Chapter 399

Chapter 326: Stele

Edmond displayed the twisted handcuffs in his hand to Anreyus, analyzing the situation. In his words, he negated the possibility that Vania brought the handcuffs maliciously to take credit. Anreyus, after examining the handcuffs, finally spoke up.

“So that’s it. Ha, it seems our nun is quite clever. I thought it was this evil wolf’s carelessness that allowed us to find this place, but it turns out it was her. A clever nun like that should get some recognition when I report back. By the way, what is her name and where is she now?”

“Her name is Vania Chafiren. Our people are currently over at the riverbank gathering some details from her.”

“Vania, the nun? Then I must go and see this heroine…”

With that, Anreyus walked away in his iron boots, leaving Edmond behind to gaze at the burning building in front of him, lost in thought.

—-

Meanwhile, in the woods about five to six kilometers from the Smith villa, a carriage was speeding through the night. Under the dim light, the masked coachman was focused on driving.

In the sky above the carriage, a majestic eagle soared through the night. It gradually descended, flying next to the carriage, and as the carriage window slowly opened, a delicate white hand reached out, taking the sword blade and book held in its claws. The eagle then flapped its wings and flew back into the sky.

“It’s done…”

Inside the moving carriage, Dorothy sat in her small dress, holding the spoils of today’s operation: a secret transmission and a slender staff sword. She ran her fingers over the ruby at the hilt of the Heart-Eating Staff Sword and could feel the sword’s spirituality was nearly full.

‘I’ve had you for a few months now, and today you’ve finally had your fill…’

Looking at the staff sword in her hand, Dorothy thought that a whole beastman plus a weakened dying werewolf was more than enough to satiate the Heart-Eating Staff Sword.

“Phew… Now that Vania is safe, it’s time to settle the accounts and see what I’ve accomplished after all this busyness today.”

Dorothy said to herself as she began to organize the results of today’s series of actions.

As was customary, she started calculating her losses. For this operation, she had only used one Breath-seeking sigil at the beginning, while looking for Davik’s bl**d traces in the basket district. However, that single use exhausted all three Breath-seeking sigils she had initially received from Adele at the theater. Adele had clearly stated that those were her only three sigils, and she wouldn’t have any more to give. This meant that Dorothy had no more sigils available to obtain enhanced sense of smell for the time being.

‘Speaking of which, those Breath-seeking sigils are quite useful. Using all three at once was rather quick. If possible, it would be better to stock up a bit. If I can’t get more from Adele, I’ll have to ask Beverly. I hope the price from that profiteer won’t be too outrageous.’

Dorothy thought to herself, and then she began to calculate her spiritual consumption. There was no doubt that due to the prolonged use of the living puppet, her “cup” had been severely depleted during this operation. After the Gregor train incident, her remaining 5 points of “cup” were completely consumed, and fortunately, Adele had provided her with two pieces of meat jerky as “cup” storage items which restored 4 points of “cup”. Otherwise, if she continued to manipulate like this, she would have completely drained herself.

By the end, after using the 4 points of “cup” given by Adele, Dorothy had 2 points left. If the Church’s fire mage knight didn’t arrive and Davik didn’t d*e soon, she wouldn’t last much longer. Aside from a significant amount of “cup,” this time, the only other used spirituality was “shadow,” which cost her 2 points while she concealed Davik’s extraordinary traces on the way to the An Yin Bureau. Of course, aside from that, Dorothy also consumed quite a bit of “enlightenment,” but because she herself was a scholar, those expenditures of “enlightenment” were negligible.

Next, after confirming her consumption, it was time to evaluate her gains. Throughout this series of actions, Dorothy made significant acquisitions, with the most remarkable being that she finally succeeded in seeing the promotion stele of the Star Number Repair Association.

That stele, which Dalena had found in the ruins of the Continental Star Number Repair Association, engraved with General Language, was preserved in the evidence room of the An Yin Bureau due to Davik’s capture. Under Dorothy’s manipulation, she successfully used Davik’s eyes to see that stele in the evidence room. The General Language manifested its hidden meaning through Dorothy’s extraordinary gaze of “enlightenment,” revealing the promotion content that she needed.

Closing her eyes, Dorothy began to recall the contents of the stele that had been deeply engraved in her memory, and the General Language transformed into Prit Writing appeared before her eyes.

—-

“The Path of Enlightenment, the advancement from Black Earth to White Chalk.

By cup to initiate, the path of spiritual threads, Puppet Master—Line Manipulating Spiritual Witch.

By stone to initiate, the path of furious howling, Thunder Mage—Thunder Summoner.

By shadow to initiate, the path of confusion, Dream Interpreter—Illusive Dream Traveler.

By lamp to initiate, the path of foresight, Diviner—Prophet Scholar.

By body to serve as an initiation, the path of pure reason, Scholar—Occult Professor.

—-

While recalling, the names of the five sub-paths of the Path of Enlightenment, as well as their promotion conditions and rituals, appeared in Dorothy’s mind. After casually reading through them a few times, she didn’t dwell on the extra details. Her focus remained on the last entry of the stele, which was the promotion content for scholars to become occult professors.

—-

Black Earth Tier Scholar, the spiritual requirements to advance to the White Chalk Tier Occult Professor.

First, there are spiritual requirements. The Scholar must have filled their “enlightenment” attribute to 30 points, in addition to their inherent spirituality.

Furthermore, aside from “enlightenment,” the accumulation of the other five types of spirituality must reach one-third of their limit, meaning that each of the five types should be accumulated to at least 10 points since the upper limit for each type in the Black Tier is 30 points.

In addition to the accumulation of spirituality, there are also ritual requirements. Like the previous Scholar, promotion to Occult Professor involves all types of spirituality. To advance to Scholar, the apprentice must read all six types of spirituality’s secret transmissions, with each type requiring one book; while to become an Occult Professor, there must be an understanding of the deities of all six types of spirituality, and mediums must be obtained.

To become an Occult Professor, one must know the honorable names of the six pure-color deities within the six fields of spirituality and obtain their holy emblems. During the promotion ritual, these six holy emblems are required to arrange the promotion magical array.

Whether these six pure-color deities still exist now or have fallen is irrelevant; as long as their honorable names and holy emblems are obtained, the ritual can be arranged. What is required for the ritual is the mystical significance found in the honorable names and holy emblems.