"We actually spent this much money. Fortunately, the operation was successful, and we got some stuff, otherwise, we would have lost our shirts…"
Before the desk in her study, Dorothy looked at the calculated cash expenditure and couldn't help but sigh. At this moment, she couldn't help but lament that war was about logistics. If one's foundation was weak, what kind of extraordinary battle could they fight?
After finishing the summary of monetary expenditure, Dorothy began to summarize the Spirituality consumption. Since her "enlightenment" bar had about 10 points after advancing, although her "enlightenment" consumption was high this time, it did not exceed the upper limit of the bar. In addition to "enlightenment", she also consumed 3 points of "Cup" Spirituality, mainly for puppeteering Vanya and Claudius, as well as overloading her ability to increase the puppet limit. Finally, she paid Vanya 1 point of "Shadow" to activate the Light Body Talisman.
Subtracting the previous baseline, Dorothy's Spirituality remaining was.
4 cups, 7 Stone, 2 Shadow, 1 Light, 1 Silence, 1 enlightenment.
In terms of talismans, Dorothy used a Mad Banquet Talisman on Vanya this time. Dorothy only had two of these talismans, which were quite precious. After that was a Light Body Talisman.
"As expected, I'm much poorer now… Let's quickly see how much stuff I got. I hope it can make up for all the consumption."
After checking the consumption status, Dorothy immediately began to examine the spoils of war. The first thing was cash. Dorothy directly plundered 400 pounds in cash this wave, plus the remaining one from before, making it 650 pounds in total. Looking at the stack of money on the table, Dorothy felt much more relieved.
Next were the stored items. This time, Dorothy harvested quite a few stored items: a syringe containing 3 points of "Cup", 2 silver coins of "Shadow", a stone carving fragment of 1 point of "enlightenment", and then 4 gold coins of "Light" disassembled from the Hui Jian Lamp.
Combining with the previous ones, Dorothy's stored items were 3 cups, 1 Stone, 2 Shadow, 4 Light, and 1 enlightenment, which was quite good.
"These Spirituality stored items were mainly obtained by dismantling the warning measures set up by those guys. To prevent anyone from interfering with the ritual, they really put in a lot of effort, but unfortunately, it was all in vain."
Looking at the sorted Spirituality stored items, Dorothy complained. Then she focused her attention on one of the "Light" stored items. From a Spirituality perspective, this stored item didn't seem to be full and had a slight loss.
'Did the lamp that held this stored item stay on for too long, causing the loss to be obvious? Perfect, in that case, it can be directly used for something else.'
Saying this, Dorothy took out the not-so-full stored item, then took out a white cloth with a magic array from the magic box and spread it flat on the desktop. She then placed the slightly damaged stored item on the magic array on the white cloth, and then took out several talismans from the magic array.
These talismans were all searched by Dorothy from Claudius's body. They were new talismans that Dorothy didn't recognize, so she planned to use this slightly damaged "Light" stored item to appraise these talismans. The consumption for appraising talismans was less than appraising extraordinary items; about 1 point of "Light" could appraise three different types of talismans.
Consuming a damaged "Light" talisman, Dorothy finished appraising the two types of talismans she had searched from Claudius's body.
One was the Blood Poison Mist Talisman of "Cup" and "Shadow", which could consume both types of Spirituality simultaneously and then spray out poisonous gas. The more Spirituality consumed, the more poisonous gas could be created, with no upper limit. There was one in total.
The second was the Shadow Blade Talisman, which could consume 2 points of "Shadow" to add a shadow enchantment effect to one's weapon. If the user already possessed the ability of shadow enchantment, they could consume 4 points of "Shadow" to further enhance the shadow enchantment. There were three in total.
'These talismans, one was used by that bald bat to spray poison before, and the other was what he wanted to use for the final battle. I didn't expect there to be leftovers.'
Thinking like this, Dorothy organized all her talismans together. She now had several Life Devour (physical enhancement), 1 Mad Banquet (physical enhancement), 2 Light Illumination (lighting), 1 Hui Jian (extraordinary detection), 1 Spirit Sealing (sealing spirits), 2 Silence (silencing), 1 Poison Mist (poison making), and 3 Shadow Blade (shadow enchantment).
After sorting the talismans, Dorothy turned her attention to the extraordinary items harvested this time. Dorothy had already understood the general use of the smoke bomb-like test tube. She mainly focused her attention on the pendant.
Dorothy picked up the pendant and a gold coin of "Light" Spirituality stored item, and soon she got the corresponding information. This was an extraordinary item of "Light".
...
"Sight Ring Pendant."
"When activated by consuming 'Light' Spirituality, it produces an extremely strong presence and attraction, making people within the affected area unable to help but focus their gaze on it, and their concentration will also increase. The range and intensity of the effect are determined by the amount of 'Light' injected, but the maximum will not exceed a radius of 500 meters."
...
'This is a pendant that can generate immense attraction, making people unable to help but focus their attention on it. No wonder Vanya's attention was immediately drawn to it. This is simply a professional auxiliary tool for hypnosis.'
Looking at the white circular pendant on the magic array, Dorothy thought to herself, with this thing assisting hypnosis, there would be no fear of someone deliberately avoiding the hypnotist's gaze.
As long as the hypnotized person's gaze meets the hypnotist's, coupled with the person's focused expression, hypnosis can be easily successful.
'However… for this thing to achieve its best effect, one must be able to hypnotize. Hypnosis is an inherent skill of Vampires, which unfortunately I don't have. Therefore, this item can only be used to divert attention for me, and it doesn't seem to be of much use.'
Looking at the ring pendant on the white cloth in front of her, Dorothy thought with some regret. Then she immediately put the items away and began to organize the next item. This time it was time for the last secret transmission.
Dorothy placed the two secret transmissions she had obtained in front of her and casually picked one up to open and read. The name of this secret transmission was "the queen insect's queue. Annotation".
'the queen insect's queue? Isn't this the story-based secret transmission that Ci Rong used to control the students? The Spirit Sight in it can make students develop a psychology of worship towards Ci Rong. So this book actually has a special annotation…'
Looking at the secret transmission book in her hand, Dorothy thought this to herself, and then she continued to read the content of the secret transmission further.
"the queen insect's queue. Annotation" is an annotation of the original Queen Bee Queue. The author, according to his own understanding, explained many ambiguous parts in the original novel and expressed his views and feelings in many places. These feelings were almost all in praise of the lifestyle of insects and ants, believing that human society should also learn from them.
In addition, according to the description of this annotator, Dorothy learned that the set of books "the queen insect's queue" was actually divided into several parts, and different parts told the stories of different classes in the insect society.
These parts, from low to high, are "Chapter of Worker Insects", "Chapter of Soldier Insects", "Chapter of General Insects", "Chapter of King Insects", "Chapter of Queen Insects"…
According to the annotator, the purpose of the appearance of the "the queen insect's queue" series of secret transmissions is to transform human society into a swarm. Each book in this series corresponds to a class.
People who have read "Chapter of Worker Insects" will naturally develop a feeling of worship towards those who have read "Chapter of Soldier Insects" and the books above it. And those who have read "Chapter of Soldier Insects" will develop a feeling of worship towards those who have read "Chapter of General Insects", and so on. The higher one goes in class, the more severe the worship will become. It is said that the final "Queen Bee Queue" can arbitrarily control everyone below her.
'So that's how it is. Looking at it this way, what Ci Rong gave the students of the society to read was "Chapter of Worker Insects", and he himself and the one named Avery both read "Chapter of Soldier Insects". Therefore, the students of that society would develop the same feeling of worship towards Avery, whom they had never seen before, after Ci Rong's death.'
'If we deduce like this, that bald bat likely read "Chapter of General Insects". The entire Eight Point Nest might be relying on the effects of the "the queen insect's queue" series of secret transmissions to maintain its organization and rule. This book "the queen insect's queue" was indeed created for the purpose of transforming human society.'
'Heh, other secret transmissions produce Spirit Sight because they carry mysterious knowledge. The knowledge is the main thing, and Spirit Sight is an annoying byproduct. But in "the queen insect's queue", it's the opposite. The effect produced by Spirit Sight is the main thing, and the story recorded in the secret transmission is secondary. What the creator wants is the effect of this Spirit Sight.'
After finishing reading this secret transmission, Dorothy thought this way. At this point, she already had some conjectures about the operating mode of the Eight Point Nest.
Closing the secret transmission she had finished reading and putting it aside, Dorothy began to flip through the second secret transmission. The name of this secret transmission was "The Thorn Whip".
"The Thorn Whip" is a secret transmission in the form of an autobiography. It tells the growth story of a prison guard. At the beginning of the autobiography, the protagonist, a new employee with a somewhat weak personality, entered the prison to work through connections at home. On his first day of work, he was so scared by the miserable state of the tortured prisoners that he wet his pants, and was therefore bullied by his colleagues, until he met a talking spider deep inside the prison.
Later, instigated by the spider, the protagonist, who became an interrogator, took pleasure in listening to the prisoners' screams. The blood foam on the whip in his hand never dried. The protagonist found joy in life through sadism. He dragged every prisoner in the prison to the torture rack, regardless of whether they committed a serious crime or a minor one, and even finally extended his hand towards his own colleagues.
'This one feels like it has some connection with the Fear Torture Method of "Shadow". It seems that'sadism' and 'fear' are somehow related to that spider deity, and to the Spirituality of "Shadow".'
Looking at the secret transmission in her hand, Dorothy thought this to herself. Then, after finishing reading this secret transmission, she put it away and began to extract Spirituality.
Among these two secret transmissions, "the queen insect's queue. Annotation" was worth a total of 3 points of "Shadow" and 2 points of "enlightenment". And "The Thorn Whip" had 2 points of "Shadow" and 1 point of "enlightenment".
In addition to these two secret transmissions, Dorothy also extracted the secret transmission about Vampire information that she had bought from Beverly last time, obtaining 2 "Shadow", 1 "Cup", and 1 "enlightenment".
Adding all these extracted Spirituality to the existing ones, Dorothy's current Spirituality situation was.
5 cups, 7 Stone, 9 Shadow, 1 Light, 1 Silence, 5 enlightenment.
'Good heavens, "Shadow" is so high all of a sudden. As expected, you get what you plunder. When I plundered the Holy Communion Society before, my "Cup" here was almost full and couldn't hold any more.'
Looking at the Spirituality she had accumulated at this time, Dorothy complained in her heart. At this moment, she was thinking whether she should not be picky in the future and spread her efforts evenly, plundering each type of society once to maintain nutritional balance and grow healthily.
"Phew~ But no matter what, I finally finished sorting everything out, I'm exhausted… I'll find some things to give to Vanya tomorrow, now I'll go to sleep quickly…"
Looking at the moon hanging high in the sky outside the window, Dorothy stretched lazily, then put the items away into the magic box and immediately turned off the light and went to sleep.
...
The moon set, the sun rose, and the night gradually faded.
In the morning, at King's College, Royal Saint Crown University, early-rising students moved about the campus in the morning light as usual, traversing corridors and hurrying to various classrooms.
Some of these students noticed acutely that there were many police officers standing guard in the school, and some intersections were blocked by the police and could not be passed. Many curious students asked the police officers standing guard what had happened, but the officers replied that they could not comment on the current situation.
The police's attitude aroused the students' interest. They discussed intensely in class what exactly had happened in the school last night. In just one morning, several versions of the story had already spread. Since several classes had absentees this morning, these several versions of the story were almost all about various murder cases.
The fact is, most of the police officers didn't know what happened in the school because they were only responsible for the outer perimeter security. At this moment, deep underground in the school, another agency was handling matters.
Underground at King's Campus, in the ritual site on the second level of the ruins, a group of Hunters in black clothes were conducting an investigation. They were scattered throughout the ritual site, searching for various clues.
A man in his thirties or forties, wearing a loose, open coat, with messy shoulder-length yellow hair and stubble all over his chin, stood with his hands in his pockets before the desecrated altar, silently gazing at the spider-headed human figure in front of him, not knowing what he was thinking.
Just then, a Hunter team member hurried over from a distance. He came to the man's side and, after a respectful bow, spoke.
"Captain Edmund, there's news from the Good Angel Hospital. Although many of the students admitted earlier seemed fine, after examination, it can be confirmed that they have all suffered varying degrees of Spirit Sight infringement."