘fear’ and that spider’s deity have some sort of relationship with ‘Shadow’ spirituality.’

Thinking this while examining the secret transmission in her hands, Dorothy completed the reading before storing it away and then began extracting spirituality.

Among these two secret transmissions, “Queen of Insects: Annotations” was worth a total of 3 points of “Shadow” and 2 points of “Enlightenment.” “Thorn Whip” yielded 2 points of “Shadow” and 1 point of “Enlightenment.”

In addition to these two secret transmissions, Dorothy also extracted spirituality from the vampire-related documents she had previously purchased from Beverly, gaining 2 “Shadow,” 1 “Cup,” and 1 “Enlightenment.”

Adding all the extracted spiritual points to her existing total, Dorothy’s spiritual status was now:

5 Cups, 7 Stones, 9 Shadows, 1 Lamp, 1 Silence, and 5 Enlightenments.

‘Wow, my “Shadow” points have suddenly shot up! Robbing really does yield results—when I robbed the Holy Communion before, my “Cup” was almost overflowing.

Looking at her current accumulation of spirituality, Dorothy thought maybe she should stop being picky and diversify a bit, robbing various types of societies once for balanced nutrition and healthy growth.

“Phew~ Anyway, I finally organized everything; it’s exhausting… Tomorrow I’ll find something to share with Vania. Right now, I need to sleep…”

Gazing at the moon hanging high in the sky outside, Dorothy stretched out her back and then stored her items within the magic box before promptly turning off the lights and going to sleep.

……

As night gave way to day, the darkness faded.

In the morning, at Royal Sacred Crown University King Campus, students, as usual, bustled about the campus in the morning light, traversing corridors to reach their classrooms.

Among these students, some keenly noticed an increased number of patrolling police officers within the school; several street corners had been blocked off. Many curious students wondered what was going on and were met with officers stating that they could not disclose the current situation.

The officers’ attitude piqued the interest of the students, who engaged in heated discussions about what had transpired in the school last night. By the end of the morning, several versions of the story had circulated due to the absence of several students from multiple classes, with most tales leaning towards various m*rder cases.

In fact, most of the policemen were unaware of what had happened inside the school since they were only responsible for perimeter security. Meanwhile, deep underground in the school, another organization was handling the situation.

In the ceremony hall on the second level of the ruins beneath the King Campus, a group of black-clad Hunters were conducting an investigation. They were scattered throughout the hall, searching for all types of traces.

One man, dressed in a loose open coat, with shoulder-length unruly yellow hair, around thirty to forty years old, his unshaven beard scraped across his chin, stood silently in front of the desecrated altar, staring blankly at the spider-headed humanoid figure before him, lost in thought.

At that moment, a Hunter rushed over from a distance. He reached the man’s side, bowed respectfully, and spoke.

“Lord Edmond, we received news from Divine Angel Hospital. Although many of the students we treated initially seem fine, upon examination, we can confirm they have all suffered varying degrees of poison recognition.”