At night in Igwinte, on an apartment building beside Nanyang Flower Road, Dorothy carefully opened the envelope she had bought for 100 pound. She pulled out over ten pages, which seemed to have been torn directly from a book.
'This is just tearing pages out of a book and giving them to me...'
Looking at the book pages before her, Dorothy thought this and then began to read carefully, word by word, sentence by sentence. As Aldrich had reminded her, the content did contain a trace of Spirit Sight, so Dorothy had to read cautiously.
Dorothy glanced casually and found that these pages originally belonged to a book called "Common Knowledge of Stair Climbing." The paper was new, and the text was printed, so it didn't seem to be an ancient or old book. It was quite comfortable to read. Soon, Dorothy reached the key content.
...
After a preliminary understanding of Spirituality and how to accumulate Spirituality, the path of an Extraordinary has opened up to us. Next, we need to introduce the preliminary understanding of the ranks of the Extraordinary.
In the hidden world, the higher the rank of an Extraordinary, the more powerful they are, the longer their lifespan, and the deeper their knowledge. The more they can understand the essence of the world, transcend the mundane, and sublimate life. Extraordinary beings, from high to low, also have clear rank divisions.
Within the scope of the mortal world, the stages of Extraordinary beings are divided into five. Various secret societies will assign different names to each stage, and there has never been a fixed term. However, due to the widespread existence of the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild on the continent, they have extensive dealings with major secret societies and forces around the world. Therefore, the terms commonly used within their organization have gradually become universally accepted, slowly becoming the mainstream in the hidden world today.
In the White Stone Craftsmen's Guild's naming system, the initial stage of the Extraordinary ranks is called "Apprentice" or "Unpolished Stone." The subsequent four stages are named after the four major steps of alchemy.
They are "Black Earth," "Chalk," "Scarlet," and "Golden."
...
Seeing this, Dorothy couldn't help but nod slightly, thinking how great the influence of this Craftsmen's Guild was, gradually standardizing the names of the ranks in the hidden world.
After reading the torn pages, Dorothy also had a general understanding of the rank divisions in the hidden world. In that case, the Apprentice rank of 'Cup' is the 'Thirster.' Abbott, who met with Edrick in Vokan that day, should be at this rank. Grego being able to deal with him is probably also an 'Apprentice,' although it's unclear which path of Spirituality he follows.
Dorothy continued to read. The following content was the key; it introduced the promotion rituals for the initial ranks of all Spiritualities.
The content that followed was a dense combination of text and complex diagrams. Some terms were obscure and difficult to understand, but after putting in the effort, she managed to read it all.
Letting out a big sigh of relief, Dorothy leaned back in the chair at the table, rubbing her temples.
At this moment, the system in Dorothy's mind had prompted that she had finished studying the new secret transmission. Without much thought, she directly extracted Spirituality. Since this secret transmission did not lean towards any specific Spirituality theme but was a comprehensive occult book with a bit of content for each Spirituality, Dorothy accumulated 1 point for each Spirituality. Additionally, due to the essence of knowledge itself, she gained an extra 1 point of enlightenment.
Currently, Dorothy had accumulated 10 points of "enlightenment," 6 points of "Cup," 5 points of "Shadow," 1 point of "Light," 1 point of "Stone," and 1 point of "Silence."
At this moment, Dorothy's "enlightenment" Spirituality was full, meeting the requirements for promotion. However, she wasn't particularly happy, and this was because of the promotion ritual.
Indeed, as Aldrich had said, the initial promotions for all Spiritualities were simple and basically consistent, with minor variations.
All Spirituality promotion rituals only required drawing a simple magic circle with the symbol of the corresponding Spirituality, aided by some common incense materials. But the most crucial part was that the initial promotion ritual required a "Guide."
Yes, a Guide. The initial promotion ritual for all Spiritualities must be presided over by a Guide who is at least an Apprentice rank and whose Spirituality matches the one being promoted. The promotee guides the Spirituality, and only then can the guiding ritual succeed.
For Dorothy, the Spirituality required for her promotion was now sufficient. The auxiliary materials were common and not mysterious items; she could just buy them on the street. If not available on the street, Aldrich definitely had them. The symbols for various Spiritualities were drawn in the book; she just needed to copy them. The key issue was this Guide.
If Dorothy wanted to be promoted to an "enlightenment" Extraordinary, then she absolutely needed a senior "enlightenment" Extraordinary who was at least at the Apprentice rank to preside over the ritual for her. But she currently had absolutely no place to find an "enlightenment" Extraordinary.
In Igwinte, where she was, the Red Communion Society was a "Cup" society, and Aldrich was a "Stone" Extraordinary. Neither had anything to do with "enlightenment." She couldn't possibly go to the An Yin Bureau and ask if they had any "enlightenment" Extraordinary there, could she? She had no idea where to find this so-called Guide!
Thinking of this, Dorothy couldn't help but feel a wave of frustration. She had no clue how to find an "enlightenment" Extraordinary, and even if she found one, what then? They weren't relatives or friends; why would they help her?
'Could it be that the path of 'enlightenment' is blocked? Should I just become Aldrich's Apprentice and carve stones for a few years to accumulate'Stone' Spirituality, and then ask him to be my Guide once I've accumulated enough?'
Dorothy thought this, then shook her head, dismissing the idea. Not to mention her current'Stone' was only 1 point, and accumulating enough would take who knows how many years. Even if she accumulated enough and asked Aldrich to be her Guide, who knew what astronomical price that guy would demand.
'Promotion fee... 1000 pound...'
In Dorothy's mind, Aldrich appeared with a kind smile, reaching out his hand towards her, and then she decisively abandoned the idea of switching to the path of "Stone."
With a hint of bitterness, Dorothy picked up the book pages again and began to read, wanting to see if there were any other methods. After careful perusal, she quickly discovered a way to substitute for a Guide.
In the last few paragraphs of the book pages, alternative methods were explained if a Guide was unavailable.
Firstly, one could find items with abundant corresponding Spirituality to substitute for the Guide's spiritual guidance, but such a ritual was far less stable than a Guide ritual and prone to failure, requiring higher qualities from the promotee.
Secondly, one could pray to high-ranking divine beings hidden in the hidden side of the world. If the prayer attracted the attention of an existence, and They were pleased, They could also act as a Guide and help complete the promotion ritual.
Of course, the possibility of an unknown nobody attracting the attention of a divine being was extremely low, and even if it did happen, the outcome would likely not be positive.