Royal Saint Crown University, King's Campus.
At night, within the long corridor of the underground ruins, the walls burned by intense fire showed blackened marks. On the floor of the corridor, a charred corpse lay there, continuously emitting green smoke.
This was the Chalk Rank Extraordinary of the secret society Eight Point Nest, the Vampire Claudius. After losing an excessive number of bats, unable to sustain his life, he was backlashed by the damage the last remaining bats suffered. Flames burned from within him, turning him into a smoking piece of charcoal.
"Is this the true leader of the Eight Point Nest, the head above Ci Rong?" Standing beside the charred corpse, Naifnis couldn't help but murmur as she looked at the body before her. Seeing the horrifying scene, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and nose.
"Whether he's the leader of the Eight Point Nest or not is still unknown, but based on the current intelligence, it's more likely he isn't. He might just be a high-ranking cadre, after all, he's only Chalk Rank." On the other side, Dorothy also responded to Naifnis's words, while Vanya beside her spoke with emotion.
"Chalk Rank... This, is this a Chalk Rank Extraordinary? Lord... I actually fought against a Chalk Rank Extraordinary..."
Vanya murmured in disbelief. Not long ago, she had never received any combat training. A clerical Sister in the Historical Scripture Department, she had nothing to do with extraordinary combat. Becoming an Extraordinary was merely for the sake of better performing her work.
And now, Vanya had gained rich combat experience, having fought against everyone from ordinary people to Apprentice, Black Rank, and Chalk Rank. Moreover, she wasn't just someone who stayed on the sidelines; she could even serve as the main force in frontal combat, capable of tanking and dealing damage. In fact, she was still only at the Student rank, and she was still a clerical staff member within the Church.
Under the Church's system, a Chalk Rank Extraordinary could already hold the position of a Senior Deacon or a regular Bishop, while Vanya's position in the Church was barely equivalent to a Junior Deacon, and she had no real power as she was primarily involved in research.
Normally, Vanya would show three parts of respect even to a Sister Superior equivalent to a Mid-level Deacon, and she wouldn't dare to be presumptuous in front of the Priests presiding over ceremonies in the Church, let alone Senior Deacons or Bishops, whom she would find it difficult to even meet in her position.
'Bishops and Senior Deacons whom I used to find it difficult to meet... I actually used a sword to hack at a Chalk Rank at the same level as them? This is truly...'
Looking at the charred corpse before her, Vanya's heart was filled with complex emotions. She felt that ever since she accepted Aka's enlightenment, she seemed to have embarked on a path she had never imagined.
"Um, Miss Dorothea, now that he's dead, how are my classmates?" At this moment, Naifnis asked Dorothy with a hint of worry, and Dorothy quickly replied.
"Don't worry, they are all asleep downstairs now. Sister Vanya, please take Miss Naifnis down to check on them and also inspect if the students are alright. I'll take care of the scene here."
Dorothy said to Vanya, and the latter quickly replied.
"Okay, but please be quick, Miss Dorothea. We shouldn't stay here for too long."
Saying so, Vanya took Naifnis to the ritual site on the lower level. Dorothy glanced at the charred corpse before her and immediately began her looting plan.
"Burned like this... Hope the stuff isn't burned too badly..."
Looking at Claudius's charred corpse, Dorothy said with a hint of urgency. She immediately controlled two Corpse Puppets to search Claudius's body.
Fortunately, after some examination, Dorothy found that the burning of Claudius's body mainly started from the inside. His clothes and outer skin hadn't directly caught fire over a large area yet. The charred skin was cracked, with sparks and green smoke still coming out, but it was only a matter of time before the clothes were completely ignited if left alone.
Thanks to the timely "rescue" by Dorothy's Corpse Puppets, most of the loot on Claudius was collected by Dorothy. This included 4 talismans, 3 of which were "Shadow", and 1 was "Cup" and "Shadow". These were all talismans Dorothy didn't recognize.
'I don't recognize any of them. Looks like I'll have to spend some money on appraisal fees again.'
Besides the talismans, there was also a pendant that seemed to be an Extraordinary item. Claudius had used it when he hypnotized Vanya earlier. There were also 2 test tubes containing dark red liquid, which seemed to be what Claudius had smashed on the ground to create smoke for cover during his escape.
Apart from these, Dorothy also found some Spirituality reserves, which were of "Cup" and "Shadow". The "Shadow" Spirituality reserve was a silver coin. The "Cup" Spirituality reserve was the syringe Claudius kept using to heal himself. Dorothy found one. Based on her Spirituality vision estimate, the blood inside had a very high "Cup" Spirituality content, about 3 points. This high concentration of "Cup" blood, combined with Claudius's own blood absorption ability, allowed him to quickly recover from injuries with a single injection.
'It seemed to work quite well when that guy used it, but that's based on the Vampire's unique 'blood absorption recovery' ability. Without a similar ability, I wouldn't be able to inject myself to recover blood, so it probably won't be of much use to me, only equivalent to a general 'cup' reserve.'
Looking at the syringe in her hand, Dorothy thought this. Afterwards, she continued to loot, and finally found a secret transmission and 200 pound in cash on Claudius.
"How is there so little money... Is Chalk Rank really this poor?"
Seeing the cash on Claudius, Dorothy complained, but thinking about it carefully, it's true that ordinary people wouldn't carry too much cash with them. Perhaps Claudius's main assets were definitely somewhere else.
'Speaking of which, I remember this guy seemed to have an office in the university, the office he used when he replaced someone's identity. I might be able to find something there.'
Dorothy thought this, contemplating visiting the administration building later. She might be able to find something useful in the office this guy frequently used.
After finishing looting Claudius, Dorothy let out a sigh of relief, then took out her magic box, expanded the entrance and exit to collect the corpses above. After collecting the roughly "intact" corpses from above, Dorothy looked around again and saw a few Hui Jian Lamps hanging on the spiderweb corridor in the distance, as well as some small items at the end of the spiderweb corridor that emitted a faint glow under Spirituality vision.
'It seems these guys significantly raised the frontal warning and defense measures to ensure the ritual went smoothly. Looting these things should also yield some good items, might as well take them since they're free~'
Looking at the reinforced spiderweb corridor that was now useless, Dorothy thought to herself. Then, with a spirit akin to Li San Guang (a character known for thorough looting), she controlled her Corpse Puppets to go over and dismantle the Hui Jian Lamps despite the alarms, collecting a total of three, one of which was particularly large. In addition, Dorothy also found an anti-divination array, on which was placed a silver coin-shaped "Shadow" Spirituality reserve, and a slate shard-shaped "enlightenment" Spirituality reserve.
'Oh ho, the loot is getting rich now. Looks like this wave won't be a loss.' After looting Claudius's carefully set up anti-detection network, Dorothy thought gleefully to herself.
Afterwards, she went to the second level of the ruins. Here, she saw Naifnis carefully checking the condition of the sleeping students, and Vanya observing the desecrated mirror moon statue.
"How are they? Are they alright?"
Dorothy, who had arrived on the second level, asked Naifnis, and the latter replied gratefully.
"Everyone is still breathing, they're just deeply asleep. Thank you both for saving them."
"Heh, you should also thank yourself. Without your persistence, we wouldn't have known about the situation here."
Dorothy chuckled lightly and said. Then she walked towards Vanya on the other side. At this time, she was carefully observing the altar of the desecrated statue, her brows tightly furrowed.
"Sister Vanya, have you seen a statue like this before?" Slowly walking up to Vanya, Dorothy asked Vanya, who was frowning and looking around.